At a minimum, incoming Congresspeople need to go to school, a finance and economics ‘boot camp’ for starters. Classes on micro and macroeconomics. International trade. Financial markets. Corporate finance. Basic yet important stuff.
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/63890987001?isVid=1&isUI=1
Techcrunch on the troubling provisions of the draft Dodd financial reform bill that will hurt angel investing and consequently depress start-up activity. Those troubling provisions in the draft Dodd financial reform bill include raising the accredited investor threshold, requiring review of (and a waiting period for) Regulation D filings (even solely accredited investor offerings), and removing federal preemption of state blue sky regulations (again, even for solely accredited investor offerings). All the more troubling because angel investing, venture capital and entrepreneurship had zero to do with the recent financial crisis. A solution in search of a problem.
Just in time for the next season of Mad Men, someone has posted the book, Scientific Advertising, in its entirety at: http://scientificadvertising.blogspot.com/
From the website: “One of the greatest copywriters of all time, Claude Hopkins invented sampling, risk-free trials, money-back guarantees, market testing and other breakthrough advertising techniques… . First published in 1923, Scientific Advertising is as relevant today as it was 80 years ago. Indeed, David Ogilvy said of it, ‘Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life.’”
Magician David Blaine‘s talk at TED: “How I held my breath for 17 minutes”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3QHkFc3NZw
Every painting in MOMA: on April 10, 2010
Coming in January 2011 from the Princeton Architectural Press: “We live in the golden age of the photography book. Since the early 1990s, the number of photography book publishers has continued to grow while technological developments have placed more tools for bookmaking directly in the hands of photographers. For the students and working artists who have chosen photography as their primary means of expression, having their own photography book is seen as a passport to the international photography scene. Yet, few have more than a tentative grasp of the component parts of a book, an understanding of what they want to express, or the know-how needed to get a book published. Publish Your Photography Book is the first book to demystify the process of producing and publishing a book of photographs.”
Danish Architect, Christian Bay-Jorgensen, wants to turn the Hollywood sign into a hotel. Brilliant.
New: A Tunecore for Books – Bibliocore
Get your e-book on the iPad (and keep all the royalties): “Tunecore has been a boon for musicians … . who pay the Brooklyn-based company a flat fee of $40 or so and then see their music available for sale on Amazon, iTunes, and eMusic. The copyrights all remain in the artists’ hands, as do the revenues; after paying the flat fee, 100 percent of the payout returns to the artists. (The digital stores take their cut first, of course.) Today, Tunecore announced that it would extend this model to e-books through a service called Bibliocore. After an upfront payment, the e-book is delivered to Apple’s iBookstore, rights remain with the author, and Bibliocore takes no cut of the royalties.”
The Truth about ACTA (a 25 second pre-roll advert precedes the video) from MIchael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa
Christopher Walken: unhinged and looking for his hand
At the IFC blog, first impressions of Walken’s appearance in Martin McDonagh’s new stage play: “A Behanding in Spokane.” Wish I was in NYC to see this.
(updated post with LA Times review)
Released April 13, 2010, journalist David Lipsky’s account of his short trip accompanying David Foster Wallace on the last leg of the Infinite Jest book tour.
A Q&A with the author, David Lipsky.
Scott Esposito of The Los Angeles Times with his review: “On the face of it, ‘Although of Course’ has the makings of fine public entertainment: a media-shy, immensely talented novelist suddenly forced to confront his fears when his Bible-sized masterpiece catapults him to the heights of success; the glossy magazine reporter to whom he’s speaking out of obligation to his publisher; the time they spend together, driving, eating at roadside diners, building trust and having expansive conversations. The problem is that in presenting all this as little more than a lightly edited transcript of his and Wallace’s tape-recorded conversations, Lipsky essentially cedes his right to make it into a coherent narrative. The result is a book frequently compelling for its bracing candor and idiosyncratic quirks that fails to live up to its promise.”
Playing Asteroid on Christmas Day, 1981. A new book, “Racing the Beam”, by two professors of media studies, Nick Montfort of MIT and Ian Bogost of Georgia Tech, discusses what it was like to program for the Atari 2600 – the first video game console. Michael Agger discusses the book in Slate: “Speak Atari – How the 2600 forged the video game future.”
A commenter on the Flickr page with this photo noted that the Atari console I am playing in the photo is a “Heavy Sixer” — only produced for one year in Sunnyvale, California before Atari switched to lighter, thinner plastics and moved production to Asia. It is apparently very rare; wish I had saved it.
photo: © j.r.mchale 2008
William Gibson: Q&A from his readers
All month, William Gibson has been answering questions from his readers on his blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRcTYgEx3mI
“Steve Ballmer’s” iPad review
Six months ago an Apple analyst told me he thought the company’s long-term goal was to become the internet’s cable TV company. I didn’t get it then. I really get it now. Most think of Apple as a computer or consumer electronics company. I think that’s becoming a means to a much bigger end: becoming a giant news, entertainment and communications network with Googillian ambitions.
