By Steve Rhodes
“Thrill Jockey, Drag City, and Touch and Go (which is a catalog-only imprint these days) were among the independent labels whose stock was destroyed in a warehouse fire in north London [Monday] night,” Peter Margasak reports for the Reader.
“While the Chicago labels were still awaiting details about what they’d lost before deciding where to go from here, it’s clear that the pain is going to be serious. Thrill Jockey owner Bettina Richards estimates wholesale losses of £189,000 (more than $300,000), with anywhere from ten to a hundred copies of each of the label’s 280 back-catalog titles destroyed.”
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See also: London Riots: Independent Record Labels ‘Devastated’ By Fire
Song of the Moment
It’s not really “London Calling,” it’s more Anarchy in the U.K.
How Richard M. Daley Is Like Don Rumsfeld
Yesterday I wrote about federal court rulings allowing torture lawsuits against Don Rumsfeld to go forward.
Today comes the news that torture lawsuits against Richard M. Daley can go forward too.
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See also: Daley Sarcastic About Burge Torture
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“If they require me to be deposed, I have no problems with that,” Daley once said at a news conference – even as his lawyers fought and continue to fight just such an occurrence.
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See also: Twenty Questions
Torture WTF
“Former Gov. Jim Thompson, former U.S. Sen. Adlai Stevenson III and other legal and political heavyweights are asking the Illinois Supreme Court to order hearings into claims by prisoners that they were tortured by former Chicago Police Cmdr. Jon Burge and his detectives,” the Sun-Times reports.
Why do I smell a rat?
Wrong Question
“Could Unspent Stimulus Money Be Mobilized to Fend Off a New Recession?” ProPublica asks.
Wait. There’s unspent stimulus money?
How Barack Obama Is Like Tom Ricketts
He didn’t cause the problem, but he sure hasn’t done much right solving it.
Flipping The Script
“During the presidential campaign, John McCain stupidly announced that ‘the fundamentals of the economy are still strong,’ a statement that Barack Obama hung around his neck like a flaming car tire,” John Cook wrote for Gawker in November 2009. “Today, Obama hailed the economy’s ‘core strengths.’ Whoops.”
So guess what the senior senator from Illinois said this morning?
Boon Doggle
“Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the [G8 and NATO] meetings will be a great opportunity for the city to showcase itself to the world,” CBS Chicago reported in June.
“Emanuel laughed Wednesday when a reporter asked if just the security costs for hosting the NATO summit would be huge, given that the G8 summit has traditionally drawn demonstrators.
“Yes, Emanuel said, he realizes that just fine.
“But the mayor says he will look for help from the private sector to supplement what the city will have to do next spring. Emanuel also says he is looking at the big picture.
“‘There’s a bigger opportunity as it relates to both international security and the international economy. That’s what’s essential,’ Emanuel said. ‘But for us from a city perspective, this will be an opportunity to showcase what is great about the greatest city in the greatest country.'”
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“The National Confectioners Association has agreed to move its Sweets & Snack Expo to earlier dates next May at McCormick Place to avoid overlap with the NATO and G8 summits coming to town,” the Tribune reports.
“A source close to the deal said the city’s convention bureau offered incentives worth around $500,000 to keep the show here.
“The candy show is the second show to rearrange its timing. The National Restaurant Association agreed to move its dates last month after negotiating a one-time financial package worth about $2 million, including some noncash items, such as marketing assistance.”
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See also: Economic Impact of Hosting The 2005 G8 Summit At Gleneagles; Economic Benefits of Hosting G8 and G20 Summits;
(Hint: It’s like the Olympics without the fun.)
Bat Man
“Anyone who has seen a Major League Baseball game the past few years has seen the absurdity: wooden bats constantly splintering, shattering and breaking, their shards fluttering across the field and occasionally into the stands,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“But where the rest of us saw an annoyance and potentially a danger, two fans saw a business opportunity.
“Jim Cortez, an entrepreneur in Chicago, and Greg Kendra, who is a real-estate agent in Denver, came up with a process by which bats are cryogenically frozen at minus-310 degrees Fahrenheit for up to 24 hours, and then slowly allowed to come back to ambient temperature. They’ve had their bats tested by an independent university laboratory and claim in their patent filing that their cryogenically treated bats are 26% stronger than standard bats.
“They’ve filed paperwork with Major League Baseball to have their bats certified for use, but say they have heard nothing back from the league.”
Top 20 RBs
Where does Matt Forte rank?
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Cryogenic.
Posted on August 10, 2011