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Edition
Making Fun of Barack Obama
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 8:02:00 AM
Filed under: Democrats, Barack Obama,
Featured Stories, 2008 President,
Humor"Dying is easy, comedy is hard." -
Sir Donald Wolfit The New York Times is
reporting that humor is having a difficult
time gaining traction with Barack Obama.
On the heels of the New Yorker flap
(covered by David Knowles here, and by
me here and here), the Times examined the
political humor landscape, and found it
curiously Obama-free. Why? The reason
cited by most of those involved in the
shows is that a fundamental factor is so far
missing in Mr. Obama: There is no
comedic "take" on him, nothing easy to
turn to for an easy laugh, like allegations
of Bill Clinton's womanizing, or President
Bush's goofy bumbling or Al Gore's
robotic persona.
"The thing is, he's not buffoonish in any
way," said Mike Barry, who started writing
political jokes for Johnny Carson's
monologues in the waning days of the
Johnson administration and has lambasted
every presidential candidate since, most
recently for Mr. Letterman. "He's not a
comical figure," Mr. Barry said. Humor is
sort of a hobby of mine, so my first
reaction was, "C'mon, these guys are just
lazy. You can make a joke out of
anything."
Senate Investigating Bank Secrecy
By Jay Allbritton (Political Machine)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 9:57:00 AM
Filed under: Senate, Breaking News,
Investigations Brian Ross and Rhonda
Schwartz of ABC News reported yesterday
that the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee
on Investigations will hear a statement
I did a quickie Google of Barack Obama
Humor, to see what was out there. What I
found will amaze you...
...if you are easily amazed. I clicked on
the About.com Barack Obama Humor
Roundup, as it seemed a good place to get
a fair sampling of what's out there. Before
I get to that, though, here's my favorite
joke from the Times article, by Bill
Maher:"I have this joke: What does he
have to do? Dunk? He bowled a 37 - to
me, that's black enough." This joke works
because it's really about white people. It
would be like the English making fun of
me for sucking at cricket; the joke's on
them for liking cricket.
Most of the humor there, as Late Night
writer Mike Sweeney notes in the Times
piece, is about people peripheral to Obama,
such as Rev. Wright. Those jokes that
actually are about Obama fall, mainly, into
two categories: He walks on water, or he's
black, and that's a new thing for white
people.
After reading the article, I thought about
it for awhile, and it really was hard to
come up with anything that didn't fall into
one of these categories.
That's too bad. There's a lot of fun to be
had by challenging stereotypes with
humor. I would love to see an Obama
parody of the famous Wayne Brady sketch
from "Chappelle's Show." As the Times
points out, white writers can't really get
away with much racial humor, the way a
from a former bank employee that outed
hundreds of extremely wealthy Americans
who were hiding money in banks in
Lichtenstein. Ross and Schwartz cite D.C.
sources that say a number of Americans
implicated in the matter have been
subpoenaed and have informed the
committee, which is chaired by Senator
14/07/08 - 17/07/08
black writer can.
So, why can't all of these late-night
comedy shows just call down to the
bullpen and bring in some black talent to
handle Obama's at-bats? I guess you can
only spread Larry Wilmore so thin.
A few weeks ago, I was mulling a "news
from the future" story, where it turned out
the most paranoid anti-Obamatics turned
out to be right. I wish I had done it now, in
Carl Levin, that they will plead the fifth.
LibertyNewsprint.com U.S.
light of the New Yorker cover, but
constructing alternate realities gives me a
headache. In the story, President Obama
immediately enslaves the white race, but
repeals the law a few weeks later,
explaining, "I just couldn't wait to start
telling them to 'Get over it.'"
The problem with this kind of racial
satire, as with the New Yorker cover, is
that you run into "Chappelle's
Five years ago, acting in direct violation
of Liechtenstein's bank secrecy laws, a
clerk named Heinrich Kieber sold bank
records to tax authorities throughout
Europe and the United States. Authorities
in Italy then published a list of all the
names. Germany has already convicted
several of its citizens that evaded millions
Conundrum," where you get the wrong
people laughing, for the wrong reasons.
Until late night shows either hire some
more black talent and/or get more
comfortable around the racial minefield,
we'll have to rely on hysterical blog
comments for amusement.
In the meantime, here are a few of my
favorites from About.com:"Barack Obama
was in New Hampshire Sunday. When
informed of this, President Bush excitedly
asked, 'Did we catch 'em?' --Seth Meyers
"Well, congratulations to Barack Obama,
the big winner of the Democratic caucus.
Stunning victory. He got 57% of the youth
vote, 35% of the female vote, and 100% of
Iowa's black vote, a guy named Larry." --
Jay Leno (Jay blew the punch line. It
should have been, "and both black votes.")
"According to a new poll, Barack Obama
has a 24-point lead over Hillary Clinton in
North Carolina. Obama is doing
particularly well with one important
demographic: voters." --Amy Poehler
"During an interview, Vice President
Dick Cheney's wife said that Vice
President Cheney and Barack Obama are
actually distant cousins. When Dick
Cheney found out, he said, 'I knew there
was something creepy about that guy.'" --
Conan O'Brien
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of dollars in taxes.
Kieber is in hiding, which is why his
testimony was videotaped. Last month
Bloomberg looked into Kieber's own
checkered past.
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2 Politico* Tech Tips*
Another Subpoena Defied
By Liza Porteus Viana (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 6:19:00 AM
Filed under: Bush Administration, House,
Breaking News, Iraq, Investigations Tsk,
tsk, President Bush, for grounding another
one of your administration officials from
testifying about Plamegate.
Bush has once again asserted executive
privilege to prevent Attorney General
Michael Mukasey from having to comply
with a House Government Oversight
Committee subpoena for material on the
leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's
identity. Panel Chairman Henry Waxman,
D-Calif., held off a contempt vote for
Mukasey, but not for too long. He last
week told Karl Rove he couldn't testify,
either.
Waxman's committee wants documents
of FBI interviews of Vice President Dick
Cheney over the Plame affair. It also
would like to see documents involving
conversations between special prosecutor
Patrick Fitzgerald and Cheney, and notes
from the 2003 State of the Union address,
during which Bush uttered those "16
words" about Saddam Hussein allegedly
trying to obtain yellowcake from Niger.
Waxman asked for the documents over a
year ago, then subpoenaed them when the
White House ignored the request.
Waxman rejected Mukasey's suggestion
that Cheney's FBI interview on the CIA
leak should be protected by the privilege
claim - and therefore not turned over to the
panel.
"We'll act in the reasonable and
appropriate period of time," Waxman, D-
Calif., said. This unfounded assertion of
executive privilege does not protect a
principle; it protects a person ... If the vice
president did nothing wrong, what is there
to hide?"
(As a side note, I'm in the middle of
'Changing World' - New Obama Ad
By Greg McNeilly (Political Machine)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 9:36:00 AM
Filed under: Barack Obama, Ads, 2008
President Barack Obama's campaign has
released a new :30 another ad to air
nationally on cable. The spot is called
"Changing World."
former White House spokesman' Scott
McClellan's book, "What Happened," now,
and it's just getting to the juicy parts of
exactly what role Cheney may have had in
the leak.)
Waxman wrote to Mukasey last week,
warning him that if he didn't comply with
the subpoena, he would be held in
contempt. Saying the committee won't ask
for the transcripts of the FBI's interviews
with Bush himself over the matter "at this
time," "the report of the FBI interview with
Vice President Cheney needs to be
produced," especially after Cheney's
former chief of staff, Scooter Libby,
acknowledged that it's "possible" Cheney
told him to disseminate Plame's name to
certain members of the press.
"The arguments you have raised for
withholding the interview report are not
tenable," the letter reads, especially if, at
the time of the interview, Cheney knew the
conversation could be brought up in a
This ad continues the themes outlined in
the previous national security spot airing
by the Obama team in targeted states.
The ad's script reads:
Announcer: 40 years ago it was missile
silos and the Cold War.
Today, it's cyber attacks...loose
nukes...oil money funding terrorism.
criminal trial. Fitzgerald's letter can be
found here.
AP says Mukasey wrote to Bush in a
letter dated Tuesday, saying several of the
subpoenaed reports summarize
conversations between Bush and advisers -
direct presidential communications
protected by the privilege.
"I am greatly concerned about the chilling
effect that compliance with the
committee's subpoena would have on
future White House deliberations and
White House cooperation with future
Justice Department investigations,"
Mukasey wrote. "I believe it is legally
permissible for you to assert executive
privilege with respect to the subpoenaed
documents, and I respectfully request that
you do so."
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Barack Obama understands our changing
world.
On the Foreign Relations Committee, he
co-sponsored a law to lock down loose
nuclear weapons.
As president, he'll rebuild our alliances
to take out terrorist networks...
And fast-track alternatives so we stop
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McCain Needs Women to
Achieve Election
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 9:59:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, John McCain,
2008 President, Abortion In case you
missed it, John McCain had a...um... hard
time answering a question earlier this week
about the nexus of Viagra and birth
control. A reporter asked him why he had
voted against legislation that would have
required companies that cover Viagra to
also cover birth control, and McCain was
unable to respond. The reporter told him it
was "no big deal," and was sure that "this
never happens" to him.
Now, it seems that Planned Parenthood is
still looking for McCain to deliver, as they
take a swing at the Republican nominee in
a new ad. From Politico: The ad uses
McCain's evident discomfort with a
question about whether it's "unfair" that
some insurance companies cover Viagra
but not birth control to raise doubts about
the candidate with women voters.
Reproductive rights are typically at the
forefront of presidential politics, though
Obama has chosen to seek women's votes
in large part through talking about
economic issues. But Planned Parenthood
The Bright Side of Skyrocketing Gas Prices [Fuel]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 8:41:03 AM
Time magazine looks at the silver lining
around the cloud of high gas prices in their
list of 10 things you can like about $4 gas,
spending billions on oil from hostile
nations.
New leadership for a changing world.
Obama VO: I'm Barack Obama and I
approve this message.
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and other groups remain potent forces, and
this ad hits McCain on a pretty populist
issue: 98% of sexually active women,
according to one study, have used at least
one form of birth control.
McCain already has a tough Roe to hoe
with women, but seems content to Wade
through this election with nothing to offer
women but unequal pay, restrictions on
choice, and a way to spite the DNC. He
can't even offer to get the sexy ones jobs in
a Budweiser commercial anymore.
It makes you wonder how the PUMA set
can get worked into a lather alleging
sexism against Barack Obama (whose
policies overwhelmingly favor women),
for calling a reporter " Sweetie" and then
apologizing profusely about it, when
McCain wants to make 'em all pregnant,
keep 'em that way, and pay them $.70 on
the dollar. And this is how the McCains
made their money:
Sure, this must be what Hillary Clinton
has fought her whole life for. Keep on
truckin', PUMAs, your rights will still be
here when Obama gets sworn in.
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including a good excuse to telecommute,
less pollution, fewer traffic-related deaths,
cheaper insurance, and more walking and
biking. Here are some easy ways to save
money on gas. [ via]
Why Buy When You Can
Build? [Hackintosh]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 4:21:03 AM
Apple is suing a company called Psystar
for selling computers with OS X installed
on non-Apple hardware. While buying a
pre-built Hackintosh may not be in the
cards, you can still build your own
Hackintosh PC with a little elbow grease.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper Politico* Biz Buzz 3

Obama & McCain: A Pair of Flip-Flop(per)s Rules of

By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/17/2008 4:06:00 AM
Filed under: Barack Obama, John
McCain, Featured Stories, Scandal Is there
any accusation more toxic in modern-day
politics than that of flip-flopping? I'm not
talking about overly casual footwear,
either. Rather, the kind in question here, as
made famous by Tim Russert (R.I.P.),
boils down to: Once, you said x, but now
you're saying the opposite of x. For x you
may substitute any value, concept, or
sentence so that what is ultimately shown
is a clear change-of-heart. Yes, the cardinal
sin for all politicians is the changing of
one's mind.
Of course, not all flip-flops are created
equal. To my mind, the gold standard of
flip-floppery is still held by George H.W.
Bush for brazenly instructing Americans to
read his lips, " No new taxes," only to sign
off on an array of tax increases once he
became president. Pure instances of flip-
flopping provide political opponents with
something of a " ready-made" (to use
Marcel Duchamp's term) ad. With a few
simple cutting and pasting maneuvers in an
editing suite, the before-and-after gotcha is
complete.
In fact, one might argue that our
campaigns for public office have
degenerated into a relentless search for
instances of flip-flopping. The principles
behind a given politician's decision to
refine or overturn a stance on an issue pale
in comparison to the fuss made over the
discovery of the apparent inconsistency.
As a result, opponents attack one another
even when tthey have actually evolved to
share the same point-of-view. The end
result of the flip-flop never justifies the flip
-flopping means used to get there.The
cottage industry currently at work to scour
the landscape for signs of flip-flopping
churns away day and night. What have
they found as regards John McCain and
Barack Obama? The following is a list of
flip-flops that have been compiled by
numerous sources. Both candidates stand
accused. Here's a compilation.
Barack Obama:
Public Financing of Campaign
Engagement
FISA (Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
John McCain: Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:00:00 AM
FISA
The Bush Tax Cuts The Basics
Barack Obama: Two four-person teams score by landing
The Cuba Embargo shots in their -respective baskets. Body
Iraq War Timetable checks, trampolines, and on-the-fly
John McCain: substitutions add to the dynamics of the
Immigration Reform game.
Equal Pay for Women The Score
Barack Obama: Slam dunks earn three points, as do any
Decriminalizing Marijuana shots made from outside the free-throw
NAFTA zone. All other shots score two points.
John McCain: The Penalties
Privatizing Social Security Double-dribbling, goaltending, and
Offshore Drilling traveling are penalized with a turnover. In
Depending on who is compiling the list, the event of a foul, the two players
the flip-flop charges can scroll on into involved go one-on-one in a slam-dunk
carpal tunnel eternity. These instances battle.
seemed like the most credible, if not the The Bounce-off
ones most discussed. Feel free to take issue This toss—the inverse of a jump
with any of the items listed above, and add ball—starts the game. Players must wait
your own accusations, in the comment until the ball reaches its apex. As the ball
section. descends, they can check each other and
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McCain in Bad Shape Over Ape Rape Jape

By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/17/2008 1:03:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, John McCain,
2008 President, Crime Last night, I posted
a piece about John McCain's latest brush
with women's issues, but I just missed out
on including this vile tidbit. The Nation
reports that John McCain might not be all
that sensitive to the ladies: According to
the Tucson Citizen, here's what McCain,
then a two-term Congressman from Mesa,
said during his run for the Senate: Did you
hear the one about the woman who is
attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten
senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die?
When she finally regains consciousness
and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to
hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask,
'Where is that marvelous ape?' Here's a
link to the original article. At the time,
McCain said, "How dare you, HOW
DARE you make such an accusation?"
Wait, sorry, what he said, through a
spokesman, was "John does not recollect
telling that joke..."
The original article was very well-
sourced.
McCain has a history of making
disturbing jokes, such as a crack about then
-18-year-old Chelsea Clinton, but nothing
this heinous.
Here's what makes it worse, at least for
me. I've heard this joke before, told by a
loudmouthed nieghbor during a card game
with my folks. Only when he told it, it was
a black joke.
See, back in the early 80's, it was still
common for people to tell heinous jokes
like this to each other, but in public, you
would have to use a thinly-veiled stand-in
for the slur. For example, there was a guy
who wrote for the NY Post when I was a
kid, whose name escapes me, and he
would write a bunch of Polish jokes, but
change them to "Slobovian" jokes, or he
would change "JAP" (Jewish American
Princess) to "LIP" (Long Island Princess).
I've also reported before on McCain's
slowness to keep up with decent people on
issues involving civil rights, the
Confederate flag, and the use of racial
slurs.
If this story receives wide exposure, it
could be the tipping point for female
voters, and all gentlemen, to abandon their
support of John McCain. PUMAs, are you
listening?
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4 Politico* Business* Tech Tips*
With Surge Over, Troops
Could Be Coming Home
By Mark Impomeni (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 4:00:00 PM
Filed under: Bush Administration,
Featured Stories, Iraq, Terror, Foreign
Policy Admiral Michael Mullen said today
that he expects to be able to recommend
troop reductions in Iraq this fall, as
security gains from the troop surge
continue to hold. Mullen made his
comments in a Pentagon press conference
with Defense Secretary Robert Gates on
the occasion of the removal of the last of
five additional brigades ordered into Iraq
as a part of the surge. The withdrawal of
the third infantry division's second brigade
officially ended the surge, and went little
noticed in the mainstream press, itself an
indication of the strategy's effectiveness.
Mullen said that any additional troop
withdrawals would be dependent on
conditions on the ground in Iraq, but that
the trend was looking good for reductions.
"I won't go so far as to say that progress
in Iraq from a military perspective has
reached a tipping point or is reversible - it
has not, and it is not. But security is
unquestionably and remarkably better.
Indeed, if these trends continue I expect to
be able early this fall to recommend to the
secretary and the president further troop
reductions." Now that the surge has ended,
Iraq Commander Gen. David Petraeus will
evaluate the ability of Iraqis to hold the
security gains for the next 45 days. That
Gannett, read all about it!
By Todd Harrison (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 9:31:00 AM
Filed under: Newspapers, Internet,
Gannett Co (GCI), Lehman Br Holdings
(LEH)
Minyanville's top dog, Todd Harrison,
would put a decision on troop withdrawals
sometime after Labor Day, the traditional
start of the presidential election season.
The surge has been an unquestionable
success, resulting in dramatic reductions in
violence, a greatly enhanced Iraqi Army
and police force, and the defeat of al-
Qaeda in Iraq. Military planners are now
turning their attention to Afghanistan,
where a stubborn insurgency, fueled by
cross-border attacks from Taliban militants
seeking sanctuary in Pakistan, is increasing
pressure on U.S., Afghan, and NATO
forces. An increase in troop levels seems
warranted in that country. With Gen.
Petraeus the new head of U.S. Central
Command, which has jurisdiction over the
Afghan war, any change in strategy there
will likely closely resemble the troop surge
in Iraq.
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dares to ask in public what Wall Street
types quietly consider in private. For more
insight and ideas, visit
www.Minyanville.com.
Yikes, Lehman downgrades
Scripps(NYSE: SNI), Gannett(NYSE:
GCI) pooped the bed. What the heck is
Obama's $52 Million in June
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 7/17/2008 1:30:00 AM
Filed under: Democrats, Barack Obama,
Breaking News, Fundraising There was
some whispering around the blogosphere
that Barack Obama's money momentum
was slowing. Now that the general election
had truly begun, it was said, John McCain
was proving every bit the human cash
machine as his Democratic rival. After all,
McCain raised $21 million in May, while
Obama's tally fell to just $22 million.
Surely, the trend-line was clear, and we'd
see a continuation in June. Well, kiss that
rumor good-bye. From The Chicago
Tribune:
Sen. Barack Obama's campaign raised
$52 million in June, his campaign manager
said this morning--not quite a record for
Jesse Jackson Said What!?
By Dave (Political Machine)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:06:00 PM
Filed under: 2008 President, Race
No, not the nuts thing, the other thing,
AOL News has it:
The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word
during a break in a TV interview where he
criticized presidential candidate Barack
Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.
The longtime civil rights leader already
came under fire this month for crude off-
air comments he made against Obama in
what he thought was a private conversation
during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news
show.
In additional comments from that same
conversation, first reported by TVNewser,
Jackson is reported to have said Obama
was "talking down to black people," and
referred to blacks with the N-word when
he said Obama was telling them "how to
happening to these paltry little rags?
Some thoughts:
• The internet is the single biggest
deflationary force ever invented and the
"information deflation" is in full force.
• Without a doubt, my bullish bent on the
newspaper names was my single worst
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
the high-flying campaign, but close to it.
The campaign had raised $55 million in
February, during the Democratic primaries.
But it's sill more than twice what
Republican rival Sen. John McCain raised
behave."
You stay classy, "reverend" Jackson.
Somehow I just can't quite picture MLK
saying anything close to this, so is it alright
to say that Jesse Jackson just needs to go
away? As a an average white person, it's
obviously not my call, but those in the
media and in the black community keep
giving him a platform. Yes, I'm looking at
you, Fox News. The illegitimate child
should have been the death knell, if not the
hymietown incident. But somehow Jesse
keeps coming back.
If the very least that comes out of the
Obama rise is an upgrade in the leadership
of the Black community, it will have been
worth it. But first, everyone has to agree
that Jesse is over.
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"call" of the year.
• The thesis was that portals will buy the
papers to feed content into their pipes.
• That remains a viable option for some
of the franchise properties, although it will
seemingly happen -- if it happens -- from
lower levels.
during June--$22 million.
Many Americans still have the
perception that Obama's large hauls are
somehow made up of massive donations
from millionaires the likes of Oprah
Winfre y, but the average June donation
came in at a whopping $64. Have a
calculator handy? $52 million divided by
$64 equals... That's right, 812,500 donated
to Obama in June.
But there's a silver lining for the GOP.
The RNC has $100 million of cash on
hand, while the DNC has far less, perhaps
as little as half of what's in the Republican
kitty. While a good chunk of that money
will go directly to help the presidential
candidates, a lot of it will be poured into
competitive, lower-ticket races.
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Google Docs Template
Gallery Launches
[Google Docs]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 9:56:04 AM
Google Docs now offers a gallery of
spreadsheet, presentation, and document
templates for use in your work. Whether
you're designing a resume, invoice,
calendar, or slideshow, there are a few
templates here to get you started. Template
categories include Business, Calculators,
Calendars & Schedules, Cards &
Certificates, Letters, Presentation Designs,
and more. You can also sort them by how
many users each has and user ratings. To
use a template in your Google Doc, from
the New menu drop-down, choose "From
template..."
Google Docs Templates[via steverubel]
• I still own some GCI January calls but
have quickly become lottery tickets.
R.P.
Position In GCI Read| Permalink| Email
this| Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
eBay just isn't what it used Harley Davidson museum
to be aims to be one big biker
By Melly Alazraki (BloggingStocks)
rally
Submitted at 7/16/2008 11:41:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts,
eBay (EBAY) It's funny how deadlines are
sometimes so disconnected from what's
really going on. Yes, eBay Inc.(NASDAQ:
EBAY), the online auctioneer, beat analyst
estimates coming in with earnings of 43
cents per share, compared to expectations
of 41 cents. Yes, its earnings growth was a
not-too-shabby 22%. And yes, PayPal
remained its bright spot, with a 33%
revenue growth. But eBay shares are
trading down 7% in after-hours due to a
soft outlook.
Is it just the soft outlook though? Most
companies give a lower guidance these
days as the weakening U.S. economy is
hurting business. I'm sure some of eBay's
softer outlook could indeed be attributed to
the weakening economic conditions, but
once they start digging deeper into the
metrics, many on the Street aren't happy.
For example, the 20% revenue growth -- or
more specifically, the 13% revenue growth
at eBay's Marketplace -- doesn't reflect the
actual business very well, as advertising
and increasing take rates have been
contributing more and more. In fact,
Silicone Alley Insider has no problem
proclaiming that eBay growth is grinding
to a halt, saying that "Transaction revenues
grew just 9% year-over-year, vs. 14% y/y
growth last quarter and 23% y/y growth
during Q2 2007."
Then we have gross merchandise
volume, or GMV, where analysts had been
Mozilla Firefox an investment worth it for every website business
By Brian White (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 10:45:00 AM
Filed under: Industry, Rants and raves
When I read that Bank of America
Corp.(NYSE: BAC) website didn't
officially support the world's second-
largest web browser until just recently, I
was stunned. The Mozilla Foundation,
expecting a 12% growth. Not only did
eBay post only an 8% year-over-year
growth, but it posted a 2% decline
sequentially. Another disappointment was
the new listings numbers, which totaled
666.9 million, up 19% year-over-year and
3% sequentially.
Marketplace -- that's where the problems
lie, and that's where investors would like to
see improvements most; Skype and PayPal
are growing well. Thing is, Marketplace
isn't such a market place anymore. I'm not
even sure how eBay can fix that. The
internet and its users have evolved and I
don't know that eBay fits the bill anymore.
Just like Yahoo!, eBay is a mature
company in the lifespan of the internet, and
both have their glory days behind them. I
wouldn't touch eBay stock as I don't see it
going anywhere with its current business
model. Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
maker of the super-popular Firefox web
browser, now commands about 19% of the
global web browser market, behind
Microsoft Corp.(NASDAQ: MSFT)'s
Internet Explorer web browser.
Yet, many (many) websites I visit (some
very high-profile ones) were made for
Internet Explorer only. These websites
break at various points when using the
By Gary E. Sattler (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 11:38:00 AM
Filed under: Harley-Davidson (HOG) In
keeping with its typical marketing flavor,
Harley Davidson Inc., (NYSE: HOG)
wants its newly opened Harley Davidson
museum to be more about the rider's
experience than just the ride. The company
wants its museum to be a lifestyle
exploration adventure, rather than a
commercial presentation. While the new
attraction indeeds feature hundreds of
motorcycles, reams of vintage Harley
Davidson advertising and other Harley
memorabilia, in an article published by
Business Week, museum director, Stacey
Schiesl is quoted as stating: "It's not just
about what's inside."
It's always been that way with Harley
Davidson. In strong years and lean years,
the company had always taken the
experience of its enthusiasts very seriously.
That is why the museum was designed and
constructed to be enjoyed in a manner that
stimulates what Harley owners like most
about their bikes. It's a feeling of
camaraderie. It's a sharing of an
experience. It's good will and good times
on a piece of open road. Architects
designed the site to reflect and embody a
Firefox web browser, mine, and millions
others, favorite.
What are these Fortune 500 companies
thinking? If a product has nearly 20% of
any market, you darn well better pay
attention to it. With more and more time
being spent online instead of in front of the
TV, website publishers need to recognize
the value of supporting more than just the
feeling of Main Street Americana, with
accommodations for up to 15,000 bikes at
any given time.
The Harley Davidson Museum is a
testimonial to 105 years of American made
motorcycle greatness. Even in the face of
tough times, with the company forecasting
slowed earnings and reduced production,
it's good to see that it has maintained its
successful focus: to create both a visual
and a tangible motorcycling lifestyle
experience for all motorcycle enthusiasts
to enjoy.
