Ridley on Raelian Cloning
Matt Ridley, author of the excellent book Genome, has a strong piece about the implications of the birth of the baby girl known as Eve. Ridley argues that the Raelian cult will be to therapeutic cloning what Chernoybol was to nuclear power; a damaging and perhaps game-ending event.
VNS DOA?
Jim Rutenberg of The New York Times reports this morning that the television news networks are leaning toward pulling the plug on the Voter News Service (VNS). This is something that the nets should have done long ago but didn't (for all the usual stupid corporate reasons). VNS's performance on election night 2002 was even worse than its dreadful effort of 2000.
The question now is whether the Network Suits will (a) throw open the bidding to the widest possible vendor pool (IBM, MSFT, SUNW would all be strong bidders) or (b) continue to promulgate the old-boy CBS News Election Unit network. The answer will almost certainly be option "b."
New Year's Resolution
This year's resolution is to lose weight and get fit. Toward that end, I joined a local health club and will begin a regular weight training/elliptical machine regimen beginning tomorrow morning. On January 2nd, I will quit smoking for the remainder of the month (and then we'll see what happens from there). On January 3rd, I will begin posting my weight on the blog every morning. Presently, I weigh 229 pounds. The goal is to weigh 205 lbs by the opening of golf season (roughly April 10th). Stay tuned.
Iraq and the Arab World
Is the title of a longish piece by Fouad Ajami in the new issue of Foreign Affairs. It is well worth reading. Thanks to reader Barry K. for the URL.
The New Yorker's $1.2 Million "Profit."
I'm with Kaus on this. First of all, it's almost certainly not true. Second, isn't that what a magazine is supposed to do (turn a profit)?
The idea of throwing a party at which everyone is required to wear black because the magazine is "in the black" is silly. Does Microsoft have a party because they are profitable? Does People Magazine get down because they are in the black? Of course not. Profitability is a given or a near-term goal at any serious business institution. It enables things like benefits for employees and dividends for shareholders. Duh.
The more interesting question is this: Why are the folks at Conde Nast misrepresenting The New Yorker's financial position? Everyone assumes that it loses between $1 million and $2 million a month, as it has year after year since Conde Nast bought it from the Fleischmans. Why, in the midst of the worst ad recesssion that anyone can remember, is Conde Nast suddenly throwing "in the black" parties and insisting that The New Yorker is a money machine?
Santa Visits The Troops
The front page of the Westchester editition of The New York Times has a wonderful picture of Santa Claus visiting US troops in Kuwait. It's a reminder of the enormous sacrifice made by those who serve their country in uniform. God bless 'em.
Kill Them All
The Washington Post has a good year-end wrap-up story on the War on Terrorism in some of its parts. The more you think about asymmetric warfare, the more you realize how difficult and harrowing it has become.
Lazy Susan
What do you do when you can't make your revenue estimates? Swap! Company A "sells" Company B a basket of intangibles which Company B then repackages and "sells" back to Company A for the exact same amount of money. Both companies then book the "sales" as "revenue." Wall Street used to call these arrangements "Lazy Susans." They were all the rage at places like Qwest, AOL and Homestore, before the bubble burst.
This morning's Wall Street Journal has an excellent report on swaps, which you can read by clicking here. You need to be a subscriber to wsj.com to access the story.
After Napster
There was Kazaa, which has over 100 million customers using its file-swapping software. The record companies and the movie people and the TV types are trying to shut Kazaa down, but it's easier said than done. The Washington Post has a good story about the company today.
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