Author: Serkadis

Yesterday, we reported on an article written by George Monbiot regarding the effects of Canada’s tar sands on the environment.

Today, Dennis Gartman points out that Monbiot flew to Toronto despite a self-imposed flying ban.

Normally, no big deal.

But Gartman points out that there aren’t any tar sands in Toronto:

The Gartman Letter: What we found fascinating by Mr. Monbiot’s most recent editorial is that he found it necessary to “fly to Toronto” to find out about the supposed devastating effect of the Tar Sands upon the environment. Telling the world that he broke his “self-imposed ban on flying,” Mr. Monbiot flew from London to Toronto to find out for himself what is going on.

The problem is, if we can be allowed to speak in the vernacular: There ain’t no tar sands in Toronto, Mr. Monbiot! Last we heard, they’re all out West somewhere… someplace called Alberta, and some in Saskatchewan… places your wine & cheese eating, Birkenstock and dirndle- dress wearing, poetry reading and oh-so-politically- correct friends have likely never been… nor would ever go to! Sorry, Mr. Monbiot, but you’ve got another plane trip, and a helicopter ride, and a jeep drive ahead of you if you want to see the Tar Sands. Better get a move on, my friend. ‘tis a long, long way from Toronto.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• US Energy Policy Could Cost Canadian Tar Sands $800M
• Obama’s Tar Sands Technology Breakthrough Is Idiotic
• Amateur Betters Put 2-1 Odds On Oil Doubling

Sega has just launched Super Monkey Ball 2 for the iPhone and iPod touch, aiming to follow up on the original that took the App Store by storm. The new version includes over 115 levels, as well as 2-, 3-, and 4-player Wi-Fi play. One of the biggest gripes with the original Super Monkey Ball was that the accelerometer didn’t seem to cooperate as well as the player expected it to, making for a frustrating experience. Having played the sequel, it appears that Sega has taken care of those problems, as Super Monkey Ball 2 for iPhone and iPod touch seems a lot more responsive and fluid.

In case you aren’t familiar, Super Monkey Ball games feature monkeys that are encased in balls. You tilt the iPhone to roll the ball towards a goal, and as you progress through the game, that goal is increasingly more challenging to get to without falling off of the level. It’s a good time. You can pick up Super Monkey Ball 2 for $9.99.

Tags:
iphone apps,
iphone games,
ipod touch apps,
ipod touch games,
multiplayer,
multiplayer iphone games,
sega,
super monkey ball,
super monkey ball 2,
super monkey ball 2 iphone,
wi-fi,

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Filed under: Convertible, Cadillac

If you’re nostalgic, the first car that may come to mind when you think about a droptop Cadillac is the old tail-finned Fifties Eldorado. A pink one especially. But since then, the American luxury marque hasn’t had a whole lot of convertibles. There was the Pininfarina-styled Allante and the recently discontinued XLR, both roadsters, but if you think the General’s luxury division is eager to get back into the open-air business, think again, as new reports indicate that there are no such plans on the horizon.

At least not based on the CTS, anyway. The series has spawned a sedan – including the all-conquering CTS-V – a wagon and even a coupe, but the guys over at Inside Line say they’ve got the inside line that no convertible version of one of Cadillac’s most prolific models is in the works. Which is a bit of a shame, when you think about it. But you never know what’s coming around the corner…

[Source: Inside Line]

REPORT: Cadillac CTS Coupe won’t spawn convertible variant originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 13:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On CNBC this morning, Peter Schiff defended his call of gold $5,000 against Lou Grasso, who says the metal has run well beyond its course. Schiff noted that he’s been a gold bull since before it was cool (since gold $300!).

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Nikkei Is Perfectly Aligned With The S&P 500 As Measured In Gold
• The Overwhelming Evidence For Peak Gold (GLD)
• SocGen: Gold Has Been Undervalued For 38 Out Of The Last 40 Years

On last night’s Colbert Report, author Sherman Alexie spent most of the interview ranting against digital books and how “piracy” was destroying the book business. The whole thing was odd not just because of how uninformed it was, but also because he seemed to contradict himself multiple times. I haven’t read any of Alexie’s books, but if his logic is so twisted, it’s difficult to think that his books are worth reading:

He starts out by insisting that he won’t put his book on the Kindle or any digital book format because he’s afraid of piracy — but that makes no sense at all. By not giving readers what they want, he’s actually encouraging more piracy. There are probably plenty of people actively willing to buy ebook versions of his book, and his response is that because of piracy, he won’t offer it to them. How does this help? Those people now have more incentive to actually go and download an unauthorized copy of the book (and Alexie is fooling himself if he thinks they don’t exist). How can not giving people what they’re asking for and are willing to pay for be a smart business model?

