Lapis Tablet

Traveling Call Goes against the Celts, ABC

2010-06-17T12:37:00.000-07:00

Watching Game 7 tonight?

Let me rephrase that: Flying from Logan tonight? Because, Celtics fans, the answer to both questions can’t be ‘yes.’

Among the top five carriers at Logan in passenger volume, just two offer streaming TV on domestic flights. Both of those carriers – the top two, Jetblue and Delta – have relationships with NBC and ESPN, but not with ABC.

There's Always Room for Jell-O and Beer

2009-06-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

Seth Godin takes a philosophical look at a packaged food slogan:

Think about your schedule... is there room for an emergency, an SEC investigation, a server crash? If you took a day off because of the flu, is your business going to go bankrupt? Probably not.
So, if there's time for an emergency (Jello), why isn't there time for brilliance, generosity or learning?

Reminds me of an anecdote that made the email rounds when I was in college. You've heard this one: a teacher fills a large jar with rocks and asks the class if it's full. Of course, they say yes. Then, he pours sand into the jar, filling the gaps between the rocks. Again, he asks the class whether it is full. He then opens two cans of beer and pours them into the jar. They soak in, filling the jar to the brim.

The moral? In between the important things, there's room for a lot of little things. And there's always time to meet a friend for a couple of beers.

Protesting too much

2009-06-27T10:23:00.000-07:00

I liked Jeff Jarvis' post comparing the new-media and old-media responses to Michael Jackson's death and the Iran election outcome. That distinction (new-old media) may not be meaningful for much longer, but as long as it is, thoughtful comparisons like this are welcome.

However, there was one paragraph that sounded a little shrill:

Since its birth, cable was the only way to stay constantly connected to a story as it happened, or allegedly so. But in the Jackson story, there really is no news. He’s still dead. All that follows is discussion and wouldn’t we really rather discuss it with our friends than Al Sharpton? Once the supernova of news explodes – taking down Twitter search and YouTube and jamming GoogleNews search – we probably to seek out TV, but it quickly says all it has to say and the rest is just repetition. If the Iraq War was the birth of CNN could Iran and Jackson mark the start of their decline in influence? Too soon to say.

I've worked for a handful of underdog publications, and one thing the underdog always has to do is - whether he's Pepsi or the Boston Herald - trumpet his own successes and call out every time the top dog stumbles. So if you say tut tut when Howie Carr mocks the Globe, what do you say when Jeff Jarvis, interactive journalism's spokesperson, mocks cable TV for something it hasn't even done yet?

-GM

Blogs are dead, and so is news

2009-05-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

In the early days of web 2.0, bloggers wore their distinction from stodgy news organizations as a badge of honor. The news organizations are proving the bloggers were right by keeling over. As they die, the blog/news distinction has lost its meaning. Today, after WaPo exec Katharine Weymouth yesterday said she wished Post ed's could write headlines like the Huffington Post, USAToday.com ran the flip headline, "Obama says nation needs more nerds."

News outlets are trying to be more like blogs, and good bloggers are building credibility by acting like news men and women.

But Google and other search engines persist with the distinction. Today, if you ran a Google Blogs search on Eric Hjerpe's move to Kepha Partners, you'd find a link to XConomy's story, but not the post I broke the news with in Mass High Tech early this morning. Conversely, a Google News search picks up our article, but leaves off the XConomy post.

So blog readers miss our article with news on Kepha's strategy, and quotes from Hjerpe and Kepha founder Jo Tango. News readers miss a link to an incisive column Hjerpe contributed on XConomy last summer.

Why shouldn't it be easy to get a quick look at both sources? When will Google discontinue their disservice to readers, and drop the meaningless blog/news distinction?

The Best Racket Ever

2009-04-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last week, for the first time in my life, I mailed off a mortgage check instead of the rent. It felt pretty good. At night, I can see the Citgo sign from my front porch. It's an orange smudge between the trees, but I can see it. Two years ago, Leigh and I probably couldn't have afforded to buy the Jamaica Plain condominium we now call home.

But there's something in this that's been bothering me ever since my wife and I applied for the home loan last month. For at least the next five years, we'll pay about $1,100 in interest alone. By the back of the envelope, if we sell the place in 2014, the bank will have made over 20 percent return on its investment in the property and our credit.

Well, that's not so bad, I thought. The alternative is to pay rent. But then I realized: it's the landlord's mortgage that makes the rent so high.

In short, the banks had going the best racket ever. Investing in real estate - a low-risk investment by normal measures - they made venture fund returns.

