Eubie's notes

NY Times: Considering the Last Romantic, Ayn Rand at 100. Interesting view that the heros Roark and Galt were so ill-suited for the democratic ideas she espoused. My interest in her books waned when I could not resolve her heros to the world. This column did make me think about the villains again. “But her villains have the best names, the most memorable quirks, the whiniest or most insinuating voices.”

Baltimore Business Journal: State to divert tobacco money –Governor: Money needed to fund strapped Medicaid

Charlotte Business Journal: Duke eyes rate base to pay for broadband

Puget Sound Business Journal: Got metal? Better check — it’s going fast. “Driven by the rising prices of scrap metal, thieves have stolen high-school aluminum bleachers, highway and overpass guard rails, copper power lines and phone cables, airplane and ship propellers, street signs, aluminum manhole covers and just about any metal it’s possible to steal.”

South Florida Business Journal: Arts center lacks money for seats, lighting, curtains

Tampa Bay Business Journal: Motor homes marketed to resist threats of bioterror, allergens

WSJ: ID Theft Is Declining And Mostly Offline, New Survey Finds. Almost two-thirds of id theft occurs from information obtained offline. Info obtained online accounted for less than 12 percent. Also interesting was that in cases where the perpetrator’s identity was know, half were committed known by the victim.

The original study is here, which includes an online identity theft quiz. The Sacramento Business Journal also did a story on the report — Report: Identity theft more common offline than online.

Update on NY Times Online considers subscription fee from Newsday — Times may charge fee on Web site. “(I)t doesn’t immediately plan to charge a subscription fee for access to its Web site, but an online survey hinted at moves in that direction.”

Also: “The survey outlined pricing options from $13.49 to $15.99 a month for full access. Daily access might be obtained for $1 a day.”

This comes just days after NY Times runs piece on day Dow Jones completes purchase of Marketwatch about news sites having an inventory shortage as demand to advertise online runs ahead of their ability to deliver page views. With MarketWatch now, Dow Jones hopes to capture more advertising than it had available with wsj.com

Two weeks ago, Wal-Mart ran full-page ads in more than 100 daily newspapers to help counter the negative publicity it has received over the past years on things from overtime pay to supplier relations. When the ads ran, many newspapers did stories about the PR effort and its new web site, walmartfacts.com.

Last Friday, the National Newspaper Association blasted the strategy: NNA President says community newspapers insulted by Wal-Mart PR strategy. Romenesko has the story and other stories on how Wal-Mart is a threat to newspapers and ad spending.

Austin Business Journal: Spam fighter helps trap one of world’s biggest perpetrators

Cincinnati Business Courier: Family ties unraveling: Henry Heimlich faces firing squad of criticism from surprising source

Orlando Business Journal: Temporary surgeons: Have scalpel, will travel

Puget Sound Business Journal: Stress level and job satisfaction tied to white-collar back pain

Want to see which famous folks you could look in the eye?

Two recent articles:

Wired News: Like It or Not, Blogs Have Legs

Fortune: Why There’s No Escaping the Blog

But there’s also downsides:

Wired News: Heartaches of Journalist Bloggers and Blogs May Be a Wealth Hazard

BoingBoing:

I came across this nice calculator at the Economic History Services site. The thing I learned is that there isn’t one answer to the question “How much is $100 from 1960 worth today?” From the site:

In 2003, $100.00 from 1960 is worth:

$621.65 using the Consumer Price Index

$502.09 using the GDP deflator

$761.26 using the unskilled wage

$1,297.73 using the GDP per capita

$2,086.61 using the relative share of GDP

Two stories from ACBJ’s print editions this week lived on across the web. “N&R looks to break tradition with Web changes” in The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area reported on changes to the daily newspapers to allow more interaction between the newsroom and readers. The story drew was noted by Greensboro, N.C. bloggers, including Ed Cone. Greensboro bloggers are gaining a reputation as a developing city for citizen journalism. No surprise that the bloggers did not like that the Friday print-edition story was not posted on the web until Monday.

Rainforest founder plots big return in The Business Journal (Minneapolis/St. Paul) was a big hit on sites such mugglenet.com, The Leaky Cauldron with the mention that a restaurant chain based on the Harry Potter character was being considered. It was big news for a few hours, but then the story was debunked and others by Rawlings agency. The main source of The Business Journal’s story retracted his earlier statements that he had spoken with J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, about opening a theme restaurant based on the character. He also said he does not hold rights to use the character’s name.