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Showing posts from June, 2011

If someone wants to lose half a billion...

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In case you didn't hear, News Corporation - the same people who bring you Fox News - today sold MySpace for the sum of $35 million . That is not a small amount of money. Though it is much smaller than the $580 million News Corp. paid for MySpace in 2005. Let's put this in perspective. Say you bought a house in 2005 for $200K. Now, in our recessioned world, you might get $165K for it (so I hope for you, anyway). Your house would have lost more than 17% of its value. Under News Corp., MySpace lost almost 94% of its value . Some people thought this was a good deal at the time, by the way. This will be broken down in business and communications textbooks for generations. Mistakes were made. Facebook, seemingly, didn't make them. Whatever. That isn't what this post is about. As of the moment I am writing this, News Corp.'s stock price is $17.83/share. What was it on June 30, 2005? A hair below $17 per, according to News Corp.'s investor site . What I' saying here

The next big medical dramas...

ABC has wheeled out a new show called Combat Hospital . I have not watched it. But just as CBS has made CSI spin-off after spin-off, it seems ABC is content to do this with medical dramas. Let's recap: Grey's Anatomy - Frightfully attractive hospital staff provide services to Seattle's sick and injured in between bouts of providing "other services" to each other. However, when you have good writing and good acting, this can work out. Private Practice - Doctor leaves Grey's Anatomy for sunny Santa Monica to be part of a private medical practice that serves, well... the type of people you expect in Los Angeles that are rich enough to not care if their medical insurance pays for their procedures. Off the Map - Frightfully attractive doctors (in Ecuador?) providing services to the stereotypically Latin American locals while doing some soul searching. Now, we have Combat Hospital , which, from what I can gather, is doctors on the war front in Afghanistan. This i

The signs are clear

This past week, I traveled to New York on business. I had been back east since moving west, but this time, in particular, the signs were all there... I've become a west coaster. Let's review: Tolerance for heat? Gone. Especially the east coast favorite of "HHH" weather - hazy, hit and humid. Last Tuesday, I basically wilted in the NYC heat and it was the coldest day of my brief trip there. On Weds, it hit 95 and, despite having grown up in this sort of weather, I was done with it. I guess it's more of a testament to the miracles of nature and how we're able to acclimate to the areas we live in. For now, though, if it must be hot, let's do dry heat, k? Apparently, I no longer jaywalk. Or I have to remind myself to do so. I was walking to meet a friend in NYC and the sign said "don't walk." So... I didn't. If you've never been to/lived in NYC, this may mean nothing to you. If you do, you're probably going "You're the pedest