Now, I'm asking, Who got greedy on that? Who decided that goose wasn't laying enough golden eggs and wanted to go back up the beanstalk for more?

The joys of radio

2009-01-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

What kind of rube would browse a record store (chuckle), listen to the radio (what?), or trek through snow to a video store (sniff). The magic of the Intertubes can find all this stuff for me - and not only that - tell me new stuff I'm going to like, for free!

Last.fm and Pandora are awesome because as soon as you hear something you like, with a click you can find out what it is, see the cover art, read a bio of the artist, and file it away for later consumption. But in terms of discovering new music, the services aren't good for much better than exploring musical genres I know nothing about. I still think the best place to hear new music is always on the radio. Looks like a lot of people agree with me.

CBS Radio's network of radio station Web sites saw its total number of unique visitors increase 30% in December 2008, compared to the same month in 2007, according to Web analytics service OneStat.com, reaching an all-time high for CBS Radio. The online measurement company also noted that unique visitors grew 7% between November and December 2008. (via MediaMemo)

Patrick Bryant, the music director on MIT's college radio station WMBR (full disclosure: I used to have a show there) told me the iPhone app Shazam can correctly identify less than 15 percent of the music he plays on his program, Subject to Change.

I have a question for any Web 2.0 acolytes who have predicted the demise of radio and records. Did you really think a robot could pick good music?

If only the Globe were this good every day...

2009-01-08T15:23:00.000-08:00

I just want to give credit to the good people at the Globe for a great paper yesterday. I didn't get a chance to read the print edition, but I just spent about 10 minutes reading it before I put it in the recycling bin. The Metro page was great too, with stories on T ridership up, problems in the medical examiner's office, DiMasi's (then likely) reelection, and the third arson in as many years to hit a Jamaica Plain beauty shop. All this ranged around great photos of people jumping in frigid water nearly naked. (Admittedly, these last went with a relatively silly article that rehashed an earlier AP story.)

A Nation of Gameboy Addicts

2009-01-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

There was a time when every parent I knew had the same problem: how to manage their kid's gameboy addiction. As with candy, Saturday morning cartoons and comic books, some level of control was needed. But kids became so attached to the things that parents risked a Nintendo 64 Freakout if they attempted to withold the device.

I now hear people say their smartphone has changed their lives, and I'm beginning to realize how far ahead of the rest of us the 12-year-old Gameboy addicts really were. MG Siegler writes on VentureBeat about a hidden "bells and whistles" feature on the iPhone's Google application:

...while it may not look like there is anything below the “About” selection, swipe your finger upward to go below. See anything? You probably don’t yet — keep swiping.
It takes a little bit of effort, but eventually a “Bells and Whistles” menu appears below the “About” menu. Clicking on this takes you to a new screen with even more options for the app including the ability to change its color to anything you want, the option to have the app’s default sound replaced by monkey or chicken noises, an option to see live waveform show up as you talk....

It reminds me of games I played as a teenager - Mario, Zelda or Mortal Kombat, for example - and the word-of-mouth tips and tricks I'd pick up from friends - like pressing an elaborate series of buttons crack open hidden stuff.

Smartphones have hooked us on our office email and news feeds, now they will make a nation of shivering gameboy addicts out of us all. I can't wait.

Watching the BEPI (Black-Eyed Pea Index)

2008-12-31T13:20:00.000-08:00

Some people measure the economy's well-being counting cranes on the Manhattan skyline. Others by shower curtain sales. Today I found my own bellwether - sales of black-eyed peas on New Year's Eve.

Almost every year since I flew the nest in 1995, I've bought a bag of dried black-eyed peas on New Year's Eve, soaked them overnight, and made a pot of black-eyed peas and ham on New Year's Day. It's one of the things my mother drummed into me: you always say please and thank you; you never open an umbrella indoors; and you always, always, always have black-eyed peas and ham on New Year's Day.

Today, I went to two supermarkets. At both, shelves of dried beans were piled full - except where marked black-eyed peas, where they were bare. (At my second stop, I had to ask the manager, who got some from the back of the store for me.)

Every southerner knows you're chancing a poor and hungry year if you don't eat some black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. It seems like this year, even yankees are getting superstitious.

My history with Scandinavia and disaster

2008-12-17T15:09:00.001-08:00

A comment by Highland Capital's Paul Maeder at the MIT Venture Capital conference earlier this month got me thinking. He likened some investors to the Roadrunner, overshooting a ledge and realizing mid-canyon that a fall was in store. (I think that was Wile E. Coyote, but I won't nitpick.) The point is, the same thing has happened to me twice. Both times, Scandinavia was involved.

