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Obama Endorses McCain's Iraq Position
By Mark Impomeni (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 2:00:00 PM
Filed under: Barack Obama, Iraq, 2008
President, Foreign Policy As his week-long
foreign trip concludes, Sen. Barack Obama
appears to be coming around to the Bush
Administration's, and Sen. John McCain's
position on troop withdrawals from Iraq.
Obama, who has been promising to end the
war as his first act in office if elected, said
for the first time in an interview with
Newsweek that the pace of withdrawals
should be dictated by conditions on the
ground.
NEWSWEEK: In Iraq, it's not new that
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has wanted
to take control of his own country. But
there's always been this gap between his
assessment of his abilities and American
commanders' saying he's not up to it. As
president, faced with that difference
between what he says he can do and what
the commanders say he can do, how would
you choose between them?
OBAMA: Iraq is a sovereign country.
Not just according to me, but according to
George Bush and John McCain. So
ultimately our presence there is at their
invitation, and their policy decisions have
to be taken into account. I also think that
Maliki recognizes that they're going to
need our help for some time to come, as
our commanders insist, but that the help is
of the sort that is consistent with the kind
KKR to become second big public private equity firm
By Peter Cohan (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 10:59:00 AM
Filed under: Blackstone Group L.P (BX)
The New York Times reports that
Kohlberg Kravis and Roberts (KKR), the
most famous of the private equity firms, is
of phased withdrawal that I have
promoted. We're going to have to provide
them with logistical support, intelligence
support. We're going to have to have a
very capable counterterrorism strike force.
We're going to have to continue to train
their Army and police to make them more
effective.
NEWSWEEK: You've been talking
about those limited missions for a long
time. Having gone there and talked to both
diplomatic and military folks, do you have
a clearer idea of how big a force you'd
need to leave behind to fulfill all those
functions?
OBAMA: I do think that's entirely
conditions-based. It's hard to anticipate
where we may be six months from now, or
a year from now, or a year and a half from
now. This represents a dramatic shift for
Sen. Obama on Iraq. He had been pledging
to complete troop withdrawals within 16
months of his inauguration. This new
position acknowledges the necessity of a
continued U.S. presence beyond that and
seems to take into account the wishes of
commanders such as Gen. David Petraeus,
who Obama met with on his recent visit to
the country.
The McCain campaign issued a press
release in reaction to the interview,
sarcastically praising Obama for moving
toward McCain in his Iraq position.
"John McCain has always held the
position that any withdrawal from Iraq
must be based on conditions on the ground.
now ready to part with its private status --
a year after it watched Blackstone
Group(NYSE: BX) go public and promptly
lose half its value.
The Times reports that KKR already has
a public affiliate, KKR Private Equity
Investors, which is listed on the Euronext
15/07/08 - 28/07/08
With the incredible success of the surge,
which John McCain advocated, it is
increasingly likely that U.S. troops will be
able to withdraw with victory in hand.
John McCain had long urged Barack
Obama, who opposed the surge, to return
to Iraq in order to see the immense changes
in the security situation there since his last
visit. Now that Obama has finally met with
General Petraeus, it appears that he has
also come to the conclusion that troop
levels in Iraq must be based on the
conditions on the ground." Since winning
in Amsterdam. KKR will buy that for $3.9
billion. This complex deal will value KKR
at between $12 billion and $15 billion. The
deal will put 21% of the firm's shares in
public hands while KKR executives will
own the other 79%.
How do we know that KKR's IPO won't
LibertyNewsprint.com U.S.
the Democratic primary, Sen. Obama has
been slowly adjusting his positions to the
political center for the general election.
This is a time honored tactic among
politicians of both parties. Many observers
have been anticipating a similar shift in
Obama's Iraq position. But, until now, the
Senator has maintained his insistence on a
relatively rigid timeline for U.S. troop
withdrawals. In the week before he visited
Iraq, Obama drew criticism from McCain
for announcing his Iraq plan before
observing the conditions there.
Now that Obama has visited and met
with the generals in command and the Iraqi
government, he appears to be leaving
himself some wiggle room with his new
found belief in conditions-based
withdrawals. But this change in position,
should Obama follow through on it, would
leave the Democratic nominee in trouble
from his supporters on his political left,
who voted for him over Sen. Hillary
Clinton largely because of his initial
opposition to the war and his unequivocal
pledge to end it. Together with the
controversy over his canceled visit to meet
wounded troops in Germany, Obama's trip
is coming to a close with controversies
among both his detractors and his base of
support.
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lose half its value as Blackstone's did? We
don't. But KKR executives won't be able to
sell their shares at the offering -- according
to the Times, KKR executives will have a
"six- to eight-year vesting period compared
with Blackstone's three- to four-year
period." And once KKR is public,
Software Industry
Assocation About To Learn
What Safe Harbors Mean
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 9:18:02 AM
It appears that the Software and
Information Industry Association (SIIA) is
about to learn what DMCA safe harbors
mean. The group is apparently upset about
the fact that some people sell counterfeit
software on eBay. That's not surprising.
But, the SIIA is planning to sue eBay for
this activity, rather than going after the
counterfeiters themselves. Of course, if
anyone from the SIIA had been paying
attention, they would know that courts in
the US have repeatedly found that eBay
and sites like it are protected by various
safe harbor provisions. This is for a very
good reason: it's not eBay counterfeiting
anything. eBay is merely the platform. If
the SIIA wants to go after the actual
counterfeiters, that's their issue. But going
after eBay for providing the platform is
going to fail miserably. You would think
that a trade group that claims they cover
the "Information Industry" would know
that already.
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independent directors will control it;
whereas inside directors run Blackstone.
Continue reading KKR to become
second big public private equity firm
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2 Politico* Business* Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper

O'Reilly, MoveOn and the KKK Hillary Delegate Stripped

By Denise Williams (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 2:14:00 PM
Filed under: Scandal, Media
We've seen complaints here and on other
blogs about the overuse of 'Nazi' and
'Fascist' in our political discourse, not just
during this election cycle, but as a whole.
President Bush, his administration and
other politicos have been tagged with both
names. I'm not a fan of that nomenclature.
I don't like it on "lefty" blogs and I sure
don't like it out of the right about Obama,
Clinton or any other politician or group.
There is no one in elected office today -
Republican, Democrat or otherwise - that
can be legitimately called a Nazi or a
Fascist. Overheated rhetoric using some of
the most devastating politics of the planet
as examples of our modern government is
inane.
Nor can anyone in public political life
today, with the exception of David Duke
and certain white supremacist groups and
websites, be tagged with 'KKK'. But that's
just what Fox News' Bill O'Reilly is trying
to do with MoveOn.org, DailyKos and
anyone who associates with or is
mentioned by them.
While discussing the recent petition drive
against Fox for promoting "racist and hate-
filled smears" the Fox host had this to say
Entrepreneur's Journal: Five key steps when
(via Media Matters):
Obama must condemn organizations like
MoveOn and the Daily Kos if he truly
wants to run without a race component.
These are the people that are dividing
Americans along racial lines. It is not a
stretch to say MoveOn is the new Klan.
So, Mr. O'Reilly - a benign organization
with a couple of million members (some of
whom I'm sure are black, Catholic,
Jewish,etc) sponsors a petition drive
against your network for fully documented
race-baiting that occurs on a nearly daily
basis and THEY'RE the KKK? O'Reilly, a
former history teacher, has totally
forgotten what the Klan has done. This is
the Klan, you horse's ass:
The Atlantic's Matthew Yglesias has
more. I won't post the picture here.
This is by no means the first time
O'Reilly has likened MoveOn and
DailyKos to some of the most disgusting
movements in our history. This past May,
Mr. O'Purveyorofhate discussed how the
hiring of Markos Moulitsas by Newsweek
caused him to cancel his subscription:
And Newsweek magazine, by the way,
has legitimized him by giving him a
columnist position. I talked to the editor by
email, and I said I can't believe that you're
-- that's like hiring David Duke. Again, I
use Duke too much, but I have to -- the
level of hatred coming out of that website
is unprecedented.
I could find tons more, but by now you
get the point. Who's spawning hate? Bill,
cancel your subscriptions, don't navigate to
certain websites. Hell, start your own damn
petition. Start your own website to
promote candidates and issues that are
important to you and your fans. Turn the
page. If you don't like them, don't look. If
they're picking on you, suck it up.
It's not that his inflamed rhetoric is
anymore than a bruised ego most of the
time, but the fact that low-information
people rely on this fool for information and
take away his words as gospel truth. He
knows this and that's dangerous.
Tossing around Fascist, Nazi and KKK
like conjunctions in a sentence cheapens
the experiences of and disrespects those
who have lived through or remember loved
ones who were killed, maimed and
brutalized. MoveOn got started as an
online petition written by a couple to
convince Congress in 1998 to censure
President Clinton and "move on". Markos
Moulitsas is the administrator of a blog.
One more time Mr. O'Reilly. This is the
KKK:
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for McCain Support
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 3:54:00 AM
Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Republicans,
John McCain, Breaking News,
Conventions The Democratic Party of
Wisconsin voted, on Friday, to strip
Hillary Clinton delegate Debra
Bartoshevich of her credentials, according
to WisPolitics.com:"The bottom line is
simple," Wineke said. "She has refused to
support the nominee of the Democratic
Party, and our state administrative
committee ... felt that the person that consistent set of rules. You might not like
should represent the 1st Congressional them, but they are what they are. The DNC
District for Hillary Clinton should be made a huge concession in granting Hillary
someone who backs the nominee -- as Clinton any delegates at all from Florida
Hillary Clinton has requested." The ruling and Michigan.
is consistent with the Democratic National A reader noted that "The Denver Police
Committee's rules for Superdelegates, Department have attack dogs, bicycles,
which state that a Super will lose his or her stun guns, tear gas and every other type of
status for endorsing an opposition riot control to ward off all 12 PUMA's."
candidate. What they haven't done, apparently, is to
According to the AP, Bartoshevich is a purchase the only thing they'll really need,
member of Citizens for McCain, an a fleet of Wahhhmbulances.
organization within the McCain campaign Update: In case anyone had any doubt as
that uses a doctored photo of a Clinton to just how loyal and knowledgeable these
supporter to promote itself. "lifelong Democrats" who now support
Bartoshvich was not happy with the McCain are, get a load of this: But, before
ruling: Following the vote, Debra the vote, in her explanation of why she
should still be seated as a convention
Bartoshevich said in a phone call with
WisPolitics the result was no surprise to
her.
delegate, she repeatedly referred to the
"Democrat Party" -- and, to party leaders,

