AOL: “Certain Death or Free Plus Ads”?

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Henry Blodget:

The WSJ reports that AOL is considering making online access to its service–including, importantly, email–free. (AOL email users currently have to pay for one of the company’s subscription plans, although much of the rest of the company’s content is already free.) Per the WSJ, this move would vaporize about one-quarter of the company’s revenue, or $2 billion. The company estimates that it would also result in the loss of 8 million paying subscribers.

Blodget also notes that Vonage’s recent IPO continues to be black comedy (public at 17, now 8.25 after just a month….

DeLorenzo and Wallace on Nissan / Renault / GM

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Peter DeLorenzo:

Make no mistake – this isn’t about creating a new global automotive powerhouse well-equipped to do battle deep into this century, one that will keep Toyota from taking over the world. And this certainly isn’t about doing what’s best for General Motors and the people who have so much invested in the fortunes of the company. And this in no way, shape or form has anything to do with solidifying America’s manufacturing base or shoring up the economy.

No, this is about flat-out greed, pure and simple.

Ed Wallace:

This possibility is not a case of what would be best for General Motors; it’s driven by egotism and greed. Setting the stage for it were the peculiarities of the financial markets; GM, the world’s largest car company, recently had a market capitalization barely above $10 billion, while its closest competitor’s market cap was $169 billion. Analysts now forecast that Toyota, the world’s second largest car company, should be worth $236 billion within the year, but faltering GM will be worth no more than $15 billion.

It is that situation that allowed a notorious corporate raider, Kirk Kerkorian, to buy 9.9% of GM’s outstanding shares for little or nothing. And with that purchase he gained the leverage to push his personal consultant — whose pay is based not on GM’s improved financial performance but on Kerkorian’s take from his investment in the motor company — onto GM’s board of directors.

Mute 19 Years, He Helps Reveal Brain’s Mysteries

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Benedict Carey:

Mr. Wallis, 42, wears an open, curious expression and speaks in a slurred but coherent voice. He volleys a visitor’s pleased-to-meet-you with, “Glad to be met,” and can speak haltingly of his family’s plans to light fireworks at his brother’s house nearby.

For his family, each word is a miracle. For 19 years — until June 11, 2003 — Mr. Wallis lay mute and virtually unresponsive in a state of minimal consciousness, the result of a head injury suffered in a traffic accident. Since his abrupt recovery — his first word was “Mom,” uttered at the sight of his mother — he has continued to improve, speaking more, remembering more.

But Mr. Wallis’ return to the world, and the progress he has made, have also been a kind of miracle for scientists: an unprecedented opportunity to study, using advanced scanning technology, how the human brain can suddenly recover from such severe, long-lasting injury.

Music Sales: Fewer Big Hits, Many More Sales at the Tail….

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Chris Anderson:

Larry Lessig pointed me to an interesting bit of research on filesharing and the decline of music sales in Denmark, which shows that the fall in sales has been felt far more in the hits than in the niches. The work, by Claus Pedersen, uses data from the Nordic Copyright Bureau. That means the data are not just estimates of sales declines, but actual sales. I’ve charted one aspect of the research, which looks at the change in sales in four sales categories, from bestsellers to the long tail:

Manure Power

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Claudia Deutsch:

In fact, more utilities are thinking of buying the gas outright. Pacific Gas and Electric has agreed to transport gas from a big digester that Microgy, a digester manufacturer, is building in California. Right now Microgy plans to sell the gas on the open market, but Robert Howard, vice president for gas transmission and distribution, said P.G.& E. may buy some gas itself. “This technology provides pipeline-quality gas and reduces carbon emissions, so of course we’re in favor it,” he said.

The environmental boons are many. According to Agstar, digesters are already keeping 66,000 tons of methane from escaping each year into the atmosphere, while generating enough energy to power more than 20,000 homes.

And technologies, some of which have been around for decades, have finally grown more reliable. “There’s been a lot of time and energy spent on making these as effective and efficient as possible, so anaerobic digestion will be a growing business,” said Daniel J. Mannes, vice president of Avondale Partners, a securities research firm that recently initiated coverage of the Environmental Power Corporation, the company in Portsmouth, N.H., that owns Microgy.

Freedom to Farm: Program Pays $1.3B to People Who Don’t Farm

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Dan Morgan, Gilbert Gaul and Sarah Cohen:

Even though Donald R. Matthews put his sprawling new residence in the heart of rice country, he is no farmer. He is a 67-year-old asphalt contractor who wanted to build a dream house for his wife of 40 years.

Yet under a federal agriculture program approved by Congress, his 18-acre suburban lot receives about $1,300 in annual “direct payments,” because years ago the land was used to grow rice.

Matthews is not alone. Nationwide, the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all, according to an analysis of government records by The Washington Post.

Some of them collect hundreds of thousands of dollars without planting a seed. Mary Anna Hudson, 87, from the River Oaks neighborhood in Houston, has received $191,000 over the past decade. For Houston surgeon Jimmy Frank Howell, the total was $490,709.