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February 27, 2008

Bookstore to expand by going nonprofit; A fridgeful of turtles; Color-blind artist

A few distractions from Serious Issues:

Shaman Drum looks to become nonprofit by Stefanie Murray of The Ann Arbor News is an interesting story about a bookstore in Ann Arbor that is on the way to becoming a nonprofit. It's not in the red, its owner wants to expand, actually:

As a nonprofit, the store would be tax-exempt and would reinvest profits into itself to fulfill its mission and serve the community. Shaman Drum could also access new sources of revenue, including grants, donations and membership fees, to help it build programming or pay employees, for example.
The change would not only impact the internal workings of Shaman Drum, but would affect customers, too.

Hart said the goal is to turn Shaman Drum into a center for literary arts. Beyond selling its trademark collection of literary, academic and scholarly books, it could increase its number of author events and add a plethora of new programming, such as writing workshops, plays, book clubs or poetry readings. Customers could also potentially pay to become a member of the nonprofit.

"We feel by going nonprofit, we can expand what we do," said Hart, 63, a former Episcopalian priest who Pohrt hired to spearhead the move to becoming a nonprofit.

"We hope to create a business model that will be useful and forward thinking."

via wood s lot

How others live: Close the door, we're trying to sleep: The woman who keeps 75 hibernating tortoises in her fridges is a serious story, not a wacky cat-lady piece.

Mrs Neely who runs the Jersey-based Tortoise Sanctuary, had to set up the fridges because of the particularly mild winter.

Her tortoises hibernate for up to three months between December and March, and need steady temperatures between 3c and 8c.

They are in danger of waking early if it heats up - and then do not have enough body weight to keep themselves warm and not enough energy to eat or drink.

But fridges, at a steady 4c to 6c, are the perfect environment.

The turtles hibernate wrapped in tea towels, which were removed for this photo.

Colour-blind artist learns to paint by hearing. Times U.K.

Posted by Sheila Lennon at 12:30 AM | Permalink