starting a business "This was all pre-planned, everyone came

By Tom Taulli (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 7:00:00 AM
Filed under: Small business Over the
years, I've started several businesses. All in
all, the process has been exciting. But, at
the same time, there were lots of risks and
frustrations.
So, if you're thinking about making the
leap, what are some things to consider?
Let's take a look:
1. Know your industry: I read lots of
business plans. And, one common theme
is: the entrepreneur has only a sketchy
understanding of the industry and
competition.
And, I think this can be a dangerous sign.
However, with the internet, you can get a
great understanding of an industry. For
example, you can look at trade association
websites, industry publications and even
government sources.
Finally, there's a good book on the
subject: Successful Business Research:
Straight to the Numbers You Need--Fast!.
2. Write an executive summary: With
your industry research, this should be
easier to do. Also, specify the business
model (how do you make money?); the
competition; a forecast and key milestones;
and marketing strategies.
Make this simple and concise (hopefully
the summary is only one page).
Continue reading Entrepreneur's Journal:
Five key steps when starting a business
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in with the notion that they weren't going
to listen to my argument," she said.
Members of the Puma movement,
dedicated to channeling loyalty to Hillary
Clinton into a McCain victory in
November, have displayed varying degrees
of apoplexy:" Obviously, the Dems' big
tent is very exclusive." - Freedom Eden I
thought this was telling, especially the way
"the Dems" are referred to in the third
person. Yes, Freedom Eden, the "Dems"
do exclude people who want to defeat
them.
This incident points up the central
difference between Pumas and the
Democratic Party, aside from the obvious,
that members of the Democratic Party are
Democrats. The Party works with a
those are fighting words.
"Democrat Party" is the term repeatedly
used by one of the party's chief tormentors,
radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh,
Wisconsin Democratic leaders told
Bartoshevich. Actually, it's a term used by
lots of cheesy, childish right-wing hacks,
including George W. Bush. The idea is to
try to stop getting people to associate the
Democratic Party with actually being
democratic. It's the only weapon they have,
since their actions and beliefs belie this.
Any Democrat with a modicum of
political engagement knows this. Add this
to a long list of such things that Pumas
seem not to know.
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Media Biased Against Obama
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/28/2008 2:22:00 AM
Filed under: Barack Obama, John
McCain, Featured Stories, 2008 President,
Media Now there's a headline sure to make
Rush Limbaugh's face a little redder. The
claim comes to us from George Mason
University's Center for Media and Public
Affairs, which has studied network
newscasts for 20 years running. After
analyzing the nightly ebb and flow of our
current race, the center's researchers see a
pattern (Via the Los Angeles Times):
...that ABC, NBC and CBS were tougher
on Obama than on Republican John
McCain during the first six weeks of the
general-election campaign.
You read it right: tougher on the
Democrat.
Just how does one measure "tougher,"
you ask?
During the evening news, the majority of
statements from reporters and anchors on
all three networks were neutral, the center
found. And when network news people
ventured opinions in recent weeks, 28% of
the statements were positive for Obama
and 72% negative.
Yes, it seems as though the "Big Three"
(cable TV and print journalism were not
looked at in the study) are so sensitive to
the accusation of liberal bias that they're
going out of their way to knock the Illinois
senator.
McCain also has been the recipient of
negative commentary, but not nearly to the
same degree:
Network reporting also tilted against
McCain, but far less dramatically, with
43% of the statements positive and 57%
negative, according to the Washington-
based media center.
While it is true that Obama gets more
coverage than McCain, that coverage itself
-- at least from the 3 major network --
tends to show a conservative bias. Here's
how Robert Lichter, the director of The
Center for Media and Public Affairs, put it:
"This information should blow away this
Cool Off with a Frozen Drink [Recipes]
By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 5:00:00 AM
When the July heat is just too much,
silly assumption that more coverage is
always better coverage,"
No, the old advertising adage -- there's
no such thing as bad publicity -- doesn't
hold true for politics. Just ask Gary Condit,
or Ted Stevens.
But how many people really watch the
Big Three anymore for their nightly shot of
news? According to TVNewser, about 21
million Americans.
Though the influence of network news is
falling fast, especially with younger
Americans who are moving in droves to
the internet for their information, 21
million eyes still represents a significant
portion of the voting population.
So, could the pro-McCain bias be having
an effect on the race? No doubt. Maybe it's
the x-factor that commentators like Robert
Novak have been searching for to explain
why Obama still has only a 9-point lead
break out the blender and some ice. Good
Housekeeping offers 30 recipes for frozen
drinks like the peppermint smoothie
pictured here. I can personally vouch for
over McCain in national polls. After all,
we know that Obama tends to do better
with younger voters, while McCain is the
preference of those of advanced years. Not
surprisingly, the Big Three networks also
do well with older viewers, those
Americans who have long ago settled into
a routine of planting themselves in their
recliners each and every night to receive
that definitive half hour of world events.
The question then, it seems to me, is
whether ABC, CBS and NBC are playing
to their audience of older viewers by being
more critical of Obama, or if their
coverage, in part, helps account for older
voters' reticence to support the new guy.
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the "Frosty Cappuccino"—quite tasty!
What's your favorite frozen summer treat?
Tell us in the comments.
Pollster: Obama Already
Has the Votes
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/28/2008 2:13:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, Barack Obama,
John McCain, Featured Stories, 2008
President, Polls Did you ever see one of
those really old-timey maps, where they
show the sea serpents at the edge of the
world? Some recent electoral maps are
beginning to look like that for John
McCain.
Pollster.com has the most recent in
ominous political cartography, with a map
that shows "Trend Estimates" for all 50
states, and has Obama with 284 electoral
votes without winning a single "tossup"
state.
Thomas Edsall at Huffpo shakes it up to
make his own Skeptic's Martini, but really,
would they have put together such a fancy
map if it wasn't true?
Still not convinced? OK, l have to admit,
I'm kinda wondering what a "trend
estimate" is. Sounds like a "guess guess."
From Pollster.com: In most cases, the
numbers are not an "average" but a
regression based trendlines. The specific
methodology depends on the number of
polls available.
If we have at least 8 public polls, we fit a
trend line to the dots represented by each
poll using a "Loess" iterative locally
weighted least squares regression.
· We all know how that turned out.
If we have between 4 and 7 polls, we fit
a linear regression trend line (a straight
line) to best fit the points.
· McSame label. You've got T. Boone
If we have 3 polls or fewer, we calculate
a simple average of the available surveys. I
personally would have used a generalized
additive model, with much the same result.
Just kidding, I have no clue what the frak
that means. I googled it. Hey, it sounds
sciencey, so who am I to argue?
Look, you don't have to be the WOPR to
know that Barack Obama is in good shape
right now. He's also up by 9 points in the
latest Gallup tracking poll.
All of this endless analysis may be
Politico* Tech Tips* 3
preventing us all from seeing the obvious:
We are counting the droplets in a sea
change.
If you step back and take a look at the
broad strokes in this election, you see that
this is a struggle between new and old,
change ant the status quo. Many, myself
included, have wondered why, with
everything going against him, John
McCain has managed to stay almost within
the margin of error so far.
I've said all along that McCain has
nowhere to go but down. That 42-43% is a
stubborn number, but it's only that high
because people haven't been paying
attention to Mac. He's very weak on
policy, and getting clobbered on the
number 1 issue, the economy.
Part of me thinks back to 2004, when the
Democrats felt pretty good about their
chances against the worst president ever.
The difference this time, though, is that a
growing number of Republicans are fed up
with things, and McCain has earned that
Pickens on TV every couple of minutes
saying, "We can't drill our way out of this,"
while McCain tries to ram drilling down
our throats.
The worst charge that has been
successfully pinned to Obama is that he's a
roll of the dice. Even if you grant that,
most Americans would prefer that to walk
away from the table with some lint and a
buffet coupon in their pockets.
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4 Politico*
McCain's VP Options: Romney vs
Pawlenty
By Dave (Political Machine)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 4:41:00 PM
Filed under: John McCain, Featured
Stories, 2008 President, Veepstakes While
much of the GOP establishment is looking
at Mitt Romney as the top VP pick,
Redstate points out many reasons why this
is a bad idea.
Novak argues that Romney would add
value for several reasons, but most notably
because some polls show him helping
significantly in MI.
On the other hand, Romney hurts
McCain in most states and nationally.
Importantly, Romney never had great
appeal to working class voters; he won
upper class professionals in most states but
never connected with the blue collar
workers who are the likely swing voters in
PA, OH, MI, MN, and IN. In fact, while
his role as a Wall Street man may help him
make economic policy decisions; it is not
going to help on the campaign trail with
those who want someone to feel their pain
at the pump.
What Red State does not note is that Mitt
Romney has very much earned the distrust
of evangelicals and other cultural/social
conservatives. One issue is that he was pro
McCain's Oil Rig Visit That Wasn't
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/28/2008 2:52:00 AM
Filed under: John McCain, Featured
Stories, Environment, Gaffes, Energy
Somehow, this story seemed to slip
through the cracks last week. As Barack
Obama made his big trip through the
Middle East and Europe, John McCain did
his level best to come up with what some
termed " counter-programing." There was
a golf-cart tour of the Bush compound in
Kennebunkport, Maine, a poorly attended
Town Hall event, a lonely landing at a
New Hampshire airfield, and, to compete
with Obama's speech in Berlin, a lunch at
-choice as a Massachusetts politician (as
covered extensively in the primary) the
other is that he greased the wheels for
same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, as
covered by my fellow Ohio blogger
Bizzyblog.
Whatever your personal feelings about
Mitt Romney as a politician, it should be
clear that adding him to the ticket will only
heighten the distrust that McCain already
has with the base, especially with
evangelicals, who until now don't have a
big bone to pick with McCain, as he has
been solid on most cultural issues for them.
But add Romney to the ticket and we can
now add problems for McCain with these
German sausage restaurant in Ohio. None
of these alternate images really helped
McCain at all, but it is the event that
McCain canceled that really might be the
one to hurt him most.
No, the sausage and fudge haus tour was
not McCain's plan-A for counter-
programming. Instead, he'd choreographed
a dramatic helicopter landing on a
Louisiana oil rig to emphasize his
commitment to giving oil companies
unfettered access to our nation's coastline
to drill for more oil. Despite the fact that
industry experts have told us that
expanding the scope of off-shore drilling
will do little to bring down the price of gas
for upwards of 7 years, McCain has seized
types of conservatives as with all the
others.
Pending further investigation, my pick
would be Pawlenty hands down. It's
possible that he could put McCain in a
more competitive position in Minnesota
(although after the tight 2006 reelection of
Pawlenty, that's not assured), but Pawlenty
appears to be a solid conservative with
broad appeal. If McCain wants to signal
that Pawlenty is what's ahead for the next
generation, conservatives will be happy
and relieved. Put that together with a one
term limit promise from McCain, and my
support for him would turn from tepid and
grudging to warm and fuzzy. And since I
am a fairly typical Reagan conservative,
that ought to give the McCain folks some
thought.
One big problem with Pawlenty though
is that he has pledged in some fashion to
fill out his term as governor. But those
who are happy with him probably won't
mind, and those who aren't happy with him
might be glad to see him go.
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on the issue of gas prices as his ticket to
the White House. Given that McCain has
now endorsed a " timetable" for
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
McCain Ad Hits Obama on
Hospital Snub
By Mark Impomeni (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 1:00:00 PM
Filed under: Barack Obama, Ads, John
McCain, 2008 President The McCain
campaign, seeking to take advantage of the
controversy surrounding Sen. Barack
Obama's canceled visit to the Landstuhl
military hospital while in Germany this
week, released a new television spot titled
"Troops." The ad takes Obama to task for
the cancellation and hits him for his lax
oversight of Afghanistan as chairman of a
Congressional committee charged with
keeping tabs on the war effort there.
The controversy over the hospital snub is
causing Obama's week-long foreign trip to
end on a sour note, and McCain is using
the opening to raise questions about
Obama's readiness to be commander-in-
chief. The ad will run in battleground
states beginning immediately.
ANNOUNCER: Barack Obama never
held a single Senate hearing on
Afghanistan.
He hadn't been to Iraq in years.
withdrawal from Iraq that is roughly
similar to Obama's, what else has he got?
But a funny thing happened on the way
to the rig. First, Hurricane Dolly formed in
the Gulf of Mexico, and if ever two things
didn't go together it's oil rigs and
hurricanes. But second, and worse for
McCain in terms of public relations
messaging, an oil tanker collided with a
barge at the mouth of the Mississippi
River, spilling 413,000 gallons of oil into
the waters along the banks of New
Orleans, McCain's would-be point of
departure.
With the city's port immobilized during
the clean up, it is now losing an
estimated$100,000 a day, and the slick has
He voted against funding our troops.
And now, he made time to go to the gym,
but canceled a visit with wounded troops.
Seems the Pentagon wouldn't allow him
to bring cameras.
John McCain is always there for our
troops.
McCain. Country first.
JOHN MCCAIN: I'm John McCain and I
approve this message. This is a hard-
hitting ad of the kind that the McCain
campaign has thus far been averse to
airing. No doubt the campaign sees an
opportunity in Obama's decision to forgo
his planned visit to the hospital at a U.S.
air base in Germany. It is the kind of
mistake that can be very damaging to a
political campaign because it is almost
universally and easily understood as wrong
by the general public, and it seems to paint
the candidate as uncaring. If this ad gets
significant airplay, it could help McCain
cancel out all of the good press earned by
Sen. Obama on his trip.
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stretched over 100 miles, into the Gulf,
taking aim at the river's fragile wetlands.
With assurances that technology has made
drilling for oil as safe as a trip to the
grocery store, McCain's new signature
issue endured a quick one-two punch of
reality. Call it a counter to the counter-
programming.
In related news, John McCain is now,
officially, the candidate of big oil. And this
just in, McCain has found a new oil rig to
visit this week. Residents of Bakersfield,
California, be on the lookout!
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Media Shocker: Oil Industry Backs McCain
By Dave (Political Machine)
Submitted at 7/28/2008 1:07:00 AM
Filed under: John McCain, Featured
Stories, 2008 President, Fundraising,
Energy No, really:
Oil and gas industry executives and
employees donated $1.1 million to McCain
last month -- three-quarters of which came
after his June 16 speech calling for an end
to the ban -- compared with $116,000 in
March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in
May.
...
"The timing was significant," said David
Donnelly, the national campaigns director
of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a
nonpartisan campaign finance reform
group that conducted the analysis of
McCain's oil industry contributions. "This
is a case study of how a candidate can
change a policy position in the interest of
raising money."
Well, wouldn't it be worse (and more
Budget Deficit to Set Record
By Mark Impomeni (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/28/2008 5:15:00 AM
Filed under: Bush Administration,
Breaking News, 2008 President, Budget
The Bush Administration will
acknowledge today that the federal budget
deficit for the current fiscal year will set a
new record of $490 billion. White House
Budget Director Jim Nussle is set to
release new projections for the government
shortfall this afternoon. A previous
estimate of the deficit made earlier this
year put the figure at $410 billion. The
Administration chalks up the increase to
the economic stimulus checks that were
sent to 130 million households earlier this
year and to falling revenues due to the
economic slowdown.
Federal spending has not kept pace with
suspicious) if McCain had changed his
policy after the increase of funds? Of
course it would.
Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign
spokesman, said he considers any
suggestion that McCain weighed
fundraising into his calculation on drilling
policy "completely absurd." Rogers noted
falling revenues, contributing to the rapid
growth of the deficit. In addition to the
stimulus package, federal discretionary
spending has increased under the
Democratic-led Congress. Spending on
that oil and gas money in June still
accounted for a very small fraction of the
$48 million raised by the campaign and by
the Republican National Committee
through its Victory Fund.
Partisans will believe what they want, or
spin it for political advantage, but it's clear
that offshore drilling and increasing
entitlement programs like Medicare and
Social Security also continues to increase.
The budget deficit is sure to be an issue
on the presidential campaign trail this
week, as both Sen. John McCain and Sen.
Barack Obama turn their attention to the
economy. Obama wants to close the
budget gap by decreasing spending on the
war on terror through troop reductions in
Iraq, and by increasing taxes on the
wealthiest Americans. McCain would
extend the Bush tax cuts for all tax filers
and fight wasteful government spending on
earmarks and pet projects in an attempt to
balance the federal books. It is a classic
left versus right economic argument and
will likely determine the outcome of the
November election.
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domestic energy production is one of the
few bright spots for the GOP this year.
McCain would have and should have done
this regardless of the money. And it should
be no surprise that the industry, which
previously didn't like McCain for his
opposition to ANWR drilling, takes a look
at both candidates, especially Obama's talk
of taxing windfall profits, and decide they
like McCain better.
Here's a surprise for Matthew Mosk and
the rest of the media: Special Interests give
money to those politicians that best
represent their interests. The Sierra Club
backs Obama, and violently opposes
drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge. Do their contributions and
endorsement constitute a quid pro quo as
well? Of course not, unless one wants to
assume bad faith from all politicians.
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Senator Introduces Unconstitutional
Bill To Ban Sale Of Certain Video
Games To Minors
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 4:09:01 AM
We were just talking about how New
York State was about to become the latest
in a long line of states to waste taxpayer
money fighting for an unconstitutional law
requiring video games to be labeled and
also banning the sale of certain video
games to children. Nearly a dozen states
have tried to introduce similar legislation,
and every time they've been rejected by
courts as unconstitutional. Every time.
There is simply no excuse for politicians to
introduce another one of these laws. The
courts have been clear that those laws
aren't just unconstitutional, but can even be
harmful to children.
Now we've got the federal government
getting in on the game as well. I was just
Politico* Tech* 5
TorrentSpy Appeals
Lawsuit Over MPAA
Getting Access To Its
Emails
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 5:42:02 AM
While TorrentSpy may have shut down
and lost its copyright infringement lawsuit
against the MPAA, it's still appealing a
separate issue: whether the MPAA broke
the law in hiring a guy to break into
TorrentSpy's email server and forward
emails to the MPAA. The MPAA got away
with playing dumb when this issue first
came up, claiming it assumed the guy they
hired had legitimate access to all of the
emails he was handing over -- though, that
seems highly questionable.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
looking over some of the latest bills
introduced in Congress via the always
excellent Washington Watch and what do I
see, but a newly introduced bill in the
Senate that would require "age-based
content rating labels" and ban the sale or
rental of games with adult content to
minors. Of course, video games are already
rated via a voluntary rating system (same
as movies), and most video game stores
already ban the sale of such games to kids.
Plus, oh yeah, there's that whole First
Amendment issue.
So, what, exactly does Sen. Roger
Wicker hope to accomplish in introducing
such a bill, other than to potentially waste
taxpayer money in a lawsuit that will
clearly be lost?
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
6 Business* Biz Buzz Gadgets* Tech Tips*
Customer service the key The week in preview: High
inside consumer electronics expectations for oil and
stores energy
By Brian White (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 2:10:00 AM
Filed under: Products and services, Wal-
Mart (WMT), Employees, Target Corp.
(TGT), Best Buy (BBY), Circuit City
Stores (CC)
When Best Buy Inc.(NYSE: BBY),
Circuit City Stores Inc.(NYSE: CC) and
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.(NYSE: WMT) are
all stacked up together, which one comes
out on top? Well, it depends on how you
phrase the question: Are we talking solely
prices here, or customer service? The
pricing angle can be debated all day long.
When it comes to service though, my
experience is very similar to the conclusion
that this article states: Best Buy is king.
Target Corp.(NYSE: TGT), although a
much cleaner and brighter location in
which to shop, seems to have a weak
schedule in the consumer electronics
department. Most weeks, I roam into many
retail chain locations just to walk around
and observe. In many cases, Target seems
well-stocked when it comes to checkout
personnel, but not if you have questions
about a flat-panel television. At Circuit
City, its tarnished reputation is well-
deserved: It's hard to just find anyone to
help you.
And Wal-Mart? The world's largest
retailer has made strides to really improve
the consumer electronics sections in its
stores. The customer service, however, is a
completely separate story. If I step into a
Best Buy, there's a 99% chance that I will
be greeted by a security guard manning the
front door, and will be asked at least four
times within five minutes if I need help.
While Wal-Mart may have slightly better
prices on many consumer electronics
DIY Floppy Disk Pen Holder [Tip Testers]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 9:00:00 AM
Reader rintakumpu decided to make his
own floppy disk pen holder in all black and
the result is quite sleek. Add your own
items, is that all that matters? Of course
not. I give Wal-Mart props for making
large strides in product presentation,
though. Chris Denove of J.D. Power and
Associates says that "Across many
industries, we've seen that the retailers that
grow customer-service ratings the fastest
have greater sales growth." If Wal-Mart
wants to try and really compete with Best
Buy's winning combination of price and
service, it best listen to that advice. Target
-- it's also time to step it up on your end.
What are you waiting for? Permalink|
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photos or videos of projects you've
undertaken to the Lifehacker Tip Testers
Flickr group to have your work featured
here.
By Trey Thoelcke (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 5:30:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts,
Economic data
So the earnings crunch continues, and
here's a look at some companies scheduled
to report results this week that are
anticipated to be big winners and losers in
terms of earnings growth.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial
expect the following to report strong
earnings growth when compared to the
same period of the previous year.
• Apache Corp.(NYSE: APA): $4.10 EPS
(+53.9%) on revenue of $3.8 billion
(+54.6%)
• EOG Resources Inc.(NYSE: EOG):
$2.34 EPS (+50.0%) on revenue of $1.7
billion (+62.2%)
• Avon Products Inc.(NYSE: AVP):
$0.47 EPS (+44.7%) on revenue of $2.6
billion (+11.5%)
• Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.(NYSE:
GT): $0.62 EPS (+43.5%) on revenue of
$5.3 billion (+7.0%)
• Hess Corp.(NYSE: HES): $2.76 EPS
(+38.4%) on revenue of $8.3 billion
Getting No Satisfaction From EMI
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 8:30:00 AM
Guy Hands might be close to his 19th
nervous breakdown.
EMI Group, the music label his private
equity firm Terra Firma bought last year, is
losing one of the music industry's top-
earning acts.
The Rolling Stones confirmed it has
dropped EMI after 20 years and is signing
on with Vivendi's Universal Group. In
addition to future albums, the deal includes
distribution of the Stones' entire back
catalog, including the classic albums
Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street.
New releases will come under Universal's
Polydor label.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
(+14.6%)
• Murphy Oil Corp.(NYSE: MUR): $2.19
EPS (+35.2%) on revenue of $7.8 billion
(+126.2%)
• Noble Energy Inc.(NYSE: NBL): $2.08
EPS (+34.6%) on revenue of $1.0 billion
(+40.1%)
• U.S. Steel Corp.(NYSE: X): $3.91 EPS
(+32.0%) on revenue of $5.9 billion
(+39.6%)
• Corning Inc.(NYSE: GLW): $0.49 EPS
(+30.6%) on revenue of $1.7 billion
(+21.3%)
• Exxon Mobil Corp.(NYSE: XOM):
$2.52 EPS (+27.4%) on revenue of $144.4
billion (+46.8%)
Clearly expectations are high for oil and
energy. Other companies expected to
report double-digit earnings growth
include Chevron Corp.(NYSE: CVX),
CVS Caremark Corp.(NYSE: CVS),
NYSE Euronext Inc.(NYSE: NYX),
Verizon Communications Inc.(NYSE:
VZ), and Aetna Inc.(NYSE: AET).
Continue reading The week in preview:
High expectations for oil and energy
Permalink| Email this| Comments
"EMI Group wishes the Rolling Stones
well in their new venture and looks
forward to a continuing relationship with
the band through their long-term
agreement with EMI Music Publishing,"
the record label said in a statement. "EMI
Music will only ever conclude mutually
beneficial agreements with its artists."
This is just the latest setback for the
troubled EMI label, which Terra Firma has
failed to revive since its $6.3 billion
takeover. Radiohead left the label last year,
and other popular artists such as the band
Coldplay have signaled frustration with
their EMI relationships.
Earlier this year, Hands announced plans
to cut 2,000 jobs from EMI's 5,500-person
staff as the label tries to adapt to the new
Nikon D700 full-
frame DSLR gets
unboxed on video
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 5:46:00 PM
Filed under: Digital Cameras
It's easy enough to drool over the press
shots of Nikon's luscious D700. Seeing
someone unbox this full-frame beast on
video is another experience entirely
(bordering on spiritual, really).
Unfortunately, the vid waiting after the
break is just two minutes long and doesn't
show any clicks being depressed, but those
looking to get a better idea of the size and
build have plenty of reason to click
through.
[Thanks, Jon]
Continue reading Nikon D700 full-frame
DSLR gets unboxed on video Read|
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economics of the music industry.
Financial details of the Universal move
were not disclosed. The move comes after
being widely speculated following the
band's decision to release its soundtrack
album from Martin Scorsese's Shine a
Light documentary with Universal earlier
this year.
"Universal are forward-thinking, creative,
and hands-on music people," the band said
in a statement. "We really look forward to
working with them."
Related Links
The X Factor in Terra Firma's EMI
Acquisition
Wanna bet, Blaise?
Have It Your Way: Free.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Worst 10-year performers: Starbucks aims for a less
Medicare fraud accusations smelly sandwich
catch up with Tenet Healthcare
By Elizabeth Harrow
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 12:00:00 AM
Filed under: Major movement, Bad news,
Scandals, S and P 500
In this series, we take a look at the 25
stocks on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that
have turned in the worst performance
during the past decade -- what went wrong,
and what happens next.
Former hippies might notice that the
ticker symbol for Tenet Healthcare
Corporation(NYSE: THC) is also the
acronym for the active compound in
marijuana, but this apparent inattention to
detail is likely the least of the company's
concerns. When Tenet was formed in
1995, it was born out of a merger between
American Medical International and
scandal-plagued National Medical
Enterprises. Executives at the newly reborn
healthcare services company hoped that its
new name would help erase any unpleasant
investor associations with its previous
incarnation.
What went wrong? At number 19 on our
list of SPX losers, THC shed 73% of its
value during the 10-year period ending
June 30, 2008. Prior to a stomach-churning
sell-off in the fall of 2002, the shares were
entrenched in a near-vertical uptrend that
peaked at $52.50. It seems that a seedy
healthcare services company by any other
name ...
October 2002 marked the stock's peak, as
well as the beginning of its steep descent.
First, the company reported fiscal first-
quarter earnings that surpassed analysts'
estimates by 2 cents per share. A few
weeks later, Tenet was named co-
Samsung Costume hard drive concept appeals to the ladies
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 10:41:00 PM
Filed under: Storage
Not that Samsung is actually looking to
pump this out into beauty salons
worldwide, but there stands at least a mild
chance that sophisticated females shopping
defendant in a lawsuit filed by the widow
of a man who'd accepted an artificial heart,
which she alleged "stripped him of his
human dignity." This relatively minor suit,
worth just $100,000, wouldn't break THC -
- but it nonetheless heralded the beginning
of the end. Toward the end of the month,
the shares tumbled sharply after an analyst
downgraded Tenet and warned that it was
too dependent on Medicare
reimbursements from the government.
Continue reading Worst 10-year
performers: Medicare fraud accusations
catch up with Tenet Healthcare Permalink|
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for new compacts would also spring for
some storage. Joongoo Lee's Costume is a
sleek, deliberately styled 2.5-inch external
hard drive that looks entirely at home
mixed in with various makeup
components. Additionally, the bundled
dock is equally sexy, though we can only
hope there's a USB 2.0 port somewhere on
By Zac Bissonnette
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 8:40:00 AM
Filed under: Consumer experience,
Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and
advertising
With its stock teetering near 5-year lows
on concerns about its growth prospects and
style drift from its roots as a coffee shop,
returning Starbucks Corp.(NASDAQ:
SBUX) CEO, Howard Schultz, said earlier
this year that the company would stop
selling sandwiches.
Let the backtracking begin. The Wall
Street Journal reports(subscription
required) that Starbucks won't be
discontinuing sandwiches after all. Rather,
the sandwiches will "evolve," according to
a Starbucks spokesperson. The company
will use a different kind of cheese and less
butter in an effort to prevent the scent of
sandwiches from overpowering the aroma
of coffee.
This looks to me like a move motivated
by Wall Street rather than a broad
corporate vision. Mr. Schultz made it clear
that he wanted to get rid of sandwiches
back in January, telling investors that "In
short, the scent of the warm sandwiches
interferes with the coffee aroma in our
stores, which is the key to the coffee
experience that forges our connection with
customers."
Did it all of a sudden occur to Schultz
that it might be possible to make the
this thing. Though this is just a concept, we
wouldn't put it past Samsung to turn into a
sandwiches less pungent? I somehow
doubt it. Rather Starbucks looked at the
fact that sandwiches make up 3% of the
company's sales -- plus whatever
additional coffee sales they generate -- and
that, with the stock about 50% of its 52-
week high, this just wasn't the time to take
a same-store sales hit in the name of long-
term vision. If this were a private
company, I seriously doubt that they'd
have reconsidered the plan to stop selling
sandwiches. The power of the institutional
imperative appears to have trumped
Schultz's ideas for returning the company
to its roots. Permalink| Email this|
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reality -- after all, it did just produce pink
and blue BlackJack IIs. Your soft side is
showing, Sammy.
[Via PCLaunches] Read| Permalink|
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Business* Gadgets* 7
Nike pulls ads
deemed
homophobic
By Zac Bissonnette
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 4:10:00 AM
Filed under: Marketing and advertising,
NIKE, Inc'B' (NKE)
Whatever other problems it has, Nike
Inc.(NYSE: NKE) has, historically been on
the side of the gay community. From
sponsoring athletes at the Gay Games to
offering domestic partnership benefits to
its gay and lesbian employees, there is
little fault for a gay rights activist to find
with Nike.
But that didn't stop some people from
making up fake controversies. The
companies ads for its Hyperdunk
basketball shoes feature competing
basketball players in photos with heads in
each other's crotches, hands on butts, etc. -
- stuff that happens all the time during
basketball games.
Now, in response to the criticism, the
company is pulling the ads, citing its desire
"to underline our ongoing commitment to
supporting diversity in sport and the
workplace."
The ads are funny and they're not
homophobic -- Nike's track record on these
issues demonstrates that. LGBT activists
who make an issue out of stuff like this
marginalize the real issues, by making it
look like there aren't bigger battles to fight.
With one presidential candidate who just
learned what "LGBT" means, there clearly
are. But silly stuff like this will turn people
off and prevent those issues from being
taken seriously. Permalink| Email this|
Comments
8 Business* Tech*
America's debt and Worst 10-year performers:
gasoline withdrawal pangs Wachovia Corporation
ranks 17th
By Peter Cohan (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 2:33:00 AM
Filed under: Consumer experience, Ford
Motor (F), Economic data, Housing
President Bush is no stranger to drug and
alcohol addiction. So when he talks about
addiction, he's an expert. In 2006's State of
the Union Address he lamented America's
addiction to oil. It happens that Houston,
where his father lives, is the best city in
America for business thanks to ita ability
to satisfy this addiction. And he gave a
speech there just this week about Wall
Street getting drunk.
Bush is right -- and the high price of debt
and gas is causing America to use less of
both -- creating withdrawal pangs for the
U.S. economy. How high? We've
borrowed $12 trillion in mortgages and
$2.4 trillion in installment debt -- such as
credit cards. And since banks lack
sufficient capital, they are raising rates and
tightening credit standards. And $4 a
gallon gasoline is forcing America to use
less -- demand has fallen by 300,000
barrels a day.
The near term future of the U.S.
economy depends on how far the prices of
Worst 10-year performers: Xerox Corporation can't reproduce its early
momentum
By Elizabeth Harrow
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 6:30:00 AM
Filed under: Major movement, Bad news,
Xerox Corp (XRX), S and P 500,
Technology
In this series, we take a look at the 25
stocks on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that
have turned in the worst performance
during the past decade -- what went wrong,
goods -- such as houses and automobiles --
will fall thanks to those higher debt and
gas prices. With the spike in the cost of
debt and gas, people are cutting back
consumption of everything else. In Maine,
according to Shoshana Zuboff, heating oil
prices are so high that many won't be able
to afford much of anything besides heating
their homes this winter. We are creating a
paradise for survivalists.
Continue reading America's debt and
gasoline withdrawal pangs Permalink|
Email this| Comments
and what happens next.
Google should allow the sad fate of
Xerox Corporation(NYSE: XRX) to serve
as a cautionary tale: the use of your
company's name as a common verb in the
popular lexicon does not guarantee long-
term success.
I can remember an age when I thought
"xerox" was a legitimate action verb. But I
couldn't tell you the last time I made a
"xerox." You may remember from our
By Elizabeth Harrow
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 10:30:00 AM
Filed under: Major movement, Analyst
upgrades and downgrades, Bad news,
Wachovia Corp (WB), S and P 500
In this series, we take a look at the 25
stocks on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) that
have turned in the worst performance
during the past decade -- what went wrong,
and what happens next.
Spoiler alert: Wachovia
Corporation(NYSE: WB) is not the first
financial stock we've scraped off the
bottom of the S&P 500 barrel, and it will
not be the last. You've already been treated
to the gruesome horror stories of Fannie
Mae(NYSE: FNM) and KeyCorp(NYSE:
KEY); now, gather 'round the campfire to
hear another spine-tingling, blood-curdling
tale of subprime mayhem and write-down-
related bloodshed.
What went wrong? At number 17 on our
list of SPX underdogs, WB shed 73% of its
value during the decade that ended June
30, 2008. And, if it weren't for that cutoff
date, Wachovia might have snagged an
even higher ranking on our roster. From its
June 30 close at $15.53, the stock dropped
as low as $7.80 by July 15.
The shares hit an all-time high of $65.94
discussion of Gannett Co.(NYSE: GCI)
that people don't read the paper anymore.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
in July 1998, and tapped their near-term
peak of $60.04 in April 2006. After this
last achievement, WB crawled west-by-
southwest for more than a year, and did an
amazing impression of a harmless downleg
within its larger uptrend -- you know, until
the whole subprime thing.
Continue reading Worst 10-year
performers: Wachovia Corporation ranks
17th Permalink| Email this| Comments
Well, it's actually a little more serious than
that -- people don't even like to use paper
anymore.
What went wrong? At number 18 on our
list of SPX laggards, XRX shed 73% of its
value during the 10 years that ended June
30, 2008. The stock tapped a high of
$63.94 back in May 1999, shortly after G.
Richard Thoman succeeded Paul Allaire as
CEO. As The New York Times noted,
Thoman was taking the helm "...at a time
Do Newspapers
Need
Comments?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 6:58:00 AM
A few weeks back, we wrote about the
question of whether or not newspapers
should be getting into the community
business by noting that you don't build
communities, you enable them. But, the
question still remains how you enable
those communities. Gawker had an
interesting post recently along those lines
arguing that newspapers shouldn't allow
comments on articles. The argument is,
basically, that a lot of the comments are
really dumb, and don't add very much.
That may be true, but in many cases, that's
because the newspaper doesn't give anyone
incentive to add smart comments. There's
no indication that anyone at most
newspapers read the comments. The
authors of the articles rarely, if ever,
respond to people in the comments. There's
little to no engagement or discussion. So,
instead, the comments just become a way
for readers to vent. Just tossing up
comments and thinking you've created a
community is a mistake -- but that doesn't
mean newspapers shouldn't enable
comments. It just means they should do so
in a more intelligent manner.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
of unprecedented change for Xerox," with
digital technology transforming traditional
copier and printer usage.
Continue reading Worst 10-year
performers: Xerox Corporation can't
reproduce its early momentum Permalink|
Email this| Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Drug Money
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/22/2008 2:00:00 PM
T revor Foltz was six months old last fall,
fresh off a visit to Disney World in
Orlando, when the spasms first began.
Healthy until that point in his life, he
began thrusting backward in his car seat,
repeatedly and forcefully, as he rode with
his parents north toward home in Rhode
Island. "I thought it was temper tantrums,"
says his mother, Danielle. The next day, at
home, Trevor was hit with a series of 40
convulsions and rushed to the hospital,
where he was diagnosed with infantile
spasms, a rare form of epilepsy. Treatment
would cost $1,600 per vial of steroid drug
H.P. Acthar Gel, and Trevor would need
three of them.
As if the idea of a $4,800 tab wasn't bad
enough, when the Foltzes submitted their
claim, they found out the company that
made the drug, Questcor Pharmaceuticals,
had just recently jacked up the price—to
$23,000 per vial, or $69,000 for a three-
vial treatment—and the insurance
company wasn't going to pay. And all the
while, unbeknownst to anyone at that time,
an alternative, for $15, existed.
On Thursday, the Joint Economic
Committee will open hearings in Congress
on dramatic price hikes for drugs used to
treat children, with a focus on companies
such as Questcor and Ovation
Pharmaceuticals, which in 2006 bought
rights to a drug that treats heart problems
in premature infants, and increased the
price 1,800 percent to $1,875 per three-vial
treatment.
"We need answers to why a company
would increase the price of a drug 18-fold
when costs related to marketing, physician
education, and research appear stable,"
says hearing chair Amy Klobuchar, a
Democratic senator from Minnesota.
Politicians say they are not opposed to
drug companies earning strong returns on
the costs of researching innovative drugs,
and understand the high prices of many
medications. But they are investigating
Replace the Battery in Your Nike+ Receiver On the Cheap [How To]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 9:00:00 AM
DIY web site Instructables demonstrates
whether some companies are price-
gouging, concerned more about executive
stock options than about running
innovative companies.
Some of those drugs, like Questcor's, are
decades-old drugs that were bought on the
cheap and redesignated under the federal
government's Orphan Drug Act, which
marks its 25th anniversary this year. Not
infrequently, the drugs' new owners pass
on big price hikes to consumers.
At Questcor, the increase is explained as
the cost of doing business with an orphan
drug.
"The company was heading toward
bankruptcy," says Steve Cartt, executive
vice president for business development at
Questcor, which is based in Union City,
California, an industrial enclave on the San
Francisco Bay.
"The whole rationale for the price
increase was to ensure availability of the
product," says Cartt. "We talked to
physicians. They wanted the drug to be
available. The choice was risk of
availability or a price increase."
Originally approved for multiple
sclerosis in 1952, Acthar Gel had been
owned by pharma giant Aventis, which
was losing money on it, when the 11-year-
old Questcor acquired it in 2001. Questcor
too failed to gain traction with M.S.
patients, so it sought a new track.
Now the gears at Questcor began to turn
more quickly. It won orphan designation
for Acthar Gel in 2003, and proceeded to
the next step: getting F.D.A. approval to
market the drug explicitly for infantile
spasms, which under the orphan act would
also include a seven-year monopoly for
Questcor. The company prepared for a
marketing blitz and doubled its sales force
early last year. But when the F.D.A.
rejected Questcor's application in May
2007, the company quickly slashed its staff
and jacked up the price.
Cartt says the price was set "within the
range of other orphan drugs," noting that
many others go from $50,000 to $500,000
a year or higher. For instance, BioMarin,
how to replace a dead battery in a Nike+
iPod receiver in just a few minutes for
under $5. When I highlighted the best tech
tools to get in shape, I sang the praises of
an orphan-drug specialty company,
charges $70,000 a year for Kuvan, a drug
to treat phenylketonuria, a genetic enzyme
disorder that can cause mental retardation
and brain seizures. But unlike BioMarin,
which spends 64 percent of sales on
research and development, Questcor
spends very little; in 2007, Questcor's
research and development accounted for
9.5% of sales revenue.
What other considerations played into
the price Cartt would not say. Sales for
2007, when the price hike took effect, were
$49.7 million, and net income was $37.5
million—a net profit margin of 75 percent.
It was significant not only for its size, but
also because it was the first profit since the
company was formed, as Cypros
Pharmaceuticals, in 1990.
Investors were pleased, driving up
Questcor's share price from 40 cents to
over $6 after the August 2007 price hike.
But executives at the company started
selling their shares in December, seven
months after the former C.E.O., James
Fares, stepped down and around the time
Questcor executive Don Bailey took his
place. Since December, Cartt himself has
sold shares based on grants and options
totaling $1.68 million; many of those
options were granted at 46 cents a share.
He holds nearly a million more options on
Questcor stock.
D octors were unhappy with the price
hikes.
"Most of us in the child-neurology
community were outraged at the extent of
the price hike, unusual even for orphan
drugs," says Eric Kossoff, a pediatric
neurologist and infantile spasms expert at
Johns Hopkins Children's Center. "Most of
us had no choice, unfortunately. At the
time it was felt to be the best drug out
there, and they're the only company that
makes it. This is an incredibly serious form
of epilepsy with devastating implications if
not treated."
Curiously, though, he found that the
price hike "was one of the best things that
could have happened." Why? "Because we
the Nike+ iPod sport kit. But Apple says a
whole new sensor is required when the
battery dies in the $30 device, so the 10
minutes and $4 battery required for this
found something better and cheaper." Far
cheaper, it turns out. "We spent a few days
going through all the medical literature,
looking for what works, what doesn't."
The team turned up a study from the
United Kingdom that gave infants high
doses of prednisolone, a well-known,
generic steroid. Prednisolone had been
dismissed as relatively ineffective for
infantile spasms-based research that used
low doses. The high doses made all the
difference: The U.K. study found efficacy
rates reached 70 percent and more. Johns
Hopkins began using high-dose
prednisolone and found it worked in about
70 percent of cases, on par with the
hospital's experience with Acthar Gel. And
the price was $15 per
injection—essentially free—compared
with the three-injection $69,000 treatment
from Questcor. "It was like in times of
war, you get focused, and amazing things
come out," Kossoff says. "We don't use
[Acthar Gel] at Hopkins anymore for
infantile spasms because the oral steroids
[high-dose prednisolone] work just as
well."
It's unclear, though, how many other
doctors and hospitals in the U.S. will
switch from the $69,000 drug to the $15
drug.
"I don't understand what's behind the
price increase," says Finbar O'Callaghan, a
pediatric neurologist at the Bristol Royal
Hospital for Children and coauthor of the
United Kingdom Infantile Spasms Study,
or UKISS. The study showed that high-
dose prednisolone and a synthetic form of
ACTH, the active hormone in Acthar Gel,
were equally effective. He cautioned that
the purpose of the study was not to
compare the two, but to compare steroid
treatment with another drug called
vigabatrin. "Having said that, you couldn't
get a piece of paper between the results of
the prednisolone and the results of the
ACTH."
Costs aside, Hopkins is achieving the
same results against Acthar Gel. "There is
no reason to favor one over the other,
little DIY seems worth the effort if and
when your battery takes the long sleep.
Replace battery in Nike+ receiver for
under $5[Instructables via Podophile]
Biz Buzz Tech Tips* 9
unless there is a financial reason for doing
so. That's been a big issue in the U.S.,"
says O'Callaghan. Comparing $15 against
$69,000 "puts a different perspective on
it," he says.
"Historically, and unfortunately," he
