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EYE ON THE PIE: Whose opinion is worth something?

“But,” I reply, “opinions that float free of reality are not worth anything.” “Untrue,” Juniper answers, wiggling a toothpick at me. “Most opinions are based on what people feel, whether they know anything or not. If they don’t know much, their opinions are still valid as a product of what they believe.” “That’s a very generous view,” I say. “It helps explain some really dumb letters to the editors of our newspapers. I get many e-mails that demonstrate good knowledge…

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THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW: Hey dude, the boss is parking in my space!

I’ll admit it: Until recently, I thought “My Space” was simply where I stored “my stuff.” My bad, it turns out. Just ask that young staffer down the hall: The new place to see and be seen is MySpace, Facebook or one of the other online social communities. This summer, MySpace announced it had more than 70 million unique users in the United States-meaning nearly one in four Americans used the site, for a total of nearly 50 billion page…

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Chevrolet pleased with ads, but CD sales hit pothole: Mellencamp is selling trucks, but not tunes

Hoosier rocker John Mellencamp is helping Chevrolet sell more trucks, but he’s having less luck when it comes to selling his records. In November, Mellencamp embarked on his first major commercial campaign, selling his song “Our Country” to Chevrolet for its Silverado pickup truck campaign. Since then, tens of millions of people have seen commercials-some that show Mellencamp playing guitar, while others simply play his song-during myriad collegiate and professional basketball and football games. Chevrolet officials said the commercials featuring…

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SURF THIS: On the Net: Buying and branding the Bonds ball

Faithful readers may remember that my last column was about the young man who decided to sell the record-breaking home-run baseball hit by Barry Bonds. I found the story rather telling as it dealt with human nature, our proclivity to place sports figures on pedestals (often undeservingly), and an undercurrent of the value of authenticity and integrity. Even casual sports fans are aware of the mild controversy surrounding Bonds and his suspected use of performance-enhancing drugs. A few interesting things…

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VIEWPOINT: Avoiding Chinese ‘fifth-shipment’ follies

The recent announcement by the Indianapolis company Gilchrist and Soames that it would recall its privately branded toothpaste because of concerns regarding its diethylene glycol content is a small part of a larger global concern about the quality standards of goods made in China. The same week, Mattel recalled more than 9.5 million U.S. toys over concerns about the use of lead paint. Many Indiana firms rely on a steady stream of qualified products from China, so now seems a…

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NOTIONS: It’s no rant; we need to have a conversation

If you’re reading this column in ink on newsprint, thanks. It’s the medium that inspired me to be a journalist, the one that still lands on my driveway each morning and the one I recycle each Friday afternoon. If you’re reading this column on a Web site, thanks. It’s the medium that’s revolutionized communications, the one drawing droves of ad dollars and the one I can turn to any time to learn what I want to learn as it happens-long…

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Commentary: Get the smoke out of our eyes

Andy Jacobs Jr. wrote in an IBJ column that smoking is an expensive and painful way to commit suicide. He’s right. But he didn’t go far enough. Breathing secondhand smoke at one’s place of employment is also an expensive and painful way to go. The world is beginning to read the smoke signals. Many countries have passed laws to protect their work force from secondhand smoke. Today, you cannot smoke even in an Irish pub. In our country, 22 states…

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Subprime crisis a boon for apartment owners: Fewer renters are fleeing to single-family homes

Many of the banners touting free rent and other promotions have disappeared from Indianapolis-area apartment complexes. The concessions no longer are necessary as more Hoosiers look to rent, and they stay in apartments longer. Market observers say a big reason for the uptick is the subprime housing crisis and a resulting slowdown in new-home construction. “People are staying longer because it’s a little more difficult to purchase a home,” said Alexandra Jackiw, president of Buckingham Management LLC, a subsidiary of…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Investing in liquid assets? Try giving water a good look

G e o – p o l i t i c a l events and the media keep our focus on the price of oil, its potential supply interruptions and the need to reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil. Very little is written or reported about another very strategic resource-water. A top United Nations official addressing the 17th Annual World Water Week in Stockholm last August stated that water is going to be the dominant world issue far into…

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SPORTS: What are these ‘professionals’ thinking? They’re not

An open letter to the Indiana Pacers Shawne Williams (boy, are these open letters to Pacers fun): My first question, Shawne: What were you thinking? But then, it’s obvious you weren’t thinking or, if you were, it was only about yourself and not the team or town Here’s something else that probably hasn’t occurred to you: Because of you, the highly respected Donnie Walsh and one of the greatest to ever put on a basketball uniform, Larry Bird, are being…

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INVESTING: What should we take away from Buffett’s railroad bet?

