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December 2007
The money has to come from somewhere. The most likely candidate for cuts is, as usual, everyone's favorite boogeyman: Medicaid. And that, of course, would require the governor to go to war again against SEIU/1199 and their allies in the Senate majority. The healthcare union is a far sight better funded that the education advocates, although they do have a legion of taxpaying parents on their side. . .
Universal Music Group, imeem ink deal
Last updated December 9, 2007 9:59 p.m. PT Universal Music Group, imeem ink deal By ALEX VEIGA
AP BUSINESS WRITER LOS ANGELES -- Social networking Web site operator imeem Inc. has signed a licensing deal with Universal Music Group to offer free streaming of music and videos by the record company's artists in exchange for a share of online advertising revenues, the companies said Sunday. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The pact is the latest example of record labels betting on online advertising as a source of revenue amid sinking CD sales. The Web operator already has similar licensing deals with the other three major record labels. Collectively, the four biggest recording companies account for more than 85 percent of music sales so far this year.
As new episodes fade, TV facing a long winter
There has been talk of running repeats of cable series, shows produced overseas and even mixed martial-arts competitions to fill what could be a lengthy void. NBC has picked up Quarterlife, a drama series about twentysomethings that has appeared on the Internet. The show initially was a failed pilot at ABC. "This is the time to look past March," NBC scheduling chief Vince Manze says. "You have to come up with plans now, because the news coming out of negotiations was not good." The dispute causing all the turmoil focuses largely on a demand by writers: They want a guaranteed cut of the revenue resulting from Internet streaming and downloads, a tiny but rapidly growing segment of show business. Top writers on TV shows and movies can make $1 million a year or more. But for most TV and movie writers, job security is traditionally low; half of those on strike typically are unemployed at any given time.
EMMC first in state to form blood conservation and management program
Up to his gloved wrists in his patient's glistening chest cavity, heart surgeon Robert Clough paused to take in the familiar operating room scene around him. A team of nine nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists and other specialists occupied their respective posts amid the banks of pumps and monitors that crowded the brightly lit room. Overhead, the sound system crooned a moody Christmas song. Surgery is a bloody business, but hospitals across the country, including Eastern Maine Medical Center, in Bangor are taking steps to minimize the blood lost during operations, and to return as much as possible to the patient. Other measures aim to build patients' blood health before surgery, improving their ability to tolerate some blood loss. The overarching goal is to reduce the need for blood transfusions.
English game is paralysed by a fear of the unknown
Brian Barwick yesterday began his search for a manager with the X factor, but it is the fear factor that must be eradicated if English football is to be a force in world football again. Fear of failure, fear of ideas, fear of the new, fear of stepping beyond our comfort zone. Most of all, there is the undermining belief that for all our bravado and bold pronouncements — Peter Crouch actually spoke of winning the tournament two days before the qualification game with Croatia — we are not good enough. We fear that, man for man, our technique will let us down against the first good team we play. Croatia did not win because of pride or passion, the famous red herrings of English football. They won because those two elements remain our greatest strength and faced with a team who have them, too — and plenty do in these days of new republics — it comes down to who is better at football; and the good continental team will triumph.
Real English through pop culture
Lucantonio, who has taught English privately to several Japanese rock music stars and worked part-time on the Inter FM radio station, knows rock music very well. First referring to Japanese rock bands whose songs deal mostly with love won and lost, he said that many American rock hits deal with political or social issues. "If you look at what's happening in English pop culture, rock music, it's radically different," he said. "Some of the hottest and coolest bands you would find anywhere in the world, they are singing about things that are happening now." Lucantonio explained that Fall Out Boy were singing out against bullying and child soldiers, while Green Day, on American Idiot, sing about propaganda and terrorism, U.S. President George W. Bush and the Iraq war.
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