adds, "doctors in general are very
traditional and tend to use what's worked
before."
Asked about the $15 price on
prednisolone, Cartt said studies from the
1990s show low efficacy rates for the drug.
When informed that those studies looked at
low doses, not high doses, Cartt said no
one knows the long-term implications of
high-dose prednisolone, and said the
company's higher profits will help it find
out. "We can afford to study the long-term
effects" of Acthar Gel and the alternatives,
he said.
What the Congressional hearing may
find is that Questcor had a business
problem: While its drug had a potential
market of 300,000 multiple sclerosis
patients, not enough of them were buying.
But among a smaller market, just 2,000
babies per year, Acthar Gel was extremely
effective in fighting infantile spasms.
Questcor's astronomical rates may simply
be a matter of hard business realities in a
small potential market.
For the Foltzes, Questcor's high prices
proved irrelevant, after much struggle.
When at first Danielle's insurance
company, WorldWide Insurance, rejected
the claim, the doctor faxed in a letter
stating that there was a good chance
Trevor would end up mentally retarded for
life without treatment; the insurer relented.
But on Thursday, his mother will join
those who testify against companies like
Questcor. She says, "I feel they're going to
soak every penny if they can get it."
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10 Biz Buzz Gadgets*
Dear Mr. Quattrone, You're Wrong
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/24/2008 8:00:00 AM
Frank Quattrone thinks the dearth of
startup I.P.O.'s in today's market is due in
large part to the Wall Street research
reforms made after the tech bubble burst.
He's wrong.
At a technology conference at Stanford
University yesterday, Quattrone said the
industry should petition to remove the
regulations that prevent sell-side research
analysts from being compensated for their
efforts in getting startups through the
I.P.O. process. "It hurts the
competitiveness of our country to deny
companies access to research analysts," he
said.
The reforms were made after then New
York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer went
after research analysts including Henry
Blodget and Jack Grubman for publicly
recommending stocks they privately
disparaged.
Quattrone, who was arguably Silicon
Valley's top investment banker during the
dotcom boom, spent years fighting federal
charges relating to an investigation into his
allocation of I.P.O. shares. He eventually
prevailed, and he now runs a technology
boutique bank called Qatalyst Group.
To understand why Quattrone is wrong,
it's helpful to remember how Wall Street
research worked before the reforms. I
witnessed it firsthand as a research
associate at Hambrecht & Quist in the mid-
1990s, when startup software companies
were practically lining up at the door for
their chance at the public markets.
Research analysts back then were more
PS3 homebrew capabilities inevitably leads to Pong
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 6:51:00 AM
Filed under: Gaming
If you'll recall, the evolution of
homebrew on the Wii started out quite
similar to this. First comes the Hello World
proof of concept, then comes Pong. It
would just be wrong to unfold otherwise,
right? Dragula96, the same guru who
like startup consultants, doing everything
from working with bankers to pitch new
business to I.P.O. candidates to hosting
roadshow presentations with institutional
clients ahead of the offering.
There was no "Chinese Wall" between
banking and research. I once had a banker
ask me for the models for two companies
we covered, because they were weighing a
merger. In fact, bankers and research
analysts worked so closely that it was
difficult to determine where one
department stopped and the other started.
Both groups received bonuses based on
the business they won and the performance
of the stocks after their debut. That's all
well and fine for the bankers, who moved
on to other deals after celebrating at the
closing dinner. But 25 days after the I.P.O.,
the research analyst was supposed to
initiate coverage using his objective
analysis.
Invariably, this recommendation would
be a "buy" or a "strong buy."
At H&Q, only once did I see an analyst
initiate coverage of a hot I.P.O. the bank
had underwritten with a "hold"
recommendation. The stock, i2
Technologies, had simply climbed too high
in the first few weeks of trading to justify
an investment recommendation.
The morning his report was issued, the
analyst faced a stream of irate institutional
sales staff and perturbed bankers. They
flooded his office, screaming at him
behind closed doors, reminding him how
much i2 had just paid the bank.
Under the new rules, this scenario would
seem preposterous. Bankers and research
analysts are physically separated, and they
whipped up the original homebrew hack,
has now introduced 2 Player Pong 1.0 --
the first notable game to take advantage of
must clear legal hurdles even to speak.
Research analysts rightfully play no role in
pitching the startups or in selling the stock
to institutional investors. And they also
don't receive additional compensation for
business the bank gets from companies
they cover.
Quattrone argues that this is all wrong,
and that startups can't attract investor
interest without the expertise of the
research analysts. He thinks that's partly to
blame for the fact that we're not seeing
many I.P.O.'s in Silicon Valley these days.
He argues that small companies can't get
coverage because the few research analysts
left on Wall Street only focus on large cap
stocks.
The fact is, startups shouldn't have to
rely on their bank's analysts to sell their
story for them. If their business model is
sound and their valuation reasonable, their
stocks will get noticed by institutions.
And why should any bank's institutional
clients be subjected to a sales pitch from an
analyst who is fundamentally incapable of
providing an objective opinion? Individual
investors aside, it's the banks biggest
clients who should be thankful they no
longer have to hear a used-car sales pitch
from their brokers every morning.
The I.P.O. market isn't thriving for many
reasons. But bringing back the old sell-side
research scheme to revive it isn't the
answer.
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(Mostly) Good for You
the Java devkit(at least, that's how it looks
from here). Currently, the collisions are
"very basic" and further tweaks are
necessary before it's perfect, but it should
be stable enough to take you to some sort
of blissful state for now. Read| Permalink|
Email this| Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Yaho-hum
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/22/2008 5:30:00 PM
It's come to this: We expect so little from
Yahoo that when the news is bad but not
terrible, it's a feel-good moment.
Yahoo's second-quarter profit of 10 cents
a share was 2 cents below what Wall Street
was expecting. It's the company's smallest
profit in five quarters, and yet the stock
was up 2.5 percent in after-hours trading
Tuesday.
This was neither the blowout quarter that
Yahoo needed nor the train wreck some
had feared. Yahoo also didn't alter its
already conservative estimates for full-year
earnings.
"Normally, this would be a poor
performance," said Jeffrey Lindsay, an
analyst at Sanford Bernstein. "The market
is saying mediocre is good enough. It's as
if a patient had been flatlining, and the
doctors get the heart going again. He's
certainly not healthy, but it could be
worse."
Yahoo posted gross revenue of $1.8
billion in the quarter through June 30, up 6
percent from the same quarter a year
earlier. Net revenue, excluding marketing
commissions and fees, grew 8 percent year
on year to $1.35 billion but was the lowest
figure in three quarters. It was also slightly
below the consensus estimate of $1.37
billion in net revenue.
Any way you slice it, that's dramatically
slower revenue growth than archrival
Google is seeing. Last week, Google said
revenue grew 39 percent in the quarter.
And so Yahoo exits the second quarter
short of financial ammunition to fight off
shareholder agitation from Icahn and the
new board members who are likely to side
with him. Any further weakness in its
stock during the coming months could also
reignite a flame in its spurned suitor,
Microsoft.
"The distractions aren't going away," said
Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst at Global
Crown Capital. "If people think Microsoft
is gone for good, that Icahn is going to be
quiet, and that it's going to be business as
usual, they might think again."
Yahoo C.F.O. Blake Jorgensen said
operating profit was hurt by $22 million in
fees for outside advisers in its takeover
battle with Microsoft, proxy fight with
Carl Icahn, and shareholder lawsuits that
have been filed.
As a result, Yahoo only made $101
million in the quarter at the operating level,
down 45 percent year on year and even
well below the guidance of between $135
million and $155 million. That gave it an
operating margin of 7.5 percent, half of
what it was a year ago. Factoring out the
$22 million in fees, however, the operating
margin is still a historically low 9.2
percent.
Meanwhile, Yahoo needs to grapple with
a slowing market for online ads.
Executives said in a conference call that
it's seeing weakness among advertisers in
the finance and travel sectors, although
spending from technology and
entertainment industries remains strong.
"We are seeing some pricing pressure
similar to what other companies have
described," notably in premium display
ads, said Yahoo president Sue Decker.
Abroad, Yahoo is seeing stronger
growth: Net revenues outside the U.S.
grew 14 percent in the quarter, versus 6
percent growth at home. Still, overseas
revenue makes up a little more than a
quarter of Yahoo's revenue, while it's more
than half of Google's.
Yahoo is maintaining its forecast for the
full year. The midpoint of its estimated
range of gross revenue is $7.6 billion,
unchanged from its previous guidance.
That would mean a 9 percent growth rate
for all of 2008.
Pyykkonen pointed out a dilemma Yahoo
investors are facing. As an independent
company, Yahoo should be valued around
$17 a share, he said. But expectations that
Microsoft may still come back and pay up
to $30 a share is keeping the stock
hovering in the low $20s.
It's as if there are two stocks sharing the
same YHOO ticker. One of them is an
underperforming stand-alone. The other is
a future Microsoft subsidiary. Only one of
them is real. But these days, neither one is
looking particularly promising.
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Games of Chance
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/22/2008 9:00:00 PM
Lowell Taub and Sanya Richards, she of
four-by-400-meters gold medal fame in
Athens, were driving to Hershey,
Pennsylvania, to meet with one of her
sponsors when they had "that
conversation," the one about doping.
"We had a heart-to-heart," Taub, a sports
agent with Creative Artists Agency, said of
the way he broached the topic with his
client. "I told her, 'If you dope and you win
and go home at night, what's the point of
doping?' We probably spoke about it for
half an hour."
Taub wasn't worried about Richards, 23,
a woman he calls the face of her sport, "a
beacon" for others to emulate. He'd done
his homework when he recruited her. But
talking about the 800-pound gorilla that
lurks around every sports story is an
obligation he feels compelled to put out
there as part of his job, especially as
glittering stars such as Marion Jones came
crashing down in steroid scandals.
"Sanya has carried the placard of being
the athlete who's doing it right, doing it the
right way," he said of the native of
Jamaica, in 2004 the youngest woman to
break the 49-second barrier in the 400
meters. She coaches track at Baylor
University and carries a leading role in
U.S.A. Track & Field's Be a Champ
Foundation.
Vetting Olympic athletes—from veterans
to hopefuls—is a full-time job for the
companies that sponsor them and the
agents who represent them, a job made
even more complicated by the breadth of
Mashable Rocks: Get Your Mac OS X Dashboard Widget
By Tamar Weinberg (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/24/2008 6:35:31 PM
You know you want Mashable on your
desktop’s Dashboard — that way you can
ensure you never miss a post and see
articles real time as we post them!
Interested? Check out Mashable’s brand
new Mac OS X Dashboard widget made
by one of our dedicated readers, Joel Then.
Enjoy reading Mashable whenever you
pull up your Dashboard, and thank you to
Joel for the awesome unexpected
exposure today's electronic world flaunts.
The transparency of internet resources
poses the greatest challenge: newspaper
articles, MySpace, YouTube, incidents
where the athlete didn't act appropriately
and caused controversy. "There's not a lot
of room to hide," a sports marketer notes.
"Politics sometimes can be a slippery
slope. But most athletes are being very
careful. They want to win," Sue Rodin,
president of Women in Sports & Events,
observes.
Bottom line: Reputation is everything.
Character rules.
"You can do all the background checks in
the world, but you've got to be comfortable
with their character, their behavior," Chris
Console, managing director at Steiner
Sports in New Rochelle, New York, says.
"In some cases, you have to go with your
gut."
For athletes, nothing carries the weight
of doping, which can include jail time to
go with the embarrassment.
"If you make a fallible mistake and
apologize, our society is willing to
forgive," Taub notes. "You will stomach a
crazy parent or an unfortunate MySpace
shot if the person is of strong character.
People can recover from a heck of a lot. I
don't know anyone who's recovered from
doping."
For sponsors, an athlete with a strong
hometown presence in a key market is
critical. Personal stories are their best
marketing tool, Goode notes.
An ideal is Howard Bach, a San
Franciscan sponsored by Bank of America
competing in badminton (China's No. 1
sport). Bach is competing for his father, a
Mashable treat!
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
top badminton player from Vietnam who
never had the chance to compete on an
Olympic team.
"The Olympics is the only sporting event
where the entire nation gets behind one
particular team," Goode says.
The bank's selection process is intense:
four qualifying heats over a two-year span
before the games, each one digging deeper
into the character of a pool of 300 to 400
potential spokespeople that will be
winnowed down to 12 who are supported
with tens of millions of dollars.
Bank of America leverages its
relationships with agencies like Octagon,
IMG, SportsMark, and Ketchum Sports
Network to determine the hot sports and
athletes, and talks to its partners at some of
the sport governing bodies and the
International Olympic Committee.
Contract clauses covering morality issues
are standard and serve to protect both the
sponsor and the athlete, Console observes.
"There has to be equal protection on both
sides. If a company is caught fudging
investor numbers, that could cause
financial disgrace."
At the end of the day, athletes need to be
smarter, Taub says, and more guarded.
"Two generations ago, we didn't have the
media coverage we have today. Media
people are not your friends. You have to be
shrewder about your communications and
how you cover yourselves."
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S.E.C. Reasserts Its
Relevancy
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/24/2008 11:30:00 AM
With Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson
and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke hogging the spotlight during
most of the year-long credit crunch, it was
easy to forget that the Securities and
Exchange Commission was still a
regulating body.
But over the last week, S.E.C. Chairman
Christopher Cox has elbowed his way back
into relevance, first by increasing
restrictions on naked short selling, and
today laying out a strong case for why the
S.E.C.—and not the Federal
Reserve—needed more regulatory powers
over investment banks. In doing so, he
questioned the need for these banks to
have long-term access to the Federal
Reserve's new lending facilities created
after the demise of Bear Stearns.
In testimony delivered to the House
Financial Services Committee, Cox also
warned against extending existing
commercial bank regulation to investment
banks as there is no easy "apples to apples"
comparison between the two businesses.
Although in recent years the lines that
differentiated investment banks from
commercial banks have faded, their
fundamental roles are still different.
"The core business of investment banking
is facilitating capital raising—whether
through trading, underwriting, or ancillary
services—while the core business of
commercial banks is taking deposits and
making loans," Cox said.
Overly restrictive regulation of
investment banks that would "intentionally
discourage risk taking, reduce leverage,
and restrict lines of business" would
"fundamentally alter the role that
investment banks play in the capital
formation that has fueled economic growth
and innovation domestically and abroad,"
Cox added.
Biz Buzz Web 2.0 11
For that reason, the more fundamental
question is whether investment banks
should have access to a government
liquidity backstop.
"And if Congress were to answer that
question in the affirmative, it is difficult to
imagine that our markets would not
produce new entities, perhaps hedge funds
or other nonregulated firms, to take over
the higher-risk capital markets functions of
the formerly robust investment banks,"
Cox said. "That, in turn, would simply
raise today's questions anew."
Also testifying was New York Federal
Reserve Bank President Timothy Geithner
who made a competing case for why the
Fed needed stronger oversight over
investment banks. Geithner said that even
though investment banks had reduced their
borrowings from the Fed in recent weeks,
the lending facilities were providing a
confidence backstop to markets. And if the
banks were to continue to have the safety
net, then the Fed should have a stronger
regulatory function.
"It's very important that we have a role in
consolidated supervision of these
institutions because you will not have good
judgments made by this central bank, this
Federal Reserve, in the future unless we
have the direct knowledge that comes with
supervision," Geithner warned.
Geithner also disagreed with President
Bush and Paulson's stated plan of keeping
the recently saved Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac functioning in their present form.
"I believe that there is going to have to be
some very fundamental rethinking of the
future of these institutions going forward,"
Geithner said. "The current balance is
probably untenable over the longer term."
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12 Biz Buzz
Bush the Bartender
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/23/2008 9:00:00 AM
"Wall Street got drunk," President Bush
told a group of Republicans last week,
unaware that his comments were being
recorded. "It got drunk, and now it's got a
hangover. The question is, how long will it
sober up and not try to do all these fancy
financial instruments?" (See the video
here.)
He's right about Wall Street. Speaking
candidly, Bush pointed the finger at the
now struggling financial giants that fueled
the mortgage crisis with risky products that
generated huge profits.
But Bush neglected to add that he was
behind the bar, pouring the tequila shots
for most of the night, and refusing to cut
off the drunks before they'd reached their
limits.
And this morning, Bush offered up a
hangover cure for the capital markets by
throwing his support behind a federal
housing package that would prop up
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at the
expense of taxpayers.
A good bartender knows just what to do
to make his customers belly up again.
Profitable innovation on Wall Street can
only be fostered in just the right climate,
and that's precisely what the administration
created for it. Desperate to rebound from
9/11 and the technology bubble, economic
policymakers lowered interest rates and
kept them low. They wanted consumers to
be able to borrow and banks to have easy
access to credit.
Moreover, President Bush made
homeownership a top priority from his first
Rich From the Fall, Richer From the Rise
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/23/2008 4:30:00 AM
Will the man who perhaps made the most
money from the credit crisis make even
more on its rebound?
He's certainly going to try.
The hedge fund manager John Paulson is
planning to raise a new fund to provide
capital to financial firms that have been
hurt by bad investments, according to
unnamed sources speaking to Bloomberg.
day in office. Can't afford a down
payment? We'll pass legislation so you
don't have to! Got bad credit? No worries!
It sounds like an ad from a predatory
lender. It came in the form of the names
like American Dream Down Payment
Initiative, the Minority Homeownership
Initiative, and Zero Down Payment
Initiative.
It takes financial ingenuity to make sure
everyone can own their own homes. Wall
Street executed his plan for him with its
"fancy financial instruments."
And Bush applauded it. The economy
was strong, interest rates were low, and
more people owned homes. And guess
who took the credit? Here, a few choice
excerpts as a reminder of just how much
the administration enjoyed the tequila-
drenched party:
October 2002, announcing the Minority
Homeownership Initiative:
"Low interest rates, low inflation are very
important foundations for economic
growth. The idea of encouraging new
homeownership and the money that will be
circulated as a result of people purchasing
homes will mean people are more likely to
find a job in America. This project not
only is good for the soul of the country, it's
good for the pocketbook of the country, as
well.
I'm also going to encourage the lending
industry to develop a mortgage market so
that this script, these vouchers, can
regularly be used as a source of payment to
provide more capital to lenders, who can
then help more families move from rental
housing into houses of their own."
State of the Union 2004:
Paulson put his name on the map by
betting heavily against subprime debt last
year. His Credit Opportunities Fund
returned 590 percent for 2007, helping him
earn a $3.7 billion paycheck for the year.
Now, Paulson & Co. reportedly wants to
cash in on the way up. Bloomberg has few
details on the fund, except that Paulson
plans to raise it by the end of this year.
Plenty of private equity funds and hedge
funds have recently raised piles of money
to invest in distressed assets in order to
"The pace of economic growth in the
third quarter of 2003 was the fastest in
nearly 20 years; new home construction,
the highest in almost 20 years;
homeownership rates, the highest ever.
Manufacturing activity is increasing.
Inflation is low. Interest rates are low.
Exports are growing. Productivity is high,
and jobs are on the rise."
(A month later, President Bush passed the
Zero Down Payment Initiative. "To build
an ownership society, we'll help even more
Americans to buy homes," Bush told a
group of homebuilders in 2004. "Some
families are more than able to pay a
mortgage but just don't have the savings to
put money down." By the end of 2005, the
National Association of Realtors said that
more than four out of every 10 first-time
homebuyers put no money down.)
An August 2007 speech in New York:
"One area that has shown particular strain
is the mortgage market, especially what's
known as the subprime sector of the
mortgage market. This market has seen
tremendous innovation in recent years, as
new lending products make credit
available to more people. For the most
part, this has been a positive development,
and the reason why is millions of families
have taken out mortgages to buy their
homes, and American homeownership is at
a near all-time high."
Related Links
The Bankers' Bailout
IndyMac-n-Squeeze
Fed: Wall Street Needs More Time
take advantage of opportunities in this
weak economy.
But it appears that Paulson is taking a
different tact, by raising a fund that looks
more like a sovereign wealth fund than a
distressed debt fund. Sovereign funds from
China and the Middle East pumped billions
of new capital into many big financial
firms early in the crisis.
But in recent months, they've been
conspicuously absent from the capital
raises from firms like Merrill Lynch and
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Reading, 'Riting, and
Retailing
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/22/2008 11:00:00 AM
Retailers are struggling through summer
sales doldrums, but the back-to-school
shopping season is expected to provide
relief, according to one survey.
The National Retail Federation says that
parents will spend some $20 billion
shopping for the start of the school year,
up 5.5 percent over last year.
Consumers have pegged electronics
purchases as the big gainer, expecting
those to rise 18 percent, to an average of
$151.49 per household.
The N.R.F.'s survey also suggests that
relief might not be far away; respondents
plan to begin their buying earlier than last
year, with 64 percent of shoppers hitting
the stores at least three weeks in advance
of classes resuming.
Retailers need all the help they can get.
In June sales rose a less-than-expected 0.1
percent, as the impact of the 130 million
rebate checks that were mailed out as part
of an economic stimulus package dimmed.
In the face of a persistently sluggish
spending environment and tight credit
markets, retailers are shuttering doors at an
alarming pace. The Sharper Image, Linens
'n Things, and, most recently, Steve &
Barry's have declared bankruptcy, while
Home Depot and Starbucks are closing
stores. Discount department store
Mervyns, owned by private equity firm
Cerberus, is reported to be weighing a
bankruptcy filing.
Unfortunately, even if N.R.F.'s rosy
Lehman Brothers. The funds have either
become reluctant because of the losses on
those previous investments or they've
remained on the sidelines due to political
backlash against them.
It's certainly likely that big banks will
continue to need new capital long after the
end of this year as the losses from the
credit crisis reach as much as $1.3 trillion,
as Paulson predicts.
But can he get so lucky twice in a row?
It's certainly happened before. And
projections hold true, the report isn't all
good news. While school shopping for the
K-12 set is forecast to increase from last
year, things are just the opposite for back-
to-college shoppers. That demographic
expects to cut spending by 7 percent this
year as they return to classes.
"College students are learning a hard
lesson that when economic times are
tough, fun purchases take a backseat," said
Tracy Mullin, the president and chief
executive of the federation. "While
students will still be buying school
supplies, they will scale back spending on
clothing,
electronics, and dorm furnishings."
And a new survey out from Deloitte is
far more pessimistic about the back-to-
school season as a whole, reporting that 71
percent of participants said they plan to
spend less this year.
But Deloitte's survey is in its first year,
so the lack of historical data makes it
difficult to evaluate how the results would
compare to back-to-school seasons past.
Flaws in self-reporting, too, can color the
results: It's tempting to say you plan to
spend less, but with an imprecise memory
of how much you spent last year and a
hearty dose of wishful thinking, there's
often a wide gulf between forecasts and
reality.
Related Links
Shop Til the Deals Drop
Holiday Cheer or Jeer on Black Friday?
Dubious Statistics Watch: Thanksgiving
Retail Sales
Paulson is already bucking the trend for
this year. While many hedge fund
managers are struggling to produce returns
in this dismal market, Paulson is reportedly
already up 20 percent for the year.
Related Links
Hedge Fund Managers Not Earning
Their Keep
The Million Dollar Active vs Passive
Wager
Hedge Funds: The Legal Risks
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Putting a Price on Innovation
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 12:00:00 PM
Founded 30 years ago at the dawn of
biotech, Genentech is a legend in an
industry where companies yearn to do
what it does: make billions of dollars from
novel drugs while remaining true to
innovation and science.
Unfortunately, it's also a legend being
positioned for a fall.
That's because the Swiss drug giant
Roche, which has owned a majority of
Genentech shares since 1990, wants to buy
the 44 percent of shares in the company
that it does not already hold. Late
Thursday, Genentech said it had formed a
special committee to evaluate the $89-per-
share offer, which many analysts and
shareholders believe is too low.
At any price, this whopper of a deal
could mean an end to Genentech's
distinctive culture of innovation, despite
promises from Roche not to meddle.
It would also provide more evidence that
the days of "Big Biotech"—a relatively
small subset of successful companies in an
industry that takes years to develop
products and to become profitable—are
over. Big Biotech is being swallowed by
Big Pharma.
Facing slender pipelines for new drugs
and expiring patents for blockbusters, big
pharmaceuticals are snapping up medium
and large biotechs with abandon. Biotech's
bestselling product line this year will not
be new meds for cancer or Alzheimer's,
Trent Reznor Gives People A Reason To Buy
Latest CD Even Though It's Free Online
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 2:54:00 AM
It's getting rather repetitive to show what
a good job Trent Reznor is doing in
showing how Nine Inch Nails is embracing
the new business models available to the
music industry, but he's doing such a
consistently good job of it, it's so useful as
an example. The latest move is that he's
now releasing his last album, The Slip,
which was offered as a totally free
download, as a special limited edition
but deals.
Roche's initial Genentech offer is $43.7
billion, equal to over half of all of biotech's
revenues last year. The offer was 9 percent
over premium last Friday, but the share
price has quickly risen to $95, signaling
that shareholders want more. Analysts
expect Roche to pay $100 a share if they
are serious about the purchase.
"The special committee intends to
proceed in a timely manner to review the
Roche proposal, which was both
unsolicited and unexpected," said
committee chairman Charles Sanders in a
statement. "The outcome of this process
has not been predetermined, and there can
be no assurance that the special committee
will approve any transaction with Roche."
In the past, pharma companies have been
content to support certain biotechs like
farm teams in baseball through licensing
and milestone deals, worried that engulfing
them might destroy the innovation.
No more. In April, Japanese pharma
giant Takeda bought Millennium
Pharmaceuticals for $8.8 billion, and last
year biotech biggies such as MedImmune
were sold for billions of dollars. And
remember Chiron? Another biotech
pioneer for the San Francisco Bay Area,
Chiron was purchased by Novartis in 2005,
and now seems to have vanished.
Nobody seems as intent on buying new
companies as Roche. Already this week it
has bought Canada's Arius Research for
$189 million, and Mirus Bio of Madison,
Wisconsin, for $125 million, on top of the
CD/DVD and deluxe vinyl. In other words,
like he's done multiple times in the past,
he's giving fans a reason to buy the
physical media beyond just the music. In
this case, it's to get a numbered copy,
limited to 250,000 that includes a ton of
extras.
Sure, there will be plenty of people who
don't want it and are perfectly happy with
just the music. And Reznor seems
perfectly fine with that. However, other
fans will want this unique package for
themselves. Given how well Reznor has
Genentech offer late last week.
Apparently, new Roche C.E.O. Severin
Schwan likes to shop.
Roche argues that duplications in the two
companies are costing hundreds of
millions of dollars a year, and efforts to
keep the two companies separate keep
operations from being as smooth as they
might be.
But critics of the deal insist that this is
really about Roche taking advantage of a
weak dollar and a declining stock market.
One thing is likely: There may not be
another Genentech for a long time. Any
company with the potential will be
snatched before it has a chance.
This may not be healthy for the larger
pharma industry, which not only needs
more novel drugs, but it also desperately
needs new business strategies and new
cultures that are able to keep the
innovations coming even in a huge
company.
Genentech was the most important player
in this experiment to find a new way to
incorporate both.
If the deal gets done, the ball will be in
Roche's court to see if its buying sprees
will help it become more like Genentech,
or will turn Genentech into another
disappearing act like Chiron.
Related Links
Buying the Pharma Team
Eye on a Huge Deal
Welcome to the Future
done with "limited edition" physical
media, it seems quite likely that this will
also be a huge success for Reznor. And, of
course, we're not even touching on all the
money he'll make from Nine Inch Nails
concert gigs. So why do we have the music
industry running around like crazy saying
that if music is available for free no one
can make any money?
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
Why Doesn't Girl Talk
Allow Commercial Use?
By Blaise Alleyne (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 8:11:01 AM
Legal trouble for Girl Talk -- an artist
named Greg Gillis who released a "mash
up" album using the pay what you want
model -- is almost inevitable, but the
situation gets even more interesting when
you consider how the music is licensed.
Girl Talk uses a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial license for
Feed the Animals, even though the songs
on the album were made by using
hundreds samples from other artists. Gillis
claims his songs are fair use on the basis of
being transformative and because the clips
used are very short.
Aside from potential legal claims over
the license if the fair use defense fails, why
would Gillis -- an artist making
commercial use of samples from others --
put a noncommercial restriction on his
work? It seems a bit hypocritical. Granted,
he does claim that "the CC license does not
interfere with the rights you have under the
fair use doctrine, which gives you
permission to make certain uses of the
work even for commercial purposes," but
is the noncommercial restriction for other
uses really necessary?
First of all, as Mike Masnick pointed out
in his critique of a noncommercial
copyright, the distinction between
commercial and noncommercial use is
extremely blurry. Equally blurry in this
case is the distinction between
transformative and non-transformative use.
At what point exactly does a derivative
work become transformative? But, more
importantly, Mike asks "if someone else is
able to do something commercially useful
with my content, why should that be a
problem?" Girl Talk ought to be a perfect
example of this, yet Gillis seems to
deliberately limit the possibilities through
Biz Buzz Tech* 13
his choice of license.
Why attempt to limit the positive
externalities? Maybe some of the artists
sampled on the Girl Talk album will really
like a song their music appears in and want
to include it somehow on a release of their
own, make use of it on their website, etc.
Should those artists then be required to pay
for the use of a song which includes
samples of their own music? Maybe, but it
seems like respecting "upstream" would
help an artist like Gillis maintain a better
relationship with the artists from which
he's sampling.
Furthermore, what about people who
might do something with the album that's
potentially commercially useful for Girl
Talk? For example, if someone were to
make an interesting remix or video using
Girl Talk's music , not only would they be
required to refrain from commercial use
themselves (unless it was fair use), but
Gillis would require their permission to
make use of it himself. If he had used a
copyleft license like the Creative
Commons Attibution-Share Alike, both he
and any artists making derivative works
would have the ability to monetize their
efforts. Instead, derivatives are relegated to
the realm of the amateur because, with a
noncommercial license, the barriers of a
permission culture are still intact for artists
trying to make a living from their work.
One would hope that Greg Gillis, of all
artists, might realize the benefits of
removing these barriers, especially on
commercial use.
Blaise Alleyne is an expert at the
Techdirt Insight Community. To get
insight and analysis from Blaise Alleyne
and other experts on challenges your
company faces, click here.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
14 Tech*
Techcrunch August Capital Event Wrapup
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 6:17:30 AM
Thank you to the nearly 1,100 people
who flowed through the Quadras
Conference Center for our Mobile Web
Wars event and the party at August Capital
immediately afterwards. We were able to
donate $7,500 to Malaria No More, which
will protect at least 750 children from
Malaria for five years.
This was our third annual party held at
August Capital, who continue to graciously
co-host the event with us at their offices,
which includes a huge outdoor deck. Here
are our wrap ups of the 2007 and 2006
parties at the same location. Thanks in
particular to David Hornik, who continues
to convince his partners that it is a good
idea to have a thousand or so over
caffeinated, slightly intoxicated
entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and press
roaming their hallways.
If you weren’t able to attend the event,
you can see the official photo stream here
and more here and here- some are also
included below.
As I said in my brief moment on stage at
the event, real world events are a really
important part of the Silicon Valley
community. We meet and interact with so
many people over the Internet and by
phone and never have a chance to meet
them in person. To have the chance to
spend a few minutes talking in person over
a beer makes those relationships real.
Small, intimate events are always best, but
sometimes it’s fun to get a ton of geeky
people together, too, and just see what
happens.
One thing that really makes the party
special: Hugh MacLeod has made a
lithograph illustration for each of the three
events, and personally signs and numbers
each one for attendees. This year’s
lithograph is below. Thank you so much
for doing these, Hugh. We’ve framed each
one and hang them proudly in our office.
There were also 20 product demos
around the event. Webware’s Rafe
Needleman crowns Plista the most
interesting, and we’ll likely see more
articles about them soon.
If you’ve written about your experience
at the event please leave a link in the
comments below and we’ll add it here:
Mobile platform tug-of-war, TechCrunch
Mobile Web Wars Roundtable,
TechCrunch August 2008: Defining a
Culture, Techcrunch Party: For the win, At
the TechCrunch party, TechCrunch 3rd
Summer Meetup, My new white iPhone is
now property of TechCrunch( plus this),
Post TechCrunch Party!, NYC Crashes
Techcrunch Party, TechCrunch August
Capital 3, TechCrunched for Time, and
TechCrunch August Capital 2008—
serious fun (and more to come).
Thank you to our sponsors, who pay for
all the food and drinks and other expenses.
We couldn’t do this without you:
Affinity Circles is the leading provider of
exclusive social networks for established,
professional organizations seeking to
promote career advancement opportunities
among their members.
Blurb is a company and a community
that believes passionately in the power of
books: making, reading, sharing, and
selling them.
Cannonball Wine Company is one of our
favorite wine providers that makes great
wine at a great price.
Center’d helps people plan any event or
activity, simple or complex, and discover
new places to go and things to do based on
the opinions of trusted friends.
Engine Yard focuses on Ruby on Rails
application deployments and operations
support, so you can focus on developing
your application and business. Customers
have started during development and
grown to millions of users without stress
along the way.
Etchstar.com provides turnkey on-
demand product customization solutions,
working with leading OEMs and retailers
to offer online shoppers premium products
featuring custom art and text via engraving
and direct-to-garment printing. Etchstar’s
massive but tightly curated licensed art
library includes Pink Floyd, Wu Tang
Clan, The God Father, Family Guy, the
CIA, SpongeBob, UCLA and only the best
user uploaded art and logos.
EventBrite is the world’s largest online
event management and self-service
ticketing site. Distinguished by its ease-of-
use and cost-effectiveness, EventBrite has
helped tens of thousands of companies,
organizations and non-profits take
advantage of the Internet to promote and
sell-out their events.
Future Works and the Future Works
Studios are joining us as the official
August Capital media sponsor. Thanks
guys!
Helpstream is a brand new customer
service application built for the Web using
innovative SaaS technology to provide
engaging service-driven communities for
organizations who are dedicated to
exceptional customer support.
Hugh MacLeod, the man behind
Gapingvoid.com, is well known for what
he modestly calls, “cartoons drawn on the
back of business cards”. When Hugh is not
doing his pithy cartoons, he works closely
with some Fortune 100 businesses, finding
new ways to better tell their stories.
IDrive.com is an online backup service
for consumers and small businesses
provided by Pro Softnet Corp.
IBackup.com is another variation with
additional emphasis on SMB market with
Exchange, SQL Server and Disaster
Recovery capabilities. With over 250,000
user base between these two services, we
are a leading player in the online backup
space.
Jaduka enables companies to harness
communications to create more effective
operations. With Jaduka’s Web Services
APIs, applications can trigger individual or
group calls; provide automated alerts;
manage surveys; activate digital content;
and administer account and transaction
information for a variety of solutions.
Kaboodle is the #1 social shopping
website where people discover,
recommend and share products. With over
8 million monthly unique visitors, at the
heart of Kaboodle is a fun and engaging
community of people who love to shop.
Kontagent is an application that
integrates tightly with platforms such as
Facebook to offer widget and application
developers a high level of analytics data.
Developers can use the tool to track the
application’s usage and adoption rate, and
a number of other details that more basic
analytics programs can’t offer.
Kosmix scours the Web to automatically
generate home pages for any topic from Le
Corbusier to Burning Man, and connects
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
consumers to the information that makes a
difference in their lives. Spend less time
searching and more time exploring,
discovering and learning at
www.kosmix.com.
Limbo is the largest mobile community
in the US with over 2.5 million members.
All of our services are free to our
members. Limbo amplifies your social life
– giving you quick and easy access to more
activities, people and places. Limbo is
headquartered in Burlingame, Calif., and
backed by Azure Capital, DFJ, and NEA.
Loopt, based in Silicon Valley, uses
location technology to improve the way
people connect, share and explore in the
real world. Loopt’s interoperable and
accessible social-mapping service is
available across multiple carrier networks
and supported on over 80 mobile devices.
Malaria No More’s mission is simple: to
end deaths due to malaria. The world has
known how to beat this disease for more
than a century, yet it remains the number
one killer of children under five in Africa,
claiming more than 1 million lives a year.
Media Temple is an industry leading,
inc. 500, privately held, profitable web
hosting and software application service
provider in California. Since 1998, (mt)
has provided businesses worldwide with
professional-class network environments
for web, email, applications, and rich
media content.
Mixx is a branded social media site and
active online community dedicated to
connecting users and publishers through
communities and tags. Launched in
October 2007, Mixx has more than 2
million users and is the social media
platform of choice for major publishers
such as CNN, Los Angeles Times,
USATODAY, New York Times and
thousands of blogs.
Mobissimo simultaneously searches
more than 200 different travel sites in 30
countries and five continents, including
major global airlines, low-cost carriers,
consolidators, and hotel/car rental sites, to
find the best fares and rates online.
Mo’Jiva’s flexible mobile-web
advertising platform allows agencies,
publishers, advertisers and sales-reps to
leverage and add-value to existing
relationships and content partnerships by
providing an extension to fully manage
mobile marketing strategy.
Pandora is a personalized radio service,
available anytime and anywhere on the PC,
in the home and on mobile devices,
including the Apple iPhone. By simply
entering a favorite song or artist, a listener
is instantly launched into a personalized
listening experience, full of discovery as
Pandora explores their favorite part of the
music universe.
Plista is a user-centric real-time
personalization and recommendation
network based on collaborative filtering. It
allows for enhancing end-user experience
by recommending more relevant content,
products and ads. It works with any item
and via various channels: as a widget, per
API, or browser plug-in.
ScanDigital converts old photos to digital
format. Customers send in their loose
snapshots or albums, and the company
scans and color-corrects them. The photos
are given a permanent online home on the
company’s photo sharing site, to which
customers can upload additional images.
SezWho provides a universal distributed
profile allowing site visitors to discover
quality content based on people.
Additionally SezWho provides the
capability to rate content from which we
derive context specific author reputations.
Snap is a distributed media network,
reaching 10% of the US audience and 35
million unique global users each month in
48 languages (June 2008). Snap’s product
is called Snap Shots and is used on over
2,000,000 websites and blogs, to improve
user experience by revealing the content
that users want and delivering it to them
right where they are, without forcing them
to click links or conduct searches.
Socialmedia.com is the largest
independent social advertising network.
Over 5,000 applications from Facebook,
MySpace, Bebo and Hi5 participate in
socialmedia.com’s network, attracting a
global audience of over 30 million monthly
unique users.
Stormhoek is a little South African
Winery that has built global awareness
through the use of social software. Located
in Stellenbosch, South Africa, Stormhoek
thinks that wine is about Love, Passion,
Spontaneity, Dreaming Big, Celebrating,
and Changing The World.
Tapulous is building a family of fun and
TECHCRUNCH page 16
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Cuil Exits Stealth Mode With A Massive Search Engine
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 9:01:36 PM
Menlo Park based Cuil will launch later
this evening with an index of 120 billion
web pages, making them arguably the most
comprehensive search engine on the web
(Google doesn’t disclose the size of their
index, although they claim to know about a
trillion unique web pages). They’ve also
dropped one of the “l’s” from their name -
previously the company was “Cuill.”
Either way, it’s pronounced “cool.”
The super-stealth search project was
founded by highly respected search
experts. Husband and wife team Tom
Costello(CEO) and Anna Patterson(VP
Engineering) were joined by Russell
Power. Patterson and Power are also ex-
Google employees, and the company has
been the subject of intense speculation
over the last couple of years.
Much of the secret sauce of Cuil is in the
way they index the web and handle actual
queries by users. Both are costly to scale,
and Cuil claims to have found a way to
massively reduct those costs. That allows
them to run the search engine a lot
cheaper, even at Google-scale should it
ever reach that point. By some estimates,
Google spends a billion dollars a year to
run the back end infrastructure of it’s
search business.
Moondo Fuses Casual Gaming With Massively Multiplayer Games
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 8:01:54 PM
One of the biggest draws for massively
multiplayer online games (MMO’s) is the
satisfaction that comes from earning in-
game items and abilities. Unlike simple
Flash games where your accomplishments
vanish the moment you step away from
your computer, MMO’s allow you to
acquire virtual goods and work your way
up a skill ladder, in the hopes of eventually
becoming powerful enough to dominate
over everyone else. Unfortunately, many
people simply can’t spare the hundreds of
hours a game like World of Warcraft takes
to finally reach this leet status.
Today sees the launch of Moondo, a new
Cuil also claims to have better search
results than Google and others based on
how they index websites. They do not
simply catalog keywords on a site and then
rank the site based on its importance. They
also work to understand how words are
related (France - cheese - wine, for
example), to return more relevant results to
users. This is a semantic approach to
search, but very different from Powerset’s
natural language approach. Powerset uses
gaming “world” that is trying to merge the
best parts of MMOs and the casual games
that litter the web. The Moondo world is
comprised of a number of multiplayer
minigames that feature 3D graphics that
rival those seen on most MMOs. Each
minigame is intended to require only about
15-20 minutes, though they include
multiple levels that should keep gamers
satisfied for hours at a time.
What differentiates Moondo from most
other multiplayer minigames is the
introduction of persistent goods and a
leveling system. For example, a shield that
a user might acquire during the course of a
shooting game could later be used on the
platform’s driving game. As gamers
continue playing, they progressively
artificial intelligence to try to understand
what sentences on a website actually mean.
Cuil, by comparison, simply tries to
properly categorize and file a web page,
even if the category name doesn’t appear
on the site.
That means users search the same way
they always have, but Cuil will try to
return better results via refinements in a
“explore by category” module to the right
of results. A search for dogs, for example,
