10.30.2007

Magazine Wrap Up

Rolling Stone

REM has a new "live" album coming out next year some time.

The "Boss" is 58!

Would Godzilla and Mothra kick Megatron's ass?

The New Yorker

Good article on Scott Boras or as this article claims, "The Extortionist." Is he evil or just playing the system? We hate his methods but honestly teams are willing to pay his clients, so who is the fool? I mean the Rangers did drop 252 million on A-Rod. The statistics show that less than one percent of players will have a 6 year major league career and maybe only 3 - 4% will have a three year career. So if you are that special player who transcends the sport do you not try to get the biggest buck? Should we be critical of A-Rod for getting all that he can? There always seems to be a sucker out there willing to spend $30 million a year for a 32 year MVP. Boras just exploits the owners...eventually they will get smart. For years the Rockies ownership probably took a good chunk of the revenue and didn't add to the field. I mean if baseball is such a losing proposition then why do people buy these teams? There is always ebb and flow in anything...I think as a viewer of baseball I just have difficulty in spending $8 for a beer to watch someone take his god given talents and exploit us all. I thought his World Series ideal about moving it to 9 games and making it a spectacle. was good. The game and sport could use some shaking up. Presently he represents 65 players and takes a 5% commission on the salary of his clients.

Another issue with multiple good articles and the second article was about another odd ball entrepreneur from Boulder. In 2001 a company called Dagoba started to sell chocolate..it was a fancy chocolate not your massed produced stuff. Chocolate is known for its content with 70% being the benchmark. The beans when grinded produce a liquid which is mainly unsaturated fat (more than half the bean!). First chocolate shop opened in London in 1657. A dark chocolate has the equivalent of one cup of coffee and theobromine (which by the way makes you pee and can cause cardiac arrest in dogs) Cacao also has serotonin, a cannabinoid component similar to found in marijuana, and phenylethylamine an amphetamine like antidepressant. Wow...anyway back to the crazy entrepreneur he finally ended up selling his company to Hershey and he claimed,

"How could I make a difference at Dagoba, working on such a small scale?" I find this interesting because I knew someone who worked for a similar type outfit in Boulder selling Soy Milk and he also sold his company so that he can make a difference...well they fired him 2 years later. People shouldn't sell out...they do make a difference they just need to stick with it.

Wired

Your ears are filled with tiny calcium carbonate crystals called otoconia and help you maintain balance and sense gravity and linear acceleration. Also cause vertigo if they fall into the wrong canal in the inner ear.

Susan Kare? Anyone? Yup see designed some of the all time classic icons







Since the issue was on manga it has an interesting note that has manga sales increased comic book sales plummeted. The ideal being that manga would have hundreds of pages for $10 while most 32-page comics cost $3. The magazine Shonen Jump (500 pages) for $5 with a circulation of 250,000 while Amazing Spider-Man sells only 100,000.

Air & Space

Good article on the X-15, my personal favorite X-plane of them all. Flown from 1959 to1968 and 199 flights with a maximum altitude of 67 miles and a speed of 4,519 mph. Great plane, who knows what we would have done if NASA hadn't come along.

No comments: