Hitting the Books: Meet Richard Akrwright, the world's first tech titan

You didn't actually believe all those founder's myths about tech billionaires like Bezos, Jobs and Musk pulling themselves up by their bootstraps from some suburban American garage, did you? In reality, our corporate kings have been running the same playbook since the 18th century when Lancashire's own Richard Arkwright wrote it. Arkwright is credited with developing a means of forming cotton fully into thread — technically he didn't actually invent or design the machine, but developed the overarching system in which it could be run at scale — and spinning that success into financial fortune. Never mind the fact that his 24-hour production lines were operated by boys as young as seven pulling 13-hour shifts.   In Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech — one of the best books I've read this year — LA Times tech reporter Brian Merchant lays bare the inhumane cost of capitalism wrought by the industrial revolution and celebrates the workers who stood against those first tides of automation: the Luddites. Hachette Book GroupExcerpted from Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech by Brian Merchant. Published by Hachette Book Group. Copyright © 2023 by Brian Merchant. All rights reserved.The first tech titans were not building global information networks or commercial space rockets. They were making yarn and cloth. A lot of yarn, and a lot of cloth. Like our modern-day titans, they started out as entrepreneurs. But until... Continue reading at 'Engadget'

[ Engadget | 2023-09-10 14:30:56 UTC ]
News tagged with: #company insists #independent contractors #endemic culture #automating cloth-making #founders aim #artificial intelligence

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The indie publishing mavericks shaking up the UK books world

Last year, all of literature’s big prizes went to small publishers. In a risk‑averse climate, edgy debuts and ‘tricky-to-sell’ foreign titles have found a home at the likes of Fitzcarraldo Editions and Sort Of Books – and the gamble has paid offA quiet revolution is afoot in British publishing.... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-07-16 08:00:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #sally rooney #richard osman #svetlana alexievich #olga tokarczuk #british book #publishing world #canadian author #picador #indie publishing


Hitting the Books: Why AI won't be taking our cosmology jobs

The problem with studying the universe around us is that it is simply too big. The stars overhead remain too far away to interact with directly, so we are relegated to testing our theories on the formation of the galaxies based on observable data. Simulating these celestial bodies on computers... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-06-18 15:30:05 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #existing laws #bear fruit #quantum mechanics #penguin random house


Hitting the books: Why you shouldn't blog about asking a cop to go shopping for you

You get free stuff, you get free travel, you get the nifty cool title of "brand ambassador," what's not to love about being an internet influencer? There's the consequences, for one. Not even just the warranted consequences of your actual actions, mind you, but also those arriving unbidden based... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-06-11 14:30:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ten minutes #devastating impact #penguin random house


Hitting the Books: Why we like bigger things better

We Americans love to have ourselves a big old time. It's not just our waistlines that have exploded outward since the post-WWII era. Our houses have grown larger, as have the appliances within them, the vehicles in their driveways, the income inequalities between ourselves and our neighbors, and... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-06-04 14:30:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #harpercollins


Hitting the Books: Renee Descartes had his best revelations while baked in an oven

Some of us do our best thinking in the shower, others do it while on the toilet. Renee Descartes, he pondered most deeply while ensconced in a baker's oven. The man simply needed to be convinced of the oven's existence before climbing in. Such are the quirks of the most monumental minds humanity... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-05-28 14:30:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #final act #great book


A More Introspective End of the World: A Reading List of Quiet Apocalypse Books

Apocalypse brings to mind cataclysmic events, often involving Mad Max-esq fighting, cannibalism, and what horrors one must endure, or commit, to survive. I love such stories. I like to imagine that I would survive, thrive even, conveniently forgetting that my life of indoor pursuits, reading,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-05-25 12:26:54 UTC ]
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Book Review: ‘Easily Slip Into Another World,’ by Henry Threadgill

Henry Threadgill’s memoir unfolds from his maddening wartime experience to his boundary-pushing musical career. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-05-19 02:17:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book review #easily slip #henry threadgill #memoir unfolds #memoir


Why the world's largest publisher found a book-ban lawsuit in Florida 'irresistible'

PEN America and publisher Penguin Random House filed a federal suit against Escambia County School District over its removal of books from school libraries. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times

[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-05-18 17:34:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pen america #federal suit #school libraries #publisher penguin


