Practice Good Theory

The economy is still in a funk, way below its most 2008 peak. Look at Personal Income, with the effect of prices taken out (i.e. "real" personal income). The great Calculated Risk blog has a chart showing these values relative to the most recent "peak". This gives us a normalized view of how much Incomes are dipping. By this measure, we see a  5% dip, unprecedented since the Great Depression (pre-1960 not shown). However, we have fully rebounded now -- at least by this one measure. One problem with this measure is that it includes " transfer payments ". Since a government can borrow to pay welfare, let's subtract these payments and see what that looks like. ( Click here for original chart ) This second chart excludes transfer payments, and shows: a larger (10%) dip we have not fully rebounded By this measure, we are half-way back to the peak. If we extrapolate the line upward, we'll probably be back to peak in 3 years or so...

Web-based radio is not really a broadcast, sent out to the world at large with anyone able to pick it up. Each receiver connects to the "broadcaster". The connection is potentially two-way . Advertisers could use " narrow-casting ". Imagine you and your neighbor are -- separately -- watching the same program on an IP-based TV. In the ad-break,  you see an ad for diapers while she sees one for arthritis drugs. Even in one home, your teen's TV could receive different ads than you do. A broadcaster could also know how many people are watching, without relying on surveys. They'll even know if you switch channels when the show gets a bit boring. One can imagine a world of even more fine-tuned, audience-driven programming (not necessarily a great thing). [" That joke did not work, but the other one was better than expected! "] Take this one step further. Say you're watching live comedy at a club. You applaud. On web-radio, you could  ...