With the drought this winter the pond where the Tree Frogs breed in the NBG had gone dry. It was dry most of April, so I was concerned that there would be no breeding season this year. The pond refilled in late April with the rains, so I was hopeful that it had filled in time. On May 19 I saw tadpoles. Last year the tadpoles appeared on May 12,
Monthly Archives: May 2012
Keith Stokes and economic development
Sent this as a letter to the editor
To the editor, I have seen a number of people praise Keith Stokes on his way out of the door at the RI Economic Development Corporation, but I think it bears remembering that 38 Studios is the second major blunder of this sort in his economic development career. Mr. Stokes was completely taken in by the con men who convinced most of the economic development establishment of Rhode Island that they could be a successful gigantic container port. Eventually the public won out and the con men were unmasked, but right until the end Mr Stokes was a proponent of their port.
rhyming for prosperity
Running an economy on the principle that making the 1% happy will bring prosperity, is preposterous, and links our communities to the vanishing rhinoceros.
Studio 38 strikes out
18 months ago or so when the RIEDC decided to give $75 million to Studio 38 so it could develop video games in RI instead of MA a number of people in Rhode Island, myself included , but also many people with extensive business experience, noted that this was a poor choice for the state. the reasons people objected were varied. In my case it is because I do not believe the video game industry is ever a good bet. Other people objected to the state of RI doing anything that smacked of having an industrial policy.
I tend to be a believer in industrial policy, that the state should be making a smart use of the people’s money, and helping industries that will help the state in its development and job creation, but it is pretty clear that the RIEDC has a very poor track record in this area, and the video game industry is so uncertain that this was a long shot at best.
So it is with a little bit of I told you so, and a whole lot more regret that the state has wasted its money, that I have been reading the headlines and stories this week about the uncertain future and financial picture of 38 Studios. This fiasco will give industrial policy a bad name when it should be another nail in the coffin of the EDC. It also reflects rather poorly on Curt Schilling, the right winger who hypocritically took money from the state and squandered it. I would say he should have stuck to pitching but he was done with that by the time he took up video games.
beyond inequality
Not coincidentally the larger the inequality in the society, the more damaging the environmental ethics pursued. Healing ecosystems, real democracy, an equitable income distribution, non violence, are all connected.