The all mighty Taliban have told the Germans to get out or they will bomb Oktoberfest. Obviously the Taliban are jealous of the Germans and their superior beer making capabilities.
We must stand with our German allies because when the Taliban came for Oktoberfest, I said nothing. When the Taliban came for Budweiser, I said nothing. When the Taliban came for Milwaukee’s Best, I said nothing and then the Taliban had the best beer in the world.
Now the music industry has shown their true colors. They want to charge for those 30 second preview clips you hear at online music stores. Techcrunch has a rather funny satirical view of the subject. Let’s just ban music period to stop the music industry from embarrassing themselves. Perhaps we can enlist the help of the Taliban to shut down the RIAA since music is forbidden.
On a more serious note the Tool that is head of the Songwriters Guild of America says,
“We make 9.1 cents off a song sale and that means a whole lot of pennies have to add up before it becomes a bunch of money,” said Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters’ Guild of America. “Yesterday, I received a check for 2 cents. I’m not kidding. People think we’re making a fortune off the Web, but it’s a tiny amount. We need multiple revenue streams or this isn’t going to work.”
It sounds like Rick has a serious problem. They’re suffering from a pricing model that undermines their success. This happens in many industries before they go under. If Rick were Asian he might be figuring out a solution to the problem by coming up with a new business model. Unfortunately he’s choosing to whine about needing multiple revenue streams rather than finding the home run revenue stream that will enable them to drop all the little ones. Songwriters will find new ways to profit without the guild or the music industry will, god forbid, consist of people who enjoy writing music. Maybe banning music is going too far, but making sure that the crap is off the shelves might be a nice side effect of this upset in the market. Think of a world without Britney Spears or The Backstreet Boys. Ok, we’ll have to figure out what to do with all the Top 40 radio stations, but surely some smart Asian will have an idea.
Ok, 12 weeks of the diet and exercise plan are in the books. How did I do? Well, it wouldn’t be a weekly update without making you read after the jump to find out.
The court documents filed on Monday paint the picture of a long chain of grievances against Atari made by Turbine, starting with lackluster support all the way back when Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach launched in 2006. Turbine asserts that Atari has failed to maintain their obligations as the publisher of the game while still holding onto the licensing for Dungeons and Dragons. These obligations mostly include the marketing aspects of the game, such as commercials, advertising, retail box creation, retail promotion, and cross-promotion with other Atari products. (Fans of the game will remember the very lackluster marketing campaign at the game’s launch, especially when compared with Champions Online‘s marketing, another Atari-backed game.) Because of these failures, Turbine has had to step in and become the publisher of the game in North America, costing the company millions of dollars.
Continue reading Breaking: Turbine sues Atari over Dungeons and Dragons Online
Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Business models, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Legal
Breaking: Turbine sues Atari over Dungeons and Dragons Online originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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As one might imagine there is a large bank of oddities and weirdness that get tossed our way. This video is like a thousand Geek Worlds colliding together to form a single celestial body of awesome. Instead of trying to explain I think we’ll let the video speak for itself. Enjoy.
If you’re out there and come across any more of these gems shoot us a line. If they’re good enough you may even see them up on the Certified Sound Board.
Not a very good week at the Grim house… But the weight is still coming off. For details, read after the jump.
Brother Grim asks the question of who is better for you, the government or the insurance companies?
Or are you willing to rein in anarcho-capitalism long enough to come up with a solution that works for everyone? People who rail against “Socialized Medicine” live in constant fear of having medical decisions made by government bureaucrats, but would you rather live at the whim of insurance company executives who see you as nothing more than an account ID? Choose your poison folks.
Ironically he cites a life expectancy graph that has Japanese at the longest lived. First of all, there is no comparing Japanese society to American society. Diet is typically cited as the reason Japanese people live so long, not the kind of health care they have. As a matter of fact the Japanese system is more privatized than the US according to Professor Naoki Ikegami with 80% of hospitals being truly private with no government subsidy or subsidized workers. Americans need to drop the burgers for some rice, tofu, and fish. Then hit the gym more than they do to get the effect of walking everywhere like the French and Japanese do.
On the topic of which is better for you, the government plan or the plan of the big corporate insurance providers, we can take a look at the pros and cons of each. Brother Grim says that the corporations will treat you like an account ID. Well the government will treat you like a social security account ID, so there’s no difference with regard to identifying you. Government is also a less trustworthy due to remarks that ignoring constituents because “they are just people” and the partisan closing of GM and Chrysler dealers. It would appear that viability of the dealership was not a criteria, but who the owners donated to was. This shows that government does not look at numbers only when making decisions, which is bad. You know that the decisions made by government will be to the political benefit of who is in power. Unlike China where there is only one party, you are at the mercy of your party being out of power when you have to depend on government. So a government system is automatically stacked against 49% based on the consensus of the popular results of the general election.
How are the corporations superior to the government system? Both identify you by some number and treat you like a number. Where does the corporate system have greater benefit? First, you get to choose which entity you want to go with. I’m also including HSAs in the mix for young people who want to be self insured. This lets the population choose which plan suits their lifestyle. The next area that insurance companies excel at is data. Actuarial tables and the Statistical Value of Life (SVL) can be used to calculate an appropriate payout. This is superior to the government solution which relies on humans to make the decisions and puts these decisions in the hands of economists, mathematicians, and programmers. If the formulas used by an insurance company are under change control and auditable then the consumer knows what circumstances they can expect the insurance company to pay and what circumstances the insured is better left to their fate.