Book Review: ‘Easily Slip Into Another World,’ by Henry Threadgill

Henry Threadgill’s memoir unfolds from his maddening wartime experience to his boundary-pushing musical career. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2023-05-15 09:00:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book review #easily slip #henry threadgill #memoir unfolds #memoir


Hitting the Books: The abrupt and ignoble downfall of Sam Bankman-Fried

Seemingly overnight, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, went from cryptocurrency wunderkind to wanted for questioning by the FBI. After years of unfettered success, the walls of SBF's blockchain empire came crumbling down around him as his tricky financial feats failed and his generalized... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-05-14 14:30:33 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #dire straits #york magazine #ebooks


Child authors discuss books, world records

Four-year-old author Saeed Almheiri discussess his book, The Elephant Saeed and the Bear, and his sister Aldhabi, 8, discusses hers, Here Was the Beginning — waxing poetic about its effect on classmates. Saeed has the Guinness world record as the... Continue reading at CBC

[ CBC | 2023-05-11 21:11:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #world records #female author


Illustrated children’s biography of King Charles hits No 1 on UK book chart

Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara’s book, illustrated by Matt Hunt, is the first of the Little People, Big Dreams series to top the standingsA children’s biography of King Charles III has topped the UK book chart before the coronation on 6 May.Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara’s King Charles is part of the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-05-05 09:57:25 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #illustrated children #king charles #stephen hawking #michelle obama #uk book


BuzzFeed News’ business model turned to dust because they were always at the whim of mercurial tech titans | James Hennessy

BuzzFeed changed the way news was reported for the digital age. But it became a casualty of its lopsided relationship with FacebookThe announcement of the demise of BuzzFeed News last week felt unlike the cavalcade of media closures and layoffs of the past decade. In a sense, it represented the... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-04-26 03:36:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #buzzfeed news #news operation #digital age #past decade #harry potter


Amazon Publishing’s World Book Day #ReadTheWorld Giveaway

The World Book Day promotion from Amazon Publishing this year offers international reads from several imprints and nine countries. The post Amazon Publishing’s World Book Day #ReadTheWorld Giveaway appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-04-25 16:30:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #amazon publishing #world book


This book club connects incarcerated fathers to the outside world.

When Ashley C. Ford showed up to the book club in March, she found an audience who had all read her 2021 bestseller, Somebody’s Daughter, and were primed for a lively discussion. “I gotta tell you, I’ve been to a lot of bookstores where they didn’t do that,” Ford laughs. The event took place... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2023-04-17 16:03:16 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book club


Emirates Publishers Association at London Book Fair: Seven Presses Ready for Rights Meetings

The Emirates Publishers Association's member presses have had 'hundreds of works translated into 27 languages,' says Rashid Al Kous. (Sponsored) The post Emirates Publishers Association at London Book Fair: Seven Presses Ready for Rights Meetings appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2023-04-14 12:55:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #rights meetings #publishers association's #publishers association


How Online Book Clubs Transformed Reading Groups — And What's Lost When You Don't Meet IRL

Many readers are back to meeting in person after being forced to embrace Zoom book clubs during the pandemic. Continue reading at HuffPost

[ HuffPost | 2023-03-16 09:45:02 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #online book


Hitting the Books: How 20th century science unmade Newton's universe

Science is the reason you aren't reading this by firelight nestled cozily under a rock somewhere however, its practice significantly predates its formalization by Galileo in the 16th century. Among its earliest adherents — even before pioneering efforts of Aristotle — was Animaxander, the Greek... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-03-12 14:30:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #technological advances #penguin random house


Hitting the Books: Could we zap our brains into leading healthier lives?

Deep Brain Stimulation therapies have proven an invaluable treatment option for patients suffering from otherwise debilitating diseases like Parkinson's. However, it — and its sibling tech, brain computer interfaces — currently suffer a critical shortcoming: the electrodes that convert electron... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2023-03-04 15:30:03 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #increasing number #hachette


Don’t write what you know, write what you feel: bestselling authors offer tips on World Book Day

Malorie Blackman advises budding authors to pick up on news stories, but Julia Donaldson warns of pitfalls – and Alan Moore says you should read terrible books as well as good onesThe key to being a good writer? It’s being a good reader, authors including Carol Ann Duffy and Alan Moore have said... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2023-03-02 15:43:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #news stories #alan moore #lee child #important things #world book