meta-roj

a while ago, i posted a brief comment on the news from new york on the economic impact of the smoking ban in the city.

since then, that story proved a bit controversial as smoking proponents complained that the study didn’t represent the real picture – it lumped mcdonalds in with the local bar. ok, so the economic case may be harder to make. we also recently saw much news of the smoking ban in ireland.

now we have a study based on data fom montana. it’s getting some coverage around the world. but this isn’t without controversy either (statistics are just like that, i guess).

Six-Month Public Smoking Ban Slashes Hart Attack Rate in Community [university of california, san francisco]

In the first study of its kind, researchers have found that the number of heart attack victims admitted to a regional hospital dropped by nearly 60 percent during the first six months that a smoke-free ordinance was in effect in the area.

Smoking ban could halve number of heart attacks [the independent]

…a study conducted in a town that outlawed smoking in enclosed public places. It showed that hospital admissions for heart attacks fell by 40 per cent in the six months covered by the ban.

How anti-smoking law saved lives [edmonton journal]

Every year the town of Helena, Mont., counts how many people suffer heart attacks. Every year the number stayed about the same — until the town banned smoking in workplaces, bars and restaurants in 2002.

Instantly the number of attacks among Helena’s townspeople plummeted by more than 40 per cent.

so, 40% or 60%… i guess someone should take this to the next level and compare the public-health economic impact to the retail-sales economic impact…. and pity the poor tobacco farmers.

with the recent media attention, i thought it would be an interesting exercise to see just how much light had been shed on the 97 radio story from this little blog.

as you might recall, this all started with a friend of mine asking for an opinion. a few minutes of critical analysis and hard thinking later, i had an opinion. given the powers of amazing modern technology, i realized that someone else out there might also benefit from that opinion… and a blog post was born. there isn’t a lot of traffic on the meta-roj blog, but there is some amazing googlejuice.

well, all that was back in january. since then, the thread here has developed more than 50 comments, despite my no-doubt-scaring-people-away anti-comment-spam policy. for this tiny little corner of the web, that’s a big deal. more importantly is the kind of people that have found their way here – particularly john foxworthy. he was on this case long before i caught wind of it – he had the backstory, and came forward here to share it.

if it’s not painfully obvious, i have zero tolerance for parasites – particularly if they prey on me or people i care about. those that prey on the arts hurt everyone, those that prey on the net hurt everyone, and those that flaunt the judicial system that should protect us hurt everyone – these are measures of society. unfortunately, the world is full of such people. this space will always be available to shed some light on them.

the most i could offer was an opinion – hopefully useful, but still just an opinion. since then the post has served as a nexus of sorts, and the facts of the situation have percolated up.

conveniently, i do keep the logs. there are a number of principals involved in the story, so there are a lot of ways people might wander into the story. since then, we’ve had more than 1200 “direct hits” on the 97 radio post. so, just for fun… here’s some breakdown of search-engine queries that got people here…

deftone records: 163
97radio: 139
97 radio: 105
97 radio scam: 96
talent2k: 26
97 radio spring break tour: 17
john foxworthy 97 radio
john foxworthy: 9
carlo oddo: 9
97 radio phoenix: 8
97 radio promotion: 7
carlo k oddo: 7
97 radio promotions phoenix az: 5
97 radio spring break: 5
97 radio john foxworthy: 5
talent 2k: 5
97 radio sun city az: 5
jeff foxworthy 97 radio: 5 [heh. sorry john…]

… and some others. anyway, that’s how some of you found your way here. not all of these searches came through google, but for the sake of providing a link, google got the nod.

odd, however, that google’s found nobody but me linking to the post. that’s a lot of traffic for an isolated little blog.

anyway, i thought some of you might find that interesting. now i need to get back to breaking apart poker chips (don’t ask). thanks to everyone that’s come in; i hope it’s saved some of you some heartache and dollars.