%Gallery-21340% Read| Permalink|
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leading web browser. I can easily
understand not designing a web experience
for products that have lower single-digit
market shares, but that's not what we're
talking about here.
So, it was with disdain that I recently
read that a Bank of America web support
representative stating, "Please note Bank
of America does not support Firefox."
Business* 5
Lou Pearlman ordered
to pay $300 million to
Ponzi scheme victims
By Zac Bissonnette
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 11:14:00 AM
Filed under: Law, Scandals Lou
Pearlman, the airplane entrepreneur turned
boy band promoter turned modeling
agency con-artist, has been ordered to
repay$300 million to investors he bilked in
a decade-long Ponzi scheme.
It's been a stunning downfall for
Pearlman, who is now serving a 25-year
prison sentence. He was the Svengali
behind the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC,
but was later sued by both bands, and
accused of inappropriate sexual conduct by
several former band members, most
notably Nick Carter.
Interesting trivia item: Mr. Pearlman is
the first cousin of Art Garfunkel. Take a
look at this funny video from Saturday
Night Live, parodying Mr. Pearlman.
S e e < a
href="http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/
71d805d75f">SNL- TRL with Mutant Boy
Band</a> and more <a
href="http://www.funnyordie.com">funny
v i d e o s < / a > o n < a
href="http://www.funnyordie.com">Funny
OrDie.com</a> See more funny videos at
Funny or Die Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
With email, actual workflow applications,
multimedia and an entire media
consumption empire existing on the web,
the challenge for many websites will be to
not forget the other large pieces of the pie.
Ignore web browsers with growing market
share at your peril, I say. Read| Permalink|
Email this| Comments
6 Business* Tech Tips*
SEC's lame short-selling
move means bank stocks
will be overvalued
By Carol Vinzant (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 10:06:00 AM
Filed under: SEC filings, Rumors, Law,
Lehman Br Holdings (LEH), Bear Stearns
Cos (BSC), Blackstone Group L.P (BX)
On Tuesday, the Securities and Exchange
Commission threw a brushback pitch at
those who are betting on the further
collapse of our big financial institutions.
Instead of suggesting better oversight of
the companies, the SEC is going after short
sellers.
For 30 days starting Monday, short-
selling will be restricted on 19 financial
companies. Financial regulators are also
cracking down on " sensational rumors."
To put the short-selling rule in perspective,
consider that even when the market re-
opened after the September 11th attacks,
the SEC considered, but didn't implement,
short sale restrictions.
Tough Retirement Questions: What If I need
to borrow from my 401(k) plan in an
Since Bear Steans collapsed and Vanity
Fair bought the company's story that short-
sellers did them in, everyone is worried
that short sellers are bringing the market
down. And I'm sure they are, but short-
selling, after all, is legal. The SEC just
loosened rules on it last year.
Yesterday, SEC chair Steven Cox
testified that he's worried about short-
selling in connection with spreading false
rumors to manipulate the market. OK,
that's not legal, but as Cox pointed out, the
SEC brought its first case -- EVER -- for
this sort of deception this year. And it still
hasn't gone after anyone for spreading
false positive rumors about a company.
Continue reading SEC's lame short-
selling move means bank stocks will be
overvalued Permalink| Email this|
Comments
Usana founder pulls offer to
take company private
By Zac Bissonnette
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 10:45:00 AM
Filed under: Deals, Management Myron
Wentz, the founder and chairman of Usana
Health Sciences(NASDAQ: USNA) has
elected not to pursue his previously
announced tender offer to acquire the
company at $28 per share.
In a press release announcing the move,
Wentz's group explained that"After further
reviewing the results of the offer and
receiving additional feedback from
shareholders, it became clear that the
purchaser would not receive tenders of a
sufficient number of shares to satisfy the
non-waivable condition to the offer that the
purchaser own at least 90% of the
outstanding shares following the
completion of the offer."
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Firefox 3.0.1 More
Secure and Stable
[Firefox]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
A shareholder had asked a judge to
Submitted at 7/16/2008 10:46:03 AM
enjoin Wentz from completing the offer on
the grounds that it was too low and that In Firefox's Help menu choose Check for
Wentz had not provided shareholders with Updates to download Firefox 3.0.1, a
minor update that fixes Firefox 3's most
information necessary to determine the
company's value. The judge granted a common causes of crashes. This update
won't shouldn't cause any add-on
temporary injunction, but the termination
of the offer concludes the matter. incompatibilities (but apparently does here
and there according to commenters). [ via]
The stock fell more than 12% to close at
$24.43 today, and investors appear to be
wary of Usana's prospects given all the
questions about the company and its
business mode raisedl by Barry Minkow's
Fraud Discovery Institute.
I think anyone who has read the report
that was dismissed -- but not rebutted in
any meaningful way by Usana brass --
would have a tough time investing in this
multi-level marketing seller of vitamins.
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
eBay's Q2 2008 earnings
transcript
By earningstranscripts
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 1:17:00 PM

Filed under: Conventions and

emergency? conferences, eBay (EBAY), Earnings

By Daniel Solin (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:20:00 PM
Filed under: Personal finance This post is
part of a series where retirement expert
Dan Solin offers simple answers to the ten
toughest retirement questions. See all 10.
Q: What If I need to borrow from my
401(k) plan in an emergency?
A: The maximum you can borrow from
your 401(k) plan is 50% of the amount
vested, up to a maximum of $50,000 in any
rolling 12 month period.
Your employer may place additional
restrictions on your ability to borrow from
your 401(k).
Whether or not you are permitted to take
a 401(k) loan, it's generally a bad idea.
During the repayment period, there is
less money in your account. If the market
increases in value, your returns will be
diminished.
If you leave your job, you will have to
pay back the full amount of the loan. If you
cannot repay the loan as required by IRS
guidelines, then the loan will be treated as
taxable income and a 10% penalty will be
accessed.
If you have no other options, you should
consider a loan from your 401(k). But it
should be a last resort.
Dan Solin is the author of The Smartest
Investment Book You'll Ever Read
(Perigee Books 2006) and The Smartest
401(k) Book You'll Ever Read (Perigee
Books, June 24, 2008) Permalink| Email
this| Comments
transcripts
eBay, Inc.(NASDAQ: EBAY)
Q2 2008 Earnings Conference Call
July 16, 2008 5:00 PM ET
Management Summary
Operator
Good day and welcome, everyone to
eBay's Q2 2008 earnings results
conference call. Today's call is being
recorded.
With us today from the company is the
Chief Executive Officer John Donahoe and
the Chief Financial Officer Bob Swan. At
this time, I would like to turn the
conference over to Mark Rowen, VP of
Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.
Mark Rowen, Vice President of Investor
Relations
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon,
everyone. Thanks for joining us and
welcome to eBay's earnings release
conference call for the second quarter of
2008. Joining me today on the call are
John Donahoe, our President and Chief
Executive Officer; and Bob Swan, our
Chief Financial Officer.
Continue reading eBay's Q2 2008
earnings transcript Permalink| Email this|
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Nordstrom plans to open new
store at Santa Monica Place
By Eliza Popescu (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 10:59:00 AM
Filed under: Deals, Consumer experience,
Competitive strategy, Nordstrom, Inc
(JWN) If you are addicted to fashion, then
I have good news that should brighten your
shopping days. Macerich Co. (NYSE:
MAC) announced Tuesday that retailer
Nordstrom Inc. (NYSE: JWN) will become
the anchor at Santa Monica Place after the
mall reopens.
The mall itself, which is scheduled to
reopen in the fall of 2009, is seeing a major
renovation from an enclosed shopping
center to a three-level, 550,000-square-foot
open-air retail plaza linking to the Third
Street Promenade.
Leading fashion specialty retailer
Nordstrom has signed a letter of intent to
open a three-level, 122,000-square-foot
store in the fall of 2010. "The
extraordinary appeal of Nordstrom is a
great match for this exceptional market,
Let's Not Make a Deal
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:00:00 AM
Biopic
After Brown’s death in 2006, Imagine
Entertainment (which produced A
Beautiful Mind) hoped to make a biopic
directed by Spike Lee. Drafts of the script
were circulated, but the project is on hold
until the family settles its conflicts.
Museum
Graceland, James Brown style? The
singer’s children had considered turning
his 62-acre estate in Beech Island, South
-Carolina, into a museum. So far, the
property, assessed at less than $1 million,
sits unoccupied and has leaking pipes.
Slot Machines
This summer, casinogoers can play the
Godfather of Soul video slot machine. The
deal with Global Gaming Group could
bring in about $500,000 a year for the
and for what we believe will be a one-of-a-
kind retail project two blocks from the
beach in downtown Santa Monica," Randy
Brant, executive vice president, real estate,
for Macerich stated.
Continue reading Nordstrom plans to
open new store at Santa Monica Place
Permalink| Email this| Comments
estate.
Reality TV
Think American Idol with soul music. In
-January, investors proposed projects
worth six figures or more, including a
reality-TV show, Who Will Be the Next
Godfather of Soul? But the trustees of the
estate never responded to the pitch.
Golf Course
Terry Cox, an Atlanta businessman,
offered to buy the singer’s property—
intellectual and physical—for up to $100
million. His plans with Brown’s grandson
Forlando included ideas for a satellite-
radio show, a restaurant, and a golf course.
Related Links
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Breaking News: Hillary Hearts
'American Idol'
Jordin Sparks of 'American Idol' Fame to
Sing Anthem at Super Bowl
Bubbles, Bubbles, Toils, and Troubles
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:00:00 AM
I t’s an author’s dream to write a book
foretelling a crisis and then, as the work is
published, to have the very disaster the
writer has forecast—bridges collapsing,
businesses going bust—actually strike.
Something akin to this authorial bliss
must be overcoming Charles R. Morris and
William A. Fleckenstein, who are the first
to come out with books related to the
subprime-mortgage meltdown. Morris, the
author of 10 other books, argues in The
Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money,
High Rollers, and the Great Credit Crash
that the mortgage bust is only the
beginning. Subprime-mortgage failures, he
writes, are but “the first boulder in an
avalanche” of coming credit disasters.
Fleckenstein, a money manager and
regular stock market blogger, focuses on
Alan Greenspan, the now unhappy former
Fed chairman. Greenspan’s Bubbles: The
Age of Ignorance at the Federal Reserve
places much of the blame for the mortgage
meltdown—and just about everything else
that has gone wrong on the planet—on
Greenspan’s alleged easy-money policies.
Both books are breezy and informal and
suffer from a certain hyperbolic zeal.
Though Morris assures us that his book is
not a quickie, it has that feel because he
pads it with too much background
(everything from the 1970s oil embargo to
killings at rock concerts) before presenting
some very trenchant chapters on the
mortgage collapse. As for Greenspan’s
Bubbles, the tone of the whole book is
conveyed by the title of the first chapter,
“How Wrong Can One Man Be?”
Morris does not ignore Greenspan; he
sees him as merely one of many
contributors to a long and gradual erosion
of credit standards. The root cause, Morris
argues, is the ideology advanced by
Chicago-school economists who favor
curtailing regulation and allowing the free
market to work. Their ideas were probably
a useful corrective when they began to
influence federal policy in the 1980s.
Morris notes that at the time, the economy
was indeed suffering from too many
controls. But as so often happens, the cure
mutated into a new disease. Free to work
their sorcery, mortgage bankers, credit-
rating agencies, and Wall Street eventually
blew a trillion dollars. Thus, Morris writes,
the capitalists turned out to be no more
brilliant than the bureaucrats: “There is no
benevolent market genie behind the
curtain.”
Morris cites three especially harmful
trends. The first is diminished regulation.
The second is that in the Wild West market
that came to characterize the mortgage
industry, lenders quit caring about the
quality of their loans because they were
lending to flip, not hold. Third, Morris
fingers what he calls the “dangerous”
practice of letting mathematics dominate
investment decisions, especially in the
mortgage pools that are now failing.
These points seem spot-on, and much in
the recent headlines makes Morris look
prescient. But his book does not have the
finished quality of his previous The Cost
of Good Intentions(a superb study of the
failure of liberalism in New York City).
Rather, here, his prose is occasionally
overheated, and he wanders from his
subject into such barely related terrain as
the issue of wage inequality.
But all told, Trillion Dollar Meltdown is
a good first take on the mortgage debacle,
and it sets forth some astute policy
prescriptions. To give one example, Morris
says loan originators should be made to
share in any eventual losses suffered by
retail lenders and others down the line.
After a quarter-century of deregulation, he
sensibly concludes, “it’s time for the
pendulum to swing in the other direction.”
Fleckenstein’s thesis—that Greenspan
“wasn’t the only reason there was a
bubble, but without his sponsorship it
could never have grown anywhere near as
large or as dangerous as it did”—is fair.
Otherwise, his book is almost a smear.
This is not to say that the author lacks
chops. He repeatedly depicts a “maestro”
whose judgment was, sadly, off.
Fleckenstein and co-author Frederick
Sheehan shrewdly begin by recalling that
during his pre-Fed career as a private
consultant, Greenspan nonchalantly told
federal regulators that they needn’t fret
over the freewheeling savings-and-loan
industry—which was, of course, headed
for catastrophe. This sets us up for a
Business* Biz Buzz 7
recurring theme in Greenspan’s career at
the Fed—his infatuation with deregulation.
Fleckenstein focuses on Greenspan’s
seeming tolerance of the twin bubbles
(internet stocks and housing) of the 1990s
and ’00s. His enthusiasm for technology
blinded him to the fact that dotcom
valuations were, to put it plainly, insane.
Greenspan did see the housing bubble
coming and alluded to it as early as 2002.
Nevertheless, he lowered the federal funds
rate to a four-decade low of 1 percent and
kept it there, with the full support of his
eventual successor, Ben Bernanke, as part
of a quixotic mission to ward off deflation.
Fleckenstein argues that Greenspan was
out of touch, and I think he’s right. The
threat of deflation was hypothetical;
housing inflation was real. And with
interest rates at their lowest in 40 years,
Greenspan advised consumers to take
advantage of adjustable-rate
mortgages—the monthly payments for
which soared when, in short order, the Fed
found it necessary to start raising rates.
After a few more similar examples,
coated with Fleckenstein’s none-too-subtle
judgments (“As was often the case with the
chairman, he didn’t have a good grasp of
what was taking place”), we start to think
of Greenspan as a bumbler, someone who
was almost stupid. And then we realize
how one-sided this account is. Contrary to
the author’s contention, the majority of
Greenspan’s decisions were not “absurd”
or obviously wrong. Central bankers make
difficult decisions under great pressure.
Rarely is it clear to anyone which way
rates should go, nor is the issue of pricking
bubbles a simple or settled question among
the world’s currency controllers.
Worse, Fleckenstein ignores the little
matter of the 18 years of, for the most part,
prosperity under Greenspan’s watch. It is
fine to argue that given the possibility of
our current economic woes, the Fed chief
should have halted, or at least restrained,
the good times sooner. It is another thing
to pretend that they didn’t exist.
Related Links
Don't Blame Canada
The Man Who Saved (or Got Suckered
by) Wall Street
Greenspan: No Regrets
8 Biz Buzz
Mass Media
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:00:00 AM
I t’s one thing for a star to like a script.
It’s another for him to sink $21.3 million
of his own money into the production to
get the film made. Yet that’s exactly what
Kevin Costner did with Swing Vote, the
new Disney comedy about an affable loser
(Costner) who casts the tiebreaking vote in
a presidential election. To give the movie a
touch of vérité, Costner recruited some of
the country’s best-known media
personalities, including Larry King and
Arianna Huffington, to play themselves.
“These people love their business,”
Costner says. “I think they like to see it
boiled down to terms that aren’t going to
go over anybody’s head.” Turning the
Tables We debrief the media personalities
featured in Swing Vote.
Photographs by Robert Trachtenberg
CAMPBELL BROWN (CNN)
What did you say when you were invited
to be in the film?
I had just been hired by CNN to take
over the 8 o’clock hour. I was pregnant at
the time, and newly pregnant when they
called me. So I said, “Okay, guys, let’s do
it soon, because right now you can’t tell
I’m pregnant, but soon you will.” And they
said, “Oh, yeah, we’re gonna do it really
soon.” But you know how movies are. It
was delayed and delayed and when we
finally shot my little scene, I was eight and
a half months.
What did you think of the film’s
concept?
I’m such a junkie, I love political
movies, and this idea seemed a little
preposterous but something that the writers
were clearly going to be able to have a
good time with. I say “preposterous”
because we always say, “That would never
happen,” and then…look at what happened
in 2000, and at what’s happening in this
campaign.
What has been the most dramatic
moment of the campaign for you?
For me, personally, it was moderating
the debate between Hillary and Obama in
Austin, Texas.
You’re not the first to play Campbell
Brown. Kristen Wiig of Saturday Night
Live impersonated you last season.
It was incredibly flattering. She is
hilarious. It has to be a huge milestone in
your life to be mocked by S.N.L.
TUCKER CARLSON (MSNBC)
What has been the most dramatic
moment of the campaign for you?
The week after Hillary Clinton lost the
South Carolina primary, when all the
columnists who’ve been defending the
Clintons for 16 years turned as a group to
attack them. That actually shocked me.
If you were to make a movie about this
year’s race, whom would you cast as
Obama, Clinton, and McCain?
Emma Thompson as Hillary, Tim
Robbins as Barack Obama, Harvey Keitel
as John McCain.
And how would your movie end?
The most shocking ending would be that
Hillary Clinton wins. I would have Hillary
winning-—the final scene being the two
Clintons meeting in a board room, each
with their attorneys, signing a document
and saying something like, “A deal’s a
deal. We both fulfilled our ends of the
bargain.”
Who has the best political mind in
Hollywood?
Warren Beatty—you should call him.
He’ll take your call and talk to you about
it. I am impressed by his intensity and his
enthusiasm, and he’s just a champion
talker in general. He’s on the varsity
squad.
Who’s the best actor in Washington?
There are very few actors in Washington
because people over time come to believe
their own lines.
How has the media’s role in this election
been different from in others?
I think they spent a lot less time trying to
hide their allegiances and their love. The
press loves Obama, but it’s deeper than
that—you have to have been a ninth-grade
boy to understand the love they have for
Obama; they’re inflamed.
AARON BROWN (PBS)
What’s your role in the movie?
I played myself, which has always been
my worst nightmare, that my career would
end with me playing me. I remember
Mario Machado, Los Angeles local anchor,
who was in every movie that needed an
anchor, and I thought, Oh, man, I never
wanna be that.
What’s the biggest difference between a
movie set and a television news set?
Those [movie] people work so slow. It’s
unbelievable how long everything takes. I
was there for 13 hours. We shot the scene
at about 4 in the morning. At one point,
they said “Okay, roll.” I started to do Jack
Nicholson in A Few Good Men because I
thought, If I’m gonna act, I wanna do
something that’s meaty. And then someone
said, “This stuff costs about 10,000 a
second, so just do the scene. You’re not
that funny.” However, I think I was that
funny.
What do you think the plot of Swing
Vote, which has the presidential election
coming down to one man’s vote, says to
voters today?
Average people have been screwed by
American politics. Somehow, people who
go to work every day and pay their taxes
have been completely ignored by the
politics and media. I thought the movie’s
message of the significance of a single
vote was a good and reasonable and
accurate one. I thought someone should be
saying that.
How do you think the media has
performed in this campaign?
Newspapers and traditional broadcast
networks have done a pretty decent job in a
fascinating campaign. As far as cable goes,
people who hate the president watch Keith
Olbermann and people who love the
president watch Bill O’Reilly, and at the
end of the day neither has learned very
much.
If the election did come down to one
vote, whom would you trust to break the
tie?
Me. I’d trust myself with the tiebreaker
vote—more than I’d trust Keith or Bill.
CHRIS MATTHEWS (MSNBC)
Where was your scene in the film shot?
We did it in my studio, right on the
Hardball set. That’s why I look so good.
What do you think about the concept of
the movie, in which an election comes
down to one vote?
It’s amazingly good satire. You have
both candidates forcing all their public
relations and advertising and personal
charm on one voter. You see how
outrageous it gets.
There’s a slew of big names in the cast.
Whose performances were best?
Nathan Lane is a riot, and Stanley Tucci
is great as the Karl Rove character. I’ll be
shocked if Madeline Carroll [who plays
Kevin Costner’s daughter] doesn’t win an
Academy Award. She’s the best child actor
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
I’ve ever seen.
What’s been the most dramatic moment
of this election for you?
Barack Obama announcing his candidacy
for president in Springfield, Illinois. He
was standing in a spot between Lincoln’s
office as a state legislator and where he
practiced law in his second-floor office on
the corner. It was so cold you cannot
imagine, but 70,000 people showed up that
morning to cheer him.
If the election did come down to one
vote, whom would you trust to break the
tie?
Whoever wrote Swing Vote.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON (Huffington
Post)
What was it like being on set?
We filmed my scene all night. In fact,
they’d gotten me a hotel room, but I never
even saw it. We kept shooting, and I
eventually just went straight from the set to
the airport the next morning. In between
shots, we would go to Kevin’s trailer and
sit outside under the stars while he played
guitar. There were laptops all over the set,
and I kept pulling up the homepage of the
Huffington Post on each of them.
How is the role of the media in this
election different from previous years?
The internet-driven, 24-7 news cycle,
combined with the whatever-you-say-or-do
-will-end-up-on-YouTube nature of this
year’s campaign, has helped make for an
especially dynamic race. It seemed like
every other day brought a new mini
controversy. And, for all of us at HuffPost,
this was very good news.
Who’s the best actor in Washington?
George Bush, for his ability to convince
voters that he is a brush-clearing Texas
rancher and not an Ivy League preppy.
And John McCain, for acting like he’s still
the political maverick he was in 2000. But
that’s a performance I predict won’t be
sustainable.
Who’s got the best political mind in
Hollywood?
Norman Lear.
If you were to make a movie about this
year’s race, whom would you cast as
Obama, Clinton, and McCain?
Will Smith is Obama; he’s got the
charisma—and the ears. Edie Falco is
Hillary. Dennis Hopper is McCain. Or
Russell Crowe or Kevin Spacey. They all
fly off the handle very well.
And how would your movie end?
Obama is in a hotel room with Michelle
(let’s go with Halle Berry). They are
getting ready to go down and meet their
jubilant supporters. The phone rings. It’s
McCain calling with congratulations. He’s
very gracious, though he does throw in a
“Hamas put you over the top” zinger.
Somewhere in upstate New York, Hillary
Clinton is downing a shot of whiskey,
throwing darts at a photo of Mark Penn,
and muttering about what might have been.
In the other room, Bill Clinton is on the
phone trying to score tickets to Obama’s
inaugural ball—and thinking he’ll
probably go stag.
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL ( The West
Wing)
What did you think of the film’s
concept?
I thought it was a wonderful explanation
of the tension that exists in elections now
that they’ve become so close. It’s not
something that would even be conceivable
in the ’90s.
If you were to make a movie about this
year’s race, whom would you cast as
Obama, Clinton, and McCain?
Well, I sort of did this already when I
was writing for the West Wing, and I cast
Alan Alda as the John McCain candidate
and Jimmy Smits as the Barack Obama-
type candidate. But I think I’d make an
adjustment on Jimmy and cast Don
Cheadle. And for Hillary, I’d have to go
with the best and cast Meryl Streep.
And how would your movie end?
Obama is gonna win. I would see it
playing out with him winning clearly
enough that they knew by middle of the
afternoon. I would cover all of the agony
that’s going on in the McCain campaign,
because that’s actually where more of the
drama is: on the losing side.
If the election did come down to one
vote, whom would you trust to break the
tie?
My mother. LARRY KING (CNN)
Movies are practically your second
career, right?
This is my 23rd film.
What’s your favorite political film?
Advise & Consent—Henry Fonda is the
secretary of state and there’s a strong
opposition to him because he’s too liberal.
MASS page 12
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Crude Reporting
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:00:00 AM
T he cover of a recent BusinessWeek
about the runup in oil and gasoline prices
framed the question of what’s causing it
nicely: “Speculation or Manipulation?”
But the story was maddeningly
evenhanded. By dodging its own question,
the magazine raised another.
When it comes to the cost of gasoline,
who should we believe? Here are some
nominees and their viewpoints:
1. The oil companies: It’s supply and
demand at its most basic, just like your
professor outlined in your freshman
economics course.
2. The petro-toadies in Congress: All we
have to do is open up the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge and the waters off Florida
and California.
3. The Department of Energy: OPEC has
to pump more, and we’ve got to allow
more refineries by rolling back
environmental restrictions.
4. King Abdullah: OPEC pumps plenty
of crude but “despicable” oil-futures
speculators in the West are driving up the
prices due to their “selfishness.”
5. Senator John McCain: Exxon Mobil
has done such a good job of demonstrating
the magic of the marketplace that it
deserves another $1.2 billion in tax breaks.
6. Senator Barack Obama: Impose a
windfall-profits tax to remind American oil
executives that price gouging can backfire
politically.
7. About 90 percent of the print and TV
reporters in America: See No. 1. It really is
that ol’ devil supply and demand.
8. The White House: Never mind.
Nobody’s home.
For my money, a sounder answer as to
whom to believe is Don Barlett and Jim
Steele, the investigative reporting team that
has won two Pulitzers and two National
Magazine Awards for exposing
government theft and corporate greed.
Their 2003 series for Time magazine on oil
economics remains required reading for
anyone who wants a better understanding
of how gas at $4 to $5 a gallon represents a
carefully arranged screwing of consumers.
“The bottom line for the oil people is, How
much can I make while spending the least I
can get by with on refineries, synthetic
fuels, and for exploration and drilling on
the vast, unused acreage in existing oil
leases?” Barlett says. He notes that Canada
has become the United States’ No. 1 oil
supplier by funding joint government-
-industry exploration of the tar-sand fields
of Alberta. “The most chilling statistic is
Exxon Mobil’s. It spent twice as much last
year to buy back stock as it did on
exploration.”