This serves to enhance marginal private benefit by letting the formulas decide for families the appropriate time to stop throwing good money after bad. There is no single formula for SVL, but many take into account occupation, education, hereditary diseases, current age, and other factors. There are also general flat rate formulas such as the US DOT’s Treatment of the Economic Value of a Statistical Life. If you’re in a plane crash you’re worth $6million. Any way you calculate it, you can determine what is the best solution for your family.
How does this benefit a family? If you have ever had to serve under medical power of attorney, you know that it is illogical to run a family into bankruptcy expending resources on someone where the computations indicate a lack of equlibrium between cost and benefit. Americans unwisely bankrupt themselves on spending for end of life care. If it makes little numerical sense to put grandma’s house on the auction block to pay for 6 months of chemo or dialysis then why do it? Another area is nursing home care which costs approximately $6000 per month according to the 2007 Genworth Cost of Care Survey. It may may more sense to ship grandma to Portland Oregon or Beijing China where an honorable assisted suicide is legal, rather than wasting the family’s money on a futile effort or worse, allowing the government to seize grandma’s estate to cover her care costs, thus depriving the clan of resources.
That resource could be used to fund the college education of the children of the clan then why undertake such “heroic” measures as the medical care field says. This leaves fewer resources to pour into a dynasty trust which in turn leaves fewer resources for education and betterment of the clan unit. In one generation a clan can go from blue collar and poor to white collar through education. We can also apply the same principals to child care as well. If a very young child has a terminal disease the parents can always make another one. This would be logical if the family has more than one child to care for. With a minimum of $200,000 of child raising expenses, it’s better to reboot early on than spend a ton of money then lose out and have to reboot.
The corporate alternative provides us with a logical and auditable solution that doesn’t put families in the poor house, and maximizes marginal private benefit without the introduction of subsidies, taxes, and dead weight loss. It also benefits the individual by creating the positive externality of reducing marginal social benefit that a government plan would introduce, thereby reducing competition for resources and enabling the individual to obtain said scarce resources in a more accessible fashion.
To properly illustrate what a rambling, incoherent mess Sarah Palin’s resignation speech was, allow me to introduce the Baddest Starship Captain in the History of Science-Fiction, Mr. William Shatner.
What makes this ten times funnier is that the GOP is seriously considering running a moron like Palin for President in 3 years.
Oh, and you’ve already heard my go off on the Health Care system in this country, but I thought I’d throw in a gratuitous chart which might make my point a little clearer.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to this. “Do you want to live a longer, healthier life?” Or do you think it’s going to be ok to hear “Sorry that you can’t afford proper medical care. You’re going to die.”? Is “Tough Shit” a good enough answer for you? Or are you willing to rein in anarcho-capitalism long enough to come up with a solution that works for everyone? People who rail against “Socialized Medicine” live in constant fear of having medical decisions made by government bureaucrats, but would you rather live at the whim of insurance company executives who see you as nothing more than an account ID? Choose your poison folks.
Let me step away from the kink for a minute to point out the new level of asshattery the great state of Texas has risen to. According to Citizens for Change a Texas woman has been charged with possession of child pornography for taking a picture of her child while breastfeeding. So according to Texas images of Breastfeeding is a crime, I think they can do better. Obviously this is child rape, forcing the child to suckle.
While trying to get past my general level of disgust for the Richardson and the “Good Samaritan” (TM) that turned the harlot Mercado in I’ve come up with a few quips. This is what happens when Conservative Family Values and Political Correctness fuck each other and spit out some horribly deformed assbaby. Also, come on, there are Boobs and Food, surely no man in the world can find something wrong with that.
Look joking aside, if you are reading this and are in a position to help Jacqueline Mercado and Johnny Fernandez or know someone who can please don’t sit by the sidelines. If nothing else, spread the word and help make sure people out there know what’s going on.
Here are a few other images of child pornography according to Texas.
I’ve been reading my Shakespeare again lately and as I grow older I find myself more and more enjoying the histories, specifically Henry V. As a youth, I preferred the tragedies; Othello and Macbeth still hold a special allure for me. In fact it wasn’t until college that I even started reading the histories, and that was mostly due to productions the school was doing of Richard III.
I like Henry V for the same reason most others do; the inspirational tones, the mounting suspense of battle, and the dance numbers. Ok I made that last part up, but still.
I like to draw parallels to my own life and often quote the play as the situation demands. Often I can be heard walking through the office exclaiming “Once more into the breach, dear friends…” But nothing inspires me against the overwhelming forces we all deal with every day like hearing or reading the famous St. Crispin’s Day speech. The French outnumber the English 5 to 1, they are veteran troops and fresh, unlike Harry’s bag of tired sore soldiers. No one would mock them if they just packed it up and came home, but the rallying cry of Henry steels his men and tempers that steel with swagger and off to win the Battle of Agincourt they go behind their inspiring leader.
WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here
But one ten thousand of those men in England
That do no work to-day!
KING. What’s he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark’d to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God’s peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man’s company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call’d the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.’
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb’red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
God Save the King.
(P.S. If you haven’t seen Kenneth Branaugh’s Henry V do yourself a favor and watch it immediately. The following is a scene from that film which has one of the greatest choral arrangements I have heard in a long time.)