He compares the book business to the music business, saying:

“When the music industry went digital, somewhere between 75 and 95% of music is pirated. Nobody makes money off their music any more. Everything is about live shows now.”

First of all, it wasn’t the industry that went digital. Music went online way before the industry even realized it, and one of the main reasons that the piracy rates are as high as they are (and his numbers are industry figures that aren’t reliable at all) was because the industry held back for so long in giving people what they wanted: which is exactly what Alexie is now doing!

As for his claim that no one makes money off their music any more, that’s obviously silly. He admits that they now make their money from live shows (which is making money off their music). And then later in the interview, he points out that one of the parts he enjoyed most about being a published author was doing live performances and readings of his works. In other words, he already does what he claims happened to the music industry. So why is he so worried about piracy? That’s not clear at all.

He also seems rather uninformed about how file sharing has helped some authors.

I’d be really worried if I were Stephen King or James Patterson or a really big best seller that when their books become completely digitized, how easy it’s going to be to pirate them.

Where to start….? First, Alexie doesn’t seem to understand how book file sharing happens. It’s not because the industry digitizes the books, but because others digitize those books, and, yes, they’re most likely already available on file sharing networks, whether those authors released them in ebook form or not. It’s not the official ebook they’re sharing in most cases anyway.

Second, as for the claim that it will harm the biggest name authors most of all, Alexie might want to talk to Paulo Coelho. Coelho is the guy who quietly set up operations to “pirate” his own book and saw the sales of his physical books increase massively. Oh, and the book he chose to offer up via BitTorrent, The Alchemist is one of the best selling books of all time. Stephen King and James Patterson, by the way, do not have any books on that list — though, to be fair, if you combine all of their books, King has sold more than Coelho, and Patterson seems to be in a similar ballpark, probably selling slightly more than Coelho, but both have published many more books.

Then, really strangely, he attacks “open source culture”:

With the “open source culture” on the internet, the idea of ownership — of artistic ownership — goes away.

Now, beyond this just being flat out wrong about what “open source” means or what “open source culture” is, what’s the most bizarre thing about this statement is who it’s coming from. Alexie is most well-known for his writing about modern Native American life — and Native Americans aren’t exactly known for their strong believe in artistic ownership. In fact, much of the understanding of so-called “gift economies,” which are sometimes (though not always accurately) used to describe the open source world are actually based on Native American gift giving culture of tribes in the Pacific Northwest, which is where Alexie is from.

Colbert actually does a good job pushing back on this, in his usual self-mocking manner, pointing out that sharing helps get the word out there, and the only reason he’s so famous is because of how easily his content is shared via TV. Without that, he notes, he’d have to just go door to door shouting at people. To which Alexie responds: “I’m a fan of door to door shouting at people.” Good luck with that.

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This is a totally different way of looking at the data (BC)  

   <  click to read

2 incredible charts – Viewpoint: For subprime, is it deja vu all over again? – By PAUL JACKSON – great work by Paul. – hattip Ira Artman – … Because this sort of chart technique might be foreign to some readers, the zero axis point represents no change between October 2009 and November 2009 data. Any data points in positive territory reflect a percentage increase month-over-month, while data points in negative territory reflect a percentage decrease month-over-month.  Surprised? Only if you thought he subprime mess was over with. … – go read it all at  Housingwire

You can always find weird correlations between charts, and most of the time they’re totally meaningless.

Still, we were kind of intrigued by this chart from the ShiftCTRL Group comparing the Nikkei with the S&P500 divided by the price of gold.

It might mean nothing, but we’re curious what you think.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• The Overwhelming Evidence For Peak Gold (GLD)
• SocGen: Gold Has Been Undervalued For 38 Out Of The Last 40 Years
• Richard Bernstein: Gold Prices Have Gotten Silly (GLD)

Canning Krauthammer? That’s so liberal

In Northwest Voices, Daniel A. Morgan asked that The Times drop Charles Krauthammer from its editorial pages [“Krauthammer on terrorism, Islam: an inconvenient truth,” Opinion, Nov. 28].

