Wednesday, September 19, 2018

On the Road - Re-examination of Tying of Motels to Tax Haven based online Sites

Welcome to Friday. In preparation for take off, please ensure all negative attitudes are properly stowed. On behalf of your captain, Jack Daniels and myself, welcome aboard. I expect sunshine and good attitudes today for our trip. Enjoy the ride.

~ Anonymous  h/t to Robert Scobble's Yammer


Alleluja - The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is again investigating if contract conditions imposed by online accommodation booking agencies are legal.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said recent changes to competition law may affect a stipulation preventing local hotels and motels advertising a cheaper price on their own websites, compared to those offered on sites operated by industry giants such as Expedia and Booking.com.
"We're looking again at whether we've got the ability to force more change," Mr Sims said.
"We're looking at that extremely closely because we think there's a chance that the arrangements they're continuing to use might be illegal in further ways.
"So we're looking to see whether we can use the law to allow hotels and motels to put a different price on their own website."

 

Competition watchdog re-examines contracts tying motels to online booking sites



Trends in the diffusion of misinformation through social media


“I have a very special fondness for writing that is obscure, that does not quite succeed, because of the author’s intuitive restraint. All that I can say is that one must be as clear as one’s natural reticence allows one to be.”

Verbal Felicity is the Fruit of Ardor'


Here are Gay Talese's story boards, literally, written on shirt cardboard, for his Frank Sinatra has Caught a Cold article, generally proclaimed as the start of New Journalism:



Three Blockbuster Novels From the 1950s, and Their Remarkable Afterlife - The New York Times
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In the aftermath of Sputnik three towering and best-selling works of fiction by dissident Russians — “Atlas Shrugged,” “Lolita” and “Doctor Zhivago” — were published in quick succession, crowded into an 11-month span, from October 1957 to September 1958. Today, all three still live on, each a universe in itself, read and discussed — and fought over — as if written not in prose but in hieroglyphics or code.

The best albums of the 1980s (was it really so bad?) courtesy of excellent Malchkeon 


The most unwanted song, explanation here.  I still like it more than most of what is on the radio.  And it is certainly better than the most wanted song







Men receive more tennis point penalties than do women, in three major categories




For too long Americans have admired those who tough it out. We are brave enough to call them what they are: suckers.