As for shallow journalism that helps Big
Oil, Steele makes the point that the
newsrooms that were once staffed by the
redistributionist children of the New Deal
and the A.F.L.-C.I.O. are now populated
with the children of Reaganomics:
“Younger reporters come out of a mind-set
that the market rules, taxes are evil, and
government ought to let these people in the
oil industry go about their business.”
As journalism has passed from a hungry
to an elite profession, there’s no shock
value in the fact that Exxon Mobil paid
only $5 billion in U.S. income taxes last
year while it paid $25 billion to foreign
governments. Even with Exxon Mobil
making $76,000 a minute, the last thing
that occurs to many assignment editors and
reporters is to investigate whether a
windfall-profits tax would drive Exxon
Mobil, BP, and other oil companies to
invest in the alternative-energy strategies
they boast about in their television
commercials.
Then there’s the problem of letting
general-assignment reporters, rather than
energy specialists, cover gasoline prices
mainly as a story of consumer suffering.
About 40 percent of U.S. oil is produced
domestically, and Washington has declined
to regulate auto fuel as an essential
commodity. That’s where the vertical
integration of a giant like Exxon Mobil
creates market leverage. It owns oil fields,
processing plants, and retail outlets,
creating some monopoly-like advantages
in controlling supply and fixing prices in
the U.S. market. Then there is the
remarkable job that the oil companies have
done in persuading network-TV anchors
and correspondents to depict them as they
want to be seen: powerless victims of a
supply-and-demand cycle that is as
immutable as gravity and as random as
lightning. Congress, responding to
demands for tougher laws on oil
speculation, would prefer to blame
environmental regulations. Much of the
context-free reporting about what the
executives say, in Congress and on
television, is marked by breathtaking
gullibility.
Speaking of television, no one of any age
can doubt that the industry’s star performer
in the public relations battle over gasoline
prices is Rex Tillerson, chairman and
C.E.O. of Exxon Mobil. His appearances
on the Today show have become five-
minute promos for price escalation, with
Matt Lauer cast as the surrogate for a
nation of consumers who don’t fully
understand their role—helpless and
sacrificial—while the company maximizes
shareholder value, “our reason for being.”
This is a “demand-driven price runup, no
question about it,” Tillerson drawls,
fingers intertwined and as fidget-free as
Chance the Gardener. Lauer gamely zeroes
in on Exxon Mobil’s dirty secret—that it
spends only 5.3 percent of revenue on
exploration at a time of record revenue. “If
you’re making $400 billion a year, should
consumers expect you to pay or spend
even more on exploration?” Lauer asks.
The unflappable Tillerson describes this
modest expenditure as “very, very robust.”
He adds, with apparent conviction, “We
would do more if we could gain access to
more areas.” In other words, give us
ANWR, then we can talk price at the
pump. In fact, no unbiased expert claims
that exploiting the fields in the Alaskan
wilderness would cause more than a bump
in world supply or prices in the U.S. By
the way, Tillerson observes, the industry
needs more refineries too.
Lauer, charmingly outpointed at every
turn, finally blurts, “Mr. Tillerson, you’re
always nice with your time.”
“My pleasure, Matt,” the oil king
rumbles, not a hair out of place on his salt-
and-pepper corporate coif.
And it was, no doubt, a pleasure for him
to slip out of Rockefeller Center, built with
Standard Oil dollars accrued in an earlier
era of rapacious pricing, without
addressing the oil-company claims that are
most easily disproved by that old-
fashioned journalistic method called
reporting. The plain truth is that the record
profits cited by Lauer—$10.9 billion in the
first quarter of this year for Exxon
Mobil—reflect an industrywide decision to
flow revenue directly to the bottom line
rather than to capital expenditure. To buy
Tillerson’s story, you’d have to believe
that profit is an accident, when it is,
irrefutably, the result of a company
strategy tailored to this unique moment of
opportunity.
Oil executives generally believe in an
updated version of the peak-oil theory,
introduced in 1956 by geologist M. King
Hubbert. It posits that because of oil-field
depletion and the expense of production,
American-oil-industry output will reach a
maximum level and then start to decline.
An updated version of Hubbert’s bell
curve—which factors in the number of
wells being drilled and refinery
capacity—sets the year that the peak will
be reached at 2020. If you’re getting a
prime price for a product that will be
harder to acquire in a few years and less
valuable due to competition from other
fuels, the smart play, obviously, is to divert
every penny into profit while the Black
Gold Casino is still open. To confuse the
press and public, you set up several straw
men to take the blame for the supply
shortage that you’ve seen coming for a half
-century: refinery capacity, environmental
legislation, and the imaginary supply
potential in undrilled portions of the
continental shelf and ANWR.
But let’s look at the Cheneyesque fantasy
that drilling in ANWR is a major national-
security priority that would make us less
dependent on foreign oil. The fact is, the
Trans-Alaska pipeline that is supposed to
bring us that new ANWR oil probably
couldn’t handle it right now because lack
of maintenance has left it in bad shape.
(Business Journalism 101: You can
reinvest revenue in infrastructure or pull
the money out as profit.) Plus, there’s not
enough Alaskan oil to affect price. It
would be gone in a few months if we could
pump it at maximum capacity. From a
national-security standpoint, the smart
thing would be to leave it in the ground for
use in case of some future civilization-
threatening cataclysm.
Oil-friendly members of Congress like to
blame environmental regulation for the
lack of refinery capacity. But the oil
companies themselves choked supply by
closing more than half of their 300 U.S.
refineries in the past 25 years. (Business
Journalism 201: You can reinvest in
manufacturing capacity or ride the demand
curve to higher profits.) Studies by
Biz Buzz 9
Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a
respected, oil-friendly consulting firm,
indicate that even if all environmental
regulations were removed from refinery
construction, few would probably be built
right away because of a 75 percent rise in
construction costs since 2000, largely
driven by the increased fuel cost of
transporting building materials.
I don’t mean to imply that when it comes
to cutting through industry and
congressional malarkey, Barlett and Steele
are the only game in town. The Chicago
Tribune, the Wall Street Journal, Texas
Monthly, and other publications have all
done credible oil series during the past few
years. The problem is that headlines on
today’s pump prices trump the revelations
of yesterday’s in-depth reporting. The
digital-news era is good at letting us know
what happens now. But it’s lousy at
reminding us of what’s happening again.
Take the richly symbolic case of ANWR.
Oil executives know that they haven’t
explored 80 percent of their existing leases
in the continental U.S., according to
Barlett. But they also know that if they can
crack the wildlife refuge, Congress will
lack the political will to keep them away
from the other government land and the
ocean floor they covet. In that sense,
ANWR fits a historical leitmotif. For more
than a century, oil companies have been
gaming the federal oil-leasing system to
receive bargain prices on the raw materials
under public ownership.
Oil companies have always depended on
the transfer of unpumped oil from public to
private ownership. In the Teapot Dome
scandal of the early 1920s, oilmen bribed
officials at the Interior Department to gain
ownership of an oil field owned by the
U.S. Navy. With ANWR and the offshore
leases, everything will look aboveboard if
Congress and consumers can be whipped
into a demand-driven frenzy. Oil
companies will blame the Arabs and
environmentalists for a supply shortage
they’ve maintained as a matter of policy
since the days when the Texas Railroad
Commission set quotas on how much oil
could be pumped out of the ground.
Decade after decade, the oil companies
claim that they would pump more if only
they were allowed to. Barlett calls it
CRUDE page 11
10 Biz Buzz
Tortured Soul
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:00:00 AM
A s fodder for a James Brown song, it
would be hard to beat the unfolding legal
battle over the singer’s estate.
Sex and greed are players, as are missed
opportunities and longing. At a recent
court hearing, a judge asked to see the lead
counsel in his chambers and 21 lawyers
stood up. There are six children named in
his will, and five are now challenging it.
There’s also a disputed fourth wife—a
onetime Janis Joplin impersonator—with
another child she claims is Brown’s.
Meanwhile, the three men Brown chose to
oversee his trust are being sued for
allegedly siphoning off nearly $14 million.
And the lawyer he hired to put the will
together is serving 30 years in a South
Carolina prison for murdering a strip-club
manager.
The only thing missing right now:
something concrete to fight over.
Though Brown earned as much as $80
million a year during his heyday, he left
behind few assets—the most valuable of
which is potentially his reputation. But
instead of marketing the singer’s name,
Brown’s many would-be beneficiaries
have spent the year and a half since his
death locked in a drag-out fight. While
Elvis Presley’s estate took in about $49
million last year and John Lennon’s about
$44 million, the biggest deal going for
Brown’s family is a Christie’s sale set for
July 17—and the estimated proceeds from
that, about $2 million, will go mostly to
pay legal bills. There had been a contract
with a toymaker to manufacture James
Brown dolls, but the deal expired after a
year. There was once talk of turning
Brown’s former home, in Beech Island,
South Carolina, into a Graceland-like
attraction. But when the auction strips the
house of Brown’s effects—the domed
dryer in the hair salon, the 1974 Mercedes
coupe in the garage, and the 42 jumpsuits
in his closet—the place will be a shell
that’s two and a half hours from the nearest
major airport, in Atlanta.
How did the hardest-working man in
show business leave behind so little to so
many? Mostly because of a ridiculously
complicated estate. In August 2000, Brown
signed a will that left “personal and
household effects” to his six children. He
also created the I Feel Good trust to
educate poor kids in South Carolina and
Georgia. Around the same time, Brown
married his fourth wife—in a union that
was later contested—and his will was
never altered to include her or the son she
says she had with Brown. What’s more, he
left behind multiple personal
complications, from mistresses to a
mounting number of grandchildren, each
of whom could stake a claim on Brown’s
potential fortune.
In another wrinkle, the singer, back in
1999, mortgaged the royalties to most of
his songs in a so-called Bowie Bond,
named for the singer David Bowie, who
was the first to benefit from one. The deal
gave Brown $26 million up front, while the
purchaser, TIAA-CREF, the financial-
services company best known for
managing teachers’ pensions, got royalties
to hits like “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a)
Sex Machine.” Today, while Brown’s
songbook generates roughly $5 million a
year (putting him ahead of James Dean and
Bob Marley on Forbes’ list of top-earning
dead celebrities), all of the revenue goes to
TIAA-CREF. Depending on album sales
and the success of other moneymakers like
ring tones and single downloads, it could
be another five to 10 years before the $15
million balance is paid off, says David
Pullman, the financier who structured the
bond.
In the meantime, the legal mess has
scared off other potential business partners.
Imagine Entertainment, the production
company behind A Beautiful Mind and
The Da Vinci Code, paid $1 million over
the course of a decade for options to make
a James Brown bio-pic. It was widely
reported that di-rector Spike Lee co-wrote
and circulated a script. But last summer,
Imagine let its options lapse. “We’re going
to wait until the family resolves its issues
before we decide what we’re going to do,”
says company president Michael
Rosenberg.
Similarly, a reality-TV show, Who Will
Be the Next Godfather of Soul? was in the
works but has been dropped. There were
also discussions with talent agency
William Morris to use Brown’s name,
image, and likeness in exchange for “tens
of millions of dollars over the next several
years,” says Toby Byron, a television
producer who worked with the estate. Such
deals would require approval of the court-
appointed overseers, but the hearings in
South Carolina have focused not on
business opportunities but on alleged
mismanagement of Brown’s affairs. The
court-appointed trustees “are so busy with
all the litigation, they don’t have time” to
pursue other business, says Louis
Levenson, the lawyer who is representing
five of the six children named in Brown’s
will.
Brown’s grandson Forlando Brown, a 22
-year-old college senior, hasn’t made much
headway with his family either. Having
teamed up with Atlanta consultant Terry
Cox, Forlando has visions of creating
everything from a signature James Brown
golf course to a line of children’s books.
He has left it to Cox, a former vice
president of the restaurant chain
Fuddruckers, to offer $80 million to $100
million to buy Brown’s assets and rights to
his name and works. Cox says the trustees
have not responded to his overtures.
The only possible upside to the
continued family battles is keeping
Brown’s name in the headlines and
potentially propping up his music sales.
Already, since Brown’s death on
Christmas Day, 2006, sales of his albums
have more than doubled, to 376,000,
according to Nielsen SoundScan. “The
more controversy, the better,” says
Pullman. “But that doesn’t mean this is
maximizing assets.”
Related Links
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
What's Project Runway
Worth?
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:00:00 AM
Hollywood insiders have been waiting for
Harvey Weinstein’s bubble to burst ever
since he and his brother, Bob, split from
Disney in 2005. Despite $1 billion in
equity from Goldman Sachs, the
Weinsteins have yet to produce a huge
hit—except Project Runway, the cult cable
-TV show hosted by supermodel Heidi
Klum, which features competitions among
aspiring fashion designers. This spring, the
Weinstein Co. surprised the industry by
pulling the show off Bravo and striking a
$150 million, five-year licensing deal to air
Runway on Lifetime. But if the Weinsteins
really want to hit the jackpot, maybe they
should consider selling the show. They
wouldn’t talk, but we spoke to
entertainment bankers-—including Dave
Davis of Arpeggio Partners—and
production executives to estimate what the
Weinsteins might earn by selling.
1. Existing Episodes
The first step in valuing a TV franchise
is determining the revenue from home-
video sales, second runs, and the
syndication of already aired episodes.
Project Runway earns an estimated $10
million in DVD sales and about $700,000
in second runs per season. It has yet to be
syndicated, but our industry sources
believe that it could make about $350,000
a season in syndication fees. The show
completes its fifth season this summer, and
its first three seasons are already out on
DVD. A new owner would probably
collect fees from five seasons of
syndication and two of second runs and
DVD sales.
Estimated Value: $22.5 million
2. Future Episodes
The next step is estimating the value of
all future episodes, including licensing
fees, promotional partnerships, home-
video sales, and rerun and syndication fees.
Under its new deal with Lifetime, the
Weinstein Co. reportedly will earn
$800,000 an episode (for a total of 140
future episodes). -Promotional partnerships
have always played a prominent role on
the show: On one episode, contestants
were required to modernize various
-fashion icons—like Marilyn Monroe—for
Tresemmé’s print ads; on another, they
were -ordered -to design outfits using only
materials found in the - Hershey’s store in
Times Square. By the end of season five,
the -Weinsteins were charging major
partners like Tresemmé, L’Oréal, and
Macy’s as much as $1 million a season to
participate. A partnership with Elle
recently fell apart after the brothers
demanded that the magazine pay $75,000
an episode. The company is now in talks
with - Marie Claire.
Estimated Value: $209 million
3. Brand Value
The final step is assessing a premium (if
one is -warranted) for brand value. Project
Runway played a key role in making
Bravo a reality-TV powerhouse, but the
show’s impending move will serve as a
real test of its brand appeal. Not only is it
leaving an up-and-coming network for an
ailing one, but the show’s producers are
also staying at Bravo. And compared with
similar programs, Runway hasn’t fared as
well in ratings and international spinoffs:
America’s Next Top Model has more than
30 international versions; Runway has six.
“ Project Runway is not terribly
differentiated relative to other talent
competitions,” says Andy Bateman, C.E.O.
of branding consultancy Interbrand. Some
investors would put scant value on
Runway’s brand, but more entrepreneurial
types might be willing to pay a premium of
as much as 5 percent.
Estimated Value: Up to $12 million
The Bottom Line: The Weinsteins
haven't said they're selling, but maybe they
ought to think about it. Total Estimated
Value of Project Runway: As much as
$243.5 million
NOTE: Future cash flows have been
adjusted to reflect present value. Related
Links
Legal Fight Erupts Over 'Project
Runway' Move
Vogue Snubs, Covets Project Runway
Summertime Slump
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Courting Disaster
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:00:00 AM
B efitting a sport that combines the
athleticism of basketball with the
outrageousness of American Gladiator,
eight-year-old slamball has had a history of
dives and rebounds.
The genius of the game, played on a
court embedded with trampolines, is that
even shrimpy point guards can spring 15
feet into the air and throw down a -LeBron
James-style slam dunk (hence the name).
The sport not only races through its 30
minutes at Super Mario speed, but also has
body checks like football and on-the-fly
substitutions like hockey. Yet after two
low-rated seasons on cable television, in
2002 and 2003, slamball flamed out
quickly, leaving its inventor, former
college basketball player Mason Gordon,
back at square one. For the next four years,
Gordon pitched slamball to new investors
and broadcasters—Italian television
replayed parts of the 2003 season last
year—but failed to persuade anyone to
place a big bet.
That is, until now. Gordon has scored the
backing of the unlikeliest of cheerleaders:
former HBO chief Chris Albrecht. Last
seen exiting Time Warner after allegedly
assaulting his girlfriend (to whom he is
now engaged), Albrecht is the newly
installed head of the sports and
entertainment firm IMG’s global media
division. When Gordon’s partner, Mike
Tollin, approached Albrecht last fall,
Albrecht agreed to put up $5 million of
IMG’s money for half ownership of the
sport. Now IMG has a broadcast deal with
the cable channel Versus, formerly the
Outdoor Life Network, to televise the first
matchups this fall, and CBS will run
slamball finals after a football game in
November.
CRUDE
continued from page 9
playing the short-supply card. “Every
freaking reporter out there falls for it,” he
says. “And if I’m the P.R. guy for an oil
company, I’m going to play that sucker for
all it’s worth.”
Supply and demand? Sure, but as John
Lee, a business journalist at the Wall Street
The question, yet again, is whether
anyone will watch. Finding viewers for a
new sport is, of course, notoriously hard.
Arena football has bounced from network
to network for 20 years without much of a
following, and the all-female American
Basketball League folded after two
seasons, in 1998. But in slamball, Albrecht
sees opportunities. One is the chance to
reach the Grand Theft Auto generation,
building a following not on local courts but
on television, videogame screens, and the
internet. More important, he feels the
ultimate-fighting quality of slamball
represents a leap forward for tradition-
bound IMG, best known for developing
talent in country-club sports like tennis and
golf. “It’s important to be one of the
forward thinkers in the business,” Albrecht
says. “You have to be out there placing
new bets.”
To get the ball rolling, IMG and Gordon
held national tryouts, recruiting 64
athletes, including former college and
semipro basketball players, some veterans
from slamball’s first iteration, and one ex-
linebacker. They brought the cream of the
crop to the IMG Academy in Bradenton,
Florida, paying them $750 a week ($1,000
for veterans of the 2002 and 2003 seasons).
For the months of April and May, the
players were drilled in trampoline
technique, checking, and basketball basics
while being tended to by a team of trainers,
nutritionists, sports psychologists, and
media coaches. The grooming, which
helped make IMG tennis talents Andre
Agassi and Maria Sharapova into stars, is
what Gordon thinks will ensure his game’s
success this time around. “I used to talk to
people about slamball, and they’d say,
‘What are you smoking?’ ” the 31-year-old
says. “Now, with IMG, it’s not such a pipe
dream anymore.”
A more crucial difference may be in how
Journal and the New York Times for many
years, reminds me, supply and demand in
oil are not just “two pie charts—where it
comes from, where it goes, measured
maybe five years ago.” There are more
complex reasons for pain at the pump.
“American gasoline prices have always
fans can experience slamball. In version
1.0, games were prerecorded on a Los
Angeles soundstage, with little opportunity
for fans to see a live game, let alone play
in one. Now, in addition to the exhibition
season that will air on Versus, a league
with teams in eight cities will launch next
summer. During the season, all eight teams
will meet in a host city and play two games
each in a slamball festival.
In the meantime, IMG’s investment in
slamball is still just a small item on its
balance sheet—the company’s annual
revenue is $1.5 billion—and for Albrecht,
the financials are a work in progress. He
says that IMG plans to sell a few
franchises at several million dollars apiece
(expensive compared with indoor lacrosse,
where early franchises sold for $250,000),
with a requirement that owners provide
courts for amateurs to try the game out.
Says an upbeat Albrecht: “If we don’t
make our money back by this year, it
won’t be by much.”
Just don’t call it a slam dunk.
A Slamballer’s Pain
The sport can be rough going. Here are
some of player Michael Goldman’s game-
related injuries
Concussion
Suffered when a trampoline-propelled
player landed on Goldman’s head.
Torn Meniscus
He spent a month and a half in bed after
knee surgery.
Hernia
He tore his abdominal wall in a collision.
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Albrecht?
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Contact Sport
Ten Dumbest C.E.O. Moves of 2007
reflected the latest spot price, namely what
you have to pay to buy bulk gasoline on
the open market. This is last-in pricing,
rather than pricing based on inventory
costs.”
Now, let’s say you’re an oil company
selling bulk gasoline, and suppose your
The Mansion Family
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:00:00 AM
W hen the housing market was booming,
nobody benefited more than Bob Toll,
C.E.O. of Toll Brothers and creator of the
McMansion. Sales of Toll Brothers’
trademark homes topped $6 billion at the
peak of the market, making the company
the largest luxury-home builder in the
country. Now, with the homebuilding
industry suffering, Toll acknowledges that
we’re in uncharted territory. Here, he
shares strategies for navigating it.
You’ve been quoted as saying that the
housing business is in a depression. Do
you still think that?
Yes, things are real tough. It’s tough to
sell. It’s easy to buy, but nobody wants to.
The lack of confidence in the market is
greater than it was in 1981, greater than it
was in 1990. And 1974 was perhaps as
bad, but it was for a shorter period of time.
How will we know when a turnaround is
coming?
Every week, we track new-home sales in
the 300-plus communities we sell from.
We have been pretty much sticking with
the same number in traffic and deposits. If
we continue with that, we might be willing
to say we’ve reached the bottom now. The
demand is there. When we do everything
we can—run a special, work the
phones—we can sometimes make it
happen. But that’s not terribly meaningful.
If you stay at the bottom, it doesn’t feel
good. It’s hard to make a guy feel good if
he’s stuck in the mud up to his neck, even
though it’s not getting any worse.
Would you buy a house right now if you
were in the market?
Actually, new-home prices are moving
up. If you’re waiting for another 10 percent
drop in new-home prices, you may have
missed your chance.
The problem is that people are having a
hard time selling their old homes in order
inventory contains some gasoline made
from $140-a-barrel oil and some that was
purchased for $75 a barrel. That leaves a
lot of room for price manipulation. But
please, whatever you do, don’t think for a
minute that’s what Tillerson and Exxon
Mobil are up to. Just like you and me, they
Biz Buzz 11
to move into other ones. It isn’t that there
are no buyers. It’s that people are reluctant
to drop their prices by more than 10
percent to find a buyer. So the market is
frozen.
What about real estate as an investment?
Is this a good time to hunt for bargains?
Real estate has been a pretty great
investment over the past 200 years. If you
look at things from farther away than 10
feet, buying a home has created most of
the wealth for families in the U.S. But this
is like advising people on whether they
should jump into the stock market. When
the market is down, people are reluctant to
do it. Over a longer period of time, the
market can usually be counted on to go
back up 10 percent. But people get scared.
And they’re scared right now.
Which real estate markets will turn
around first?
Everybody thinks Phoenix is down-and-
out and will be for a long time to come. I
don’t think so. Florida is also counted out.
But that will also turn around faster than
people expect.
And the laggards?
Las Vegas. It’s been over-the-top.
What about Barack Obama impresses
you?
We need some excitement to get things
moving again. Obama is an exciting
candidate. If he can excite people enough
that they would again view the cup as half
full as opposed to half empty, then you
would have some restoration of confidence
in the homebuilding industry.
Stocks, real estate, gas prices—got a
question for Condé Nast Portfolio’s
overqualified advisers? Email
experts@portfolio.com.
Related Links
After the Bust
Housing Grousing
Housing Head Fake
are powerless slaves in the fields of supply
and demand. Now tote that barge, lift that
barrel.Related Links
The Coming Oil Crash
Oil Strikes Out
Exxon's Hoard
12 Biz Buzz Tech*
MASS
continued from page 8
And I think Bulworth will be a classic. For
some reason, it didn’t do well and it got
bad reviews, but 20 years from now
Bulworth will be a major American film.
It’s way up there on my favorite list.
What has been the most dramatic
moment of the campaign for you?
Obama claiming the nomination—that
was dramatic without being surprising.
You had a historic event that everyone
knew was coming. And that’s rare. Also:
McCain emerging from the depths of being
counted totally out—one of the great
comeback stories of American history. The
surprisingly poor show of Giuliani. And
the emergence of Hillary, who was once 30
points ahead.
What camera-friendly qualities do
Obama, McCain, and Hillary have?
I like being around John McCain. He’s
forthcoming. While he is not a great
speaker at the podium, he is a terrific
guest. Hillary is very smart. She knows her
subject matter. I’ve known her a long time,
but I had no idea she was this good as a
campaigner. And Obama—there’s never
been anything like Obama. He’s the best
off-the-cuff speaker, and all the
Republicans realize it. He’s to the manner
born. He enters a room and he changes the
room.
BILL MAHER (HBO)
How did you come to be in the movie?
My friend Kevin Costner asked me. He
and some other folks came by after we shot
an episode of Real Time. The crew was
ready and they came on the set and we
pretended to do an episode.
If you were to make a movie about this
year’s race, whom would you cast as
Obama, Clinton, and McCain?
For Obama, Denzel. Annette Bening for
Hillary. Paul Newman for McCain.
And how would your movie end?
We elect the black guy, and we find out
that the deep, deep rot in America was not
really our fault but was all on
Bush—which I don’t really believe is true.
What has been the most dramatic
moment of this election for you?
Obama’s speech about race. His first
Reverend Wright speech, not the one
where he had to say, “You know what?
This motherfucker is wack. I got it wrong
the first time. I do renounce him.” But the
first speech was just genius. I love that
speech.
Who has the best political mind in
Hollywood?
Warren Beatty.
Who’s the best actor in D.C.?
I’d have to go with Larry Craig. Larry
Craig, God love him, he was gonna quit
after they caught him in the men’s room,
and then they made a cause of it. He said,
“Wait a second, somebody has to stand up
for people who have a really wide stance
and get accused of homosexual activity
when they’re just trying to have a bowel
movement in a comfortable manner in a
public place, and no one is standing up for
these people, and I will!” And he got his
Irish up about that, he got all angry about
that. “I’m not going anywhere!” Related
Links
Which Candidate Do Oil Companies
Like Most?