acquire more goods and skills, and the
platform’s matching system ensures that
they are only pitted against players of
comparable experience. At launch, there
will return category results for “water
dogs,” “crossbreed,” “cocker spaniel,” etc.
Some of these related terms do not include
the term “dog.”
Cuil is experimenting with a new type of
search interface as well. Results are shown
in three columns and contain an image and
more summary text than existing search
engines. In addition to refinement by
category, Cuil will recommend related
searches via tabs across the top of search
results. A search for New York, for
example, also has tabbed results for
recommended refinements like New York
Times, New York City, New York
Yankees, etc.:
Cuil also says that they will put user
privacy at the top of their business
objectives. User IP addresses are not
recorded to their servers, they say, and
cookies are not used to associate a
computer with queries. The data is simply
dumped as it is created. That means user
data cannot be turned over to others,
whether its via blind stupidity or lawsuits.
Cuil has raised$33 million over two
rounds of financing from Greylock,
Madrone Capital Partners and Tugboat
Ventures.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
are two games available (an FPS and a
racing game), but that number should grow
quickly, as Moondo says that the platform
is designed so that it can pump out a new
game every 8 weeks.
Moondo’s biggest challenge lies in
making the powerups and levels acquired
by each gamer seem worthwhile. It’s one
thing to be known as a powerful wizard or
knight in a persistent world like World of
Warcraft - everyone knows you’ve earned
it. But when such advantages are carried
over to smaller minigames, it might just
make them unbalanced and less fun.
For the time being Moondo is only
available as a standalone client on
Windows, but the company plans to roll
out browser support (so that it should be
Tech* TV* 15
Heroes - Comic-
Con Report
By Keith McDuffee (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 10:16:00 AM
Filed under: Heroes, Reality-Free, Comic
-Con
Ah, Hall H of the San Diego Convention
Center. If you've been to Comic-Con
before, you know how cavernous Hall H
is. If you don't, well, it's just frick'n huge. I
didn't think anything could make Ballroom
20 seem small.
I got in like over two hours before the
panels in this room started, and by the time
I got in it was about 3/4 full. Then, finally,
the Heroes panel started.
The thing about the Heroes panel is that,
unlike any of the other TV panels I went to
so far, there were very few things
discussed or questions asked. I think
perhaps five people got to ask questions,
most which weren't informative at all.
What did take up the time was a viewing
of the entire first episode of the new
season, which doesn't premiere until
September 22. I'll post some spoilery
details on that later, but for now I'm typing
this as I await the Lost panel.
Continue reading Heroes - Comic-Con
Report
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
platform-agnostic) by October. The game
is the first product from Funtactix, a
Benchmark and JVP-funded company that
has spent the last eighteen months
developing the platform that powers
Moondo. Another company that is
introducing persistent accomplishments to
casual gaming is CasualCafe which we
covered here.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
16 Tech*
Great Apps Using The
CrunchBase API
By Rob Olson (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 4:45:13 PM
Since launching the CrunchBase API less
than two weeks ago we’ve seen a great
response from developers, who have
already developed a number of impressive
plugins and applications. The CrunchBase
API offers access to information from
thousands of tech companies, VCs and
startup entrepreneurs. It’s free to use, there
are no accounts to sign up for and no
request throttling. The API returns clean,
pretty-printed JSON, and only basic
attribution is required. Here are some of
great applications already in the wild:
CrunchBase WordPress Plugins
Two plugins sprung up that make it easy
to insert the CrunchBase widget into
WordPress blog posts. The first, developed
by Vaibhav Gadodia, queries the
CrunchBase API to determine the
CrunchBase URL for a company. Joost de
Valk, the author of numerous WordPress
plugins, also released a CrunchBase widget
plugin that supports all of the CrunchBase
entity types (companies, products, people,
and financial organizations).
CrunchBase Social Graphs
Finnish readers Mikko Kivelä and
Bemmu Sepponen have generated whopper
social graphs using the full web of
CrunchBase data. One of the graphs maps
company connections in CrunchBase,
while the other is concerned with the
people involved. They also created a fun
text file that counts the degrees of
separation from any company to Google
(TechCrunch is 2 away). We’d love to see
a version of They Rule using financial
Accel Looks To India For Venture Returns
By Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 8:08:36 PM
Is India finally ready to produce some
world-shaking Web companies? It
certainly has the raw talent. And
increasingly it has the capital. Accel is the
latest VC fund to focus on the sub-
continent. It absorbed Indian VC firm
Erasmic, and is relaunching it as the Accel
organizations instead of board members.
Semantic CrunchBase
Quite possibly the most exciting use of
the CrunchBase API is Semantic
CrunchBase, a RDF/SPARQL mirror of
CrunchBase that adheres to the principles
of the Semantic Web. Semantic
CrunchBase comes to us from active
Semantic/RDF community developer
Benjamin Nowack. A RDF/ SPARQL
interface enables queries to be run against
the CrunchBase data. For example, you
can query for all the companies that were
funded during January 2008 (which you
can already do via a web interface with our
advanced search page). Semantic
CrunchBase is a great add-on that will
open up new doors with respect to the
applications people can create with
CrunchBase data.
If you are doing something cool with
CrunchBase data we’d love to see it.
Become a member and post on the
CrunchBase Google Group. Follow us on
Twitter. Subscribe to the CrunchBase
Blog.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
India Venture Fund.
One of Erasmic’s investors is Google.
The fund does seed-stage investing inside
India, and will continue to do so under
Accel’s ownership. (Four Erasmic partners
will keep running the show).
Accel India will reportedly raise a $60
million fund this quarter. Which may not
sound like much, but it is six times bigger
than Erasmic’s current $10 million fund.
Google Beats Cuil Hands
Down In Size And Relevance,
But That Isn’t The Whole Story
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 10:12:15 PM
Search engine Cuil launched earlier this
evening, claiming a bigger index size (120
billion web pages) than Google or any
other search engine. The pedigree of the
founders and execs, which includes three
ex senior Googlers, means the service will
be compared to Google from day one. And
the way they will be compared is index
size and, more importantly,
relevance/ranking of results.
We’ve been testing the engine for the last
hour. Based on our test queries Cuil is an
excellent search engine, particularly since
it is all of an hour old. But it doesn’t
appear to have the depth of results that
Google has, despite their claims. And the
results are not nearly as relevant.
A search for Dog returns 280 million
results on Cuil and 498 million on Google.
Judging relevance of results is subjective,
but Google returns Wikipedia as the first
result, then dog.com. Cuil returns
Dog.com, wikipedia isn’t listed on the first
page of results. Both are meaningful
results, but Google is better.
More searches, Cuil v. Google: Apple
(83 m v. 571 million) - neither mention the
And, remember, this will be earmarked for
seed investments, in India. A dollar goes a
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
fruit. France (102 m v. 1.5 billion) - Cuil’s
category refinement makes their results
better for this query. Stonehenge (800k v.
8.5 million). Silicon Valley (3.2 m v. 24
m). Techcrunch (600k v. 6.5 m).
It seems pretty clear that Google’s index
of web pages is significantly larger than
Cuil’s unless we’re randomly choosing the
wrong queries. Based on the queries above,
Google is averaging nearly 10x the number
of results of Cuil.
And Cuil’s ranking isn’t as good as
Google’s based on the pure results returned
from both queries. Where Cuil excels is
with the related categories, which return
results that are extremely relevant. With
Google, we’ve all gotten used to trying a
slightly different search to get the refined
results we need. Cuil does a good job of
guessing what we’ll want next and presents
that in the top right widget. That means
Cuil saves time for more research based
queries.
And I want to reemphasize that Cuil is
only an hour old at this point, Google has
had a decade to perfect their search engine.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
lot further there.
Accel has been around since 1983, but
didn’t create its first non-U.S. fund until
2001 (focusing on Europe and Israel). It
entered China in 2005 through a
partnership with IDG. And now it is going
after India.
Will Accel find the next Facebook in
India? Probably not (It is an investor in the
original Facebook here in the U.S., by the
TECHCRUNCH
continued from page 14
social applications for iPhone. The
company’s first release, Tap Tap Revenge,
is currently the #1 download on the App
Store
TokBox is a first-of-its-kind, video
communication service that makes it
effortless for anyone to make video calls,
send video mails or embed video
communication into any website – for free!
TokBox is located in San Francisco,
California and is privately held.
Topix is the leading news community on
the Web, connecting people to information
and discussions that matter to them in
every U.S. town and city. Topix also helps
media companies to engage their online
audiences through syndicated forums,
hyper-local platforms, RSS feeds, and
more.
vSNAX Videos is a free application that
delivers mobile video clips to iPhone and
iPod touch users from more than 35
premium media partners including
AccuWeather.com, CBS, Ford Models,
Ripe TV, and MTV Networks’ VH1, Spike
and GameTrailers.
Zivity provides subscription-based
reality entertainment and social networking
for an 18 and over audience. Zivity’s initial
focus is a community-powered showcase
of professional-quality photography
promoting female beauty and expression.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
way). But it gets to dip its toes into one of
the fastest-growing economies in the
world. If it can find a couple startups to
shake up India alone, it will have been
worth the investment.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Who Is Johng77536 And
How Did He Game
Twitter?
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 1:01:41 PM
One of the reasons Twitter is such a
useful platform for publishing is that it is
largely spam free - you only received
messages from people you choose to
follow. So even though a large number of
spammy accounts have appeared on the
service, the only real damage they do is
when they trick people into following them
(a lot of people just auto-follow whoever
follows them as a courtesy).
Recently Twitter has tried to raise the bar
even higher by removing accounts that
appear to be trying to game the system. A
lot of spammy accounts are just being
deleted.
But what happens if someone finds a
way to get others to follow them by
exploiting some vulnerability in Twitter?
The service would be overrun with spam
overnight.
That appears to have happened today - I,
along with 7,000+ other people, are now
following user johng77536, even though I
never hit the follow button (the account is
following zero other users). The account,
which is just two hours old, is now one of
the top 100 Twitter accounts (it is currently
#63), and growing fast. There are two
posts in the account, both linking to a site
called hotmoda.com.
This is the first time we’ve heard about
Twitter being exploited in this way. Our
guess is they found a vulnerability in the
API and are going to push this for all its
worth before being shut down. We’ll see
how quickly Twitter responds.
We did a search for the username and
came up with this link, where a user with
the same name purports to be John and/or
Lena Granger (who may well have nothing
to do with this).
Update: Per the comments below, it
looks like the vulnerability is being used
for at least one other account( image),
which links off to the same hotmoda site.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
Craigslist Forced To Cough
Up Name Of Oscars Ticket
Seller To The Movie Industry
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 10:23:02 AM
Apparently, the Motion Picture Academy,
the folks who put on the Oscars (also
known as "The Academy Awards"), say
that the tickets to that event are non-
transferable. That's fine. It's their event,
they can set up whatever rules they want.
However, where it gets strange, is that they
are now suing a bunch of folks who tried
to sell their tickets online, and even got a
judge to force Craigslist to reveal the name
of a seller in order to sue him.
So, here's my confusion: if the tickets are
non-transferable, why not just check IDs at
the door and not let those who were not
given tickets?
As for forcing Craigslist to reveal the
name of the seller, why is that allowed?
The Academy can have whatever rules it
wants in terms of letting in or not letting in
people, but what law was broken by the
seller, and what makes it so that Craigslist
Google Walks Away From Digg Deal
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 4:24:20 AM
The Google/Digg acquisition negotiations
were in full swing as of last Tuesday, had
passed the term sheet stage and the two
companies were in final negotiations in the
$200 million range. But sometime this last
week Google decided to walk from the
deal. Digg was notified on late Thursday or
Friday.
Google was in the due diligence stage of
the deal, where they peer deep into Digg’s
technology and financial statements. Most
term sheets are non binding, so anything
that gives the buyer pause can be used as
an excuse to walk away - but generally the
buyer already has a very good idea what
they are getting well before the term sheet
stage.
should be forced to give up the name of an
anonymous seller? All the Academy had to
do was not let the person in the door, but
apparently it chose not to run things that
way. But that's the Academy's choice, not a
legal issue the requires revealing the name
of an anonymous seller.
Furthermore, the Academy's explanation
for this also seems ridiculous: "If you don't
know who's inside the theater, it's very
difficult to provide security." Really? Most
places that provide security don't know the
names of everyone who's there and they
seem to do just fine. And, again, if
knowing who's in there is such a big deal,
then why not identify them as they enter,
and verify that they're supposed to be
there? None of that would then involve
lawsuits. But, then again, this is the movie
industry, which has shown a penchant for
lawsuits over actually thinking things
through and taking the easier path.
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Two sources close to the companies
suggested that some issue that came up
during technical due diligence was to
blame. One source said that the issue was
more personality driven, and that Google
Tech* Tech Tips* 17
Click to Call Dials Calls
from Your Browser
[Featured Firefox
Extension]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 8:00:00 AM
Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): The
GrandCentral Click to Call Firefox
extension calls phone numbers on web
pages using your GrandCentral account
with the click of your mouse. That means
whenever a web page loads, the extension
recognizes phone numbers on the page and
turns them into clickable links. Clicking
the number will call the phones you've
connected with GrandCentral, and when
you answer, GrandCentral connects you to
the number you've clicked on. The
extension is a little rough around the edges,
but if you've been using the previously
mentioned phone consolidation
service(that's also been bought up by
Google), it's a definite timesaver. Click to
Call is free, works wherever Firefox does.
GrandCentral Click to Call Add-on for
Firefox[That Smith]
decided after spending more time with
Digg’s top team that there just wasn’t a fit.
Either way the deal appears to dead and
can be added to the long list of failed Digg
acquisition deals. And when a company is
“left at the altar” other buyers are usually
hesitant to step in.
So what will Digg do now? We’re
hearing they’ll just push through with a
new round of financing. Digg hired Allen
& Co. to represent them in the sale, but the
investment bank is just as good at closing
massive venture financings, too (they
represented both Slide and Ning in their
recent a half billion dollar valuation
financings).
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
18 Tech*
Delicious 2.0 Imminent Again SF Reveals Usernames And Password
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 11:20:15 PM
Yahoo’s inability to launch Delicious 2.0,
which was feature complete and in private
beta back in September 2007, has become
a bit of a joke around Silicon Valley.
Last month we called on Yahoo to
provide guidance on when we might see
the new version of the service. In a blog
post today, the Delicious team says to get
ready for the new version, it’s “almost
ready.”
We heard this all before. In January the
Delicious blog strongly suggested a launch
was imminent, but it never came. We
heard from sources inside the company
that the issue was an inability to scale the
product properly. Some team members
suggested caching of bookmark data to
reduce the load on the database servers.
Others thought a fresh set of database
queries were needed every time a user
pulled up a page on Delicious. Since that
page lists every tag they’ve ever used, the
site crawled.
Redlasso Sued By NBC Universal And
Fox For Making It Easy For People To
Promote NBC Universal And Fox
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 1:26:00 AM
Redlasso is an interesting company.
Something of an online "clipping" service
for television content, it has a nice web
feature that allows users to do a search and
find a relevant clip -- and to also embed
that clip in your own website. It's been
used to great effect by various sites that
want to provide commentary on certain
television content. The actions by Redlasso
don't seem all that different than some old
school TV clipping services, but (once
again) the addition of "the internet" to the
situation throws a legal wrench in things.
NBC Universal and Fox are now suing
Redlasso for violating copyrights.
This is especially odd since TV stations
It’s unlikely the team would head fake us
again with a blog post unless they were
really sure it was time to turn on Delicious
2.0 for everyone. It’s just too bad that
Delicious founder Joshua Schachter left
the company before he was able to see it
go live.
More screen shots of Delicious 2.0 are
here.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over
the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
are in the business of attracting viewers,
and giving people an easy way to promote
your content to others (at absolutely no
cost to you) would seem like a good plan
for attracting more viewers. However, it
would appear that the execs suing believe
that companies should have to pay TV
studios to promote their TV shows. Since it
seems unlikely that the TV execs will
recognize this any time soon, this
particular case will hinge on the question
of whether or not Redlasso can prove its
claims that this use of clips is fair use.
Update: As noted in the comments, the
Redlasso has agreed to shut down the site,
at least for now.
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To City Network In Accidental Effort
To Prove Terry Childs' Case For Him
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 11:32:00 AM
In the ongoing lawsuit against the
disgruntled city of San Francisco tech
worker, Terry Childs, who held the city's
network somewhat hostage for a few days
(before finally coughing up the admin
password to Mayor Newsom), the San
Francisco DA has now entered into
evidence approximately 150 usernames
and passwords of individuals who log into
the city's network via a VPN from home.
City officials don't seem too concerned that
they're revealing the usernames and
passwords, even though that would appear
to be a huge security violation.
From the description, it sounds like the
system uses two-factor authentication, so
Russia Looking To Ban Goth
And Emo Music And
Websites
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 12:39:00 PM
The history of modern culture is littered
with examples of older generations
freaking out and having moral panics
concerning the culture of younger
generations. In the US, while much of the
focus these days is on video games and
social networks, in the past it's included
certain types of music and comic books as
being threats to children. Over in Russia, it
appears that their latest moral panic is
around goth and emo music. However, it's
become so "bad" that laws may be passed
to ban both types of music as well as
regulate websites about the music (found
via Digg). It includes all the typical "but
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
beyond username and password, users also
have to enter in a second code (perhaps
provided by an RSA key or something like
that). However, that still doesn't mean that
revealing the usernames and passwords
was smart. It's still a tremendous security
violation. It's hard to see why they couldn't
have submitted that as evidence that
needed to be kept secret, given the nature
of it. Also, it would seem that revealing all
this info actually does much more to help
Childs' case: he claims he was keeping the
admin password secret because city
officials weren't very good with security,
and would have compromised the system.
And, indeed, it appears that's what they've
now done.
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think of the children" type quotes. The
politician who introduced the legislation
calls the music a "dangerous teen trend," a
"social danger" and "a threat to national
stability."
If this sound ridiculous, don't laugh too
hard, because politicians around the world
have made similar claims about any variety
of other pop culture trends they just didn't
understand. But, at some point, you would
think some of these politicians would look
at history and get a sense of how ridiculous
they're going to look a few years from now
for blaming a particular pop culture
phenomenon they don't understand for "a
threat to national stability."
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New Widgets At
Hulu; We Talk To
CTO Eric Feng
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 8:06:24 PM
Hulu, the online video joint venture
between NBC and News Corp., launched
last October. Today the site has 140 free
on-demand movies available to anyone (as
long as they are in the U.S.) and 700 total
titles (including TV). As of March 2008
they were serving 83 million monthly
video streams.
Tonight the site is launching a number of
new embeddable widgets that allow third
party sites to add Hulu content. We’ve
embedded one of the widgets, which let’s
users show all episodes of a particular TV
show, below (I of course chose the Daily
Show).
We also used this announcement as an
excuse to interview Hulu CTO Eric Feng,
who joined when Hulu acquired his startup
Mojiti in 2007. Feng’s team formed the
backbone of the Hulu. They started coding
in late summer 2007 (Feng says the first
line of code was written on August 6) and
had the Hulu product out the door by
October.
The full interview is below. Feng also
demo’s the new widgets near the end.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Intelligent space robots to dig
around, throw raves on their own
by 2020
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 11:38:00 AM
Filed under: Robots Let's face it -- we
owe a great deal of gratitude to the robots
that get up each and every morning to
explore far reaches of the universe that we
humans are just incapable of landing on.
But there's still the problem of we humans
having to tell these things what to do from
our humble laboratories here on Earth. The
brilliantly named Wolfgang Fink, a
physicist and senior researcher at the
California Institute of Technology, has
plans to remedy said quandary by creating
autonomous spacecrafts "that will be able
to analyze data about points of interest as it
passes and then make quick decisions
about what needs to be investigated." In
essence, he's looking to remove the
Earthlings from the equation, which would
enable smart robots to explore on their
Infineon CEO wants to sell flagging
Qimonda unit... badly
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 4:31:00 AM
Filed under: Storage Little known tidbit
for those not keenly watching the
happenings at Infineon: the firm was
forced to write down the value of its
Qimonda stake by €1 billion ($1.57
billion) in April. Not surprisingly,
Infineon's head honcho is about ready to
rid the company of the flagging unit,
making quite a few direct statements in a
Germany daily saying as much. For
starters, CEO Peter Bauer stated that "a
complete sale is possible as is a sale of a
minority stake," and he continued by
affirming that it was already "speaking to
financial investors and other companies in
the industry." Just in case you had any
doubts whatsoever that this cat was
serious, he proclaimed that "[the firm] was
own and possibly discover new pools of
purified water, REEM-B's long lost
siblings or the real most innovative NES-in
-a-whatever mod. 2020 folks, mark it
down.
[Image courtesy of NASA] Read|
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working with utmost urgency on the
question how to close the chapter on
Qimonda as quickly as possible."
Unrequited love at its finest. Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
IOCELL contents phone logs
conversations, sends 'em around the
web
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 1:49:00 AM
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Not quite sure why, but we get this
whole Get Smart vibe from this thing.
IOCELL's contents phone would probably
be more suited for a highly covert spy
agency rather than your grandmother's
home, but we suppose even granny could
appreciate the built-in hard drive that logs
conversations, plays 'em back and makes
remembering things that much easier.
Furthermore, the firm asserts that this thing
Gadgets* 19
Fujifilm, Nintendo bring
photo printing service to
Japanese Wiis
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 2:40:00 PM
Filed under: Digital Cameras, Gaming
Not that the Big N hasn't snubbed the vast
majority of the world before with these
channel releases, but folks holed up
everywhere save for Japan have yet
another one they can only look longingly
at from afar. Thanks to a new partnership
between Nintendo and Fujifilm, the Wii
Digicam Print Channel is immediately
available for Japanese Wii consoles to
access, which essentially gives owners the
ability to upload images from SD cards
and receive customized prints, photo
books, business cards, etc. in the mail.
We're not totally at all sure why someone
would choose to handle this on a gaming
console rather than, say, an actual
computer, but hey -- who are we to judge?
Oh, and for you folks in North America,
Europe and beyond, expect the service to
roll your way sometime in the future.
[Via DigitalCameraInfo] Read|
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can send completed calls out on the
internet should you want to pass along the
audio to someone else, and there also
appears to be a USB port for possibly
offloading those onto flash drives. Heck, it
even syncs caller ID information with calls
and provides background music during
conversations (uh, okay?). Take a wild
guess on the price, chances are you'll be
fairly close.
[Via The Red Ferret Journal] Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
20 Gadgets* Web 2.0 TV*
Motorola to reorganize home and
networks mobility business
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 5:26:00 PM
Filed under: Cellphones, Home
Entertainment, Wireless, Networking So
we waffled on whether to go with a sad
Moto or happy Moto face, but as we've
stated in the past, we suppose we'll keep on
keepin' on with the former until something
marvelous happens. Nearly four months to
the day after Motorola split in two, along
comes word that the separated home and
networks division will now be segmented
into three distinct units: broadband home
solutions, broadband access solutions and
cellular networks. According to a
statement put out by the firm, the
"organizational change will ensure that
home and networks mobility remains agile,
focused and ideally aligned to realize its
E-Lead's Noahpad UMPC gets trunk lid unboxing
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 2:36:00 PM
Filed under: Laptops
We've been seeing in the wild shots of E-
Lead's Noahpad for months on end, but on
And This is Why China is Every Internet Company’s Wet Dream
By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 1:38:14 AM
According to the latest government data,
China now has 253 million Internet users,
due to recent sharp growth - 56 percent
from last year. The inevitable has
happened: China now has more Internet
users than the USA, which is at 223.1
million with 71% online penetration. The
fact that the Chinese government is
exercising very strict control and
censorship over internet use has
immensely slowed down the growth of
Internet use in this country, but when
growth potential," which is about as
canned a statement as you could ever hope
for. We've heard that three's company, but
who knows how it'll play out here. Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
some fateful trunk lid likely to be halfway
across the planet, this undeniably peculiar
UMPC has finally arrived to an end user.
Oddly enough, said user couldn't even wait
to get the thing inside, and as you can
clearly above, this unboxing took place
you’ve got a population of over 1.3 billion,
even a relatively small fraction of it is
enough to become a global leader.
Yes, the really amazing thing is the fact
that the online penetration is China is mere
19.1 percent, way, way lower than the
USA and most European countries.
Financial facts are even more revealing:
total revenues for all of China’s internet
companies was $5.9 billion in 2007 while
in the U.S. online advertising revenues
alone in that same year were $21.2 billion.
For companies such as Google, Microsoft,
Yahoo and other giants, this means two
words: untapped potential.
Keepin' it real fake, part CXXVI:
Jointech's $99 JL7100 rips Eee PC in Big Brother 10: Live
spectacular fashion feeds report - July 27
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 8:46:00 AM
Filed under: Laptops
The Kira 100 was a decent Eee PC
knockoff, but at just north of $475, there
was literally no purpose in picking it over
the genuine product. The Jointech JL7100,
however, really makes ASUS' darling look
mighty unnecessary. Okay, so maybe the
fact that this thing relies on WinCE 5.0
rather than, you know, a bona fide laptop
operating system is a bit disappointing, but
entirely on the trunk of a car. We can't
Research firm BDA China Ltd. estimates
that China’s online population will keep
growing by 18 percent annually - a modest
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
there are sacrifices to be expected here. As
for other specifications, you'll supposedly
find a 7-inch 800 x 480 resolution display,
Samsung chipset, 64MB (yes, megabytes)
of internal storage, 64MB (yes, megabytes)
of RAM, a VGA output and three USB
ports. We can hear your stifled laughter
from here, but your tune may change upon
hearing the $99 (USD?) price tag. Told
you so.
[Thanks, Sean] Read| Permalink| Email
this| Comments
determine what's more interesting here --
the unit itself, or the totally cute Baby In
Car sticker just up there on the right.
[Via Pocketables, thanks JB] Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
estimation, considering that this growth
was 56% this year - and reach 490 million
by 2012. The US online market suddenly
seems small in comparison. Due to strict
Chinese government regulation of the
Internet, financially the Chinese market
will not catch up as fast as it could, but
with a little (inevitable) westernization and
a little globalization it’ll get there, and
every online firm will want a slice of the
pie. This one growing market might be
more important than most other world’s
markets put together.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
- VIDEO
By TV Squad blogger (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 3:46:00 PM
Filed under: OpEd, Big Brother (US) As
your basic public service BB show fan, I
feel the need to announce that starting this
week, the Big Brother 10 live eviction
show will move from Wednesday night to
Thursday night. The time remains at 8 PM
ET/PT. It will swap slots with The Greatest
American Dog. So, for those tuning in to
see the latter show on Thursday, Elvis has
left the building.
Read on for show spoilers from the 24/7
live feeds!
Continue reading Big Brother 10: Live
feeds report - July 27 - VIDEO
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Social Networking Blog:
Google Gaining on Baidu in China
Microsoft & Yahoo Sign Pact Pushing
Blog Censorship in China
Skype Falling Prey to Chinese
Censorship?
Google China Adding 200 To Workforce
China Blocks RSS Feeds
China Becomes Largest Web Surfing
Country In The World
Yahoo China Launches a MySpace
Clone
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Old Media Deathrace 5000
By Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins
(Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 1:36:37 AM
I know there’s a good portion of you that
are going to instantly groan at the headline,
either because it’s a territory that’s been
hashed out a number of times from a
number of different angles or because
you’re one of those folks who simply
doesn’t believe there are such thing as
“killer” technology (I’ve had that
conversation with a few folks recently).
But Duncan Riley put out an interesting,
if not provocative, editorial this evening
entitled “Television will be the first
traditional media medium to fall.”
Personally, I have always felt that radio
would be the first to falter, though in a
neck-and-neck race with newsprint, but
Duncan Riley puts some new stats to work
in support the prediction today:
The television switch off is real. In the
United States, 2.5 million viewers
switched off in the spring on 2008
compared to the same time in 2006.
Statistically this is only a small percentage
of the overall viewing audience, but among
those still watching television, the amount
of television they watch each day is
declining.
The decline in television viewing is
stronger among younger statistical groups.
In Europe, a 2005 study from the European
Interactive Advertising Association found
almost half of 15- to 24-year-olds are
watching less TV in favor of browsing the
web. A study reported in The Guardian in
2007 headlined with “Young networkers
turn off TV and log on to the web.” The
television switch off in the United States
among younger people has seen the
average age of a TV viewer increase to 50.
The stats are compelling, and certainly
point to an uncertain future for Old Media
television, particularly in the face of the
ever increasing volume of studies showing
that pretty soon we’ll be watching video
online more than we’ll be sleeping.
Duncan goes on to say that while
newsprint and radio have some harrowing
times ahead of them, they’ll survive. At
least, for now.
I’m not sure that I agree that TV is the
first to go, though. Certainly Duncan
makes a compelling case, and I’m not one
of those folks who thinks new technology
incapable of killing old technology (you
certainly don’t see a lot of eight-tracks for
sale these days, and photograph developing
is quickly becoming a thing of the past).
But we’re seeing a lot more rapid
detioration taking place in the music and
radio business than we’re seeing even in
newspaper and television. It’s an
interesting deathrace between the
industries, and it’s difficult to call a
‘winner’ to the finish line.
Newspaper death watch.
For instance, newspaper decline is
largely financial in nature. Certainly,
when you’re talking about business, that’s
the most important factor to measure a
media type’s life span. Is that what we’re
really talking about here, though? The
death of the media type or the changing of
the guard in terms of the dominant
companies behind them. In either event,
newsprint and text delivery of news is
increasingly being dominated by online
blogs and news portals. Circulation may be
technically up, but revenues for the
companies that resist the transition to
online delivery are most decidedly down.
Wise newspaper publications are
managing some sort of a transition to an
online revenue, but most companies that
have their base in serialized news in the
printed form still have problems adjusting
to the new formats that we in the blogging
business take for granted.
Duncan is very positive that newspapers
will always go the distance because of the
need for quality journalism. Unfortunately
(at least for the newspaper industry) I don’t
see this as a particularly convincing
argument. Quality journalism can and
does take place outside of newsprint, and
for a much greater profit. Some traditional
text journalism outfits may realize this and
make the transition. Most won’t.
Disclosure: I may be particularly
negative towards newspaper futures due to
the fact that in a previous life I consulted
for several newspapers in their New Media
efforts. In my experience they’re generally
not a very forward thinking bunch.
TV death and destruction.
As I said, Duncan makes a compelling
point for the impending doom of
television, and I’d go even further than he
in my prognostications of doom for the
media type. Again, like I said regarding the
newspaper business, when you’re talking
about the death of a media, you’re
potentially talking about two things: either
the media type itself or the industries
behind that media production.
In this situation I think it’s silly to say
we’ll stop watching video in our
livingrooms on television sets. Where the
video that plays on those sets comes from
is very likely to change very soon. Just
yesterday I talked about a very clear path
for Netflix and Roku to make a play for the
livingroom very soon, but they’re
obviously not the only ones competing for
eyeballs. TiVo, Apple, and a cadre of
other set-top device manufacturers are
working on taking real-estate in your
entertainment center.
Traditional television has something that
no set-top box solution has tackled or
mastered yet (aside from coverage of live
sporting events), and I’ve talked about it in
the past here in my editorials on the
subject: the “ veg-factor.”
To illustrate the veg-factor, think about
the type of media consumption you do in
the morning, while you’re getting the kids
ready for school, or fixing breakfast in the
morning while you’re getting ready for
work. Morning show format news-ish
programs are designed for this low-
engagement, veg-factor consumption.
They’re, in large part, designed to be
background noise that delivers some
entertainment and utility to your morning.
Likewise, in the evening, you come
home from work, you switch on the TV
and catch the local news or a Seinfeld re-
run, and leave the TV on through Wheel of
Fortune or whatever reality program du
jour is on this season. Most people won’t
even touch the remote until prime-time
starts. That’s the veg-factor in action.
Very simply, no one is doing this for the
set-top box experience. Until there is a one
-to-one equivalent for this, you won’t see a
complete replacement for television.
Radio apocalypse.
The radio business has been even more
dominated in recent years by mega-
conglomorates and mergers. With this has
come the ‘Clearchannel approach,’ that has
driven almost all radio towards a formula
for profit. Anecdotally, this was hashed out
recently in the comments of an editorial I
recently wrote about the impending doom
for radio at the hands of the iPhone’s on
demand music applications. Sean and I
talked about this the other day, and the
argument is compelling that radio is doing
a decent job of killing itself, and requires
Web 2.0 21
no new technology to hasten its death.
But the fact remains that new
technologies like smartphones and other
pocket devices coupled with the impending
ubiquity of wireless Internet access makes
things look pretty bleak.
I say that, and I can almost hear Steven
Hodson’s voice cracking as he crankily
reminds me that impending ubiquity of
access is anything but certain (most likely
because he reminds me once a week on
Elite Tech News). He makes a compelling
case for it, but recent news like the coming
embedded “Internet Chips” from Intel as
VentureBeat reported on the other day
makes me think otherwise.
Here’s the thing that really makes radio’s
future look particularly bad compared to
the rest - the record labels. Talk radio is
very ably making the transition to
podcasting and other forms of online audio
entertainment media types, but the record
labels have very famously dug in their
heels and made it next to impossible for
broadcasters to adapt their business models
for the online environment using popular
music.
Given that, it isn’t surprising to see radio
clinging the hardest to their dying business
models. I predicted back in December that
we’d see an end to at least one major
record label this year, and I stick by that
assessment. Given that the mainstream
record labels are so integral to traditional
radio’s survival (and their demise is key to
online radio’s ascendence), I think it’s now
more than ever we should be looking to
traditional radio as the first to die off.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
5000 Phone Calls in 48 Hours
Mark Cuban Joins the 5000 Club
Inc Magazine’s LinkedIn for Corporate
Elite
Collective Media Acquires Personifi
Be a Digg Rockstar with Social Media
Firefox Extension
Specific Media Acquires AdViva
HubLove Contest: Your Clue Inside
22 Web 2.0 Tech Tips*
Why I Love Corporate Blogs (And You
Should Too)
By Don Reisinger (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 8:50:56 AM
It seems that everywhere I look, there’s
someone telling us why corporate blogs are
not only a waste of time if you’re looking
for something to read, but they offer no
value and should be taken down as soon as
possible.
The detractors claim corporate blogs lack
transparency, fail to adapt to the changing
times, and generally play the PR game
without ever admitting issues or entering
into a discussion with the reader.
I think that’s pure rubbish.
Sure, most of these corporate blogs play
the PR game and would rather tell you how
wonderful they are than how awful they’ve
performed over time, but who cares? Do
you really go to a corporate blog looking
for the company to bash itself? I seriously
doubt the shareholders would be too happy
with that.
Instead, corporate blogs provide me with
some insider knowledge into what’s really
going on behind the scenes at some of
these companies. And while some make
the complaint that transparency is an issue
and corporate blogs keep things guarded,
most corporate blog posts are actually
quite transparent if you read between the
lines.
Is the company trying to hide something
when it uses some clever language and
side steps some major issues? Is the
company saying something different than
it’s writing by including some innuendos?
These are the questions you need to ask
when you read a corporate blog and
generally, the answer is yes.
That said, not all corporate blogs are
created equal. Zillow has a great blog and
Garmin has done a fantastic job of adding
some personality to an otherwise vanilla
landscape. Twitter has a nicely informative
blog now that it’s trying to have a dialogue
with its users and explain its issues and
Google is easily one of the most
Embed a Bowl in Your Counter Top [Weekend Project]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 7:00:00 AM
entertaining companies in the corporate
blogging space.
These blogs, much like countless others
from companies across vastly different
industries, may not offer something
compelling with each post and sometimes
they’re nothing more than an extension of
the PR team, but even the most self-
adulating blogs tend to offer some
entertaining and extremely informative
posts that not only act as the backbone for
news stories, but for shareholder
consumption as well.
Who can forget Palm CEO Ed Colligan’s
response to Engadget’s open letter? Who
else finds value in Garmin’s answers to
reader questions? How about Zillow’s
celebrity listings that show you how much
some of your favorite celebrities’ homes
are worth?
See, it’s not that I love corporate blogs
because they only talk about a company,
but I love corporate blogs because they
give a company some personality and they
offer you some insight (no matter how
guarded) into the people behind an
organization that seems so cold and
calculating.
Lest we forget, tech companies are
moneymaking machines. Sure, some may
not turn the kind of profit Microsoft does
and others don’t seem to have their finger
on the pulse of consumers like Apple, but
each is managed by individuals with
unique identities and something interesting
to say – if we’ll listen.
Flickr user Queen Esoterica converted an
IKEA butcher-block kitchen cart to include
an embedded bowl. The result is perfect
I don’t love corporate blogs because they
spread propaganda – that’s a guarantee that
you should be aware of before you head to
the site – or because they tend to gloss
over some of the less glowing facts. I love
corporate blogs because at the very least,
they provide a human element to
something that is devoid of emotion,
understanding, and personality.
On top of that, I love corporate blogs
because they’re the easiest way to file a
complaint and tell more than a recording or
a customer service agent that something is
wrong. In a matter of seconds, you can file
a complaint in the comments and if people
agree, they’ll jump on the bandwagon and
in one fell swoop, your singular issue
becomes a major problem and someone
will be forced to listen.
I understand that most people look at
corporate blogs as nothing more than
another propaganda machine, but I don’t.
Sure, they’re inundated with useless crap
from time to time, but I see them as more
than a place for a company to write things
about itself. Corporate blogs give you
clues about the organization’s culture, its
people, and why (right or wrong) most of
its employees believe in what they’re
doing.
And if you ask me, there’s nothing
wrong with that.
[Image credit: Wyetha Lipford(
attribution)]
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
LinkedIn Launches Corporate Blog
What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?
A Peek Behind The Curtain Of The
Purchase Of MySQL
Microsoft Exec Fired for Company
Violations
YouTube and CBS Censoring Comments
Blogging’s 10th Birthday: Your 10
Favorite Blogs?
CoComment is The Best Web 2.0
Service Launched This Year
for pushing your cooking scraps into or
mixing up a few ingredients. The Flickr set
details the process, which includes some
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Firefox Plugin socialbrowse
Expands Commenting
Features (400 Invites)
By Kristen Nicole (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 8:01:37 AM
socialbrowse, the Firefox plugin that lets
you surf the Web in a link-sharing social
manner, has just re-released its service
with a couple of major new features. The
Y Combinator-backed startup as been in
private beta for some time, and will remain
in private beta for a little while longer, but
those users testing the service will be able
to access and utilize its new features (get
your invite below).
The new features revolve around the
social sharing capabilities that
socialbrowse has already laid out. The first
new feature supports in-page commenting,
which allows you to leave comments on a
link you’re visiting without having to leave
the page. Submitting a comment, just as
with a shared link, will broadcast your
content across the Web in real time.
Comment icons will also appear on pages
you visit so you and your friends will
immediately be able to see the connection
between your own activity and that of your
friends.
An interesting visual tool accompanies
the socialbrowse sidebar, offering a very
direct and internally circular view of the
Web as well as your own browsing
behavior. This of course can be turned into
immediate recommendations as well as
useful information regarding a particular
site that may be more difficult or time-
consuming to find otherwise via
standalone bookmarking sites. This
capability also ties in closely with
socialbrowse’s second major new upgrade,
the embedded icon expansion option.
Icons that display on pages as you surf
the Web, indicating comments and shared
links, can now be expanded when you
heavy work with a router, which may be a
setback for some. If you've got the tools,
the time, and the skills, though, it's an
hover over them, so you can get an at-a-
glance view of the details behind each
icon; who submitted the link, and what
friends have contributed to the comments
thread. Similar to the concept now being
employed by JS-Kit, the act of turning
comments into a more visual and social
component of Web surfing is a budding
function that can be leveraged for all sorts
of things.
While socialbrowse uses these comments
on a more internal basis and JS-Kit acts as
a centralizing factor for comments you
leave across the Web, they both result in a
useful capacity for direct and indirect
marketing and recommendations. JS-Kit
has already begun to expound upon its
features for the use of third-party sites like
evite, and Socialbrowse being the existing
community that it is can begin to leverage
its capabilities in different ways, which
will be interesting to observe as
Socialbrowse continues beta testing and
moves into a more public space.
socialbrowse is offering Mashable
readers 400 invites. Click here to get
yours.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
Web 2.0 Invites for July 1st, 2008
Web 2.0 Invites for July 4th, 2008
New RealPlayer Now Available for
Download
20+ Free Press Release Distribution Sites
Firefox 3 Beta 3, Now Available for
Download
Apple’s iPhone to Hit Stores June 29th?
Wordpress 2.3 Released
excellent weekend DIY.
IKEA Hacks Set[Flickr via MAKE]
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper Web 2.0 23

