Bear Stearns Bailout – What are they thinking? Having lived through the real estate mess in the late 80’s, I think the current Fed action to rescue Bear Stearns is wrong! The fact is that Bear made many investment decisions based on obtaining higher returns for their investors. With abnormally higher return comes additional risk. If the government helps firms that bet wrong – what type of message are we sending? This penalizes the companies and investors that played it safe and invested wisely, though earned less. It is just “not fair”. Yes, I understand that a run on banks and investment firms and funds would not be pretty, but how many actions will they make, and how far will the Fed go to save others from disaster and then how much will it cost the taxpayers? Let’s get real. You want more return, you take risks, and then you can make more money — or lose it. Let the markets run the game. At the end of the day, there will be winners and losers, but the government will not be footing the bill. What consequences will occur if we let the markets handle this mess? Some banks, funds, and financial institutions will sell at fire sale prices – meaning that some investors who chose not to take the risk will get good deals. At the end of the day, assets will be priced fairly. Yes, I am worried about inflation, deflation, recession, the dollar, and interest rates. The US government and the Fed agreeing to step in worries me a lot more. It will prolong the pain – and could cause this disaster to be exacerbated. Bear took the risk: they were a huge player is mortgage securities, provided lines of credit under terms that did not reflect their risk, and they made bad bets. They owned EMC Mortgage Services, one of the more aggressive subprime mortgage services, did credit swaps, and underwrote loans with little regard to solid lending practices and policy. If the assets were sold at wholesale prices, then the purchasers would be more inclined to bail out and to renegotiate with consumers who owe the money. Helping here just postpones the inevitable. Which will be the next company the Fed tries to save? How many of these institutions will the US government prop up? How long will this drag out, and what will the final bill to the US taxpayer be? The message being sent is wrong. If you play with fire, if you are reckless with your investments, then you should suffer the consequences. I hope that someone at the Fed stands up and makes the tough choices.

Conan O’brien Dartmouth Commencement Speech. Link is the video. Lot of good wisdom & advice. http://i.cdn.turner.com/tegwebapps/tbs/tbs-www/cvp/teamcoco_dynamic_embed.swf?context=teamcoco_embed_offsite&videoId=254559

Dear Burning Man, We need your help. The Life Cube has just been suspended on Kickstarter and had over $10,000 in donations instantly refunded. Kickstarter claims that someone made donations in a manner that resembled fraud and will not consider reversing their decision. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that the Life Cube needs your help. We’ve set up a new fundraiser at Indiegogo and are hoping that you in the Burning Man community would consider helping us out in our time of need. Even $10 helps. Please help the Life Cube get back to $10,000 and hit our goal of $15,000 so that we can build the Life Cube for the good of Black Rock City. Please Donate: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-life-cube-at-burning-man-2013 ENVISION: The Life Cube provides an engaging and interactive place for the shared expression of ambitions, dreams, goals and wishes, with more opportunities to participate than ever before. This project encourages participants to look at their past, engage in the present, and set goals for the future. It’s based on the artist’s belief that if you write down what you want to accomplish in life, the chances of attaining it is much, much higher! Learn more about The Life Cube: http://www.thelifecube.org Thanks for reading. Please share this message with your friends and burning man groups. Even consider copy and pasting it. We are stunned by this Kickstarter decision, but we are hoping that with your help we can turn this negative into a positive. Thank you. #indiegogo #TheLifeCube #brc2013 #Cubelifecubelifecubeprojectlifecubelifecubeproject #BM2013 #Burningman #brc #fundraising #BurningMan