The Long, Hard Slog
Hillary Was Right
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Apricado: Selling Your
Music Has Never Been
This Easy
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 8:46:20 PM
Over the last few years we’ve seen a
number of online music stores that offer
independent artists a way to sell their
music without a recording contract. And
may also be its undoing. The site currently
while a handful of these sites, like has no automated way to monitor user
AmieStreet, have done especially well, but
submissions to determine if recordings are
they tend to be pretty involved - you can’t copyrighted or previously uploaded, which
just upload your songs and start getting
means you’d be free to rip your favorite
paid. Apricado, a new startup that launches CD to your hard drive and upload it as if it
today in private beta, is looking to solve
were your own.
this problem by streamlining the process as Apricado CEO Jeff Ward acknowledges
much as possible. The first 50 musicians to
that this could be an issue, but says that it
email support@apricado.com with will implement a blacklist to filter out
“TechCrunch” in the subject line will be
songs by well known recording artists. For
able to set up shop in the private beta. those artists that aren’t on the blacklist, the
Apricado makes the music submission
site will likely rely on the “YouTube
process ridiculous easy (perhaps to a fault): method”, using DMCA takedown notices
After uploading a song, the site will to help them track down pirated music.

And the Winner Is&Bloomberg
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 2:00:00 PM
Let the speculation about Bloomberg
begin.
Merrill Lynch will raise $4.5 billion to
$5 billion by selling its 20 percent stake in
Bloomberg L.P. back to the New York
City mayor who founded it, according to
severa l reports. The bank also held talks
about selling all or part of its 49 percent
stake in the money manager BlackRock,
but those talks have now been shelved.
Merrill is expected to announce the sale
when it reports earnings on Thursday
afternoon.
As Merrill Lynch's balance sheet has
further deteriorated in recent months, it
became clear to its chief executive John
Thain that the firm would need to sell one
of its prized assets in order to improve its
liquidity position. The circumstances
Thain agreed to in its earlier capital raises
from outside investors prevent it from
issuing more common stock to raise cash.
This sale may not mean that Thain is out
of the woods yet. The company is expected
to report its fourth consecutive quarterly
loss on Thursday. Analysts expect it to
record as much as $6 billion dollars in
write-downs of its most toxic assets, on top
of the $30 billion it has already marked
down.
And the sale price is slightly less than the
$5 billion to $6 billion that Thain
estimated it was worth during a conference
call last month. Because Michael
Bloomberg had veto rights over who
would buy the stake, the sale was likely
without any competitive bids.
With this deal, the chatter around the
media company's fate will undoubtedly
reach new peaks. It will also raise
speculation about Mayor Bloomberg's next
move.
The deal values Bloomberg at as much as
$25 billion, a figure that puts to rest a
longstanding mystery over the financial
media firm's valuation. The company's
success was on selling subscriptions to its
data services over proprietary terminals,
which are fixtures on most Wall Street
trading desks. It also has a global wire
service as well as television and other
media properties.
Just last week, Bloomberg announced a
number of changes to its structure,
including the separation of its television
and radio businesses from its print news
business. It also formed a new unit,
Bloomberg Ventures.
These are changes that were ushered in
since the company hired Norman
Pearlstine from Carlyle Group in May.
As the firm regroups and brings its
ownership under one roof, plenty of media
watchers wonder what the future holds for
Bloomberg.
Will Mayor Mike return to his roots after
his term ends and expand the media giant
that made him a billionaire?
No doubt he's noticed how cheap the
New York Times Company looks these
days.
Related Links
Mayor Bloomberg, Top Techie?
Bloomberg Buying Bloomberg?
Why Bloomberg Won't Buy the New
York Times
automatically detect the artist name and
generate a music store (for example, a song
by Mika would generate
www.apricado.com/Mika). Each song sold
will be distributed without DRM, and the
site will only take a 20% cut of the
revenues (industry standards are usually
30% or more). Visitors who navigate to
this site will be presented with a list of
available songs. After entering their credit
card information on the same page, the
selected songs as downloaded as a single
.zip file. Artists can also get embed codes
for their stores, so they can offer a mini-
marketplace on their blogs or MySpace (a
Facebook app is on the way).
Unfortunately, Apricado’s simplicity
This may work well enough ( or not) for
YouTube, but there’s a major difference:
Apricado will actually be selling the
goods, which will likely make the legal
repercussions involved even more severe.
Apricado has a good idea - such simple
audio storefronts could conceivably make
it the YouTube of music stores, appealing
to both professional musicians and novices
alike. But unless it can find a way to
effectively monitor what gets uploaded, it
won’t stand a chance.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over
the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Bloggers Want Out Of
PlayBoy Poll, But That
Bed Was Made
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 4:37:15 PM
So it turns out that at least a couple of the
women bloggers featured in a recent
Playboy article that asked“Who’s the
web’s hottest bloggers? Vote now and
we’ll ask her to pose for Playboy.com!”
aren’t very happy about the feedback
they’re getting. In particular, they aren’t
happy that Playboy says they’ll invite the
winner to pose nude for the magazine, or
that they are being compared to the other
bloggers via a poll to determine who’s
most attractive.
The problem is that Playboy is perfectly
within their rights to post a poll like this
(other sites like Wired have done this in
the past), and it appears that everyone
consented to be included anyway.
Veronica Belmont says it was a bait and
switch, though, in a comment to our
original post:“I was also not informed that
they’d be asking us to pose for Playboy if
we won. They just told me that they were
doing a feature on female bloggers. I guess
we should have expected as much…”
Today Sarah Austin, who also originally
gave Playboy permission to write about her
and to use her picture, says she requested
she be removed, but Playboy declined. In
her email to Playboy she said“My parents
found out about this feature on playboy
and are not happy about it. I’d like you to
remove me from the contest.” Playboy’s
response:“Sadly, because of the nature of
the poll that would throw off the
percentage results, so we can’t do that. But
we are planning to dismantle the story in a
few days, so it won’t be up much longer.”
So did Playboy get the bloggers’
permission by misrepresenting exactly
what they were planning on doing, or did
the bloggers in question just underestimate
the negative feedback they’d be getting?
You decide - here’s a copy of the original
email sent out to bloggers:
I’m Antonia, a senior editor at
Playboy.com. I’m working on a piece that
spotlights who we think are the sexiest
female bloggers, and I was wondering if it
would be all right if we included you in it.
We can link to [your site] if you’d like, as
well — and we have several million
unique visitors a month, so there should be
some click-through traffic. Anyway, I just
wanted to make sure this was ok with you.
Also, do you have a photo of yourself that
we could use in the article? You can email
me at asimigis@playboy.com. We’re
planning to run this story at the end of next
week, so hope to hear from you soon.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
Blizzard Bot Ruling Sets A
Dangerous Precedent On
Copyright
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 4:20:05 AM
Earlier this year, we wrote a couple times
about how World of Warcraft maker
Blizzard was suing a bot maker. In that
case, Blizzard was claiming that the bot
maker (which let users automate certain
tasks to quickly rise up in experience level)
was violating its copyrights first by getting
around the copy protection on its own
spybot (which tries to prevent such
automation) and then by not obeying the
terms of the license agreement. As we
pointed out in May, if the court ruled in
favor of Blizzard on the license agreement
question, it would effectively ignore the
right of first sale by letting any company
simply announce that it wasn't selling its
product, but licensing it -- and then create
all sorts of rules well beyond what
copyright allows.
Unfortunately, the judge has now sided
with Blizzard in a summary judgment on
this issue. The one bit of good news is that
it rejected the DMCA part of the claim,
saying that the bot maker did not violate
the anti-circumvention clause. However,
the rest of the ruling is quite troublesome.
Basically, the court ruled that as long as a
company selling you a product says it's
only licensing you the product (even if
every other aspect of the sale appears to be
Sendible Schedules Email, SMS, and
Social Network Messages [Reminders]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 8:00:00 AM
Web site Sendible schedules sending
messages to contacts in the future over
email, text message, or social networks
like Facebook and Myspace. Not only can
you send messages to anyone on a
schedule, but you can also update your
status on sites like Facebook and Twitter
on a schedule too (you know, to set up an
alibi for that perfect murder). The site also
a sale), then it can set pretty much
whatever rules it wants -- and if you
violate them, charge you with violating
copyright. This leads to some really
tortured reasoning, because, as William
Patry notes, nothing the guy did actually
violates copyright. Instead, the court had to
spend eight pages trying to piece together
two separate parts of the license agreement
to make a case that copyright was
somehow violated.
This ruling flies in the face of other
recent rulings that found that just because a
company claims it's only licensing you a
product, it doesn't mean that it's true. There
was the Autodesk ruling, saying that a
software sale is a software sale, and the
used promo CD ruling that says record
labels don't get to put extra copyright
restrictions on promo CDs just because
they write something across the cover.
Unfortunately, the judge in this case
decided otherwise. Not only does this
result in bad policy (now anyone just needs
to say they're licensing you something
rather than selling it, and they can put
additional restrictions beyond copyright on
it, effectively dismantling copyright) but
it's also a misreading of the law itself
(despite what the court says). Hopefully, it
will be overturned on appeal.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
has special tools for setting up reminders
for sending messages to yourself, options
for recurring messages, and a great
calendar tool that lists all your scheduled
messages. Aside from message sending,
Sendible features a robust contact
management you'll probably never use.
Sendible is free to use but will cost you an
email address to register.
Sendible
Tech* Tech Tips* 13
Newest Industry To
Be Crowdsourced?
Internet Censorship
By Kevin Donovan (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/15/2008 11:09:00 PM
Wikipedia crowdsourced Britannica.
Threadless did the same with graphic T-
shirts. Amazon's Mechanical Turk helped
crowdsource the search for Steve Fosset.
Now, the Chinese Internet censors are
using the process to aid in their control of
information online. Since 2007, when
President Hu Jintao called for the state to
"study the art of online guidance and
actively use new technologies to increase
the strength of positive propaganda,"
China's Culture Ministry has regularly held
training sessions for the so-called "50 Cent
Party." These Chinese netizens get their
name from the reported 50 Chinese cents
that they are paid for each post supporting
state policy that they make in popular
forums and online portals. Rebecca
MacKinnon, a noted Chinese Internet
scholar and co-founder of Global Voices
Online, says "it's clear that there's a lot
more than censorship going on: in addition
to censorship there's information
management, message management, and
"astroturfing.""
Although the propaganda posts seem to
have been effective in the past, notably
stirring up anger against CNN for its
coverage of the March 2008 protests in
Tibet, the fact that the government must
pay these citizens suggests that the desired
message is not supported as deeply as the
opposition. After all, cyber-dissidents are
not being paid to voice their opinions
which place them in danger of legal
troubles. Further, as has happened in the
United States when "astroturf" campaigns
are uncovered, will the knowledge that pro
-government web content is potentially
paid make it less compelling to the average
reader?
Kevin Donovan is an expert at the
Techdirt Insight Community. To get
insight and analysis from Kevin Donovan
and other experts on challenges your
company faces, click here.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
14 Tech*
Multi-Level Marketing BlogHer Inks Deal With
Company Threatens Blogger NBC Universal, Raises $5
Who Writes Critical Post Million
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 7:09:00 AM
Over and over and over again, we hear
stories of companies that simply dislike
what others are saying about them online,
and send over threatening legal letters with
no legal basis. These cease-and-desist
letters are mostly designed to scare users
into giving in, because there's no law
against someone criticizing you or saying
something bad about you (assuming it's not
untrue). The latest, sent in by Davis
Freeberg involves the Everyday Finance
blog. The blogger there was approached by
a company called "Shop to Earn," which
offers a multi-level marketing (MLM)
system. The blogger wrote a post about it,
which Davis Freeberg describes as "well
balanced," though the blogger explained
the weaknesses of the system and why he
chose not to participate.
So what happens? Yes, of course, Shop
to Earn got upset and sent Everyday
Finance a legal nasty-gram demanding the
posts get taken down. As Everyday
Finance notes, it's likely this had
something to do with the fact that the posts
had made it up the Google search results
list. The blogger at Everyday Finance tried
Bronx DA Backs Down After Sending Secret Subpoena
To Unearth Anonymous Bloggers & Commenters
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:59:00 AM
Paul Alan Levy the lawyer from Public
Citizen who defended the bloggers in this
case was kind enough to write in alerting
us to another job well done by Public
Citizen. In this case, a NYC political blog
site called Room 8 had some posts by an
anonymous blogger criticizing some
actions in the Bronx DA's office and the
Bronx Republican Party. Not long after the
posts, Room 8 received a subpoena from
to adjust the post, taking out things like the
phrase "fatal flaw," but Shop to Earn said
that wasn't good enough and Everyday
Finance needed to take down the entire
site. This is, quite clearly, bullying through
cease-and-desist. It's about trying to shut
up a negative review of their business
model because they didn't like what it said.
And, it appears that Shop to Earn isn't
just focused on the blogger at Everyday
Finance. The company has also sent cease-
and-desist letters to other blogs, which
were also extremely critical of Shop to
Earn's program (though, that link is also
quite well-balanced, pointing out the key
flaws to Shop to Earn's program).
Apparently, Shop to Earn seems to think
that any review of its program that is
negative is somehow libelous, and will
threaten bloggers with legal action. What it
may quickly learn is that (a) someone
giving you a negative review and pointing
out the obvious flaws of your program is
not defamation and (b) trying to threaten
bloggers into taking down their site will
simply call much more attention to all of
those negative reviews.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
the DA's office not just demanding the IP
address of the anonymous blogger and
various anonymous commenters, but also
warned them that even disclosing the
subpoena could get the folks behind Room
8 in serious trouble. Luckily, Room 8
chose to fight this request, signing up the
help of Levy, who convinced the DA's
office to drop the subpoena and after
Room 8 had to threaten the DA's office
with a lawsuit of its own, it dropped the
demand that the supboena be kept secret.
Room 8 has a full account as well. Public
By Calley Nye (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 1:07:46 PM
BlogHer, an online network of female
bloggers, has announced a partnership with
iVillage and Women@NBCU, a new
content and marketing intiative by NBC
Universal.
The partnership includes a $5 million
Series B round led by Peacock Equity(a
fund run by NBC Universal and GE) along
with previous investor Venrock Capital.
iVillage, Oxygen.com, and BravoTV.com
will also obtain access to BlogHer’s
network of 2,200 women’s blogs for
syndication purposes.
iVillage is an online network geared
toward women that was bought by NBC
Universal for $600 million in March 2006.
It’s also the leading women’s content
network with over 16 million unique
visitors monthly and 4 billion page views
per year.
BlogHer co-founders Elisa Camahort
Page, Lisa Stone, and Jory Des Jardins
claim that this partnership will bring a
much higher level of exposure to its
network of bloggers. BlogHer was founded
Citizen also has posted links to a bunch of
documents from the case.
What's still not clear is what was the
purpose of the original subpoena. From the
facts presented, it's easier to jump to the
conclusion that it was purely political.
Someone in the DA's office didn't like
being criticized, and used the power of the
office to try to squelch that voice (and, in
fact, well before this came out, the
anonymous blogger in question erased all
his posts and disappeared). The folks who
run Room 8 tried to determine what the
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
in February 2005 as a way to popularize
and monetize blogs written by women and
meant for women. The network includes a
community portal, an index of blogs, and a
series of conferences.
The partnership was announced today by
Lauren Zalaznick, President of Women
and Lifestyle Entertainment networks for
NBC Universal. Zalaznick also announced
her plans to form a female-targeted digital
ad network as part of the Women@NBCU
initiative. The network will include
BravoTV.com, Oxygen.com, iVillage, and
Sugar Inc., making it the largest
agglomeration of women’s media brands
online.
BlogHer had previously raised $3.5
million from Venrock Capital in June
2007.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
actual issue was, and never received any
answers. The whole thing is a bit scary, as
it does show how a DA could abuse power
to get info on anonymous critics simply by
claiming it was a criminal investigation,
without disclosing any details, and without
letting the bloggers subpoenaed speak
about it. Hopefully if other sites are getting
bullied in this manner, they'll learn to fight
back as well.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
Is Major League Soccer
Sending False DMCA
Takedown Notices?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:09:00 PM
Dave writes in with an interesting story
suggesting that Major League Soccer is
potentially violating the DMCA by issuing
a takedown of footage for which it does
not own the copyright. The details are a
little confusing, and some parts aren't
entirely clear -- but from the account at the
link, two Major League Soccer teams
participated in a separate tournament,
called the U.S. Open Cup. The event was
not televised at all, despite efforts among
fans to provide a streaming webcast.
Apparently, at the soccer match, a fight
broke out, and the local news covered it,
using footage from the game. Following
this, some bloggers posted the news
stations' story about the fight on YouTube
-- at which point MLS sent a DMCA
takedown notice. The question is whether
or not MLS has copyright over the footage
(MLS's trademarks are meaningless here,
as the DMCA only refers to copyright).
What is not clear is who took the
footage. Considering that the game was not
televised and the event itself was not an
MLS event, it's difficult to believe that it's
MLS's footage, and thus, MLS wouldn't
hold the copyright over it. However, even
if it is MLS coverage, the fact that it was a
newsworthy event, and the footage was
used in a news report, it would suggest that
this particular snippet was actually fair use
as used in commenting on it for news
purposes. And, if anything, the copyright
on the overall clip of the newscast
belonged not to MLS, but to the news
company. Overall, it seems quite likely
that this attempt to censor the clip from
YouTube was illegal, as MLS is probably
asserting copyright over content for which
it does not hold the copyright. But, these
days, that's just all in a day's work of
misusing the DMCA.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper Tech* 15

How Would You Sentence

A Convicted Spammer?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 2:44:00 AM
We've covered some of the case against
spammer Robert Soloway. He was arrested
back in May of 2007 on criminal (rather
than civil) charges. He'd already lost
multimillion dollar civil lawsuits from
Microsoft and an ISP. He hadn't paid a
dime of what he owed. Instead, he just kept
on spamming. When he was arrested, of
course, officials claimed that it would have
an immediate impact on spam -- but it
doesn't seem like spam has decreased at
all. Earlier this year, Soloway pleaded
guilty, and now the judge in the case is
struggling over what the sentence should
be, noting that there's little to compare it to
that may be appropriate (her closest
years back Jeremy Jaynes received nine
years in jail for spamming. This certainly
seemed excessive, no matter how much
you hate spam. It seems like there would
be better ways to punish spammers than
give them sentences worse than some
violent offenders. And, of course, for all
the talk about how these long sentences
would deter spammers, the only thing it
seems to have deterred is their willingness
to so openly brag about their
achievements. There's more spam than
ever before and it's harder than ever to
track the spammers down. So, are there
more creative ideas for how Soloway
should be dealt with beyond just locking
him up? Update In related news, another
spammer has just been given 30 months in
jail.

Meebo To Turn On Chat approximation: a polluter).

Of course, Soloway is hardly the first
spammer to receive a jail sentence. A few
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For Communities NPR Launches API That Serves Up 13

By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) own platform quickly. Even MySpace
Submitted at 7/16/2008 9:46:12 PM

Instant messaging service Meebo

announced a new product tonight called
community Instant Messaging that will
effectively provide “instant messaging in a
box” to any site with a community. It will
be a federated system, which means users
can access friends on other meebo powered
social networks, too. DanceJam, Flixster,
myYearbook, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids
and Family Group’s AddictingGames,
Piczo, SparkArt, Sugar Publishing and
Tagged were also announced as launch
partners.
The product interface looks surprisingly
similar to Facebook Chat, which launched
earlier this year. Well, perhaps it isn’t so
surprising, since other social networks are
scrambling to counter Facebook Chat, but
don’t have the resources to build out their
lacks a web chat product, although they are
building one for launch later this year.
Like Facebook Chat, users can “pop out”
the chat session and keep it live on their
desktop even after they leave the site.
Community partners can send messages
into user chat streams (things like new
friend requests and news stream items).
That gives a more persistent connection to
the user for the partner, another value point
to the product.
The business model: Meebo will offer
this free and place ads. Revenues are split
50/50 with the partner. For now Meebo is
only working with a few partners, but over
time they say they will open up the API for
everyone and provide the service as a
utility on demand.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
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Years Of Content
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:43:24 PM
National Public Radio(NPR) has
introduced an API that it says will allow
developers to serve up mashups that
include audio, images, and full text articles
from the non-profit media organization’s
archives that go as far back as 1995. You
can access an overview of the new API
here.
The blurb we received about the release
stated that the material available covers
“nearly the full depth and breadth of NPR
content”, but the terms of service show that
this isn’t quite honest. Video content is
excluded entirely from the API, along with
a number of programs that include The
Diane Rehm Show, Radio Labs, Fresh Air
and Car Talk. Some of these exclusions are
likely due to licensing issues, but the lack
of video is frustrating.
Even if NPR isn’t being quite as open as
it could be, it represents one of the first
media companies to release an API. Most
news organizations are often obsessive
when it comes to controlling their content,
and they dread the prospect of allowing
developers to use it as they’d like. The
concept of widgets has begun to catch on
(you can see CNN’s offerings here), but
for the most part, independent developers
still don’t have a way to create their own
mashups. Another media organization that
is making inroads in this space is the New
York Times, which intends to release an
API some time this summer.
Here’s a sample mashup that uses NPR’s
API:
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16 Tech*
EU Plans To Extend Copyright; DanceJam Partners With
Turns Copyright System Into Evolution Of Dance Guy,
Welfare For Musicians Weezer And Janet Jackson
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 5:51:00 AM
Just as we feared, the EU has now
approved copyright extension of
performance royalties from 50 years to 95
years. This is basically an approval to steal
from the public. The public made a deal
with musicians 50 years ago: give us
music, and we'll give you performance
royalties for 50 years. The musicians
accepted that, and it was a worthwhile deal
for them. Yet, now, the government has
decided to change the deal, remove that
content from the public domain and give it
to the musicians for another 45 years. This
is, simply, bad policy. It encourages the
exact wrong behavior: telling people that
the public will pay them for work they did
many many years ago over and over again.
This doesn't encourage musicians to
Is This The Future Of
Search?
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 6:52:39 PM
The video above shows a user interface
being bucket tested by Google to select
(probably randomly determined) users.
Earlier today we showed a screen shot of
the interface and a video of the search
history, recorded by Adrian Pike, the CTO
of startup Tatango. This new video,
however (also recorded by Pike), shows
the full Google search experience with a
very Digg-like interface. Users vote search
results up or down - a down vote makes it
dissapear with a “poof,” an up vote moves
the result to the first page.
Google is also testing comments, with
linked user names, and others can vote
those comments up and down. In effect,
continue working and it doesn't encourage
them to be fiscally responsible and save for
retirement or anything.
At the same time, (again as expected),
the EU has said that royalties collecting
agencies need to compete, like they do in
the US. As we noted a few weeks ago, this
is better than forcing all artists to be
represented by a single agency, but these
agencies tend to do things in the name of
artists that can be a lot more damaging
than helpful in the long run.
These changes still require approval from
the individual EU countries and the EU
Parliament, so there's still some chance
that folks in Europe will realize that
extending copyright on already created
works is a bad idea, but that seems
unlikely at this point.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
this bucket test shows a Google that
combines their search algorithm with every
important feature of Digg. It’s something
they’ve been working on for nearly a year
in various iterations, but this is the first
time we’ve seen user comments, and the
video shows details that you just can’t
experience via screen shots.
If feedback on this is positive look for it
to be added to the Google Search
experimental site where anyone can opt in
to use it. It’s still many steps away from
being integrated into everyday search on
Google, but this shows quite clearly where
their head is at- Digg.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
By Calley Nye (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 4:19:54 PM
DanceJam, a dance-focused social
network that launched in March, has
announced several major partnerships and
features today. (Disclosure: Michael
Arrington is an investor).
The first partnership, with Weezer, is
being promoted by Judson Laipply, the
guys we’ve all seen dancing in that
Evolution of Dance video. Dancers can
submit videos that show unique and easy
to learn dance routines on DanceJam to be
considered for the contest. One winner will
win a pair of tickets to the Weezer show of
their choice, and $500 cash.
DanceJam has also partnered with Janet
Jackson to host online auditions for her
upcoming reality show. Janet Jackson and
choreographer Gil Duldulao will be
More Companies Using
Experimental Economists
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:29:00 PM
While it's true that it's difficult to find
economists who agree with each other, that
doesn't mean (as some would like you to
believe) that economics is useless. The
basic principles behind economics are
pretty sound. The issues generally come up
in how people interpret putting specific
situations into economic models. That's
because there are so many variables in real
world economics, it's nearly impossible to
model them all. So, the different opinions
coming from different economists tend to
be based on what sorts of variables they
throw into models, and how they weight
them. The truth is, however, that there's
plenty of good things to be learned from
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
looking for singers and dancers to submit
their audition videos on the site.
The site also has a new tournament
feature, where users can enter and vote on
tournament brackets for things like “Best
Choreography.” Several more features are
in the works, like the ability to search for
cities, groups, and events.
DanceJam was founded by M.C.
Hammer and Flock’s Geoffrey Arone and
Anthony Young. They have raised to date
$4.5 million through two rounds from
Softbank Capital, Rustic Canyon Partners,
and several angel investors.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
the various models and experiments done
by economists in various fields to try to
narrow down those variables and perfect
those models.
And, of course, those models can be
quite practical. So it's great to see more
and more companies (especially in the tech
world) hiring experimental economists and
putting them to work to start making more
economically sound decision making,
rather than seat-of-the-pants decisions on
ways to adapt new business models,
products and pricing. While there will still
be plenty of mistakes, there will be a much
better overall understanding of what works
and why.
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Should Printer Companies
Tell You Your Printer
Leaves Secret Identifying
Info?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 10:17:00 AM
Every few years or so, the press picks up
on the story that laser printers leave some
dots that are invisible to the naked eye on
every print. These dots are included for the
purpose of anti-counterfeiting efforts. Each
printer leaves a unique mark that can be
read with special blue LED light, and
interpreted with a decoding system that
only the printers and the secret service are
supposed to have. The story is getting
some press again as the EFF is pointing out
that laser printers have become cheap
enough that many people have them and
it's possible that the identification dots
could be used for other purposes, meaning
that people who print stuff out on the
assumption that the documents would be
anonymous, may be wrong. Officials in the
article scoff at the idea that the codes
would be used for anything other than anti-
counterfeiting efforts. And, indeed, it does
seem unlikely that the codes could be used
for very much (not only would you need to
interpret them, you'd also need the means
of tracking down who owns a specific
printer). But there is a good point in all of
this: why shouldn't the printer providers be
forced to at least disclose that their printers
mark every document with a unique
identifier?
