This New England

We live in succession, in division, in parts, in particles. Meantime within man is the soul of the whole; the wise silence; the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal ONE. And this deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is all accessible to us, is not only self-sufficing and perfect in every hour, but the act of seeing and the thing seen, the seer and the spectacle, the subject and the object, are one. We see the world piece by piece, as the sun, the moon, the animal, the tree; but the whole, of which these are shining parts, is the soul.

--- Ralph Waldo Emerson, from his essay "The Over-soul.''

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Boston University will do its bit to destroy what's left of the business models of stodgy academic journals by putting all its research stuff online and available to everyone for free. This means both a lot of fresh, exciting information will soon be circulating and a lot of fresh misinformation too. It will also put another nail in the coffin of copyright protection, and intellectual-property protection in general.

The idea is that professors (and students?) will volunteer to publish their research online, with the proviso that anyone using the work must credit the authors and agree not to use it for profit.

We know how well that's worked out so far....Thanks, Goggle, Yahoo, etc.

But BU, always conscious of being across the river from World's Greatest University, sees this as a way to promote itself.

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Will Portland be able to revive its recession-exploded plan to fix up its municipal pier as an attractive gateway to the city's Old Port? How can it maintain its unusual mix of upscale shopping and working ocean port -- a mix that helps its economy diversified and healthier than most cities in New England?

This is discussed very well in Feb. 28 Boston Globe's page one story by David Filipov, "Seafarers city ponders heading.'' How Portland weathers the recession will set a pattern for other old port cities.

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How can former Massachusetts Governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney deal with this downsizing? It's enough to give you claustrophobia.

The governor is trying to sell his 9,500-square-foot Utah ski lodge for $5.25 million and the Belmont, Mass., house for about $3 million. In these difficult times, says their longtime spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom, told the AP, the Romneys are "downsizing and simplifying."

To a point.

Now they'll have only have a condo somewhere in the Boston area -- and a $10 million house on Lake Winnipesaukee and a $12 million compound in La Jolla, Calif.

My God, the guests will have to sleep on the couch.

But his carbon footprint will at least decline to no more than about 50 times that of the average American -- not including his SUVs.

 Tags  Boston University BU David Filipov Old Port online Portland

Comments

Zman07 said:

Jealousy of Mitt Romney will get you nowhere, Mr. Whitcomb. You've obviously looked at your life and decided it was a financial failure. C'est la vie. Me? I admire the guy. He has class, wealth, and a pretty good resume. I've got two of the three but the wealth part has eluded me which hasn't made me bitter like you. Once again, c'est la vie.

Link | February 18, 2009 8:56 AM
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Papa said:

Zman

One thing you got wrong. While Mr. Whitcomb may not have acheived the "financial success" of Mr. Romey, you are aware I'm certain that the large part of the Romey success was being a member of the lucky sperm club. you do recall daddy Romney?

Link | February 20, 2009 1:06 PM
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