My friend Chaz sent this WSJ article to me….take a look. January 26, 2007 TASTINGS By DOROTHY J. GAITER AND JOHN BRECHER DOW JONES Sprucing Up for Wine’s Night Many Ways to Fete Open That Bottle; Italy Tour, at Home January 26, 2007; Page W4 Next month, Loni and José Represas will fly from Mexico City to Atlanta with a mission: to help John T. Whaley open a bottle of wine.  It’s not just any bottle. It’s a 1990 Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame Champagne that Mr. Whaley’s son, Wyatt, gave him in 1999 when Mr. Whaley was made a captain for United Airlines. Mr. Whaley knows it should be opened. He just can’t stand to do it. So on Saturday, Feb. 24, Mr. and Mrs. Represas and Mr. Whaley and his wife, Nancy, and Wyatt and his wife, Dawn, will grit their teeth and, together, finally pop the cork. It will be Open That Bottle Night 8, when many of us, all over the world, finally open that bottle of wine we’ve been saving forever for a special occasion that never comes. For OTBN 5, Mr. Whaley, who is now a CPA, opened "the first bottle that got me interested in wine: a 1971 Mirassou Cabernet Sauvignon. To my surprise, it was still drinkable after surviving a divorce move and two moves precipitated by two airline bankruptcies." In each of the past two years, he opened a bottle of 1976 Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon that he’d purchased at the winery many years ago. "The wine was in great condition and received rave reviews from our guests," recalled Mr. Whaley, who also may open two other cherished bottles next month, long-held gifts from appreciative friends: a 1974 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1983 Dom Pérignon. Something Extra This is why we invented OTBN, which is celebrated on the last Saturday of February every year. Whether it’s the only bottle in the house or one bottle among thousands, just about all of us have that very special wine that we always mean to open, but never do. On OTBN every year, thousands of bottles all over the world are released from prison and enjoyed. With them come memories of great vacations, long-lost loved ones and bittersweet moments. The whole point of our wine column is that wine is more than the liquid in the bottle. It’s about history, geography, relationships and all of the things that are really important in life. In Forest Hills, N.Y., Barrie Stern plans to open a 1948 Rioja she found when she was cleaning out her mother’s house. "It was probably a gift from my uncle for a special occasion and never opened," says Ms. Stern. "Too bad they didn’t have Open That Bottle Night then." In Lexington, S.C., Mandy Ackerman, celebrating her second OTBN, is deciding whether to open a Sawyer Cabernet or a Freemark Abbey Cabernet with 16 friends. Andrew Rosenthal is planning an event in Philadelphia at a bring-your-own-bottle restaurant with an alumni group from the University of Pennsylvania. The Geneva Golf Club outside of Chicago is celebrating OTBN with a special dinner for 60 to 80. Main course: pork loin with apple-cranberry chutney. Restaurants are getting into the spirit as well. Some restaurants drop corkage fees for OTBN. Occidental Restaurant in Washington, D.C., is having its OTBN on Feb. 23, the night before the world-wide celebration, as part of its own centennial festivities. It’s planning several different menus (for $130, including tax and tip) to pair with the wines people will bring. The restaurant’s wine guru, Daniel Hennessey, will ask diners what they plan to bring so they can be assigned to tables with appropriate menus. Some distributors have agreed to kick in Champagne and dessert wines. Mr. Hennessey said the $30 corkage fee will go to a charity that helps homeless people. While OTBN has become a time for parties, large and small, don’t forget that it also is about romance and intimacy. In our case, for instance, we’re going to stay home — and travel to Italy together. Many years ago, long before we wrote about wine, we visited the Piedmont region and, through a series of happy accidents, were virtually adopted for a week by the Cerettos, one of Italy’s legendary winemaking families. When we were leaving, with tears all around, they handed us a signed bottle of grappa, the distilled firewater. We don’t often drink serious alcohol and we had never even tasted grappa, but the next year, on a very cold day, we opened it and we each took a sip. One sip was enough for the whole winter. Memories, and a Mystery Winter after winter, we took a sip of that grappa, usually while standing knee deep in snow in Central Park or outside our country cabin, until, inevitably, we have come to the last few sips. On Open That Bottle Night, finally, we will finish the grappa and remember the hills and fog of Piedmont and the generosity of strangers. And, yes, of course we’ll open a special bottle of wine, too, but which one? Part of the fun is figuring that out, so we don’t know yet. Mr. Represas also is trying to decide what wine he will bring to the Whaleys’ home, even though he said bringing wine into the U.S. from Mexico City "is a real nightmare." A few years ago, he was on a flight from Bogata to Mexico City that experienced hydraulic failure and had to fly in circles to burn up fuel before attempting to make an emergency landing. "It was a good opportunity to review my life," Mr. Represas said. "It was comfortable to find out that I was pleased with most of the things I’d done and the way I left things — the wills, the properties. But the one thing that I was really upset about was all