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
SocialMedia Hires Savvian To
Secure Its Series B Round
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 1:22:56 PM
SocialMedia, a popular advertising
platform for social network applications,
has hired boutique investment bank
Savvian to help it raise a Series B round
that will likely amount to around $20
million.
Savvian is the same firm that was hired
by Federated Media, another ad-serving
company, to help it shop around for
potential investors earlier this year (the
company eventually raised$50 million).
SocialMedia has been posting some
impressive numbers over the last year,
with about 7x growth in revenue and a
reach of more than 20 million people. The
company says that it serves more than 2
billion ad impressions monthly at around
New Zealand Hacker Released As Police, Judge,
Prosecutors All Praise His Mad Hacking Skillz
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 8:34:03 AM
Well, here's an odd one. A kid in New
Zealand who was arrested for creating
software used by an online organized
crime group to access people's usernames,
passwords and credit card details has been
released and the charges against him
dropped. What's odd about it is all the
50 cent eCPMs. Last month, the company
announced that it had distributed a total of
over $8 million to its 1000 participating
developers, although a few particularity
successful developers likely received the
majority of the take.
SocialMedia intends to use the money to
shift its focus from direct advertising (like
banner ads) to brand-based advertising
(like the company-sponsored actions you
see in some Facebook applications).
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
praise being heaped upon 18-year-old
Owen Thor Walker. Prosecutors raved
about how the info-grabbing program he
wrote was "one of the most advanced they
had seen" and the judge said that
convicting him would "jeopardise a
potentially bright career." Meanwhile, the
police noted they "were interested in using
his skills to fight cyber-crime." While we
usually see police and judges overreact to
Google Continues To Test A
Search Interface That Looks
More Like Digg Every Day
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 5:29:17 PM
A couple of days ago we posted screen
shots of a new search interface being
bucket tested by Google that lets users vote
up or down on search results. The resulting
interface was very Digg-like, and included
a total vote count, etc.
Today Adrian Pike, the CTO of startup
Tatango, noticed that the interface changed
yet again and now includes user
comments. Like Digg, each comment has
an up or down vote feature as well, and
Google is using thumbs up and down icons
that are exactly the same as those on Digg.
The comments show the username of the
person leaving it, and clicking on it shows
hacking cases, talking about how
dangerous some kid and some code can be,
this almost seems like the opposite. Not
that the kid should necessarily have been
convicted, but all this praise just seems like
we've entered backwards-for-a-day world.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
their Google account profile.
Also, Google shows the total number of
votes both up and down on each result. If
you hit the X down vote button, the result
is immediately pulled off the screen.
He sent in the screen shot above as well
as two videos. We’re working on the
videos and will post them shortly.
Update: First Video, where Pike’s access
to the new search features was temporarily
disabled. The new interface subsequently
came back up, we are still uploading that
video:
Update 2: The second video is here.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Art Lebedev opening Optimus Store in
New York next month
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 10:53:00 AM
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets We highly
doubt Art Lebedev chose the opening day
of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on purpose
here, but nevertheless, the design studio
made famous by its Optimus Maximus
keyboard will be opening up shop in the
Big Apple on August 8th, 2008. At first,
the store will actually be held within RCS
Computer Experience at 575 Madison Ave.
and E. 56th Street (on the second floor, just
opposite the escalator), but if sales start
pouring in, we reckon it could land its own
place in due time. It is noted that this
Tech* Gadgets* 17
Yahoo Hires Former
Twitter Chief
Architect Blaine Cook
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 2:06:38 PM
Even as Yahoo loses execs by the dozens,
they continue to hire new blood. Blaine
Cook, the controversial (and some say very
talented) former chief architect at Twitter,
is now a rails developer at Yahoo. A
source at Yahoo confirms the hire and says
he’s working on the Fire Eagle project in
Yahoo’s Brickhouse early stage product
group, which is run by Chad Dickerson.
FireEagle, which we’ve described as a “
Twitter for location” was first announced
in November 2007 and is currently in
private beta.
At the time he left Twitter Cook said he
was “moving to the UK so that my partner
can pursue her career.” Plans change, I
guess.
Shortly after he left Twitter, Blaine
joined the Gillmor Gang to talk about his
experience there.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over
the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
location will devote almost all of its shelf
space to Optimus Maximus keyboards, but
a few other electronics gizmos should be
available as well. So, who's camping out
for the opening? Read| Permalink| Email
this| Comments
18 Gadgets*
Hands-on with Sony's new
BDP-S350 and other HD
frivolities
By Paul Miller (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:20:00 PM
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
So Sony's got a $399 Blu-ray player on
the market now, huh? Really blasting away
at that price point, huh Sony? Really
keeping on your toes now that HD DVD is
dead and gone, giving you zero
competition in the physical format space,
yeah? Oh, we forgot, you're using a blue
laser, and those require bloody war with
dastardly intelligent man-eating monkeys
to boot up. We got to handle Sony's new
BDP-S350 Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player
tonight, and while we aren't mad that the
new player draws less power, takes up less
space, and supports more technical HD
hotness, it literally feels like a $20 DVD
player in the hand -- no way Sony has
$400 of electronic components in this
thing. Even the front LCD is teensy: we've
bought $200 home theater in a box systems
from Sony with more extravagant displays.
We understand Sony trying to make back a
few dollars from a pricey format war, but
at this point this ridiculous price point is
looking way artificial. In other, less
insulting news, Sony was showing off the
new HT-SS2300 Home Theater System,
which is designed to complement the
S350, along with the HT-IS100 "Micro
System," which we found intriguing. Sony
also showed off its HDR-CX12, which is
nothing special in person, though we
certainly like what's under the hood.
Gallery: Hands-on with Sony's new BDP
-S350 and other HD frivolities Permalink|
Email this| Comments
Meizu M8 finally launching in August?
By Chris Ziegler (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 11:30:00 AM
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
The saga of the Meizu M8 is one of the
more entertaining dramas in the phone biz
these days, owing partly to the endless
delays and tweaks, granted -- but owing
much more to the truly masterful ripping
of the iPhone's industrial design.
Unfortunately, there's been very little
actual bite to follow up the bark coming
out of the Meizu camp, and it looks like we
might get a real taste of this thing for the
first time as soon as next month. A post on
Meizu's website, seemingly from none
other than CEO J. Wong himself, claims
iShoe promises to detect balance problems before
it's too late
By Donald Melanson (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 11:57:00 AM
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
There's plenty of devices out there
designed to keep folks from falling over,
but this so-called iShoe developed by some
MIT researchers takes a slightly different
tact, with it promising to detect balance
problems long before a person actually
falls. That's apparently possible thanks to
some sensor-laden insoles that measure the
pressure distribution across as person's
Powerful lasers damage eyesight of some Russian
ravers
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:54:00 PM
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Here's one straight from the bizarro
chapters. Dozens of individuals that
attended an all night dance party near
Moscow have been "partially blinded after
a laser light show burned their retinas,"
according to Russian health officials.
Apparently someone responsible for
erecting the equipment decided to aim a
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
that a first cut of the M8 will arrive next
month -- along with plenty more pictures
and details -- but it'll be a somewhat
neutered rendition that features just
feet, which can be offloaded onto a
computer and analyzed with the aid of a
special algorithm the researchers have
few lights powerful enough to brighten the
night sky down at the crowd (after rain
necessitated a makeshift roof, we're told),
128MB of RAM and zero flash. October
will bring the real deal, a 256MB baddie
that rocks 8GB of storage for 2180 yuan,
which works out to about $320.
Meanwhile, pictures have surfaced of the
latest prototype floating around Meizu's
labs, looking both as slick and as litigation-
prone as ever. Bring these stateside, Mr.
Wong, and we'll be the very first to sign up
-- just don't be surprised if Apple is right
behind us.
[Via Electronista]
Read- August for 128MB model,
October for 256MB / 8GB?
Read- Prototype M8 in the wild Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
created. Eventually, they say the system
could let doctors catch balance problems in
their early stages and take the appropriate
action, or even notify family members if a
person falls, although that latter bit doesn't
exactly seem very optimistic of them. No
word on a commercial release just yet, but
the team is apparently moving steadily
towards one, with it currently conducting
trials and recently having snapped up a
$50,000 grant to help cover start-up costs.
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
with some of those who stared too long
losing up to "80%" of their vision. We're
not exactly sure what will happen to the
promoters of the event, but at least now
you have a valid excuse to rock those face-
engulfing sunglasses (or a welding mask, if
you're really paranoid) in every night club
you waltz into.
[Image courtesy of iGouGo] Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Rock Band 2 hands on, live
shots, Ion drum kit, first
impressions: woot!
By Joshua Fruhlinger (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:08:00 PM
Filed under: Gaming
If you're jonesing to get your Rock Band
2 on like we are, you'll be all over these
new shots of the game's upcoming
controllers that we got all grubby on today
at E3.
First, the new guitars not only look
better, but they will include some welcome
hardware tweaks. The new axe includes an
optical sensor that will make syncing the
game to your display a breeze. Rather than
go through that annoying tap..tap...tap
synchronization scheme, all you'll need to
do is hold up your controller to your
display and it will figure things out with
you based on your screen's refresh rate. In
addition, the new guitars have been
updated with slicker fret controls that make
it easier to slide from one to the other.
Meanwhile, the strum bar has been
tightened up a bit. No clicking, though --
the guys at Harmonix say no one "dreams
of playing a metronome" anyway. A dig at
Guitar Hero? Perhaps, but if you're looking
for some click feedback from your
controller, look elsewhere.
Gallery: Rock Band 2 Hands On and
Impressions
Continue reading Rock Band 2 hands on,
live shots, Ion drum kit, first impressions:
woot! Permalink| Email this| Comments
Valmet Automotive announces plans
to build Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid
By Donald Melanson (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:42:00 PM
Filed under: Transportation
It may still be squabbling with Tesla over
some allegedly stolen secrets, but it looks
like Fisker is still moving full steam ahead
with its Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid, with
Valmet Automotive now announcing its
intention to manufacturer the car en masse
in Finland. As Fisker itself had announced
way back when, they're expecting to churn
out 15,000 of the cars annually, with the
Billy Crystal named host of Make 'Em Laugh
By Kristin Sample (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:57:00 PM
Filed under: Celebrities, Documentary,
TCA Press Tour, Casting, Reality-Free
Thirteen/WNET and Ghost Light films
named Billy Crystal host of the new
documentary series Make 'Em Laugh: The
Funny Business of America. The six-hour
documentary, which will air in January
2009, will explore the tropes of American
comedy and chronicle its evolution.
first of 'em sent to land in North America
sometime in the fourth quarter of 2009,
and Europeans getting theirs shortly
thereafter in 2010. Apparently, Valmet was
chosen to manufacture the car after an
"extensive global search," with its location
in Finland in particular working in its favor
given that more than half of Fisker's cars
are expected to be sold outside of North
America.
[Thanks, Timo]
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
The comedian will appear in the opening
of each episode and introduce viewers to
the funniest moments in American
Gadgets* TV* 19
Panasonic loads Centrino
2 into Toughbook CF-52
/ CF-74
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 5:26:00 PM
Filed under: Laptops
We're beginning to wonder if Panny's
long-standing CF-52 and CF-74 will ever
be replaced, but so long as folks keep
biting, we suppose there's nothing wrong
with perpetual makeovers. As with nearly
every other laptop manufacturer,
Panasonic has also decided it prudent to
freshen up the aforesaid pair of
Toughbooks with larger hard drives,
802.11n WiFi, expanded graphics
capabilities and Intel's Centrino 2 platform.
Aside from that, you can still expect the
same rugged exterior, shock-mounted
HDD and spill-resistant keyboard, but
you'll pay dearly for those safeguards.
Both the 15.4-inch CF-52 and 13.3-inch
CF-74 will be available next month
starting at $1,949 and $3,199, respectively.
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
entertainment. Some of the comedic talents
that will be featured include: Charlie
Chaplin, Jack Benny, Abbott & Costello,
Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Sid Caesar,
Anne Beatts, Woody Allen, Larry
Wilmore, George Carlin, Richard Pryor,
Richard Lewis, Jon Stewart, and Chris
Rock.
Continue reading Billy Crystal named
host of Make 'Em Laugh
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
20 Gadgets* Web 2.0 TV*
Lenovo's SL, R, and T series ThinkPads
get the data sheet treatment
By Donald Melanson (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 11:18:00 AM
Filed under: Laptops
Lenovo provided most of the basic specs
for its new batch of ThinkPads when it
announced 'em yesterday but, if you want
to examine them right down to the very
last detail, Lenovo has now got you
covered with some data sheets for most the
Centrino 2-based laptops. That includes the
SL300, SL400 and SL500, the R400 and
Free Advertising on Mashable for Three Lucky Startups
By Adam Hirsch (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:40:24 PM
To celebrate the summer and our
SummerMash Tour, we are giving away
one full month of advertising to three
lucky startups in our new Startup Pricing
90×90 advertising zones. These zones were
specifically created for startups (under one
year old) to offer them more than
R500, and the T400 and T500, but not the
W series models, although those are really
just T series ThinkPads with added ATI
Mobility FireGL graphics and Display
Port. All set? Then dig into the PDFs
below.
Read- ThinkPad SL300, SL400, and
SL500
Read- ThinkPad R400 and R500
Read- ThinkPad T400 and T500
Permalink| Email this| Comments
affordable advertising.
For your chance to win leave the
following in the comments section:
URL/Company Name, 20 word description
and 20 words on why you think your
startup is right for the Mashable audience.
Winners will be selected at random
through a random integer Web app, please
leave a valid e-mail address. Submissions
due by Sunday, July 20th at 3 pm PT.
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar
Hero: World Tour to work with Rock
Band instruments
By Nilay Patel (Engadget)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 2:19:00 PM
Filed under: Gaming
Good news, plastic rockers -- Activision
announced at E3 today that its upcoming
Guitar Hero: World Tour game will work
with Rock Band's controllers, including the
drumkit, and that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
on Xbox 360 has received an update that
"should" make the game compatible with
Harmonix's axes. Nothing too wild on the
*To continue the celebrations, we are
offering 15% off through the month of July
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Aerosmith tip, as the guitars should just
work now ( finally!), but Activision's had
to do some work to make World Tour play
nice: the game is designed for a five-pad
drumkit, but it'll compress down to four to
work with Rock Band's set. See? Friends
all around. Is that so hard, guys?
Read- Guitar Hero: Aerosmith updated
Read- Guitar Hero: World Tour
Permalink| Email this| Comments
to all Startups in “public” operation for
under one year. Please contact me at
startup-ads (at) mashable [dott] com.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
FT.com Frees Up Content
Murdoch & the Housing Market. What
About Free WSJ?
Break.com Teams Up With Panache for
America's Got
Talent: Episode 305
By Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:32:00 PM
Filed under: Episode Reviews, America's
Got Talent
(S03E05) "You keep singing like that,
you are going to be all by yourself." - The
Hoff to Michelle
Another week of America's Got Talent,
another series of bad and good acts. I can't
wait for the Vegas Callback episodes
because the audition process is getting a
tad long for me. We still have at least two
episodes of auditions, one featuring the
MySpace acts, before we start getting
down to serious business and let our voice
be heard. Until then, we have to listen to
Michelle's voice...
Continue reading America's Got Talent:
Episode 305
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Video Ad Delivery
CBS Giving Free Wi-Fi to Manhattan
Facebook and Visa Team Up to Target
Small Businesses
We7’s Free Music Downloads Gets
Michael Moore’s Ad Dollars
SpiralFrog Signs Sony/ATV for More
Free Music
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
10 Reasons Why FriendFeed Will Beat Out the Competition
By Guest Writer (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 4:20:20 PM
This is a guest post by Aseem Kishore, a
technology enthusiast and lead blogger for
Online-Tech-Tips.
FriendFeed has come a long way in a
short amount of time. In the beginning, it
was just a fancy RSS aggregator with
commenting thrown into the mix.
However, over time, FriendFeed has added
a slew of great features which has lead
many to think that it will be the this year’s
Twitter (if it isn’t already).
The interesting aspect of FriendFeed is
its quick evolution from a lifestreaming
service to lifestreaming plus discussion
forum plus latest news plus search engine.
Here are 10 reasons why I think
FriendFeed will beat out their competition
if they keep innovating at their current
pace:
1. Noise Reduction– One of the main
gripes about FriendFeed in the beginning
was simply the sheer number of comments
and links that were being duplicated by all
the Twitter refugees. Also, at startup,
FriendFeed would plaster the same nine
prolific social media users (Scoble, Rubel,
etc) on the front page whenever a new
account was created causing the Friends
feed to be completely overwhelmed.
However, two great FriendFeed features
easily solved the problem: the hide
function and advanced filtering. The hide
function is extremely customizable in
FriendFeed and allows you to hide
individual entries, hide all entries from a
specific service (Flickr, Netflix, etc), hide
a specific user’s service, hide friends of a
friend updates, or hide all entries unless
they have comments or likes.
2. Breaking News– Like Twitter,
FriendFeed is fast-becoming a great way to
find out the latest breaking news or most
popular topics on the Web. With the
Project Runway: Let's Start from the Beginning (season premiere)
By Annie Wu (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 5:31:00 PM
Filed under: OpEd, Project Runway,
Episode Reviews(S05E01) Despite Bravo's
ridiculously shoddy half-attempts to
advertise the new season and my sour
disappointment in the last group designers,
release of the personalized
recommendations feature, you can find
entries posted by your friends based on
how interesting the rest of the network
finds them.
In this way, you can find the most
commented or bookmarked items quickly.
Currently it only works with your friends
network, but it will hopefully be expanded
to everyone so that you can see the most
popular items across the entire network.
3. Search Engine– With so many useful
links and comments in your Friend feed,
the service would be severely hampered
without the ability to search. Simply go to
the Advanced Search page, type a search
phrase (”Microsoft acquires”, etc) and
choose “Shared by everyone.”
You can search all services and users,
including Twitter and blog entries, or limit
the search to a specific service or specific
user. You can use the advanced search to
quickly find peers with similar interests,
such as all users who shared Flickr photos
of dogs or users who liked the latest
Britney Spears album. The search is
becoming ever more useful as more
content is added to the site.
4. Rooms- With the introduction of
Rooms in May, FriendFeed finally became
very useful to me. Rooms are places to
carry on conversations about specific
topics with a smaller number of people. It
can be used to carry on niche
conversations between like-minded people
or it can be used privately by a
development team or family and friends.
Another great way to reduce noise and get
the personalized information you want.
The number of rooms has increased
dramatically and the information you can
find in these rooms is simply amazing. As
FriendFeed continues to add more filtering
and recommendation services, the ability
to use the service for personalized
purposes has grown dramatically.
I tuned in for a fifth go at Project Runway.
Fingers crossed that I don't hate the world
when this is all over.
Before we jump into the episode itself, I
must rant. Yes, "must". As we all know,
Runway is moving from Bravo to Lifetime
after this season. I don't believe this is a
smart move for the show, and it looks like
Rooms can be used to reduce noise,
create a discussion forum, for link
aggregation, to plan events, and even for
technical support. I’m sure we’ll see many
other uses of rooms in the future.
5. Distributed Comments- Way back in
March, FriendFeed released a feature
whereby you could simply check a box and
any FriendFeed comment would be sent to
Twitter in a single step. It’s a powerful
feature that combines the best features of
both services into a single interface. Since
many bigger conversations are moving to
services like Twitter and FriendFeed, this
assures that the conversation will continue
no matter which service you use.
And even though less conversations are
happening on blogs, there are still many
comments on FriendFeed about blog posts.
Luckily, someone created a plugin for both
Wordpress and Blogger that allows blogs
to integrate FriendFeed comments into
blog posts. Readers can also comment on
and like your posts directly from a form
displayed under the FriendFeed comment.
This allows comments and discussions to
flourish anywhere, not just on the
FriendFeed service.
6. Two-way API- What’s really going to
help boost FriendFeed past the competition
is their powerful API, which allows
developers to extend the features and
functions of the aggregation service. The
API exposes just about every function of
the site and allows data to be read from or
written back to FriendFeed.
The API has a very “open” philosophy
and will help the site grow dramatically as
data can be added to the site from not only
their currently supported services, but also
Bravo is pretty annoyed about it too.
Instead of overloading the media with
from many other smaller sites. The API
will also make it a breeze to continue two
way conversations on mobile devices, such
as the iPhone. You can also add
FriendFeed to your Facebook Page,
iGoogle homepage, or even to your blog as
a widget.
7. Stats, data, and more- There are many
lifestreaming applications out there, but
FriendFeed does it so well and
simplistically, that you get addicted to it.
It’s like Quicken or MS Money, but for
your online life rather than your finances. I
love Quicken (more recently Mint)
because you get to see your finances
broken down into nice little categories,
figures, and numbers.
FriendFeed doesn’t have a ton of stats
yet, but it’s cool to see that 70% of my
online activity is from my blog, 10% from
Netflix, 3% from Picasa, and so on. It’s
also nice to see a quick overview of people
I have found interesting and people who
find me interesting based on comments and
likes. As more services are integrated into
FriendFeed, you’ll be able to get a
snapshot of your entire online activity from
one location. Cool!
8. Imaginary Friends- This is another
feature that I just love about FriendFeed
because it can be used in so many powerful
ways that go beyond simple lifestreaming.
Using Imaginary Friends, you can
basically create a stream for anything, such
as tracking RSS feeds, inbound links to
your site, Twitter replies, and lots more.
The above-mentioned are more advanced
uses, but you can also use the feature to
simply track when a friend who is not on
FriendFeed publishes a new photo to Flickr
or submits a link to Digg, etc.
9. Peer Trust & Search- This is not really
a feature of FriendFeed, but a concept that
seems to be a possible future to search:
easily searchable content created by people
you trust. Yes you can search Google for
promotional material weeks and weeks in
advance to get hype in the system like they
usually do, they didn't release designer
bios and photos until days before the
premiere. Plus, they've posted a full
episode guide online, revealing all the
guest judges. The season is barely off the
ground and Bravo is insanely bitter that
Web 2.0 TV* 21
the latest trends in your industry or you can
get on FriendFeed and have discussions,
find links, read news/posts and do lots
more with the people who are actually in
that industry and can give more relevant
content than Google. Which is better?
Obviously, it can never replace a search
engine, but complementing normal search
results with recommendations from trusted
peers seems like a worthwhile idea.
10. Innovation- Finally, I think
FriendFeed will beat out their competitors
simply because they are quick to innovate.
It’s one of the few online services I’ve
seen that roll out new features so quickly.
From search to personalized
recommendations to rooms to the API, if
FriendFeed continues at this pace, we can
except it’s usefulness to increase
exponentially.
FriendFeed definitely also has it’s share
of problems and limitations and that’s
something that should be discussed in the
comments, but overall I think it’s going to
change the way we interact online, just like
blogs, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter
did before it. What are your thoughts on
FriendFeed? FriendFeed company profile
provided by TradeVibes
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
FriendFeed Launches Search
FriendFeed Recommendations? Who Are
You Likely to Like?
FriendFeed Gets $5M, Launches to the
Public
Former Googlers Team Up to Launch
FriendFeed
FriendFeed Brings Twitter Back
Facebook Becomes FriendFeed;
Launches Commenting On Mini-Feed
Items
FriendFeed Launches Rooms. Moving
Towards Semantic Web?
Runway isn't its baby anymore.
Continue reading Project Runway: Let's
Start from the Beginning (season premiere)
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
22 Web 2.0 TV*
Video Blogging Is Not The Frontier You Might Expect
By Steven Hodson (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:50:20 PM
Text style blogging that has become the
everyday common expectation of the way
blogging is, has been going steady now for
the better part of ten years. Now we have
things like Twitter, which many refer to as
micro-blogging and is, regardless of things
like Twhirl, still a text based medium.
Even FriendFeed, which is more of an
aggregator but many people seem to
consider yet another style of micro-
blogging, is text based even though you
can add pictures or video to your stream.
For a while podcasting was heralded as
the next big thing to take over from text-
based blogging but it has had more of an
up and down acceptance factor. It hasn’t
replaced traditional blogging by any
stretch of the imagination, although it is
recently seeing a resurgence of popularity.
When podcasting came along and started
making its way out of a very small niche it
was proclaimed by many to be the next
generation of blogging, but to date it hasn’t
proved to be any threat at all.
As anything to do with technology there
are always bright shiny new things that
captivate us and get us rushing around like
silly little fools telling anyone who will
listen that a paradigm shift is going to
happen – we are going to find our
information flow radically changed forever
because something new is on the horizon.
Such was the case with video blogging,
which really gained almost mainstream
attention with iJustine and 24 hour video
lifecasting. We were being told that things
in the blogosphere and the Internet in
general would never be the same again.
Like much hyperbole this has once again
been proven to be wrong with video
becoming an even more niche player in the
blogosphere than podcasting is. That
doesn’t change the fact that some people
get really excited about the idea of video
becoming a more persuasive method of
blog communication. After all, with the
proliferation of free video streaming sites
like Qik, UStream and Stickam it only
seems natural that bloggers would be more
than willing to pick up these new tools and
run with it. The reality is that the most
video you will see on blogs are embedded
YouTube videos rather than any really
serious blogger produced videos.
This excitement about video blogging
was best expressed by Ben Parr on
FriendFeed last night when he posted the
following:
“Weblogging will begin to fade as a way
to differentiate yourself — the next era of
personal promotion is going to be through
video blogging.”
