“Using ‘loss-leaders,’ or selling products below cost to attract customers, is illegal. Other restrictions apply to books retailers must not offer discounts of more than 5 percent on the publisher’s recommended price. The free delivery offered by Amazon exceeded the legal limit in the case of cheaper books, the union charged.”
Tag: 12.12.07
Harvard Slashes Tuition Burden
Harvard has announced a plan to cut tuition costs for students whose families earn less than $180,000 a year. The plan ensures that “family contributions to students’ costs will not exceed 10 percent of family income in a given year. Harvard is also eliminating all loans from aid packages and eliminating home equity in calculations of family wealth.”
Study At Yale – Free And Online
“Yale University on Tuesday launched its free, online archive of popular undergraduate courses — including not only syllabi, problem sets and course materials, but videos and audio files of the lectures themselves.”
Writers’ Strike Has Cost Studios $100 Million+
“A Web site operated by the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), the bargaining arm of the studios, now boasts a running tally — updated by the second — of income lost by guild members since the Writers Guild of America (WGA) launched its first strike in almost two decades.”
German Museum Closes Terracotta Warriors Exhibit, Claiming Fakes
This kind of clay was used in those times. And we can say that these figures are life- sized, like the originals. But they are not originals.”
Video Games Go After The Brain-Improvement Biz
“An ageing population coupled with the current obsession with self-improvement have proved fertile ground for brain-training games. Hand-held consoles are now marketing themselves as tools to improve brain functions and are targeting previously untapped, older markets.”
The Sound (Literally) Of Music
“In a sense listening to sounds or music ‘for their own sake’ is an odd thing to do. But this kind of innocent listening can have a transforming effect on us. Self and the needs of the moment drop away, and we become bewitched by the world’s fascinating aural colours, or if it’s music, by the mysterious order in the notes – which for a moment puts us in order too. The trouble is, that kind of listening is becoming harder and harder.”
Canadian Actors Union Protests Stall In Copyright Reform
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists says reform is badly needed. “A large number of Canadian musicians, however, do not support ACTRA’s position and are concerned that industry bodies are not speaking in their interests.”
Looking For A Definition Of New Music
Why is some 100-year-old music still conidered “new” while other music seems to blend into the comfort of history?
The Vanity Oscar Movie
“In a business that is almost always about the money, the appeal to vanity — a shot at the most coveted prize in almost any industry — has yielded the so-called Oscar film, a movie aimed at adults that makes its debut late in the year with an eye toward getting a date with the statue.”