| Chalk One Up For The Armchair Economists
Mike Arrington, over at TechCrunch, has written up a post about "The Inevitable March of Recorded Music Towards Free" which will sound mighty familiar if you're a Techdirt reader. It's pretty much the same thing I've been saying for almost a dozen years at this point, pointing out the economics and inevitable trends facing the music industry -- and also noting why that isn't necessarily a bad thing. While he's dealing with emotional responses in the comments (again, that'll sound familiar...), it's more interesting to watch an "industry analyst" trash Arrington as an "armchair economist" without backing it up... and then getting his own economics totally screwed up. In this case, we need to chalk one up for the "armchair economists." The analyst, David Card of Jupiter Research (the same analyst who incorrectly said that Radiohead's new offering would only work because the band was well known), dismisses Arrington's economics as "oversimplified analysis," but doesn't explain why it's actually wrong -- and that's because it's not.
NBH posts fiscal gains
Palmisano, CEO of NBH, the parent company of North Adams Regional Hospital, said the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2007, showed a surplus of $325,000 on $78.4 million in total revenue. "We had an excellent year last year," Palmisano said. "But we're not out of the woods yet. To make a profit of $300,000 in an $80 million budget is nothing. So I don't mean to imply that the turnaround is complete." He said that a $2 million essential community provider grant from the state helped get the budget back in the black, and that he hopes to get the institution to the point where that grant is no longer a part of the profit-and-loss formula. State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, said the grant did exactly what it was designed to do: "Put them over the top and help them to have a positive year." Downing credited Palmisano with doing "a tremendous job" getting the entire medical community involved in the turnaround.
Unversity Place litigation settled
A settlement has been reached in litigation over the University of Idahos failed University Place real estate project in Boise. Under its terms, the UI Foundation will pay $2.5 million and the various parties insurers will pay $5.8 million, for a total $8.3 million mediated settlement. Of that, $5.8 million goes to the foundations Consolidated Investment Trust, and the other $2.5 million goes to the university. In a joint statement, the parties, who include law firms, insurance companies, the UI Foundation board, and former UI officials including former President Robert Hoover, said, The settlement is a reasonable resolution of an extremely complex matter, avoids substantial future litigation costs, and is in the best interest of the University community. The amount being paid by each party is being kept secret.
Healing through music and nature
She also has sung for her supper on the streets of New Orleans.
And now, Fae lives in a yurt and works on a farm on the San Juan Ridge, milking goats for a living.
It's in such contrasts that Fae's art and healing both are rooted.
Once trained by the dean of the Hartford Conservatory of Music, Fae now wakes up at dawn, makes her coffee on a wood stove, then spends her day feeding chickens, goats and rabbits. She milks four goats and feeds a newborn kid with its mother's milk in a bottle.
"I intend to live close to the earth for the rest of my life," Fae said. "It's the responsibility of our generation to protect the earth and seek ways to live in harmony with our Mother Earth."
In her modest home, Fae has altars to Lakshmi, Green Tara, Aphrodite and Isis - forms of the divine feminine from different cultures.
Public wants input on Carroll police unit
There is no appreciable difference between the cost to run a future unified sheriff's department and the cost to operate a county police department," Powell said. Sheriff Kenneth L. Tregoning said he has urged county commissioners for 21 years to create a law enforcement master plan, which has not been done. Suddenly there is a sense of urgency to get somewhere without any plan in place, he said. For several years, he has pushed for his department to assume primary responsibility for law enforcement in the county. "There is no sound reason that the county is going forward at this speedy and reckless pace to dismantle the sheriff's department," Tregoning said. "Here they want to change the entire face of law enforcement, and they have not had one public meeting. I find that disgraceful," he said.
Extreme Makeover
Shaaban nods sadly, then shows me the newly installed lavatories outside, at the back of the riwaqs, and admits that maybe the pipes had been laid in too much of a hurry to meet the deadline for the grand opening. Building the washrooms gave work to a large number of poor people, though, he pleads defensively. In front of one of the prayer niches, a rather large noisy group of Pakistanis — men, women and children — are listening to the lesson being given by a bearded old man. The men are all dressed in white shirts and white pants with a little white cap on their heads. Even the very small boy running around sports the uniform. In contrast, the women are in colorful dresses with large scarves around their heads and shoulders. “They are Shi'a," explains Shaaban as if this excused the racket, “and only use the niche where the name of Ali appears." .
Councilman MikeK Recalls Knievel Action Figure
Top: Young MikeK playing with Evel Knievel action figure; bottom: MikeK receives inspiration from his childhood friends before leaving for a Coeur d'Alene City Council meeting. I had a classic Evel Knievel motorcycle riding action figure when I was a kid. The stunts my brothers and I would stage for that motorcycle toy were legendary (riding out a second story window, chasing the dog around the house without getting chewed to ribbons, you name it). RIP Evel. I wonder what happened to Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man who played the role of Evel's arch-nemesis in the boyhood action figure wars?/Councilman MikeK. Question: What was your favorite action figure/doll when you were little? .
Exhibitions evoke signs of ruin, scars of war
A written agreement and some tax receipts completed the work when Kos loaned it to the Richmond Art Center on condition that the institution cover his minuscule property tax for the duration of the show. Conceptual art looks easy - seemingly anything goes - only until a good example come to hand. Take Kos' "Canary/Coal(Wait for a Song)" (2007). A big lump of coal sits in the pan of a shovel whose handle takes the form of a long bamboo rod, so long that its far end serves as a branchlike perch for a stuffed canary. Probably not meant for precise decoding, the sculpture touches energy-crisis-consciousness at several points, while relaying aesthetic echoes of "arte povera," the Italian tendency that awakened the social meanings in overlooked materials and objects.
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