Wednesday News: Eink device sales down; Researcher suggests former slave turned deputy marshal was the real Lone Ranger; and in some areas domestic violence is falling where male UE is rising

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Was Bass Reeves — a former slave turned deputy U.S. marshal — the real Lone Ranger? – Now this is a western I’m dying to read. Bass Reeves is a former slave who purportedly killed his owner and then escaped to the Indian Territories. He lived amongst the tribes and eventually became a deputy Marshall. His exploits sound larger than life but one researcher says that many of the accounts have verifiable sources.

After his conversation with Shoeboot, Burton became obsessed with finding out everything he could about the mysterious lawman. He knew Bass Reeves had killed 14 men during his career and captured 3,000 felons — once bringing in 17 men at once. Burton says he first set out to disprove some of the overly dramatic stories about Reeves but each time came across information that seemed to back them up.

And could shoot an outlaw in the neck from a quarter mile away. National Post

Amazon is working on displays that Apple and Samsung can’t match – Quartz suggests what others have speculated on for some time and that is Amazon’s purchase of Liquavista signals the production of color eink screen with the speed of a tablet but the power consumption of an eink device. A perfect marriage of visual technology and computing hardware. But these types of devices have been long promised and never delivered upon. What I did find interesting to share is that eink consumption declined by  28% in 2012 whereas tablet sales grew by 78%. Quartz

When Male Unemployment Rises, Domestic Violence Rates Fall – In some European countries, males have suffered greater percentage decline in employment than women. This has resulted in a lowering of domestic violence. At first this seems counterintuitive.

The results showed that the 3.7 percentage point increase in male unemployment during the time caused a decline in the incidence of domestic abuse by 12 percent. Meanwhile, the 3 percentage point increase in female unemployment increased domestic violence by 10 percent. The correlation held for all kinds of abuse, but it was stronger for physical violence.

Though it’s not proven, the theory that Jonathan Wadsworth, a University of London economist and study co-author, suggested to explain the phenomenon is that when male unemployment in an area is high, more men — having either lost their jobs or fearing job loss — are likely to try to stick with their partners in order to ensure some semblance of income stability. And to keep their partners from leaving them, those that have abusive tendencies are more likely to abstain from violent behavior. Meanwhile, when female unemployment is high, women might similarly be less likely to leave men who are predisposed to abuse, and so reports of domestic violence would rise.” Olga Khazan – The Atlantic

Jane

Jane Litte is the founder of Dear Author, a lawyer, and a lover of pencil skirts. She self publishes NA and contemporaries (and publishes with Berkley and Montlake) and spends her downtime reading romances and writing about them. Her TBR pile is much larger than the one shown in the picture and not as pretty. You can reach Jane by email at jane @ dearauthor dot com

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