I assume Morgan is a liberal because the true liberal approach is if you don’t like the message, attempt to silence the messenger.

Morgan believes Krauthammer has little of value to contribute.

Let’s look at Morgan’s contributions: While admitting Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan uttered “Allahu akbar” during his murderous spree, Morgan makes the ridiculous statement that most Americans say the same thing in English under similar circumstances.

I don’t recall reading about other Americans yelling “God is great,” or “Praise God,” or “Jesus is Lord” while going around shooting innocent people.

Morgan also equates Islamic fanatics to fanatics of other religions. Again, while Islamic fanatics kill innocents almost daily, I do not know of any other religion where this happens even occasionally.

If Morgan wants to ignore the worldwide scourge of radical, militant Islam, and use the typical liberal tactic of moral relativism, then I submit that it is he who is contributing absolutely nothing of value to the discussion.

— Jack Hurley, Bellevue

Krauthammer never resorts to personal insults?

Editor’s note: This letter originally said Charles Krauthammer is a lawyer. He is not.

Not satisfied that the majority of columnists for The Seattle Times are left-wing writers, Daniel A. Morgan wants Charles Krauthammer dropped from The Times.

Krauthammer is on Fox News. He is an M.D. and is paralyzed from the neck down. He is a brilliant intellectual, seasoned and articulate.

He is forthright and careful in his analysis, and never resorts to emotions or personal insults. He is neither a fearmonger nor an extremist in his comments and views. He has received a Pulitzer Prize for writing and writes weekly for The Washington Post.

Morgan writes of Christian and Jewish fanatics. Can Morgan tell us where are the Christian and Jewish fanatics blowing themselves up, killing innocent women and children? We have heard of Krauthammer’s background, what is Morgan’s?

— Bob West, Des Moines

Hearing from both sides

I see The Times is getting some flak for running Charles Krauthammer columns, not surprising in a town that skews as liberal as Seattle.

Personally, I am a political independent, and I enjoy Krauthammer’s column. I also like Thomas Friedman and Paul Krugman.

I don’t always agree with Krauthammer’s columns on Middle Eastern questions — though often I do — but I think he provides a well-reasoned-out viewpoint that is worth stating.

I am glad to see The Times is running his column to balance out some of the other viewpoints we see. In order to form a sound point of view on any issue, we need to hear from several sides.

— Dan Hochberg, Seattle

Seconding the motion of Krauthammer’s resignation

I second the motion by Daniel A. Morgan that The Seattle Times should drop columns written by Charles Krauthammer.

Krauthammer’s suggestion that the health-care bill be scrapped is typical of his work and is laden with half-truths and outright lies. He so frequently resorts to obvious distortions of the truth that nothing he writes can be trusted to be accurate.

The only thing he got right in his most recent column “Kill the current messy bills and do health care right” [Opinion, syndicated column, Nov. 28], is that the health-care bill is a disaster, not for the reasons that he lists but because special-interest lobbyists have succeeded in blocking the needed reforms.

The current version of the bill, which will make billions for the health-insurance industry, fails to slow the rise of health-care costs, and still leaves large numbers of people with no health-care coverage. The American people deserve better.

— Gary Maxwell, Lynnwood

Good news, PixelJunk fans. You won’t have to wait too long until you get your hands on PixelJunk Shooter, the fourth entry in Q-Games’ PixelJunk serie…

The University of Alaska Anchorage seeks applications for a Director of the Center for Community Engagement and Learning (CCEL). The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is an innovative and dynamic institution with national distinction in community engagement, holding a Carnegie classification for both Curricular Engagement and Outreach and Partnerships. UAA is Alaska’s largest regional university with an enrollment of 20,000 students studying in over 190 degree programs.

The Center for Community Engagement and Learning (CCEL)
The Center is the primary entity promoting and supporting service-learning and community-engaged research at UAA. The CCEL enables the university to effectively carry out its community engagement mission to connect academic programs with community need, and use scholarship and action for the mutual benefit of the University and the State, its communities, and its diverse peoples. It mentors faculty as they develop courses and projects incorporating engagement between academia and the community, and evaluates the community engagement activities at UAA. The Center also provides the development and support for UAA’s Certificate in Civic Engagement, The Center for Community Engagement & Learning was established by the University of Alaska Board of Regents in 2000. It resides within the UAA Office of Academic Affairs and is accountable to the Senior Vice Provost.