Thanks to This Week’s Sponsors Streamfile Simplifies On-

By Tamar Weinberg (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 3:06:35 AM

Thanks to this week’s advertisers and

partners for helping us grow to be the #1
social news blog in the world. Advertise
with us and get noticed.
Help us to help you. Mashable is seeking
out site sponsors for our large diverse
audience — social media users, venture
capitalists, PR people, developers,
bloggers, and many more. You’ll receive
hundreds of thousands of views a day in
addition to weekly recognition to thank
you as our premium sponsors. Are you
interested? Contact us for more
information and to receive our brand new
media kit and rate card.
This week, our valued sponsors are
DEMOfall08, EdgeCast, IDrive, Clickatell,
and Userplane.
On September 7 through 9th, 2008, be
the first to see the most innovative,
marketing defining new technologies
unveiled for the very first time. Attend
DEMOfall 08 on September 7-9, 2008 in
San Diego. Mashable readers are invited to
attend for a special rate of only $2,395 – a
$600 savings off our regular rate. Click
here to learn more and register:
http://www.demo.com/F8mashable
EdgeCast Networks offers a superior,
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Social Networks and Applications are the
bread and butter of the new age Internet,
commonly referred to as Web2.0.
Clickatell believes that using SMS to bind
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IDrive is a leading Consumer and Small
Business focused Online Backup service.
IDrive is a simple and safe way to back up
all the important stuff on your computer. A
copy of user data is stored in a secure,
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the event of disaster user data is retrievable
from anywhere via Internet. IDrive’s
features include automated critical data
selection and scheduling via web as well as
desktop agent, fast search to backup data,
central console to manage multiple
accounts, Continuous Data Backup, Open
File and Locked file backup, Virtual Drive
access and many more.
Userplane is the premier communication
platform for online communities. The
company’s hosted applications enable
instant community and communication for
websites of any scale and audience. The
combination of instant and elegant with
robust and powerful has made the platform
a must-have for thriving sites worldwide -
supporting millions of daily users.
Additionally, thanks to the following
partners for making Mashable happen:
Thanks to ConVerdge for implementing
our My Mashable social network and W3
MARKUP for the development and
maintenance of Mashable.com
We can get your name out there.
Contact us for more information on
supporting Mashable’s growth and
development. Alternatively, visit our
advertise section for more details about:
-Competitive direct ad sales
-Sponsorship Opportunities for Events,
The Daily Poll, and other channels
-Sponsored giveaways and contests
-Custom ad deals and partnerships
CPM-based advertising is available
through our partner, Federated Media, but
contact us for information and unpublished
discounts.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
Open Web Awards Voting Has Ended -
Final Winners Announced Tomorrow
Meebo’s Custom Chat Rooms for New
Advertising Options
Adam Hirsch Joins as Mashable
Community Director
Happy New Year!
Meebo Hyping Kanye West Listening
Party Tonight
Rocketboom’s New Sponsorship
Program Launches with YouTube
Another Googler Moves On
Demand File Sharing (The
Startup Review)
By Paul Glazowski (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 10:10:48 AM
Editor’s Note: This post is part of an
ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup
Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems
Startup Essentials. If you would like to
have your startup considered for inclusion,
please see the details here.
STARTUP DETAILS:
Company Name: Streamfile
20-word Description: Streamfile is an
emerging startup with revolutionary
technology in the file transfer space.
CEO’s Pitch: Streamfile.com allows
anyone to “stream” files that are too big to
email without any additional need of
installed software other than a browser.
Streamfile is a hosted FTP replacement
solution that allows streaming
functionality. By streaming, we mean that
when an uploader sends a file,
downloaders are able to start the download
process immediately. This single
functionality enhancement actually allows
time savings of up to 90% (compared to a
traditional FTP server-to-client transfer).
It’s like P2P, but with a 24h answering
service. All of the file transfers have the
option to be encrypted with high-grade
AES 256-bit SSL encryption.
Mashable’s Take: Streamfile is
intriguing not only for its ability to rather
quickly broadcast files of up to 2GB in size
to specified email addresses, but its simple
construction as well. Everything is done
via the browser within an elegant and
sparse input menu. There is absolutely no
need to operate proprietary software. Just
browse for a file, provide one or more
email addresses (you can also specify
whom the package is from), and begin
“streaming.”
At the backend, Streamfile operates as a
replacement to your traditional FTP
transfer service. As with some other
modern transmission options of today,
Streamfile allows for files to be
downloaded almost immediately after an
upload is begun. A similar option is
offered by Pando, yet that service requires
the use of proprietary software at either
end of an established link to function
properly. Streamfile can go without. And
the fact that it is able to maintain 256-bit
encryption if requested will please some
privacy seekers.
As it explains within its site copy,
Streamfile hosts data for a total of 24
hours. Which might irk some users,
particularly if a situation isn’t time-
sensitive and could ideally do with, say, a
week’s worth of server/network access.
The reason provided for this limit is quite
logical for a startup of its type to cite: “By
storing data for shorter time periods than
our competitors… we can maximize
performance and bandwidth to guarantee
superior door-to-door delivery speeds.”
For the time being, Streamfile, based in
Stockholm, Sweden, comes free of charge
for users. (Period ends August 31.) Its
stated profit model is business-to-business
file transfers (integration with corporate
websites is said to be possible). Such
subscriptions run 49€/month or more.
Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials
24 Web 2.0 Tech Tips*
Twitter’s Communication
Classification (video)
By Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins
(Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/24/2008 7:42:19 PM
Last Friday, our resident cranky fart
Steven Hodson posited that Twitter wasn’t,
in fact, a status micro-blogging utility but
in fact a communictations tool most
closely resembling instant messaging.
Certainly when I’m attempting to explain
Twitter to newbies, that is the easiest way
to explain it, but quite a few of you
Mashable readers took exception to the
characterization. As of the time of this
writing, the debate still rages on with the
comment count in the triple digit range.
From Steven’s editorial:
It amazes me how anyone in all
seriousness can even consider the inane
twaddle that permeates the Internet from
services like Twitter as even coming close
to blogging or micro-blogging. Has anyone
really paid attention to what is being said
on Twitter these days – that is if you can
make it through the growing amount of
spam that is occurring. Sure micro-
blogging is a valid term when used to
describe things like tumblr or posterous but
not when used to describe Twitter.
On Mashable Conversations today, Sean
and I try to make sense of the debate and
put together what our take is on it. Sean
came into the discussion pretty squarely on
Steven’s side, but I was a bit unconvinced.
I’m one of those guys that views the act
of blogging, for almost all purposes, as a
form of conversation (even if it is
occasionally a conversation with yourself).
Thus conversation being a form of
communication, it isn’t a leap to classify
Twitter in the realm of conversational tool
(though I’ve always tended to view it more
as a lifestreaming tool).
Also on today’s program is another
exciting episode from the SummerMash
tour, this from the San Francisco tour stop
with a conversation with the FiltrBox
folks(who we had on Mashable
Conversations recently ourselves).
You can check it all out by downloading
the MP4, subscribing to our feed, or
watching the embed below.
Never Miss an Episode!
Get the Mashable Conversations podcast
here(video feed).
Get the Mashable Conversations podcast
here(audio feed).
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
Twitter: The Evolution of Cat Blogging
Thingfo Adds Twitter Support to Get
Mobile Integration
Twitter Takes Funding from Del.icio.us
Investor
Twitter Ads on the Way?
Twitter is Not a Micro-Blogging Tool
Twitter Commerce - New Trend?
Fake Spanish Twitter Gets Hopes Up
So, That’s Why Google
Bought Russian Ad Company
Begun
By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 5:50:42 AM
The 140 million dollars that Google
dished out for Russian contextual ad
company Begun now seems rather cheap,
given their fantastic financial results for
the first half of 2008.
As reported by Profy, Begun has had
25% higher profits in the first two quarters
of 2008 than in the entire 2007. Add to that
the 173.000 publishers (an increase of
30.000 over last year) in Begun’s roster
and it’s obvious that this company is on
track to completely corner the huge
Russian contextual advertising market.
In other words, Begun was ripe for
acquisition; it probably needed funds to be
able to sustain its quick growth, and on the
other hand it showed huge potential. The
question is, how do Microsoft, AOL and
others always manage to miss chances like
this one, while Google always seems to
snag them at the exactly right time?
Four More SummerMashes, Eight More Chances
to Win Tickets to SXSWi in 2009!
By Tamar Weinberg (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 7:25:08 AM
Mashable is headed on its second leg of
the Summer Tour, beginning with Austin,
followed by Miami, Boston, and ending at
New York City. During each of these
SummerMashes, attendees have a chance
to score some sweet tickets to Austin’s
hottest interactive festival. That’s right, the
nice folks behind South by Southwest are
giving away two tickets per city to SXSWi
2009, which will be held from March 13-
17 next year.
Be sure to sign up for the events now if
you haven’t, because prices will go up (and
not down) for each individual
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Check out the press release (in Russian)
here.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
Google Buys Russian Contextual Ad
Service Begun
Mozilla Financial Report Shows its
Increasing Importance to Google
Google Adds Picasa Images to Search
YouPorn Blocked by Google.de
Google Announces Financial Results;
Revenue Up 57 Percent
The Daily Poll: What’s Wrong at
Google?
Ien Cheng Switches FT With Google
SummerMash. You could win tickets to
one of the best tech events of the year!
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Amazon Watcher Auto-
Orders Items When They're
In-Stock [Shopping]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 1:00:00 AM
Windows/Mac OS X: Amazon Watcher
isn't the first gadget that can monitor
Amazon items for price drops and
availability, but it is the rare tool that can
automatically buy your rare gear for you.
Once you add your account information
(and assuming you have payment methods
stored on that account), you're set to have
Amazon Watcher buy x units of whatever
you're hunting, but it can also pop up the
order page or email you, if you're less
jumpy. Having all your must-grab items
constantly ready for purchase can probably
break strong wills, however, so, luckily,
this app can reduce to the system tray.
Amazon Watcher is a free download for
Windows or Mac OS X systems.
Amazon Watcher[via gHacks]
Social Networking Blog:
FlashMashMeet @ Austin Airport
Concludes SXSWi
Chance to Win 1 of 4 tickets to Future of
Web Apps Miami
StubHub Ordered to Give User Info to
New England Patriots
Future of Web Apps Miami - Vote for 4
People to Win Tickets
Future of Web Apps Miami Mini-
Contest Winners
MySites Offers Free Tickets to
SummerMash Events
NFL and Ticketmaster to Take On
StubHub Next Season
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
What's On Tonight: Wizard
Of Oz, Army Wives, Mad
Men
By TV Squad blogger (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 9:04:00 AM
Filed under: Programming, What To
Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
• Shark Week begins on Discovery
Channel,
• At 8, ABC has a new High School
Musical: Get in the Picture.
• CBS has a new Big Brother at 8.
• TNT has The Wizard of Oz at 8.
• HGTV has all new episodes starting at
8: House Hunters, House Hunters
International, Design Star, The Stagers,
and Property Virgins.
• TCM has Mr. Deeds Goes To Town at
8.
• At 9, NBC has a new Dateline.
• PBS has a new Masterpiece at 9.
• USA has a new Law and Order: CI at 9,
followed by a new In Plain Sight.
• History Channel has a new Ice Road
Truckers at 9.
• HBO has a new Generation Kill at 9.
• At 9:30, A&E has a new Gene Simmons
Family Jewels, then a new Two Coreys.
• At 10, AMC has the season premiere of
Mad Men.
HBO canceling sex-drenched Tell Me
You Love Me
By TV Squad blogger (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 2:02:00 AM
Filed under: Other Drama Shows,
Programming, OpEd, Cancellations,
Reality-Free I watched Tell Me You Love
Me a few times, but it never had enough
oomph to bring me back every week. I
guess a lot of viewers felt that way,
because HBO decided not to renew it for a
second season.
The sex-drenched show followed the
lives of couples in therapy and was
probably one of the most sexually explicit
shows on TV. I have friends who watched
it religiously, and some say they felt
uncomfortable not so much with the sex,
• There's a new Army Wives on Lifetime
at 10.
• E! has new episodes of Denise
Richards: It's Complicated and Living
Lohan starting at 10.
• Also at 10: Food Network has the
season finale of The Next Food Network
Star. It's followed by a sneak peek at Ted
Allen's new show, Food Detectives.
• At 11:30, Cartoon Network has a new
Venture Brothers.
• At 12:15am, Cartoon Network has a
new Fat Guy Stuck in Internet, then new
episodes of Tim and Eric's Awesome
Show, Great Job and Assy McGee.
Check your local TV listings for more.
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
but because it felt like they were
eavesdropping on peoples' darkest secrets.
Continue reading HBO canceling sex-
drenched Tell Me You Love Me
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Dollhouse - Comic-Con Report
By Keith McDuffee (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 6:53:00 AM
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Reality
-Free, Comic-Con
Dollhouse was an interesting panel to
work out. I really wanted to cover this
panel, but I was in Hall H for the first part
of the morning, with the hugely-popular
Lost panel ending at 1 PM, Dollhouse
starting at 1 PM in Ballroom 20. There was
no way in hell I was going to make it out
of Lost and get into Dollhouse without
help, and Rich was scheduled to attend the
Office writers panel.
So, we decided he'd instead stay in
Ballroom 20 through Futurama and
Simpsons, then Dean Koontz (why that
panel was shoehorned in between
Simpsons and Dollhouse will forever be a
mystery to me). Once I was outside the
exit, I texted Rich that I could take over
and I tagged him out of the room and there
I remained for the rest of the day.
Unfortunately for me I missed the show's
trailer, but Rich said there was nothing
new there.
In attendance of this panel: Joss Whedon,
Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett.
Continue reading Dollhouse - Comic-
Con Report
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
TV* 25
Army Wives:
Loyalties
By TV Squad blogger (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 5:51:00 PM
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-
Free, Army Wives(S02E08) Well, this was
one packed episode. I think the only thing
missing was the kitchen sink. With the
exception of the Denise-Getty will they-
won't they love story, every thread was
neatly tied up by the end of the show. It
made for a satisfying episode, but I'm not
sure it was as fulfilling as the storylines
that take time to develop and resolve.
It was refreshing to see Ugly Betty's Ana
Ortiz in a few scenes as Sandy, a new
waitress at Roxy's bar -- which they're now
calling a diner. Even in just the few
moments, she was a shot of vinegar. Too
bad she turned out to be a one-dimensional
character with a plot that was wrapped up
before it started. Roxy wiped the floor with
her when she fired her, in Roxy style.
What was troubling was Trevor popping
pain pills. In his efforts to rush back to his
unit, he's making a big mistake. I hope
they're not going in this direction, but I'm
afraid they are.
Continue reading Army Wives: Loyalties
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
26 TV* Tech Tips*
Cows in downtown San Diego?
Must be a TV show promotion --
Comic-Con Report
By Richard Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 5:45:00 AM
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural
Shows, Reality-Free, Comic-Con
I haven't been to San Diego in several
decades but, like many cities, there are
certain things you expect to see. Tall
buildings, traffic jams (especially during
Comic-Con), crowds of people, citizens
and tourists alike, milling about on the
sidewalks and in the restaurants that
surround the city. But a herd of cows?
Well, on the U.S.S. Midway museum,
perhaps, but not in the middle of
URLInfo Reveals Hidden Web Site Server Details [Web Utilities]
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 7:00:00 AM
Webapp URLInfo does something pretty
simple—grab data from the header files
dished out by web servers, usually hidden
downtown.
Yet, here were a herd of cattle in a paid
parking lot on 5th Avenue, right in the
heart of the Gaslamp District. Was it a
throwback to pioneer days? Did a cowboy
and his herd get lost? Was it a protest by
PETA? No, silly, it was a television show
promotion. Which one it was is revealed
after the jump.
Continue reading Cows in downtown
San Diego? Must be a TV show promotion
-- Comic-Con Report
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
from browser view—but it is oddly
fascinating to peer into the machines
serving up web sites. The Daily Gyan blog
did a little digging with URLInfo and
found out that a certain tech site you're
reading uses an unusual name for its
Mad Men: For Those Who Think
Young (season premiere) - VIDEO
By TV Squad blogger (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 6:08:00 PM
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Episode
Reviews, Reality-Free, Mad Men
(S02E01) "There are other ways of
thinking about things than the way you
think of them." - Duck, to Don
Pepsi had a famous ad campaign in the
1960s with the tag line For Those Who
Think Young. That's the title of this
episode, but it's not about the ad execs
trying to come up with something for
Pepsi. The episode is about change. More
publishing system, that Linux.com runs on,
erm, Unix servers, and, according to its
header, Web Worker Daily hides job
referrals in its header files. Note that the
site likes when you enter full URLs
(http://www.site.com) more than shortened
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
specifically, the youth change. A young,
hip President is in the White House (with a
baby), a stylish First Lady gives a televised
tour of her home, everyone is having
babies, and younger people are being hired
by other ad agencies, and Sterling Cooper
might have to as well.
But what types of changes are in stores
for the people of Sterling Cooper?
Continue reading Mad Men: For Those
Who Think Young (season premiere) -
VIDEO
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
URLs, which it can't always parse.
URLinfo[via Daily Gyan]
Generation Kill:
Screwby
By TV Squad blogger (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 3:01:00 PM
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd,
Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
( Part 3 of 7)"Yeah... these guys waving
at us are probably the same ones who tried
to kill us yesterday." - Cpl. Josh Ray
Person
On the road again. More banter. More
offensive jokes. And lots more stupidity.
Honestly, the fact that no one has uttered
the word "mutiny" is mind-boggling. To
the contrary, everyone has fallen in line.
I'm not sure if you caught it, but Sixta's
constant harping about the grooming
standard finally worked. All moustaches
were gone.
I'm serious about the mutiny thing
though... honestly, this is like having
Michael Scott (from The Office) as your
commanding officer, only with extra
idiocy and far less humor.
Gallery: Generation Kill
Continue reading Generation Kill:
Screwby
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper TV* Movies* 27

