Although O’Donnell laudably experimented with to target the audience’s attention onand hopefully final, Charlie Sheen trainwreck interview, courtesy of the tragic undertow that threatens to pull Sheen below for wonderful, I used to be overtaken, not through the pulling about the thread, along with the voracious audience he serves. It didn’t make me depressing, it produced me angry.
In regards to celebrities, we are able to be considered a heartless nation, basking in their misfortunes like nude sunbathers at Schadenfreude Seashore. The impulse is understandable, to some degree. It may possibly be grating to pay attention to complaints from most people who get pleasure from privileges that many of us can not even just imagine. In the event you can not muster up some compassion for Charlie Sheen, who makes a great deal more revenue for any day’s give good results than many of us will make inside of a decade’s time, I guess I can’t blame you.
Using the speedy tempo of events on the net and therefore the information and facts revolution sparked from the On-line, it is extremely easy for that technologies business to suppose it’s different: perpetually breaking new ground and engaging in elements that no one has ever achieved ahead of.
But there are other kinds of home business which have currently undergone a lot of the exact radical shifts, and have just as awesome a stake inside the long term.
Get healthcare, as an illustration.
We typically suppose of it like a vast, lumbering beast, but in truth, medication has undergone a series of revolutions while in the previous 200 a long time which have been at the least equal to all those we see in technology and advice.
Less understandable, but still inside the norms of human nature, may be the impulse to rubberneck, to slow down and check out the carnage of Charlie spectacle of Sheen’s unraveling, but with the blithe interviewer Sheen’s life as we pass it from the proper lane of our daily lives. To become sincere, it could possibly be tough for persons to discern the variation among a run-of-the-mill consideration whore, and an honest-to-goodness, circling the drain tragedy-to-be. On its very own merits, a quote like “I Am On the Drug. It is Referred to as Charlie Sheen” is sheer genius, and we can’t all be expected to take the full measure of someone’s lifestyle each and every time we hear one thing amusing.
Extremely fast ahead to 2011 and I am attempting to look into suggests of getting a bit more business-like about my hobbies (largely new music). By the conclude of January I had manned up and started to advertise my weblogs. I had put together various completely different blogs, which were contributed to by buddies and colleagues. I promoted these activities thru Facebook and Twitter.
2nd: the little abomination that the Gang of 5 on the Supream Court gave us a yr or so in the past (Citizens Inebriated) essentially has somewhat bouncing betty of its very own that can rather effectively go off during the faces of Govs Wanker, Sacitch, Krysty, and J.O. Daniels. Seeing as this ruling extended the concept of “personhood” to both equally companies and unions, to check out to deny them any most suitable to run within just the legal framework that they have been organized below deprives these “persons” of your freedoms of speech, association and movement. Which suggests (once again, quoting law college educated loved ones) that both the courts ought to uphold these rights for your unions (as individual “persons” as guaranteed from the Federal (and most state) constitutions, or they have to declare that these attempts at stripping or limiting union rights really have to use to important companies, also.
Amid all the fanfare over new iPad 2 hardware, Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs boasted that the company has now paid out a cumulative $2 billion to developers for apps sold in the App Store. This comes just eight months after it announced developers had made $1 billion from the app store since the store launched in July 2008.
This is a huge number and highlights one of the reasons Apple is doing so well in this post-PC era. It’s not only building devices that embody the intersection of technology and humanities, as Jobs likes to say; it’s also creating an environment for developers to take advantage of these more personal and powerful machines. This vibrant community of programmers has helped push Apple’s count of apps up to more than 350,000.
The Asymco blog recently (and accurately) estimated that Apple had paid out $2 billion to developers over the course of 31 months, compared to the 34 months it took for record labels to make that much money on iTunes. This suggests Apple’s App Store is on a huge growth trajectory and shows why developers are still so loyal to the iOS platform. Even with some restrictions with the App Store, they have a better shot at making money there.
But the $2 billion isn’t just coming from paid downloads. Apple developers are also raking in money from in-app purchases, which have become a major revenue source for devs in the last year. According to Distimo, an app analytics company, revenue from in-app purchases both in free and paid iPhone apps was 49 percent last year, compared to 51 percent of paid download revenue. And that’s not counting any money that developers are getting on their own through advertising efforts.
The point is, Apple’s App Store is still the top destination for developers because it has robust revenue-generating options ensuring it won’t be shoved aside anytime soon. Android’s ascendance will certainly draw developers, but until it becomes easier to make money there, it’s not going to be the priority for most developers. Google, for its part, is improving the money-making potential of Android with an announced in-app purchase system and a new web store front. It’s also looking at expanding carrier billion options and trying to improve app discovery. But for now, Apple has 2 billion reasons why developers should stick with iOS, and that’s a lot more than Google can say. And as more users buy iOS apps, it further locks them in and makes it harder for them to switch platforms.