CCEL Director Job Description
The Director will lead the Center in the development and expansion of its mission, provide administrative oversight of its activities, programs, and staff, and will direct activities associated with the evaluation of community engagement. Responsibilities include working with the Senior Vice Provost, faculty, and the advisory board to identify, develop, and support service-learning and community-engaged research courses, projects, and curricula; supervising personnel; managing fiscal and other resources; and working with colleagues within the university and public and private sector partners. The successful candidate will devote time to teaching, research, and service in their discipline.

Applicants must have experience with service-learning courses and/or community-engaged research in a higher education environment, as well as demonstrated experience in (1) forging and maintaining community connections, (2) program development, management and assessment, (3) successful proposal writing for external funding, and (4) faculty development, student mentoring, interdisciplinary teaching, program and curriculum development. Competitive candidates will demonstrate successful partnerships with diverse community agencies, and possess excellent oral and written communication skills.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Assist faculty through consultation, mentoring, and facilitation to integrate community-engaged learning and research into existing courses and the development of new courses;
• Develop campus awareness of principles and best practices of effective and ethical university-community partnerships and the scholarship of engagement;
• Manage, coordinate, and monitor a network of Center relationships and partnerships;
• Oversee, plan, and serve as primary representative for UAA’s community-engaged learning and research at local, national, and international levels;
• Develop, write, and administer grants from public and private sources to support the advancement of community-university partnerships and community-engaged learning;
• Allocate resources to faculty and students involved in community-engaged learning;
• Increase campus-wide community-engaged learning and research activities;
• Assess the impact of community-engaged activities on students, faculty, and community partners;
• Teach and develop curriculum within the undergraduate Certificate for Civic Engagement.

This is a ten-month appointment. Option for fixed term or tenure track faculty appointment commensurate with candidate’s qualifications.

A master’s degree is required, with terminal degree or PhD preferred (discipline open). UAA is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Candidates with diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

Information about UAA may be found at www.uaa.alaska.edu. Information about the CCEL may be found at www.uaa.alaska.edu/engage. To apply, go to http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/humanresources/employment/index.cfm

Filed under: LA Auto Show, Convertible, Coupe, Performance, Dodge

The 2010 model year marks the last run of the 600-hp Dodge Viper. To keep performance (and consumer interest) high for the next 12 months, the automaker is adding new colors, enhancing performance and releasing several limited-edition models.

Standard Viper SRT10 models receive two new exterior colors: Toxic Orange Pearl Coat and Bright Silver Metallic Clear Coat. A new shorter fifth gear ratio (changing from .74 to .80) improves high speed acceleration (the 0-200 mph run drops by 14 seconds). The track-bred ACR models get a new short-throw shifter, and new aerodynamic tweaks to the rear wing lower drag while improving downforce (top speed bumps up to 184 mph on the ACR model).

As of today, the automaker has announced the first two special variants of the Viper, and they promise more will come. The Dodge Viper ACR 1:33 Edition, paying tribute to the record-setting run at Laguna Seca, is identified by its unique two-tone Black Clear Coat/Red Clear Coat exterior color (the opposite of the original Viper ACR color). Other cosmetic enhancements include piano black console bezels with red gauge highlights and red stitching on the seats. The Vooodoo-edition Viper ACR gets an all Black Clear Coat exterior with a Graphite stripe outlined in red. Talk about exclusivity – only 10 cars will be produced with the unique striping on both the exterior and steering wheel. You can check out both limited edition models in our live gallery below and read Dodge’s press release after the jump.

[Source: Dodge]

Continue reading LA 2009: Dodge Viper enters final year with tweaks and first two limited-edition models

LA 2009: Dodge Viper enters final year with tweaks and first two limited-edition models originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Firefox has certainly been a success story both for open source software, but also for the web at large. But, despite its rising user numbers, it still has some catching up to do to reach Internet Explorer’s adoption worldwide. In Germany, though, it’s a different story and a new study by local consulting firm Fittkau and Maass shows that Firefox is now the most popular browser in the country, surpassing IE’s market share if only by a small margin.

