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Edition
Does McCain Have a Problem With Women?
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 8/6/2008 3:01:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, John McCain,
Featured Stories According to blogger and
radio host Taylor Marsh, the answer is
pretty clear. Monday's incident, in which
John McCain volunteered his wife for a
topless beauty contest at the Sturgis, South
Dakota biker bash, is but one more
instance of what Marsh sees as a pattern of
sexist behavior from the Arizona Senator:
Hello, all of you anti Obama zealots, got
misogyny? That's your man, John McCain,
a where's Pakistan?, Sunni or Shia - who
cares?, bomb-bomb-bomb Iran, Take my
wife topless please, kind of guy.
You can add McCain offering up his
wife for a topless contest to what John
McCain once said about Hillary before he
needed her votes.
Marsh, a leading supporter of Clinton's
bid for the nomination, goes on to list a
few of McCain's off-color jokes about
Hillary and Chelsea, including the one he
told at a 1998 Washington dinner:
"Why is Chelsea Clinton so ugly?
Because Janet Reno is her father."
Marsh is by no means the only person
House GOP Invites McCain To Its Party
By Dave (Political Machine)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 3:13:00 PM
Filed under: Democrats, Republicans,
2008 House, Energy Boehner and Shadegg
are throwing a protest in the recessed
House of Representatives, and they hope
McCain can join:
Republican presidential candidate Sen.
John McCain may be thrust into the public
spat between House Republicans and
Democrats over the Democratic
accusing McCain of anti-women
sentiments. Adherents of this view often
cite the now-famous exchange between
McCain and his wife during a campaign
stop in 1992.Cindy playfully chided John
about his thinning hair. The Arizona
Senator's response?
McCain's face reddened, and he
responded, "At least I don't plaster on the
makeup like a trollop, you c**t."
Other foes have compiled their own
greatest hits from McCain's past regarding
his attitudes toward women, including his
wife-beating quip to ABC's Jake Tapper,
and his infamous rape joke delivered
before the National League of Cities and
Towns:
"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 sign contently
and to feebly ask,'Where is that marvelous
ape?'"
Of course, who among us hasn't told an
untoward joke now and again? Perhaps
even more illuminating about McCain's
feelings about the "fairer sex" comes in his
voting record:
leadership's decision to take summer recess
without vote on offshore oil drilling.
The Democratic leadership allowed the
legislature's scheduled summer break to
begin August 1 without holding an up-or-
down vote on increasing domestic oil
drilling. Republicans stayed behind to
protest the decision and have been
delivering speeches on the floor of House
in support of more drilling.
In a briefing with bloggers in House
Minority Leader John Boehner's office
24/07/08 - 06/08/08
He has consistently voted against
measures to provide access to
contraception and sex-education, and voted
to approve anti-choice judges.
Planned Parenthood and NARAL have
August 5, Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz ,said
he would "love to have McCain come
speak on the floor" as part of the protest.
He said he believes inviting a senator to
speak on the House floor would not violate
House rules and challenged House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to stop it.
They've been getting some press
coverage, and they (Boehner and Shadegg)
are hoping they can amp it up a little by
getting McCain and his HUGE press
entourage to pay some attention to their
LibertyNewsprint.com U.S.
each given him a zero for his record on
women's health issues. (The record dates
back to his days in the House of
Representatives, between 1983 and 1986,
and carries through to his career in the U.S.
Senate, which began in 1987.) Of the 130
congressional votes related to reproductive
freedom that McCain has cast, 125 have
been anti-choice, according to NARAL.
And while being anti-abortion doesn't
mean you're necessarily anti-woman, many
of the votes above had to do with
contraception, including, as Frank Rich
recently pointed out, an attempt "to
terminate the federal family planning
program that provides breast-cancer
screenings ." As was recently witnessed on
the campaign trail, while McCain has no
problem with insurance plans funding
Viagra, he gets a tad squeamish on the
subject of birth control:
McCain, by the way, never did "get
back" to the female reporter.
The other recent piece of legislation that
speaks to McCain's priorities, was the
defeated Senate measure designed to
ensure equal pay in the workplace. McCain
skipped the vote, but let it be known he
wouldn't have given his support even if he
had been in D.C.:
shindig in the well of the house. That's
what this is about. McCain may well take
them up on the offer, as it surely won't do
him any harm, and may buy him some
points with pro-drilling Republicans. He
could use some points.
The other bulletin item on this is that
apparently Pelosi and crew have gamed
this out, they have let it be known that
politically vulnerable Democrats are free
to vote against them on the drilling issue,
and she will make sure it never comes to a
"I'm all in favor of pay equity for women,
but this kind of legislation is typical of
what's being proposed by my friends on
the other side of the aisle, opens us up to
lawsuits from all kinds of problems."
Never mind that the bill itself came about
as a result of one of the many option-of-
last-resort lawsuits filed each year from
women who are systematically underpaid
for doing precisely the same jobs as men.
McCain's "less regulation" ethos should be
viewed in light of the recent failures of free
market self-regulation. Energy (Enron),
and Banking (sub-prime mortgage crisis)
come to mind.
A joke here or there or a single vote
along the way may doesn't really prove
that a person has a problem with the
opposite sex. Down that path lies a rigidly
PC society that we should all reject. But
when you step back and look at the
patterns evident in John McCain's
behavior, it makes you wonder how this
man has the audacity to hope that Senator
Clinton's loyal female following will flock
to his side.
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vote. Boehner is trying to end run that
strategy by pointing out that the vulnerable
Dems can put their money where their
mouth is and sign a discharge petition
which could force a vote. If I had to bet I'd
still say that the Democrats will cave on
this one. The question is when.
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2 Politico* Tech Tips*
Obama: McCain 'Proud to be Ignorant'
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 8/6/2008 2:25:00 AM
Filed under: Democrats, Barack Obama,
John McCain, Featured Stories, 2008
President, Energy It started innocuously
enough. In Springfield, MO, a week ago,
Barack Obama gave this response to a
voter who had asked how individuals could
help with the energy crisis:"There are
things that you can do individually though
to save energy; making sure your tires are
properly inflated, simple thing, but we
could save all the oil that they're talking
about getting off drilling, if everybody was
just inflating their tires and getting regular
tune-ups. You could actually save just as
much." It was a mundane suggestion, one
we've all heard and ignored a thousand
times. Then, the McCain campaign fired
off a quick memo, entitled "John McCain
On Barack Obama's 'Air In Our Tires'
Energy Plan."
Ha. An obviously disingenuous quip, but
worthy of an eyeroll from Democrats, and
a mild chuckle from everyone else.
Mission accomplished.
As usual, though, McCain wasn't
satisfied with the cheap points he had
scored, and he and the Republican noise
machine went on a full-bore assault on tire
inflation, culminating in the McCain
campaign's distribution of fund-raising
"Obama Tire Pressure Gauges."
The inevitable result, of course, was that
the media dug up clips and webpages that
showed everyone, including fuel efficiency
experts NASCAR, agreeing with Obama's
statement. Without McCain's ill-advised
pressing of this issue, Obama would never
have had the cover to say this:
The shame of it is, there was a legitimate
criticism to be made by McCain.
Obviously, that's not Obama's whole plan,
or even part of it. Equally obvious is that
what Obama said is common knowledge.
If I was going to attack the statement, that's
how I would have done it.
The guy asked him a good question, and
he responded with what is essentially a
cliché, something that everybody knows
Make Word 2007 Default to .DOC Filetype [Microsoft Word Tip]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 4:22:03 AM
but nobody but your dad pays attention to.
That guy can finely calibrate his tires every
morning, and his idiot neighbor will waste
all of those savings idling his Hummer in
the driveway so he can listen to the stereo
while he mows his lawn.
The last thing I would do is to try to
attack the truth of the statement. Beyond
that, once I'd gotten away with it, I
wouldn't continue to call attention to it,
begging people to notice the obvious.
Ordinarily, a statement by Obama that
McCain and his team "take pride in being
ignorant" would be a big problem for the
Democratic nominee, but the extent to
which Team McCain drilled this issue has
given Obama more than enough cover to
play the "Dumbass Card."
Now, if Obama is smart, he'll turn this to
an even greater advantage, and attack
McCain on the economy by sending out
"McCain/Bush Economy Air Pressure
If you're sick of co-workers with older
versions of Word not being able to open
your .DOCX files, weblog Technix Update
Gauges" to measure the runaway inflation.
Here are the remarks, via Political
Punch:"Let me make a point about
efficiency, because my Republican
opponents - they don't like to talk about
efficiency," Obama said.
"You know the other day I was in a town
hall meeting and I laid out my plans for
investing $15 billion a year in energy
efficient cars and a new electricity grid and
somebody said, 'well, what can I do? what
can individuals do?' Obama recalled.
"So I told them something simple,"
Obama said. "I said, 'You know what? You
can inflate your tires to the proper levels
and that if everybody in America inflated
their tires to the proper level, we would
actually probably save more oil than all the
oil we'd get from John McCain drilling
right below his feet there, or wherever he
was going to drill.'"
"So now the Republicans are going
explains how to change the default file
format to .DOC when you save files in
Word 2007. [ via]
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around - this is the kind of thing they do. I
don't understand it! They're going around,
they're sending like little tire gauges,
making fun of this idea as if this is 'Barack
Obama's energy plan.'
"Now two points, one, they know they're
lying about what my energy plan is, but the
other thing is they're making fun of a step
that every expert says would absolutely
reduce our oil consumption by 3 to 4
percent. It's like these guys take pride in
being ignorant.
"You know, they think it is funny that
they are making fun of something that is
actually true. They need to do their
homework. Because this is serious
business. Instead of running ads about
Paris Hilton and Britney Spears they
should go talk to some energy experts and
actually make a difference."
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McCain Camp
Apologizes for
Reporter Incident
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 8/6/2008 3:17:00 AM
Filed under: John McCain, Race Here's a
follow-up to a story I posted a few days
ago. John McCain's campaign has formally
apologized to a black newspaper reporter
who was summarily removed from a press
area last Friday. Heres more from the
paper where the reporter works:
Senior Writer Stephen Price, asked to
leave an area restricted to national
reporters while other state reporters
remained, got a personal apology from
McCain's campaign Tuesday evening.
Price was the lone black reporter among
the media in the area at a Panama city rally
on Friday.
Price and the paper have accepted the
McCain camp's apology, but still wonder
why, and who, directed the Secret Service
agent to toss the reporter from the
proceedings in the first place:
"It's the right thing for the McCain
campaign to do," Gabordi [Bob, Executive
Editor of the Tallahassee Democrat] said.
"Our issue remains with the Secret Service
agent. His actions are still a problem. The
senator's campaign has done the right thing
and we appreciate that."
So, the question remains, why did the
Secret Service agent, after reviewing
Price's press credentials, single him out for
removal?
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Ad-Free HD Video and TV
Episodes at Hulu
[Television]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 8:44:05 AM
In a limited time promotion of their hi-def
offerings, video site Hulu is streaming HD
TV episodes like Lost, Heroes, The Office,
24, and Dr. Horrible commercial-free. [
via]
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
McCain Flips, Obama Quips on Tire Pressure
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 8/6/2008 4:14:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, Barack Obama,
John McCain, 2008 President, Energy The
battle over (tire) inflation continues!
As I reported earlier, Barack Obama
swung back hard yesterday on John
McCain's "Tire Pressure" attack. Senator
Obama found an unlikely ally last
night:"And could I mention that Senator
Obama a couple of days ago said that we
ought to all inflate our tires, and I don't
disagree with that. The American
Automobile Association strongly
recommends it." That quote comes from
noted McCain opponent John McCain,
during a "tele-town hall meeting" last
night.
Barack Obama has graciously and
quietly accepted McCain's attempt to quiet
the rhetoric. By the way, while we're on
the subject of Senator McCain
Newt Gingrich Joins House Protest
By Dave (Political Machine)
Submitted at 8/6/2008 3:01:00 AM
Filed under: Breaking News, 2008
Senate, 2008 House, Energy
Via a RNC memo, the GOP caucus in the
House of Representatives is successfully
attracting some names to their protest:
House Republican leaders confirmed
today that former House Speaker Newt
Gingrich (R-GA) will join House
Republicans' ongoing national protest over
the decision by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-
CA) to adjourn the House without a vote
on legislation to lower gas prices and
McCain VP Picks Have Pro-Obama Bias
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 8/6/2008 5:30:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, John McCain,
Featured Stories, 2008 President,
Veepstakes As I reported last night, Alaska
Governor Sarah Palin, a tenant in the John
McCain VP Shortlist Hostel, has offered
contradicting himself, a few days ago
someone asked me what they could do to
help America save energy. I suggested that
we could get better gas mileage in our cars
and save oil in the process just by keeping
our tires inflated, and experts agreed. But
Senator McCain and his party mocked the
idea, and they even sent out tire gauges.
increase American energy production. The
former Speaker will join House
Republicans in the Capitol on Wednesday
morning to deliver a message of on behalf
of the 1.4 million Americans who have
signed a petition demanding that Congress
increase American energy production.
Newt's always been good at this
revolutionary kind of stuff, but his cachet
has sagged as of late. No word from
McCain yet as to whether he will show up.
Minority leader John Boehner is also " live
blogging" and I am glad to see that my
own representative Jean Schmidt from OH
-2 is there as well. I put the live blogging
praise for John McCain's rival, Barack
Obama.
Now, USA Today is reporting that
another resident of the shortlist, Minnesota
Governor Tim Pawlenty had kind words
for Obama: Pawlenty offered positive
comments about Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama, saying "people
gravitate when you have something
Well, get this - last night, after all that,
Senator McCain actually said that he
agreed that keeping our tires inflated was a
good idea. We just agreed to a series of
debates in the fall, but the most interesting
one that's going on these days is the debate
between John McCain and John McCain. -
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama-as
in quotes, because I really doubt that Mr.
Boehner himself is sitting down at the
keyboard scratching out a post. Plus the
positive to say." The remarks were made to
a Republican lobbying group at the first
prepared for delivery -Town Hall on
Energy - Elkhart, Indiana - Wednesday,
August 6, 2008
Even though this pain is self-inflicted,
it's tough not to feel a little sorry for John
McCain. This has gone from a mild win to
an opening for Obama to explore McCain's
outer demons. The DNC has put together a
nice little flash presentation to show you
what a McCain vs. McCain debate might
look like.
In spite of his newfound agreement with
Senator Obama, John McCain continues to
solicit donations on his website by offering
"Obama Tire Pressure Gauges" for $25.00.
I don't know if charging $25.00 for a tire
gauge is the best way for McCain to
illustrate, for voters, his grasp of the
economy.
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frequency is not all that high for a real live
blog. But two hours is good and whatever
staffer is assigned seems to be on top of
things.
You've got to admit, the House
Republicans have jumped on this issue like
it's their best hope of having a decent
November. Probably because it is. But yes,
on the issues, it is crazy that we're paying
high fuel costs yet have energy resources
that we won't go after.
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annual GOPAC State and Local Summit,
so Pawlenty did have to play to the crowd
a little bit: Pawlenty said that Republicans
such as Ronald Reagan had ideas, but he
added that in recent years, "The
Republican idea factory has seen a little
stagnant." McCain is going to have an
exhausting search on his hands if he wants
to pick a VP who hasn't either praised
Politico* Tech* 3
New Obama Ad:
'Original'
By Christopher Weber (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 8/6/2008 6:19:00 AM
Filed under: Barack Obama, Ads, John
McCain, 2008 President, Viral Video"The
original maverick? Or just more of the
same?" So asks this new Obama spot.