of those bottles of wine that I had left in the cellar that I would never drink and didn’t know who would eventually do it. "It was a tough landing. All of the tires of the airplane blew out. The pilot did a really fantastic job," he recalled, adding that he had to drink "a couple Scotches before I could even call home." So when the Whaleys, whom he had met on a barge trip through Burgundy, told him about OTBN, "I knew this was something I must do. It is a way to commemorate the importance of not leaving this world without enjoying what you have in this world." If you plan to participate in Open That Bottle Night, here are some tips to help you make the most of it. 1. Choose the wine. This is the all-important first step. You don’t necessarily want to open your "best" wine or your most impressive wine, but the wine that means the most to you, the one that you would simply never open otherwise. Maybe it’s Grandpa’s garlic wine. You’re looking for a bottle full of memories. On the other hand, if you have, say, a 1929 Lafite that’s just sitting there, we certainly couldn’t argue with that. 2. Stand older wine up (away from light and heat, of course) for a few days before you plan to open it — say, on Wednesday. This will allow the sediment, if there is some, to sink to the bottom. 3. Both reds and whites are often better closer to cellar temperature (around 55 degrees) than today’s room temperature. Don’t over chill the white, and think about putting the red in the refrigerator for an hour or two before opening it if you’ve been keeping it in a 70-degree house. 4. With an older bottle, the cork may break easily. The best opener for a cork like that is one with two prongs, but it requires some skill. You have some time to practice using one. Be prepared for the possibility that a fragile cork may fall apart with a regular corkscrew. If that happens, have a carafe and a coffee filter handy. Just pour enough through the coffee filter to catch the cork. 5. Otherwise, do not decant. We’re assuming these are old and fragile wines. Air could quickly dispel what’s left of them. If the wine does need to breathe, you should have plenty of time for that throughout the evening. 6. Have a backup wine ready for your special meal, in case your old wine really has gone bad. 7. If you are having an OTBN party, ask everyone to say a few words about the significance of the wine they brought. This really is what OTBN is all about, sharing. 8. Serve dinner. Open the wine and immediately take a sip. If it’s truly, irretrievably bad — we mean vinegar — you will know it right away. But even if the wine doesn’t taste good at first, don’t rush to the sink to pour it out. Every year, we hear from people who were amazed how a wine pulled itself together and became delicious as the night wore on. 9. Enjoy the wine for what it is, not what it might someday be or might once have been. 10. Drop us a note at wine@wsj.com1 about your evening. Be sure to include your name, city and phone number, in case we need to contact you so that we can share your account with other readers. Copyright 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Universal pursues digital demand via classics site By Gavin HaycockWed Jan 10, 11:45 AM ET Universal Music, the world’s biggest music company, launched what it billed as the largest online site for classical and jazz music on Wednesday as part of a drive to exploit rising demand for digital downloads. "We expect sales to begin with to be relatively modest, but by the third or fourth quarter of the year to be making a positive contribution to the business," said Mark Wilkinson, a marketing director for Universal’s classics and jazz division. "I think (the market for digital downloads) can only grow, and as the Apple iPod generation grows, they start to discover the classics," he added. Speaking at the launch of the new UK-based classical and jazz download Web site (www.classicsandjazz.co.uk), shortly after a live performance by Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, Wilkinson said Universal was tapping into a rich market segment. This was due to the older generation’s relative affluence, depth of knowledge and their growing desire to update sometimes eclectic collections with new recordings or rare releases. "Older collectors are in tune with digital technology," he said. The site currently has more than 100,000 classical and jazz tracks and nearly 8,000 CDs. Universal expects to increase its tracks by 1,500 per month. Downloads on the site start at 79 pence each, in line with the industry norm. The launch of Universal’s new site follows the company’s best year for classical and jazz-related sales, a trend boosted by a globally growing digital download market and retailers’ offering more music direct to customers via the Internet. Universal is owned by French media giant Vivendi. According to industry data collated by Universal, 60 percent of over 50-year-olds are online in the UK and 35 percent of those have access to broadband, but the figure is rising fast. Clare Nash, who heads the classics and jazz unit’s new media business, said the company decided to enter the market after industry research showed digital stores were not providing high enough quality download files and suitable search engines. Universal is supplying music files in a Windows Media Audio format. Universal hopes to export the model across Europe while future initiatives are expected to focus on video offerings, full-length opera and ballet downloads and making full artwork available from album sleeves.