All versions of the open-source web browser now add up to a 45.6-percent market share just over IE’s 44.4 percent. Firefox has seen a steady rise in the country since it was launched a little over five years ago, while Microsoft’s browsers saw a sharp decline over the same period. What’s even more interesting is that all of the other ‘popular’ browsers, Opera, Chrome, Safari, etc., combined manage to get just 9.5 percent of the market, showing just how different things are in Germany in this respect.

Things get even more clear-cut when comparing individual versions of the browser. Firefox 3 (including 3.5) leads by a very wide margin, reaching 44.2 percent of the Internet users in Germany, almost as much as all IE versions put together. Firefox 2 users and the few that are bound to still be using Firefox 1 add up to just 1.4 percent. Firefox 3 is followed by Internet Explorer 8, which gets 25.5 percent of the … (read more)

The overall delinquency rate among commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) rose 85 bps to 5.65% in November, from 4.8% a month earlier, according to a monthly report by CMBS and commercial mortgage information provider Trepp.

The share of delinquent lodging loans — including hotels — jumped from 8.67% in October to 14.09% in November.

Read the whole thing at HousingWire >>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Albany Woman Closes Down Successful Cafe To Pursue Opportunities In Distressed Commercial Real Estate
• Fitch: Life Insurers Will Be Rocked By $16 Billion Losses On Commercial Real Estate
• Bill Ackman Has Made An $800 Million Killing On Bankrupt Commercial Real Estate (GGP)

Filed under: Performance, Etc., Videos, Lexus, Toyota

If Motor Mavens legitimately got a call from a well-placed friend and truly snuck in to fiddle with a $400,000 car that’s ostensibly in trustworthy care, we apologize, but it smells really staged from here. It doesn’t matter, though, the LFA looks fantastic in this video, and the LCD gauges are cool to watch in action. That’s the real value of this video, watching the interior come alive like the bridge of some kind of spaceship.

Damon talked about the way the gauges animate to display different information, but watching the display slide around makes us want to be the guy sitting in the driver’s seat, twiddling all the buttons with meaty, indiscriminate paws. The entirety of the car is as worthy of “dude, check this out” as you’d expect from a supercar-class vehicle. Check it out after the jump, and let us know if we’re being too suspicious.

We’re just having trouble with details like interested-looking parties reflected in the window of the opening shot, and the fact that it’s supposed to be poor quality, but looks pretty decent and apparently, when you drop everything and run out of the house, you take the time to call a cameraman. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to go line our winter hats with tinfoil. Thanks for the tip, Michael!

Photos copyright (C)2009 Damon Lavrinc / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Motor Mavens]

Continue reading VIDEO: Lexus LFA illicitly investigated by fanboy in secret warehouse

VIDEO: Lexus LFA illicitly investigated by fanboy in secret warehouse originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Milano, Italy | Optical Oddities

Many famous architects and painters participated in creating the wonders of renaissance Italy, but it takes special kind of talent to fit a big church on a tiny plot.

Donato Bramante was such a man. In 1472 Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza of Milan commissioned a new church for his city. His ambitions were great but the location available to him was limited by the presence of a busy street. The choir, the space behind the altar, had to be truncated, making the church awkwardly short. Undeterred by such an obstacle, Bramante devised an ingenious solution. He painted an optical illusion.

Trompe-l’œil, or architectural optical illusion was popular in late renaissance and baroque, but Bramante took the visual deception to an entirely new level. Standing at the entrance of the edifice one has an impression of a much deeper space, extending further behind the altar than is physically possible. The optical illusion is helped by the somewhat predictable light conditions inside the building. The illusion, of course, quickly disappears as one steps aside from the main axis of the church, but step back and the magic reappears. Like religious belief itself, correctly seeing Bramante’s Santa Maria presso San Satiro church is all about perspective and faith.

It’s the heart of the Primal Blueprint: understanding that our lifestyle factors direct influence the expression of our genetic code. While the DNA itself is set, the structure fixed, that’s hardly the end of the story – our story. How we live – even where we live – holds significant sway over the final picture. And by picture I mean, of course, the picture of our genes’ activity: when proteins are produced (and how much), when or whether certain genes are turned on or off. This activity, researchers are increasingly finding, is key in the development – or avoidance – of any number of conditions like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and cancer. Rather than a predetermined formula simply set in motion in the womb, our genes demonstrate a much more complex, nuanced interplay. The sum of all our daily choices and exposures direct our epigenetic signaling and the course laid out by that ongoing sequence of gene activity. As I’ve said many a time, our original genetic heritage doesn’t design our physiological fate. How we live determines how our genes play out their hand. No doubt a powerful concept, the comprehension can take us by surprise. The quickly expanding field of epigenetics has, indeed, rewritten old school genetics. It’s even ruffled a few feathers here and there, but isn’t that always the case with new breakthroughs?

As scientists study the physical principles (e.g. methylation, etc.) behind gene expression, they’re also able to examine what in the environment incites the switch flipping, so to speak. Of course, our bodies are in constant interaction with any number of influences in our environment. We take in air, food, and water – as well as the extraneous substances contained in them. We use medications and personal hygiene products. We lick the adhesive to seal an envelope. The list goes on and on. A few months ago members of the National Academies met for a workshop entitled “Use of Emerging Science and Technologies to Explore Epigenetic Mechanisms Underlying the Developmental Basis for Disease.” (Check out the full program online for yourself.) The workshop was part of the Emerging Science for Environmental Health Decisions initiative and standing committee within the National Academies. In a nutshell, the group focused on the demonstrated influence environmental toxins exhibit on gene expression as well as the impact this evidence should have on public education and regulation of these substances.

Compounds that may not appear dramatically or immediately harmful on a cellular level nonetheless trigger significant havoc on an epigenetic level, throwing off normal methylization patterns and causing the dysregulation of microRNAs, which direct gene expression. Among the implicated substances presenters highlighted were tobacco carcinogens, asbestos, ionizing radiation, arsenic, nickel, cadmium, benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs – components of common air pollution). Early/in utero exposure to these chemicals appears most destructive. As one presenter noted (PDF), in utero exposure to PAHs, for example, has been identified as a significant “risk factor” for childhood asthma. Although in utero exposure has been identified as a particularly “critical period” for epigenetic impact, it doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods as soon as we’re out of the womb. Researchers are examining the possibility of other “critical periods” and emphasize (PDF) the ongoing vulnerability to epigenetic alteration throughout life. The real problem with exposure to many of these substances isn’t the immediate impact on cells but the previously unseen changes to genes’ subsequent activity throughout an individual’s lifetime. Genes are silenced and lose their ability to manage the production of proteins for ongoing cell function and repair. Others are activated when they shouldn’t be. The resulting complement of abnormal down-regulation and overexpression can set the stage for cancer, metabolic disease and neurological impairment. Researchers have already begun to identify epigenetic changes that foretell cancer development.

It will be interesting to follow how this conversation continues to unfold in the scientific and public policy arenas. Although these issues aren’t exactly at the forefront of the mainstream media or public classrooms, the information is out there. Individual knowledge is personal power. While scientists continue their research and officials from every sphere wrangle over the public implications of these findings, we can start making decisions in the here and now. Just as negative experiences and exposures have the ability to instigate damaging epigenetic changes, our positive efforts can support normal epigenetic patterns by providing the healthy conditions our bodies expect and by counteracting the environmental challenges our modern bodies encounter each day in traffic, in our food supply, in the stress of work, and so on. Eating a clean diet, minimizing emotional tension, exercising smartly, and supplementing wisely can go a long way to reducing our exposure to modern toxins and offsetting their influence.

Let me know what you think. Send your comments and questions. Thanks for reading.

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Related posts:

1. Dear Mark: Gene Expression
2. Gene Expression: Location, Location, Location
3. Epigenetics and Depression

For years we’ve all heard the stories about how bad the major labels are at accounting for royalties they owe bands. There have certainly been a large number of lawsuits from artists claiming that this rather opaque accounting system is used to hide money from musicians, with various multi-platinum selling musicians claiming they never saw a dime of royalties from their albums, thanks to major label accounting. This is, of course, rather amazing in this day and age where technology allows for amazingly accurate accounting practices — even for massively complex operations. But, then again, these are the major labels we’re talking about, and they’re often proud of their technical cluelessness.

Still, it’s quite interesting to see a blog post, sent in by Quentin Hartman and written by the singer for the band Too Much Joy, Tim Quirk. Quirk is in an interesting position. Having been a moderately successful major label artist who is now an executive at digital music company Rhapsody, he’s seen different sides of the business — and in his must-read blog post, he details the absolute fiction that is a royalty statement from Warner Music Group — leading to the flat-out false claim that Too Much Joy earned a grand total of $62.47 in digital royalties over five years across their three Warner albums. You really should read the whole thing, as it’s quite detailed about how the major labels view most bands on their roster.

