Monthly Archives: January 2006

Watching the numbers

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Meanwhile, over at The Political Notebook, Michael Caputo gives a nice overview of Monroe County’s budget situation. He offers some background on how local officials have used tobacco settlement money, weaving in an addiction analogy. Among the tidbits: county leaders have been selling bonds against future tobacco money for pennies on the dollar. This brings to mind hapless lottery winners who don’t have the wherewithall to manage their financial windfalls, and thereby fall prey to the post-jackpot vultures.

But probably more important is this eensy weensy fact: this is our money. We, the taxpayers.

So here’s another analogy. Suppose you needed some cash, and quickly. Someone found out, and offered to refinance your home, only instead of giving you the face value of whatever equity you’ve accumulated, they offered you 10 cents on the dollar.

Would you take it?

The funny thing about finances is that the more you need money, the harder it is to do deals from a position of strength. But unless you assume a position of strength, you’ll never halt the downward spiral.

Music’s pearly gates

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A month or so ago, an acquaintance who has forgotten more songs than I will ever listen to in my life told me about this UK site.

Now, via Meg at Blogcabin: Pandora.

The idea of both sites is that you tell them what sort of songs you like, and they assemble a “radio station” that streams similar music. You can refine the “station” they build for you by giving feedback (e.g. by banning a song that grates on you). You can also share the station/s you’ve created with friends.

What a great way to explore music. What a perfect example of how technology can offset the homogenization that tends to result from mass market commerce models. And we didn’t even need to wait for the Singularity :-D

You can lead an elephant to vodka

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And, it turns out, you can also make him drink:

Animals at zoos across Russia were being given shots, or in some cases buckets, of vodka, to keep them warm yesterday as temperatures in the European part of the country plunged towards an exceptional minus 40 degrees Celsius.

One elephant, tanked up, subsequently went on a rampage, the U.K. Mirror reports.

Perhaps his pail was garnished with an olive, instead of a twist. Or perhaps he was smart enough — elephants are pretty smart, right? — to know that drinking alcohol is not a good idea in the cold.

[tags] Russia, elephant, vodka [/tags]

Renaissance Square One

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Rochester blogger-journalist (blogalist?) Michael Caputo asks, today, whether the fast ferry embarrassment will cast a pall over other local spending initiatives.

He interviewed former Monroe County legislator Bill Benet, a Democrat, about the Renaissance Square project. If you’re not from around these parts, Renaissance Square comprises a new downtown bus terminal, a new downtown community college campus, and a new downtown performing arts center. Price tag estimate $230 million.

Caputo summarizes some of Benet’s comments:

Benet said that no one has described how the county and the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority might cover increased operating costs to operate the service through such a facility. And no one has explained if government would be willing to (gasp) subsidize a performing arts center if the money it makes can’t match the money it spends.

This is as good a place as any to mention that Renaissance Square received national blogosphere attention last fall when a letter from WHAM reporter Evan Dawson was published on Instapundit.

Instapundit, if you haven’t heard, backs a blog-driven initiative intended to curb pork barrel spending.

Dawson’s letter notes that “elected leaders” have tied the Renaissance Square arts center to the bus terminal in order to make it eligible for transportation earmarks.

Yeah, I know that’s how politics works.

But the result is that politicans are unlikely to consider the merits of each component of Renaissance Square separately, which bothers me.

More of my thoughts on Renaissance Square here.