[with a nod to john foxworthy, who’s been leading the charge on 97 radio]

from wwlp tv, a story [windows media, internet explorer only] on the 97 radio scam with a positive twist. since they’re leaving out anyone who won’t play with windows media or microsoft browsers, a transcript follows:

anchor

a local alternative rock and roll band has found themselves on the pages of rolling stone magazine. this pubilicty has the group from franklin county reaching new heights, but as 22 news reporter jeff sealy tells us, it all started when the group fell victim to a publicity scam

jeff sealy

an opportunity for rock and roll bands: for a one thousand dollar fee, tour the gulf coast during spring break playing in front of the college crowds. flight, accomodations and a shot at stardom included.

leslie pasco, lead singer, promize

in exchange for $200 a band member, you’d also get six months of representation in terms of sending your cd out to labels, radio stations, etcetera. i mean, it was just… it looked like a really great opportunity.

jeff sealy

the organizers, the arizona-based 97 radio, checked out with the better business bureau, so the band promize signed on and paid their $1000. but when it was time to fly south, 97 radio hadn’t been heard from and they couldn’t be reached. then the band realized

leslie pasco, lead singer, promize

there’s something really wrong with this

jeff sealy

with a simple search of 97 radio on the internet, promize found out that hundreds of other bands had been scammed by the same ad.

david manning, drummer, promize

so we got all these bands together, and it turned out that it was probably in the millions. some people were taken for 30… 40 thousand dollars at a shot. now the fbi has assigned two guys to the case.

jeff sealy

since, the culprits have been identified by the fbi, promize and all the other bands are still waiting for their refunds, but in th emeantime, rolling stone magazine has taken an interest in the story, and a recent article featuring promize’s efforts to uncover the scam has brought them some positive attention.

david manning, drummer, promize

we have radio stations calling us, record labels… rolling stone is doing another article next month. it’s probably the best thousand dollars we ever spent in our lives.

jeff sealy

jeff sealy, 22 news.

anchor

but the band does still want their thousand dollars back. they’ve got cd out and are currently playing in venues around the state.

the video does feature a screenshot of the original post – a split-second of mostly my [in]famous open-ended tongue-in-cheek record-deal offer. word to the wise – check the meta-roj blog even if they do check out with the better business bureau 🙂

i haven’t heard or seen promize, so i can’t comment on the band. when their music finds me, i’ll share some thoughts on that too (this really is about music, y’know…)

since this is a mass-media moment for meta-roj, i thought i’d put it in a new entry, but if you’re here to comment on 97 radio, i strongly suggest you find the original thread. go there. do something.

the bushiad and the idyossey

amazing.

(and i didn’t even get that far before i had to quit and come present this here for you).

a nod to this important project

John Dominic Crossan (on fresh air, 2004.04.01)

when you start to focus on suffering – on the whole meaning of, say, jesus’s life being reduced – and that verb is carefully chosen – reduced to suffering, it is not the way anyone thought about it in the first century. the romans did not compute suffering. they didn’t say “we need to make this person suffer as much as possible,” or they would’ve kept him in the barracks and tortured him for weeks on end. their purpose was not suffering, but public warning. so, when you bring it all down to suffering, it’s very hard to show it without sadism, and that’s what happens in this movie. how can you show two hours of unrelenting brutality, and ask people to watch it, and ask people to feel that they want it to happen, because it’s their redemption. so you have to be, as it were, on the side of the roman soldiers. you have to want it. you can’t even agree with that jewish woman that cries out in the crowd “somebody stop this!” you can’t. you are being coopted into collusion with sadism. and i think that there is no evidence that i know that the soldiers that scourged jesus were sadistic brutes as are shown in the movie. they could’ve just been executioners doing their dirty job, wanting to get it over and get back to the barracks. so, when you emphasize suffering to that extent, it is almost impossible not to slip over into sadism or even into religious pornography.

[more on crossan, not an uncontroversial figure (count those negatives!)]

after a four-year period of study, an institute of medicine panel, done at the request of the federal drug administration (fda) recommends that the fda be given authority and resources to better-regulate dietary supplements.

Barbara Schneeman of the University of California at Davis, chairwoman of the committee quoted in the washington post

Approximately 29,000 dietary supplements are currently available to the American consumer, and while most are safe, questions have been raised about FDA’s resources to identify and address the occasional problem products. In some cases, data on an ingredient’s safety in humans are scant or nonexistent.

on the other hand, the safety of some ingredients is fairly well-established. this, of course, could mean trouble for people that sell fecally-enhanced herbal supplements from canada.

apparently, after years of frustration in the senate, frank murkowski, now governor of alaska, has announced his intention to encourage oil development in state-controlled waters just offshore from the arctic national wildlife refuge (anwr).

governor frank murkowski

While the U.S. House and Senate remain gridlocked over opening ANWR for oil development, I am not burdened by that process

it’s been called brinksmanship… it’s been called political maneuvering… i’m personally not convinced that the oil-that-would-be is worth chasing (in the big picture), and this does chase right on the heels of opec’s production-cut announcement. hmmm.