MISCmedia by Clark Humphrey » Blog Archive RANDOM LINKS FOR 7/13/11

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RANDOM LINKS FOR 7/13/11

July 13th, 2011 by Clark Humphrey

Where the state fails, the city steps up, today’s edition: With no more govt.-sponsored tourism promotion in Washington, Seattle might tax hotels forÂ its own tourist ads.
Tuesday’s County Council hearing on the scheme to impose a car-tab surtax to save Metro Transit:Â Stuffed to overflowing with citizens, sparse on County Council members.
You know that deal for Electronic Arts to buy Seattle’sÂ PopCap Games, the deal PopCap management emphatically denied? It’s real, and it’s on.
Rupert Murdoch will stop trying to buy all of the satellite TV company BSkyB after all.
So far, the Murdoch newspaper scandals in Britain haven’t been directly tied to his U.S. properties. Well, here’s a fresh, all-American scandal for you: Murdoch’s Stateside businesses not only pay no income taxes, but clever exploitation ofÂ every tax dodge on the books has let Murdoch get $1 billion or more in tax refunds each of the past four years.
Re/Search Books cofounder V. Vale, seeing his industry falter against the winds of tech-induced change, proclaims “If I were an alien from Outer Space wanting to ruin life on Planet Earth, I think Iâ€™d invent the Internet.”
RIP Sherwood Schwartz, 94, the radio and TV comedy writer who became the creator-producer of Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch. Fun fact: Schwartz later admitted he’d named the S.S. Minnow after Newton Minow, the FCC commissioner who’d denounced most of primetime TV as “a vast wasteland.”
Speaking of which, Joe Berkowitz has handy tips for those of us who refuse to live in televisual abstinence and who continually take gruff for it.
While on the big screen, Carina Chocano sees all these “strong women” movie characters and hates ’em. She says they’re not identifiable as women, but just as a different set of stereotypes.
New Lake City strip club owner: We’re really an “adult cabaret,” and a respectable business too.
And there are many other stories out there, important stuff about the fate of humanity and all. But there’s only one topic on all online users’ minds this day. How dare Netflix raise its rates?