This resulted in a really good
conversation by many really smart people
of which I have quoted a few below
No, I can read faster than listening to
someone rattle on about nothing, while
trying to be cute. - LPH
I disagree too. The next era of personal
promotion is going to be through
FriendFeeding, which includes both video
and text blogs. - Robert Scoble
Robert: +1 to you and adding a voice
blogging "speech2text" system. (that
works properly) - Erhan Erdogan
Nope. I prefer to read, and I prefer to
write. A LOT of people are exhibitionists
enough to write publicly, but NOT
exhibitionists enough to talk on voice, not
to mention to go video. Another thing you
have to consider is that while writing has
not got an accent, talk has. (Funny fact:
majority of the world is not a native
English speaker) And while a lot of people
want to talk to a big audience, and that
means English, over voice it is way more
difficult than through writing - Roland
Hesz
[…]
while I believe that video is the next big
thing in the personal blogging space,
blogging won’t die: text is still the easiest
way to consume content - Duncan Riley
i am loving videblogging. It has already
helped iterasi win a start up contest that
resulted in two free tickets and exhibit
space at Supernova. - Alex Williams
Nah its not for me, never click the play
button. I have too much living still to do. -
Mel.Buckpitt
@Robert I know bloggers who write to be
heard, but would NEVER put their voice
and face behind their blogs as it is too
personal and painful. They just need a
place to tell the world and got some nice
support. - Roland Hesz
While this might be considered a rather
level-headed conversation over the idea,
much of what I have seen in other places
can range from boring to the ever present it
sucks. After all, just ask what the majority
of people think of Robert Scoble’s videos
and you’ll get an earful over how they are
too long and boring.
For me this perfectly illustrates the crux
of the problem and why if we keep trying
to mold video to fit the style of text
blogging it will go nowhere. It won’t even
surpass the growing popularity of podcasts,
which in my opinion are being totally
under-utilized because again we are trying
to mold them in the same image as text
blogging. I took some time one evening to
have a look at the Scoble video series, but
only after I had done my best to clear away
any preconceived notions of what I thought
video blogging was supposed to be like –
and you know what? They were enjoyable.
Not all of them, but for the most part I
found myself enjoying them and going
back to watch another.
Video is and can be a very powerful and
exciting medium to use, but for it to ever
move beyond its current narrow niche we
all need to make a mind shift about what
video blogging is supposed to be about.
Right now the majority of video blogging
is done following the typical model of text
blogging with Robert being one of the few
that has stepped beyond this format. Then
when it comes to watching them we slip
into the mode of being a blog reader and as
such, we find things like podcasts and
videos to be a distraction because we are
typically in a rush and reading about
something is quicker.
Quicker is fine – it has its place, but not
when it comes to video. Consumers have
to realize that this new medium on blogs
isn’t the same thing anymore. This is an
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
added value feature that is there, if done
right, to provide you with more in depth
information on a much more personal
level. Video is an added dimension that
requires us to become more involved than
just a passing cursory glance like we
would give to text.
Producers need to stop trying to
shoehorn video format into a text format –
they are totally different and when you do
this you are shortchanging yourself as well
as your viewers. In this past weekend’s
Elite Tech News podcast this is one of the
subjects that came up and one of the points
was that if we try and keep the same
format as what we have on text blogs the
whole video format will tank and tank
badly. The key is that on both sides we
have to totally change our perspective and
mindset.
I really see a place for video blogging,
but not the type that the majority of people
would assume it to be like. We need to
think beyond the blogging box and become
really engaged with what we are doing,
because we could create something that
will attract viewers. This isn’t a case of
doing blogging but with pictures, because
at that point all the negative terms about it
will apply. If we do indeed reach out and
try something new video blogging could
very well be the exciting and rewarding
new territory of social media
communication.
---
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Magnify’s Really Cool Video and Image
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Revver Plug-in for Wordpress
CoverItLive Now Lets You Add Qik
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Hictu Adds Video Posts to its Micro-
Blogging Service
ICTV Changes Name To ActiveVideo
Networks, Broadens Vision
Utterz Adds Audio/Video Direct
Uploads for Podcasting
Millions of MySpacers Rejoice:
Photobucket Videos are Back
Scrubs panel: funny lines,
backhanded remarks, and a
"name" for the Janitor -
TCA Report
By Joel Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:21:00 PM
Filed under: Scrubs, TCA Press Tour,
Reality-Free
By far, the funniest panel of ABC's first
day at the press tour -- one that had Jimmy
Kimmel question the network president
and had Ashton Kutcher and his fellow
producers bring up critics to play a
miniature version of Opportunity Knocks--
was the one for Scrubs, which will air its
eighth season on the network.
A panel with Zach Braff, Donald Faison,
Sarah Chalke, and John C. McGinley
couldn't help but be funny, right? But if
you've ever read interviews from the show,
you'd know that creator Bill Lawrence is
usually the one who steals the show. This
time around, though, he had an assist from
Neil Flynn, who had a few good zingers
thrown in for good measure. One of them
came when someone asked him if he
knows the name of his character, which for
seven years has always been known as
"The Janitor."
More after the jump, including an
episode spoiler...
Continue reading Scrubs panel: funny
lines, backhanded remarks, and a "name"
for the Janitor - TCA Report
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
SummerMash San Francisco Kept the Party Going
By Karen Hartline (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 8:22:20 PM
Mashable’s second stop on the U.S.
Summer Tour was definitely the place to
be! We named the time and place and San
Francisco showed up in full force. It was a
great mix of people, both new faces and
those we already call friends, all mashing
together in one place; literally as we
packed The Mighty to capacity.
Of course, we couldn’t have done the
SummerMash San Francisco without the
support of our local sponsors, speakTECH,
PubMatic, and Yuku. Our Tour Sponsors,
Sun Startup Essentials, Yoono and
MySites, rock and we can’t wait to make
the next stop with them in Los Angeles.
Major kudos to Stickam, for live streaming
the event.
Thanks again to everyone for coming out
and joining us. The Mashable team had a
great time. From the looks of the pictures
that were taken (see our Flickr set), it looks
like you did too! Feel like tagging it up?
Check out the pics on the San Francisco
SummerMash Event page.
We’re also on tour with
SocialMediaCamp sponsored by Yoono
and organized by Erica O’Grady. Stickam
had the chance at SummerMash Seattle to
sit down with Erica O’Grady, the multi-
talented Social Media expert:
You can check out this and all the other
interviews from our SummerMash stops on
upcoming Mashable Conversations
episodes.
Check out the other cities on the U.S.
Summer Tour:
Los Angeles| Austin| Miami| Boston|
New York City
Local Sponsors:
‘ PubMatic is the world’s first service that
increases Web publishers’ revenue by
automating and optimizing ad serving
decisions.’
The Yuku platform makes it easy for
anyone to create an online community
around topics that they’re passionate about.
Speckly Searches Multiple BitTorrent Trackers [BitTorrent]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 4:00:00 AM
Web site Speckly is a barebones
BitTorrent search engine that scours
With a suite of message board, social
networking and video and photo sharing
applications, Yuku currently powers over
50,000 websites on topics that include fan
sites about reality television, retro
sneakers, and celebrity news & gossip.
Create your own Yuku now or join one
that interests you.
‘ speakTECH provides User Experience
and technical consulting for some of the
top social networking companies in the
world.’
Prize Sponsor:
‘ The SXSW Interactive Festival features
five days of exciting panel content and
amazing parties. Attracting digital
creatives as well as visionary technology
entrepreneurs, the event celebrates the best
minds and the brightest personalities of
emerging technology.’
Special Book Signing:
‘ Personality Not Included: Get the
multiple popular torrent trackers and
returns the results in a simple interface. In
fact, you'll notice the site's design is a
direct knock off of Google, but it has a few
subtle tweaks for BitTorrent. Like
ultimate guide to marketing with
authenticity from Rohit
Bhargava…featuring a forward by Guy
Kawasaki.’
Local Media Partners:
“Bernardo’s List is an email newsletter
about upcoming events for entrepreneurs,
investors and tech execs in New York and
other cities nationwide. Signup is free at
http://www.bernardoslist.com!”
‘ Social Radius is an award-winning
social media marketing firm, specializing
in SEO/SMO, thought leadership
platforms/social media creation,
viral/syndication, outreach and strategy.’
Tour Sponsors
The Sun(TM) Startup Essentials program
is designed to help startup businesses off
the ground by providing access to industry-
leading systems at deep discounts, free
world-class software and web-based
training, discounts on partner hosting
previously mentioned torrent aggregator
PizzaTorrent, Speckly also allows you to
sort results by file type, and according to
weblog Mashable, the ad-free site will
remain ad-free—an accomplishment for
services, and more.
Yoono’s mission is to make the social
web accessible, easy and fun for everyone.
Its newly expanded service socializes your
browser, helps you manage your digital
life and brings the best of the web into one
single browser-based application. Today,
1.3 million users are leveraging Yoono.
Yoono is hosting Social Media Camp at
each tour stop which brings together the
top local names in Blogging, Podcasting,
Live Streaming, and New Media to
participate in an open workshop about the
power of social media.
MySites is a single place for all your
online needs. You can create and
customize a website, save and share any
media, decide who can view it, embed
anywhere, and use any device.
Touring Video Partner
Launched in February 2006, Stickam
emerged as the first and largest Web site
the often pop-up-ridden world of
BitTorrent trackers. If you need more
robust filtering, we'd recommend
PizzaTorrent, but if simplicity is what
you're looking for, Speckly looks like a
Web 2.0 Tech Tips* 23
dedicated to live interactive video
streaming. Stickam’s cutting edge
technology delivers millions of streams
each day, reaching over two million
registered users. They are continuing on
the path of social interactive TV by adding
features that nurture its growing
community and tech-savvy broadcasters.
Whether you are famous for 15 or 150,000,
Stickam.com is where you will find your
friends and fans. See and be seen at
Stickam.com, The Live Community.
Exclusive Ticketing Partner
“ Eventbrite is the world’s largest self-
service online ticketing site. Eventbrite
makes it easy for anyone to sell-out an
event.”
Online Community Partner
‘ EventVue helps conference attendees
meet the people that matter to them before
they even arrive at an event.’
Tour Media Partner
“ Thrillist is a free daily email that sifts
through the crap to bring you the best of
what your city’s hiding. Each day, you’ll
get one quick email with info on the best
food, drinks, gear, services, and events.
Whatever it is, we promise it won’t suck.
Get on the list.”
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
Get Your Startup on Mashable (If You’re
in a SummerMash City)
Qik Mobile Live Streaming Straight to
Mashable Events Pages
SummerMash San Francisco Streaming
Live [SummerMash Tour 2008]
U.S SummerMash Tour Opens In Seattle
- Live Video Feed
Thank You Seattle! SummerMash
Rocked
“Personality Not Included” Book Signing
This Week at SummerMash SF and Los
Angeles
Get in Free to Mashable and Chi.mp’s
Evolve Web 2.0 After Party
winner.
Speckly[via Mashable]
24 Web 2.0
Bluepulse Mobile Messaging Network
Introduces iPhone App
By Paul Glazowski (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:29:46 PM
Bluepulse, a social network geared
exclusively for easy and free messaging
among Web-enabled mobile phones, is
expanding on its list of compatible devices
today with the launch of an application
designed to give iPhone owners a custom-
fit window to send messages quickly to
any number of friends.
The application, like many other social
networking-specific developments listed in
Apple’s App Store, is free to download. If
you’re not yet signed up with Bluepulse,
you’ can do so directly from the device,
and you can get started as quickly as
you’re able to choose a screen name,
password and enter your phone number.
Upon registering, you’re told to expect an
SMS message noting a code that will
verify the number provided. In my
experience, the wait time for an SMS is
roughly 5 minutes. Why SMS? Presumably
because many devices used to connect to
Bluepulse are not particularly savvy with
mobile mail.
The application is very much like its
predecessor (first launched in 2006), in
both function and presentation. Everything
is centered around your contact list and
your ability to message as many or as few
friends as you wish. A bit like Twitter, if
JibJab Debuts its Election Video Carnival for 2008
By Paul Glazowski (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 1:41:45 PM
They’re a downright rarity, but JibJab
animations are treasured by millions when
they hit the Web. The ode to 2004’s US
presidential election, “ This Land is Your
Land” (view below), is said to have
garnered some 80 million views prior to
the official vote in November. Now there’s
a new two-minute clip to enjoy for 2008,
called “ Time for Some Campaignin’,”
based on the Bob Dylan song “The times
they are a-changin’.” Does it best its
you will, but with more control over who
you’re talking to. (Note: If you want to, a
connection to Twitter can be made through
the application’s settings menu.)
After having given Bluepulse a brief test,
I would have to say it isn’t my first choice
for mobile social networking. While I
approve wholeheartedly of its easy ability
to help you send messages to whomever
you wish without having to splurge on
SMS messages or go through the rigmarole
of email, its presentation isn’t the most
elegant I’ve seen come about in the last
few days. It will certainly feel familiar to
BluePulse’s established membership. All
things considered, however, other
applications of the mobile multi-messaging
stripe listed in the App Store since its
launch have impressed me more.
There’s a bit of an odd arrangement
within the application, too, that presents an
option to enter contacts both via a method
akin to the way BluePulse has long
allowed and by way of the iPhone’s own
address book. And they’re not placed
adjacent to one another, either. The first is
at the top of the main page, and the second
is among the lower menu options. A bit
predecessor of four years past?
The brothers Spiridellis, who head the 35
-man JibJab operation, think not, but with
a little help from a much more socially
networked online space this time around, a
new record for the company may be set for
the fall season.
Also interesting to note, JibJab last year
introduced for the first time the ability for
viewers to upload personal headshots to be
included in videos through a service called
Starring You!, part of JibJab’s Sendables e
-card adjunct. And with the launch of the
“Time for Some Campaignin’” video,
strange, if you ask me, but making it like
so might help ease “the transition” for pre-
existing network members.
Bluepulse also describes an ability to
take photos from within the application,
but doing so is hardly convenient. The
option is burrowed within the ‘Stuff’ sub-
menu beneath the ‘Me’ tab.
In all, I wouldn’t completely write off
BluePulse’s iPhone option just yet. The
company, based in San Mateo, Calif., has
managed to attract quite a bit of activity on
its network without delving into Apple’s
handset directly. Which is certainly
commendable. But if you’re seeking the
best of the best, I would say Bluepulse
isn’t one to get the nod.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
BluePulse Makes US Debut
BluePulse Does the Flirting For You.
“Recommended” Friends Now Live.
World’s Simplest iPhone App
iPhone to Launch in Germany on T-
Mobile
3G iPhone Confirmed for 2008
Mundu Optimizes Multi-Client Chat
Tool for the iPhone
Apple Making a Directory for iPhone
Apps?
they’ve made it possible for viewers to put
together a custom election clip for anyone
to distribute to friends. Millions of
Sendables have been distributed, according
to JibJab, with templates for birthdays,
love notes, and casual humor. This new
option will likely prove popular as well.
Send a JibJab Sendables® eCard Today!
Here’s the video from 2004:
How do you think the two compare?
JibJab company profile provided by
TradeVibes
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
CoverItLive Now Lets You
Add Qik Mobile Video to
Your Live Blogs
By Kristen Nicole (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 3:45:13 PM
Live-blogging tool CoverItLive has
released an upgrade this week that is truly
helpful for bloggers in the social media
space. If you’ve got one of those handy
phones that supports Qik, or you do live
video blogging with Mogulus or ustream,
you can now drop your feeds into your
CoverItLive window and broadcast it to
the world, along with your live blogging
coverage.
This builds on CoverItLive’s existing
option for dropping a YouTube video into
your CoverItLive window, though the
formatting has been improved (with the
video appearing in the top right corner of
the window) and users can expand the
video with a separate window if they’d
like. The major benefit of being able to
include these videos into your live
blogging coverage is the streamlining for
the blogging multi-tasker, which is what
CoverItLive has always been good at.
With the added support for Qik and the
others, such multitasking is made even
more simple, in a very focused manner for
those multimedia-oriented content
producers. It also centralizes your content
for distribution purposes, and makes
consumption easier for your audience.
What’s more, is that this can become a
Social Networking Blog:
JibJab Takes $3 Million in Fresh
Funding
JibJab’s Hilarious Video Greeting Cards
Make Your Own JibJab Movies
Brain Dead Republicans & Zombie
Democrats Duke it Out on JibJab
In Case You’re Still Not Ready for
Valentines Day… JibJab and FaceSpace
Truveo’s Election Video Site is Sooo
Late.
YouTube US Election Page Adds More
Sources To Video Catalogue
collaborative feature, either allowing you
and fellow colleagues to contribute video
streams to a single CoverItLive window, or
accept video feeds from audience members
and have interactive event coverage from
that vantage point. The possibilities of
multimedia blogging and distribution have
been stepped up with this new feature, and
I’m sure we here at Mashable will be
taking advantage of the new features in the
near future.
CoveritLive company profile provided
by TradeVibes
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
CoverItLive’s Interactive Widget for
Bloggers
Twitter Integration Coming to
CoverItLive
Digg Townhall Liveblogged Here
Live Blog: What MySpace Knows
Liveblogging from Web 2.0 Expo: Chat
with Max Levchin, Founder of Slide
Live Blog: What Google Knows about
Spam
Matt Mullenweg Announces Related
Posts and Themes for Photo Bloggers
Portfolio Sharing Site
Dripbook Launches with
Promotional Tools for
Artists
By Kristen Nicole (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 1:38:04 PM
PORTFOLIO page 25
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
PORTFOLIO
continued from page 24
Dripbook, a portfolio creation and sharing
network for visual media artists, launched
in beta late last year. Eight months later,
Dripbook is emerging from beta, offering
everyone the chance to request an invite to
the service.
When I reviewed Dripbook during its
beta phase last year, I noted the simplistic
and easy-to-navigate design, and also
appreciated some of the features that took
an artist’s time into consideration, such as
the multiple file upload option that allowed
you to perform other actions on the site
while waiting for media to be uploaded
into your portfolio. The biggest downfall
of Dripbook, however, was its closed-wall
architecture that made it difficult to share
content beyond the Dripbook network,
limiting the promotional and marketing
capabilities of Dripbook as a service.
With the full release today, however,
Dripbook has changed some of that,
layering in sharing options as one of its
main features presented to users and artists
alike. Public portfolios can be shared
across a handful of bookmarking and
microblogging sites, and the URL is also
provided so that you can direct others to
the public portfolio as well. Dripbook also
offers artists dynamic widgets and RSS
TotSpot Adds New Features, Still Making Your Kids True Early
Adopters
By Kristen Nicole (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 4:43:39 PM
As one of the few parents on the
Mashable team, Mark had a more unique
perspective on photo-sharing network
TotSpot than myself. It’s great to see a
family-oriented site geared towards the
early adopter crowd nonetheless, given the
ease with which content can be aggregated
from across the web and distributed
through one’s channel on TotSpot. Now
that the team has had time to benefit from
feeds, as well as exporting options for a
custom, Flash-based portfolio that can be
shared across the Web.
Other new features include private
messaging, genre blogs, and genre and geo
-location based searches, all of which help
nurture the community Dripbook is
creating. The most important feature
upgrades in my opinion are the sharing
capabilities Dripbook has added, which are
key to anyone’s Web-based promotion
across varied social media sites, especially
if Dripbook (as is with most sites) isn’t
presenting a marketing kit for members to
use to their advantage.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
Dripbook’s Uniform Approach to Online
Portfolios for Creatives
Web 2.0 Invites for October 28th, 2007
Web 2.0 Invites for November 5th, 2007
Web 2.0 Invites for November 7th, 2007
Web 2.0 Invites for October 31st, 2007
Metrofunk is Ning for Trendsetters
iPhone Arrives in the UK and Germany
Today
the feedback of avid early adopters like
Mark, and a reported 8,500 other users,
TotSpot has launched its public beta in the
past few weeks, and is rolling out several
new features today.
Public pages top the new feature list,
which makes showing off your kids’
photos and videos that much easier.
Privacy settings are still in place, so you
can make a page private or password
protect it (to keep things in the family).
Interestingly enough, founder Adam Katz
told us that this feature came as a request
Building Successful Startups in Stream Your Digital
Israel: An Interview with LightSpeed Music Over the
Venture Partners [Israel Media Tour] Internet
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
By Ayelet Noff (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:30:13 PM
Company Name: Lightspeed Venture
Partners
Founded in Israel: 2006
Israel Location: Herzliya Pituach
I had the chance to interview Yoni
Cheifetz, a Partner at Lightspeed Venture
Partners, a global VC fund investing in
Israeli startups. Headquartered in Silicon
Valley, Lightspeed has offices in China,
India, Israel and the US. Recently
Lightspeed raised an $800 million fund
and introduced a new partner, David
Gussarsky, to their team as a Managing
director.
Two years ago Lightspeed partnered with
Gemini to create the Internet Lab, a
venture designed to give seed funding to
early-stage Israeli startups. They have
invested in six companies so far as part of
the Lab. The first of these companies was
Outbrain, creator of a content rating and
recommendations widget. Through the Lab
they have also backed StyleShake, a do-it-
yourself fashion company headquartered in
the UK that allows users to design their
own clothing and have it sent to them;
Vestopia, a resource for investors; and
Bahu, a social network for people under
from users, most of which have heard
about TotSpot through the company’s
Twitter stream, proving yet again
TotSpot’s appeal in the early adopter
crowd and its ongoing dedication to both
[How To]
25.
In our interview below, Yoni and I
discuss the Israeli startups Lightspeed has
invested in as well as what he considers
important for startups to be successful.
Ayelet Noff, also known as blogger
Blonde 2.0, is a social marketing strategist
and consultant who has been an influential
force in the Israeli tech scene for many
years. Noff specializes in helping
companies strategically market their
brands online.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
Asklaila Adds $10 Million Funding
ComScore Files for $86 Million IPO
MyBuys Raises $10 Million to Help
Online Stores Sell You Stuff
Fixya Lands Another $6M for Electronic
Q&A Site
Mobile Browser Skyfire Gets $13
Million in Series B Funding
Terrorists Using Google Earth to Target
Israel
Announcing MashBash Tel Aviv and
Israel Media Tour
aggregation and redistribution of content.
Other new features include custom
TotSpot themes (it’s like branding for your
babies!), and the ability to organize your
photos across albums. I imagine this last
new feature is the most important for
TotSpot users, as it allows for a better
experience overall, given that TotSpot is a
media-sharing site in the end.
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
Social Networking Blog:
Totspot Teaches My Children About
Web 2.0 Tech Tips* 25
Submitted at 7/16/2008 7:00:00 AM
The Wired How-To Wiki details how to
stream music from your home computer or
a web host to any PC over the internet. The
guide suggests several methods for
creating playlists, including M3U, XSPF,
and PLS playlists that point to your online
tunes and stream them to any application
you use open the playlist. Depending on
what format you use, you can stream your
playlist of choice with anything from
iTunes and Windows Media Player to the
Yahoo Music Jukebox and more. If you
don't feel like putting in all that effort to
roll your own solution, check out other
sites and tools like previously mentioned
JukeFly, SlimServer, and Orb.
Stream Your Music Online[Wired How-
To Wiki]
DataPortability [invites]
Windows Live Messenger Malware
Forces Upgrade for Users
How To Lose Your Users and Kill Your
Web 2.0 Company: Zoto
37Signals Releases Backpack Update
Upgrade Time: 16 Services So Cheap it’s
a Shame Not to Pay
iTunes’ DRM-free Music Now Available
Me.dium Adds Support For Songbird
Media Player, Firefox 3
26 TV* Tech Tips*
So You Think You Can
Dance: Top 10 Perform
By Jason Hughes (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 5:44:00 PM
Filed under: Episode Reviews, So You
Think You Can Dance(S04E16) Well,
what do you think about that? Before the
show even began the Top 10 has changed
with hip-hop dancer Comfort coming into
replace Jessica. Apparently, Jessica
suffered an injury that forced her to
withdraw from the competition. Before the
show began we didn't know any more
specific details, so I wasn't sure if it was a
physical injury or a psychological one at
all the verbal abuse she's taken during her
stint as Will's partner.
Luckily, another change this week is the
established partnerships. Gone is
Twitchington and from here on out we get
rotating partners along with changing
dance styles. It's at this point, with your
Top 10, that it's time to separate the truly
gifted dancers from the ones who are only
good because their partner is good (like the
judges thought about Jessica. Damn, I
guess we'll never find out now). And now
Big Brother: Eviction #1 and HOH #1
By Jackie Schnoop (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 5:15:00 PM
Filed under: OpEd, Big Brother (US),
Episode Reviews, Episode Recaps
(S10E03)"I'm dumbfounded. My alliance
has gone down in flames." - Dan
Tonight's Big Brother 10 live eviction
show felt a bit like a finale. Well, for one
houseguest, it was a finale. But I'm
referring to the live audience outside of the
house. When Julie Chen mentioned it, I
PC Wizard Analyzes and Benchmarks Your PC [Featured Windows Download]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 6:00:00 AM
Windows only: Free application PC
Wizard is a portable tool that analyzes and
benchmarks your PC. At its most basic, PC
it doesn't matter who the judges hate
because from here the only vote that
matters is yours. No more "bottom three"
leading to a judges' choice. Lowest vote
means a quick trip home so pay attention
and get it right!
Continue reading So You Think You
Can Dance: Top 10 Perform
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
recalled it was indeed that way in the first
season. However, it still came across as a
bit odd even though I was aware it would
Wizard gives you an in-depth look at your
hardware and system specs. But the app
has a surprisingly rich feature set beyond
that, including a password recovery tool
for apps like Outlook in the System
Information tool and a slew of cool
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
ABC president: We're
prioritizing returning shows, and
Heigl is staying - TCA Report
By Joel Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 11:25:00 AM
Filed under: Industry, Lost, Scrubs,
Grey's Anatomy, TCA Press Tour, Pushing
Daisies, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy
Money, Eli Stone, Reality-Free After
Jimmy Kimmel left the room, ABC
Entertainment Steve McPherson got on
with the business of facing the press at his
executive session. I kicked it off with a
question about Scrubs, following up on
what Bill Lawrence told me in May about
a possible "next generation" ninth season.
