Today’s Report – January 22nd

WSJ: Sports Mania is a Poor Substitute for Economic Success. Remember those articles in the Plain Dealer touting Pittsburgh as an example for Cleveland to follow? Maybe not such a great idea. It appears that neither city should be used as example of anything positive. This opinion piece by a Pittsburgh TV producer points out that the city of Toledo’s population is now greater than the city of Pittsburgh. The city of Cleveland, of course, is still much larger, and yet much poorer and generally in worse shape. One thing I need to look into is this piece’s claim that Philadelphia should be lumped into this list of cities who have failed economic strategies. Based on my own experiences and what I know about Philly, there is no possible way you could put Cleveland (or Pittsburgh) and Philadelphia into any sort of grouping. Philadelphia is much larger (almost four times bigger population than Cleveland), denser (twice as dense as Cleveland), and wealthier, and has a completely different set of economic drivers. Let’s put it this way: there may never be an Apple Store in downtown Cleveland.

Tom Gralish (Philadelphia Inquirer): Found – AGAIN – the Poster Source Photo. Up to this point, it’s been a mystery where Shepard Fairey nabbed the photo that his iconic Obama poster was based on – even to Fairey. He’s always claimed he just grabbed something “presidential” from a Google Image search. Well Gralish (with a lot of help) has identified the photo and the photographer. It’ll be interesting to see if the AP tries to obtain royalties from Fairey.
Ars Technica: Sith Obi-Wan. Did that get your attention? If not, you must not be a Star Wars fan. Apparently one of the features in the long-delayed game Star Wars Battlefront III is an “alternate reality” mode. And one of the alternate realities is that some of the straight-arrow characters moved over to the dark side. What a great idea.
World of Goo Soundtrack! Complete (actually, significantly expanded) and free. Kyle Gabler really did an excellent job with this. The music is one of the game’s highlights.

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