Here's the money quote by McCain, caught
on tape in 2003: "The president and I agree
on most issues. There was a recent study
that showed that I voted with the president
over 90% of the time." Just as McCain
seemingly never tires of the "maverick"
label, the Obama camp won't stop linking
their opponent to George W. Bush.
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If Everyone's Using Your
Pirated Software, Are
You Still A Monopolist?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 8:44:00 AM
Apparently there's a new antitrust law in
China that has local software companies
scrambling to file suit against Microsoft
for violating the law. However, Business
Week has a rather pertinent question: if the
vast majority of the Microsoft software in
use in China is of the "pirated" variety, can
Microsoft actually be held responsible for
antitrust violations? After all, it's not
directly responsible for that "monopoly" in
the first place.
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Obama, trashed McCain, or cured cancer
by casting out a demon. Maybe Nicole
Richie is available.
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4 Politico* Business*
Bush Bearing Torch of
Liberty
By Justin Paulette (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 8/6/2008 4:17:00 AM
Filed under: President Bush, Foreign
Policy
En route to the Olympics, President Bush
scheduled a pregnant stop in South Korea.
"North Korea traps its people in misery
and isolation," the president chided. In
contrast, South Korea's openness to the
global community has allowed the
democratic nation to "take its rightful place
on the world stage."
North Korea's Pyongyang hoped to wipe
his country from America's terror list with
the symbolic dismantling of a nuclear
reactor cooling tower in June. Holding a
hard line against the communist leader,
President Bush reaffirmed his commitment
to South Korea and the verifiable
dismantlement of all North Korean nuclear
weapons programs. Admitting that he
could not state with certainty that
Pyongyang would cease nuclear ambitions,
the president stated: "My hope is that the
axis of evil list no longer exists. That's my
hope for the sake of peace. That's my hope
for the sake of our children."
Beyond reaffirming the U.S. stance on
North Korea's weapons program, President
Bush's comments raise the issue of
democracy and human rights on China's
doorstep. The South Korea visit should be
seen as a prelude to the president's China
trip. The proclamations of human rights
and national responsibility were not
limited to North Korea, and will serve as
the underlying current of everything
spoken by the president as he arrives in
Beijing for the Summer Games.
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An Irish Perspective...
By Justin Paulette (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 8/6/2008 5:31:00 AM
Filed under: Barack Obama, John
McCain, 2008 President, Humor
We, in Ireland, can't figure out why you
people are even bothering to hold an
election in the United States.
On one side, you had a pants wearing
female lawyer, married to another lawyer
who can't seem to keep his pants on, who
just lost a long and heated primary against
a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church,
who is married to yet another lawyer, who
doesn't even like the country her husband
wants to run!
Now...On the other side, you have a nice
old war hero whose name starts with the
appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a
MGM Mirage (MGM)
shoots higher on so-so
earnings
By Brent Archer (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 8:10:00 AM
Filed under: Major movement, Earnings
reports, Good news, Industry, Options,
Technical Analysis MGM Mirage(NYSE:
MGM/ option chains) shares are soaring
higher today even though the company
announced its second-quarter profit fell
68.6% to $113.1 million as resorts lowered
room rates and visitors spent less money.
MGM posted earnings of 40 cents per
share on sales of $1.9 billion, while
analysts expected earnings of 42 cents per
share on revenue of $1.89 billion.
Even though the EPS missed estimates,
investors seem to be focusing on revenues
that beat estimates. The gaming sector has
been beaten down so much over the first
half of this year that it is possible anything
other than a complete meltdown is a
catalyst for the stock to rise. If you think
that the stock won't fall by too much in the
coming months, then now could be a good
time to look at a bullish hedged trade on
MGM.
MGM opened this morning at $31.31. So
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
good looking younger woman who owns a
beer distributorship!
Now what in God's name are ya lads
thinkin over in the colonies!
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far today the stock has hit a low of $31.04
and a high of $34.29. As of 2:35, MGM is
trading at $33.85, up $2.85 (9.2%). The
chart for MGM looks neutral and S&P
gives MGM a neutral 3 STARS (out of 5)
hold ranking.