Say the name Warren Buffett around investors, and they get a little star-struck. For more than 40 years, his publicly traded company, Berkshire Hathaway, has torn up the performance rankings. His value-oriented, patient method is probably one of the most copied strategies in the world. The media rightfully put a lot of light on his actions, and his latest step has my attention. When Buffett took the controls at Berkshire Hathaway in the 1960s, it was a textile firm. Today,…

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Township wrestles with incorporation: As Greenwood, Bargersville annex commercial corridors, rest of township declines

White River Township in northwest Johnson County is dotted with an increasing number of high-priced homes and anchored by one of the area’s strongest school districts. But the area, known as Center Grove, also is marked by crumbling roads, poor drainage and an anemic parks system. To preserve its strengths and shore up its growing weaknesses, some in the area think White River Township needs to incorporate into its own city. The township of more than 40,000 residents faces the…

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ExactTarget accurately predicts its fast growth

ExactTarget Inc.’s 2005 announcement that it would be moving into 30,000 square feet on Monument Circle and hiring 100 people over seven years seemed ambitious. Indianapolis was littered with the ashes of once-high-flying technology startups that had flamed out. But ExactTarget is fast becoming one of the city’s biggest technology success stories.

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Web video series heralds Roman invasion at IMA: Produced in-house, the 11-part series is a first

When the Indianapolis Museum of Art landed the U.S. premiere of a 184-piece exhibit of Roman art from the Louvre, its staff knew the time had come to think big. “This show is considered a blockbuster,” said Daniel Incandela, director of new media at IMA. “I knew we should develop some blockbuster content ideas.” So he and his colleagues pitched their grand plan to museum leaders: They would travel to Rome and Paris to develop an 11-part series of digital…

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SPORTS: Feel-good sports stories are out there-just look

No question about it, the feel-good that sport can create has taken a beating this summer. There was Barry Bonds breaking the Major League homerun record under the strong suspicion of steroid use, NFL star Michael Vick’s guilty plea on federal dogfighting charges, the betting scandal involving NBA referee Tim Donaghy, and the revelation of match-fixing in professional tennis. Just to name a few. It could really get you down if you let it. Yet, I’ve written this before-sport provides…

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Ad agency scores national attention with MTV campaign: Bradley and Montgomery use Web’s social networks

Advertising agency Bradley and Montgomery launched an unorthodox campaign for cable television station MTV last month that is gaining the local firm-and its client-national acclaim. A friend of a friend led BAM officials to the New York-based music television channel, which was looking to promote the release of its show “The Hills” on DVD. BAM officials pulled video snippets from the show, enhanced them graphically, then uploaded the snippets to Web sites such as YouTube.comand Veoh.com. The resulting vignettes can…

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MICKEY MAURER: No gala, but a glorious grand opening

In 2006, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. closed almost 200 transactions. Many recipients of the IEDC largess marked the opening of their job-creation activities with hightech galas featuring products rolling down gangways accompanied by the applause of dignitaries and well-wishers. Recognizing that attendance at these ceremonies was not an efficient use of time, the IEDC adopted the mantra, “We don’t cut ribbons, we just cut deals.” With rare exception, ribbon-cutting was left to the politicians. Last month, I participated in…

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INVESTING: Time to protect assets; more turmoil lies ahead

Heroes are for sporting events and battlefields, not investing. With some of the damage repaired from the early August rout, it is a good time to raise a little cash and wait a few weeks. There certainly will be no shortage of things to watch while you wait. It is easy to make either the bull or bear case right now. The technical damage suffered by the market leading up to the July high was more short-term in nature, not…

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Campaign promoting local art moves into second phase: Plan to target business owners is still on the drawing board

“Be Indypendent” bumper stickers are popping up all over town. They’ve been stuck to the side of Dumpsters and the back of everything from VW bugs to cable repair trucks since debuting in July. The curious who follow the message back to its Web site discover an effort to get everyday consumers interested in buying locally produced artwork. The site (www.beindypendent.org) already has had nearly 2,000 hits from seven countries and 35 states, and now campaign organizers are looking to…

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Commentary: Is this any way to run a government?

As someone who writes and pontificates about the events of the day, summer is usually my slow season. I have to work hard to find things to write and talk about for public consumption. However, this summer has been a whole different matter. We have all been taken aback by the tax protests and subsequent government actions to mitigate the damage. But that wasn’t the big story that caught my attention. The story that stuck in my craw was the…

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