Blogosphere 1, Gomery 0

The story is now making the rounds of the blogosphere, it seems people must like a good scandal combined with a hush hush trial, sordid details, and alledged mob connections. Who would have thought? I’m still not clear on the law (would I get in trouble if I link to a site that links to banned information — i’m thinking not) so I won’t link directly to more info, just to this running commentary of the issue on Slashdot.

As an aside, this subject is very popular, making today one of MaxPower’s best ever days in terms of visitors. Thanks peeps! Also, I stand by my assertions that 2 conservatives have eaten babies.

Thanks to a lax security at MGM, you too can view several ppt presentations regarding their business model, profits, etc. What they have done is post jpgs of each slide in a public directory on their website (example: www.mgm.com/mgm/images/corporate/ppt_report/). Really, thats pretty dumb.

Anyway, one particular slide is interesting, titled ‘Margin Analysis: DVD vs. VHS’ and shows how the margin on a DVD is much better than on a VHS.

If the image is down, you can view a backup from boingboing).

As you can see, on a $20 DVD the profit is between 50-60%, but on a $10 VHS the profit is only 20-30%. From what I remember of the introduction of DVD’s, their higher cost (over VHS) was due to the enhanced viewing experiance (consumers should pay more for a better product). Well, now we know the truth, DVD’s cost more because people are willing to pay more for them. Next time you shell out for the $25 buck dvd think of the cost break down, subtract the stores cut (5-8 bux?) and then divide in half. Half is profit, and the other is the expense of getting it to the store. Seems like a lot.

Maybe the cost of DVD’s is so expensive because, according to this MPAA press release,

Only one movie in ten recoups its investment in domestic theatrical release; only four in ten ever makes its money back.

Thats a horrible business model. Maybe they should start making better movies?

CNN has been reporting about the Pope’s condition for the last couple of days. The headline is: Pope Close to Death. The interesting part is that every other station reports about it, for about 5 minutes and then carries onto the next story. Well CNN feels it needs to follow the story almost as much as Sept 11th. They hire hearsayers and speculators to fill the other 55 minutes of each hour. What do they talk about? They have their video relays from “knowledgable” people from around the world where its believed that the further away a speculator is from us, the more he/she knows. They speak as if the Pope is already dead. They basically post his obituary and read out his eulogy. You cant tell, while watching, if he is dead or not.

The other interesting thing is that currently, both CNN stations are showing LIVE pictures from Vatican City. Yet one says 3:40am and its dark out and the other says 6:40am and its light out. Both reporters seem to be quite sure they are reporting LIVE. One wonders if the later one will break the news of the Pope’s death 3hrs earlier then the second CNN channel.

What person finds this much speculation informative and necessary?

Ooops, you mean you didn’t notice that’s Martha’s head on someone else’s body? How long until celebrity is completely fake… maybe I’m thinking of Tara Reid, Jessica Simpson, or Paris Hilton. All of whom are famous for being famous (which cancels out in my opinion).

Anyway, newsweek was naughty naughty,

last week’s cover, which used digital manipulation to merge an image of Stewart’s head onto a model’s body. Media critics and readers alike felt that the composite image looking deceptively real.

… and as a result,

… bylines for cover photos and illustrations will now appear directly on the cover, marking a shift from the industry practice of crediting cover photos on the table of contents page. Newsweek is the first major news magazine to adopt the crediting policy. See we are proactive people, sheesh! Its called spin, look into it.

Ok, I added that last part. But I don’t claim to be a source for anything more than amusement.

Source: Newsweek

In response to the Japan Monkey Center publishing the crushing news of Buenos’s untimely passing, I have written her a eulogy.

We lost Buenos only days ago, but we have missed her for a long time. We have missed her kindly presence, that reassuring screech/ hoot, and the happy ending we had wished for her. It has been two months since she said her own farewell; yet it is still very sad and hard to let her go. Buenos belongs to the ages now, but we preferred it when she belonged to the Japan Monkey Center.

In a life of good fortune, she valued above all the gracious gift of her mate, ‘young male monkey’. During her career, Buenos passed through a thousand crowded places; but there was only one person, she said, who could make her lonely by just leaving the room — young male monkey.

[lifted]

…it was once common practice for studio publicity departments to concoct quotes that they would then attempt to get real critics to put their names to.

According to Carl Bialik from Gelf Magazine all movie studios need is a string of words that when put together make a movie sound good. As in taken out of context. An example from Bride and Prejudice:

• Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: “It’s Pure Pleasure! I watched it with an ear-to-ear grin throughout.”
• Actual line: “Bride very well may be the first not-so-great film since Viva Las Vegas that I watched with an ear-to-ear grin throughout. It’s pure pleasure.

It seems obvious that reviewers must be in on this and as such willingly choose to write reviews that can be taken out of context. Here is my review of bad reviewers: “You guys suck.” Try and spin that into gold!

Source: Gelf Magazine

The irrationality which is tired it sees and cu “the season when it will come there is a water service which will not run,”

Of course, and that is just the title of the article. Writen in Naver news (from Korea) and then translated to english via bablefilsh, what barry bonds says about his knee and the desk and everything makes a little more sense. But not really. Take this quote:

“when it recovers completely it is not known from extra prize. Will be next year when is season middle and there is not a possibility which it will know. Currently the line it is not unreasonable and not to be slowly it is a thought which will watch a lapse and “” me 20 it is strong but 30 it is strong but 40 where is not it counted and it revealed “

Also, don’t hesitate to catch this fantastic article: Before the female farming tool Korea and Japan ` it was quite, ‘. I’m sure it was.

Source: Naver

So yesterday, while driving in the car I was listening to talk radio, AM640 in Toronto. At the time, they where reviewing the events of the week, one of which happened to be this story:

Man Sets Himself on Fire During Toronto Protest
Wed March 9, 2005 5:20 PM GMT-05:00
TORONTO (Reuters) - A man doused himself with gasoline and set himself alight during a stand-off with police on Wednesday during a protest by several hundred farmers in front of the Ontario provincial Legislature in Toronto. The man drove a white rental van into the demonstration area and then held off police by telling them he had doused himself with gasoline. The incident was carried live by Canadian television crews monitoring the farmers’ protest.

A sad story no doubt. The even more sad and disgusting part is what AM640 did while trying to wrap up the story and ’segway’ into the advertisements. The guy they were interviewing (I forget who) was going on too long I guess so they started to play some music in anticipation of the commercial break. The song was “Burning down the house”. How callous to play this while also commenting about the ’sadness’ of the fire event.

Similar to this event in the states I guess.