In spring of 2000, bored with my publishing job, I signed on as a copy writer for a Danish software maker. I was at IT FACTORY two months before I was laid off along with half the staff as the company began a long, slow crawl back to Copenhagen. Apparently, shenanigans ensued. Company president Stein Bagger disappeared in Dubai in November under a cloud of allegations that included massive fraud and hiring a Hell's-Angels beatdown of an associate.

After I got laid off, I continued to work as a freelancer for IT FACTORY. It took two planes crashing into the World Trade Center towers to make me realize the company hadn't paid any of my invoices since July. I sold their IBM Thinkpad, got a job as a courier and just barely made October rent.

Flash forward seven years. In spring, 2008, I was the transportation reporter for BostonNOW. Our fledgling free daily was backed by an Icelandic telecom. On April 11, I read that Iceland's economy was tanking. I was surprised three days later when, whilst viewing portraits in the National Gallery on a vacation to D.C., I got a text message informing me that our little paper was officially defunct.

At the time, I also had no inkling that Wall Street and the concept of wealth as we know it would burn like the California hills in October. I think for the rest of my life, anything that comes over the transom is going to get a careful nosing for the smell of disaster. Especially if the postmark looks Nordic.

It's the little things

2008-11-29T16:51:00.000-08:00

I went into Stop and Shop today to buy a jar of mayonnaise. One can buy mayo in many sizes, from convenience jar to family bucket. But at Stop and Shop in Jackson Square, brand-name mayonnaise does not appear in small sizes. "Light" is the only branded mayonnaise you can get smaller than 32 oz., and light mayo is a hypocrisy I will not brook.

Let me be clear: mayo is not a staple in our household. We use it sparingly, about once a week - like others might use hot sauce, or something. The thought of buying unbranded mayonnaise from God knows where is unsettling enough in these days of poisoned toothpaste. Thinking of leaving any brand of mayo sitting in the fridge for longer than two weeks? A 32-oz. jar would be in my fridge for a month or more, and that thought makes me shudder.

OK, you call it prissy. I call it protecting my family. Laugh all you want now, but I guess you won't be laughing when your tuna salad has you writhing on a shopping mall toilet seat. To end on a good note, I went to Roche Bros. in West Roxbury (the World's most unfortunately named supermarket) and got a 15-oz. jar of the gloppy white stuff for $2.99. And I was happy.

Phone companies I am putting you on notice

2008-11-16T12:18:00.000-08:00

Here's how I know my wireless phone service provider doesn't love me: I can't subscribe to a service that will automatically text me when I'm in danger of running over my allotted minutes or data. If I received such a message, the temptation would be too great to just bump up my plan and forget about it. I'd be their best customer.

Instead, they act like a credit card company, banking that in the whirl of torrid text exchanges and loquacious interview subjects, I'll forget last month's resolution to check my balance regularly. Then I picture them rubbing hands together gleefully as they rack up the exorbitant fees.

I just opened my bill. For the second month in a row, it's double the usual amount. Last month it was the minutes. This time it was the text messages.

I think a normal person would buy a bigger plan. Me? I thought a long minute about throwing my phone into Boston Harbor. As satisfying as that would be, I need the lousy thing. So I've decided not to use it unless I really need it. All the times I've left the land line idle, too lazy to dial the numbers, or afraid my friends won't pick up if they don't recognize the number - goodbye to all of that.

I used to think I was saving money on the cel, getting my long-distance service for free. I now know that, due to an invention called broadband Internet, the concept of "long distance" is a quaint joke. So, instead of rewarding AT&T for poking me in the eye, I shall attempt to cut my phone use to a trickle.

Just in case I fail, would some alert and trustworthy programmer please develop a Web app that can take my att.com password, crawl my online statement and ping me when I'm on track to run over? Thank you, and godspeed.

What does "out of context" mean?

2008-11-14T13:16:00.001-08:00

Ticket Stumbler's Dan Hauber commented on today's Mass High Tech article, which mentioned his company as one of several that's going places with little or no VC funding (so far). Dan's comments said I took his quote out of context. It's true I left out some of the other things he told me - like the company isn't ruling out venture capital in the future. But I don't think that distorted the meaning of Dan's own words, which were, to his credit, frank and straightforward:

Medford-based Ticket Stumbler Inc. isn’t looking for venture capital at all. It isn’t using the cloud, either, but traffic on TicketStumbler.com, the event ticket resale aggregator’s website, is growing 50 percent a month.

