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Economic View - Six Errors on the Path to the Financial Crisis - NYTimes.com
WHAT’S a nice economy like ours doing in a place like this? As the country descends into what is likely to be its worst postwar recession, Americans are distressed, bewildered and asking serious questions: Didn’t we learn how to avoid such catastrophes decades ago? Has American-style capitalism failed us so badly that it needs a radical overhaul?
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David G. Klein
The answers, I believe, are yes and no. Our capitalist system did not condemn us to this fate. Instead, it was largely a series of avoidable — yes, avoidable — human errors. Recognizing and understanding these errors will help us fix the system so that it doesn’t malfunction so badly again. And we can do so without ending capitalism as we know it.
My list of errors has six whoppers, in chronologically order. I omit mistakes that became clear only in hindsight, limiting myself to those where prominent voices advocated a different course at the time. Had these six choices been different, I believe the inevitable bursting of the housing bubble would have caused far less harm.
Hey! TV writers, are you listening? | csmonitor.com
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Whether the rounds of applause or boos are coming from studio executives, critics, fans, or even Aunt Martha, TV writers quickly
learn to listen to feedback. Never mind that one of the industry's favorite sayings is: "Nobody knows anything." For every
staggering hit – such as "Seinfeld," a show about nothing – there are just as many star-driven bombs. (Think: Matt LeBlanc
in "Joey," or Heather Locklear in "LAX.") TV writers have been dealing with critics since the dawn of the medium. But these
days everybody's a critic – the explosion of Internet blogs and fan websites has amplified viewers' reactions to everything
from a boring plotline to the death of a favorite character. In this glut of feedback, the creative minds behind a season's
lineup are finding they must learn which voices to heed and which to shut out.
USATODAY.com - New strain of mad cow disease not tied to feed
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The discovery of a new strain of mad cow disease that may strike spontaneously rather than through contaminated feed could mean that it will be impossible to completely stamp out the brain-destroying illness in cattle.
The only two cases of mad cow in U.S.-born cattle, found in Texas and Alabama, were a different form of the disease than the strain commonly found in Europe, French prion researcher Thierry Baron told scientists at a meeting in London in May.
Baron believes it is likely that the two U.S. cases — and at least five others found in France, Italy and Germany — occurred in a way that is strongly reminiscent of the most common human form of the disease, which is also not blamed on a contaminant. More research is necessary to know for certain, Baron said in an e-mail sent last week to USA TODAY.
If it can appear out of thin air to infect cattle as it does humans, "we may never be able to get rid of the disease," says Jean-Philippe Deslys, central coordinator of NeuroPrion, the network that coordinates European prion researchers.
CinemaTech: YouTube to Do Revenue-Sharing With Users? ...
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Brian Alves, who produces a weekly podcast called The DV Show, interviewed me last week about my book 'The Future of Web Video.' The result is here. Among the questions he asked:
- How can you make money from web video?
- What is the best format to deliver video over the web?
- Is the price of producing video for the web cheaper than traditional production costs?
- What websites offer money for your video?
- Where is web video going?
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