More on Europe

Looney Dunes: Hugh on Europe

Hugh triggered this
Well, the French Vote and my tracking of the Euro really was instigation of immediate interest.

Other readings:

France's Rejection of E.U. Charter Emboldens Opponents - New York Times:

"PARIS, May 30 - The shock of France's rejection of a constitution for Europe reverberated throughout the continent today, with Britain suggesting that it might cancel its own popular vote on the document and the far-right in the Netherlands gaining even more confidence that a 'no' vote would prevail in Wednesday's referendum there."

Downhill from here
Rejection of Eurocrats by one of the founders of the "New Europe"
Future of the Euro in doubt.

"The most serious potential foreign fallout from the no vote in France came from Prime Minister Tony Blair, who called for a "time for reflection," saying that it was too early to decide whether a popular vote could go ahead in Britain. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he would announce a decision no earlier than next week.

"Underneath all this there is a more profound question, which is about the future of Europe and, in particular, the future of the European economy and how we deal with the modern questions of globalization and technological change," Mr. Blair told journalists during a vacation in Italy.

His tentative remarks contrasted with the bold approach taken by other European leaders, including Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany and Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, who said the ratification process must go on.

Similarly, the Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, told a news conference at the Union's headquarters in Brussels, "Life continues.". "For me, the worst that could happen is if, as a consequence of that, you or the citizens of the European Union or the leaders of the European Union enter into a zone of paralysis psychologically," he said.

"Just a few weeks ago, for example, Roman Prodi, the former president of the European Commission, predicted that a French no would mean "the end of Europe." Today he called the outcome "a disaster," but insisted that it could be worse.

"This is still better than a war of secession like the United States once had," he said in a telephone interview. "I'm serious now. We must keep this perspective in mind. We don't have a treaty, but we also don't have wars."

That is certainly true, but the lowest-common denominator approach was not what the leaders of Europe had in mind when they embarked on the drafting of the Constitution, a process that took two-and-a-half years.

---

EuroToast:

Euro Bruised by Rejection of New Pact by France - New York Times:
"Few experts are predicting a full-blown crisis for the euro, which is safeguarded by the politically independent European Central Bank. France's refusal to ratify the constitution will have little impact on the running of the monetary union, or on the maze of regulations that govern the world's largest trading bloc.

Still, as Paul De Grauwe, a Belgian expert on the currency, put it, 'Something psychological has changed.'

Like many economists, he believes that the long-term viability of the euro hinges on the gradual political integration of the countries that use it - a prospect that, for now at least, is dashed. 'Can the euro survive without a political union?' Mr. De Grauwe said. 'I have my doubts.' "

---
Spooked by a sullen, rebellious electorate, European leaders might give up trying to force sweeping changes of their social welfare systems. Publicly, at least, they are likely to talk down American-British-style economic policy, with its emphasis on competition and untrammeled markets.

"There has been a parallel debate in Germany and France about neo-liberalism versus the social market economy," said Allan Saunderson, chairman of EuroZone Advisers, a consulting firm in Frankfurt. "That debate is going to become a lot sharper over the next few months."

At its heart, he said, the question is whether these countries can still afford to prop up costly welfare states in a global economy. In Germany, the debate has mutated into an occasionally vitriolic attack by the governing Social Democratic Party on big companies and foreign investors.

Rules? What Rules? : "France, Germany, Italy and Portugal are all in violation of the deficit limits. In Portugal, the deficit may reach 6.8 percent of gross domestic product this year - more than twice the level allowed by Brussels."

---
"Among other casualties of France's rejection may be the further expansion of the European Union, a process economists often advocate as a way to spur Europe's growth and competitiveness.

Some Western European leaders are likely to resist the entry of Turkey into the union because it would stir voters' fears of an influx of low-cost foreign workers. Fear of such cheap labor fueled the anti-Europe camp in France."

---

The peasant's revolt - more Eurodurge:

The peasant's revolt - Sunday Times - Times Online:

Conclusion : Europe is a collection of peoples with their own histories and borders. Union is very far off, if ever.

"In Brussels the “mannequin pis” winked. In Holland the boy took his finger from the dyke. In Paris Marianne bared not her breast but her buttock. The cock crowed, the lion roared, the bear growled. Bliss it was last week to be alive and in Amsterdam, the city which since the 17th century has embodied civic autonomy and global commerce. It has just perpetrated a revolution and can hardly believe it.

Two hundred kilometres to the south in Brussels, the humiliated courtiers of the European Union sat gloomy in their gilded salons, wondering how to hold off the upstart mob. Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg, presiding over the EU’s Council of Ministers, tearfully suggested that Europe’s voters be asked to vote again “until they get it right”. Lord Kerr, Britain’s envoy at this court, described the referendums as a “macabre ritual”. Jose Manuel Barroso, commission president, warned of a “risk of contagion” spreading across Europe. Only in Brussels is the word democracy synonymous with disease."

---

If history offers any lesson from the past week it is that Europe courts disaster if it allows the politics of union to override the politics of division. Regions, enclaves, provinces and statelets are part of the European kaleidoscope. The peoples of eastern Europe, notably in what were Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia, have just risked their wealth and even their lives to recover their historical identities. They want self-government to mean just that, as do the enclaves of the west. Only if they are convinced such so-called subsidiarity is genuine will the myriad peoples that make up Europe consent to the national or supranational disciplines needed to keep Europe competitive.

This past week has seen democracy explode its most dangerous weapon, a referendum. The release of energy was awesome. Power asked a question of freedom and was given a punch in the face. Such moments are rare and they are beautiful. They are also menacing and full of meaning."

Is it about Intel fabbing PPC chips?

Is it about Intel fabbing PPC chips? | �Doc Searls' IT Garage

Interesting idea
Haven't had time to dig into it, likely won't (wrapping up some legal stuff, packin for Paris etc)

Ownership : IBM/MOT/APPL
So the idea would be to trace the ownership of the IP (intellectual property)

MOT has been moving out of production (spin out of Freescale)
Would they mind INTC making the chips?

Maybe not
MOT more of a handset-systems company now (my perception)
IBM clearly moving to systems company (for big clients - sale of PC biz)
Apple moving into consumer products (tough business, but if you have the cachet, you can do it - Branding very important)

soooo - Doc's idea is interesting

Phishing

The New York Times > Technology > Link by Link: You've Been Scammed Again? Maybe the Problem Isn't Your Computer:

"'I don't think many users of the Internet realize that there are virtually no rules and even fewer enforcers of rules in cyberspace,' Mr. Carroll said.

Alas, we appear to be no better equipped in the real world. In a survey conducted alongside the Infosecurity Europe trade show earlier this year, more than 90 percent of roughly 200 people approached on the street were duped into giving away enough information to steal their identities - all for the chance at winning some theater tickets.

That's worse than last year's experiment, when only 70 percent of those approached were willing to give up their computer passwords - this time in return for chocolate.

No phishing required."

Monkey Business

Monkey Business - New York Times

Capuchin Monkey behavior, when it comes to "Money" looks to be no different than for Homo "Sapiens" (quotes around Sapiens as the sapien part might be in question)

"But these facts remain: When taught to use money, a group of capuchin monkeys responded quite rationally to simple incentives; responded irrationally to risky gambles; failed to save; stole when they could; used money for food and, on occasion, sex. In other words, they behaved a good bit like the creature that most of Chen's more traditional colleagues study: Homo sapiens."

Or is it just that the capuchin's being studied are at Yale? (VBG)

---

Chen proudly calls himself a behavioral economist, a member of a growing subtribe whose research crosses over into psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary biology.

Trump Group Selling West Side Parcel for $1.8 Billion - Top ?

Trump Group Selling West Side Parcel for $1.8 Billion - New York Times:

Did "The Donald" get it right this time?
Contrast the transaction with his claims at the "Learning Annex Real Estate Wealth Expo" that real estate is the biggest and best business.
If the prospects continue to be great - why sell?

---

"A consortium of Hong Kong investors and Donald J. Trump are selling a stretch of riverfront land and three buildings on the Upper West Side for about $1.8 billion in the largest residential sale in city history and in the latest example of a rocketing housing market.

The Extell Development Corporation and the Carlyle Group have a tentative deal to buy a major swath of developable land at the onetime railroad yard between 59th and 72nd Streets, which has been turned into a luxury enclave known variously as Riverside South and Trump Place, according to real estate executives who have been briefed on the deal. The 77-acre property embraces what will be a 21-acre public park that slopes down to the Hudson River.

The deal comes as the average condominium price in Manhattan has soared to more than $1.2 million and as developable land has become increasingly rare, even as some economists worry that a housing bubble will soon burst."

Defense Tech: Spray Me, Pay Me

Defense Tech: Spray Me, Pay Me

Oxytocin and effect of increasing "Trust"

How about for ads in glossies ?
Sorta like the scratch ads for cologne

---
Researchers had some volunteers inhale oxytocin [also known as the "hormone of love" or "cuddle chemical" -- ed.] and then examined how they and those who inhaled a placebo invested money in a mock transaction.

The transaction involved taking a risk: handing over money to a "banker" who had the option of returning the investment with a profit or withholding principal and profit, leaving the investor with nothing. The experiment was a measure of the trust that the investors had in the bankers.

