In recent weeks, my audience at Facebook appears to have fallen precipitously to the point that I've tentatively concluded that it is no longer worth my time to publish essays there. I'll continue here on my personal blog as I have been doing for many years.
This is part of an ongoing struggle to find a role for myself in retirement. For over a year and a half, posting my long essays on Facebook filled a void in my life now that I don't have a job or any professional obligations to fulfill.
Having hit the artificial limit of 5,000 "friends" quickly after I started, I've been treading water on audience development ever since.
Probably half of that total are "soft" members, who joined my network but never return to read anything.
The number of regular readers is probably closer to 100 loyal friends.
I have also failed to earn any ad revenue here at Blogspot, so the days that ads will appear here probably are numbered.
It's time for me to re-evaluate what I am doing. The status quo isn't working for me on any level.
***
TODAY"S HEADLINES:
* China’s Weapon Tests Close to a ‘Sputnik Moment,’ U.S. General Says -- Gen. Mark A. Milley said China’s testing of a hypersonic missile “has all of our attention.” (NYT)
* The top U.S. military officer, General Mark Milley, has provided the first official U.S. confirmation of a Chinese hypersonic weapons test that military experts say appears to show Beijing's pursuit of an Earth-orbiting system designed to evade American missile defenses. (Reuters)
* Facebook in 2019 was told of ‘social civil war’ in Poland, triggered by negative posts (WP)
* Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is blocking Congress from providing American workers with paid family and medical leave, leaving the U.S. as the only industrialized nation without such a mandate. Manchin privately expressed concern about the cost of paid leave, and the potential for fraud. Supporters were especially frustrated that the possibility of a federal paid leave mandate was killed after the pandemic made so clear how essential it is for workers to be able to take time off without losing their jobs. [HuffPost]
* Starbucks said all of its U.S. workers will earn at least $15 — and up to $23 — per hour by next summer. The wage announcement comes as employees in Buffalo, New York, are trying to form a union to give them greater leverage on issues like understaffing of stores and worker training.[AP]
* Singapore is looking into an "unusual surge" of 5,324 new infections of COVID-19, the city-state's health ministry said, its highest such figure since the beginning of the pandemic, as beds in intensive care units fill up. Meanwhile, parts of northeast China are on heightened alert as COVID-19 returns. (Reuters)
* Yosemite Falls Surges After West Coast Storms Bring Needed Rainfall -- More than six inches of rain fell over Yosemite National Park in central California over a 36-hour period, causing the waterfall to surge after a dry summer. (NYT)
* Historic rain and snow begin to refresh California lakes and mountains (WP)
* Australia is fighting fire with fire, but the nation is running out of time (WP)
* Dr. Deborah Birx, the former response coordinator for the Trump administration's coronavirus task force, told a House subcommittee that the White House messed up a chance to prevent up to 40% of America's deaths from COVID-19. She blamed Trump’s reaction on his dealing with a reelection campaign that she said made the White House “somewhat complacent.” [HuffPost]
* The U.S. Congress will today open a year's worth of investigations into whether Big Oil deceived Americans about its role in climate change, with Democratic lawmakers planning to grill the chiefs of four oil companies and two lobby groups. (Reuters)
* Intelligence Agencies Failed to Predict Rapid Fall of Kabul (WSJ)
* How Will We Live if Covid Is Here to Stay? -- Rather than debate how to end the pandemic, we need to debate how to live with it. (NYT)
* California is readying 4,000 sites to administer over a million Covid-19 vaccines to children ages 5 to 11. (CNBC)
* U.S. economy slowed to a 2% rate last quarter in face of COVID (AP)
* Cheap, generic anti-depressant may reduce severe Covid-19 disease, study finds (CNN)
* Alaska did well early in the pandemic. Then the misinformation and distrust kicked in. (WP)
* Israel Advances Plan for New Settlements, in First for Bennett Era -- Approved despite the objections of the United States, critics say the new homes will consolidate Israel’s presence in the West Bank and make it harder to create a Palestinian state. (NYT)
* ‘When do we get to use the guns?’: The ongoing danger of false election fraud claims (WP)
* Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party could lose its majority in Sunday's general election, polls show, potentially turning new leader Fumio Kishida into another short-term prime minister and triggering a return to political uncertainty. (Reuters)
* Taliban Allow Girls to Return to Some High Schools, but With Big Caveats -- In some provinces, teenage girls have been allowed to return to secondary schools, though some teachers and parents still have doubts about what this means about Taliban rule. (NYT)
* Poll Finds Most Americans Would Swap Democracy For $100 Best Buy Gift Card (The Onion)
No comments:
Post a Comment