Newspaper Revitalization Act

This newspaper bailout bill proposed by Senator Benjamin Cardin, which would allow qualified newspapers to be exempt from taxes, makes me wary.

Cardin's Newspaper Revitalization Act would allow newspapers to operate as nonprofits for educational purposes under the U.S. tax code, giving them a similar status to public broadcasting companies.

Under this arrangement, newspapers would still be free to report on all issues, including political campaigns. But they would be prohibited from making political endorsements.

The bill defines qualifications for newspapers to receive the tax break:

(1) the trade or business of such corporation or organization consists of publishing on a regular basis a newspaper for general circulation,
(2) the newspaper published by such corporation or organization contains local, national, and international news stories of interest to the general public and the distribution of such newspaper is necessary or valuable in achieving an educational purpose, and
(3) the preparation of the material contained in such newspaper follows methods generally accepted as educational in character.

Senator Cardin's heart seems to be in the right place, but proposing this bill suggests a lack in understanding of the fundamental implications of government-supported print, the medium that currently enjoys the most First Amendment protection and least governmental control.

"We are losing our newspaper industry," Cardin said. "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy."

True, but consider the costs. For example, would this bill passing necessitate establishing an FCC-like organization for print? The vagueness of the language describing newspaper qualifications is another problem--how easy would it be for the government to deem a newspaper no longer significantly "educational" and take away a its nonprofit status? Newspapers should not have to choose between staying in the black and providing independent coverage.

Thoughts?

via LIB

Cardinal editor's photos in today's NYT

One of The Daily Cardinal's photo editors has some photos in a (front page!) article in today's New York Times. Having seen how much work he puts in, he definitely deserves it. Congratulations, Kyle!

The article is about the Conserve prep school in Land O'Lakes (near the U.P. border), which is shutting down allegedly in response to the bleak economy. Despite the school's $181 million endowment, its trustees (who also manage the Central Steel and Wire Company) think the school can no longer function.

Obviously, this has parents in an uproar, especially over the fact that the school's trustees hardly attempted to diversify the school's investments, instead opting to invest $131 million of its endowment in their own company! Understandably, parents are taking the trustees to court in hopes of removing them from their positions.

This suggests more than simple negligence, but corruption at its worst: jeopardizing a school, which provides financial aid to about 70% of its students, to keep its corporate underbelly plump.

Daniel L. Kurtz, a partner at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom who heads its exempt organizations practice and is not involved in the case, said that in his opinion, even if the trustees were not directed to diversify their holdings, they had certain obligations.

In his view, “the trustees have to act in the best interest of the beneficiary, which is the charity,” he added. “Holding on to a stock that declines in value simply cannot be a means of fulfilling your fiduciary obligations.”

Appealing images for an unappealing story.

100-Hour Challenge results

Most Creative ($300): Madison Style

Judge 1: Ahh, this entry represents the paradox of the uninhibited and the insular, the feminine and the maternal, it's all coming together...
Judge 2: Plus she's hot.

Most Social Value Generated ($300): Aqua Treat

Chumanov and Kuhn created a unique water filter that simultaneously creates a chemical additive necessary for sewage treatment out of several SWAP materials including a cordless Swiffer vacuum cleaner, a Plexiglas tube, a spool of wire and a No. 2 pencil.

Now that's some Macgyver shit. (Nice article, Kiera! We've come a long way from the old high school newspaper, eh?)

Most Value Generated ($300): Test Tube Terrarium (I recommend skipping to 1:48)



And, of course...
People's Choice Award ($100): The Party Enforcer 3000

Julia Sonmi Heglund

As I wipe the drool from my mouth, let me say this: Julia Sonmi Heglund's work will BREAK. YOU. DOWN. I read a post about her work on an LA-based blog only to discover that she went to lives right in this fair city, and graduated from UW in aught six with a degree in (hmm, I wonder) art. I love her style, blending comic-book cheek with the technicolor/geometric (The Basis of 1980s/2000s Hip?) and throwing in a few dashes of Native American pop culture for good measure.

She made a series of shirts for Threadless.com, my favorite being the one above, titled "Believe It." I can't get enough of this wry mysticism - wish I could conjure up lions and buffalo and wild horses in my space pyramid chamber, don't you?