News Corp, NBC plan online video service Thursday, March 22, 2007 21:41 IST NEW YORK: News Corp. and NBC Universal said on Thursday they will jointly launch an online video site this summer, in a move to compete directly with Google’s popular YouTube.  The site will feature full-length television shows, movies and clips, including popular shows such as "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons," and hit films like "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Borat". Yahoo, Microsoft, Time Warner’s AOL and News Corp.’s MySpace will be the site’s initial distribution partners, according to a joint statement from News Corp. and NBC Universal, owned by General Electric Co. and Vivendi.  The free site will include advertising, with Cadbury Schweppes Plc, Cisco Systems Inc. and General Motors among companies that have signed on. "This is a game changer for Internet video," News Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin said in the statement.  We’ll have access to just about the entire US Internet audience at launch. And for the first time, consumers will get what they want — professionally produced video delivered on the sites where they live," he added. Traditional media companies have been rumored for months to be planning some type of joint online video service to reach a new generation of viewers who are as likely to be found in front of computers as television screens. NBC and News Corp. were said to have tried to woo Viacom into the venture.   But Viacom, the owner of MTV Networks and Comedy Central, decided to take the legal route against YouTube, accusing it and Google of "massive intentional copyright infringement" in a billion-dollar lawsuit filed earlier this month.  Viacom said in a statement the new online video venture was a welcome addition to the industry because it will provide a vehicle that respects copyright protection. "The venture supports our view that upholding the rights of content creators is the only logical and legitimate path for the creative and technology communities to come together," Viacom said. When the NBCNews Corp. site launches, it will include full episodes and clips from current TV shows such as "Heroes," "24," "House," "My Name Is Earl," "Friday Night Lights," and "The Tonight Show," as well as shows from the companies’ television libraries.   Films including "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Bourne Identity" and "The Bourne Supremacy" will also be available on the site.