Back to my ridiculous Warner Bros. statement. As I flipped through its ten pages (seriously, it took ten pages to detail the $62.47 of income), I realized that Warner wasn’t being evil, just careless and unconcerned — an impression I confirmed a few days later when I spoke to a guy in their Royalties and Licensing department I am going to call Danny.

I asked Danny why there were no royalties at all listed from iTunes, and he said, “Huh. There are no domestic downloads on here at all. Only streams. And it has international downloads, but no international streams. I have no idea why.” I asked Danny why the statement only seemed to list tracks from two of the three albums Warner had released — an entire album was missing. He said they could only report back what the digital services had provided to them, and the services must not have reported any activity for those other songs. When I suggested that seemed unlikely — that having every track from two albums listed by over a dozen different services, but zero tracks from a third album listed by any seemed more like an error on Warner’s side, he said he’d look into it. As I asked more questions (Why do we get paid 50% of the income from all the tracks on one album, but only 35.7143% of the income from all the tracks on another? Why did 29 plays of a track on the late, lamented MusicMatch earn a total of 63 cents when 1,016 plays of the exact same track on MySpace earned only 23 cents?) he eventually got to the heart of the matter: :”We don’t normally do this for unrecouped bands,” he said. “But, I was told you’d asked.”

As you hopefully know, with a major record label, the band gets an advance to record the album. From then on, the label no longer pays the band anything. Even though the band accrues royalties on albums sold, those royalties simply go towards repaying the advance. Most label bands never fully repay the advance, and are thus considered “unrecouped.” This does not mean (as record label defenders will claim) that such bands were money losers for the label. The labels still take their own hefty cut from any album sales. They just also hang onto the tiny fraction of album sales that are officially designated for the actual musicians.

Basically, what Quirk notes, is that whether through malice or indifference (or a combination of both), the general major label attitude towards “unrecouped” bands is that the accounting is meaningless, so they don’t even bother. That means they make massive mistakes — such as the time Warner just happened to make a $10,000 mistake in Warner’s favor, and then mocked Quirk for even caring about such a measly sum.

Now, when it came to digital revenue, for most artists, Warner apparently doesn’t even bother to tell artists what their digital royalties are. They’re unrecouped, so it doesn’t matter in the minds of Warner execs. Quirk, by nature of also being an industry exec was able to (thanks to a chance meeting at a conference and 13 months of waiting) get Warner to agree to detail his digital earnings. But, because the band is unlikely to pay off the nearly $400,000 in “unrecouped” advance money, basically Warner did a slipshod job of it all. What this tells you is that Warner either has no serious accounting system to track this sort of thing or has mastered the art of obfuscating everything and purposely acting like their accounting department is run by six-year-olds. I’m not sure which is scarier.

Now, Quirk is reasonably clear that he’s just as likely to attribute all of this to a combination of indifference and incompetence than to malice — and there’s nothing to indicate otherwise. But, you do have to ask how seriously anyone can take any of the ridiculous numbers that Warner Music Group or the RIAA toss around concerning the music industry and “losses” due to “piracy” and such, when it can’t even put together an accounting system that can track (let alone accurately count) the most basic information that it is contractually obligated to both track and report. It also should highlight, for any bands who still actually think signing a major record label contract makes sense, how little regard major labels like Warner Music Group actually have for most of the artists on their label. As Quirk notes in discussing the $10,000 error:

When I caught this mistake, and brought it to the attention of someone with the power to correct it, he wasn’t just befuddled by my anger — he laughed at it. “$10,000 is nothing!” he chuckled.

If you’re like most people — especially people in unrecouped bands — “nothing” is not a word you ever use in conjunction with a figure like “$10,000,” but he seemed oblivious to that. “It’s a rounding error. It happens all the time. Why are you so worked up?”

So, perhaps, the next time that Warner Music claims that it deserves $22,500 for a “pirated” song, someone will point out that according to Warner Music’s own accountants, such numbers are really just a “rounding error” and there’s no need to pay them. Somehow, I get the feeling that Warner Music will take a different view on such numbers about then.

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