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.):
- How To Ride The Freemium App Wave To Success
- Will Killer Apps Affect Which Handsets Consumers Buy?
- How Carriers Can Crack the App Discoverability Nut
"The American system of public education is the greatest mechanism for social and economic mobility in the history of the world." I wish I had said that. Actually, it was my friend Tim. Tim is a conservative Republican. Let me clarify that. At various points in his life Tim has been a professional conservative Republican, with credentials that make Scott Walker look like an over-promoted Boy Scout. Among other things, Tim was the Chairman of California College Republicans, a member of the CA GOP State Executive Committee, and a GOP nominee for state Assembly. In other words, there is nothing liberal or Democratic about recognizing the fact that an assault on public education is an assault on equality.
I do not mean to minimize the extent of inequalities in American education that Jonathan Kozoll and Jennifer Hochschild have so ably documented. And Wisconsin is no different. Since 1993 the state has employed an insanely complicated system of "tiered" state and local funding that numerous analyses show has resulted in money being funneled toward wealthier districts and away from those most in need. The poorer districts in Wisconsin are already operating on a shoestring. But despite all its defects, it remains the case that in America, and specifically in Wisconsin, publicly funded education is a powerful equalizing force, almost the only one left.
Scott Walker's budget seeks to change all that. The budget that Walker unveiled on March 1st contains cuts to education that will devastate Wisconsin's traditionally fine system of public schools, including specific provisions that end state funding for Advanced Placement courses and "science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs," among many other things. There is a great deal to be said about those cuts and their likely consequences, but the cuts in state funding are actually not the most disturbing part of Walker's budget. What is even more disturbing is this: Walker's budget mandates a 5.5% cut in per-pupil local education spending, approximately $550 per pupil. This has absolutely nothing to do with balancing the state budget: it doesn't save the state a dime. This rule specifies that overall education spending must decline regardless of the wishes of the residents of a local district. No district will be permitted to maintain even its current level of property tax-based funding for education, let alone increase that tax to offset state cuts.
Again, this is a provision that does not save the state a dime (not to mention making a mockery of the idea of local control.) To mandate cuts in local spending on top of cuts in state spending is astonishing. Do the math (and thank your math teacher): cuts in state funding plus cuts in local funding equals the end of all those "special" programs. In poorer districts the effects will be even more extreme; here is an excellent analysis by Andre Reschovsky (LaFollete School of Public Affairs) of the distribution of economic effects across districts.
But never mind the poor districts for a moment. What's going to happen in the wealthier districts? I find it hard to believe that Wisconsin Republicans (let alone Democrats) will want to send their children to schools that offer no AP classes or advanced courses in math and science, not to mention drug education programs, language programs, and K-5 enrichment programs. And in fact, that's not likely to happen. Instead, what is likely to happen is a whole new level of inequality.
The first thing that is likely to happen is that families who can afford it will flee the public schools; Walker's budget is the best advertisement for Wisconsin private schools that could be imagined. One local private school in the Madison area reports double the number of inquiries compared with a year ago -- and that was before the budget was unveiled.
And there's another solution: privatize public education. That's what happened in Seattle. Years ago, confronted by deep cuts in education spending, local districts established private foundations. Alumni and current parents contribute money which is then spent in the district. One of the most successful is Roosevelt High School in Seattle: they boast the only full time drama program in the state, funded by private spending. Here's the web site for Roosevelt's private foundation. The list of current grants covers a range of items, including Chemistry textbooks. The school's principal is on the Board of Directors. Now take a look at the names on the Advisory Board: the name "Nordstrom" gives you some idea of the socioeconomic profile of the district. As for other districts that cannot sustain a private foundation? They'll just have to do without Chemistry textbooks. And Washington's shortage of funding for public education is nothing compared to the scenario that Governor Walker is unleashing on Wisconsin.
The budget that Governor Walker announced today cannot be described by any of the usual terms. This is a budget that is targeted like a guided missile, and its target could not be more clear: Governor Walker wants to destroy the state's system of publicly funded education and replace it with charter schools (teaching certification not required), private schools, and private funding.
This would be shocking anywhere -- in Wisconsin it is inconceivable. Let me tell you something about Wisconsin. We like to think we are not just another state. At the University of Wisconsin we talk a lot about "the Wisconsin Idea," the idea that we have a specific mission to serve the public of our state in the tradition of the land grant colleges. Every semester I have been here I have met at least one student who has told me that he or she is the first person in their family to go to college. Those students are the best thing about teaching at a public university. They are what public education is all about. They come from small towns in the northern part of the state, often from families that operate farms or small businesses in their communities. They leave here and they go on to become lawyers or scientists or teachers, or to start businesses of their own.
This is what the Tea Party's capture of the Republican Party has brought us. Right here in Wisconsin we are sounding the death knell for the single greatest mechanism of social and economic mobility that the world has ever known.
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