We noted here that Waymo is confronting an ugly reality by putting safety drivers back into its self-driving vans. Here is another post-hype letdown that is worse than autonomous vehicles — Bitcoin. The commentator opines that the value of the cryptocurrency is approaching zero. It costs too much to mine and those digging it out […]
Posted on December 4th, 2018 by admin
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Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is widely acknowledged to have the most advanced self-driving technologies for vehicles. So, if Waymo is having troubles keeping journeys autonomous and safe, what can be said for the rest of the industry? That is the question that has arisen since Waymo put safety drivers back into its vans. Hype […]
Posted on December 1st, 2018 by admin
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Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos, is earning the wages of hype. She is paying a $500,000 fine and is barred from serving as an officer or director of a corporation for 10 years. All this comes from overstating and lying about the efficacy of her company’s product for blood testing. She raised $700 […]
Posted on March 15th, 2018 by admin
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Reporters are usually sensitive to anything that smacks of hype — overselling and exaggeration. Yet they do it themselves and a prime example is the Super Bowl. Every conceivable angle is analyzed and beaten to death in the two weeks before the game. One would think we were about to experience an earth-shaking event rather than […]
Posted on January 25th, 2018 by admin
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It is good that a medium can call Silicon Valley publicity what it is — hype. In a review of 2016, Wired reports that the “hype machine sputtered.” All the promises of forthcoming and groundbreaking technologies failed to produce a major breakthrough. That, however, didn’t stop the drum beating and flacking. The Valley has over-promoted […]
Posted on January 4th, 2017 by admin
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The science news is discovery of a planet 4.25 light years away. Little is known about it other than it is in the “goldilocks” zone suitable for life. The media went crazy with this news but it shouldn’t have. It is clear the planet is so far away, any probe traveling less than the speed […]
Posted on August 26th, 2016 by admin
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True PR features what a company does and not just spin. This then is true PR. Tesla has just completed a cross-country trip with its electric vehicles using the lowest charge time recorded to date. The firm is pushing to get into Guinness World Records. Is it hype? Yes, it is that, but it has […]
Posted on February 4th, 2014 by admin
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It takes a celebrity for hype to get publiciity. Here is an example of a celebrity businessman throwing his half-baked idea to the world and the world gives him an audience. This kind of gee-whiz, futuristic thinking sometimes pans out, but most of the time doesn’t. Think of Buckminster Fuller. It is not that his […]
Posted on August 14th, 2013 by admin
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The pharaohs of ancient Egypt were masters of personal publicity — magnificent temples, pyramid tombs, walls awash with paintings and hieroglyphs proclaiming their greatness. Modern dictators have emulated them. The exalted view of themselves has come through the milennia but it is being counterbalanced increasingly by studies into how average Egyptians lived. The answer to […]
Posted on March 20th, 2013 by admin
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If one believed the media, the rise of Super Pacs in the last election cycle was evil and the rich buying elections. It turns out that much of what the media conveyed was hype. The President was re-elected. Democracy did not come to an end. There isn’t much evidence that anyone “bought” an election, although […]
Posted on November 28th, 2012 by admin
Filed under: Uncategorized | 194 Comments »
