Did anyone catch this article in the NY Times last week?
It’s really cool because this musician basically takes multiple,”ameteur” music videos and “video scratches” them to make a song!
Who needs copyrighted music?
Check out his website here.
This guy is a genius!
Here is a good example of his work:
I just read this interesting article, “Big biz and the big university,” which inspired the thoughts below:
Let’s face it, Monsanto is a huge multinational agriculture related corporation. Monsanto is considered the world’s largest seed producer and the corporation recently posted record sales & profits for the beginning of 2009.
University research is very important for gaining credibility in the academic/research and world at large. It is often used to influence public opinion.
So it came as somewhat of a surprise when Monsanto appointed South Dakota State University President, David Chicoine, to the corporations’ board of directors.
The aforementioned article notes that “For fiscal years 2008 and ‘to-date’ fiscal 2009, Monsanto has paid South Dakota State University ‘approximately’ $54,000 for ’services,’ donated around $367,000 in ‘research grants,’ and been paid an estimated $216,000 by South Dakota State University for ‘licenses, services and goods.’
There is some concern that this will give South Dakota State University an advantage in obtaining research money from Monsanto. Mr. Chicoine conceded that “less than 11 percent of all public university money comes from private sources” like Monsanto.
Just having the president of an agricultural university, from a huge agriculture producing state, on the board of directors of an agricultural corporation does not seem right and reeks of influence peddling.
What if there is an unfavorable outcome in Monsanto related, biotechnology related, research at the university?
How will Monsanto’s corporate mission influence agriculture education at the university?
Oh yeah, Mr. Chicoine will be paid a paltry “annual base retainer having a value of $195,000” and “also provides that each non-employee director will receive a grant of restricted stock upon commencement of service…equal to the annual base retainer divided by the closing price of a share of the Company’s common stock on the commencement date.”
I suspect a huge return on Monsanto’s investment in education.
Here’s to admiral individuals like Mr. Chicoine!
Shlok Vaidya’s Thinking » Corruption Continues.
If you do anything today read this blog post by Shlok. Here is just a snippet from the abcnews article:
“Durbin said on the Senate floor that in negotiations, the banking industry argued that restructuring primary home loans — secondary home loans and luxury loans for items like yachts can already be restructured by a bankruptcy judge — would create a moral hazard in this country.”
I love that the banking industry is the new moral compass for our country. America look out!!
I can’t wait for this movie! It should be out in 2010.
From the Edible City Movie website:
“Thanks to the industrialization of agriculture, food is cheap and widely available in developed countries, but the social and environmental costs are dire. The system’s dependence on fossil fuels and chemicals has proven disastrous for our health and our environment. In the United States, healthy and affordable food is the exception instead of the norm.
But there is hope. Edible City tells the stories of people responding to the global food crisis in their communities and in their own backyards, and shows what we can do to create local, sustainable, and just food systems across the country and around the world.”
Here’s the trailer:
Edible City Trailer 1 from East Bay Pictures on Vimeo.
