Monthly Archives: September 2004

Nicole Miller’s unplanned business success story

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I remember buying a number of Nicole Miller ties in the early 1990’s…

he first Nicole Miller boutique opened on New York’s Madison Avenue in 1986. The store did well, but Miller’s first big break came by accident.
Miller had made a series of silk dresses with a print made out of a design of theater tickets. Bud Konheim, her business partner of 22 years, remembers the dresses were “awful.” Konheim and Miller discussed using the silk to make women’s scarves but settled on men’s ties instead. A security guard at the Madison Avenue boutique also happened to work nights at the Metropolitan Opera. He borrowed one of the ties and showed it to a buyer of the Met’s gift shop.

Elizabeth Blair

Yin & Yang of Ginseng

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Elizabeth Thompson:

In work that emphasizes the need for stronger regulation of herbal drugs, an international team of MIT scientists and colleagues has unraveled the yin and the yang of ginseng, or why the popular alternative medicine can have two entirely different, opposing effects on the body.
Conflicting scientific articles report that ginseng can both promote the growth of blood vessels (key to wound healing) and stymie that process. The latter is important because preventing the formation of blood vessels can be enlisted against cancer. Tumors are fed by blood vessels; cutting off their supply can kill them

Psst: Want some Wisconsin Ginseng?

Tommy Thompson, Bud Selig & The Brewers, Still Sticking it to the Taxpayers

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Don Walker on the $8M repairs needed for Miller Park’s 3.5 year old roof. We should not forget Tommy Thompson’s infamous quote: (made in reference to an excise tax to help finance the Brewers’ new stadium) Let Milwaukee and nearby counties pay for it, not his northern constituents. “Stick it to ’em.” And he did. Shepherd Express | Wispolitics
This article by Steve Fainaru (created not in Wisconsin, but in Washington, DC) tells the story.

Agricultural Finance

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Years (decades!) ago, I worked briefly for a bank. I recall that ag lending was, at the time, at best a poor stepchild to commercial lending. This Economist article provides a fascinating look at Rabobank’s (Dutch Bank) acquisition of Farm Credit Services – a US Government sponsored lending entity. Perhaps some Wisconsin Financiers should think about this…

AGAINST THE GRAIN
Aug 26th 2004
Why is a Dutch bank moving into agricultural finance in America?
WHAT on earth is Rabobank up to? This Dutch co-operative bank has been
busily expanding its franchise in farm-finance, an area American banks
have done everything to avoid since a meltdown in the 1980s. If that
was not odd enough, Rabobank’s most recent move is truly unique. At the
end of July, it reached an agreement to buy Farm Credit Services of
America, an institution that is a component of America’s odd network of
government-sponsored entities (GSEs). That agreement has unleashed an
unholy row.

(more…)

The Mad Assemblage Clock Maker

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Cory Doctorow:

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Zed show has done a segment on my pal Roger Wood, the mad assemblage clockmaker.
Roger Wood creates with time in mind. Yet even though the clock can be a consistent element of his work, it’s often secondary to its creation. Whether it’s a curious timepiece or a unique assemblage, Wood thrives on working with an immeasurable array of findings from the tarnished and forgotten to the odd or intriquing. He is a devoted collector of usual and unusual objects with one thing in common, a history

iPods and Cars

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Xeni:

BMW is revving up some vehicle models (including the 330Ci coupe I reviewed) with a new sound system integrated with the Apple iPod. What’s new and cool about this: it’s touted as the first-ever fully integrated iPod/car interface you can drive right off the dealer lot. Costs under $500 as an upgrade to price of the new car. Plenty of aftermarket systems are available to hook your iPod (or other digital music players) to your car stereo, but many of these use your FM radio or a cassette player to interface, reducing sound quality in the process. Here, the sound quality was super-sweet.

Keep in mind that Democrat Pat Leahy and Republican Orrin Hatch are carrying water for Hollywood with the induce act – which would outlaw the iPod. Noah Adams

New Study: Who is building large WiFi Networks, and why

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Nancy Gohring:

The University of Georgia?s New Media Consortium recently conducted a study examining large Wi-Fi deployments in the United States: The study differentiates between what it calls Wi-Fi clouds, which have continuous coverage and Wi-Fi zones, which offer interrupted coverage. The researchers found 38 clouds and 16 zones. The study examines who owns the networks and what the owners hope to gain from building the networks. It?s a thorough report on the intentions of hotspot builders today.
The next step will be trying to figure out if the intentions of hotspot network developers are being met. For example, 43 percent of cloud developers cited stimulating economic development as a motivating factor for building the network. But it?s not clear if large Wi-Fi networks in small towns actually succeed in stimulating economic development

With respect to economic development, my view is that we need to, somehow, as fast as possible, offer true, economic bi-directional high speed internet to all Badger resident (speeds 20x+ faster than current rather slow “broadband” services). These type of pervasive networks will support video, VOIP as well as personal web services.

Best Law Money Can Buy: House votes to support junk faxes!

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Dan Gillmor:

In one of the most dishonestly named bills of all time, the House recently passed the “Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2004“. The legislation would, in fact, open the floodgates for these intrusions into our lives.
The bill, S 2603, would allow anyone who’s done any kind of business with you during the last seven years — seven years! — to send you faxes without getting your permission first. You would have to opt out each time.
The FCC’s latest regulations, which proposed to tighten the current rules against junk faxes, were too much for corporate America and its marketing wizards who continue to invade every corner of our lives. Their power with Congress is far greater than yours, so far.
At least they could tell the truth, naming S 2603 the “Junk Fax Enabling Act.”

Contact Tammy Baldwin and urge her to repeal this absurdity.

GPS used to spy on Detectives

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Jacqueline Seibel:

Suspicious that his detectives were not hard at work solving the latest crimes in Muskego, Police Chief John Johnson spied on his own investigators using high-tech surveillance equipment usually used to keep tabs on drug dealers and gangbangers.
Secretly placing a global positioning system tracker in a squad car shared by the department’s two detectives, police supervisors learned that the pair were driving to a tanning salon, shopping at the Geoffrey Beene Outlet Store in Kenosha County and running personal errands while on duty, according to reports released Tuesday.

This is not a new story, there have been previous examples of GPS (Global Positioning System) used to track rental car users among others.