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TonyWillamette's comments:
on Carrie Brownstein and Portlandia
I've been a regular listener to "All Songs Considered" and was sorry to see that your NPR Music contributions had to be sacrificed in favor of your work on Portlandia and the new band. You had a great rapport with the other members of Bob Boilen's crew, and your absence means the job of putting the "All" in "All Songs Considered" is left only to Lars Gotrich. :-) If nothing else, I hope you reunite with them for a report on SXSW, since I read you'll be in Austin anyway for the post-SXSW Bro Fest.
My question is about artistic collaboration. You were a member of Sleater-Kinney for years giving the band plenty of time to creatively mesh. Thunderant, Portlandia's web-based predecessor, required collaborating mostly with just one other person. So it's easy to imagine that you found a way to collaborate on those "projects." But expanding Thunderant into Portlandia brought a bunch of new people into the creative process, particularly Allison Silverman of the Colbert Report, as well as the IFC people. Was it easy to collaborate with an expanded cast and crew? Wild Flag took a while before you all were willing to start performing in public, but I imagine with Portlandia you didn't have that kind of control and time for preparation, even if TV is a writer's medium. Can you give examples of the creative impact that Silverman, Jonathan Krisel, and others had in expanding Thunderant into Portlandia?
posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on Covering Kyron
Like most people, I was saddened to hear about the little boy's disappearance. I was also impressed with the parents, staying out of the spotlight and saying that the attention should be on the boy. I was amazed at the scale of the search effort, which at one point involved 1300 people.
Now I don't know what to think. There is, of course, still sympathy for the parents. But since the initial search effort ended, there have been less emphasis on keeping the attention on the boy and more on the family members. The "if it bleeds it leads" reporters are digging into whatever little tidbits are out there from sources or public records, and are interviewing anyone who will talk on camera. Those from the more respectable local news organizations are now citing anonymous "reliable sources" in their reporting. A well-known and high-profile local defense attorney is now involved.
My sympathy is now accompanied by a feeling I'm being manipulated. And so I've tuned out, relying upon the police to do their job, preferably behind the scenes, and hoping we don't all end up feeling like fools when this is all over.
posted 2 years, 10 months ago
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on Where's Your Money?
I've used local credit unions, regional banks, and large national banks over the years. The best part of the local credit unions is the customer service and the stability in lending and customer service policies. In my experience, I've been able to reach my credit union's customer service people on the phone much more readily, and once I reach them, find it much quicker to get help. And if something needs to get escalated, they are clearly bureaucratic.
An advantage of the banks are their larger and more ubiquitous ATM networks. In the past, I might have mentioned some other advantages of the large banks, but now I'm not so sure there are any when it comes to consumers. Perhaps they have advantages when it comes to business services.
I remember looking at mortgages in 2006 and wondering why the local credit unions weren't offering rates as low as the banks, and options as diverse as the banks (and the others offering mortgages). Back then, I was glad that the banks seemed so innovative in the options they offered their customers. In retrospect, now that our economy has suffered for several years from the excessive innvotaions by the banks, I've come to appreciate the credit unions more and more.
Unfortunately for me, a credit union I've been moving more of my business to lately has just announced some chances that suggest it may not have learned the lessons of the past few years. First Tech Credit Union just announce it is becoming a federal credit union and merging with, of all things, a California credit union:
http://firsttechcu.com/learnmore.html
I'd be interested in learning what the consumer difference is between a federally chartered credit union and one that is state chartered. And given the events of the Great Recession, this decision to merge with a bank serving the volatile mortgage and business market of California has me thinking of shopping for a different credit union.
posted 3 years, 2 months ago
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on Tax Measures
I hope when Think Out Loud folks air this show they get people talking about RichardK's research. I'm surprised those against the measures aren't talking more about 67 being a back-door sales tax. But that's a comment about such a characterization's emotional appeal.
"Massive deception" by TV ads or robocalls is not a reason to vote one way or the other. The TV ads are great for local TV channel revenue but they are worthless when it comes to understanding what the measures are about; some are more deceptive than others, but all are a waste of time and money. And while I would vote against a sales tax, I'm not opposed in theory to a back-door sales tax on companies as long as it doesn't fail either of two litmus tests.
For me, the two litmus tests for Measure 67 are this: does it make the state less attractive to the small businesses that create the jobs we want, and does it make the state's tax revenue stream more stable.
Although RichardK led with the "massive deception" point that I discounted, I don't discount his subsequent analysis. Richard's analysis is confirmed by remarks from Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle here: large companies like his are "not affected by the corporate minimum, and can certainly live with overall increases in the corporate rate....The change in the corporate minimum, with its focus on sales, not profits, hurts just the type of businesses that the state claims to covet, start-ups with high revenues but little or no profits at their early development stage.
Willamette Week supports both measures with the most compelling chart about Measure 67 here. To me this suggests that we could in theory come up with increased taxes on business without making us unattractive to the kinds of businesses that bring jobs to the state.
I remain undecided about 67, and look forward to Think Out Loud's live audience forum on the topic to helping me decide.
posted 3 years, 4 months ago
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on Urban Chickens
It sounds like chickens are another feature of the coburbanite (i.e. rural/urban) lifestyle. Those attracted to the lifestyle seem drawn to having some of the benefits of urban areas (living near better paying jobs, use of improved infrastructure, perhaps access to educational/cultural opportunities) with features only available to the rural lifestyle (more space, "home as castle", fewer regulations, lower taxes).
One thing I like about the Portland metro area is that it offers all of us a variety of lifestyle options on the urban-suburban-rural spectrum, courtesy in part because of the urban growth boundary and the only elected regional government in the U.S. If people have the land for chickens, take care of them, and are good neighbors like Kelly, why not let them have them?
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on Legislating from Home
(I only heard the last part of the show...wish I had noticed today's topic sooner)
I am a big fan of this idea. Building on FredPDX's post-show ideas, I'd like to see the following:
- Only the Oregon House would be distributed, with as Fred suggests, occasional visits to Salem
- The Senate would meet in Salem, as is
- All of the standard tools for collaboration already in use by multinational corporation in Oregon (Intel, IBM, Nike, Precision Castparts, Google [in the Dalles], etc), would be eventually deployed for the House's use. This includes instant messaging, teleconferencing, secure SMS/other smartphone apps, and collaborative software such as that available from IBM's Lotus, Google (e.g. Docs and Wave), and other companies.
- The switch to a virtual House would be accompanied by a switch from biennial+special to annual.
Although FredPDX's comments are motivated by issues with corporate lobbyists, one thing that big companies have learned to do well is work in a distributed fashion. The fact that they do it regularly is the proof-of-concept that needed before doing it with state gov't. Big companies are as political as any legislature.
It's also timely...Web 2.0 infrastructure is growing and maturing, and Oregon companies like Jive are contributing. Making this change would be good for the green/family wage jobs needed in the Oregon economy.
This kind of change could become another example of Oregon's history of pioneering at a state level policies that have national repercussions. I think the idea has even more merit at the federal level (the office space vacated by Oregon House members could become the permanent homes of our U.S. Congressional delegation). As Justice O’Connor pointed out when she played a key role in protecting Oregon's right to a carefully crafted assisted suicide law, states are laboratories for such exercises in democracy. Perhaps after a decade of fine-tuning of a distributed Oregon House, the same proposal could become the basis for a federal constitutional amendment that could attract support from both red and blue states.
posted 3 years, 6 months ago
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on North Coast Wal-Mart
It isn't only small businesses that have to have a "weathering Wal-Mart" strategy. Local governments have to have a plan too.
Warrenton can't take Wal-Mart for granted, once it decides to let them in. Five or ten years after Wal-Mart opens, they may decide their 2009 store doesn't suit their present needs, so they will go through a process of figuring out where their next store will be for customers in that area, with the plan to close the Warrenton store once the new one is built. The new one could end up elsewhere in Warrenton, or maybe in Astoria or somewhere else.
For an example, look what happened to Pacific, Missouri, which lost its Wal-Mart to Eureka, Missouri.
posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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on On The Road Again
This might not be enough advanced notice, but according to this:
http://wyden.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=314531
Senator Wyden will be in Eastern Oregon on June 27 and 28 during a period where his Healthy Americans Act is receiving more attention than it ever has before, both nationally:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124545885464333145.html
and locally:
http://news.opb.org/article/5226-sen-wyden-responds-kennedy-health-care-reform-bill/
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/june162009/healthcare_wyden_6-16-09.php
http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2009/06/wyden_taking_hits_from_left_me.html
http://blogs.wweek.com/news/2009/06/19/ron-wyden-targeted-in-new-tv-ad-on-health-care/
If you're nimble, you could cover Wyden's townhall meeting, perhaps in combination with something specific for your show. It's been six months since you've done anything on health care:
http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/the-changeover-health-care-prescriptions/
and a lot has changed both nationally and in Oregon. Strike while the iron is hot ! :-)
posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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on Judge a Book by Its Pixels
Do you own a cell phone? If you do, have you owned the same cell phone all your life? Don't you think the e-readers will follow the same approach that cell phones did?
posted 4 years ago
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on Judge a Book by Its Pixels
I think we each have a punch list of issues like yours. Your first issue is a business one, not a technical one, as I suspect you know. The first step might be that you'll be able to sell or lend it to another Amazon customer. That feature won't be a priority, since it doesn't subsidize the infrastructure changes going on right now, but it should come eventually.
Price is an interesting long-term one. How much should an author get for their intellectual property? How much should Amazon get for fronting the cost of all the work they did to get the Kindle infrastructure as far along as it's gotten already?
posted 4 years ago
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on Judge a Book by Its Pixels
It's great that you had Michael Powell on the show for this topic. Powell's is such a cultural institution for Portland and the surrounding area, as well as a business. LIke Tattered Cover in Denver and Strand Bookstone in Manhattan, it offers a browsing experience that won't be replaceable by e-readers in the next decade.
But Luddites and technophiles alike should be able to see that the writing's on the wall. It's a question of when, not if. Digital technology wll offer so many useful features, that by the time we're at version 5 of the Kindle (or maybe version 10 or 15), the device will be so cheap, connecitivity will be so cheap, that physical books will be unable to compete for 90% of what we get out of books and bookstores. Books will live on--I recently bought a beautifully illustrated and printed book about gardening for a gardener--but the Powell's experience, currently subsidized for us all by a broad book-buying public, won't be subidized by us any more. It will be confined to foundation-supported or tax-supported libraries, not a vibrant marketplace.
It took Amazon to get us really started on this path because Amazon, originally only an e-bookseller, knew the implications of digital technology, Moore's Law, and the inevitability of technological innovation. They grew their business beyond books because of that. That success gave them the deep pockets needed to jump-start the e-reading world.
posted 4 years ago
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on Judge a Book by Its Pixels
You are thinking of screens from mobile phones and PDAs. Kindle and other up-to-date ereaders use something that the industry calls e-paper, designed and optimzed specifically to reduce issues with eye strain.
posted 4 years ago
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on The Changeover: Health Care Prescriptions
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/91xx/doc9184/05-01-HealthCare-Letter.pdf (CBO comments in PDF format)
I know that Senator Wyden refused to endorse either of his Senate colleagues for President, hoping that he could work with whoever won. And while its clear that he will play a role, now that Obama is president-elect, it's becoming clearer what the real fly-in-the-ointment will be for HAA: it's too closely associated with Senator Wyden. Here just one of dozens of stories online that sugguest that the power brokers pay little heed to HAA:
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/baucus-kennedy-healthcare-powow-set-for-tuesday-2008-11-17.html (Comments from Senators Kennedy and Baucus from thehill.com)
[quote]Kennedy has signaled that Democrats will base their health reform legislation on Obama's proposals, and Baucus's outline is largely consistent with that approach. By being first out of the gate with concrete principles [b][i](sic!)[/i][/b], Baucus aims to assert a prominent role in next year's effort.
?This is probably going to be the bible that everyone is going to look at,? Baucus said of his white paper. Broadly, the proposal seeks to strengthen the current health insurance system while increasing government spending, regulation and organization to increase coverage.[/quote]
(Baucus' proposal was first?)
Willamette Week uncovered one of those Obama proposals:
http://wweek.com/editorial/3427/10974/
[quote]Obama: I have expressed some concerns about the feasibility of shifting so quickly away from the employer-based system to a system in which each individual is responsible for buying their own health care. But I think the idea of portability is one that is important.[/quote]
What I suspect will happen is that in spite of the years of effort invested in HAA, effort that has the support of over a dozen senators spread almost equally across both parties, the Senate seniority system will win out and instead of tweaking HAA, we're faced with starting from scratch based on Baucus' white paper.
http://finance.senate.gov/healthreform2009/home.html ("A Call to Action" from Senator Baucus)
How depressing.
posted 4 years, 4 months ago
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on Paying Per Mile
1. Roads should be maintained by a tax that keeps up with the need.
2. The state should encourage (reward) those who improve their fuel efficiency.
3. The responsibility for road maintenance should not be disproportionally born by the poor.
4. The need for government efficiency should dictate that existing mechanisms and processes for tax collection should be favored over introducing new mechanisms and processes.
I'm not saying that this list is accurate or complete; my main point is that the state should gain consensus on the social goals behind the scheme before engaging the public in specific details.
posted 4 years, 4 months ago
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on Listening In
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
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on Listening In
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
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on Listening In
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
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on Listening In
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
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on Listening In
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
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on Listening In
To react to your last question, it is _definitely_ generational. I think the generation that has never known life without the Internet is also the first generation that can have no expectation of privacy, given the advances in technology. The rest of us have to come along for that ride, regardless of our indifference, admiration, or outrage.
You've mentioned some of the Internet-related technologies already, so I'll just mention a few others. Related to the internet were advances in database technology, which made possible the really cool features consumers like (e.g. almost everything google does) and the money-making stuff that companies like (e.g. amazon.com's customer analysis, credit bureaus). Database advances made it practical to make sense of large volumes of any kind of data (do a search for "data mining" if you want your head to explode about that).
And coincidentally, that advance was accompanied by advances in computer disk storage that made storage devices so big and so cheap that its possible to never throw anything even mildly interesting away.
Accompanying those advances are technologies like RFID tags, which Walmart champions for inventory management but which finds a lot of other uses too, such as biometric passports. We've also seen the maturation of DNA fingerprinting, technology that's a mainstay of all of the crime procedurals on TV. We've also got GPS devices everywhere, just added to the iPhone but also part of most cell phones due to 9-1-1 requirements. We've got face recognition (remember the film 'Minority Report' ?), which most recently I've heard is being put into billboards. I read (with google's help) that there are a couple of hundred thousand surveillance cameras in London, capturing an image of the typical Londoner 300 times a day. I could go on.
The point is, we're past the point of no return when it comes to things that gather or report or carry data (RFIDs, cameras, GPS, anything with DNA in it, all the things Google can capture through our searches and its ads), and we've got the disk storage to keep it all and the software (databases, face recognition, just for starters) to make sense of it all in a thousand different ways, for hundreds of different purposes.
The combination of unlimited storage, ever-more creative software, and the various technologies we love to use (cell phones, debit cards, etc.) or other love to use to figure us out, rang the death knell for privacy around the turn of the century.
posted 4 years, 11 months ago
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