Keeping Up With the Steins. A suggestion by Madeleine of a totally disfunctional family planning their sons Bar Mitvah. Definitely worth checking out. Reminds me of Pieces of April, another film I very much enjoyed.

During my first trip to Burning Man over ten years ago, I imagined an art installation that would incorporate my belief that if people wrote down their goals, dreams, wishes, and aspirations, the probability of it happening would be much, much higher. It took me until 2010 to devote the time and energy to design and draft my first Life Cube proposal to the Burning Man Arts Grant committee.  Each successive year, we worked hard on to create and propose what we thought would be fun, engaging, interactive and experiential art, seeking their partial funding and support.  And each year, after a lot of effort, we received an email that started with something like: “…on behalf of Burning Man’s Art Grant Committee, I would like to thank you for applying for an art grant. This year we received the largest number of applications…” and ending with “it was a very tough decision, but unfortunately, we decided not to fund your project.” For three successive years, I overcame my disappointment, and “with a little help from my friends,” came back to Black Rock City to create a Life Cube that was bigger and better and more interactive than the one before. This could only happen with the support of hundreds of volunteers and people who donated to help this dream become reality.  Every year, the project grew in size and scope, rising along with the number of burners who interacted with the Life Cube.  So when we decided to write a proposal for Black Rock Arts Honoraria in 2015, we worked hard to manage expectations — in fact, if you asked me a month ago, I was pretty pessimistic about the process and didn’t expect to hear anything other than “thanks, but…” Imagine my surprise, excitement and exuberance when after five years of trying, we received an email that began with “congratulations!  We are thrilled…” More to come when I finish jumping up and down (smile) Love, skeeter Life Cube Burn at Burning Man in 2013. Photo by Tom Oniel FACEBOOK:  http://www.facebook.com/thelifecube TWITTER:  @THELIFECUBE WEB:  http://www.lifecubeproject.com #jackrabbitspeaks #burningman #blackrockcity #burningmanhonorarium #lifecube #lifecubeproject #Burningman #blackrockcityhonorarium #lifecubeproject #brc2015 #burningmanart2015 #BurningManArts #blackrockcity #bm2015 #lifecube

The Life Cube Project is an interactive community art installation created by Scott Cohen (skeeter). The first Life Cube was built at Burning Man in 2011. Since then, the concept has evolved to include opportunities for the community to express themselves, create, and showcase their art. The mission of The Life Cube Project is to get people to write down their goals, wishes, dreams, and aspirations with the belief that there is a better chance of achieving them. www.lifecubeproject.com #art #community #project #fremont #scott #LasVegas #dtlv #cohen #studios #lifecube #downtown #east #BurningMan

Today I took the first steps to start limiting access to Facebook and twitter posts.  I found both to offer to add controls, but the result is less than satisfying.  On Facebook, there is no search of friends to be able to try and change en mass (i.e. If i want to categorize a list of people I went to high school as one group, I have to do it individually. Twitter is even worse.  I elected to make all posts locked or private.  I decided not to cancel or terminate the account.  This does not stop posts from being seen by the people that are currently following me.  My posts today are: Dimestore Scott Cohen decided to hide my tweets as of March 10. LMK if you know a way to allow only certain people to view tweets #twitter #tweets #privacy Dimestore Scott Cohen Decided to limit access to info/posts on Facebook & contemplating no more twitter #privacy #facebook #twitter #socialmedia #profile Dimestore Scott Cohen testing hiding twitter feeds…. Dimestore Scott Cohen @RedTie does this show up on your twitter – test after hiding tweets Dimestore Scott Cohen test 2 Dimestore Scott Cohen #Twitter Issues:I am beginning to question the benefit/functionality of twitter. The inability to control or segment #privacy is a big issue Dimestore Scott Cohen #Twitter Issues:The #failure to provide a decent #search capability is another major problem of the Twitter platform. This is a major defect Dimestore Scott Cohen #Twitter Issues: Last is the breaking of the #Facebook Twitter #Application. Despite delete & reinstall, the app does not work. Dimestore Scott Cohen #Twitter Issues: Add poor customer service experience and I think you have a bad business. #customerservice Dimestore Scott Cohen #Twitter Issues: Despite all, I’m sure some company (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, etc.?) will probably buy it. #Google #Microsoft #facebook Dimestore Scott Cohen #twitter issues: $8-$10 billion valuation? probably the most stupid #acquisition someone will make. #twittersold #twittervalue keywords: twitter facebook social-media privacy http://www.redtie.com red tie media,Twitter:www.twitter.com/dimestoreFacebook:www.facebook.com/scottcohen1LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/scottcohensocial media

Click to see Natasha’s Honor Guard performing at Northeast Region Conference.  I am very proud. Click on this link:  Natasha’s Honor Guard