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A Fond Farewell

farmersalmanac.com

91–100 of 225 posts

Re: A Fond Farewell

#91
post #15

This press release has a bit more explanation: https://www.farmersalmanac.com/end-of-an-era-farmers-almanac... > This decision, though difficult, reflects the growing financial challenges of producing and distributing the Almanac in today’s chaotic media environment.

Hardly an explanation, what is meant by chaotic media environment?

If I had to hazard a guess I'd say how everyone has the internet in their pocket, news and entertainment being one and the same, and the fact that nobody reads books anymore

Re: A Fond Farewell

#92
post #15

This press release has a bit more explanation: https://www.farmersalmanac.com/end-of-an-era-farmers-almanac... > This decision, though difficult, reflects the growing financial challenges of producing and distributing the Almanac in today’s chaotic media environment.

Hardly an explanation, what is meant by chaotic media environment?

Without snark, I believe it just means they’re not making money, likely because people consume less “published media” nowadays

Re: A Fond Farewell

#93

Not to be confused with Old Farmer's Almanac (est. 1792) and yet sad to see a 200 years old periodical closing up shop.

https://www.almanac.com/old-farmers-almanac-233-years-and-st... They appear experienced at navigating this confusion

Damn, I would expect at least a word of courtesy towards a fellow multicentennial publication.

Re: A Fond Farewell

#94

There is still the Old Farmer’s Almanac https://www.almanac.com/old-farmers-almanac-233-years-and-st...

Why was there two? Linked article doesn't really say why the confusion exists, other than that there are 2 almanacs.

Re: A Fond Farewell

#95
Good riddance. These guys had like 40% forecast accuracy, worse than random. When they say the winter will warmer it will be colder and vice versa.

Re: A Fond Farewell

#96
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like it, I will be formatting all my years to 5 digits from now on. Please don't, it's highly irritating and usually just serves as a way to get people to discuss the leading zero rather than the subject they were really interested in in the first place. Leading zeros aren't a thing for a reason. It's about as useful as expressing the temperature in Kelvin.

Coincidentally, the temperatures in the Farmer's Almanac are all in Kelvin.

Degrees Kelvin has its place, just as leading zeros. The Farmer's Almanac may have a point but if they do I can't see it and to put a leading zero in front of a year is just annoying. Think about it: how would you pronounce the dates from now on, are you really going to say 'Today is the 7th of november of zero-two-zero-two-five'? And why stop at one zero, really forward thinking people should start counting from the big bang up, that's as close as you can get to the Kelvin analogy, might as well take it all the way then.

Re: A Fond Farewell

#97
post #95

Good riddance. These guys had like 40% forecast accuracy, worse than random. When they say the winter will warmer it will be colder and vice versa.

If you’re treating a forecast as a single Bernoulli trial, wouldn’t that make them 60% accurate for the opposite of their prediction?

Which is a silly assumption; a forecast isn’t a single yes-no event. it’s not obvious to me that 50% is the worst case success rate.

Would be more interesting to compare their forecast to something like a long term NOAA forecast, but I don’t believe such a thing exists because calculating the future is very expensive.

Re: A Fond Farewell

#98
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.almanac.com/old-farmers-almanac-233-years-and-st... They appear experienced at navigating this confusion

Damn, I would expect at least a word of courtesy towards a fellow multicentennial publication.

Saying "after an incredible 200+ year run." seems enough chivalrous for me.

Re: A Fond Farewell

#99
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hardly an explanation, what is meant by chaotic media environment?

If I had to hazard a guess I'd say how everyone has the internet in their pocket, news and entertainment being one and the same, and the fact that nobody reads books anymore

Book sales in general (across all formats) are up I think - so there are still many, many readers around. We just have many new formats (EPUB, audiobooks, reader devices, etc.) and of course population is increasing over the globe. I'm pretty sure we have the highest number of readers on the planet right now than ever before in absolute terms.

Re: A Fond Farewell

#100
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coincidentally, the temperatures in the Farmer's Almanac are all in Kelvin.

Degrees Kelvin has its place, just as leading zeros. The Farmer's Almanac may have a point but if they do I can't see it and to put a leading zero in front of a year is just annoying. Think about it: how would you pronounce the dates from now on, are you really going to say 'Today is the 7th of november of zero-two-zero-two-five'? And why stop at one zero, really forward thinking people should start counting from the…

If they do indeed use Kelvin, perhaps it's to reduce percent error? :)
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