SDCC Bites: Parties, Pixar and

Everything In Between
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 5:02:00 AM

Filed under: Fandom, Exhibition, Movie

Lost - Comic-Con Report
By Keith McDuffee (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 10:35:00 AM
Filed under: Lost, Reality-Free, Comic-
Con
As I awaited the Lost panel to start in
Hall H Saturday morning, I felt bad for the
multitudes of people who were still
standing in line outside the convention
center, behind the convention center and
all the way down the road behind the
Marriott hotel. If you were a fan of Lost,
but not of Heroes, you simply had to sit in
line and then sit through the Heroes panel
in order to see Lost; there was no way
around it.
The Lost panel was quite a change from
Heroes, as rather than the entire cast
appearing on stage, only Damon Lindelof
and Carlton Cuse made up the panel. Later,
though, a "surprise guest" came out:
Matthew Fox. However, nearly everything
discussed came from Lindelof and Cuse.
Continue reading Lost - Comic-Con
Report
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek,
ComicCon
Our Comic Con came to a sweet finish
last night at the Wrath of Con mega party
hosted by folks like IESB, Bloody-Dee and
Lakeshore. The roof at the Hard Rock
Hotel here in San Diego was packed with
writers, celebrities, dancers, rock stars and
girls with tape on their boobs. It was a
pretty fun night, and since the Crank 2
trailer screened at one point, the whole
thing is a write off! While our tired
Cinematical crew travels home today,
here's a bunch of stuff to keep you busy till
we come back tomorrow with the
remainder of our coverage, including a
very cool interview with James Gunn and
our annual "Celebrities Love Weinberg"
gallery.
• Disney debuted a teaser thingy for
Pixar's Up, which will hit theaters next from the film. She didn't show here at Con • EW has a whole slew of photos from
summer. because she was on her "honeymoon," and Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.
• The Terminator: Salvation panel was a she's wrapped up in a non-disclosure • Watchmen website now online. I'll be
blast, McG came out pumped and the which means she ain't talking either. Why reading this as soon as I get home.
extended trailer looked awesome. We'll can't anyone make a Punisher flick without • Moviefone has some great preview and
have more from the panel and our f**king it up? Is it really that hard to get wrap up posts, along with even more
interviews, but a couple things: The next one right? galleries.
trailer will debut with Quantum of Solace, • John Campea interviewing the girls • Francis Lawrence making prequel to I
it's not a definite PG-13 at this time (they from Bitch Slap in their hotel room ... in Am Legend starring Will Smith.
have the studio's blessing should it turn bed with them ... has to go down as THE • Who's buying this Heath Ledger as the
into an R-rated affair), the film will end on interview at Con. Special Cinematical Joker bobblehead doll?
a cliffhanger, the Con poster is to the right props go out to the entire team from Bitch • Finally, IGN has debuted a red band
and a model of the T-600 is above, and, Slap for marketing the hell out of their film trailer for Quarantine.
finally, watching Yelchin (as a young Kyle at Con, guerilla-style throughout the entire We love you, we miss you and we'll be
Reese) say "Come with me if you want to weekend. home soon. Leave the light on ...
live" in the trailer gave me goosebumps. • Sam Raimi told the audience during his Permalink| Email this| Comments
• AICN tells us that Punisher: War Zone Drag Me to Hell panel that he's
director Lexi Alexander has been booted considering an Evil Dead 4.

SDCC 2008: 'Wolverine vs The Hulk'