Volunteers who inhaled oxytocin were more likely to trust the banker with money and risk larger sums, the researchers said in an article published yesterday in the journal Nature.

The scientists said they made sure the chemical was not merely enhancing risk-taking behavior by substituting bankers with computers. Without the interaction with a human, the hormone had no effect.

Very cool pic

Superbikeplanet.com

Start of 500GP Imola '83

Hugh on Europe

gapingvoid: "european civilisation has sown the seeds of its own decline and fall"


"Europe is the world's most expensive luxury good," I said. "Every year it get a little more expensive, and nobody has any good ideas about how to make it cheaper."

---
With several trips to Europe, business and pleasure, and with "sometimes" business partner from Wien (Vienna), my conclusion is that Europe has become a "DisneyLand" with full time occupants. Maybe becoming "Disneyland" : the Old Folks Home.

Shopping: Women Shop, Men Buy

Story - prior wife, shopping
( visitors please take with grain of salt, maybe a full shaker of salt )
Women Shop
Men Buy

I walked into establishment where I'd bought "formal attire" for many
years, said I need a grey suit, they brought out 3, I picked one
(banker's pinstripe)
Wife (of the time) was put out ... "you haven't shopped"
Soooo
We visited 1/2 dozen other establishments (BTW - this was not current
wife nor location)
Tried on suits etc etc etc

Went back to orginal establishment - bought first choice.
Women Shop
Men Buy

someone once did a "map" of man vs woman set with a task to buy item in
a "mall"
woman - 3hrs, much wandering (think dumb rat in maze)
man - 15 min - direct to and from vendor, no wandering

Women Shop
Men Buy

Risky Business

The New York Times > Movies > How Personal Is Too Personal for a Star Like Tom Cruise?:

Tom over the top?
Other rumors that the whole Katie Holmes affair is a hype and a front
Fall in love with the only "avowed virgin" in Hollywood ???

Give me a break

Channeling L.RonHubbard ...



"An executive for Viacom, Paramount's parent company, said the studio had not yet decided whether to push ahead with production of 'Mission: Impossible III,' one of the company's most valuable franchises and a project on which tens of millions of dollars has already been spent. Shooting was planned to begin in Italy on July 18 and to continue on location in Europe and elsewhere.

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'No definitive decision has been made; it's a discussion,' said the executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared endangering the studio's relationship with Mr. Cruise. Other executives involved in the discussion said the production became an issue in recent days as the budget has climbed well over $150 million. A studio spokeswoman, Janet Hill, declined to comment.

The uncertainty comes at a critical time for Paramount as it prepares to release 'War of the Worlds,' a big-budget science fiction epic directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Mr. Cruise. The movie, jointly financed with DreamWorks, is to open on June 29.

While promoting that film over the last several weeks, Mr. Cruise engaged in an increasingly public discussion of his religion, Scientology. Then he set tongues wagging in Hollywood and elsewhere with an hourlong appearance on the May 23 'Oprah' show, during which he jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell rapturously to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend, the actress Katie Holmes.

Many Hollywood stars are involved with the Church of Scientology, and there is nothing particularly unusual about trumpeting a new love. But some executives at Paramount and DreamWorks have voiced concern that fans were becoming distracted from the movie, which cost some $130 million to produce.

"

NYTimes piece on Nolan B.

The New York Times > Technology > At This Restaurant, the Video Games Come With the Meal:
"Nolan K. Bushnell, the creator of the Pong video game and founder of the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain, is innovating again. He is about to open a restaurant where the servers will have novel attributes: triple redundancy and backup batteries.

In this case, the servers will not be human waiters but powerful central computers that will record food orders and display video games that customers can play while they eat.

Advertisement
Click Here

Mr. Bushnell calls the concept the Media Bistro, and he plans to open the first one in West Los Angeles this fall. The point, he said, is to get gamers out of the house.

Video games today 'are about social isolation,' Mr. Bushnell said. 'There needs to be a place that brings a little more balance and brings people together.'

"

Nolan Bushnell launches uWink Bistro's

Playing It Again - Newsweek Technology - MSNBC.com

Hope good ol' Nolan can make this one work ...

Real Estate "investing" has it's problems

Getting Crushed in a Housing Collapse:

Carrying costs, esp if bought on low (or no) downpayment, with such arrangements as "interest only" loans, where there is no equity build up can crush "investors."
Even if you have 10% equity, a drop of 5% can hurt.

"...homes have carrying costs -- taxes, maintenance, and insurance -- that make it much harder for people to carry properties bought as an investment when the market turns south. In 2004, 36% of properties sold were second homes, the bulk of them purchased as investments. 'It's not like a stock,' where investors mainly have lost opportunity costs to holding a loser. With real estate, he notes, 'If prices don't continue to go up, you're 4% or 5% behind every year.' "

hell on 2 wheels

hell on 2 wheels
Originally uploaded by redrevolt.

Way Cool
The late Hunter Thomson with a Duck

More Indy

Woman Makes History at Indy 500 Without Checkered Flag - New York Times:

"No woman had ever led the race, let alone won it. About 300,000 fans at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway clapped, pumped their fists and screamed, urging Patrick to hang on. She would have loved to, she said, but she also had to save fuel merely to finish the race.

" Asked if she had made the point that female drivers could compete against men, Patrick quickly said, "I made a hell of a point for anybody, are you kidding me?"

Very Racy

DANICA PATRICK's Official Website - danicaracing.com - Team Rahal Indy Car Driver

Quite a performance at Indy
Bobble, mild crash, still led and finished 4th

Very racy
Very bright future ahead

Indy 500 History in the making ?

NPR : Danica Patrick Aims to Make Indy 500 History:

Didn't see coverage of her qualifying run, but reports that she got out of shape on the first lap, gathered it up and legged it
Qualified 4th despite the mistake!
Last 3 laps were fastest of the entire field.
And she is with a top team.

"Danica Patrick, 23, became an instant celebrity when she qualified for this Sunday's Indianapolis 500, finishing higher than any other woman in the race's history.

Patrick is just the fourth woman to qualify for the 'Greatest Spectacle in Racing' -- but unlike her predecessors, experts say she has a real shot at winning.

Since rookie orientation began on the raceway May 5, Patrick has been among the fastest of drivers. She posted the fastest practice speed at Indy this month -- around 229 miles an hour -- and would have qualified first if not for briefly sliding sideways during her run.

Instead, Patrick settled for fourth in the 33-car field -- the highest qualifier by any woman in the race's 89-year history. But she says she has the experience to reach the front of the field."

Knife Control

British Medical Experts Campaign for Long, Pointy Knife Control - New York Times:
Now this really is "Looney"

"The authors of the editorial argued that the pointed tip is a vestigial feature from less mannered ages, when people used it to spear meat. They said that they interviewed 10 chefs in England, and that 'none gave a reason why the long, pointed knife was essential,' though short, pointed knives were useful.

An American chef, however, disagreed with the proposal. 'This is yet another sign of the coming apocalypse,' said Anthony Bourdain, the executive chef at Les Halles and the author of 'Kitchen Confidential.'

A knife, he said, is a beloved tool of the trade, and not a thing to be shaped by bureaucrats. A chef's relationship with his knives develops over decades of training and work, he said, adding, 'Its weight, its shape - these are all extensions of our arms, and in many ways, our personalities.'

He compared the editorial to efforts to ban unpasteurized cheese. 'Where there is no risk,' he said, 'there is no pleasure.'"

Scary Stuff

The New York Times > Real Estate > Is It Worth It?:

"Mindy Schuss, an ex-Upper East Sider, moved six years ago to Dix Hills, on Long Island, with her 2-year-old twins and husband, Dean, from whom she is now divorced. 'It was very lonely,' she said of the five-bedroom home she found with Maddy Camay, an associate broker at Re/Max North Shore. The house sits on an acre about a 10-minute drive from the nearest shopping area."

Oh My 10 Minutes
Bet she has one of those Gawd-Awful SUV's too!

Frankly - stay in the city!

Remember that Madison Ave is in THE CITY
And they (think) that they know what is best for the rest of us
At least how to cram it down our throats

"It's a springtime ritual: Like pollen shaking loose from the trees, many young Manhattan families are preparing to scatter toward the suburbs and a new phase of life. Others are merely thinking about it, wondering about the tradeoffs, and the psychic toll.

Is there any way to know in advance whether moving to the suburbs will work out - or be a big, expensive mistake? Will fine schools, backyards and breathing room compensate for tedious commutes, fewer conveniences and a possibly somnolent lifestyle? Will the suburbs be populated by like-minded transplants or insular unsophisticates? Are the restaurants really that bad?"

Conclusion ?
Beth Little of Summit, N.J., said a good selection of restaurants is "the one thing we always say we miss."

"The food is definitely not as good; I cook all the time now instead of ordering," said Ms. Little, who lives with her husband, Bill, and four children aged 10 months to 6 years, in a house they found with the help of Elizabeth Crosby and Ms. Cavazini of Lois Schneider Realtor. "I think it's healthier and it's better and good in a lot of ways, but there's certainly times when I wish I could just pick up the phone and call."

---

Comment : fits the NYTimes mindset of RedState-BlueState
City is sophisticated, non-city is for hicks.
Rural is Scary ...

And the "Sound of Silence" (thank you Simon & Garfinkle) is much scarier than the Sound of Sirens ...

Stick to the City!

Late May Photos

Early Morning
Not mountains across the lake, just the morning fog lifting
Sun just coming up, Full Moon, Full Flower Moon or Milk Moon, just set.



Later, mid afternoon, a beautiful day.
Little activity on the lake yet.



But with Memorial Day coming up, the pace will quicken.

Bloggin Burnout

A VC: Bagging the Post

Interesting ideas

I've chosen to set up several blogs
One "semi-public" with various rants, mostly lightweight, one internal, family and friends for serious stuff (investments, data etc.) one straight internal for hard core rants (stuff that pisses me off) mostly for bookmarking and annotating.

Haven't moved to categories nor tags... yet

Furthermore, suspect that sometimes, those of us new to blogging have a pile of "stuff" to get off our chests. After a few months we've pretty well said those things and feel better.

note to self : gotta learn this trackback stuff

Outrage of the day/week/and at least Month!

Trump University - Welcome

University ?

University: definition

So what degrees are granted ?
Institution of Higher Education and Research ?

No wonder the perception of education in America is so low.
If anyone truly believes this crap is a University, they are delusional.

But with some of the ongoing mania for Real Estate, per some prior posts, maybe they are.

I think I hear the Fat Lady warming up, if she isn't on stage already.

WSJ story on RealEstate Mania

WSJ.com - As Prices Rise, Homeowners Go Deep in Debt to Buy Real Estate:

Economists Say Move to Tap
Equity May Inflate Bubble;
Like Buying on Margin

"Those rapid profits reflect surging house prices, rising at a double-digit rate in the Epsteins' area near Washington. "It's a wonderful market out there," Mr. Epstein says.

Five years into a housing boom that has boosted U.S. home values an average of 50% and added an estimated $5.5 trillion to the total market value of residential real estate, many Americans no longer think of their home as just a place to live. Instead, it's a cash machine that can be used to rapidly build wealth. To that end, a growing number of people are tapping into their home equity to invest in more real estate.

That's a lot like using a margin account -- a line of credit backed by securities in an investor's portfolio -- to buy stocks. During the 1990s, many investors used such accounts to buy shares in fast-rising tech stocks. When the dot-com bubble burst, the value of the shares bought on credit cratered and investors' borrowing worsened their losses. Economists say today's debt-fueled investment binge in real estate is fanning the flames of an already overheated housing market, and making demand from people who actually need houses to live in seem stronger than it truly is.

In some markets, this buying is adding to a glut of rental housing and causing rents to fall, which will make.ENAmore difficult for investors to break even. Already, there are signs that a few investors are starting to get burned."

and

"In another sign of growing concern, the Federal Reserve and other bank regulators last week issued guidelines calling for lenders to tighten their criteria for making loans backed by home equity by looking more closely at borrowers' ability to repay under various possible future market conditions. The regulators are starting work on similar guidelines covering mortgage loans used to purchase homes. Among regulators' top concerns: the surge in popularity of interest-only loans, which allow people to pay only interest in the initial years and face the burden of paying back the principal later."

If not the top, it's getting damn close.

Salsa Dancers and Stunt Men? Must Be a Miami Condo Project - New York Times:

"MIAMI, May 22 - In the last month alone, you could salsa with dancers in fringed hot pants at Aqua, hear a drag queen D.J. at Cynergi or watch stunt men ricochet off a trampoline at Soleil.

Nightclubs? No. Carnival acts? Not quite.

These were launch parties for condominium projects, one of the stranger forms of nightlife in a city obsessed with real estate. Alcohol and music were abundant, but so were sales agents and brochures with statements like, 'It is the impeccable aesthetic of textures and calming shades - limestone and blue marble - that further distinguish these voluminous spaces.'

Deep-pocketed developers, forced to be ever more creative in the pursuit of buyers for condos still years from being built, pay for these lavish affairs - another take on the 'froth' in the housing market that Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman, described last week. Though the parties emulate the club scene, most take place in hastily erected sales centers or parking lots near the future construction site. Guests encounter model kitchens and scan price lists while sampling mojitos and tuna tartare.

'Everyone needs to one-up each other more and more with these things,' said Jorge Luis Garcia, a real estate agent attending a party for Vitri, an unbuilt project in South Beach where prices start above $600,000. 'The food's got to be better, the lighting's got to be better, the D.J.'s got to be really good. The new norm is the quarter-million-dollar party.'

No expense is spared because the stakes are high: about 70,000 condo units are planned, under construction or newly finished in Miami proper, home to fewer than 400,000 people. Builders need early deposits to get construction loans, so they work hard to entice the buyers they covet - image-conscious people, many from Latin America and Europe, with money to burn on a second home, a speculative investment or a status symbol."

Follow up to the Fortune piece (below)

Pie in the Sky

Seth's Blog: When advertisers insist on interruption

Don't know if the FAA got spooked by this or not:
"When advertisers insist on interruption"

The sky's the limit.

MoonriseThe sky's the limit.



Government: No billboards in space
FAA says it lacks authority to enforce existing law prohibiting 'obtrusive' ads in zero gravity.
May 19, 2005: 4:37 PM EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government does not want billboards in space.

The Federal Aviation Administration proposed on Thursday to amend its regulations to ensure that it can enforce a law that prohibits "obtrusive" advertising in zero gravity.

"Objects placed in orbit, if large enough, could be seen by people around the world for long periods of time," the FAA said in a regulatory filing.

Currently, the FAA lacks the authority to enforce the existing law.

For instance, outsized billboards deployed by a space company into low Earth orbit could appear as large as the moon and be seen without a telescope, the FAA said. Big and bright advertisements might hinder astronomers.

"Large advertisements could destroy the darkness of the night sky," regulators said.

Coincidence that the announcement arrives at the same time as Star Wars?

Now this looks like the real Looney Tune - RealEstate Madness

Investing - Can You Still Cash in on the Real Estate Gold Rush? - Intro - FORTUNE
REAL ESTATE FRENZY
Riding the Boom
"They snap up real estate, flip it, then chase the next hot market.They’re the new day traders—and they’re dancing on the edge of a volcano."

Stories of residential real estate "investors" who look to flip houses, condos etc.
All assume that they are not the "greater fool"

Likely exagerated, esp with tales of those who have lost track of how many houses they own.

Note that tax laws (no cap gains on flipped property if you are continuing to trade up) encouage "bad behavior"

Wonder what happens to tax reciepts when the music stops.

Seth Godin - on Politics

Seth Godin - Liar's Blog - All (successful) politicians are liars:

Really couldn't put it any better myself !

"[When marketers talk about politics (and when politicians talk about marketing) it almost always ends up as a degraded conversation because people get emotional over their points of view. That's not what I'm talking about here. What I'm talking about is the consistent bungling of the Democratic Party as they fail to tell stories that people want to hear.]

John Kerry lost to an unpopular incumbent seeking reelection for just one reason: he insisted on focusing on facts, on issues, on position papers and on nuance. He acted like an intellectual bully, refusing to worry about the story he told. George W. Bush, on the other hand, was absolutely masterful in the way he told a story that a portion of the electorate wanted to hear.

It may be, that like me, you wish that all issues were decided on facts and reliable data. They never are. We're people, not machines, and we believe stories, not facts.
"

On Newspapers

hyku | blog - Out with the Old Media in with the New Media - by Josh Hallett:

"Out with the Old Media in with the New Media

I recently had a conversation with a newspaper vet about the changing times within the newspaper business. He echoed the comments I have heard from a number of reporters/editors at a number of papers, the managing editor or publisher just does not get new media. In some cases it's the publisher, in other cases it's the editors.

As new blood comes into the newsroom change is slowly happening, but it needs to be top-down effort to adapt quickly enough. The old-guard does not believe in/or refuses to learn new media. It was then that I made the following observation.

If these editors or publishers were interviewing for their jobs now, they would not be hired.

How is it they still have their jobs then?"

---

My reaction to all this Journalism stuff.

I recalll years ago, learning from friends in the press, that what I was reading the papers for, in other words "the news" was referred to within the business as "the news hole". That which needed to be filled after all the ad space was filled.

Now this may be a bit of an exaggeration, but essentially covers the point.
The point being to move newsprint ( or electronic images (aka time) ) which was the carrier of ads.

Jim Harrison

Featured Author: Jim Harrison

Series of links within NYTimes on one of American's greats.

Ran into a friend last night, he's close to Jim and says that Jim got them into Mario's Babbo
Something I haven't managed to do yet

We did get to Lupa last fall. Wonderful dinner!

GM trims - good move!

The New York Times > Automobiles > G.M.'s Brands to Cut Back on Variety

Looks like GM is taking action:

"Facing its worst financial outlook in more than a decade, General Motors outlined a new product development and sales strategy Thursday, saying that from now on Chevrolet and Cadillac would be the company's only brands to offer a full lineup of vehicles.

That means G.M.'s other six brands marketed in the United States will focus on a narrower selection of segments. GMC and Hummer will continue to sell trucks while Pontiac, Saab and Saturn will focus mostly on cars and smaller S.U.V.'s, with Buick offering some of both.

The plan indicates that G.M. is trying to wean itself from what has been a highly criticized product development strategy of keeping costs down by developing the same basic vehicle for many of its brands. It will also probably mean consolidation of the company's more than 7,000 dealers."

I can see Pontiac surviving, being the "sporty" division, GMC looks solid (trucks and SUV's still strong despite fuel costs, and likely will get Hybrids), but not sure of placement of Buick.

Saturn, Saab and Hummer as niche products.

More coverage, from Detroit, here:
GM shifts strategy for brands

"The move marks a shift away from GM's long-held philosophy that nearly every brand should offer a full array of cars, trucks and minivans, said Mark LaNeve, GM North America vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing.

The automaker's goal is to clearly differentiate each of its brands and phase out cars and trucks that don't fit in with a brand or are too similar to other vehicles in GM's lineup.

"People say we have too many brands," LaNeve said in a recent interview. "We have too many brands if we try to do the same things with all the brands."

Trillium

Mid March, a nice little trio in our backyard

Then went out to catch a few more ...

Up North Cookin'

Up North with Mario Batali: Chef helps Leelanau cause

Mario splits time between NYC and Northport
Word is that he and his wife are building new place here.

Of all the places I've taken Shirley in NY, Lupa has been her favorite.

NMich Rocks On

Northern Express

Bit in Northern Express on Tom Wright (photographer)
Tom Wright Photography

For the uninitiated, the Grande was a rock palace in the inner city of Detroit which hosted some of the greatest bands in the world at a time when the city's own rock scene was at its peak.

"Part of me wanted to go but another part of me knew that musically Detroit was the place to be," said Wright. "So I told Pete (Townshend) I was going back to Detroit and he agreed that is was a good thing. We decided to connect up when they returned to the U.S. for their next tour."

"I went to the offices of Eye Magazine in New York, which was the music magazine in those days, and told the editors that the music scene wasn‚t happening in New York or California but rather in Detroit," said Wright.

"They looked at me and said okay you go there, photograph the bands, check out the scene and write an article."

It had taken only one show at the Grande a few days earlier to convince Wright that Detroit was at the center of the rock music universe. "The Who just hadn't been recognized until that night they walked into the Grande. Sure, concerts were selling out and their songs were on the radio, but when they took the stage at the Grande it all changed," said Wright.

"They walked in and played three notes and everyone knew the song. That had never happened before, not even in England. The crowd went crazy and I saw what it did for the band; to this day it is among their best live performances ever."

Wright sensed that Detroit and the Grande would be at the center of the emerging rock scene, the crossroads where British and American rock musicians would revolutionize music for years to come.

His perceptions were correct. To this day many legends including Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin, The MC5 and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac have all said that their best performances ever were at the Grande.

"I thought after that first Who concert at the Grande it was the first time the crowd had seen anything like that," said Wright. "Then after the show the stage manager said it is like this every night, he mentioned the night before when Cream was there. He also told me about all the great bands in Detroit. So I started thinking that there must be something to this city."

---
Later
"After Goose Lake, Wright and his three closest friends, 'Chuch' McGee (roadie for the Rolling Stones), Russ Schlagbaum (Pete Townshend's accountant for 10 years and currently in charge of tour logistics for the Rolling Stones), and Patrick Culley (who'd go on to various management responsibilities with Ted Nugent, Rolling Stones, Bill Graham, and The Eagles) boarded a Polish freighter and went to Europe for several months before Wright returned to the states to tour manage and photograph several bands including the The Faces and The James Gang.

'Chuch' McGee lived in the U.P. and passed away last summer during a Rolling Stones rehearsal in Toronto. He had been with the Rolling Stones for 30 years and was Ronnie Wood's guitar tech. Chuch is considered by many as the best roadie ever and his death stunned the group, leaving a usually talkative Mick Jagger speechless as the group left rehearsal.

Chuch was so valued that the whole band flew to his funeral in Marquette and played 'Amazing Grace.

Wright brought the last photo he had taken of Chuch to the funeral and every member of the band asked for a copy of it. When Keith Richards was given a copy of the photo he responded: 'Ah, Tom Wright is a fine photographer with a special touch, he captures the true essence of people.'

When asked about why Wright's photographs were so important to the artists, guitarist Joe Walsh of the James Gang and The Eagles responded: 'You had to have been there and Tom was. Tom Wright is the 'Jack Kerouac' of photography.'"

Flashbacks

Mulling over some old "images"

Whit has some of the posters, after all, she "discovered" them in the basement

Doubt that they are truely collectable

But here are two in my office: (links from http://www.sixtiesposters.com)

Sixties Posters Fillmore Poster BG-57 The Byrds

and

Sixties Posters Fillmore Poster BG-51 Grateful Dead

Also looking into work by "Mouse"
Use to do TShirts with "Hot Rod" themes
Looks like he did stuff for Gratefull Dead later
Mouse Studios - Store

Related: local (Glen Arbor) Artist did work for the Dead
Welcome to Kristin Hurlin Illustrations

Yahoo forces RIAA staff cutbacks…

Yahoo forces RIAA staff cutbacks… - Blog Maverick - www.blogmaverick.com _

Mark Cuban on Yahoo's $5/month music subscription service and death to RIAA lawsuits.

Good !

Newsweek Blunder

Newsweek Says It Is Retracting Koran Report - New York Times

And the Beat Goes On (to quote Cher)

From Blair (Witch - NYTimes) to RatherGate and now WashPost (NewsWeek)

"After a drumbeat of criticism from the Bush administration and others, Newsweek magazine yesterday went beyond an apology it issued Sunday and retracted an article published May 1 that stated that American interrogators at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, had tried to rattle Muslim detainees by flushing a Koran down a toilet."

Soooo - it's the administration, not NewsWeek that is at fault.

" The original article was blamed for inciting widespread protests and riots in the Muslim world, where desecration of the Koran is viewed as an incendiary act, and where at least 17 people were killed in the ensuing violence.

"Based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantnamo Bay," the statement from Newsweek said.

The carefully worded retraction came after the White House said the Newsweek article had damaged the image of the United States abroad. It reflected the severity of consequences that even one sentence in a brief news article can have at a time of intense anti-American sentiment overseas and political polarization, as well as extreme distrust of the mainstream media at home."

In other words, if everybody overseas loved us, journalistic integrity would not matter as much.

How about just calling it a stupid move on the part of Newsweek?

From StratFor:
Why would a devout Muslim prisoner, having seen the Koran flushed down a toilet, turn and say, 'Well, that convinces me. I'll talk'? If anything, desecrating the Koran would stiffen the resolve of believers. There are two ways to induce a prisoner to talk: One is coercion -- applying physical or psychological pressure that weakens him; the other is befriending him -- showing him that you are his friend and ally. Desecrating the Koran is not going to weaken anyone's resolve to resist, nor will it make you his friend.

---
Wrapup from NYTimes :
" Analysts said Newsweek was also damaged by the timing of this event, coming after a spate of high-profile journalistic scandals involving fabrications and plagiarism by reporters at other news organizations, including The New York Times.

"I think that this has the potential to be one of those so-called tipping points," said David Gergen, director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and a senior aide to four presidents. Mr. Gergen also works for U.S. News & World Report, a competitor to Newsweek.

"There is a lot of anger, both here and abroad," Mr. Gergen added. "The Muslim world is going to continue to believe that this actually happened and that Newsweek is only issuing a retraction because of the reaction."

He said the magazine was smart to issue the retraction, but that it would not quell the outrage. "If anything, it is mushrooming and becoming uglier by the hour," he said."

At first it looks like a Victory, but may be a can of worms

Supreme Court Strikes Down Bans on Wine Shipments - New York Times:

"In a 5-to-4 decision that struck down laws in New York and Michigan, and by extension calls into question the laws in 22 other states, the court held that laws that discriminate against out-of-state vineyards violate the Constitution's Commerce Clause, which empowers Congress to regulate interstate commerce.

'Laws such as those at issue contradict the principles underlying this rule by depriving citizens of their right to have access to other states' markets on equal terms,' the majority held, in an opinion by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.

Today's ruling does not leave state lawmakers powerless to regulate direct shipments of alcohol, but if they do so they must not favor their own states over other states. Indeed, Nida Samona, the chairwoman of the Michigan Liquor Control Commission, told The Associated Press that her commission would urge lawmakers to bar direct shipments for both local and out-of-state wineries."

Hopefully it helps smaller, quality producers like Larry Mawby
Mawby Vineyards

Apple Matters : interview with Seth (Godin)

Apple Matters

Interesting little interview

Creating Passionate Users: Think... or be afraid

Creating Passionate Users: Think... or be afraid:

Discussion of how the brain works on short notice.
"You can't be afraid and rational at the same time. Pick one."

and

"You're about to step into the street when out of the corner of your eye a car appears. There is a gap between when your brain perceives the car and when you are consciously aware of the car and can think about it. That gap could mean the difference between you being flattened by the car and... not. There are simply too many situations where you just don't have time to wait for your cortex to kick in, so your brain has another mechanism for acting without the overhead of involving your cortex first. And even if your cortex did get the news, taking the time to think could get you killed... by the time you come up with a plan, it's too late to execute.

And thousands of years ago, the humans who did NOT stop to think were the ones who stayed alive long enough to... breed. Their "wait, I have to weigh the tradeoffs here" counterparts were clubbed to death, eaten by tigers, and flattened by falling boulders. Darwin won, and here we are stuck with legacy brains.

So how does it pattern to the "Evening News"?
Put on the strong fliter - "if it bleeds it leads"

"It works on people, too, but there's something else to consider... the dark side of the equation. Imagine that you did want someone to be afraid, because you specifically do not want them thinking rationally and logically. What if your goal is to convince them to do something that's not in their best interest? One approach is to make sure that they stay as fearful and anxious as possible, to make it more difficult for them to focus and think rationally. It's a trick that's been used by governments, managers, manipulate family members, and advertisers for ages.

We all need to recognize when someone's doing that to us. And I would start with the television 'if it bleeds it leads' news. Unlike television shows, movies, and video games--which your brain knows aren't real--a brain perceives the news as 'real' and often concludes that things are far more dangerous than they really are, thanks to the dramatic statistic imbalance (reality distortion field) between what is displayed on the news and what is actually happening outside your front door. It's not like you'll ever hear, for example, a nightly new run down of all the people in your city who were NOT in fact killed in a drive-by shooting that day. The 'good news' is usually a 20-second spot at the end about a rescued kitten."

Rock & Roll is Here to Stay

Rolling Stones

Stones tour yet again
Mick and Keith are 61, still rocking

Then Jimmy Page (Lead Zeppelin) opens the NY Stock Exchange today (May 11th)

"MAY. 11 10:18 A.M. ET Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, jamming in the midst of the suit-and-tie executives of Warner Music Group Corp., helped ring the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday as the music publisher celebrated its initial public stock offering." BWeek

NYTimes on Ethics... ? Continuation

Times Panel Proposes Steps to Build Credibility - New York Times:

Interesting piece, following Sunday's Editorial questioning the Ethics of Bloggers, and review of Gawkster as a questionable business model (publishing and advertising) :


"The committee, which was charged last fall by Bill Keller, the executive editor, with examining how the paper could increase readers' trust, said there was 'an immense amount that we can do to improve our journalism.'

As examples, the report cited limiting anonymous sources, reducing factual errors and making a clearer distinction between news and opinion. It also said The Times should make the paper's operations and decisions more transparent to readers through methods like making transcripts of interviews available on its Web site.

The report also said The Times should make it easier for readers to send e-mail to reporters and editors. 'The Times makes it harder than any other major American newspaper for readers to reach a responsible human being,' the report said.

The report comes as the public's confidence in the media continues to wane. A recent study from the Pew Research Center found that 45 percent of Americans believe little or nothing of what they read in their daily newspapers, a level of distrust that may have been inflated because the questions were asked during the contentious presidential campaign when the media itself was often at issue. When specific newspapers were mentioned, The Times fared about average, with 21 percent of readers believing all or most of what they read in The Times and 14 percent believing almost nothing."

NYTimes on Ethics... ?

The Latest Rumbling in the Blogosphere: Questions About Ethics - New York Times
Running Scared ?

Jeff Jarvis takes it apart pretty well at Buzz Machine
Navel Boring

Then there is the review of Gawker
A Blog Revolution? Get a Grip

I too would question the publication model, trying to mimic the print world and gather advertising

And having "editors" post 12 times a day ... gimme a break!

Timing strikes me as interesting
Ongoing shriking of the publishing model ...

I'm reminded of the Wicked Witch in Wizard of Oz, when dowsed with water ..."I'm melting, I'm melting..."

Migration

eNature.com - Nature and Wildlife Field Guides

Annual visit to the cove by a couple of Terns
Winter in Fla, summer further north than here.

Drunk Raccoons

Oh, Brother: 'Car Talk' Guy Puts Mouth in Gear

Thanks Pete
Brief review of the Magliozzis brothers (Click & Clack)
"...radio shtick is indistinguishable from their real-life conversations, say people who know them. "People say, 'You sound just like those shmucks on the radio,' " Ray says. In other words, they sound like drunk raccoons with Boston accents who cackle perpetually and occasionally dispense car-related wisdom."

And another set of "Drunk Raccoons"
The link is for those truely obsessed with The Friendly Sons of the Raccoons!
Hint : The Honeymooners

Operating Systems and Recent History

Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.: Operating Systems and Recent History:

Good piece by Dan on history of Windoze, Mac OS & Linux and the value of competition to force ongoing improvement in products offered.

Great comment :
"This is just a repeat of the predatory pre-announcement strategy MS has been using for over 15 years: 'We swear we've learned how to Do It Right, so pleasepleaseple-e-ese put your plans to switch on hold, and just hang on until the next version. We promise it won't suck like the current one'.

And, indeed, it doesn't: instead, it sucks in new and amazing ways that require users to learn/invent entirely new strategies to protect themselves from the effects of Microsoft's screw-ups.

If this continues, some crazed administrator, driven mad by years of endless patching that never quite makes his users' PCs safe to let loose on the net, will shoot Gates at one of his keynote speaker apperances, and make history as the first successful non-spousal use of the 'Battered Wife Syndrome' defense..."

On MuSoft and attitude

Julie Leung: Seedlings & Sprouts: Thanks to Doc Searls, I burned the soup..but it was worth it

Maybe good insight to Bill G's attitude (note: found Julie's site via Doc)

"Doc's piece impacted me enough that I am willing to reveal something I've been reluctant to write on this blog in the past. He begins with a critique of Microsoft's belief in the bell curve.

What's wrong here isn't simply the focus on Microsoft in a country where open source is a huge phenomenon. It's that both Tom and Microsoft continue to believe IQ tests are important ways to measure citizens in a flat world. Because if there's one thing the world is flattening fast, it's the old caste system we call The Bell Curve.

Although I've never worked at Microsoft, I may be able to understand part of the company's culture and values. Why? I attended the same high school founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen did. Lakeside was the only school where Bill G received a diploma, dropping out of Harvard after a year. It's been called the Ivy League high school of the west coast, or something similiar, and the brick-and-ivy campus in north Seattle as well as the tuition of close to $30k a year, only encourage the comparison. To survive the competitive admission process, kids must score well on exams and demonstrate talents.

a reputation and an identity

School shapes us. The reason I haven't mentioned Lakeside by name on this blog is because it has a reputation. My mom sent me there after years of frustration with public education, thinking it would be best for me. I wasn't a typical student: I commuted miles across towns each morning on metro buses and received loads of financial aid. Although I'm biased as an alum, I'd guess that Lakeside School has two prominent associations in people's minds: if you went to Lakeside, you must be wealthy and smart, in an elite way.

So Microsoft's use of IQ tests or emphasis on the word "smart" doesn't surprise me. Lakeside kids, which Gates and Allen still are somewhere inside, as we all are still children - can start attending the school in fifth grade, at age 10, and grow up in a culture where intelligence becomes identity. Why are we all at this school? Because we're smart. It's an identity that requires significant investment, both financial and otherwise, so it reinforces itself out of necessity.

I am thankful

Lakeside did provide me with a challenging academic education. Teachers at the school played important support roles in my life when I needed other adults to care for me. For those two factors I am grateful. The private school helped me survive adolescence, mentally and emotionally. I also became active as a runner on sports teams, developing physical abilities I wouldn't have discovered if had I stayed in a larger school.

But Lakeside is also a culture - or at least it was a culture - that emphasized the belief in the elite, rather than belief in everyone. With words the school may say otherwise, but de facto, by definition, it values intelligence that can be measured on tests, prizing and thereby preserving belief in the tip of the bell curve."

Newspaper Circulation dives

BuzzMachine... by Jeff Jarvis

Jeff comments on the spiral down:
"If they depend just on the old, big, one-size-fits-all product then, yes, that's bad news. And if, in the case of one of at least one of the companies listed in the story, a big drop comes from cleaning up circ fraud, well, that's very bad news.

But if print media spread out across new media -- online, mobile, multimedia -- and new, niche products -- ethnic, entertainment, handout -- then that's good news: the mass market becomes the mass of niches; the audience is served where and when it wants to be served. And if that happens, circulation in the big, one-size-fits-all print products will decline and it will not be bad news. Lot of if's there. "

Print Insists It's Here to Stay

The New York Times > Business > Media & Advertising > Print Insists It's Here to Stay

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Does this mean that Print really is nervous about the Internet?

Newspapers should be, first eBay cuts into the most lucrative business, classifieds, now Bloggers eat at editorial content. With shrinking readership (Tribune admits that LA Times lowest since the '60's) they should be worried.

Magazines - still a handy form factor.
While I can, and occasionally do, take my laptop to the "library" (john), it's more usual to browse the small stack of magazines there for a quick read.
The argument of "stickiness" appears to be valid for magazines.
"The magazine industry is extremely healthy," said Jay Kirsch, vice president of AdMedia Partners, financial advisers to magazines. "The newsweeklies are in tough shape, but the monthlies and lifestyle and enthusiast magazines are doing fabulously."

For "newsweeklies" I tend to zero in on columnists - could be reading thier blogs instead.
Much of the rest is old news by the time it hits the mailbox/newstand

"...research showed that when people are reading magazines, they are unlikely to be using any other form of media. But when they watch television, listen to the radio or wait to download something from the Internet, they are more likely to be listening, watching or reading something else at the same time."

For advertisers, this might work. Esp. for the "brand awareness" type.

More:The Economist on the Future of Journalism

Morels

The following shot was from last May (very early May)

Goes to show that you don't have to look deep in the woods...

Trillium

Spring is in the air
In a few days the trees will leaf out, but for now the sun gets to the forest floor

Trillium unfolding
Forest floor covered with the lush green of wild leeks


Morels soon

Before long there will be the canopy of green, the forest floor will be shaded
For now, we can still see the "bones of the land" all the nooks and crannies, the hillocks and swales.
Soon all will be softened with a blanket of leafs.

Mongolian Scale Wind Chimes

Music of the Spheres

The Wind Chimes are up, breeze is a bit on the cool side, but OK
Click on Mongolian Bass for sample

"The Mongolian scale, a livelier version of the Chinese, is reminiscent of church and temple bells. The major pentatonic scale in root position in the key of A, ... Genghis Khan conquered an empire unmatched in size, yet never heard chimes as lovely as these."

Followup to End of the (advertising) World

Looney Dunes: The Doc Searls : Adage

With MSM (Main Stream Media) in disarray, Hugh has a great cartoon

Fifty Thousand

Mars-ology

Hard-Working Mars Rovers: On the Scent Of Science:

“So we will have time to carefully examine this new site the way you would if you stumbled upon it in the field here on Earth,” Crumpler said. “In fact, it is just this sort of low, small outcrop with visible evidence of tilting that one usually gets excited about -- and learns a lot about the geology from – right here on Earth. This is real field geology on another planet.”

Thanks to the work of Spirit and Opportunity, there’s an important take home message – this time for those blueprinting future expeditions of humans to the red planet.



“There’s a clear message,” Arvidson said. “What we’re doing is reconnaissance…understanding the geological evolution and the role of water…helping to hone in on the sites where you want to do detailed work,” he said.

“It’s another new mission,” said Ray Arvidson, Chair of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and the deputy principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers.

At some point in the future, there will be humans on the surface of Mars, Arvidson said.

What’s apparent to Arvidson is that the optimal way to do exploration is with humans and robots acting together. “You can have a dozen of these rovers moving off in various directions. Astronauts can be directing the robots, with humans then field-checking key areas. I look at it as an integrated system,” he concluded.

Economist.com | The future of journalism

Internal Blogrolling
I posted stuff here:
BlogBlog: Economist.com | The future of journalism

and before, here:

BlogBlog: Dan Gilmore on same subject

But Doc had a great comment:

More Rain On A Flatter World Turns The Mainstream Into A Braided River
Killer connect, blogtools and Tom Friedman's Flat World

Braided river:
Braid river description and images

Which caused flashback:
Kicking Horse River : late 60's was hiking in the Canadian Rockies and pitched my tent high up a valley just below the Kicking Horse Pass.
Well above the treeline, pretty exposed, Baniff National Park, the Alberta side of the Continental divide.
Of course, a big old storm came up in the night, flattened my tent, in general taught me a lesson.

I suppose that to bring the analogy full circle, if you are going to camp out in the wilderness, keep an eye on the weather... or some such.

gapingvoid on LesBlogs

gapingvoid: "There a was session there where journalists were asking a lot of questions. I came away thinking, 'Dinosaurs don't like meteors'. There is no point trying to sell a dinosaur a meteor. He/She ain't buying, so stop trying to sell him/her the meteor story etc."

ROFLOL

Something to Think About

The New York Times > Science > Improved Scanning Technique Uses Brain as Portal to Thought

"The scanning technique, known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, is a more powerful version of a technique widely used in hospitals. It can show which regions of the brain are actively performing some task, but until now has lacked the resolution to track specific groups of neurons, as the functional units of the brain are called.

The improvement lies not in the scanners themselves but in a new analytic technique developed by Dr. Frank Tong, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University. In today's issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, he and a colleague, Dr. Yukiyasu Kamitani, report that they were able with the scanner to distinguish the orientation of a test pattern of lines being observed by their subjects.

The scanner was able to furnish the necessary data because it was looking into a region of the brain known as the primary visual cortex, where information from the eye is processed. One of the first relay stations from the retina, an area of the visual cortex called V1, holds columns of neurons that burst into activity when lines or edges are perceived, with each column responding to a specific angle of orientation.

Comment: does this pattern to work being done by Jeff Hawkins?
He spoke at PCForum this year on brain structure

On Intelligence

Goal of building "intelligent" machines

Redwood Neuroscience Inst

CeleBlog?

The New York Times > Technology > A Boldface Name Invites Others to Blog With Her

Could be interesting, could be a flop
Will these folks be able to come out from behind the PR curtain?
Will they be able to engage in conversations or just make pronouncements?
Will they be willing to expose themselves to criticisms?
Will they be well-rounded individuals or "sock puppets"?

"Arianna Huffington, the columnist and onetime candidate for governor of California, is about to move blogging from the realm of the anonymous individual to the realm of the celebrity collective.

She has lined up more than 250 of what she calls "the most creative minds" in the country to write a group blog that will range over topics from politics and entertainment to sports and religion. It is essentially a nonstop virtual talk show that will be part of a Web site that will also serve up breaking news around the clock. It is to be introduced May 9.

Having prominent people join the blogosphere, Ms. Huffington said in an interview, "is an affirmation of its success and will only enrich and strengthen its impact on the national conversation." Among those signed up to contribute are Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman."

Will it work, only time will tell ...

And BTW :
Thank's Doc
Doc Searls

Watching TV Makes You Smarter !

The New York Times > Magazine > Watching TV Makes You Smarter

No more "Boob Tube"?
I wasn't too sure how to take till until I read through the whole thing
Then read the tag line
Steven Johnson was the lunchon speaker at PCForum '04

Bottom line, Prime Time has more complex story lines, and "Sub Prime" such as "Reality" TV is more like complex games where you have to learn the rules while you play.

Multiple Theading - example's from Hill St. Blues with mulitple story lines, through The Sopranos
Flashing Arrows - cues to the layperson as to what's important (the person asking questions of the scientist in the lab)
Social networks - how games like "Survivor" or "The Apprentice" are played

Better reviews than mine at:
blogrunner

Enough Already

Weather.
Well, there's the old saying about Michigan weather "If you don't like it right now, just wait, it'll change"

We were in shorts and sweatin a week ago...


So far, just a "dusting"

Local TV covers it best :
SUMMARY:
A potential late season winter storm will bear down on northern Michigan this weekend. As low-pressure tracks across Illinois and Indiana Friday, clouds ahead of this system will thicken up through the day Friday with the area becoming overcast by late Friday evening. Low-pressure will then move into Ohio pulling colder air south wrapping it into the strengthening storm system. So, as the storm system increases in intensity, rain will develop and switch over to snow Friday night and become all snow by Saturday. Hard to believe after some area hit the 80’s earlier this week. Any snow accumulations late Friday night/Saturday should stay manageable with the least amounts west of Interstate-75 in the Eastern U.P. and west of U.S.-131 in the Lower Peninsula where by Saturday evening, 1-3” of snow is possible. East of these locations, closer to the low-pressure, higher snow totals are likely with 4-7” of snow possible by Saturday night. The winds will howl as well with gusts to near 40 mph possible Saturday into Sunday. The best chance for heavy snow will come Sunday as this storm system stalls out to our east and cold northerly winds drag in snow on the backside of this storm. It will be brisk with blowing/drifting snow; especially east of Interstate-75 in places such as DeTour Village, Rogers City and Alpena where there is the potential for 5-10” of snow. Locations west of the interstate will see significantly less snow in places such as Newberry, Petoskey and Traverse City where another couple inches is possible. The snow will slowly wind down by Monday morning with some rain mixing back in with the snow.

It's Moore's Law, but Another Had the Idea First

The New York Times > Technology > It's Moore's Law, but Another Had the Idea First

Well, Moore's law seems to roll off the toung a bit easier than Engelbart's Law.

Both are major thinkers in the development of micro-circuitry
---
Significantly, the two pioneers represent twin Silicon Valley cultures that have combined to create the digital economy.

Mr. Moore, who co-founded Intel, is an icon of the precise and perhaps narrower chip engineering discipline that today continues to progress by layering sheets of individual molecules, one on top of the other, and by making wires that are finer in diameter than a wavelength of light.

"Gordon was the classic engineer," said Craig Barrett, Intel's chief executive, who had just begun to teach engineering at Stanford University when Mr. Moore made his famous prediction. The chart that accompanied his article was a plot that showed just five data points over seven years and extrapolated out into the future as far as 1975, when a single chip would be able to hold as many as 65,000 transistors. Forty years later, memory chip capacity has gone far beyond one billion of the tiny switches.

Mr. Engelbart, in contrast, was the architect of a passionately held view that computing could extend or "augment" the power of the human mind. His ideas were set out most clearly in 1968, in a famous demonstration in San Francisco of his Pentagon-financed Augment computing system. Many things were shown to the world for the first time, including the mouse, videoconferencing, interactive text editing, hypertext and networking - basically the outlines of modern Internet-style computing.

Mr. Engelbart had an epiphany in 1950, in which he imagined what would decades later become today's Internet-connected PC. He set about building it. At the time he had no idea of how he would build such a machine, but it soon became clear that it would require a computer that did not yet exist.

All Right! about 10lbs to go

The New York Times > Health > Some Extra Heft May Be Helpful, New Study Says

Will continue to work on weight loss (down some 25-30lbs so far) but looks like my goal is reasonable.

---
People who are overweight but not obese have a lower risk of death than those of normal weight, federal researchers are reporting today.

The researchers - statisticians and epidemiologists from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - also found that increased risk of death from obesity was seen for the most part in the extremely obese, a group constituting only 8 percent of Americans.

And being very thin, even though the thinness was longstanding and unlikely to stem from disease, caused a slight increase in the risk of death, the researchers said.

---
The study has caused some controversy, but:

The study did not explain why overweight appeared best as far as mortality was concerned. But Dr. Williamson said the reason might be that most people die when they are over 70. Having a bit of extra fat in old age appears to be protective, he said, giving rise to more muscle and more bone.

Prius resale prices

There was a piece on CNN this AM about sky high resale prices on Prius's
As much as $10K over purchase.

I thought it was totally crazy.
No way it makes any economic sense, it would take forever to recover the price in gas savings.

Then it hit me.
Managed market, marketing hype.
Are dealers buying 1st generation Prius's then reselling with big mark-up?
Hyping the market, feeding news stories to the press?

Recalls the old Harley Davidson plan of controling production, creating image of scarcity, getting PR out of how hard it was to get one.

Wonder if the same thing is happening here?

Followup to "Flight School" Bezos to Space

Blue Origin Spaceport Plans are Talk of Texas Town

Flight School

Posted in it's entirety as it may disappear:

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Blue Origin Spaceport Plans are Talk of Texas Town
By Michael Graczyk
Associated Press Writer
posted: 15 March 2005
6:30 p.m. ET

VAN HORN, Texas (AP) -- Even skeptical locals, who've become wary over the years of city slickers with big ideas for their town, perked up when Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos made his pitch -- a spaceport for commercial travel into the beyond.

Bezos flew into this West Texas town a few weeks ago to tell key leaders how he planned to use his newly acquired 165,000 acres of desolate ranch land. He also gave his only interview so far on the spaceport to the Van Horn Advocate, the weekly newspaper Larry Simpson runs from the back of his Radio Shack store.

“He walked in and said: 'Hi, I'm Jeff Bezos,' and sat down right in that chair there,'' Simpson said, pointing to spot in his small cluttered office.

Over the next 30 to 40 minutes, Simpson said Bezos told him the goal of his venture - known as Blue Origin - was to send a spaceship into orbit that launches and lands vertically, like a rocket.

“He told me their first spacecraft is going to carry three people up to the edge of space and back,'' Simpson said. “But ultimately, his thing is space colonization.”

Bezos, 41, was accompanied by Rob Meyerson, Blue Origin's program manager, whose history includes stints as a manager on the space shuttle emergency return vehicle project and lead aerodynamics engineer developing the shuttle's parachute landing system.

Bezos said Blue Origin would first build basic structures at the Texas site, such as an engine test stand, fuel and water tanks and an office building, then begin flight tests in six to seven years, Simpson said.

He said most of its initial research and development would be done in Seattle, where Bezos and his companies are based.

Bezos has said nothing else publicly about his project, and did not grant an interview request made by The Associated Press.

A Houston-based spokesman for Blue Origin, which was incorporated in September 2000 in Washington state, said there was “not much to see or tell” and that the project “won't go anywhere any time soon.'”

The spokesman, Bruce Hicks, provided a short news release and a company fact sheet, which included Blue Origin's mission statement - to “facilitate an enduring human presence in space.”

Bezos isn't the only tech industry billionaire with stars in his eyes and ties to Texas, where Bezos attended elementary school for three years in Houston while his stepfather was an engineer at Exxon.

SpaceX, started by PayPal founder Elon Musk, plans to launch and deploy a military satellite this year using a rocket. The California-based company has conducted much of its testing in McGregor, Texas, near the Fort Hood military base.

John Carmack, who made a fortune on “Doom” and “Quake” through his video game company ID Software, owns Armadillo Aerospace based in suburban Dallas. The venture also hopes to launch its own brand of space rockets.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen spent $20 million to fund the SpaceShipOne rocket plane that last fall successfully reached the edge of space and returned. It was dropped from beneath a flying craft and landed like a plane. (The NASA space shuttle, which takes off vertically, also lands like a plane.)

Winning the space race takes talented people, and Blue Origin's Web site lists several job ads for engineers -
”highly qualified and dedicated individuals ... among the most technically gifted in his or her field.”

That's a tall order for the 3,000 or so residents of Van Horn, many of whom believe the biggest thing to happen in recent years was construction of a new truck stop on Interstate 10.

About 120 miles east of El Paso, Van Horn primarily is a rest stop for travelers along I-10, the nation's southernmost cross-country highway. About 50 miles to the north is Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which contains many of the highest mountains in Texas, including the signature 8,085-foot El Capitan. It can be seen from a distance on Bezos' property amid desert and cattle-grazing terrain and salt lake beds.

Broadway, Van Horn's main street which parallels the freeway, is dotted with long-abandoned businesses, many of them flat-roofed adobe-style buildings, and two vehicles waiting at the street's lone stop light constitute a traffic jam.

Bill Talley, whose Van Horn Pharmacy is the only place to get a prescription filled within a 90-mile radius, said he was surprised by Bezos' project but was withholding judgment until he knew more. His wife, Mary, was more blunt.

“We're used to it,” she said of “exploiters” who have raised residents' hopes and then fled.

More than a decade ago, some businessmen touted a mica mining venture that created a buzz but went nowhere. Fields along I-10 heading east toward Midland and Odessa are littered with rusting oil field equipment, monuments to the oil industry crash of the 1980s.

“We've had gentlemen come in here to change the world,'' said John Conoly, 76, the Culberson County judge for the past 30 years. “And nothing ever came of it.'”

But Bezos is different, Conoly said.

“After meeting and visiting with him, I have every confidence in the world he will do what he says he will do,'' the judge said. “I know he's going to have some of the best minds for this project. He doesn't do things halfway or second class.''

Bezos also told the Van Horn group that he wanted to give his family the opportunity to enjoy life on a ranch just as he did as a child. The Internet retailer chief executive spent summers at his grandfather's spread in Cotulla in South Texas.

While Bezos' spaceship plans were a surprise, his presence in Van Horn wasn't. His private jet had been seen a number of times in the past year at the local airstrip as he scouted the area and purchased three ranches.

On Bezos' new property, the only noticeable change, residents say, are the new “No Trespassing'' signs posted every mile or so on the rusty barbed wire cattle fences bordering Texas Highway 54.

Conoly said people aren't real excited yet, but that could change once construction begins.

For Spanish-speaking residents like Manuel Baeaza, 47, who works at a marble mine in the mountains that adjoin Bezos' property, the project known as “El Estacion” or “the station,'' brings promise.

“More jobs, it would be a blessing,'' said Baeaza, who's lived in the area for 14 years.

Ricky Hutson, who works at used bookstore and resale shop where he also lives, was a bit more philosophical.

“With (Bezos) coming out here, this is going to force this town to change for the better,'' he said. “If you've lived a hard life, this is a place you can live in peace. But if you're used to the high-tech lifestyle, you might not want to come here.

“Maybe we'll actually get some business. As you can tell, this town is pretty behind the times.”

Iridium Flare

Iridium Flare Details

Another Flare
This time Shirley had joined me in the tub
A few min later, just after commenting that we'd keep an eye out for satellite's ... bingo! there it was

Moments later she spotted :
Lacrosse 4 Rocket

BusinessWeek Hybrid Hype: Plug & Play

Giving Hybrids A Real Jolt

Business Week (4/11/04 issue) jumps on the plug & play Prius bandwagon

How wonderful it is to save gas
But the math is missing: "...not clear how much more people will pay for the cars. Hybrids are estimated to cost $2,000 to $5,000 more than conventional cars to make, and the larger batteries for plug-ins would add several thousands dollars more."

simpleton math (mine):
6K cost above non hybrid ... just to pull numbers together
Gas at $2.50
Need 2.4K gallons to breakeven
Avg stock Prius milage - assume 42.5MPG
Tells me in only 102K miles I'm at breakeven

Shift to $3gas and it's 85K miles

Now this analysis does not include the electricity costs
It ain't free.

What happens to electric costs as fuel costs rise, assuming that as oil prices rise, utilities will be able to pass along "cost increases" (whether they use oil or not).

Did anybody ask about battery replacement/recycling costs?

More analysis needs to be done.

Blue Skys

Hard to work indoors on a day like this
Not a cloud in the sky
Not a soul around

Mid Day
Mid April

Some years we still have snow right now

BTW - cablemodem, wifi and "outdoor office" for now...