"We do think there's an opportunity after
(this eighth season)," said McPherson. "If
any or all the cast is a part of that, I think Real World alum
there's a growth (opportunity) there. It's a
show that, despite being moved around
into like 17 time periods and really never
network is only debuting a few new shows
(none of which had pilots that the network running for
thought were suitable for preview) this fall.
being given the marketing support, has
really performed unbelievably well on
Continue reading ABC president: We're
prioritizing returning shows, and Heigl is
Congress
NBC." He went on to say that they hope "it staying - TCA Report By Erin Martell (TV Squad)
won't be a one-season situation." Permalink| Email this| | Comments Submitted at 7/16/2008 12:06:00 PM
Other than that, most of the conversation
revolved around the network's returning Filed under: Other Reality Shows, News,
shows, which makes sense, since the Celebrities I usually associate Real World
cast members with drunken barfights,
threeways, and tearful meltdowns--but
politics? That's a first. Kevin Powell,
be happening. I don't know. I think I'd former Real World reality star, is running
rather be in the studio audience for The for Congress in Brooklyn's 10th District.
Late Show with David Letterman and be Old-timers like myself remember Kevin
entertained just a bit more. It could just be from the show's very first season, back
me, I guess. when the cast members weren't equal parts
Read on past the jump for my review of hot and crazy.
tonight's show. Powell's post-reality career has set him
Continue reading Big Brother: Eviction apart from the typical fame-seeking MTV
#1 and HOH #1 celebs. According to his campaign website,
he's written seven books and is a
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
successful lecturer and activist. That
certainly beats stints on The Surreal Life
and the Real World/Road Rules Challenge.
Continue reading Real World alum
running for Congress
benchmarking tools. The benchmarks thumb drive. PC Wizard is freeware, Permalink| Email this| | Comments
measure everything from your processor Windows only.
and RAM to hard drive performance and PC Wizard[via Download Squad]
even MP3 compression speeds. As a
cherry on top, PC Wizard is available in a
portable version you can carry on your
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Another gladiator announced
By Kristin Sample (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 1:58:00 PM
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Game
Show, Casting American Gladiators
announced a new cast member today --
"The Beast." He'll be there for the semi-
finals. The final 12 contenders will have to
deal with this "monster" (that's the term
from the press release) to get to the
ultimate prize.
Those of you who have watched the
show know it's really the reverse treadmill
thingie that poses the biggest obstacle
between any contender and his/her victory.
But The Beast should terrify a few of the
hopefuls. He stands at seven-feet-tall and
weighs 318 lbs. From the picture, you can
Big Brother 10: Live feeds report -
July 16
By Jackie Schnoop (TV Squad)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 11:03:00 AM
Filed under: OpEd, Big Brother (US) I
feel so guilty. I have a record for never
posting false information. I was duped by
the show's production staff placing the
veto necklace by Jerry's picture and then
focusing a camera on it right after the feeds
went live Sunday night. At least I can take
consolation in the fact that most live feed
reporters made the same error and there are
screen shots online supporting our
conclusion that Jerry had won the first
POV.
It won't happen again as we usually get
the feeds with someone wearing the
necklace on comp days. Read on past the
Are You Living Beyond Your Means? [Reader Poll]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 9:00:00 AM
Claiming personal savings rates are the
lowest they've been since the Great
Depression, Yahoo Finance sets out to
identify five signs that you're living
beyond your means. For example: More
Than 28% of Income Goes To Your
House: Calculate what percentage of your
see that 200 of those pounds are in his
neck.
Continue reading Another gladiator
announced
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
jump for spoilers (true ones) from inside
the Big Brother 10 house.
Continue reading Big Brother 10: Live
feeds report - July 16
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
monthly income goes toward your
mortgage, property taxes and insurance. If
it's more than 28% of your gross income,
then you are likely in over your head.
Photo by AMagill. Why is 28% the magic
number? Historically, conservative lenders
have used the 28% threshold because their
experience has told them that this is the
rate at which the average person can get
by, make their mortgage payments and still
Why You're Better Off Avoiding the
iPhone [Iphone 2.0]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 7/16/2008 5:00:00 AM
If you're a free software lover who's
concerned about your privacy and the
limitations of DRM, you don't want an
iPhone. Amidst Apple's iPhone advertising
blitz helped along by positively bubbly
media coverage, the Free Software
Foundation calls out the dark sides of the
new iPhone.
• iPhone completely blocks free software.
Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who
becomes the sole authority over what can
and can't be on everyone's phones.
• iPhone endorses and supports Digital
Restrictions Management (DRM)
technology.
• iPhone exposes your whereabouts and
provides ways for others to track you
without your knowledge.
• iPhone won't play patent- and DRM-
free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora.
Note: When the FSF refers to "free
software," it doesn't mean the free apps in
the iTunes App Store. Those are "free as in
beer," essentially giveaways, when "free as
in speech," is software built with the belief
you have the right to manage your own
data and use it and modify it the way you
please. Here's more on the philosophy of
enjoy a reasonable standard of living. The
article also calls out low credit scores
(below 600), low savings rates (below
5%), rising credit card balances, and
escalating bills as other signs that you're
living well beyond your means. Go read
the details, and when you're done, let's hear
whether or not—according to the
article—you're living beyond your needs in
the poll below.
TV* Tech Tips* Religion*
free-as-in-freedom software.
The FSF folks continue: Apple, through
its marketing and visual design techniques,
is manufacturing an illusion that merely
buying an Apple makes you part of an
alternative community. But the technology
they use is explicitly chosen to divide
people into separate digital cells, and to
position Apple as sole warden. When your
business depends on people paying for the
privilege of being locked up, the prison
better look and feel luxurious, and the bars
better not be too visible. The prison
metaphor may be extreme, but my gut tells
me there's at least a little bit of truth in
there.
I bought my iPhone after I left my Nokia
handset in a cab which drove away faster
than I could catch it. The decision was a
tough one, since Apple's model does rub
my free software-loving self the wrong
way. But Mobile Safari's tabbed browsing
convinced me to trade in my principles for
convenience. This job requires me to be
online everywhere I go, and as far as I
could see, the iPhone was the best way to
do that. (The dedicated team of developers
who provided an easy way to jailbreak the
device and use it the way I
wanted—instead of the way Apple
intended—also inspired.)
Are You Living Beyond Your Means?
( polls)
Got more to say? Let's hear it in the
comments.
Five Signs That You're Living Beyond
Your Means[Yahoo Finance]
27
But even as I affixed duct tape over the
Apple logo on my iPhone and Mac in a
minor fit of rebellion, I still wrote and
edited plenty of positive iPhone coverage
on these very pages—the most extreme
examples are our posts on how its location-
awareness will change your life and how it
will get you laid(though that one was
written with tongue lodged firmly in
cheek).
We focus on things that make life easier,
and using any device or piece of software
requires some level of trust that its
manufacturer won't completely screw
you—too badly, anyway. Still, every time
an iPhone app wants permission to use my
current location, I get creeped out and
more often than not tap "Don't Allow."
So, Lifehacker readers, this is a
hypocrite's confession. I purchased and use
an iPhone, but I hate being locked into
Apple's proprietary system. We'll continue
to feature iPhone applications and tips that
make getting things done easier, because
that's what we do. But if you've bought an
iPhone or are considering it, we hope
you'll do it knowing all the good reasons
why not to. 5 reasons to avoid iPhone
3G[Free Software Foundation]
No hope for
poor blacks?
By Mark
The late Stricherz
1980s and early 1990s were a
HOPE page 28
28
HOPE
continued from page 27
golden age for stories about poor urban
blacks. Besides great movies such as Boyz
N the Hood and Hoop Dreams, there were
great articles in major publications:
Nicholas Lemann’s series on the black
migration in The Atlantic Monthly( here is
one early story); Darcy Frey’s profile of a
high school basketball team for Harper’s;
and Leon Dash’s profile of an elderly
black woman and her family for The
Washington Post.
Now come two new fresh stories: George
Dohrmann’s story about black teenage
athletes in California’s East Bay and
Hanna Rosin’s story about rising crime
rates in Memphis. Both are similar to their
predecessors in many ways — thorough
and detailed reporting, the use of novelistic
techniques, and a general air of
hopelessness and even despair. Although
the two new stories are fresh and original,
they also share a weakness of their older
counterparts.
In Sports Illustrated, Dohrmann
diagnoses the problem of the East Bay’s
culture of violence this way:
[I]n the past few years, those who work
with young boys in Richmond and
Oakland have noticed a decline in kids’
commitment to sports. And the youngsters
who do play speak grimly of their chances
of emerging from their darkened
surroundings. It is as if each generation
believes less and less in the saving power
of Little League or youth basketball or Pop
Warner football. “It used to be that if you
played sports, everyone protected you,”
says Fredrick Pugh, the president of the
East Bay Warriors Pop Warner football
program, which includes 295 boys ages
five to 15. “Now it is open season on
everybody. The neighborhoods are that
devastated.”
Even more haunting: A number of well-
intentioned athletes, those who did
everything they could to stay away from
trouble, have been killed or severely
wounded in street violence in recent years.
No one can say exactly how many of those
murdered in and around Oakland played
sports, but it is undeniable that many of the
most promising youngsters—serious
athletic aspirants—have died. More than
one youth coach laments that he attends
more funerals than games these days.
In The Atlantic, Rosin casts the problem
in broader relief. While conceding that
crime rates in New York and Los Angeles
has plummeted, she documents a
disturbing counter-trend:
Lately, though, a new and unexpected
pattern has emerged, taking criminologists
by surprise. While crime rates in large
cities stayed flat, homicide rates in many
midsize cities (with populations of
between 500,000 and 1 million) began
increasing, sometimes by as much as
20percent a year. In 2006, the Police
Executive Research Forum, a national
police group surveying cities from coast to
coast, concluded in a report called “A
Gathering Storm” that this might represent
“the front end. . . of an epidemic of
violence not seen for years.” The leaders of
the group, which is made up of police
chiefs and sheriffs, theorized about what
might be spurring the latest crime wave:
the spread of gangs, the masses of
offenders coming out of prison,
methamphetamines. But mostly they
puzzled over the bleak new landscape.
According to FBI data, America’s most
dangerous spots are now places where
Martin Scorsese would never think of
staging a shoot-out—Florence, South
Carolina; Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North
Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Reading,
Pennsylvania; Orlando, Florida; Memphis,
Tennessee.
In the early 1990s, reporters cast an
unsparing eye at institutions and
governmental programs — the NCAA,
prisons and rehabilitation programs,
welfare and high-rise housing projects.
Today Dohrmann and Rosin exposed the
failure of public and private programs.
In SI, Dohrmann focused on the life of
Alfred Lewis, a former football star who
was shot repeatedly after venturing one
night into the wrong neighborhood.
Lewis’s downfall began when he joined a
gang. As Dohrmann shows, no other
programs could help him ultimately:
[Local Pop Warner president Frederick]
Pugh was ready to give up on Fred but
relatives persuaded him not to, and Fred
was sent to Sierra Ridge Academy, an
ROP facility near San Andreas, in the
Sierra Nevada foothills.
Athletics are a big part of ROP’s
curriculum. In addition to regular academic
classes and once-a-week meetings with a
case manager/counselor, Fred played on
the ROP baseball team and traveled with a
group of kids to Colorado to compete in a
triathlonlike event among all ROP schools.
Fred felt safe and directed at ROP, and it
was amazing how quickly sports worked
its magic. He pleaded with ROP
administrators to release him early so he
could be back at Berkeley High for
football season. “You should see me play
football. That is my sport,” he told other
ROP students.
Private non-profit organizations have not
helped Lewis’ contemporaries, either:
After Jaee’s murder, which remains
unsolved, relatives and friends founded
S.A.V.O.Y (Stop All Violence on Youth),
which promotes awareness of violence
against kids. The Terrance TK Kelly
Youth Foundation, which his father runs,
sponsors education programs for kids in
Richmond and neighboring towns. Before
that came the Khadafy Foundation for Non
-Violence, formed by the mother of
Khadafy Washington , a football player at
McClymonds High in Oakland , who was
shot and killed in 2000. That nonprofit
helps families handle the aftermath of an
untimely death, such as burial costs and
grief counseling.
Young athletes die, foundations are
formed, but nothing changes.
“We know we can’t stop the murders,”
says Marilyn Washington Harris,
Khadafy’s mother. “But we still have to try
to help.”
So pervasive is the culture of violence
that schools alone don’t guarantee that a
poor black kid will make it out. As
Dohrmann shows in a related story, the late
Terrance Kelly graduated from De La
Salle, my alma mater with arguably the
best sports program in the nation. But
Kelly’s status, as well as the fact that he
defeated young Darren Pratcher in a
basketball game, caused Pratcher to
murder Kelly:
Kids from the neighborhood goaded
Terrance regularly, provoking him into
fights. They would accuse him of thinking
he was better than they were because of the
Catholic elementary school where his
grandmother had enrolled him. When he
was accepted to De La Salle High in
Concord, and played for its heralded
football program, the challenges
intensified. “You think you are all that
because you go to De La Salle,” kids
would say, to which he would answer,
“No, you think I am all that because I go to
De La Salle.”
Similarly, Rosin details the shortcomings
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of the two main governmental efforts to
diffuse ghetto poverty — expand Section 8
-housing vouchers and tear down high-rise
public housing. This “disperse-the-ghetto
approach” didn’t reduce crime or lead its
participants to happier lives. Instead, crime
moved to new neighborhoods and residents
were left feeling isolated:
In the most literal sense, the national
effort to diffuse poverty has succeeded.
Since 1990, the number of Americans
living in neighborhoods of concentrated
poverty—meaning that at least 40 percent
of households are below the federal
poverty level—has declined by 24percent.
But this doesn’t tell the whole story.
Recently, the housing expert George
Galster, of Wayne State University,
analyzed the shifts in urban poverty and
published his results in a paper called “A
Cautionary Tale.” While fewer Americans
live in high-poverty neighborhoods,
increasing numbers now live in places with
“moderate” poverty rates, meaning rates of
20 to 40 percent. This pattern is not
necessarily better, either for poor people
trying to break away from bad
neighborhoods or for cities, Galster
explains. His paper compares two
scenarios: a city split into high-poverty and
low-poverty areas, and a city dominated by
median-poverty ones. The latter
arrangement is likely to produce more bad
neighborhoods and more total crime, he
concludes, based on a computer model of
how social dysfunction spreads.
Studies show that recipients of Section 8
vouchers have tended to choose
moderately poor neighborhoods that were
already on the decline, not low-poverty
neighborhoods. One recent study
publicized by HUD warned that policy
makers should lower their expectations,
because voucher recipients seemed not to
be spreading out, as they had hoped, but
clustering together. Galster theorizes that
every neighborhood has its tipping
point—a threshold well below a 40 percent
poverty rate—beyond which crime
explodes and other severe social problems
set in. Pushing a greater number of
neighborhoods past that tipping point is
likely to produce more total crime. In
2003, the Brookings Institution published a
list of the 15 cities where the number of
high-poverty neighborhoods had declined
the most. In recent years, most of those
cities have also shown up as among the
most violent in the U.S., according to FBI
data.
In a new twist in this genre, Dhormann
shows the hollowness of self-help
ideologies. The kicker in his main story is
devastating:
Fred then slowly stood up and walked
gingerly toward his bedroom. He had hung
a sheet of crinkled white paper on his
bedroom door, on which was printed the
Pledge of Success. Seeming to notice it for
the first time, he read the first three lines
out loud:
Today is a new day, a new beginning.
It has been given to me as a gift.
I can either use it or throw it away.
He stopped abruptly. He saw no point in
going on.
A reader must respect the unblinkered,
thorough, and engaging narratives in these
stories. But what none of them tackled
were two key institutions in people’s lives:
the two-parent family and church. Only
Lemann’s stories touched on the
importance of family structure and
religion. By contrast, Rosin and Dhormann
don’t mention the topics at all.
Dhormann’s story only tantalizes readers
about the importance of rules:
If parents continue to violate a team
policy, their kids are suspended for a week,
same as if the players had broken a rule.
“Kids want discipline, structure, and their
parents or grandparents want help, so
you’d be surprised how they follow the
rules,” Pugh says. “They won’t [adhere] to
a restraining order from the police, but
they follow our rules because playing
means so much to their kids.”
This passage raises lots of questions. Are
there pastors, such as the one tmatt
mentioned the other day, that tell kids to
abandon the hedonism of the streets and
give their lives to Christ? Do scholars
believe that no-fault divorce laws have
encouraged men to abandon their families?
Needless to say, reporters should not
limit themselves to the roles of family and
religion. Declining wages for unskilled
men is also part of the problem. But
examining these twin institutions in full
would break new and welcome ground.
(Picture at right of Darren Pratcher; at left
Terrance Kelly)
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
No hiding the faith-based political news
By tmatt
Submitted at 7/14/2008 7:28:35 PM
One of GetReligion’s most loyal and
articulate readers almost certainly spoke
for many the other day when he wrote the
following comment:
Abortion, Obama and Episcopal issues
are the mainstay of this blog. One would
almost think that there’s almost nothing
else of true religious importance by the
number of entries devoted to them. Or at
least it seems that way to me.
Those that are against Obama are trying
to make a mountain out of a pebble by
obsessively focusing on the
inconsequential in a slanted manner.. . .
— Jerry, July 9, 2008, at 2:42 am
As I have noted many times, it is
impossible to write about the history of
religion coverage in America, and the
related topic of media bias, without facing
mountains of data linked to the coverage of
abortion issues. The most important
sources remains the classic Los Angeles
Times series by the late David Shaw. That
is still, since it is a mainstream source,
written by a man whose on views were on
the left, a good place to start.
As for the oceans of ink spilled in
Anglican warfare coverage, we’ll stop
critiquing it as soon as reporters around the
world stop spilling it. But I don’t expect
that to happen anytime soon, as I noted in
this snarky essay more than a decade ago
entitled “Why Journalists Love the
Episcopal Church.”
This brings us to Sen. Barack Obama and
his crusade to reach the cultural center by
expressing his fervent liberal, oldline
Protestant beliefs in faith-based language
that will appeal to evangelicals who are
either young or progressive or both. That is
a great, great story on the religious left and
one that GetReligion has been urging
reporters to cover for several years now.
Click here for a Scripps Howard piece I
wrote in 2007 entitled “Obama’s awesom
testimony.”
The Obama story is not going away
because he does not want it to go away.
Also, he seems determined to find some
kind of compromise language on abortion,
as well, although the evidence that he will
back new language with policy proposals
remains at the rumor stage.
If anything, GetReligion is way behind
on following the coverage of Obama and
faith issues — ever since the flurry of
coverage of his faith-based initiative
remarks.
Thus, we will not discuss the
Washington Post and its coverage of his
recent testimony about his conversion
experience:
Sen. Barack Obama ended a week’s
focus on values by giving a conference of
the African Methodist Episcopal Church a
highly personal account of his spiritual
journey and a promise that he will make
“faith-based” social service “a moral
center of my administration.”. . .
“In my own life, ” he said, “it’s been a
journey that began decades ago on the
South Side of Chicago, when, working as a
community organizer, helping to build
struggling neighborhoods, I let Jesus Christ
into my life. I learned that my sins could
be redeemed and that if I placed my trust
in Christ, that he could set me on the path
to eternal life when I submitted myself to
his will and I dedicated myself to
discovering his truth and carrying out his
works.”
We also don’t need to discuss that
Boston Globe piece on the head of
Obama’s faith-group outreach team.
Perhaps you saw that headline: “Obama’s
man of faith — Staff member who found
his voice at BU leads religious outreach.”
Then there is the matter of Obama trying
to convince his core supporters that he is
not turning away from the true faith, while
trying to reach out to evangelicals and
folks in the center of the political arena.
Did you see that one the other day in the
New York Times? The one with the
headline: “Obama Says His Critics
Haven’t Been Listening.”
Meanwhile, The Politico saw yet another
side effect of Obama’s effort to reach out
to traditional Christians, either Catholic,
Orthodox or Protestant. Yes, the story—
“Obama walks the abortion minefield” —
focused on the debates over abortion and
it’s amazing how quickly the topic of
abortion linked into the arena of faith:
. . .(Some) activists in the abortion rights
community have been trying to figure out
why Barack Obama, a Democrat praised
for his strong defense of reproductive
rights, appeared to be turning soft.
Those who work on the front lines of the
abortion debate couldn’t quite believe what
they were hearing: Obama, in an interview
with a Christian magazine, seemed to
reject a mental health exception to the ban
on late-term abortions. They feared that
Obama, like Democrat John Kerry in 2004,
was adopting a view favored by abortion
opponents to appeal to conservatives.
I could go on and on (and I haven’t even
reached the Newsweek cover on Obama’s
faith, which I hope dig into when I have a
chance), but I really don’t have to gather a
lot of material together to show that
GetReligion will not be able to ignore
these topics. You see, our friends over at
the Pew Forum have just cranked out
another study digging into the intersection
between politics, religion and the
mainstream press. Click here to see it.
What’s the lede? Well, the press is
TRYING to get religion when it enters the
political arena. There is no question that
these topics are news and that they are
drawing more and more coverage. Thus,
we read:
The study finds that when coverage of
the “horse-race” aspects of the campaign is
excluded, religion emerges as a relatively
prominent topic, accounting for 10% of the
non-political-process coverage during the
16 months studied. In fact, religion
garnered nearly as much coverage as race
and gender combined (11%), even though
the front-runners for the Democratic
presidential nomination were a black man
and a woman.
Overall, however, religion stories, along
with other substantive and policy issues,
took a back seat to campaign tactics and
political strategy, which together garnered
81% of the coverage. So despite the
attention paid to Obama’s former pastor,
questions about McCain’s relationship
with his party’s conservative religious
base, interest in Mitt Romney’s
membership in the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints and the surprisingly
strong campaign of former Baptist
preacher Mike Huckabee, only 2% of all
the campaign stories directly focused on
religion.
When the coverage did turn to religion, it
often did not deal directly with questions
of faith but instead focused on more
familiar territory. For instance, when
Obama gave a speech to quell concerns
over the controversial statements of his
former pastor, both the campaign and the
press steered the emphasis toward the race
angle of the story. Meanwhile, questions
about McCain’s association with
controversial pastor John Hagee, whose
endorsement he once courted, received
very little coverage — political or
otherwise — during the 16 months studied.
Even with respect to Romney — for whom
religion was a significant issue from the
start of his campaign — faith-related
coverage focused largely on one moment:
his December 2007 address on “Faith in
Religion* 29
America.”
These findings suggest a continuing
discomfort among news organizations in
tackling deep questions of how candidates’
personal faith may influence their public
leadership. When the press does cover
such stories, it tends to focus on discrete
events — such as a speech, video or TV
appearance — rather than the underlying
connections, and often the coverage is
fairly short-lived.
In other words, the true religion of most
journalists remains the same as akways —
political warfare. Sometimes that involves
a speech on religion or an individual
firestorm about a person. But the basic
facts and doctrines are hard to cover and
they remain, well, frightening. Why do
believers care so much about all of those
pesky and picky words, rites and
doctrines?
Sometimes, journalists even prefer — the
Pew team notes — to edit the faith
elements out of a speech:
A closer look at the two events that
dominated the religious narrative in the 16-
month period covered by the study —
Romney’s and Obama’s pivotal speeches
— suggests that even when coverage of
candidates’ faith becomes almost
unavoidable, oftentimes the press still turns
its lens a different way. In coverage of
both speeches, for example, one-third
(33%) of the stories emphasized the
strategic, rather than religious, elements of
the story.. . . For Obama, whose speech
dealt with themes of both race and religion,
the press tended to focus on the racial
aspects more than the religious ones. In
fact, about half (51%) of the stories on the
speech were about race while only 1%
focused on the religious angle.
Check out the study for yourself. And, in
the months ahead, please be patient with
us. I imagine that these big, big stories are
not going to go away.
By the way, the Anglican Communion’s
Lambeth Conference starts next weekend.
Think anyone is going to cover it?
Bookmark to:
30 Religion*
Mixed bag on the Betancourt coverage
By Mollie
Submitted at 7/15/2008 4:35:48 PM
The rescue of 14 hostages in the
Colombian jungle last week could not have
been more dramatic. Military intelligence
agents infiltrated the leftist rebel
organization and tricked them into handing
over kidnapped presidential candidate
Ingrid Betancourt and three U.S. military
contractors without a shot being fired. My
absolute favorite detail in the story was
that the Colombian operatives duped the
bad guys in part by wearing Che Guevara
shirts. If only this could end the scourge of
Che Guevara shirts forever!
Anyway, if you had been held hostage
for six years, what would you do upon
your release? Betancourt thanked God
repeatedly, knelt and prayed as soon as she
hit solid ground, showed off the rosary
she’d made during her captivity and talked
about how her faith helped sustain her
during her horrific time with the terrorists.
It must have made the media
uncomfortable to hear her speak so much
about the Virgin Mary, angels, miracles
and God because even though she was
being quite blatant about it, most early
reports ignored it or glossed over it.
Sheila Liaugminas wrote about the lack
of coverage for Mercatornet.com. After
summarizing a number of mainstream
stories, Liaugminas writes:
There are a few points these stories
didn’t quite capture. Neither did the
kidnappers.
They were there to be seen, though, on
CNN’s excellent coverage of the hostage
rescue Wednesday evening, as the
suddenly freed group emerged from the
helicopter for the first time, in scenes of
hugs and tears and jubilant faces. The
immediate crowd greeting them included
Betancourt’s mother, government and
military officials, those closely involved.
After many hugs and kisses, after initial
tears were brushed back, Betancourt turned
around and made the sign of the cross and
closed her eyes momentarily. She did this
several times over the next several
minutes. When she went before the
assembled press microphones for the first
time, she spoke of the rescue as ‘God’s
miracle’, a reference she repeatedly made.
Betancourt said she had started the day that
morning praying the rosary, and that the
Virgin came to her aid. She spoke of faith,
and closed her eyes, face up to the sky, and
thanked God.
In only one camera angle among all the
video airing in this coverage, one could
see, briefly, that among that crowd
assembled at the helicopter to greet the
rescued group, a priest in alb and stole was
next to Betancourt’s mother.
I actually think details such as these
make the story even more compelling. I
wish reporters would feel comfortable
including them in their accounts. If you
read Spanish, you can get more media and
media analysis of Betancourt’s God-talk.
