Metaboston

Ponzi: Boston's Innovator of Financial Fraud

An apparent role model for alleged fraudster Bernie Madoff, Charles Ponzi joined the select group whose name has become immortalized in the language.

BU professor Mitchell Zukoff wrote Ponzi's biography and has been widely cited as people seek to understand the Madoff scandal

But, if you organize a Ponzi scheme what is your exit strategy if the scam can't be sustained and most don't last more than a year.

Some hope to disappear, some seem resigned to be caught and some intend to go straight and cover up the scam.

Most Ponzi schemes last a year at most, says Utpal Bhattacharya, an Indiana University finance professor. (Ponzi’s lasted just nine months.) So it seems likely that Mr. Madoff, an investment manager since 1960, started out legitimate or semi-legitimate. People in that position sometimes foolishly think they can hide a one-time loss with new investors’ money, and make up for it with a big gamble later.

In other words, Ponzi schemers don’t necessarily start out as such, and as sophisticated as they are, they may not consciously recognize that they have created one. They delude themselves into thinking the ploy is just a stopgap measure, an attempt to hide a loss until they can — once again — dream up something brilliant.

More on Nesson v. the RIAA

Alex Beam considers what it means for the RIAA now that Charles Nesson is defending a BU grad student accused of illegal downloading.

"Background: In the past few years, the RIAA has sent out about 30,000 letters to individuals and families, demanding payment for illegal downloads. You really don't want one of these letters in your mailbox, because (1) the RIAA is probably right - someone in your house has been downloading, and (2) it's an offer you can't refuse. Generally, the RIAA wants between $3,000 and $5,000 to go away, along with your assurance that the illegal downloading will stop. "Parents get these letters, and they are thinking, 'Omigod, how can I cover my [expletive],' " says Boston University graduate student Joel Tenenbaum.

Most people pay the money and run. But Tenenbaum and his mother, Judie, a family lawyer for the state of Massachusetts, chose to fight the RIAA in court, representing themselves. This summer, Judge Nancy Gertner - another of Boston's outsized legal personalities - found more than 130 defendants like Tenenbaum clogging her court, practically all of them without lawyers. "There is a huge imbalance in these cases," Gertner said at a status hearing. "The record companies are represented by large law firms with substantial resources. The law is also overwhelmingly on their side. They bring cases against individuals who don't have lawyers, who don't have access to lawyers, and who don't understand their legal rights."

Robert Pinsky on Inman Square

Former Poet Laureate and BU writing professor Robert Pinsky discusses his Inman Square neighborhood.  It's not all love though.  Here's the poet on the Inman branch of Bukowski's Tavern.

Does he ever grab a beer there?

"It's a children's bar," he says, then dismisses the writer it's named after in the same breath. "He's a children's writer, good for 15-year-old boys."

New England's Cornucopia of Lit Journals

New England's treasure trove of magazines you aren't reading . . . but probably should. 

Magazines like literary stalwarts Ploughshares and AGNI as well as new blood like Redivider and Quick Fiction.

Watch Indiana Jones with BU Archeologist Curtis Runnels

The Coolidge Corner Theatre's Science on Screen film series brings local scientists into the movie theatre to talk about movies related to their field. See what a real archeologist thinks of Indiana Jones and wash away thoughts of the Crystal Skull.

“Before the film, we'll have a special talk by archaeologist Curtis N. Runnels on real archaeology versus how it’s portrayed in the movies. (We’re thinking there a lot fewer whips involved.) Runnels is Professor of Archaeology in the Archaeology Department at Boston University. Trained in archaeology at the University of Kansas (B.A. 1972) and Indiana University (MA 1976, PhD 1981) he taught at Stanford University from 1981 to 1987 before moving to BU, where he is also Editor of the Journal of Field Archaeology. He has carried out archaeological research in Greece, Turkey, and Albania since 1973 and has published numerous scientific articles and books.

Info:
September 1 at 7:00pm

Web Gallery of Emerging New England Photographers

Northeast Exposure is a web gallery of emerging New England photographers curated by the Photographic Resource Center at BU.  A new artist is added each month.  It's a good way to see new work.  Meggan Gould's Screenshot series (ex. L.W. Laptop above) has a lot of interesting pictures. 

Boycott Regal Cinemas?

Activists are urging a boycott of Regal Cinemas after a young woman was arrested in a Virginia Regal movie theatre for making a 20 second clip of the Transformers movie to show her younger brother.  Jhannet Sejas "said she had no intention of selling the 20-second film clip. She just wanted to show it to her 13-year-old brother, who had said he wanted to see the movie. She was shocked when the officers showed up." 

If you're interested in joining the boycott in the Boston area it is both easy and hard because there seems to be only way theatre to steer clear of the Regal Fenway Stadium 13.  Student group Free Culture is supporting the boycott so that could mean some BU students in the area taking up the issue.

New BU Maps

BU puts together a handy campus maps mashup with good accessibility info.

BU Offers Incubator Space for Teaching Duties

If you're willing to lecture to pay the rent BU could be the landlord for your new technology at its new incubator, the Entrepreneurial Research Laboratory:

Incubator programs typically charge fees to fledgling companies or give them other responsibilities in exchange for needed space, [Beth Goldstein of BU's Institute for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization] said. The new approach, unveiled today, is designed to encourage mentoring and spark the development of new ideas. By providing guest lectures to students, the students and the entrepreneurs will gain lessons from each other at the university, she said.

Starting a business can be a lonely enterprise so it could be good to be part of an academic community where you can get access to a lot of advice from different sources.  Most entrepreneurs will be happy to talk about their businesses so the guest lecture requirement shouldn't be too onerous.  BU grad Brandon Johnson will be the first participant as he develops a device to speed up STD testing.

This Is Nollywood: Inside Nigeria's Movie Industry

This is Nollywood (trailer above) is a new film by Boston film-makers Franco Sacchi and Robert Caputo, made with their colleagues at BU's Center of Digital Imaging Arts. Nollywood (a play on Bollywood) and moviemakers throughout Nigeria are some of the largest producers of movies in the world yet are relatively unknown; in the words of the film-makers:  "Despite all odds, Nigerian directors produce between 500 and 1,000 movies a year. The disks sell wildly all over the continent—Nollywood actors have become stars from Ghana to Zambia."

BU Student v. RIAA

A Boston University student is challenging the RIAA's effort to obtain his identity from the university.  The student's argument is that the RIAA's claim of copyright infringement is based on the students' having "stored music files on their computers while connected to the internet without sufficient protection to prevent third parties from accessing those music files and copying them" rather than having actively engaged in copying music files.  THe RIAA describes these files as being offered for download over peer-to-peer networks.

BU Student/Internet Gaming Show Host Arrested for Threats

Our sister site Metaboston TechNews posted on this unfortunate incident:

Andrew Rosenblum, the founder and one of the hosts of the internet video game show GameLife, has been arrested for allegedly making threats that refer to the VA Tech shootings.  Rosenblum, a student at Boston University, was arrested at his parents' Needham home after allegedly emailing disturbing messages to a woman he had dated.

An segment of the GameLife show with Rosenblum:

Boston's College Sex Magazines

The New York Times takes a look at the rise of "college-based sex magazines" paying particular attention to Boston University's Boink (which the author considers the "most independent and commercially ambitious of the pack") and Harvard's H-Bomb.  (links may be NSFW).

BU's MySpace Page

BU's College of Communication has a snappy MySpace page.  Likely a good way for a grad program to communicate with undergrads.  We like their slogan:  "COM!"  The school's started to build up some friends although some of its personal information seems a bit specific for a large institution: "Female,    
    59 years old, Gemini."