Humpday Humor: A Government Run Computer Industry

What if the computer industry was run like....government schools.

In this video clip Harry Browne estimates the cost of a personal computer in such a scenario.

How Did Those Crazy '60's Bands Get Recorded?

Musician Frank Zappa had a lot to say about pop culture, censorship, taxes and the government.  In this piece he discusses the changes that took place in the music industry during the 1970's and 80's.

It turns out those old, stodgy record label executives were pretty good for the consumer of music....

 

Interesting music acts of the 60's were everywhere.  Some of my favorite are The Fugs, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Grateful Dead, Nina Simone, John Handy, Alice Cooper Band, MC5, The Yardbirds, The Impressions, Gil Evans and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

Unfortunately you will rarely or never hear these bands on the radio today.

But thanks to improvements in technology new acts are recording music for the lowest cost in history.  These minimal start-up investments enable bands to deliver their product cheaply and quickly via the internet directly to the consumers.  This decentralized market is offering music fans far more options than we ever had before.

A Revolution in Education

Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace for educators to share their materials.  Over 2.6 million people have registered with TpT to buy and sell resources.

It seems, finally, that teachers can be rewarded for their skills and efforts by serving a market need for high quality educational materials.  

ReasonTV highlighted success stories of this peer-to-peer economy in a recent episode....

The Good People of Detroit

Charles Molnar and students from the Detroit Enterprise Academy came up with a pretty good plan.  Place benches at bus stops.  

(Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)

It turns out that the people calling themselves "City of Detroit" were not filling the market need for places to sit while waiting for the bus.  Young enterprising minds have come up with a solution and received some good will from the community.  Nice work kids!