Some stories did a great job of
mentioning Betancourt’s religious views.
This New York Times story, for instance:
In comments to Europe 1 radio, she said
that her captors had chained her day and
night for the first three years, but that she
was sustained by her Roman Catholic faith
and thoughts of her family. “I was in
chains all the time, 24 hours a day, for
three years,” she said. “I tried to wear
those chains with dignity, even if I felt that
it was unbearable.”
Asked if she had been tortured, she said,
“Yes, yes,” and said her captors had fallen
into “diabolical behavior,” adding, “It was
so monstrous I think they themselves were
disgusted.” She called her rescue “a
miracle of the Virgin Mary” and said,
“You need tremendous spirituality to stop
yourself falling into the abyss.” She had
made herself a wooden rosary in the
jungle, she said.
Pope Benedict XVI has invited her to
meet him next week.
This Reuters story has both good and
bad:
Freed Franco-Colombian hostage Ingrid
Betancourt, a devout Catholic who prayed
daily during six years in captivity, will
visit the shrine of Lourdes in southwest
France this week, a source close to her said
on Monday.
Betancourt, who was held in the
Colombian jungle by guerrillas of the
leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, has compared her rescue by the
Colombian army last week to a miracle.
It would be both more efficient and more
accurate to say she called her rescue a
miracle rather than that she “compared” it
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to a miracle. It just sounds so awkward and
clumsy the way that’s written. (Here’s a
Catholic media account of the visit to
Lourdes.) In Reuters’ big photo package
on Betancourt, they have this beautiful
shot of Betancourt’s handmade rosary.
Probably my favorite story was by
Steven Erlanger for the International
Herald Tribune. Much of the interview is
about her Roman Catholic faith:
She wants to bear witness, “but it has to
come at the right moment,” she said, her
eyes tearing.
Only a week after liberation, “I need
time,” she said, speaking English. “It’s not
easy to talk about things that are still
hurting. And probably it will hurt all my
life, I don’t know. The only thing I’ve
settled in my mind is that I want to forgive,
and forgiving comes with forgetting.
“So I have to do two things. I have to
forget in order to find peace in my soul and
forgive. But once I’ve forgiven and
forgotten, I will have to bring back
memories. Probably they will be filtered
by time, so they won’t come with all the
pain I feel now.”
One of the interesting things I read on a
Spanish site was that she had said her faith
had lapsed prior to her kidnapping. I
thought of that when I read this portion of
the Erlanger piece:
Even her rosary, she said, was “an error.”
She remembered her late father saying the
rosary, but could not remember whether
she was supposed to pray 10 times to the
Virgin Mary.
“So I thought, maybe 15 times,” she said,
fingering the 15 buttons that make up her
rosary, taken from a jacket the guerrillas
had provided her. “So I did 15 buttons.”
God is personal to her, she said. “I talk to
him and he responds.” People dismiss
miracles, she said, and “talk of
coincidences,” but for her, “I think they
happen all the time to everyone.”
Compare that account to this Associated
Press story that ostensibly covers the same
topic, if not the same meeting with the
press. There is no mention of religion.
Even Betancourt’s reference to the
importance of private activity such as
prayer and meditation is sanitized just to
“meditation.” You actually have to put
more effort into removing religious
references from Betancourt’s speech than
just quoting her as is. Thankfully, though,
coverage of this woman and her faith has
improved with time.
Bookmark to:
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Annoy the pope? Sure, but, where?
By tmatt
Submitted at 7/15/2008 6:10:50 PM
As you would expect, Pope Benedict
XVI’s trip down under for World Youth
Day is getting quite a bit of ink, although
— perhaps in the age of tight newspaper
budgets and high air fares — there is very
little American coverage other than wire
services (unless I am missing some stories
online). Click here for a Google News
collection of what is up at the moment.
The Associated Press report on the
opening Mass is very basic, with some
colorful details. It’s the standard “this sure
was a big gathering” religion story. It’s
kind of liturgical fun, fun, fun, with few
notes about content. Here’s the top:
Tens of thousands of Catholic pilgrims
from around the world crammed into an
area along Sydney Harbor Tuesday,
waving flags of their home countries and
singing as they awaited a Mass opening the
World Youth Day festival.
Pope Benedict XVI arrived Sunday, and
was resting at a secluded retreat on the
outskirts of Sydney until Thursday, when
he starts a busy round of meetings, takes a
cruise on Sydney Harbor and addresses the
pilgrims. The festival culminates with a
papal Mass on Sunday.
Aboriginal Australians in traditional
clothing and white body paint danced and
chanted to the unique strains of a
didgeridoo in a welcoming ceremony at
Barangaroo, along the harbor.
“Some say there is no place for faith in
the 21st century. I say they are wrong,”
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said, to cheers
from the pilgrims.
There was one other detail that is sure to
make readers either smile or wince
(perhaps both), in terms of the very
traditional leader of the traditional church
trying to relate to the young. Technology,
of course, is everywhere. But how about
this:
Nearly 250,000 people have registered
for World Youth Day, more than half of
them from overseas.. . . Registered
pilgrims received the first of daily
inspirational text messages from the pope:
“Young friend, God and his people expect
much from u because u have within you
the Fathers supreme gift: the Spirit of Jesus
— BXVI.”
There is, however, a very important story
unfolding down in Australia, one pitting
the pope’s right to say what he has to say
with the rights of his critics to say what
they have to say — with megaphones and
other symbolic forms of speech.
Australia’s Federal Court has ruled that
protesters have a right to annoy — love
that word — the pope and his followers
during his visit.
Here’s a key chunk of Bonnie Malkin’s
report in the Telegraph back in England.
Anti-pope protesters have been given the
green light to annoy World Youth Day
pilgrims, after Australia’s Federal Court
struck down laws created to protect the
Catholic worshippers from unwanted
attention.
The temporary regulations, which gave
police the right to issue on the spot fines of
$5500. . . to anyone handing out
“annoying” leaflets or condoms to
pilgrims, were ruled invalid by the court.
The decision is a victory for the NoToPope
coalition, which mounted a challenge to
the laws in the Federal Court on Tuesday,
arguing the new powers were
unconstitutional because they made
peaceful protest illegal.
Judges ruled the World Youth Day Act,
which was passed by government two
weeks ago without debate, “should not be
interpreted as conferring powers that are
repugnant to fundamental rights and
freedoms at common law in the absence of
clear authority from Parliament”.
Here is the key question. It is one thing
to do public protests in public areas that
surround events that constitute, to one
degree or another, voluntary associations.
It’s one thing to have a march. It’s
something else to have a march or
demonstration that enters or interrupts a
Mass, inside the arena hosting the rite.
Let’s flip this around. It’s one thing for
anti-gay-rights protesters to march down a
street in San Francisco. It’s another thing
(speaking in terms of theory) for them to
disrupt a Eucharist and spiritual AIDS
healing rite inside a liberal Episcopal
cathedral. The blurred line is when you
start harassing people as they enter or
making so much noise that you disturb
these kinds of rites — left or right — even
though you are outside and nearby.
But people have a right to protest on
sidewalks, hold marches, hand out
symbolic items, etc.
Which brings us back to the coverage.
Have these liberal protesters actually
threatened to do anything that would
disrupt or prevent World Youth Day
activities? That’s the information that the
journalists must include. I noted, for
example, that police are frowning on what
was called “pro-pope graffiti” on the
Sydney war memorial — including the
slogan “Ratizinger rules.” That would be
illegal, I would think, although I am not
sure that sounds like pro-pope material,
either.
Was some kind of new Aussie law
actually needed? I find it interesting that,
in one Guardian report, the Vatican didn’t
protest the court ruling:
. . . World Youth Day coordinator Bishop
Anthony Fisher earlier said people were
free to protest in a peaceful and respectful
way. Referring to the distribution of
condoms, he said: “We have had this
before at other events and our pilgrims just
drop them to the ground and ignore them.”
This is a classic case where journalists
should use the old “show us, don’t tell us”
guide to reporting. It protesters break
existing laws, if they invade public
meetings and other rites, then tell us.
Otherwise, free speech is free speech.
Carry on, blokes (and help me figure out
which Australian papers to use, while
following this).
Bookmark to:
Religion* 31
Banerjee off to greener
pastures
By Mollie
Submitted at 7/16/2008 6:14:30 PM
I’m sorry to report that the New York
Times’ Neela Banerjee has left the paper.
All national reporters who cover thematic
beats were asked to return to New York by
September 1. Such an arrangement was
problematic for Banerjee, who lives in DC
with her family.
At the same time, the paper was asking
employees to consider taking a buyout.
Famed Supreme Court reporter Linda
Greenhouse took one. So did Pulitzer Prize
-winning investigative journalist David
Cay Johnston.
And, sadly, Banerjee took one as well.
Banerjee’s stories first appeared in the
paper in 1999. She moved to the religion responsibility to be equally respectful of all
beat in 2004, I believe. beliefs. Whether someone is a Roman
We’ve covered dozens and dozens of her Catholic, a Jew, or a Raelian, we are
stories. I remember, in particular, her 2006 privileged to ask such people personal
piece on the trend toward online questions about their most profound
confession in Evangelical churches. Quite thoughts and hopes. “As corny as this
a few reporters followed that story over the sounds,” says the Times’s Neela Banerjee,
next year but I think she was the one to “I think I grow by talking to folks whose
break it. Her original piece also inspired worldviews are deeply different from
me to write an analysis of the mine. My job is not to grab the quote that
phenomenon. I also loved her story on makes them sound silly, but the one that
custody battles involving religion. You sheds light, perhaps new light, on what
could tell how hard she worked to be fair they believe.”
to the various parties. If only more reporters felt the same way.
Tim Townsend, religion reporter for the Hopefully Banerjee will continue to write
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, interviewed about religion in other venues. Another
Banerjee for his story in the Columbia GetReligion frequent flyer — Laurie
Journalism Review on the travails of the Goodstein — remains on the religion beat
religion beat. I loved her quote: at the Times.
Reporters who cover the fractured, Bookmark to:
volatile, weighty world of religion have a
32 Religion*
A ‘lousy night’ for atheists?
By dpulliam
Submitted at 7/15/2008 8:28:09 PM
When Josh Hamilton talks about the
impact of “God’s grace” on his life,
reporters and commentators cannot ignore
it. Back in January, there was a flurry of
coverage of the Major League Baseball
slugger’s amazing life turnaround, much of
which focused on the role of faith. Those
watching the ESPN broadcast of
Hamilton’s ridiculously amazing
performance in last night’s All-Star Home
Run Derby would have had trouble
missing the fact that God played a rather
significant role in the mere fact that
Hamilton is still swinging a bat today.
Many Internet boards and blogs are
buzzing over a broadcaster’s statement that
it was “a lousy night to be an atheist.” I do
not know how this statement makes any
logical or theological sense, particularly
since Hamilton failed to win the contest. I
am sure the atheists, who had every right
to enjoy Hamilton’s athletic performance,
are not too pleased with the comment
either. Are all atheists presumed to be
incapable of finding enjoyment in hearing
about the role religion played in turning a
person’s life around?
At best, the comment was a rhetorical
device for an ESPN broadcaster who
seemed at a loss for words to describe both
Hamilton’s performance and his
remarkable life turnaround.
Aside from the comment about atheists,
ESPN included some of Hamilton’s own
personal testimony from previously
recorded interviews, and the broadcasters
made a series of references to the role faith
played in turning his life around. The
broadcast has left an array of impressions
regarding ESPN’s handling of Hamilton’s
faith. From what I saw (unfortunately only
Hamilton’s first round set of homers), most
of the comments touched lightly, but
frequently, on the role Hamilton’s faith
played in his life. Others saw it differently:
[I]t is painfully obvious that ESPN does
not get religion, either in print or on the
air. During the Home Run Derby at the All
Star Game, Josh Hamilton mentioned God,
his faith in God, how God had made a
difference in his life, etc. every time
someone from ESPN put a microphone in
his face. ESPN consistently, and
deliberately, changed the subject.
At times, it was almost comical. One
commentator quoted a Hamilton teammate
as saying that Hamilton is an “evangelist”
and then tried to explain the term without
any reference to Hamilton’s faith. Another
commentator said that Hamilton makes
sure that he has a “buddy” when he goes
out in public to avoid succumbing to
temptations. I guess that “buddy” is the
religion-neutral term for “accountability
partner.”
ESPN needs to employ one person who
gets religion. Desperately.
If you saw the derby Monday night,
particularly the later rounds, feel free to
leave us with your impressions of how the
broadcast handled the subject of
Hamilton’s faith.
The ESPN broadcast aside, the print
media and the Internet have also been
covering Hamilton’s story of faith in the
aftermath of his impressive display of
athletic prowess. Here is an article titled
“Josh Hamilton: A Story of Faith” from
the Bleacher Report, an open source sports
news network:
When confronted about his former drug
addiction, Hamilton simply says, “It’s a
God thing.” Hamilton is not shy about his
story, he talks to groups and fans at
different functions about how Christianity
has brought his life from drugs to what it is
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
now.
The song that plays when Hamilton steps
to the plate in Texas is, “Saved The Day”
by the Christian group, Phillips, Craig &
Dean.
One way or another, the news account by
The Associated Press managed to neglect
any significant mention of Hamilton’s faith
other than his quote that he feels “blessed”
to be playing baseball again and that his
recovery story was an “incredible tale of
redemption” that made national news this
year. Why would a straightforward news
account avoid using words that more
directly describe the faith-aspect of
Hamilton’s story?
The Baltimore Sun was more direct
about Hamilton’s faith-based recovery
story:
New York — Despite losing in last
night’s Home Run Derby final, the legend
of Josh Hamilton keeps growing.
The Texas Rangers’ 27-year-old
outfielder is not only a budding superstar
who leads the majors with 95 RBIs.
He’s not just a born-again Christian and
recovering addict who publicly speaks
about overcoming his demons.
Define “New
And he’s more than a Home Run Derby
record holder.
He’s also a soothsayer.
Age.” Give
The Sun’s coverage is an example of
how a journalist can appropriately mention three examples
the significance of faith in a rather short By tmatt
story. By using direct language, the 10-
Submitted at 7/16/2008 4:01:27 PM
paragraph news story conveys Hamilton’s
story of faith rather accurately. Here’s a question for GetReligion readers
There is an appropriate time and place to who live far from the D.C. Beltway.
cover an individual’s faith in an in-depth Do you remember Chandra Levy?
format. While the morning-after story is Levy was, of course, the intern who went
rarely the place for this type of coverage of missing in the post-Clintonian atmosphere
any subject beyond the box score, an of Washington, D.C., circa 2001. The case
appropriate choice of words (“born-again drew the kind of cable-TV news frenzy
Christian” and “demons”) can convey a that is so common today, especially since
significant amount of information and this particular attractive white female was
meaning in a short amount of space. — the rumors turned out to be true —
Photo of Josh Hamilton used under a having an affair with a Harrison Ford
Wikimedia Commons license. lookalike in the U.S. House of
Bookmark to: Representatives. Then her face vanished
from the media, lost in the crush of 9/11
news.
This very high-profile case remains
unsolved and there were all kinds of sad
and puzzling delays that stalled the very
flawed investigation, before and after her
DEFINE page 33
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DEFINE
continued from page 32
remains were found in the District’s scenic
Rock Creek Park. After a year-long
investigation, the Washington Post has
turned back the pages of time — in terms
of journalism style — and is publishing a
massive project about Levy’s death in a
series of short, dramatic articles backed
with videos and blogging. In other words,
this is a kind of a tabloid serial project for
the digital, multi-platform age.
All of this is interesting material for
classes here at the Washington Journalism
Center, and I have been reading the first
four installments while wearing my
journalism professor hat.
But, this morning, I hit a passage that
raised a GetReligion flag. This particular
story by Sari Horwitz, Scott Higham and
Sylvia Moreno focuses on the grief,
confusion and anger of the young woman’s
parents, Robert and Susan Levy. Each
chunk of this ongoing story is told in a
series of short, punch flashes of
information and color. Here is the part that
raised faith-based questions for me:
The crisis forced the Levys to draw on a
spiritual foundation they had spent a
lifetime cultivating. With bushy eyebrows,
receding salt-and-pepper hair and a kind
smile, Robert Levy was a gentle soul, an
oncologist grounded in science but
captivated by New Age philosophy and
various religious beliefs. His wife, Susan,
was his muse — a tall, outdoorsy woman
with high cheekbones and a hearty laugh
who loved to ride horses, paint and sing.
The couple met at a mixer in 1968 while
they were both students at Ohio State
University. Robert Levy was an ROTC
graduate and microbiologist who would go
on to medical school. Susan Katz was an
art education major. When he started his
practice, Robert could choose among
several cities that needed oncologists:
Zanesville, Ohio; Council Bluffs, Iowa;
Las Cruces, N.M.; Richmond, Va.; and
Modesto, Calif. They picked Modesto out
of a baseball cap.
By the time they moved, Chandra was 4.
Soon, the family added a son, Adam.
Robert Levy slowly built his practice and
became known as “Last Chance Bob” for
his aggressive yet holistic approach to
treating cancer. Sometimes, he would
come home after losing a patient and cry.
As Chandra and Adam grew up, the
family traveled the world: Africa and
Costa Rica, Israel, Jamaica and the
Galapagos Islands. The parents delved
deeply into spirituality, exploring their
Judaism and blending in Buddhism,
Pentecostalism and Hinduism.
With Chandra gone, none of it seemed to
be helping.
And all the people said,
“Pentecostalism?”
I do not, of course, know what kind of
background information will be added in
future articles about the family’s religious
beliefs and practices. That’s one of the
weaknesses of serial journalism. I know
that the Associated Press Stylebook does
not contain an entry that offers any insight
into what is and what is not “New Age
Religion* 33
philosophy.” That’s the kind of vague
religious term that cries out for specific
information that lets the readers decide
whether the label is appropriate. Or did the
Levys use the term to define their beliefs?
We do not know.
I am also aware that there are more than
a few people blending Judaism and
Buddhism — since entire books have been
written on the topic. There really are
sincere believers who call themselves “
JUBUs,” short for “Jewish Buddhists.”
However, once again, I am not sure this is
a label that the Levys would accept.
Then there is the issue of Pentecostalism
— by definition, a Christian movement —
showing up in this list. What spiritual
activities or beliefs led to the inclusion of
this loaded term in the seemingly grab-bag
list of faiths attributed to this grieving
couple? The reporters need to show us why
these words are accurate, in the case of the
Levy family.
GetReligion has some regular readers
who are practicing pagans or neo-pagans,
which are two other terms that journalists
tend to toss about from time to time. How
do you feel about the term “New Age”? Do
you think it has any actual content and, if
so, what are the specifics? What are the
essential beliefs and rites that reporters
should investigate?
The bottom line: If you were putting a
“New Age” entry in the stylebook, what
would you write?
Bookmark to:
Go up, reporter
By Mark Stricherz the program,
Submitted at 7/15/2008 1:45:41 PM
Birthright is the brainchild of, among
others, Michael Steinhardt, a New York-
As a gentile, I learned to think of the based investor and philanthropist, who saw
Jewish people mainly in religious terms. what he considered an alarming trend: the
Reading the Old Testament alongside the increasing disaffection of young, non-
New Testament will do that to a goy. Israeli Jews from their culture and
I grasped that the term Jew had an ethnic community.
meaning as well. But it wasn’t until I “They typically stop their Jewish
began writing, if only occasionally, about educations after their bar or bat mitzvahs,”
Jewish-related stories, that it was he said, referring to religious coming of
impressed upon me that the religious and age ceremonies performed at 12 or 13. “I
ethnic aspects of Jewish life are hardly one decided to focus on the next generation of
in the same. our people. If there is a miracle in our
Still, I think that sometimes reporters lifetimes, it’s the birth of Israel. You can
gloss over Jews’ religious identity. Take be Jewish and not visit there, but you’re
this Los Angeles Times story by David missing a lot.”
Haldane. This passage is enticing. It suggests that
Haldane writes about a fairly recent the program aims in part to teach the
program for young Jews: an all-expenses
paid trip to Israel. As Haldane describes UP, page 34
34 Religion*
Discerning the call
By Mollie
Submitted at 7/17/2008 4:59:57 AM
A few days ago, Daniel wrote a post
about media coverage of Josh Hamilton—
the Texas Ranger who speaks openly and
frequently about his faith. Some of the
comments to that post wondered why we
look at the intersection of sports and
religion at all. An interesting discussion
ensued.
But I came across a fantastic sports and
religion story that definitely deserves a
look. The Associated Press wrote about
professional soccer player Chase
Hilgenbrinck who left the New England
Revolution this week to enter a seminary:
“I felt called to something greater,”
Hilgenbrinck said. “At one time I thought
that call might be professional soccer. In
the past few years, I found my soul is
hungry for something else.
“I discerned, through prayer, that it was
calling me to the Catholic Church. I do not
want this call to pass me by.”
Hilgenbrinck accepted the calling on
Monday when he left the New England
Revolution and retired from professional
soccer to enter a seminary, where he will
spend the next six years studying theology
and philosophy so he can be ordained as a
Roman Catholic priest.
“It’s not that I’m ready to leave soccer. I
UP,
continued from page 33
principles and practices of Judaism. After
all, bar and bat mitzvahs are religious
traditions.
Yet the story never elaborates on
whether the trips serve a religious purpose.
Haldane merely hints that they do. Early in
the story, he writes:
The results have been important to Israel
“both ideologically and strategically,” said
Gidi Mark, the program’s Israeli marketing
director and soon-to-be chief executive. In
addition to contributing to the country’s
economy and bolstering its support among
Jews worldwide, he said, Birthright marks
the young nation’s ascension as an “equal
partner in taking responsibility for the
future of the Jewish people worldwide.”
Later on, Haldane writes:
“There will be no free time, only
still have a great passion for the game,” he
said in a telephone interview. “I wouldn’t
leave the game for just any other job. I’m
moving on for the Lord. I want to do the
will of the Lord, I want to do what he
wants for me, not what I want to do for
myself.”
It’s so weird to read a story where the
reporter just permits the source to explain
himself. This story could have been spun
into a cheesy, sensational tale. Instead the
structured free time,” Birthright staffer Jay
Feldman told the soon-to-be passengers of
bus 909, which, he said, would be making
stops at Jerusalem’s Western Wall and Ben
Yehuda Street (“like the Santa Monica
promenade”), as well as museums,
monuments and the port city of Eilat, to
name just a few.
The Western Wall is a distinctly
religious site. A place of prayer, the wall is
considered the last remnant of the Holy
Temple. No wonder that Pope John Paul II
prayed there. Yet Haldane does not offer
so much as a dependent clause about the
Wall.
More broadly, none of the young
interview subjects mention religion, not
even the young woman who hopes to be a
rabbi someday. This criticism is not
reporter tells us the genuinely compelling
story of a 26-year-old who will attend
Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in
Emmitsburg, Md. The ESPN reporter
spoke with team representatives about how
they feel:
“He said it was time for him, that he had
been thinking long and hard,” New
England vice president of player personnel
Michael Burns said. “Purely from a Revs
standpoint, it’s too bad. But a lot of players
specific to religion, as no young people
talk about Israel’s national or geopolitical
significance. But in a story about Israel,
the near silence about religion in general
and Judaism specifically is deafening. Do
they not see Israel in terms of God’s many
promises to the Jewish people?
Haldane should have disentangled the
strands of Jewish identity in this story.
Again, I realize that Judaism is uniquely
bound up with religious and nationalistic
elements. In Exodus, God promises to
Moses that his people will receive Canaan
in return for their faithfulness. But this
story shows no sign that Haldane tried to
disentangle them.
Bookmark to:
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
leave the game not on their own terms.
He’s clearly left on his own terms, which
is great for him.”
The reporter explains the process of
discernment that Hilgenbrinck went
through, getting some great quotes. He also
explores why the soccer player didn’t just
wait to enter seminary until after his soccer
career:
With a short window in which he will be
able to play professional sports, he
considered postponing the priesthood until
after his career was over. But he decided
with the same certainty that he could not
allow himself to wait.
“Trust me, I thought of that,” said
Hilgenbrinck, who in his studies came
across the saying, “Delayed obedience is
disobedience.”
The entire article, though brief, is chock-
full of great quotes. I’m glad the reporter
asked the right questions to get those
quotes and then just put them nicely in the
story. He also explains helpful details
Competition
about the rigorous application process for
seminary.
The article is thoughtful, informative and
within The
interesting — traits that are unfortunately
rare. I also love that it looks at religion in a
non-political context. More, please!
Family
Bookmark to: By dpulliam
Submitted at 7/14/2008 6:08:50 PM
Forgive me as I do some shameless
COMPETITION
continued from page 34
promotion of an excellent new blog.
The evangelical Christian publication
presidential nominee Barack Obama has Christianity Today has launched a new
already been interviewed by the blog designed specially for covering the
publication, but nothing yet from the 2008 election season. The author, Sarah
presumed Republican nominee John Pulliam, has been working for the
McCain. publication through college in-between
A recent online poll by the magazine newsroom internships at The Columbus
shows that Obama may be winning the Dispatch and the Colorado Springs
support of its readers: Gazette. She will be covering both the
Obama passed McCain (41%) by Republican and Democratic conventions
garnering 51 percent of the vote during our this fall for the magazine and the blog.
poll that closed yesterday. In June, McCain Christianity Today in a way represents
led Obama 50 to 33 percent. The two were the complex evangelical political scene
tied in March at 26 percent. reporters are covering this fall. Founder
An informal survey of the blog shows Billy Graham started the publication
that Obama was the feature of eight posts, because he wanted to“plant the evangelical
McCain two and four related to subjects flag in the middle-of-the-road, taking the
relating to both or neither. conservative theological position but a
The blog also includes content from two definite liberal approach to social
others who write on religion and politics: problems.” Presumed Democratic
COMPETITION page 35 COMPETITION page 34
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper 35
COMPETITION
continued from page 34
Dan Gilgoff of Beliefnet’s God-o-Meter
and Mark Silk’s Spiritual Politics.
If reporters needed more evidence that
evangelicals are not a monolith, this blog
would be a good place to go.
UPDATE: The editor of the CT blog is
my younger sister.
Bookmark to: