Best Selling Books by David Talbot

This report describes the development and recent expansion of HG&E Telecom, the fiber optic network division of Holyoke Gas and Electric (HG&E) in Holyoke, Massachusetts. HG&E is one of 41 longstanding municipal light plants providing electricity service in Massachusetts, of which 10 offer Internet access and other telecom services to retail customers, and 31 do not. HG&E Telecom competes with Comcast and Charter and serves approximately 300 business customers. It saves the municipality more than $300,000 per year. Its revenue has increased by 10 percent over the past two years and it has expanded into new lines of business. Given that data transport needs are growing while electricity sales are flattening, the record of HG&E Telecom suggests opportunities for other municipal electric utilities across the country, as long as they are in states that haven't raised barriers to the provision of such services.

How long has it been since you looked at your phone or checked your emails? These simple acts are performed by millions upon millions of people numerous times each day. But the longer a person's face is illuminated by the glow of their screen, the more at risk they are of experiencing a negative impact on their attention span, productivity, memory and mental health, and the more at risk they are of becoming addicted to their screens, of becoming a 'glowface'.Starting with his own powerful story of a twenty-year screen addiction, the author systematically looks at the cost of having instant access to information, entertainment and global communication. What have we parted with for the sake of this convenience?Littered with anecdotes and rendering the results of research into everyday language, Glowface explores the following questions: When we expose children to screens at a young age and for long periods of time, what effect does it have on their natural talents? What happens to our thought processes when we allow screens to constantly interrupt us? What is the impact on our lives when we work in careers built on distraction? What are the repercussions of electing and appointing leaders who reflect our distracted selves? As we increasingly hand our children's education over to screen devices, is it improving educational outcomes? When we use our screen devices to store and share our memories, what is the impact on our own memory? How enriching are our digital pastimes? What are our screen devices doing to our mental health?Our talents, thought processes, careers, leadership, education, memory, leisure time and mental health - these are just some of the things that make us who we are, and each is being eroded by screens. Each is being stolen. Glowface makes readers confront this reality and gives them a reason to start to claim them back.