“We don’t even have a financial model,” said co-founder Dan Haubert. “Just going that whole route is very time-consuming when we could be building and talking to our users and improving the site.”

I think that meaning is pretty clear. The company isn't looking for VC funding. I shall decline to comment on the photo (or the size of anyone's hands).

Rush is right. (or: Fall Guys and Girls)

2008-11-07T20:37:00.000-08:00

Today I have to admit I have been wrong about Rush Limbaugh. Because today, I heard him say something I think is worth repeating. He said something I would repeat in mixed company - not to mention post here for everyone to see. Here is what he said:

There are people in that campaign trying to save their own skins for the next campaign.

Limbaugh was talking about the Republican campaign staffers who shamelessly stretched credibility this week with some anonymous insights (and other nasty things) about Gov. Sarah Palin, including:

She did not know Africa is a continent;

The Secret Service told aides that after Palin's rallies began, they tracked an uptick in threats against candidate Barack Obama.

Sure, Palin was in no way qualified for the vice presidency, but these claims set off the BS meter. I don't think the Secret Service gives out information to incontinent campaign aides. (Remember? They're the Secret Service.)

What's no secret is Sen. John McCain let his campaign staff run amok. And that led to botched strategy over botched strategy. Many of us breathed a sigh of relief during McCain's concession speech Tuesday. For me, it was double: America picked the right guy; and I got back the John McCain whom I'd registered Republican just to vote for in the 2000 primary.

Marc Ambinder of Atlantic Monthly reported in a blog post a few hours ago that someone is blaming the leaks on the Romney camp. I guess the leakers are looking for another fall guy. I'd bet all that's left in my 401(k) they're wondering whether maybe they went too far. In Washington, it's not whether you win or lose. It's how you lay the blame.

Venture capital running dry: why that's a good thing

2008-11-07T12:21:00.000-08:00

It has become far too easy to start a business in software and Internet. As one VC marketing exec told me recently, most venture capital investors are followers. They find someone who's doing something good, and they throw dollars at the best people they can find to copy it. I talked with serial entrepreneur John Landry yesterday. At McCormack & Dodge in the 1970s, things were a little different.

Every component that you needed to build a system with was scarce. Programming talent was scarce. Machines were expensive. Competitive info was really hard to get. [Landry told me he used to put on a mustache and go to competitor's events at the Mariott.]

When you built something in that environment you had a lock on it. If you got through those hurdles and built something people wanted you could dictate pricing and you could have a lead position forever as long as you kept it fresh.

Now, companies like animoto put their stuff together and run it up on Facebook. The next morning, through the wonders of virtualization, they're transacting massive amounts of data over the Web, without needing to invest in a room full of servers.

So if you've got a really solid idea, now's the time, right? The venture capital firms are all putting their cash back into their existing portfolio, so you don't have to worry about a pack of followers scheming for your intellectual property or your market share. And with cloud computing, plus armies of hungry programmers, you don't need to share the pie with Daddy Warbucks. By the time the economy turns around, you'll be rich. Either that or we'll all be living in grass huts.

Next week's post: how to build a better fish weir.

Words that should be banned: "passion"

2008-11-06T13:28:00.000-08:00

I've been getting myself annoyed and worked up for a while about the bloviating over-use of the word passion. It's a word that's now near meaningless thanks to the neverending search for the next greatest superlative. It's not good enough any more to be interested in your career. You have to be passionate about it. I reached the tipping point last week when an interview subject told me he was "passionate about marketing."

No one should be passionate about marketing. Consider Lincoln's use of the word, which Barack Obama quoted in his victory speech Tuesday night:

We are not enemies but friends. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

Passion is a kind of madness. Like Civil War allegiances and hatreds, it can quickly become self-destructive. It's Romeo and Juliet, Samson and Delilah. It's not marketing and communications. So please. Lay off passion.

Why print ads cost more

2008-10-29T06:36:00.000-07:00

Call me a dinosaur. I was on the train this morning, and I realized why printed news will always be more powerful than the Internet.

As I rode the Orange Line, I was looking around at my fellow constituents of Massachusetts State Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, who was arrested yesterday on bribe-taking charges, and as I thought about all the people of Jamaica Plain and Roxbury, the magnitude of the news sank in. Sure, the news was 24 hours old. Like everyone else, I had already forwarded it to my friends and talked about it at the water cooler. But this morning, I knew everyone on that train had read the same headline that morning, and seen the same sordid photos (even if only on the Metro.)

As an advertiser, you can't buy that kind of impact on a computer screen.

Start-up Guru hopes his death brings relief (to some)

2008-10-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

From the email interview with Guy Kawasaki published today by NY Times blogger Marci Alboher.

Q. What would you like people to say about you when you die?
A. I hope that people say I was a good husband and father. After that, I hope that they say I empowered entrepreneurs to make the world a better place. After that, I hope that some people say that they’re glad I’m gone because they don’t have to worry about me tripping them on the ice.
(Note: That’s a hockey reference from an avid player.)

These pundits should watch more baseball.

2008-09-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

I hope to remain undecided until Election Day. If I settle on a candidate, I'm afraid I'll miss a good play or a bad error. A good baseball fan appreciates it when the opposing team turns a quick double play. But in the punditry I've seen since the debate - especially on NBC - the talking heads proved they'd made up their mind before last night's debate started. It's not easy to keep from setting a preference for one candidate or the other, but it's what a good opinion maker - and a good voter - will do.

Accordingly, here's my scouting report.

1. Barack Obama tried to emphasize his tax cuts for the middle class, but he didn't go far enough. He said twice that 95 percent of Americans will get a tax cut under his plan - but that doesn't mean anything. John McCain promised me $5,000. Barack Obama should should have said, "Look around. Do you think you're in the top 5 percent of earners? If not, you should vote for me, because I'll give you a tax break. If yes, you should vote for me anyway, because I'll manage the economy better."

2. John McCain did a good job telling the story of his foreign policy and military decisionmaking experience through the 1980s and 90s, but he let Barack Obama ruffle him with a cheap trick, when Obama seemingly slipped, calling him Tom, then later Jim. He stammered, and seemed to get a little heated - when he needed to be the one to put Obama in his place.

Finally, a few things I have a little beef with:

McCain listed conflicts he's helped make decisions on. He talked about Kosovo and Somalia, but didn't mention Rwanda at all.
Obama let McCain get away with being the guy who opposed torture, when at the last minute, with his political future on the line, McCain voted against the bill that would have banned waterboarding.
When did Henry Kissinger become such a great guy in everyone's estimation?

Fannie/Freddie Love Fest reached fever pitch under Clinton

2008-09-08T09:35:00.000-07:00

Everyone in Washington is to blame for getting led down the primrose path with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All the intentions were good I'm sure, but I speak from personal experience when I say that getting into bed with someone can cloud financial judgment. A few paragraphs from a 1996 New York Times article illustrate my point:

Within the Clinton Administration, Franklin D. Raines, who was Fannie Mae's vice chairman until last year, is now the White House budget chief. The new Commerce Secretary, William M. Daley, is a former Fannie Mae board member. Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin is a close friend of Mr. Johnson's. All three Administration officials say they have taken steps to avoid any conflict of interest.
But critics of the company have raised questions about whether the Administration can be truly unbiased when setting policy that might affect Fannie Mae.
During last year's House banking subcommittee hearings, Representative Richard H. Baker, Republican of Louisiana, pointed to what he said were discrepancies between a draft Treasury Department report on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the final version. He said the report might have been rewritten to tone down a finding that the mortgage markets could function perfectly well without any Government sponsorship.
''I am convinced that, for whatever reason, this report has been rewritten, reaches no conclusions, ignores the changes in the marketplace that have occurred and gives little direction to this subcommittee,'' Mr. Baker thundered at Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, who defended the Administration's report.
In what some describe as a telling illustration of how Fannie Mae has cultivated favor with the Administration, the company hired Walter Hubbell, a son of Webster L. Hubbell, the former Associate Attorney General who is at the heart of the Whitewater affair. Fannie Mae employed the younger Mr. Hubbell in 1994, after Mr. Johnson and other executives received calls from Administration officials -- including Mickey Kantor, who was then the United States trade representative -- urging them to do so. At the time, the White House had undertaken an effort to help the Hubbell family financially after the senior Mr. Hubbell's resignation from the Justice Department.

Changes to MBTA map

2008-09-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

Many of these are good, but "JFK-Ms. USA" is my favorite. (Click on the map to enlarge the picture and read the new station names.)

via cascadilla.com

Felony news reporting in St. Paul, Denver

2008-09-02T09:04:00.000-07:00

The Republican National Convention is turning out no different from the DNC last week. I can understand why city officials in St. Paul and Denver would want to take a hard line on protests that intend more to disrupt than to draw attention to issues. But arresting working journalists just lends credence to protesters' claims that the party committees and cities are colluding to suppress free speech. So far, the tally in St. Paul is four, including an AP photographer and a reporter and two producers from the left-wing news organization Democracy Now!

]

Baby-grandmama status belies "abstience only" education

2008-09-02T07:08:00.001-07:00

The strange news of VP pick Sarah Palin's pending baby-grandmamahood never seemed like a candidacy killer to me - just a wild, weird story that put a hard news cap on the final weekend of the silly season. But thinking about it harder this morning, here's what I think it does damage: the GOP's platform stance in favor of abstinence only education. Here's an excerpt from the plank:

Abstinence from sexual activity is the only protection that is 100 percent effective against out-of-wedlock pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS when transmitted sexually. We oppose school-based clinics that provide referrals, counseling, and related services for abortion and contraception.

A third of U.S. teenage girls get pregnant, more than any other developed nation. How many more are sexually active but never face the challenge of pregnancy? As a Senator, John McCain opposed teen pregnancy prevention programs and voted to require teen mothers to stay in school or lose federal benefits. And politicians he'll share the convention stage with this week think some kind of sex D.A.R.E. program is going to stem the tide of hormones and keep teenagers out of each others' underwear and the back seats of their parents' Dodge Caravans? It's hard to fathom.

Mid-East job interviews turn bloody

2008-09-02T05:55:00.000-07:00

The United Arab Emirates, where briefcases full of dollars outnumber people, sees the writing on the wall. The country is taking its scads of oil money and investing in universities, museums, newspapers and other cultural institutions against the day when the oil wells run dry. To ensure fair treatment in this culture-and-cash free-for-all, job seekers must bring along a professional whistle-blower:

The National, the new English-language broadsheet in the United Arab Emirates, is seeking a deputy editor for the Personal Finance section for our soon-to-be-launched weekend edition. Experience on a daily is highly important. Editing and assigning experience vital. Anyone interested in working in a growing newspaper market for a quality publication should supply their rsum, along with contact information for three referees. To sample our paper, visit thenational.ae.

ABC producer arrested

2008-08-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

Most of the DNC coverage right now is insufferable. But one thing stood out: NECN's good reporting on the fact that in spite of all the Obama rhetoric, the convention is the same as every other convention in the history of the Union: It's all about money.

Not exactly news, but what made it interesting was an ABC News producer got arrested for refusing to leave the sidewalk outside some event where they were serving up filet to the fiscally effluent faithful. The whole thing's on tape: about five cops, including a cigar-chomping sergeant, manhandling the skinny producer.

-----------------------------

I must have been only halfway paying attention. The report that aired on NECN last night showed video of the arrest of ABC producer Asa Eslocker. ABC has asked the Denver authorities to drop charges against Eslocker, which include obstructing a public sidewalk. I've corrected the headline and the copy above.

Massive gambling loss

2008-08-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

Remember when the Patrick administration was suggesting that casino revenues could pay a projected billion-dollar-a-year deficit in capital funds for roads, bridges, buses and rails? It turns out that even a commission made up of casino boosters reckoned the gov's cash-flow estimates were a losing bet. The gov's now-dead three-casino proposal would have created only 6/10ths of the jobs Patrick originally predicted; and only a third of the construction jobs.

What's interesting is Dan Kennedy's post on Media Nation, earlier this week, calling out Spectrum Gaming Group, who did the analysis, as a solidly pro-gaming group. Here's the company bios, as Dan excerpted them Friday:

Harvey Perkins, senior vice president, "has thirty years of casino gaming industry experience and has held high-level positions at major gaming properties in Atlantic City and New Orleans."
Tina Ercole LoBiondo, vice president for analysis, "has worked in the casino resort industry since 1988, having held various analytical, operational and developmental roles in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, and was instrumental in the opening of three major gaming resorts."
Bill LaPenta, director of financial analysis, "is a casino and hotel industry professional with more than 20 years of operations management and analysis experience, providing critical business decision support, planning, analysis, and performance management tools to casino hotel and resort operators."

So my question is, what cloud of fruitcake produced the original numbers, if these gambling boosters are pointing out there's only half a pie here.

Silver Lining for Newton

2008-08-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

In a letter to the Globe editor Saturday, Silver Line hater Mark Slater (Bay Village Neighborhood Association) railed (no pun intended) against the T's plans to link the two branches of the urban rapid bus transit line via a tunnel under downtown.

A leading example of this fiscal folly is the widely reviled Silver Line Phase III, a $1.5 billion to $2 billion bus tunnel touted as providing Roxbury residents with a "one-stop ride" to Logan airport. This project will result in an increase of the MBTA's debt by $600 million to $800 million, despite adding an insignificant number of new riders to the system and despite the fact there is no demand from Roxbury residents for this route.

Slater has a point: there is some dissension in Roxbury as to whether the Silver Line Phase III is of any use at all. But the project is not really intended to serve the people of Roxbury. The Silver Line connection through Chinatown and Boylston stations will allow people from Newton to ride into the South Station financial district and the cash-rich South Boston waterfront without going through Park Street. (Roxbury and South End riders will be able to do the same thing without going through Downtown Crossing.) I've got nothing against the people of Newton, Roxbury or the South End, but I'll relish their absence all the same, next time I'm jammed in there waiting for a train.

Paywatch: Season 1

2008-08-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

Day 1 after it was reported that MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas raised executive salaries by 9 percent: Mr. Grabauskas still hasn't told how much the pay raise will cost. They declined to tell the Herald. The Globe didn't ask.

The Globe, however, did report this:

While technically called executives and managers, not all of the nonunion employees are supervisors, Grabauskas said. They include some secretaries, budget analysts, and medical assistants, as well as the agency's highest paid executives.

I would like to know exactly how many secretaries, budget analysts and medical assistants are included on the non-union payroll at the MBTA.

Where is Georgia on Google Maps?

2008-08-14T10:32:00.001-07:00

Okay, moments ago the Google ad bar on my gmail account comes up with a Google blog item titled, "Where is Georgia on Google Maps?" The linked Google apologia wouldn't be so hilarious, if it hadn't come hours before Google News' hilarious confusion between a former Soviet Republic and the Empire State of the South.

via Recovering Journalist and Valleywag

2008-08-14T09:39:00.000-07:00

Cincinnati is one of 40-plus American metropoli planning light-rail streetcar service on its city streets, the New York Times reports today. Will Boston be left behind?

“In years gone by, people would move to cities to get a job,” Cincinnati’s city manager, Milton Dohoney, said. “Today, young, educated workers move to cities with a sense of place. And if businesses see us laying rail down on a street, they’ll know that’s a permanent route that will have people passing by seven days a week.”
After looking into streetcar systems in Seattle, Tacoma, Wash., and Charlotte, Mr. Dohoney became convinced that they spur growth. “Cincinnati has to compete with other cities for investment,” he said. “We have to compete for talent and for place of national prominence.”

Can Boston's upcoming transit projects compete for federal dollars with all these Portland, Oregon-style urban visions? Two out of three of our projects involve rapid bus transit rather than light rail. And the whole thing begs the question: are we just a heckuvalot smarter than these cities that are fixated on rail? Or what?

Gas sipping and meat nibbling

2008-08-13T12:08:00.000-07:00

Analysts think the U.S is in for a long-term increase in food prices, Scott Kilman reported Monday in the Wall Street Journal. The high price of gas has gotten lots of Americans to drive less. I wonder if the high price of food will also get us to change the way we eat?

The U.S. Department of Agriculture sees food prices climbing 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent this year and 4 percent to 5 percent in 2009. Even under this more conservative forecast, the average family of four would see its annual food costs hit $9,800 in 2009, up about $1,200 since 2006.

Meat is a big reason economists think food inflation has legs.

Grain is such a big part of the cost of raising livestock that many farmers big and small are losing money on every chicken, steer and hog they sell this summer. As a result, the livestock industry is beginning what could be its biggest contraction since 1982. By next year, the supply of beef, pork and poultry available to U.S. consumers is expected to shrink by five pounds per person, according to the Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver.

Are Americans, suddenly converted to cyclists and subway riders, going to turn vegetarian as well? Companies have already begun reducing portion sizes in packaged food. Will we stop gobbling such huge portions?

Via the Baltimore Sun

Devil's in the details

2008-08-13T09:29:00.001-07:00

Massachusetts says it's ready to join the other 49 states that allow civilian flaggers on road projects, saving money for its cash-strapped transportation authorities, particularly the Mass Highway Department. Draft regulations released today would require a police presence only on the fastest, most-traveled roads.

1.     High-Speed Roads – Allows for the use of civilian flaggers when the traffic flow has been separated from the construction zone using continuous, connected barriers. High-speed roads include both divided and undivided public roads with a legal speed limit greater than or equal to 45 mph.
2.      Low-Traffic, High-Speed Roads – For high-speed roads with a maximum volume of 4,000 vehicles per day, there is a presumption that civilian flaggers will be used unless CZSP recommends otherwise for public safety reasons.
3.      Low-Speed Roads – For low-speed roads including divided and undivided public roads with a legal speed limit less than 45 mph, there is a presumption that civilian flaggers will be used unless CZSP recommends otherwise for public safety reasons.