The Doc Searls : Adage

The Doc Searls Weblog : Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Quote :
Senior moment
I've got an AdAge newsletter here with the title, IS THE AD INDUSTRY HEADED FOR CHAOS? It reads,
BACKGROUND: In an epic 5,500-word front-page article in the April 4 print edition of Advertising Age, columnist Bob Garfield laid out a sweeping vision of an advertising industry caroming toward chaos and disruption wrought by the digital media revolution. Boiled down, his theory goes something like this: The marketing industry is currently whistling past the graveyard and largely ignoring signs of massive, fundamental changes in how the business of mass marketing will be conducted in the near future. The broadcast TV model is working less well each year and will eventually cave in on itself as it reaches ever-fewer viewers with a fare of low-quality programming and mind-numbing clutter. Marketers will increasingly abandon it. But despite their glitzy promise, the aggregate of new digital technologies -- from Web sites and e-mail to cell phone content and video on demand -- lack the infrastructure or scale to support the minimum amount of mainstream marketing required to smoothly sustain the U.S. economy. The result, as the old systems are abandoned and the insufficient new systems struggle to carry an impossible advertising load, is what Garfield calls "The Chaos Scenario" -- a period of serious disruption moving like a tsunami through the marketing business as well as the economy and the broader society itself.
No link, though. And searches on the site for chaos, chaos theory and Bob Garfield all yield no useful results.
Still, who knew mainstream marketing was required to "smoothly sustain the U.S. economy"?

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Oh my my, without a "smoothly functioning" advertising industry to feed the message to the masses, we'll head back to the dark ages.

What a crock!

TiVo is a threat to the economy, depression ahead !
We need to get consumer butts back on the couch and mindlessly watch what is fed to them.

Eyes on the Road: maximum Bob on Hybrids

WSJ.com - Eyes on the Road

Brief backgrounder then brief interview with Bob Lutz, now in charge of GM's development and engineering worldwide.

Bob "Get's it" ... Impressions Count !
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At a recent conference in New York City hosted by Morgan Stanley auto analyst Stephen Girsky, GM's vice chairman for product development, Bob Lutz, offered some candid comments on industry trends and vehicle technology. Mr. Girsky set up a quiz-show format in which he tossed out the name of a feature and Mr. Lutz weighed in on whether consumers considered it important or not. Mr. Lutz's presentation was accessible by a conference call.

Mr. Lutz's responses indicate that GM has done an intellectual 180 on the issue of hybrid gas-electric vehicles. Not long ago, GM executives expressed little enthusiasm for hybrid vehicles, and pooh-poohed the Toyota Prius as a money loser that made little contribution to saving fuel and distracted the industry from efforts to build cars powered by hydrogen fuel cells.

Mr. Lutz, who last week took control of GM's vehicle development and engineering strategy world-wide, now acknowledges that "Toyota scored a major coup with hybrids even though they didn't have a business case." Having hybrid vehicles, he said, is now a symbol of whether a car maker is technologically capable and environmentally aware. GM recently announced efforts to mass-produce hybrid gas-electric SUVs by 2007. As for commercially viable fuel-cell cars? Maybe by 2010, Mr. Lutz says.

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Note ! Prius as Marketing Masterstroke, not necessarily as engineering marvel.

---
The interview excerpt:

Here's part of Mr. Lutz's exchange with Mr. Girsky, based on a recording of the conference call:

Mr. Girsky: Horsepower?

Mr. Lutz: Important.

Q: ABS [anti-lock brakes]?

A: (Pause) Was unimportant. Now it becomes important as we standardize vehicle stability systems, because you can't have [vehicle-stability systems] without ABS.

Q: Stability control?

A: Very important.

Q: Airbags?

A: Very important.

Q: The more the merrier?

A: I think there's a logical conclusion. I told our guys at some point we are going to design one huge inflatable thing that fills the whole [car] … so where if you hit a lamp post you find yourself pressed against the seat as if you were lying under the belly of a beached whale.

Q: Satellite radio?

A: Very important.

Q: Navigation [systems]?

A: Growing. [In] premium cars it's almost a necessity now. If you don't have it, the customer wants to know why.

Q: Heated steering wheels?

A: Not important. I think it's nice, but it's not a huge-selling feature. If you have heated seats, then it is.

Q: Auto dimming mirrors?

A: Normal expectation? No.

Q: All-wheel drive?

A: You can still live without it, but [it's] growing.

Q: Hybrid?

A: Growing. And whether the market becomes giant, or flattens out at 300,000 units a year -- which in the context of the American market is a pittance -- it has become symbolic of: "Is this company technologically capable? Is this company environmentally aware?" And it's a sort of go/no-go gauge. If you have hybrids you're OK, and if you don't you're not. I'd say Toyota scored a major coup with hybrids even though they didn't have a business case.

Q: They still may not have a business case.

A: Doesn't matter. Again, we have this artificial separation in our minds between what we spend on consumer influence in advertising and what we spend on the product. And sometimes the most effective form of consumer influence is to do things like the hybrid.

Q: Remote start?

A: Surprised me, but it's a big feature on the [Pontiac] G6 and [Chevrolet] Malibu.

Mix of Print and Blogs?

WSJ.com - News Sites Solicit Articles
Straight From Readers

Newspapers seek to find ways to stem the losses
"At the Greensboro News & Record's Web site, registered users can submit their own stories by clicking on a link. An editor gathers submissions, makes a few small edits, then publishes the articles online -- sometimes within hours. Among recent stories written by readers: a feature on an upcoming cotton-mill convention and a primer on Social-Security reform.

The Northwest Voice, from the publisher of the Bakersfield Californian newspaper, includes news articles and photographs submitted by readers.

In the past year, a handful of small newspapers have launched variations on that model. Newspaper publishers are eager to find new ways to connect to readers -- daily newspaper circulation dropped 11% between 1990 and 2003, according to Editor & Publisher magazine. Now, as do-it-yourself Web publishing tools are making it easier for laypeople to create blogs, newspapers are borrowing ideas from those informal Web journals in an effort to make their own coverage more accessible, and, they hope, attract more readers.

"If they didn't host these conversations, they would still occur outside the confines of the news organization," says Al Tompkins, an online-journalism professor at the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit training center for journalists in St. Petersburg, Fla. "It's much smarter for us to be somehow involved in this."

---
Maybe patterns to NYTimes buy of About.com
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Local newspapers have long accepted submissions from readers, but they typically come in the form of letters to the opinion page or society columns about goings-on about town. The sites are betting the new approach will help them uncover feature stories that residents find interesting, but that their staff reporters are unlikely to write about.

"A newspaper staff has no monopoly on knowledge," says blogger Dan Gillmor, a former San Jose Mercury News columnist who has been a vocal advocate for what he calls grassroots journalism. "In fact, every reporter should realize that, collectively, the readers know more than they do about what they write about."
---

And so the story evolves.

Migration from ink to displays, along with decentralization of information and opinion.

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Aside : It's Annual Paper Week

Would Marcel Marceau Blog ?

Marceau Foundation

From an exchange with Doc
To wit:
"Rollo May says writers differ from all other creative types in that
"they suffer the illusion that the world really needs what they have
to say."

Doc : "Without that principle, there would be no blogging. :-) "

Soooo it ocurred to me
Would the world's greatest Mime Blog

If so ... how would it "read"

Iridium Flare Details

Iridium Flare Details

Very cool tool
Thanks Doc

Wasn't looking for it, but happened to catch it from hot tub

Looked for it on J-Pass, but couldn't find it
Several other satallite passes, but not the Iridium

J-Pass

Good skys the last few days
Clear, no moon.

Doc with good quote on online influence

The Doc Searls Weblog : Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Quoting Terry Heaton:

"The New York Times gives material freely to the bloggers, and the bloggers reward them with influence. This is why the people who run The Times should think very carefully before charging fees or otherwise locking up their content. This is why logical (Modernist) attempts to force demand by restricting access are playing a dangerous game with their online futures. And this is why online media companies need to make their archives freely available as well. Free is the operative word here. Influence is the currency.
Free online access to content is also good business, because money follows influence, even online."

Right on

Canoeing in April

Trying to get the damn image to work



There - GOT IT!

OK, so what
Well, it's April 9th
About 3 weeks ago I was X Country skiing at about the same spot
(see below)

Some years we get snow in April, today, mid 60's

About a mile out, roughly noon today

Here's shot from Mid March (Ides of March) about the same place, view north, late afternoon:


Bit of a change ...

Like Who cares - but the hat ! gotta note it

The Charles and Camilla, Married, Without a Hitch

First shot in the times was "head on" with a "crown" that looked like the Goddess Ceres ... oh my

Sent to daughter, saying looked like Candy Bergen
She thought it was an insult to Candice ...


Photo

Hybrid-Car Tinkerers Scoff at No-Plug-In Rule

The New York Times > Business > Hybrid-Car Tinkerers Scoff at No-Plug-In Rule

Snake oil time

I have enough of a hard time keeping a battery "alive" through the winter in my scooters

So I really want to load up my car with a bunch of batteries ...
Then, when, not if, I crash (BTW been a long time since last one, but who knows) I really want that mess.

Sorry, but right now, tell me about the physics of hauling around a bunch of lead, and how that is efficient use of energy.

Granted, once you get rolling, you should continue rolling, but to stop and turn?

OK, lets get past the vechile dynamics, what is the Electric Company charging for the "plug in"
Where does the electricity come from?
Coal?
Gas?
Nukes?