From Business Week
How cheap is cheap? Renault-Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn is betting that for autos, the magic number is under $3,000. At a plant-opening ceremony in India Apr. 4, he was already talking up the industry’s next challenge: a future model that would sport a sticker price as low as $2,500—about 40% less than the least expensive subcompact currently on the market. Renault-Nissan is the first global automaker to take up the gauntlet thrown down in 2003 by India’s Tata Motors, which plans to launch a $2,500 car next year. Both are leading a race to the bottom that could affect the business every bit as much as Henry Ford’s Model T did a century ago.
(Hat tip to Marginal Revolution.)
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Over at “Asymmetrical Information”, ‘Jane Galt’ poses the following ethical conundrum:
You are a worker in a hospital. An unidentified patient dies on your ward. In his pocket are two tickets for a sold-out concert for two hours hence. You are pretty sure he isn’t going to be identified in time to use the tickets. Would you take them?
I suspect the answers to this ethical dilemma from the general M* readership will be fairly homogeneous, and thus perhaps not very interesting. What’s interesting is that the comments on the original thread are also heavily weighted towards ‘No’ despite being largely from people who are agnostic in nature. One doesn’t need religion to have an ‘absolute’ concept of ethics, of course, but the comments show there are compelling arguments against taking the tickets even if you completely ignore any issues related to religion or ‘absolute morality’. That, perhaps, is a more interesting element to discuss.
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Most people know there are many personal ‘matchmaker’ sites devoted to LDS singles. Why such sites would develop is obvious: there are a multitude of reasons why marrying within the faith is preferable, even from just a ‘getting along together’ standpoint, let alone adding in the prospect of eternal marriage. Such websites serve a valuable purpose by allowing members in different areas of the country (or world) a chance to meet and chat with each other.
What about professional ‘matchmaker’ sites, though?
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Alert reader Bob Bell has discovered what may be the most significant news from Conference.
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For Sunday’s Washington Post Magazine, staff writer Gene Weingarten produced a fantastic article with the cooperation of violinist Joshua Bell entitled “Pearls Before Breakfast“. Mr. Bell took his Stradivarius to the L’Enfant Metro station and played three-quarters of an hour while Mr. Weingarten observed the 1,097 morning commuters who passed by. How many people would stop to enjoy the art of a top performer who listeners usually pay dearly to hear in packed concert halls? As it turned out, very, very few would. It took six minutes before the first person, a man not at all familiar with classical music, recognized something special before him that he could spare a few minutes to take in. A handful of others, almost never more than one at a time, did also. Meanwhile, the nearby lottery machine did a steady business. One woman had seen Mr. Bell in concert recently and recognized him. And one man didn’t recognize the artist, but recognized the art:
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Three months ago, my alma mater met up with some school from the SEC, and lost its very first game of the 2006-2007 football season. This was pretty impressive, really, considering that we’d played 12 games already, and had even beaten That School Up North, our main rival.
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The following guest post was submitted by Tossman.
Tossman is a frequent M* visitor and commenter. He hails from the Lone Star State (for those of you in Rio Linda, that’s Texas) and he currently resides in Salt Lake City.
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The Millennial Star is pleased to introduce frequent M* commenter turned perma-blogger, Sarah, to the fold.
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A few weeks ago as I was reading in History of the Church, Volume III, I came across an interesting paragraph discussing the imprisonment of Joseph Smith at Far West.
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