Here's a video featuring her more well-known Threadless shirt, "Consumption." Julia, if you're reading this, let's be Internet friends, 'kay? Sailor Moon is my life too.



I can only hope the fancy new Art Lofts will inspire work of a similar caliber from other U-Dubsies. Anyone know any other art students worthy of being featured up in hurr?

New Media Douchebags

I would find this more funny if I didn't feel a bit like one myself already, and if I weren't required to sound like one to get at that sweet sweet honeypot of J-School scholarships. Ah well, at least I have some standards (e.g., I've taken an oath of Twitter celibacy).

via swissmiss

Bundt pans! Bundt pans! Bundt pans!!!!!!!

More words on this later, but for now enjoy tooling around the Wiscontrepreneur 100-hour Challenge entries (I like that the site shuffles the list of entries each time the page is reloaded).

The OK:
-AquaTreat water purification system
-Pins N' Balls
-Squirming Squirrels Drinko (Plinko+party games=pure, wholesome, triple-distilled fun)

The Bad:
-The Sculptured Fish Tank (Does this constitute animal cruelty?)
-The Sweet & Low Chair (Is this a Hell Ride?)
-The Puddle Pan (Hmm, wonder why they can't show the product in a gym locker... oh, maybe because coat hangers can't fit in gym lockers?)
-Biodiesel Reactor (Don't let this guy blow up your car.)

The So-Bad-It's-Good
-Wiscontrepreneur Party Enforcer 3000
-Team POWER Lamp (Make sure you're sitting down before watching this video)
-TrashWow! (Obviously riding the coattails of ShamWow!, but I like the claim that Time dubbed it one of the 50 greatest inventions of all time)
-Pitcher that pours two beverages at once (Straightforward)

The Inexplicable:
-WE CONSERVE TOO
-Dehydrator (I'm not sure if broadcasting "I grow shrooms" is the best way to get judges to deem you an innovator)
-The Arcobaleno (")
-Convelope (It's an envelope... for condoms! Wayyy overthinking it, but nice choice of host site)

ASM constitution voter turnout

In light of today and tomorrow's ASM constitution vote, here's a 2005 University of Iowa study on Voter Turnout in Undergraduate Student Government Elections (Note: must log in with UW account to view)

The only student demographic variable to reach significance is the percentage of full-time students. The positive coefficient for this variable indicates that turnout tends to be higher at schools with more full-time students.

...

Online voting appears to increase turnout, as indicated by the positive coefficient for this variable. The final significant variable, and the only election specific variable to reach significance, is the campaign advertising index. The positive coefficient means that turnout tends to be higher on campuses where student campaigns use many forms of advertising. ©Kimberly Lewis and Tom Rice, 2005

I guess two for three isn't bad... I'll put my bets at 16.4 percent.

2004 Piccolo Guy documentary

Blaze Orange is a 16-minute documentary that came out five years ago about Tom Ryan, aka "Piccolo Pete" or "the Piccolo Guy," who plays every day on Library Mall.

Did you know:
-He's been playing on Library Mall for at least 23 years
-He lives in a used U-Haul truck that he bought
-He plays in the University Band (I'm curious to know how he pays to take it)
-He has a Web site (with FULL FRONTAL NUDITY!!!) that was actually updated semi-recently
-He plays in a jazz band called Piccolissimo
-He watches Jeopardy! every day at the Crystal Corner Bar
-Playing on Library Mall is his main source of income—he makes around $12 on a bad day and can make up to $38 on a good day
-He majored in Computer Science (not specified whether he went to UW-Madison, but he mentions that after he graduated he took classes at MATC)
-Some Library Mall vendors are whiny tightasses.

Enjoy!



link

Design nerd fare

First: Kerning vs. keming

Next: A friend showed me this shirt from MySoti.



Also: KERN iPhone game demo by Jason Franzen and Adrian Johnson.



via Hello Bauldoff

Happy Friday.

(link)

Even though I embedded this, I strongly recommend watching this on YouTube in HD. Yes, it is supposed to look like that, and no, I do not smoke pot.