The regs seem to leave a lot of latitude in the CZSP - Construction Zone Safety Plans - to be developed by each transportation agency. So there's still room to water this down totally.

From post-Soviet bloc, a solution to MBTA woes

2008-08-07T10:28:00.000-07:00

Oh boy! I hope Dan Grabauskas read his Wall Street Journal today like a good executive, because I think this could be the solution to the T's operating deficit, now tabbed at $105 million on the year. WSJ's Daniel Michaels reports on the Pioneer Railway, a suburban rail line staffed entirely by child labor:

Fun wasn't the goal in 1948, when the line was created by Stalinist apparatchiks to train future rail workers and instill political obedience in youths. Today, however, the line is a mix of apprenticeship and day camp. Children learn leadership and teamwork while playing. Though unpaid, the children are graded on their on-the-job skills. From age 14, they can oversee younger children and organize games and sports activities. Lili Abraham, 14, says she has learned a lot about customer service and event organization during her four years on the line.
The renewed popularity of the railway, which shut down briefly after Communism collapsed in 1989, is one of the more playful examples of how Hungarians and other Central Europeans are burying the worst of Communist legacies.

For another example of what's known in parts of unified Germany as "ostalgia" - nostalgia for the former communist East Germany, check out this BBC article on the milk bars of Poland.

McCain's shady donor bundles

2008-08-07T06:26:00.001-07:00

In an article posted late yesterday to washingtonpost.com, Post reporter Matthew Mosk takes a blind jab at the fundraising activities of Harry Sargeant III, a so-called fundraising "bundler," who has raised over $100,000 for John McCain from a wide network of donors who each gave within the federal individual donation limit of $2,300.

Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant's network live in modest homes in Southern California's Inland Empire. Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet, records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for various candidates between December and March.
Both Sargeant and the donors were vague when asked to explain how Sargeant persuaded them to give away so much money.

So this piece could turn out to be the first glimpse of a major scandal, or it's the Post trying to copy the Times' playbook - raising its notoriety by splashing onto the Web a whiff of scandal that hasn't been proven yet.

Either way, what kind of guy answers questions about his campaign fundraising activities like this?

"I have a lot of Arab business partners. I do a lot of business in the Middle East. I've got a lot of friends," Sargeant said in a telephone interview yesterday. "I ask my friends to support candidates that I think are worthy of supporting. They usually come through for me."

"The base" twitters

2008-08-06T10:31:00.000-07:00

Republican blogger Patrick Ruffini credits Twitter for fueling what he calls Republicans' best grass-roots effort in recent years - an effort to force a House vote on new oil drilling during the August recess. The text-message campaign is called #dontgo.

There has been nothing worthwhile to speak of in recent years that’s emanated solely from the base like this has. It’s worth our time to take a step back and understand what made this success possible.
First, while Reps. Mike Pence and Tom Price provided the spark by starting the House floor revolt, it was the rightosphere (and crucially, the Twitterverse) that poured the gasoline.

Must be tough for such a savvy guy like that to back a candidate who does not own a computer. Meanwhile, here's the last news item I remember to do with text messages on Capitol Hill.

via The Opinionator

Olympics Boondoggle

2008-08-06T06:02:00.000-07:00

Since I have the olympics on my mind...

The anti-commerce magazine Multinational Monitor published a report today critical of how commercialized the games have become. In China, 63 companies sponsor the Olympic committee and athletes; in the U.S., the number is above 100.

The Olympics have auctioned off virtually every aspect of the Games to the highest bidder. In addition to multimillion dollar sponsorship deals between the International Olympic Committee and international companies, smaller firms are paying for designations from “official home and industrial flooring supplier” to the “frozen dumplings exclusive supplier” of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Not that there's anything wrong with it. someone's got to supply the frozen dumplings, and they might as well get a little bounce out of the effort. But the report does point out that there is nothing in the Olympic Charter about raking in dollars or shilling for brewers and fast food restaurants.

It left me wondering how much the need for sponsorship cash is an inevitable result of the biennial one-upmanship in Olympics as global spectacle. Every Olympic cycle, countries set new spending records, blowing wads of cash on viral construction of extravagant buildings, and fireworks displays like some kind of blossoming rash. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Greeks compete naked, in the dirt?

Via Huffington Post.