This is my "funny" math based on some reality and I just want to qualify it by saying I'm positive it's better math than what Edgar Bronfman Jr. [the president and CEO of Seagram, which owns Polygram] would provide. What happens to that million dollars?
They spend half a million to record their album. That leaves the band with $500,000. They pay $100,000 to their manager for 20 percent commission. They pay $25,000 each to their lawyer and business manager. That leaves $350,000 for the four band members to split. After $170,000 in taxes, there's $180,000 left. That comes out to $45,000 per person.
That's $45,000 to live on for a year until the record gets released. The record is a big hit and sells a million copies. (How a bidding-war band sells a million copies of its debut record is another rant entirely, but it's based on any basic civics-class knowledge that any of us have about cartels. Put simply, the antitrust laws in this country are basically a joke, protecting us just enough to not have to re-name our park service the Phillip Morris National Park Service.)
So, this band releases two singles and makes two videos. The two videos cost a million dollars to make and 50 percent of the video production costs are recouped out of the band's royalties. The band gets $200,000 in tour support, which is 100 percent recoupable. The record company spends $300,000 on independent radio promotion. You have to pay independent promotion to get your song on the radio; independent promotion is a system where the record companies use middlemen so they can pretend not to know that radio stations -- the unified broadcast system -- are getting paid to play their records.
All of those independent promotion costs are charged to the band. Since the original million-dollar advance is also recoupable, the band owes $2 million to the record company. If all of the million records are sold at full price with no discounts or record clubs, the band earns $2 million in royalties, since their 20 percent royalty works out to $2 a record.
Two million dollars in royalties minus $2 million in recoupable expenses equals... zero!
How much does the record company make? They grossed $11 million.
They did use up all that money for investing in infrastructure to instrument the infrastructure for the convenience of the NSA.
From their point of view, it was a better investment -- since they've cooperated with the Government, they're in a better position to benefit from their legislation.
Now, that's NOTHING even close to a Free Market -- but here we are.
I came to a number of conclusions, the most important of which was that $1 billion spent right would in fact develop the technology -- all engineering, no new science needed -- to build an orbital ship that would operate as airlines do. Fly, inspect, refuel, fly again. Once that ship is built, additional orbiters will cost about what big commercial airplanes cost, and operate about the way airlines do. Airlines operate at about 3 to 5 times fuel costs, with about 110 employees per airplane (half of those sell tickets). With orbital access at about the cost of a first class ticket from America to Australia, free enterprise and commerce will take care of the rest
One US Attorney with Honor and Integrity could have Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld el. al. in custody for felony violations of 18 USC 1001 and 18 USC 371, simply by convening a Grand Jury to hear the evidence.
If Federal Prison is good enough for Martha Stewart, isn't it good enough for W?
Yeah, as long as we're dreaming let's go all-out and dream that they actually count the votes and it wasn't just some Political-Entertainment production.
FBI Agents have to be aware that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell et. al. are guilty of violating the Law for years, and haven't done squat ( as in arresting the alleged felons... ) so who would expect them to be obedient to their oaths in any other way?
Why didn't you discover the configuration-wipeout issue during Upgrade Configuration Testing? Not enough test cases to properly simulate the combination of hardware in Production or something?
This is really CYA on behalf of the incompetent people running the Boston system.
They made the cheap choice ( unvalidated stored value cards w/ crappy encryption of the data ) and it bit them on the ass.
So now, someone else discovers the OBVIOUS FLAWS, and publicises the incompetence of the administration responsible.
Here's a little secret: The researchers are surely not the FIRST people to discover this. They're just pointing it out. I'm sure others are already exploiting the flaws even before the announcement.
Slashdot Mirror
Major Label deals ain't no great thing.
Dang. My memory doesn't recall another breakdown by someone responsible in the music industry. Here, however, is Courtney Love's perspective.
http://www.aandronline.com/reading-room/courtney1.html
I've never had to fuck around with (open source) Gnucash to cut an invoice.
Invoice,
Post,
Print to PDF.
They did use up all that money for investing in infrastructure to instrument the infrastructure for the convenience of the NSA.
From their point of view, it was a better investment -- since they've cooperated with the Government, they're in a better position to benefit from their legislation.
Now, that's NOTHING even close to a Free Market -- but here we are.
The problem is your posts hit 5 mods REAL FAST, and there's scant opportunity to Mod you Funny.
A political enemy, phone records, bank records and a SQL query.
All this is just 1/2 assed bullshit, getting in the way of the constellation of geosynchronous solar power satellites.
Get back to me when the US finally has some sort of Strategic Energy Plan.
Rockbox works with OLDER ( i.e.: Used/Refurbished ) iPod hardware up until Apple started hashing their database. ( IIRC, up to ver 5.5 )
Here's a laptop, in case you need to help overnight.
Here's a cable, lock it up so it doesn't disappear.
Here's a bag, enjoy schlepping the thing back and forth every day.
"Did you forget your sunblock, Ash-Hole?"
When told to target the civil water, power, and sewage stations, they went ahead and destroyed them -- causing countless civilian deaths.
That's Really Professional, huh?
Jerry Pournelle summarized the issue well.
http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/2008/Q3/view532.html#Wednesday
Or, you know, filing an insurance claim and just replacing the junk?
One US Attorney with Honor and Integrity could have Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld el. al. in custody for felony violations of 18 USC 1001 and 18 USC 371, simply by convening a Grand Jury to hear the evidence.
If Federal Prison is good enough for Martha Stewart, isn't it good enough for W?
Actually, all it takes is a Prosecuting Attorney to present the case to a Grand Jury for a felony indictment.
Of course, finding Prosecuting Attorneys with honor and integrity is a bit of a challenge.
Let me know how you get your company's payroll office to stop sending the Feds money every payroll cycle.
Yeah, as long as we're dreaming let's go all-out and dream that they actually count the votes and it wasn't just some Political-Entertainment production.
No Problem. Everyone's happy.
This 'test' here? Am I getting PAID for my time to take the thing?
I don't work for free, and my time is valuable.
FBI Agents have to be aware that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell et. al. are guilty of violating the Law for years, and haven't done squat ( as in arresting the alleged felons... ) so who would expect them to be obedient to their oaths in any other way?
Why didn't you discover the configuration-wipeout issue during Upgrade Configuration Testing? Not enough test cases to properly simulate the combination of hardware in Production or something?
Explain how New York City managed to stop 20 Million a year in subway fraud using a secure, centralized system then?
I guess NYC > Bos.
This is really CYA on behalf of the incompetent people running the Boston system.
They made the cheap choice ( unvalidated stored value cards w/ crappy encryption of the data ) and it bit them on the ass.
So now, someone else discovers the OBVIOUS FLAWS, and publicises the incompetence of the administration responsible.
Here's a little secret: The researchers are surely not the FIRST people to discover this. They're just pointing it out. I'm sure others are already exploiting the flaws even before the announcement.
There's a reason the Marines have their own air support.
The USAF was a mistake to start with. Shut it down, and give the equipment to the units actually doing work.
Well, YOU don't make the choice of when you want your leased phone to use GPS or triangulation data when it's phoning home behind your back, do you?
The franchise is DEAD. This last iteration, "Indiana Jones and the Crystal McGuffin" put a bullet in it.
George, STOP LISTENING TO THE PEOPLE TELLING YOU THAT YOU'RE GOOD.
They're lying to you.
Your last good idea you had was hiring Irvin Kershner and Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan for Empire.