The future of downtown Ypsi business 2

This entry was posted in Ypsilanti on by (updated 7131 days ago)

Last night the YpsiVotes group held the first Fuature of Downtown Ypsilanti Business session and there was a great turn-out. There were around100 people in the room at the EMU College of Business. A lot of local business people turned out to participate as well as interested people from the community. It was great to see so many people that really want to see downtown Ypsi thrive. As has become so clear to me over the last couple of years the people who live in Ypsilanti, really love this town and want to re-build it. I recorded the event as did Steve Pierce and as soon as I get it transfered and encoded in the next day or so you’ll be able to watch the whole thing from the YpsiVotes feed.

The event started with a presentation by the dean of the EMU business school David E. Mielke. The presentation that Mark Maynard did on the history and status of downtown Ypsi is also available. Speakers included David Curtis (Pub 13, Club Divine) Tandra Williams (Puffer Red’s) Paul Shemon (Cogdon’s Ace Hardware) Jennifer Albaum (Henrietta Fahrenheit) Reynold Lowe (Materials Unlimited) Peter Rinehart(Bombadil’s). The speakers talked about their experiences trying to open and operate a business downtown. The results have obviously been mixed with some (Bombadil’s) being more successful than others (Henrietta Fahrenheit). One interesting thing to learn was that such a high percentage of downtown businesses are locally owned. Other attendees included Linda French, Brian Robb, and prospective mayor Paul Schrieber. The best thing was to see so many people who are optimistic about the potential of Ypsilanti and are willing to work so hard to make it happen.

Diebold continues to prove that they are idiots

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Continuing on the discussion that has been going on here and over on Mark’s site, comes yet another example Diebold’s utter incompetence. HBO has a new documentary premiering tomorrow night called Hacking Democracy. The film is apparently critical of Diebold and other voting systems companies. Needless to say Diebold is not happy about it and doesn’t want people to see it. According to TechDirt, Diebold not having seen the film they are trying to get HBO to cancel it. However, their complaints about inaccuracies in the film actually relate to a completely different movie called Voter Gate. If they can’t get something relatively straightforward like this right why would anyone trust them to run a voting system?

More evidence that the patent system is broken beyond repair

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I’ve written here multiple times about screwed up the intellectual property system is in the United States. Particularly since a U.S. Appeals court decided in 1998 that business methods could be patented, the system has completely broken down. The very premise that a business method is an invention is so utterly stupid that any judge that would actually decide such a thing is clearly either too corrupt or too stupid to be on the bench. Every year the system just gets worse, and the cost to society increases.

The latest ridiculous abuse of the system comes from tax attorneys and accountants. As tax laws have become increasingly complex, lawyers and accountants have had to come up with new ways to help their clients avoid paying their fair share. So those same lawyers have started getting patents on their tax strategies. The premise is insane! Now if people want to use a particular tax strategy they may have to either go the lawyer that holds the patent or potentially another one that has licensed the strategy. I don’t generally have any sympathy for people who have enough money to be able to afford these kinds of problems. However, this is yet another really bad patent precedent. If these kinds of things are allowed to continue along with things like patenting genes, who knows where it goes next?

It’s time to stop the abuse of the patent system. Business method patents, need to permanently banned and all existing method patents need to be invalidated. A database needs to be created for the filing of prior art. Procedures need to be implemented to allow people to challenge a patent application after the application is published if they are aware of prior art on the patent. Finally, patent examiners should be given more training in what the word obvious means! Something like swinging sideways should be granted a patent.

She should know!

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In an interview on C-Span, Laura Bush was asked about the stem cell research issue and the ads that Michael J. Fox has been doing in support of candidates who support stem cell research (sum of whom are in fact Republicans). In her response she said ‘It’s Always Easy To Manipulate People’s Feelings’ which is absolutely true because that’s all her husband and his administration have been doing for the last six years. Almost everything the Bush administration has done has been based on manipulation, using irrational fear to get people to accept things that they should not even be considering like illegal wars, domestic spying, eliminating habeas corpus and legalizing torture. The republicans know more about manipulating peoples feelings and than anyone and they have no business calling anyone else on it.

My evaluation report on the hydrogen powered Focus is up now.

This entry was posted in cars on by (updated 7135 days ago)

Ford Focus FCVThe first part of my report on the overnight evaluation I did last week on the hydrogen powered Ford Focus is up on AutoBlogGreen right now. There will be three more parts coming out in the next few days along with a video. You can also vote for the article on Digg. This million dollar Focus was definitely the most expensive car ever in my garage. Next up will be my opportunity to drive the Honda FCX fuel car.

The end of line for tradional radio 4

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I’ve been saying for a long time that traditional mass media will soon be relegated to history. Now it looks like the next stage is coming. Over the last decade Clear Channel Communications has been snapping up radio stations and concert venues all over the country. They now have over 1200 radio stations including 4 of the 5 commercial radio stations in Ann Arbor (they tried to buy the other one a few years but were thwarted). After homogenizing American radio to the point that it became unlistenable and helping to drive people to other sources like mp3 players, they have now decided to put themselves up for sale. The company is heavily in debt and bleeding listeners. They’re apparently negotiating a leveraged buyout, possibly with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the company that years ago bought RJR Nabisco and then proceeded to break up the company and sell off the pieces. With any luck they’ll close the deal quickly and sell it all off. The sooner all the big media companies either split up or die the better. Media is being democratized through blogs and podcasts and companies like Clear Channel are needed or desirable.

New podcasts up

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In recent days I’ve published a couple of new podcasts. First up is is the latest MewzikCast. Max recorded episode 21 last weekend and it features Danko Jones, Angel Vivaldi, and Chance. I also posted the recording of the this week’s Ypsilanti School Board Meeting. I lost the last five minutes because my recorder was full, but nothing much exciting happened then. There was some discussion of access by military recruiters to students. Apparently the recruiters had been getting essentially free reign to talk to students in the high school cafeteria and a new policy was going to be proposed to limit that access. It turns out there was already a policy in place, but no one was aware of it or enforcing it. There are limits on the access of employment recruiters to students in the school and the policy also applies to military recruiters. There was also a report from the community vision committee. The committee developed a vision for the Ypsilanti Schools and there is some good stuff there that I’ll right more about later. You can hear the audio portion of the report at the podcast site.

Ypsilanti Football

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In case you haven’t heard the Ypsilanti High School football team won there division this fall and are now off to the play-offs. They went 8-1 in the regular season and they will be facing off against Portage Central in the Division 2 play-off game this Friday night at Shadford Field. If you like to watch football you might want to go check it out. The game is at 7:00pm and the team could definitely use all the fan support they can get.

Help Digg my new article on the hydrogen powered Ford Focus 13

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fuel cell focusI wrote a post over on AutoblogGreen about the new hydrogen filling station that opened in Taylor, MI today and my opportunity to drive the hydrogen fuel cell powered Ford Focus. Ford has a fleet of these zero emissions running around the country right now. I’d really appreciate if you could go over to Digg.com and vote for the story. If enough people digg the post it might be able to get to the front page. Even if you don’t digg it, go check out the story! This car is the future of transportation. The only thing that comes out the tail pipe is water!