Archive for January, 2009
I didn’t know much about Dale Harkins last summer, but what I did know I didn’t like. Harkins had purchased the Irving Theater, effectively putting the kibosh on plans to turn the former movie palace into an all ages live music venue. Though he lived in my neighborhood, I only had secondhand recon. That is [...]
Newspapers haven’t always been behind the eight ball in terms of new media. In fact, in the late ’90s, several newspapers had fantastic websites. The problem was they couldn’t find ways to make money from the web (or ‘monetize’ it as people like to say) so when the dot com bubble burst, they regressed. The [...]
You make logical decisions right, based on a cold, rational analysis of facts and likely outcomes? Think again. Dan Ariely’s engaging book explores the emerging field of behavior economics – of which Ariely is a professor at MIT – for the layperson. The researcher shares results of experiments he oversaw at several major universities [...]
As you probably know, American firms announced approximately 50,000 job cuts this week. The news gave shape to an idea that had been forming in my head for weeks; are we heading towards a reverse of the urbanization of the last century? Look around today, everywhere you go, and ask yourself how much you see [...]
BBBP, borrowed from Flickr.
If I remember correctly my dad was friends with guys who had a stake in the Corner Wine Bar and invested in the Broad Ripple Brewpub. At the time the concept made no sense to me but I was 11 so go figure. Now that I am a man of [...]
Kevin O’Neal of the Indianapolis Star wrote a great piece about the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department creating a YouTube account to post videos and photos of criminals in action. It’s a smart way to grab people where they are, and if it works could be a new model for community policing
Ironically, Butler University just dismissed [...]
I wasn’t convinced that what I had to say was particularly important even after my undersized ego was bolstered by the Indianapolis Star’s decision to print my prose. But after MediaSauce explained teh internetz to me I realized that if you’re marginally literate (which I am) and believe in yourself (which I do for the [...]
A handful of sports icons have offered little to nothing of their real selves to the public, allowing fans to attach values and characteristics that, as Shaun Assael and Peter Keating write, often say more about us than our heroes. Assael and Keating explore a similar blank slate in the new issue of ESPN the [...]
Our grandparents survived the Great Depression, defeated the Axis and ushered in a half century of American empire. But the Greatest Generation’s grandchildren are staring down a portfolio of problems that would make FDR bolt upright in fear: a global recession; two wars and the ever-present threat of terrorism; the specter of fuel scarcity and [...]
I know this is a couple of days old, but I could’t stop thinking about the state legislators newed efforts to waste time and tax money by attempting to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The idea that marriage is a sacred covenant between one man and one woman is not only a fairly [...]