By Elisabeth Rappe (Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 7:32:00 AM
Filed under: Festival Reports, ComicCon
I meant to write this up last night, but
you don't know how dead tired I was. I'm
running on about one meal a day, which
isn't hugely unusual for me, but when
you're covering roughly 9 miles a day
(that's the estimated distance of a few
circles round the old convention center)
and sprinted to a press roundtable, you
need carbs. And I'm living on Starbucks.
Anyway, after the accidental sit-in of
Race to Witch Mountain, I kicked back for
Wolverine Vs. Hulk. It turned into one of
the con moments you just kind of cherish -
- and one I wish I could have shared last
night, when it was fresher in my mind. I
was sitting next to a really cool guy, who
finally asked me "So, you're really just
here to watch this because you want to?" I
guess chicks are a rarity at this kind of
screening. "Oh yes, I'm one of those people
who buy all Wolverine's solo series!" Continue reading SDCC 2008:
"Well, cool!" (By the way, if you're 'Wolverine vs The Hulk'
reading this Hall H friend, hi!) I love when Permalink| Email this| Comments
I get to share panels with cool people,
when you can talk back and forth, laugh
hysterically and groan aloud at the face
pounding. It's what can make or break
ComicCon for me.
28 Movies* Tech Tips* Food*
SDCC Panel: 'Terminator: Salvation'
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 4:03:00 PM
Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy,
Fandom, Exhibition, DIY/Filmmaking,
Movie Marketing, Remakes and Sequels,
ComicCon, Trailers and Clips
This was one of the panels I was most
looking forward to because I desperately
wanted to walk away from it with even
more good vibes than I already had.
Though I still chuckled every time
someone prefaced a question with "This is
for McG ...," the guy definitely "brought
it" to Comic Con. You could tell this dude
really wanted to sell the audience; he
wanted to sell them on another Terminator
flick, he wanted to sell them on it being
directed by a dude named McG and he
wanted to bottle up his enormous energy
and sell that too. The guy was amped up to
a level just beneath "Okay this is
uncomfortable," and the panel audience
was virtually high-fiving him the entire
time.
The Footage
I wasn't sure what we'd be seeing as far
as footage from the film went, since they
were still right in the middle of shooting
and, well, you wouldn't expect anything
too polished. But to my surprise they
managed to throw together an enticing
SDCC '08 Review: Fanboys
By Scott Weinberg (Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 6:02:00 AM
Filed under: Comedy, Theatrical
Reviews, Fandom, ComicCon
Considering how much trouble Kyle
Newman's Fanboys has withstood in its
travels to the multiplexes, I pretty much
expected the flick to be an amiable mess.
It's been widely reported that the comedy
was plagued by multiple reshoots,
numerous release date changes, and a
producer who (at least temporarily) wanted
to suck the heart and soul right out of the
flick. So as I walked into an early preview
of Fanboys at San Diego Comic-Con, I
was hopeful -- but frankly I wasn't
expecting a big winner. But hey, aside
from a few flat stretches here and there,
Fanboys actually has a lot to offer: Strong
chemistry among four funny young actors,
little two-or-so-minute teaser that was
gritty, grimy, familiar and --pardon the
language -- pretty f**king rad. I was too
engulfed to write down every second of the
thing, but it basically consisted of a
number of quick snippets of gunfire, Anton
Yelchin (as a young Kyle Reese) saying
stuff like, "Come with me if you want to
live," a little of Sam Worthington (who
seems like the kind of guy that'd clock you
for staring at him for more than three
seconds), Moon Bloodgood (hot name for
a hottie actress), Common (who I assume
a "road trip" conceit that flows along quite
smoothly, and more Star Wars references
than you hardcore geeks will know what to
do with. So what I expected to be a big fat
mess of a movie turned out to be pretty
dang fun -- quadruply so if you happen to
be a Star Wars fanatic.
plays the obligatory post-apocalyptic black
dude) and, of course, those T-600 robots
(the film takes place in 2018, 11 years
before Arnold's T-800 existed).
Gallery of panel below; more after the
jump ...
Gallery: SDCC: 'Terminator Salvation'
Panel
Continue reading SDCC Panel:
'Terminator: Salvation'
Permalink| Email this| Comments
The story is as simple as a road movie
needs: Inspired by the unfortunate news
that one of their pals is dying of cancer,
three hardcore Star Wars geeks decide to
travel from Ohio to California, break into
Skywalker Ranch, and steal an early print
of The Phantom Menace, which isn't due
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Build Your Own Speakers [Weekend
Project]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 11:00:00 AM
Popular Mechanics illustrates step-by-
step how to build your own home speakers
from start to finish. The author starts with
a speaker kit that costs $369 for a pair,
which sounds expensive until the author
suggests that the results sound better than
$500 speaker sets. (Okay, even after
hearing that it still sounds expensive.)
to hit theaters for another six months. (Yes,
Fanboys is a period piece: It takes place in
1998.) Sure, that's a pretty broad and silly
idea on which to hang a whole movie --
but Fanboys isn't really about logical
actions and realistic adventures: It's about
four Lucas disciples who get into a series
of odd misadventures as they trek* across
the country to steal themselves some Star
Wars.
(* One of the movie's funniest subplots
involves an ongoing war between our Star
Wars fanboys, and a nasty group of mega-
Trekkies -- the most obnoxious one played
by a nearly unrecognizable Seth Rogen. As
usual, Rogen steals a handful of scenes
without breaking a sweat.)
Continue reading SDCC '08 Review:
Fanboys
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Overall it's a pretty ambitious DIYproject.
Luckily Popular Science details the entire
thing with tons of helpful start-to-finish
photos. If you've ever tackled a similar
speaker project, let's hear about it
(including whether it was worth it) in the
comments.
How to Build Your Own Speakers: Step-
by-Step DIY Tech[Popular Mechanics]
Plum Sorbet
By Garrett McCord
Submitted at 7/21/2008 1:13:57 AM
Please welcome guest author Garrett
McCord of Vanilla Garlic who turned a
few of our ripe plums into a "wow-that's-
good" sorbet. ~Elise
I developed this recipe out of necessity
rather than noble ingenuity. Every summer
Elise's mother loads me up with so many
plums I can't eat them all in time, and
many begin to get a bit over ripe, their
skins bursting at the slightest touch
sending their juice down my arms and onto
my clothes and floor.
Taking these plums and churning them
into a magenta hued sorbet just seemed
like the most logical thing to do in this
heat. Sweet, tart, and smooth it's a
wonderful way to enjoy fresh plums at the
height of their season. This sorbet is just
sweetened enough in my opinion, but taste
as you go and add more or less sugar
accordingly as some of the plums we used
were very tart. In addition, this recipe
could easily be adapted to overripe apricots
or pluots as well.
Continue reading "Plum Sorbet" »
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
SDCC 2008: 'The
Wolfman'
By Elisabeth Rappe (Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 9:02:00 AM
Filed under: Horror, Fandom, Exhibition,
Movie Marketing
The Wolfman trailer was incredible.
Gory, gothic, very old school. It was a bit
evocative of From Hell, but in a good way,
mostly due to the bloody scenes involving
a mental asylum. There wasn't much
dialogue, just lots of running, gutting, mist,
and horrified looks. But we did get to see
the actual scene from which the first
photos of Benicio del Toro, bloodstained
and shirt-shredded, came from. He
apparently comes to right in front of his
father, Anthony Hopkins, who says
"You've done terrible things."
Understatement of the 19th century. The
final scene is of the incomparable Hugo
Weaving. "God help us all."
The Q&A was pretty lackluster, if only
because Hall H seemed mystified as to
what to make of the appearance of such a
panel. Interestingly, the director Joe
Johnston was absent, but frankly, it seems
like the movie was del Toro and Baker's
show to run.
-- Rick Baker went to Universal for the
job as soon as he heard there was a
Wolfman remake in the works.
-- Not all that different from the original
makeup technique, and of course he was
delighted they had used old school make-
up and not CGI. The transformation will be
in CGI, though he's hoping they'll work in
some physical makeup like An American
Werewolf in London used.
-- Del Toro said putting on the make-up
was exciting, taking it off was the worst as
the fun was over, and everyone had gone
home.
-- Baker says "the whole movie is a nod
to the original."
-- Though nothing is official, based on the
trailer the film looks to be a hard 'R'.
-- When asked what old Universal
Wolfman movies had inspired him, del
Toro said "For me, it was all those
movies." Both he and Baker have been
dressing up as the Wolfman since
childhood.
Continue reading SDCC 2008: 'The
Wolfman'
Permalink| Email this| Comments
SDCC Review: The
Midnight Meat Train
By Scott Weinberg (Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 2:03:00 PM
Filed under: Horror, Lionsgate Films,
Theatrical Reviews, ComicCon
Easily the best Clive Barker adaptation
since the first Hellraiser film, Ryuhei
Kitamura's The Midnight Meat Train is so
absolutely a "horror fans only" experience
that I'm not surprised that Lionsgate wants
to give it only a cursory theatrical release
before dumping it into DVD. I do not
mean that as a knock on the film. As a
matter of fact, this is certainly one of the
most effective horror films of the year --
but man, oh man... it would be a really
tough sell on 1,200 screens. It's kind of an
unfair catch-22 where certain horror
movies are concerned: if you "go dark,"
dabble in grimness, and don't cater to the
under-18 crowd, then there's a good chance
your "hardcore" horror movie will debut
on DVD (at best) or, like The Mist and The
Ruins, arrive in theaters very quietly.
But let's hear it for the filmmakers who
still insist on pushing the envelope, giving
the horror fans something dark and
challenging, and focusing more on mood,
atmosphere, and scares more than in
catering to the widest audience possible.
Frankly, if The Midnight Meat Train hits
only 100 screens (which is Lionsgate's
current plan), I'd take that as a compliment
paid to the movie: This is not a mainstream
horror flick. If all you know of horror films
is stuff like Prom Night, consider yourself
warned.
Continue reading SDCC Review: The
Midnight Meat Train
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Movies* 29
SDCC '08:
Hottest of Comic
Con Gallery!
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 4:02:00 PM
Filed under: Fandom, Exhibition,
DIY/Filmmaking, Images, ComicCon
Above: Our favorite Rotten Tomato Jen
Yamato shows us why it's totally hot to be
a little on the plump side.
Yes, as we do every year, it is now time
to stare at a group of people who are much
hotter than us even when they're dressed
up as complete lunatics. I was telling Mr.
Weinberg this afternoon how Comic Con
is the strangest entity in that on one half of
the street you have a massive amount of
hardcore geeks dressed in the most
peculiar costumes resembling their favorite
comic book/movie/cartoon/whatever
heroes. Then, on the other side of the
street, you have these swanky Hollywood
parties where you need to have an agent or
manager and your own TV show to even
be considered for the guest list. It's an odd
scene, I'll say, but that doesn't mean we've
had a bad time. Quite the contrary,
actually, as we've met and reunited with
some of our favorite people in the world
over the weekend.
What does this have to do with Con
hotties, Erik? And will you please shut up
for five seconds so we can see your damn
photos and move on with our boring lives?
Everything! And of course! Enjoy!
Below: Cinematical's Elisabeth Rappe
gets down with her bad Tomb Raider self
...
Gallery: Hottest of 2008 Comic Con!
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30 Movies* Food*
Review: The Order of Myths Review: CSNY Déjà vu
By Nick Schager (Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 4:02:00 AM
Filed under: New Releases, Theatrical
Reviews
Mobile, Alabama is home to America's
oldest Mardi Gras celebration, founded in
1703. What makes it truly unique,
however, isn't its longevity but, rather, its
composition, as the city's celebration is, in
fact, two celebrations: one for Caucasians,
and one for African-Americans. An overt
vestige of the South's legacy of
segregation, these dual Mardi Gras
festivities provide a stark view of the
intractability of racial prejudice. Yet
Margaret Brown's The Order of Myths is
less a vitriolic critique than a considerate,
despairing depiction of the intractable
SDCC: Entertainment Weekly's 'Visionaries' Panel = Pure Gold
By Scott Weinberg (Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 10:32:00 AM
Filed under: Fandom, Exhibition,
ComicCon
I had a huge red circle thrown around
this event the second it was announced:
Someone at Entertainment Weekly thought
sway exerted by long-held, unpleasant
traditions. And unpleasant they most
certainly are, having crept into the very
fabric of Mobile life to an extent that, in
most cases, neither African-Americans nor
Caucasians are willing to wholly decry this
separate-but-equal arrangement, content to
chalk it up to the accepted, and acceptable,
way things are. Accepted it unquestionably
is. But as Brown's shrewd doc makes clear
through tight editorial juxtapositions,
telling snapshots, and refusal to belittle or
disparage her sometimes-repugnant
subjects, acceptable it most certainly is not.
Continue reading Review: The Order of
Myths
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it would be a good idea to put Kevin
Smith, Judd Apatow, Zack Snyder, and
Frank Miller on the same panel -- for no
other reason than to talk about comic
books, movies, and the ways in which
comic books are turned into movies. The
panel was moderated very well by EW's
Marc Bernardin, who asked questions both
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
(Cinematical)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 2:02:00 AM
Filed under: Documentary, Music &
Musicals, New Releases, Theatrical
Reviews
In May of 1970, Neil Young quickly
wrote a song called "Ohio," hotly
responding to the Kent State shootings,
during which the National Guard killed
four students and wounded nine others. He
recorded it with David Crosby, Stephen
Stills and Graham Nash, who had just
come off a hit record from the previous
year, and the song peaked at #14 on the
pop charts. Over the years, Young has
recorded several such protest and/or
insightful and silly. Then they got to some
internet-submitted queries before opening
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
political songs, including 1967's "For What
It's Worth," 1970's "Southern Man" and
1989's "Rockin' in the Free World," which
slyly took a stab at then President George
H. W. Bush by mentioning his campaign
speech staple "a thousand points of light."
Young is now in his 60s and once again
something pissed him off to the point that
he has gone back to the recording studio.
This time though, there's no beating around
the bush (so to speak). No more messages
hidden inside innocuous song titles. This
time we get "Let's Impeach the President."
Continue reading Review: CSNY Déjà
vu
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the floor up to the Comic-Con crowd. I
tried to record the event (audio only, of
course), but since the panel took place in
Hall H (which is a room that could easily
house two medium-sized airports), that
audio turned out to be a garbled mess of
static, frequent laughter, and a few phone
conversations with Erik Davis.
Chicken Pozole
By Elise
Submitted at 7/26/2008 5:38:26 PM
I've been begging my friend Arturo to
teach me how to make pozole for months
now. The problem is that it is sort of like
asking someone to make you "taco night".
Pozole is a big production, not in the
making of it, but in all of the wonderful
garnishes you can add to it. Pozole is a
traditional soup or stew of Mexico, from
pre-Columbian days. The name is derived
from the Nahuatl "potzolli" and the stew is
made with hominy and pork or chicken.
This particular version of Arturo's is made
with chicken, and is called "pozole blanco"
in his native state of Guerrero, Mexico,
where pozole is practically the state dish.
While in New Mexico posole is
traditionally served on Christmas eve, in
Guerrero it is served every Thursday and
Saturday, all year long. Light and
healthful, pozole is also a common
Mexican cure for a hangover, ironic in that
it is also traditionally enjoyed with mezcal.
Continue reading "Chicken Pozole" »
Good thing I took a few notes!
Continue reading SDCC: Entertainment
Weekly's 'Visionaries' Panel = Pure Gold
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
The Lifehacker Editors' Favorite Software and Hardware [What We
Use]
By Tamar Weinberg (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/27/2008 3:20:04 AM
Lifehacker readers range from the
complete newbie to the most seasoned
techie, but where do the Lifehacker editors
stand? We polled our own editors for the
computer hardware and applications they
swear by and we're breaking it down for
you here. This post is categorized into the
software each editor uses on a daily, the
operating systems we live in, the hardware
we rely on, the peripherals we utilize on a
regular basis, and webapps we need. Then
we tell you exactly what kind of user we
think we are.
Gina Trapani, Editor:
The Basics
• Firefox: I spend the majority of my day
in my favorite browser, where I manage
email, write Lifehacker posts, read RSS,
and surf. My must-have Firefox extensions
include: Foxmarks(so my bookmark are
everywhere), DownThemAll!(for
downloading big files), CoLT(for grabbing
links to drop into Lifehacker posts), all of
the Better Extensions which I put together,
Firebug and Chris Pederick's Web
Developer toolbar(for development), and
Greasemonkey and Stylish for customizing
pages. (Here are my current user style
picks.)
• Quicksilver: On any Mac, I'll
Cmd+Spacebar out of habit, because I've
come to rely on QS so much for launching
apps, moving files, resizing images to
Lifehacker's standard sizes, and accessing
frequently-used documents on the Shelf.
• TextExpander(Mac) and
Texter(Windows): Not only does TE and
Texter help me write Lifehacker posts by
auto-expanding HTML snippets, it auto-
corrects typos and helps me stay on track
with our style guide (by automatically
replacing things like "wifi" with "Wi-Fi",
for example).
• TextWrangler(Mac) and
EditPlus(Windows): Everyone needs a
good text editor, and these two are my
picks. (TextWrangler is free, but EditPlus
is not).
• KeePass: The day I sat down and
created my KeePass password
database—and decided every time I'd set
up a new password I'd store it there—was
a good day indeed. While I do use Firefox
to save web-based logins, KeePass is an
awesome secure parking place for Wi-Fi,
network, computer, and file passwords as
well as software serial numbers. Since it's
Mac and Windows compatible, if I save a
password on the PC's copy of Firefox, I'll
also enter it into KeePass so I can still look
it up on the Mac.
• Adobe ImageReady: A throwback to my
web dev years, I still reach for an old copy
of IR whenever I have to do any image
editing beyond simple cropping and
resizing. Been meaning to get good at a
free option for awhile now—and I'll have
to, since Adobe discontinued ImageReady
releases.
• Adium(Mac) and Pidgin(Windows): I'm
not a huge IM user, but when I need to hop
on for a quick chat these are my two
clients of choice.
• Cygwin: I'm not running a Linux
desktop full-time, but I do need my ls and
scp. While Terminal.app offers these Unix
command line tools built into OS X,
Cygwin can give it to you on Windows.
• InstantShot(Mac), Skitch(Mac), and
SnagIt(Windows): Since I take screenshots
all day long, these three apps are
indispensable. For a simple snap and
resize, I use InstantShot and Preview; to
annotate screenshots SnagIt and Skitch get
the job done.
• Mozy(Mac and Windows), Time
M a c h i n e ( M a c ) , a n d
SyncBackSE(Windows): Since I work at
home with no IT department backing up a
network drive, backing up my important
data's up to me. I bought an unlimited
Mozy subscription for off-site backup in
case of fire, flood, theft, or tsunami, and
use Time Machine and SyncBack to run
regular local backups to a FireWire drive.
• GeekTool(Mac) and
Samurize(Windows): I like having my
todo.txt, a calendar, and a set of daily
reminders in front of my face every day.
So while I keep my desktop clear of
shortcuts and documents, GeekTool and
Samurize pins my top tasks, a two month
calendar, and remind reminders to keep me
on track during the day. Here's more on
setting up GeekTool on the Mac, and
incorporating text files on your desktop
with Samurize.
Primary OS
It's changed over the years and will
continue to shift, but right now I split my
time about 80%/20% Mac OS X and
Windows XP. I plan to increase my
Windows time (and get Vista into the mix)
to better serve Lifehacker readers, who are
primarily Windows (about 70% at the
moment, though this chart changes by the
minute). Setting up a Hardy desktop is also
looking more and more tempting.
Hardware
I used to use four different computers on
a regular basis, but keeping them all
maintained, synced, backed up, and up to
date with operating system patches became
too much. So last year I decided to
simplify and pare down the machine I use
for work purposes to one laptop (so I could
take it with me when I travel), and chose:
• A 15-inch MacBook Pro to which I
added a stick of memory, using Adam's
guide. I run both Windows XP and
Leopard on this machine with VMware. (I
used to Boot Camp and virtualize that
partition in Parallels—but when I needed
more internal hard drive space, I killed the
Boot Camp partition and now just
virtualize XP.) I've also got...
• An ancient Dell Dimension tower which
I launched Lifehacker on mostly goes
unused now. For awhile I used it as a file
server, but to reduce energy consumption, I
decided keeping an always-on file server
was overkill for the two people who live in
my household.
• A G4 PowerBook, which was replaced
by my MacBook Pro last year, lives in the
living room. For a beat-up secondary
computer, the PowerBook still does triple
duty as a media center file server for my
XBMC, a recipe reference in the kitchen
while we cook, and my other half's main
computer.
• A classic Xbox running XBMC is my
primary media center for watching
downloaded video, and my TiVo records
TV episodes online.
Peripherals
Besides a stack of external hard drives, a
Netgear router, an ink jet printer, and a
widescreen Dell monitor I hook the
MacBook up to when I'm at my desk, I've
got:
• A Fujitsu ScanSnap mobile scanner for
Mac, which is perfect for scanning
receipts, contracts, and newspaper articles.
I reviewed the Windows version here and
loved it so much, that when I sent the
review unit back to Fujitsu I bought the
Mac version as soon as it was available..
• An iPhone, which I had misgivings
about purchasing when I lost my Nokia.
The iPhone 2.0 software isn't without
problems that are dogging me as well as a
couple of others, but for the most part, it's
a very pleasant gadget to use.
Webapps
Even though I still like keeping
important files saved to my local hard
drive, I've moved most of my daily work
into a Firefox tab (which makes it easy to
access from the iPhone as well). I use
dozens of webapps, but the primary ones
are:
• Gmail: A year or so ago I abandoned
Thunderbird to use Gmail's web interface
exclusively, mostly for its conversation
thread view (which T-bird doesn't quite
handle as well) and its keyboard shortcuts,
and because I'm constantly working on the
Better Gmail extension.
• Google Reader: Once I switched from
Bloglines to Google Reader, I've never
looked back—even though Adam did
almost convince me to move to
NetNewsWire, I'm too happy with my
Reader workflow to change things up. I'll
often read feeds while I'm on line at the
grocery store or in the doctor's waiting
room, and star items that may turn into
Lifehacker posts later.
• Google Calendar: The Lifehacker staff
uses a shared GCal calendar to schedule
vacations, conferences, and software
launches, and I use it for my personal
calendar as well.
• Campfire: In lieu of instant messenger,
at Adam's suggestion, the Lifehacker staff
started hanging out in a Campfire room
throughout the day while we write, which
helps us coordinate and ask quick
questions and make decisions so much
faster than over email.
• Twitter: I don't have the time to fool
around on Facebook or Flickr as much as I
Tech Tips* 31
used to, but contributing to and scanning
Twitter is a fast, efficient way hear what
my pals are up to and blog with very little
effort. Twitter's helped me keep in touch
with my NYC friends, find story ideas
faster than they break in my RSS reader,
recruit guest writers, keep tabs on people I
admire and look up to, and poll people I
trust quickly.
I also love MediaWiki and del.icio.us.
Here's more on the apps that run
Lifehacker's virtual office.
Self Assessment
I'm a late early adopter. I love to try out
new apps, but after reviewing thousands
over the years here at Lifehacker, I think
long and hard before I actually work one
into my daily workflow. I'm a big open
source advocate—to the point of a
tendency toward that "tinfoil hat" free
software extremist mindset—but I will
(and do) compromise for beautiful and
easy-to-use software, too. It's great that
you can do so much in the cloud these
days, but I like to store and manipulate my
own data and avoid webapp lock-in as
well—so, for example, I back up my
Gmail account via POP. I love tinkering
with software, but I'm not as much of a
hardware DIYer as my co-editors, many of
whom have built their own computers.
Adam Pash, Senior Editor:
The Basics
• Aside from the obvious ( Firefox), I
spend a lot of time using Adium and
NetNewsWire.
• I love Growl. (I'd kill for a Windows
version.)
• Love Notepad++ for text editing in in
Windows.
• Of course I don't feel complete without
my text replacement macro apps, so that's
either our very own Texter on Windows
and TextExpander on the Mac.
• As for software I'd pay for, TextMate in
OS X is a fantastic text editor that I'm glad
I shelled out for.
• I'm also a huge fan of Vista's Media
Center—it's what makes the upgrade to
Vista worth it for me, since it integrates so
well with my Xbox 360(including
streaming Netflix functionality).
LIFEHACKER page 32
32
LIFEHACKER
continued from page 31
Primary OS
I've been primarily operating in OS X
since I built my Hackintosh, but I'm
always running VMware Fusion(another
must have) with Windows and
(sometimes) Ubuntu.
Hardware
I'm using the Hackintosh as my main
desktop, an aging MacBook Pro with OS X
and Vista in Boot Camp, and an older
Windows box that's a dedicated Media
Center back-end. Then there's the Xbox
360, of course, which gets about as much
tinkering time as the Media Center.
Both of my desktop computers (the
Hackintosh and the Vista Media Center)
were built from the ground up.
There's also my iPhone, which I use
almost as much as my laptop these days.
Peripherals
After a weekend of watching a friend
regularly reboot his router while I was
visiting recently, I should give credit to my
router, which is intermittently either
running Tomato or DD-WRT. They're rock
solid.
I've got a Logitech MX Revolution
wireless mouse and one of the new slim
Apple keyboards, both of which are very
nice to work with daily. I've also got a
cheap-ish Canon MP180 printer/scanner
combo with a recently broken printer tray.
Webapps
• Love Gmail. I've been making a small
move to desktop apps lately, but until
Google makes a desktop version of Gmail
(not likely) or someone rips off the main
tenents of the Gmail interface, I'm not
leaving it any time soon.
• I'm also a big fan of Mediawiki as a
software, and—naturally— Wikipedia. I
may have well been answering this
question in 2004.
Self Assessment
I'm a big fan of anything I can build for
cheaper than I can buy it. Hardware DIY
gets easier and easier every year, and I've
managed to do just fine for myself without
ever picking up a soldering gun or
anything of the sort. It's all much easier
than most people think.
Kevin Purdy, Associate Editor:
The Basics
• Firefox: With the following extensions:
Foxmarks(syncing between systems and
Firefox portable, Password Exporter(same
reason), CustomizeGoogle (newly
installed, mostly for the Google Link
annoyance described at #8, and the dev
build (i.e. Firefox 3-compatible) of Tab
Mix Plus.
• Launchy and Texter: Both suggestions
from Adam, both indispensable to my
Windows work. When I'm in Linux,
though ...
• GNOME Do and Snippits: The Linux
semi-equivalents.
• Pidgin: I used to use the last version of
vanilla AIM that worked with the (then-
free) DeadAIM plugin, until I became a
Linux geek and friends started hitting me
up on GChat.
• GIMP: Because I truly do suck at
Photoshop, so I'm learning day-by-day
with its free counterpart.
• Prism: For running Campfire, Google
Calendar, and a few other apps in
distraction-free shells on the desktop.
• Revo Uninstaller: For cleanly and
completely uninstalling most of the
software I test out on the job.
Primary OS
I honestly split my time between
Windows Vista and Ubuntu Hardy Heron
(8.04). Up until recently, I'd been almost
exclusively running Hardy (which I've
openly professed my fondness of) with a
wirelessly synced iPod touch, but I can't
get my dual monitor setup working in
Hardy, and iPhone 2.0 put a nix on the
second—for now.
Hardware
• A 5-year-old desktop I built myself,
now doing light testing duty with XP
installed
• A Lenovo ThinkPad T61P(dual-booting
Ubuntu and Vista)
• My parents' old desktop, turned into a
multi-function home server(converted with
help from Gina's guides and this starting
point.
• My wife's Compaq Presario laptop,
which suffers its fair share of guinea
pigging.
Peripherals
• Linksys WRT54G (ver. 6) router: Big
mistake, considering I have to wince every
time Adam finds a new Super Router
firmware (like Tomato or DD-WRT), and I
have to sit it out with my locked-down
blue box.
• HP Deskjet 825c: Hooked up to the
home server for remote printing (from
every system except Vista, of course).
• iPods: I've got an old 4 GB Mini, the
wife has a 4 GB Nano, and I'm constantly
tweaking my 8 GB touch.
• LG LCD monitor: Originally for the old
desktop, now a dual screen for the
ThinkPad.
Webapps
I use quite a number of them, but the
main ones are:
• Google Docs: I might switch over to the
more feature-rich Zoho Suite one day,
because the feature I love most about
GDocs is simply that it saves every few
seconds. The accessibility and offline
abilities don't hurt, either, though.
• Reader: Both during morning posts and
casual browsing through the iPhone-
friendly beta.
• Gmail: Big surprise, I'm sure, but I
mostly use it through Thunderbird via
IMAP for both work and home mail.
• Remember the Milk: On my AWN dock
in Linux, on my iPod touch, my iGoogle
start page, through my phone and email—a
truly universal but simple to-do list.
Self Assessment
I'm obviously a big fan of open source
and free software, as you can probably tell
from the lists above. I chose and
customized my laptop in large part for its
Linux-friendliness, and I'll always favor
software and webapps that can be accessed
from any computer. In general, though, I
can never leave well enough alone—a
good trait in writing for this site, I'd
think—and while I'm pretty satisfied with
my current array of tools, I'm thinking a
few lower-tech, real-world productivity
tools—index cards, anyone?—could
probably find a useful home somewhere in
my system.
Jason Fitzpatrick, Contributing Editor:
The [Free] Basics
• Launchy: Although I'm a relatively new
user of Launchy, I'm finding rapidly that I
use it enough that I'm frustrated when I'm
on a computer that doesn't have it.
• Digsby: With lots of people on lots of
different messaging platforms, Digsby
makes my life easier.
• Picasa2: When dealing exclusively with
client files I'll use a program like Adobe
Lightroom, but for ease of use and for a
program that is easy to use for my non-
techie wife, Picasa2 is a fantastic fit.
• TeraCopy: I hated the built in file
handler in windows. When you're moving
80 gigs from one drive to another you don't
want to come back after your lunch break
and see there was an error at the end of the
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
transfer and the whole thing aborted.
TeraCopy takes that pain away!
• xplorer2 lite: I also hated the default file
explorer in windows. When you're editing
large amounts of media and organizing it,
having an explorer alternative on steroids
is the only way to go.
• UltraVNC: Over the years there have
been all sorts of fancy new ways to
remotely connect to your home PC, but
I've never found anything I like more than
a basic VNC connection.
The [Paid] Basics
• Photoshop: I've been using Photoshop
for almost 15 years now and short of
writing my own programs and playing with
them, haven't had more fun with another
piece of software.
• UltraMon: If you have dual monitors,
it's invaluable.
Primary OS
My primary OS is Windows XP. I'm
usually in some state of tinkering
with OS X(working on a hackintosh just
for kicks), and Linux. I find as time goes
on that with Linux I'm less tinkering with
the limited free time I have to play with it
and more enjoying it. Linux has really
matured since I first installed it in 1994.
Hardware
I used to be an avid computer builder. As
far as my primary machine for daily use
goes, I usually just purchase a machine
that's on sale and throw a bunch of ram and
hard drives in it. I don't game much
anymore, so my rig doesn't need to bleed
speed. All of that said I have a ton of parts
and I often strip down computers before
people send them off to be recycled so I
have more than enough motherboards, hard
drives, etc. to build all the random projects
I set my mind too. The level of parts in my
workshop has reached a saturation point
actually, and it is extremely likely that my
next computer will be built from them with
a few newer pieces thrown in.
Peripherals
I don't really have any peripherals that I
love... except my Logitech Trackman
Wheel. I've been using a Logitech
Trackman for over ten years now and I
love controlling the entire movement of the
mouse with just my thumb. If Logitech
announce they would no longer be
producing the Trackman, I'd go out and
buy a stockpile just to be safe. If we're
being a bit looser with definition of
peripherals, I'm quite fond of my Windows
Mobile phone, the HTC Apache, it's a
rather common WM phone but I like
having a device I can custom and tweak to
my hearts content. I frequently use the
BuildOS program from PPCGeeks.com to
rebuild my entire phone and try new
things.
Webapps
The only web apps I use with any
consistency are Gmail and Google Reader.
I also use SmugMug to catalog and share
media with family and clients and Mozy to
backup data. For my Windows Mobile
phone I use the service DashWire to
conduct remote backups of contacts and
other data.
Self Assessment
My computer usage reflects strongly on
my general personality. I don't use many
social networking tools, I'm not the kind of
person that twitters the minute details of
their life. I share my personal pictures on a
password protected site only for family,
not on flickr. When I'm working I use a
pretty spartan set of tools which helps me
stay focused. Google reader to distill my
feeds, Firefox to help fling me about the
web, a simple calendar, contact list, and to-
do list in Outlook to sync with my
Windows Mobile phone. And when I'm
goofing around instead of getting work
done I'm all over the map experimenting
with new software, dubbing foreign films,
playing in Photoshop, building a Tivo
clone out of spare parts from my workshop
bins, trying out new tweaks on my XBMC,
etc. I love experimenting and playing with
computers, I've just come to a point in my
life where I have enough of a time crunch
that I have to be careful to fence off the
"Let's see what we can solder to this!" part
of my love for computers from my "Let's
get some work done and pay the bills!"
part.
Tamar Weinberg, Contributing Editor:
The [Free] Basics
• Notepad2: I'm not a developer so I don't
really need the extravagant features offered
by LH favorite Notepad++. I do love the
line-numbers and color-coding of
Notepad2, and that's all I'm looking for in a
Notepad replacement.
• Pidgin: I'm a fan of purple penguins and
find Pidgin's options easily configurable
for my needs . I also use a very old version
of AIM with DeadAIM because the GUI is
LIFEHACKER page 33
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LIFEHACKER
continued from page 32
oh-so-nice. By the way, Digsby is on my
list of apps to try!
• Irfanview: Because it's so incredibly
lightweight and small, Irfanview is a great
app to use for image viewing and to resize
or crop images quickly.
• Firefox: Firefox 3.0.1 is a terrific
browser, and unlike 3.0, this baby doesn't
crash at all on my computer.
• VLC Media Player: I used to open files
and never be able to locate the proper
codecs. VLC eliminates that hassle. When
I have downtime and want to watch a
movie or TV show on my computer, VLC
does a nifty job, and it's also pretty
lightweight too, which adds to the appeal.
The [Paid] Basics
• FlashFXP: Unlimited lifetime upgrades
and a purchase that was made several years
ago made this an easy choice.
Primary OS
My primary operating system at this time
is Windows XP Pro. Ah yes, a Mac OS
would be nice, but I've been
procrastinating on making the plunge!
Windows XP does what I need.
Additionally, I run a Fedora 9 box in the
corner of my apartment and am always
SSH'd into it to tinker around with the
system.
Hardware
My main computer is a Dell XPS M1710
laptop, but I built the two desktops I use
(they run Windows XP and Fedora 9). I
test Lifehacker software on another old
Dell laptop. I also have a Macbook Air that
I haven't yet used. I know Gina is going to
kill me when she reads this.
Peripherals and Gadgets
• Samsung ML-2010: Really the family
Blueberry Peach Fruit Salad with Thyme
By Garrett McCord
Submitted at 7/25/2008 12:52:01 PM
Please welcome Garrett McCord of
Vanilla Garlic who shares this delicious
cancer-fighting fruit salad with us. ~Elise
Recently my mom, Suzanne McCord,
was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was
surprised when I heard the news, my
mother is in her early sixties, but is
insanely active and healthy. The woman
recently participated the AIDS lifecycle
event; a 6 day, 550 mile bike ride. A few
printer of choice, and we like it because of
the network printing capabilities. I'm a big
fan of getting up to gather my printouts
days after I print them out!
• Flip video: I'm new to the video world,
but the Flip has proven to be a small yet
affordable camcorder that produces quality
results.
• Treo 755p: I've been using Palm OS for
almost 10 years now and can't really
fathom moving over to a Windows
Smartphone.
• iPod touch: I once wished for an iPhone
without the phone. Then, Apple announced
the iPod touch. All it needs now is more
storage space.
• Lots of external hard drives: I've
suffered way too many hard drive failures
to risk losing data again, so I have more
than a terabyte of data stored on external
hard drives in the event that my main
drives fail.
I don't use other peripherals on a regular
basis primarily because my desk is my lap
and my office chair is a couch. There's not
much you can use here without things
falling all over the place.
Webapps
• Gmail: I really like Gmail, especially
since it now supports IMAP. I have 4 tabs
of Gmail for the three accounts I use (three
of which are on Google Apps for
Domains). Really, who doesn't like Gmail?
• Flickr: To put it simply, photo sharing
rocks. I'm a big fan of social media and I
love being able to tag photos, comment on
them, add notes, and organize them into
sets that others can easily see and navigate
to. I also love how you can bookmark your
favorite photos with the "call a fave"
days after, she was off to Egypt and
Russia. I get tired biking to work, and my
last big trip was Napa which is only an
hour away. In fact, her main concern after
being diagnosed was that the surgery
would get in the way of her bike riding.
After hearing about mom, I went to work
doing some research about ways I could
help using what I know best - food. I
wanted to put together something that was
easy to prepare, full of flavor, and packed
with cancer fighting vitamins and
antioxidants. After a bit of research into
feature.
• Twitter: I use Twitter on a pretty
consistent basis mostly to foster and build
professional relationships. I enjoy that it
has an API with hundreds of available
applications. I primarily use Twhirl with
Twitter and I take heavy advantage of the
SMS tools when I'm mobile.
• WordPress is my blogging platform of
choice, but I do use MovableType maybe
even more regularly.
• FriendFeed: FriendFeed is one of my
favorite tools ever to keep abreast of the
news that interests my colleague and peers,
and the conversation is growing. The best
part is that you can hide the noise and only
focus in on the signal.
• Carbonite: This non-intrusive backup
solution for Windows and Mac is tough to
beat for the price of $49.95/year for
unlimited storage.
Self-assessment
Much of what I use revolves around my
work behavior, since I'm tremendously
focused on using the computer for all work
and no play (if I play, I'll go with a console
of some sort—my Wii and Xbox360 get
some nice face time when I have a spare
moment). I'm somewhat old school but I
love to try new things provided that I don't
have to install them on my computer (well,
for the most part).
Now it's your turn...
Readers, what are your preferred
freeware, shareware, and commercial
apps? What gadgets and peripherals tickle
your fancy? Which webapps do you use
consistently? Share your all-time favorite
recommendations in the comments.
cancer smart foods and what seemed to
work well, I developed this recipe.
This simple fruit salad works at the start
This Week's Top
Downloads [Download
Roundup]
(Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/26/2008 11:00:00 AM
• DropUpload Does Quick Drag-and-
Drop FTP(Windows)"Free, open-source
application DropUpload is a lightweight
FTP client designed to provide simple drag
-and-drop file uploads to any folder on
your FTP server."
• WikiLook Offers Definitions On-
Page(Firefox)"You already know how to
Google a word's definition, but to find out
what a term means without having to
switch tabs you need WikiLook."
• Jailbreak iPhone 2.0 with
PwnageTool(Mac)"When you don't want
to depend solely on the official App Store
to get your iPhone 2.0 applications, you
want to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod
touch—and less than two weeks after the
iPhone 2.0 launch, it's easier than ever to
do with your new device."
• DVD Catalyst Rips DVDs to Friendly
Formats in One Click(Windows)"Free
application DVD Catalyst Free rips videos
from DVDs to device-friendly formats for
your iPod, iPhone, PSP, PS3, Xbox,
smartphone, and more in one simple
click."
• PlacesBar Tweaker Edits Open and
Save Locations(Windows)"Free Windows
of the meal or as a dessert. The fruit is
lightly glazed with either a simple syrup or
agave syrup. Ginger, a bit of lemon, and
some savory thyme which pairs amazingly
with summer fruits accents the tartness of
the berries and the sweetness of the stone
fruit. In recognition of my awesome,
kicking cancer-butt mom, Ive nicknamed
this a Suzanne Salad.
Continue reading "Blueberry Peach Fruit
Salad with Thyme" »
Tech Tips* Food* 33
utility PlacesBar Tweaker puts your
frequently-accessed folders in Windows'
Open and Save dialog box's sidebar."
• Halite Does Super-Lightweight
BitTorrent(Windows)"Free, open-source
application Halite is a BitTorrent client
with a focus on a small memory footprint."
• Jailbreak iPhone 2.0 on Windows with
Winpwn(Windows)"We've already shown
you how to jailbreak your iPhone 2.0 on a
Mac, but yesterday the Windows version
of the iPhone jailbreak tool—called
Winpwn—hit the streets, so now Windows
users have a user-friendly way to
jailbreak."
• Calgoo Goes Free, Syncs Desktop
Calendars with Google Calendar(Windows
and Mac)"Online and desktop calendar-
syncing application Calgoo
Connect—along with all of the other
calendar tools available from Calgoo—are
now free."
• ProcessQuickLink Makes It Easy to
Find Out What a Process
Does(Windows)"Free application
ProcessQuickLink adds small icons to the
left of every running process in the
Windows Task Manager that—when
clicked—tell you what that process does."
34 Religion*
Keeping your baby off the pole
By Mollie
Submitted at 7/24/2008 1:58:49 PM
Like everyone else in the world, I love
me some Chris Rock. Of his many
memorable lines, this one from his “Never
Scared” routine — as recounted by the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer— is one of my
favorites:
“Sometimes I am walking with my
daughter, I’m talking to my daughter, I’m
looking at her, I’m pushing her in the
stroller. And sometimes I pick her up and I
just stare at her and I realize my only job in
life is to keep her off the pole.
“Keep my baby off the pole!
“I mean they don’t grade fathers but if
your daughter is a stripper you f*&$#@
up.”
Sorry for the [symbolically] rough
language, but you get the point. (For more
on how Chris Rock’s thoughts on
fatherhood are vindicated by Nobel
laureate economists, read here.) I thought
of the Rock routine while reading Nancy
Gibbs’ piece about purity balls in this
week’s Time. Ever since Neela Banerjee
covered the phenomenon in the New York
Times, purity events have had a raised
profile. Here’s how the Time piece begins:
There are some mothers and some uncles
among the 150 people in the ballroom of
the Broadmoor hotel, but the night belongs
to fathers and daughters. The girls
generally range in age from college down
to the tiny 4-year-old dressed all in purple
who has climbed up into her father’s arms
to be carried. Some are in their first high
heels—you can tell by the way they walk,
like uncertain baby giraffes. Randy
Wilson, co-inventor of the Father-
Daughter Purity Ball, offers a blessing: he
calls on the men to be good and loving
listeners, tender, gracious and truthful. And
he prays that the girls might “step into the
world with strength and passion, to lead
this generation.”
The actual article itself describes the
movement as dealing with both male and
female teenager virtue. To that end, the
slightly creepy headline — “ The Pursuit
of Teen Girl Purity” — is also incorrect. If
this movement has been going on for a
decade and programs aimed at boys are
now growing even faster, as the article
reports, perhaps it would be good to frame
the issue a bit more broadly than “teen girl
purity.” Either way, the article quickly
presents many strongly worded objections
to the events. It also permits the defenders
to respond briefly.
There are some problems — such as the
brief, unsourced statement that abstinence-
only education doesn’t work. I’m not
arguing that it definitively does work but
reporters should be careful here.
There really aren’t good studies on the
topic. I think there is only one federal
study on the matter and it was very limited
in scope. It showed the results for four
counties and wasn’t controlled for
anything from socio-economic data to
what other sex messages students received
in the larger culture. It showed that
students who had received “abstinence-
only” education had sex beginning at the
same age and with the same level of safety
as the general population. I haven’t
reviewed the various studies about sex
education (other than this weak and
discredited one from the CDC that was
spun as anti-abstinence education) but I
believe many observers say the most
effective programs (of those that have been
analyzed) heavily emphasize abstinence
but also provide information about how to
protect against sexually-transmitted
diseases or use birth control if you do
engage in sex. Of course, what constitutes
“effective” is itself up for debate.
Either way, there isn’t just one
“abstinence-only” curriculum or
“abstinence-emphasis” curriculum or
“abstinence-mention” curriculum. It stands
to reason that there would be variation
within each subset. More relevant to this
topic are the studies that show that girls
with strong relationships with their fathers
tend to delay sexual activity.
But the story, while fully engaging the
conflicting views over how best to transmit
values to younger generations, is respectful
of all parties. It doesn’t have that
anthropological feel that you sometimes
get in stories about those wacky
evangelicals. After quoting Wilson
speaking positively about some aspects of
arranged marriage, the story continues:
This, of course, is the kind of
conversation that makes critics howl. What
about a young woman’s right to date
whomever she pleases, make her own
mistakes, learn from the experience, find
out who she is and what matters to her? To
which the Wilsons and their allies reply: If
you still think this is just about sex, you are
missing the whole point. The message,
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
they say, is about integrity, being whole
people, heart and soul and body. Wilson
himself has said virginity pledges have a
downside: “It heaps guilt upon them. If
they fail, you’ve made it worse for them,”
he said. “Who is perfect in this world? One
mistake doesn’t mean it’s all over.”
Everyone here has a story, and very few
are in black and white. One man is dancing
with his younger daughter, wishing his
older girl had come as well. She used to
wear a purity ring, he says, until a boy she
knew assaulted her; she took it off—felt
too dirty. Her parents gave her a new one,
a bigger one; it took many months and
much therapy, her father goes on, before
she was able to put a ring on again. “That
was part of a healing process,” he says,
“with the message that you’re valuable no
matter what someone did to you.”
One family profiled in the story is what
you might call non-traditional: one dad and
nine children by seven mothers. The father,
who is dying, knows he won’t make it to
his daughters’ weddings. He has much to
regret about how he lived his life. An older
daughter who came to the event flat out
says he was a horrible role-model. She’s
jealous that he’s a better father to her
younger siblings.
The article ends with some very
opinionated commentary from the reporter.
But it actually seems to add value and
provide a way of understanding what —
and how — she has written up to that
point. She argues that mixed messages
about sex aren’t just inevitable but
valuable. She defends multiple approaches
to parenting, including the purity approach:
If you listen long enough, you wonder
whether there is really such a profound
disagreement about what parents want for
their children. Culture war by its nature
pours salt in wounds, finds division where
there could be common purpose. Purity is
certainly a loaded word—but is there
anyone who thinks it’s a good idea for 12-
year-olds to have sex? Or a bad idea for
fathers to be engaged in the lives of their
daughters and promise to practice what
they preach? Parents won’t necessarily say
this out loud, but isn’t it better to set the
bar high and miss than not even try?
I completely get the visceral reaction
some people have had to these events. To
be completely honest, I share it. Which is
why I really appreciated this article. By
helping competing sides in this particular
culture war understand where the other is
coming from, Gibbs provides a valuable
service to everyone and provides more
light than heat.
Bookmark to:
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Lessons learned
By Mollie
Submitted at 7/27/2008 7:09:36 PM
Whenever we write about stories
involving Roman Catholic Womenpriests,
we get a ton of reader feedback. Part of
that is because much of the coverage has
been so weak over the years. But part of it
is because the issues surrounding the group
get at the heart of what animates many
believers — authority, Scripture, social
issues, personal determination. It’s all very
interesting stuff.
Earlier this week, we looked at a couple
of Boston Globe reporter Michael
Paulson’s stories on recent activities by the
Roman Catholic Womenpriests group. We
compared the difference between his
earlier story and his subsequent story.
Paulson had gotten quite a bit of feedback,
some of it helpful and some of it just
angry, over his first story and worked
diligently to incorporate the lessons into
his subsequent piece.
Paulson has a new blog — freshly
launched— where he discusses the
experience. Readers of this blog will
probably find it a very interesting look at
how stories are drafted and edited. He
explains in his blog post that he neither
wrote nor saw the headline — “3 women
to be ordained Catholic priests in Boston”
— before it was published. A subhead that
mitigated some of the problems with the
headline was dropped in various online
pages. Criticism exploded in the
blogosphere. Paulson responded by posting
much of the email he received and
personally corresponding with those who
emailed. His follow-up story, filed after the
actual ceremony took place, had a much
improved headline:
The language I used in the stories also
changed somewhat. I’ve been at this a long
time, and I knew the subject of women’s
ordination is a bit of a minefield, so in the
first story I avoided using the word
“Mass,” or the titles “Rev.” or “Bishop” in
front of a woman’s name, knowing that
those terms would be debated. The story
was very clear that the Catholic Church
viewed the ceremony as invalid, and the
women as excommunicated; it quoted from
the Archdiocese of Boston, and Pope John
Paul II, and I thought it was quite clear and
fair. I did call the event an “ordination
ceremony” — my reasoning was that there
are lots of such events in Christendom and
beyond that are not sanctioned by Rome,
some by Catholics not in union with Rome,
and some by non-Catholics, and it seemed
to me that the standard practice of
newspapers is to honor the language used
by religious groups. When an evangelical
church declares someone ordained as a
pastor, we say that person was ordained as
a pastor; we don’t conduct an examination
of his or her theological training, and we
don’t ask who else would recognize this
person as ordained.
But the reaction suggests that many
readers didn’t read the story the same way
I did, especially once they had seen the
problematic headline, and so I decided to
rethink the use of a few words —
especially “ordain” and “ordination” — in
the story about the actual event. In the end
I decided to use the word “ceremony”
rather than “ordination” to describe what
was taking place, unless it was attributed to
someone, and to attribute every description
that I thought might be contested. That
resulted, most awkwardly, in this phrase,
“They then helped preside over a service at
which they declared bread and wine to be
consecrated and offered what they called
Communion to anyone who wished to
receive it.”
Paulson said that the second story
generated another round of e-mail, which
he also posted. Many people thanked him
for his second story; others said he went
too far in the other direction. His latest
blog post says what lessons he learned:
- A traditional journalistic device for
communicating more information about a
story, the “subhed,” does not translate to
the Internet. The initial story had a
subordinate headline, or subhed, that made
clear the church’s view of the ceremony,
but even on Boston.com that subhed was
dropped on many pages, and as the story
migrated through the blogosphere, the
story was referred to only by the main
headline, which was, at best, disputable.
- Another journalist convention, “play,” is
also irrelevant in cyberspace. As I
explained to some readers, if the Catholic
Church had decided to ordain women, that
Religion* Food* 35
would be a huge front page story. The
stories about the ceremony this weekend
ran at the bottom of page B1 — a signal, in
our view, that the matter was interesting
and newsworthy, but not huge. But, of
course, in cyberspace those distinctions,
which we at newspapers spend a lot of
time thinking about, are obliterated.
Some people asked me why we covered
the story at all. Several of the e-mailers
said they saw no distinction between the
ceremony at the Church of the Covenant,
and any individual who just declared
himself or herself to be the president or the
governor. This was my response to one of
those readers: “The rationale for coverage
is that this is the major group involved in a
subject of high public interest and with at
least some claim to, or argument for,
legitimacy, which is why the Vatican and
the various dioceses have responded,
which Beacon Hill etc. would not do if
your friends swear you in as governor. The
e-mails I got make clear that there is a
group out there that wishes we would
Snickerdoodles
simply not acknowledge that this group By Shuna Lydon
exists or is having this event, but that Submitted at 7/23/2008 2:23:41 AM
would be an editorial judgment as well,
one that many people would view as Please welcome guest author and pastry
censorial. I suppose each of our readers, chef Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater, who
given the options of all that takes place in shares with us her secrets for making
Boston and the world each day, would put snickerdoodles. ~Elise
together a different set of stories if they While people argue about where the
were in charge of the newspaper, and all I name Snickerdoodle comes from, few
can tell you is that we are making the best people who love them waste time with
judgments we can, hour after hour and day words. Here is a cookie with a following!
after day, trying to decide what is Tender and crisp, plain and aromatic,
important, significant, interesting, and sweet with a dash of salt, the
trying to cover those events and issues in a Snickerdoodle has made quite a place for
way that reflects what is happening fairly itself in the canon of cookies. But as loyal
and precisely.” as its fans are, its not the easiest cookie to
That second point about play is key. On find on bakery shelves.
pulp, the reader is given cues about how A Snickerdoodle has two signature
important a story is by where it’s placed in characteristics: an exterior of cinnamon
the paper and on the page. On the internet, sugar, cracked on top, and a perfect
every story is in huge type and above the textural balance of crunchy and pliable.
fold on the front page. That might be one With other cookies born from the same
of the strangest effects of the internet age. method-- creaming, getting just the right
Either way, I loved Paulson’s texture can feel like an impossible journey
transparency with his email and his with way too many cookies to eat along the
reflections on the story. It’s so nice to see a way. Snickerdoodles, on the other hand,
reporter be open about what he was have a built-in fail proof ingredient, saving
thinking and what he learned. them from the place where cookies that
Bookmark to: arent just right go. Cornstarch.
Continue reading "Snickerdoodles" »
36 Religion* Food*
Evangelicals boot Grassley over probe?
By dpulliam
Submitted at 7/25/2008 2:19:00 AM
A telling story about Iowa Christian
evangelicals denying a request from Sen.
Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, for a spot on the
state’s delegation to the 2008 GOP
Convention has prompted interesting
speculation in various news articles over
the last week. Robert Novak was the first
to suggest that evangelicals tossed
Grassley overboard for leading a Senate
Finance Committee investigation of
televangelists followed by The Washington
Times on Monday.
Exactly why the hard-nosed Senate
investigator was denied a spot seemed
fishy. The reporters who initially covered
the matter over the weekend, after the
Novak item appeared, seem to have
smelled something pretty rotten:
Political observers in Iowa saw the move
against Mr. Grassley as retribution for his
having tangled with evangelical pastors in
his state. He initiated a Senate Finance
Committee investigation of six
televangelists for conspicuous personal
spending.
“That had nothing to with it at all,” Mr.
[Steve] Scheffler [Iowa Christian Alliance
President and chairman of the state’s
delegation] said Sunday. He said Mr.
Grassley and the other members of the
Iowa congressional delegation already had
national convention floor privileges —
meaning they could walk the floor but not
vote.
On Tuesday, Iowa Republicans were
doing everything they could to be quoted
stating that Grassley just wants the non-
politicians to have a chance to vote at the
convention. Right.
Here is the Des Moines Register on
Ginger Chicken with Almonds
By Elise
Submitted at 7/25/2008 8:14:53 PM
From the recipe archive.
My friend Steve-Anna recently sent me
this wonderful recipe for ginger chicken
and claimed that it was one of her all time
favorites. My father doesn't eat ginger if he
Tuesday:
Washington, D.C. — Aides to Sen.
Charles Grassley, R-Ia., on Monday
downplayed reports that he was dumped by
Iowa Republicans as a delegate to the
Republican National Convention because
of his investigation of six televangelists.
Beth Pellett Levine, Grassley’s press
secretary, said Grassley won’t be a
delegate, but he will attend the convention
and will have floor access as a federal
elected official.
She said Grassley, as well as Iowa’s two
Republican congressmen, Reps. Steve
King and Tom Latham, will not be
delegates “in order to give additional Iowa
Republicans the opportunity to participate
in the floor proceedings and activities of
the national party convention.”
It is difficult to determine whether
Novak and Times articles are well sourced
because much of the information comes
without citations. However, consider the
news outlets. Both institutions are well
sourced in conservative politics, to say the
least. Also, consider what the Times was
able to quote former Iowa Republican
National Committee member Steve
Roberts:
With a majority of nine out of 17
members on the Iowa Republican central
committee, religious conservatives made
Iowa Christian Alliance President Steve
Scheffler chairman of Iowa’s 40-member
delegation in a vote immediately after their
state party convention July 12.
“The Republican Party of Iowa is moving
significantly to the right on social issues,”
the just-ousted Iowa Republican National
Committee member Steve Roberts told
The Washington Times. “It hurts John
McCain’s chances to win this state.”
Other party officials said money for the
can avoid it, so when I made it I just
warned dad ahead of time that he might
have to settle for yesterday's leftovers if he
couldn't bring himself to touch it. Well,
everyone loved it, even dad. Strips of
boneless, skinless chicken breasts are
briefly marinated in ground coriander,
ground ginger, vinegar and oil, then they
party is drying up because of past
mismanagement and current religious
dominance, which has turned traditional
Republican politics upside down.
“It’s pretty well controlled now by the
Christian Alliance,” Mr. Roberts said. “If
somebody came to me and wanted to be a
delegate to the national party convention, I
used to say, ‘Talk to the state party
chairman or to Grassley.’ Now it’s very
simple. You go to the Christian Alliance,
and they determine who is a delegate, and
are stir-fried with scallions and julienned
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
you have to do exactly as they say.”
In recent weeks, religious activists
replaced Mr. Roberts as the national
Republican committeeman and also
replaced the national committeewoman
with pro-life advocates who also oppose
gay marriage.
One thing reporters do know from this
article: Roberts does not like the direction
of the Iowa GOP. Does that also represent
Grassley? It is hard to say for sure.
Reporters should not ignore that
ginger. They are mixed with a little mango
chutney and sprinkled with toasted
almonds before serving.
The whole dish can be made in half an
hour, especially if you do a lot of the prep
while the chicken is marinating.
Continue reading "Ginger Chicken with
Almonds" »
concurring nature of the two events despite
what the politicians and staffers have to
say about Grassley’s exclusion from the
state’s slate of convention delegates.
Whether there is a direct link to Grassley’s
investigation will probably never be
known for sure.
Connected to this is the important role
reporters play, along with good-
government types like Grassley, in keeping
an eye out for are religious-oriented
institutions with large amounts of funding
(particularly government funding).
See Wednesday’s Indianapolis Star
report on an investigation into a local faith-
based nonprofit:
Russell, 49, sparked the probe by taking
a report of missing money to the
prosecutor’s investigation unit soon after
the foundation filed for bankruptcy May
30, according to his attorney, Kevin
McShane. McShane said that earlier this
year, Russell noticed the foundation’s bank
account balances were low.
McShane said the organization couldn’t
pay its bills; a federal bankruptcy filing
lists $2.5 million in liabilities.
The foundation’s unsecured debts
include hundreds of thousands of dollars
on credit cards, furniture rentals and auto
leases. Among several vehicles owned by
the foundation is a 2007 Cadillac Escalade.
Whatever one thinks of the effectiveness
of faith-based charity organizations, one
cannot deny that they are growing and
often have tremendous amounts of funds
under their control. As these charities grow
and take on larger roles in communities,
and in some cases receive tax dollars to
support their causes, will they receive the
scrutiny that seemed so painful for the
churches Grassley investigated?
Bookmark to:
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Getting the Catholic guy
By Mark Stricherz
Submitted at 7/25/2008 10:28:38 PM
As tmatt wrote recently, Get Religion
prefers to cheer rather than jeer reporters.
It is not just that reading a first-rate news
story is satisfying and grounded in reality.
It is inspirational. As all of us have been or
are reporters, we want to read stories that
inform and compel the public, if only to
imitate them.
One story that bears imitating is a New
York Times profile of “The Catholic Guy”
on Sirius Satellite Radio. Reporter Paul
Vitello distilled the essence of host Lino
Rulli’s show, its mixture of the sacred and
profane. Vitello’s lede is a good example:
Mike from El Paso was on the phone line
to “The Catholic Guy,” the afternoon drive
-time talk program produced via the
unlikely partnership of Sirius Satellite
Radio (familiar to most people as “
Howard Stern’s network”) and the Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
“I called the other day?” said Mike.
“About how much I miss confession?”
This would be the Mike who was barred
from the sacrament of confession under
church law because he married a divorced
woman whose first marriage was never
annulled.
“Yes, I remember!” bellowed the host,
Lino Rulli, the Catholic guy of the show’s
title. “Mike the Adulterer! O.K., Mike. Are
you ready to play ‘Let’s Make a Catholic
Deal’?”
I thought this opening captured a certain
kind of Catholic male sensibility, one
informed by Catholic schooling and
teaching and American culture. Rare is the
newspaper story that gets this right.
In the next paragraph, Vitello told
readers the the importance of this Catholic
show and similar cultural programs:
It seems an odd marriage of sensibilities:
the rough banter of talk radio as practiced
by pioneer shock jocks like Mr. Stern and
Don Imus, joined at the neck to an official
Catholic broadcast whose underlying
mission is herding people back into the
Easy Tip for Getting Corn Off the Cob
By Elise
Submitted at 7/15/2008 12:47:56 AM
Lots of recipes ( creamed corn, corn
fold of a religious orthodoxy.
But the stated mission of this new
enterprise known as the Catholic Channel
is to offer something more than “the audio
equivalent of stained glass and incense,” as
Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the
archdiocese, refers to conventional
religious radio.
Later, Vitello elaborated:
Young people are the major target of
several efforts, official and otherwise.
“Theology on Tap,” an informal project
adopted in hundreds of parishes around the
country, attracts young Catholics to
lectures booked in bars or restaurants.
The Order of Paulist Fathers has started
an initiative aimed at people in their 20s
and 30s with an Internet ministry known as
Busted Halo, whose mission is basically in
sync with a recent series of youth-market
books called “The Bad Catholic’s Guide
to. . .” In the introduction to their first
book,“The Bad Catholic’s Guide to Good
Living,” John Zmirak and Denise
Matychowiak summarize the creed:
Believe in Catholicism, do what you can,
admit that you are flawed “and turn to the
font of infinite mercy as humbly and as
often as you can.”
chowder, corn salad) require stripping the
corn kernels away from the cob. In
practice, it's a bit tricky as the corn cob can
slip from its position, and the kernels can
No doubt the Times has written about
Theology on Tap before, but Vitello made
an important point. Some dioceses, the
ones in big cities in blue states anyway, are
reaching out to young adult Catholics in
new ways. The approach is modeled not on
gathering in the church basement but
outside it.
Also, I liked Vitello’s quote from Zmirak
and Matychowiak’s book. The reporter
told readers about Catholicism in its own
terms.
Midway the story, Vitello made an
important if somewhat familiar point:
David Gibson, a Catholic writer whose
book “ The Coming Catholic Church”
describes a newly powerful grass-roots
pressure for reform in the aftermath of the
priest sexual abuse scandal, said the
archdiocesan foray into talk radio may
reflect some official acknowledgment of
the need for a new, more interactive
relationship with believers.
“The church really has no choice,” he
said. “The old Catholic world, where you
were born and married in the church and
stayed because you were part of a
‘Catholic world’ — that’s gone. The
church has to find people and make them
want to be Catholic.”
Vitello needed to make this point in the
story; it would have lacked context without
it. However, I think this characterization of
Catholic American life was accepted a bit
uncritically. It is still possible to be born
Catholic, attend Catholic schools, and
spend your adult life largely with Catholic
co-workers, friends, and family. Everyone
agrees that this is not as common as it was
before the 1970s, but I know dozens of
friends, family members, and
acquaintances whom this is true of. Gibson
is a convert, so he is perhaps less likely to
know about Catholic pockets in the
country.
But that is a quibble. This story got
religion.
Bookmark to:
Religion* Food* 37
This story is not linked to
Lambeth
By tmatt
Submitted at 7/24/2008 11:27:42 PM
At first glance, there really isn’t much
going on in this little Detroit News metro
feature entitled “ Pastor believes prayer
can save city.”
The focus is on Greg Barrette, pastor of
Renaissance Unity, and his vision of an
Aug. 24 day of prayer to somehow
“levitate the economy right out of its
doldrums.” There are some slightly spacey
quotes and then some politicians get
involved, sort of pointing their fingers at
each other. This happens in politics from
time to time.
But people get on board with the project
because, what the heck, interfaith prayer
doesn’t cost any money. What can this
hurt? Then he hit this final strange passage
in Laura Berman’s story:
Renaissance Unity dispatched 15,000 e-
mails this week, an effort that will be
followed by a mass snail-mailing to other about Episcopalians (the church does
churches, synagogues and mosques. He contain a bishop who is not a theist), let’s
argues that prayer is personally beneficial stop and think about this for a minute. If
(“It raises cortisol levels”), even if you’re this priest really called himself an “
not supernaturally inclined. agnostic” — someone who is not sure
Kenneth J. Flowers, pastor at Greater whether he believes anything about
New Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist spiritual and eternal issues — then the
Church, insists that “prayer is always in journalist owes the reader a bit more
order.” After praying for economic uplift, content. In a way, dropping this little
he thinks the city of Detroit will need its bombshell and then moving on is a kind of
own special day to pray for scandal relief. insult against the religious left.
In Clawson, the Rev. Harry T. Cook, Or, do you think that the priest said that
rector at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, a he “is an agnostic” on the issue of whether
self-described agnostic, dismisses the idea this kind of interfaith, politically correct
of a group prayer day, saying “these are prayer day will have any real impact?
man-made problems that require man- I vote for the latter. I think. Either way,
made solutions.” The rector suggests it’s a strange reference that needs some
politics: voting, mobilizing, taking action. tweeking.
All together now: The rector said Bookmark to:
WHAT?!?
Now, before we get started on jokes
go flying all over the place. I don't know kernels as they come off the cob.
where I first heard of this trick of using a Continue reading "Easy Tip for Getting
bundt pan, but it's great for helping to Corn Off the Cob" »
steady the corn cob and to catch the
38 Religion* Food*
Lambethapalooza
By Mollie
Submitted at 7/26/2008 4:09:30 PM
I wish we could cover Stephen Colbert
and the Colbert Report more but I guess
he’s not officially mainstream media.
Well, on Thursday night he did a bit on
the Lambeth Conference, of all things. It
wasn’t just entertaining, it featured New
York Times religion reporter Laurie
Goodstein! Anyway, the piece is hilarious
and well worth watching for Colbert’s
omnipresent sense of Roman Catholic
supremacy, the familiar soap opera history
of the Anglican Communion, discussion of
the complex Anglican polity and hilarious
lines that I won’t give away.
So, why is it that the Colbert Report, as
with many of the topics it covers, manages
to be more informative than most anything
else you can catch on television about the
conference?
That is if you can even catch anything
about the conference in the mainstream.
The whole event seems deliberately,
remarkably un-newsy. I’m sure that was
the plan and all but I was hoping for more
coverage to look into. I have been
following my regular sources for Anglican
information as well as the British press.
One thing that popped up was this blog
account of disgruntlement over how the
U.S. Bishops are playing their cards. One
report, which was not attributed to the
bishop in question by prior agreement, was
interesting. It dealt with how the “ indaba”
small group discussions are going:
“Well, the funny thing is,” began one
bishop, “The Americans here have this
cheat sheet that they use in our group. It
has statements on it that justify their
decisions in the last two conventions that
led to the consecration of Gene Robinson
and same-sex marriage. It is a prioritized
list of talking points and the one in our
group reads off this thing every day.”
It was as if someone dropped a bomb in
the room. Was I surprised that my church
Wild Rice Salad
By Elise
Submitted at 7/18/2008 1:40:31 AM
Looking for a great summer picnic salad
to take to your next potluck? I recently
enjoyed this rice salad while visiting my
would utilize a tactic of this nature to
persuade the rest of the Communion? No, I
was not. Was I surprised that one of those
same bishops would bring the document
and read from it in a forum such as the
Indaba group? No, I was not. Was I
surprised by the strong counter reaction of
the other bishops in the room, who
considered this to be almost treachery?
Yes.
The British media is covering the talking
points and political machinations of
various groups. You’ve got Ruth Gledhill’s
Lambeth Diary and the Guardian’s Riazat
Butt:
A US bishop yesterday accused his own
friend Chigiy who was hosting a summer
BBQ. "Enjoyed" is the polite way of
saying I ate a lot of it, and pretty much all
of the leftovers the next day. The recipe is
from Chigiy's friend Wendy (thank you
Wendy!) who has generously passed it on
church of manipulating the Lambeth
summit by providing its 125
representatives with briefing notes
explaining how to promote liberal attitudes
towards gay clergy.
The US Episcopal church has the largest
presence at Lambeth, a once-a-decade
gathering of the world’s Anglican bishops
in Canterbury, and the Americans have
provided each of their bishops with a
“messaging strategy” that tells them how
to present a cogent, persuasive argument in
favour of diversity and tolerance in their
discussions with other bishops.
Liberals form the majority voice in the
wealthy US church and are eager to
to us. Made it here for my folks, and I still
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
liberalise attitudes towards sexuality, given
the divisive furore that has ensued
following the 2003 consecration of Gene
Robinson, an openly gay man, as Bishop
of New Hampshire.
Butt’s piece gives some examples from
the document, which you can actually read
in PDF form here:
The document, entitled Lambeth Talking
Points, also provides advice for bishops
when dealing with journalists: “A good
message will reach the audience without
Grilled Tomatoes
giving the media more than they need or By Elise
can use.” Submitted at 7/15/2008 6:36:13 AM
There is some criticism of the approach
being used by the U.S. bishops as well as Mid July is about the time of year when
news of some politics from those opposed tomatoes start coming full steam into
to them: season. I have 5 tomato plants in my
One US bishop, Keith Ackerman from garden that are now producing more
the diocese of Quincy, said the document tomatoes than we can think up ways of
was “embarrassing”. . . . using them. ( Gazpacho anyone?) One
“The Episcopal church is attempting to quick and easy recipe that I played around
manipulate this conference. It was hoping with this week is to simply grill the
to convince the rest of the Anglican tomatoes, cut side down, and season with
Communion that its innovations should be olive oil, salt, pepper, and sliced basil.
incorporated and respected.” When you are working with garden fresh
News of the document has spread tomatoes, sometimes doing less is more,
throughout the Kent campus and, late on because the produce is so good to begin
Wednesday night, conservatives launched with.
their own strategy to counter the prevailing Do you have a garden that is full of
liberal tone of Lambeth. tomatoes? What are your ways of using up
At a meeting attended by diocesan the bounty? Please let us know in the
bishops from around the world, one comments.
conservative evangelical recommended: Continue reading "Grilled Tomatoes" »
“In group after group, find out how many
people support resolution 1.10 [the one
from Lambeth 1998 enforcing a traditional
stance on gay sex].
Such drama! It’s good to see that the
media covering Lambeth are hip to the
media and political strategies being used
by various groups. Please let us know if
you see any particularly good or bad
stories coming out of the conference.
The art, by the way, is an advertisement
for The Episcopal Church from 1986.
Bookmark to:
want to eat it all.
Don't know about you, but I love rice
salads. If you have a favorite one, please
let us know about it in the comments.
Continue reading "Wild Rice Salad" »
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Football news sacked by religion
By dpulliam
Submitted at 7/26/2008 9:21:54 PM
Readers of The Miami Herald’s sports
section may be wondering if the
newspaper’s sports department is on the
hunt to hire a religion expert. Based on the
last couple of days of football coverage, it
may not be a bad investment although they
are doing fairly well with what they have
at this point.
On Thursday, the newspaper published
an article that primarily focuses on the
faith and missionary work of Florida
Gators quarterback and reigning Heisman
Trophy winner Tim Tebow. The next day
the newspaper published an even more
extensive article on Miami Dolphins
quarterback John Beck and his two-year
experience on a Mormon mission.
The Tebow story is nothing particularly
new and is the product of Southeastern
Conference Media Day. Stories coming out
of “media day” in any sport at any level
tend to be fairly fluffy, but fans love seeing
what the team has to put forward for the
upcoming season.
Reporter Joseph Goodman’s story is
headlined “Tebow uses fame as a pulpit”
and describes the 25 minute news
conference as “bizarre” in the lead. But is
“bizarre” really the best way to portray
what happened?
It was a bizarre beginning to the
Southeastern Conference Media Days on
Wednesday. There was a football player at
the dais — perhaps the best in the country
— and there were football writers in the
audience, but the topic of football seemed
like a footnote.
Then Florida quarterback Tim Tebow,
the reigning Heisman Trophy winner, told
hundreds of sports reporters that football
isn’t that important.
”I want to do everything in my power that
football gives me to influence as many
people as I can for the good, because that’s
going to mean so much more when it’s all
said and done than just playing football
and winning championships,” Tebow said.
Yet another group converted. College
football is a religion in the Deep South, but
when Tebow shows up for the season’s
kickoff party, the whole thing turns into a
tent revival.
The bizarre part of the story is Tebow’s
personal story of faith and upbringing and
his incredible talent. Is it that bizarre that
that was the subject of the press
conference?
What an athlete does in the off-season
seems like a reasonable thing to talk about
though, and if that makes it preaching from
the pulpit then so be it. Media days don’t
exactly give reporters much option but to
write about what was said from that pulpit.
The challenge with covering Tebow,
who is the son of Christian missionaries, is
that his religious work, including
preaching in prisons and churches and
mission trips to Thailand, the Philippines
and Croatia, has already been extensively
covered.
For me, the Indiana Pacers have spent
more time recently talking about their
player’s off-the-court arrests and legal
problems than basketball. And I am certain
Peyton Manning’s first press conference of
the season will have little to do with
football and more to do with the health of
his knee. If that turns the press room into a
medical center or a criminal courtroom
then so be it. Reporters cover the subject at
hand on media day.
The day after the “bizarre” Tebow press
conference, The Herald published a story
on Dolphins quarterback John Beck and
how his time as a Mormon missionary
prepared him to overcome adversity:
And Beck’s mission turned out to be
good preparation. In the 1-15 season, he
started four games, passed for one
touchdown and three interceptions, lost
five fumbles, and then saw the Dolphins
draft Chad Henne in the second round in
April.
“I always say when you’re on the
mission, you have to face a lot of
rejection,” Beck said. ‘A lot of people
don’t want to talk to you. When you walk
down the streets, people throw stuff at you,
they cuss at you. Where I was at in
Portugal, some people liked to swerve their
Religion* Food* 39
Shrimp Ceviche
By Elise
Submitted at 7/24/2008 4:21:14 PM
From the recipe archive for the hot days
of summer.
With the warm days of summer upon us,
a great way to cool off is with ceviche.
Ceviche is typically made with red snapper
that is "cooked" by the acidity of lime and
lemon juice (see this ceviche recipe.) This
version is prepared with shrimp, which is
first lightly cooked, and then marinated in
the citrus juice. My father, who generally
doesn't really like shrimp that much, loved
this ceviche. (Gotta love it when they eat it
up and ask for more.)
Continue reading "Shrimp Ceviche" »
cars in front of us, kind of joke around
like, `I’m going to hit you.’ Ridicule, all
that kind of stuff, it was just normal, you
just had to work through it.
”Let’s take that into last year where a lot
of things were going bad for us,” he said.
“It was tough, but we had to just keep on
working kind of with the goal in mind that
even though it’s tough, we’re going to
keep working and things will be good.
That’s kind of how it is on a mission.
The article doesn’t go much into Beck’s
faith or how it has impacted him
personally other than his decision to go on
the mission. Obviously that was a fairly
substantial decision and commitment, but
it would have been nice to see more on
Karadzic:
how his personal faith informs his lifestyle
and personal goals.
Bookmark to:
What kind of
mystic?
By tmatt
In recent days, I have continued to comb
Submitted at 7/25/2008 12:18:44 PM
KARADZIC: page 40
40 Food* Religion*
KARADZIC:
continued from page 39
the coverage of the Radovan Karadzic
arrest, looking for clues that might indicate
where reporters were getting the tips that
this monster had spent parts of the past few
decades hiding in Eastern Orthodox
monasteries and churches.
No real clues, so far. Most journalists
continue to mention those theories, always
in passive voice or in some other vague
way. But the main theme now is that
Karadzic was using his skills as a
psychologist to transition into a new
identity — that of a expert in alternative
medicine, delivered with a kind of
mystical, guru style that fit his new
appearance. Yes, some journalists are
using that “New Age” label.
But the strangest religious reference I
have found is in an ABC News online
story by Dragana Jovanovic, which ran
with the colorful headline: “Double Life of
the Butcher of Bosnia — War Criminal
Radovan Karadzic Was on Facebook, Had
Own Web Site, Even a Girlfriend.”
But check out the lede:
For 13 years, investigators combed the
mountainous regions of eastern Bosnia,
looking for Radovan Karadzic. A popular
theory for much of that time was that the
fugitive Bosnian-Serb leader was hidden
away in a monastery, protected by
Orthodox monks.
But it turned out to be the colorless
Vacation
By Elise
Submitted at 7/28/2008 5:02:09 AM
Vacation. I don't take those very often, do
you? Here is the view from the beach in
South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where I
am encamped for the next two weeks. 3000
miles away from hot, dry, and smokey
California (if anyone is wondering,
Sacramento is not the place to visit during
July), I'm determined to relax, play with
my goddaughter and her sisters, and
accomplish as little as possible.
So far I've managed to get sunburned,
and learn two useful treatments for it (in
addition to aloe vera) - a clerk at the local
CVS told me the Russian remedy to put
cold sour cream on the sunburn
(surprisingly helpful actually) and Susan
the Food Blogga's dermatologist husband
recommends Advil among other things, to
boulevards of New Belgrade that provided
a hiding place for Europe’s most wanted
man. He found an effective alter ego, in the
guise of an Orthodox mystic.
Say what? As you would imagine, I read
on through the piece — looking for some
kind of factual material to justify adding
the word “Orthodox” to the very
unorthodox profile that was emerging
about Karadzic’s life as a freelance mystic.
This is all you get:
People who live on Juri Gagarin Street, a
street of gray Communist-era apartment
buildings across the Sava River, felt
certain that their new neighbor was some
kind of mystical guru.
“He moved to our neighborhood early last
year. I thought he was a spiritual man,”
said Danica Jankovic, a sixth floor
neighbor of the man who assumed the alias
Dr. Dragan or David Dabic. “His dense
white beard and distinctive long hair, his
long periods of complete silence, and the
fact that he was into meditation left me
with no doubt. I still cannot believe his
true identity.”
Unrecognizable, with long white hair, a
long beard and 40 pounds lighter,
Karadzic, under the new name, appears to
have led a very different life than one
would have expected from one of the
world’s most wanted fugitives.
That’s it. The word “Orthodox” just
reduce the inflammation. I've taught the
girls to count to 4 as well as sing
Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which we have
sung all over town, repeatedly, to the
annoyance of all who aren't singing with
us.
So, what does this mean for those of you
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
came out of nowhere. I have not seen that
angle in any other mainstream coverage.
If you are looking for a nasty slam at
Orthodoxy in the Karadzic coverage, far
and away the worst I have seen is in a
Globe and Mail piece by columnist Doug
Saunders. Once again, it seems that the
goal is to blame the hierarchy of the
Serbian Orthodox Church — which
actively joined with other religious groups
to oppose the Milosevic regime’s use of
violence — for the actions of the ethnic
cleansing monsters, or at least some of
them.
What does the word “fundamentalist”
mean in this context?
The man who drew on Serbian Orthodox
religious piety to build his movement in
the early 1990s, using fundamentalist
religious imagery to make speeches calling
for the extermination of Bosnia’s Muslim
population, appears to have spent the past
few years living in sin with a much
Putting churches in their
younger mistress, whose existence was
unknown to his wife.
I know it is easy to blur the line between
place
Serbian nationalism and the land’s By Mollie and their families have moved to the
Orthodox heritage, but that is simply going Submitted at 7/25/2008 5:47:54 PM
suburbs in the ensuing years, their homes
way too far. replaced by younger white couples. A Wall
Bookmark to: When I moved to Washington over ten Street Journal“Page One” feature by Conor
years ago, the population demographics Dougherty last week picked up on the
were noticeably different than they are
now. Many of my older black neighbors
summertime recipes that we've done in the
past. I do have a couple of recipes waiting
in the wings, but just a couple. What I
would like to point your attention to is a
new feature linked to in the left side bar,
latest updates from favorite food blogs.
Here you'll find links to the most recent
articles and recipes from the food blogs
that I read almost every day. A good
source of inspiration is Food Blog Search.
Just type in the ingredients you want to
who come here hoping and expecting to
work with, and the customized search
engine will search for recipes in over 2000
hand-picked food blogs. Another source of
recipes are my recipe bookmarks on the
Try seeing
find new recipes to try? Good news, the
girls love to cook, so I'm sure some of that
is on their agenda. But it might not exactly
del.icio.us site. Here's where I bookmark
interesting recipes I find around the web.
Look down the tag list on the right if you
the mirror
be grown-up food. I've been adding recipes
to Simply Recipes for more than 5 years
now, so I may bring up a few of the
want to search this list by ingredient.
image
A reader who is, at the moment, rather
upset with the TRY
GetReligionistas
page 41 sent me a
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
TRY
continued from page 40
story the other day that he wanted us to
critique. It’s from the Los Angeles Times
and briefly tells the story of the LA police
chief’s decision to donate money to the
organization that is fighting the ballot
initiative against the legalization of gay
marriage.
It’s a short story and very positive, as
one would expect. This particular reader
used this as an opportunity to knock t his
weblog’s support for balanced coverage on
this hottest of today’s hot-button political
and, yes, religious issues. Clearly, said the
writer, we would be upset claim that the
“author doesn’t ‘get religion’ because she
doesn’t quote the pope or conservative
Christians to the effect that homosexuals
are horrible.”
Once again, that is straw man language.
But still, there is the question of what to do
with this little Los Angeles Times news
report. Here is the top of the piece:
LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton
has come out — in favor of gay marriage.
As a wedding gift to friend and celebrity
publicist Howard Bragman and his
longtime partner, Chuck O’Donnell,
Bratton made it official: He and his wife,
former Court TV diva Rikki Kleiman,
strongly believe that gays have a right to
marry. And in honor of Bragman and
O’Donnell, who wed this past week in
Norwalk, the chief and Kleiman have
made a donation to Equality California, a
group seeking to stop a state ballot
measure this November that would ban
same-sex marriages.
“The Constitution guarantees life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness,” Bratton said
this week. “I see no reason why gays can’t
pursue happiness through marriage.”
After learning of the Bragman-
O’Donnell union a few days ago, Bratton
and Kleiman asked the couple what they
would like as a wedding present. Bragman
was direct: No gifts — instead, make a
donation to Equality California to help stop
Prop. 8. And please make it public.
There isn’t that much more, in this day of
shorter and shorter news reports. There are
no voices quoted from the other wide of
the issue, of course. Perhaps there wasn’t
room.
This is an important story. The chief’s
donation is, of course, totally legal and the
newspaper knew a good, little, story when
it saw one.
But here was the question that lingered
41
for me. What would have happened if his
donation would have gone the other way, if
this important public figure had dared to
back the traditional marriage camp in this
bitterly divided state? Would that mirror-
image story have received the same type of
coverage? A short cheery piece of what, as
of late, people on our comments board
have been calling “fluff” news?
I think not. You see, that would be a
huge, controversial story. I imagine that it
would have ended up on A1 or the metro
front, at the very least.
That important and controversial story
would needed a wide variety of voices, in
order to be complete. The reporters would
have needed quotes from both sides,
including plenty of solid, well-informed,
sympathetic voices from the Religious
Left. And that is precisely what the story
would deserve.
It’s called journalism, in the classic
American model that requires reporters to
seek balance, fairness and accuracy. Here
at GetReligion.org, we like journalism. We
really do.
Bookmark to:

PUTTING
continued from page 40
trend in DC and other major cities and
looked at what the changes mean to the
culture.
There are lots of interesting discussions
over class, education battles and political
power. I was hoping the article would
engage religious issues and I was not
disappointed. My own neighborhood of
Capitol Hill and surrounding areas has
seen many of its churches follow its
members out to the suburbs. Those that
remain are trying to reach out to white
people. I am a member of a church in
Alexandria but I have visited a wonderful
Lutheran church here in the city where I’d
guess the congregation has about as many
white members as my congregation has
black — not many. The members there
mostly drive in from the suburbs to which
they’ve moved and are worried about the
future of their congregation. Here’s how
Dougherty handled the issue:
Washington — where African-
Americans have been in the majority for a
half-century — has lost about 80,000 black
residents between 1990 and 2006. Whites
had been leaving, too, but recently they’ve
started coming back. Between 2000 and
2006, Washington gained 24,000 whites
and lost 21,000 blacks. Whites are now
32% of the population, up from 28% in
2000.
Churches Take a Hit
This is a problem for Washington’s
African-American churches. The past few
years, numerous black churches have
relocated to suburban Prince George’s
County, Md., to follow their parishioners.
Later this year, Metropolitan Baptist
Church (founded by freed slaves during the
Lincoln administration) plans to leave
town as well.
Some of the remaining black churches
are now courting white members. On a
recent Sunday, the Rev. John Blanchard,
the 64-year-old pastor at Ebenezer United
Methodist Church, preached to a thin
crowd; several pews were empty. About
half his parishioners now live in the
suburbs and drive into the city for services.
High gasoline prices aren’t helping
attendance.
So Mr. Blanchard says he’s planning to
add a white intern to preach with him, in
hopes of filling more pews. “You’ve got to
love the one you’re with,” he says, “but
you also need to adjust to the environment
you’re in.”
While his church flounders, the
predominantly white Capitol Hill United
Methodist Church just down the street is
flourishing. There the average attendance
on Sundays has doubled to about 120
people the past five years. “Demographics
are in our favor. We’re attracting the folks
that are moving in,” says the Rev. Ginger
Gaines-Cirelli, 38, who headed the church
for five years before recently leaving for a
position elsewhere.
It’s funny that I literally drive by both of
these congregations on my way to my
church. Anyway, frequently we discuss
journalistic sins of omission. This is a great
example of how to include religion in a
story. It’s part of the fabric of a city and
culture. If there are changes to a culture,
looking at how that affects religious
institutions just makes sense.
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