For a bullish hedged play on this stock, I
would consider a September bull-put credit
spread below the $22.50 range. A bull-put
credit spread is an options position that
combines the purchase and sale of put
options to hedge risk in case the stock
doesn't do what you think but still leverage
nice returns. For this particular trade, we
will make a 4.2% return in just seven
weeks as long as MGM is above $22.50 at
September expiration. MGM would have
to fall by more than 33% before we would
start to lose money. Learn more about this
type of trade here.
Continue reading MGM Mirage (MGM)
shoots higher on so-so earnings Permalink|
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Yahoo! releases correct
board vote count;
questions remain
By Melly Alazraki (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 2:20:00 PM
Filed under: Management, Yahoo!
(YHOO), Scandals Following the demand
of one of Yahoo(NASDAQ: YHOO)'s
largest shareholders, Capital Research
Global Investors, to review the vote in last
week's re-election of the Internet giant's
board, Yahoo! has now released the
corrected numbers this afternoon. To
recount, Capital Research Global Investors
couldn't understand how Jerry Yang
received 85.4% supporting votes when the
fund's 16% holding was withheld.
Yahoo! acknowledged the error, blaming
it on a tabulation error by Broadbridge.
The new count shows much more disdain
for several members of the board.
Specifically, CEO Yang went from 85.4%
support to 66.3% in the new count, Roy J.
Bostock and Ronald W. Burkle went from
79.5% and 81.2% respectively to 60.4%
and 62.1% respectively.
While this doesn't change anything
except to show the board doesn't have the
same approval from shareholders, it seems
there are still some open questions.
Barron's Eric Savitz brings concerns from
Mithras Capital, an investment firm that
owns 1.7 million Yahoo shares, regarding
200 million fewer votes in this year's vote
compared to votes in the past two years.
The possible explanation is that the
ballots that voted the Icahn slate before his
agreement with Yahoo's board were voided
and therefore not all shareholders were
represented. Mithras Capital then wonders
whether some members of the board
wouldn't have been re-elected had these
votes been counted.
Regardless, after several delays of the
meeting as well as a "tabulation error,"
more questions are left unanswered and
this whole vote leaves a really bad taste
and lowers -- even further -- shareholders'
confidence in Yahoo's board and
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
FOMC decision: Doves 10, There may be a 'micro airline'
hawks 1 on your itinerary in the near
By Douglas S. Roberts
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 10:30:00 AM
Filed under: After the bell, Good news,
Market matters, Money and Finance
Today, Economic data, Commodities, Oil,
Headline news, Federal Reserve,
Recession
The Federal Open Market Committee
issued its decision to leave interest rates at
2%. This was as expected. However, the
statement was much more dovish than
expected. Language in the previous
statement indicating that downside risks to
growth "appear to have diminished
somewhat" was deleted, and the focus
clearly remained on the economic
situation, although inflation risks continue
to be acknowledged.
The U.S. equity markets rallied prior to
the statement being released and continued
after the decision was issued. Oil prices
also continued their retreat.
The dovish nature of the decision was
Comcast chomps on Daily Candy
By Tom Taulli (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 4:06:00 PM
Filed under: Comcast Cl'A' (CMCSA),
Small business Dany Levy, who got her
start as a journalist, is the mastermind
behind the highly successful email
newsletter platform, the Daily
Candy(established in 2000). She even got
investment capital from top players, such
as Bob Pittman (the founder of MTV).
Well, this week Comcast(Nasdaq:
CMCSA) agreed to shell out $125 million
for the Daily Candy.
Basically, the Daily Candy is a purveyor
of hip/fashionable content - geared to
women. True, there are only 2.5 million
email subscribers. However, they are
highly desirable for advertisers. The Daily
Candy's user base has a median age of 31;
has $75,000 in income; and 96% read the
indicated by the fact that there was only
one member voting for an increase. As
many as three members were expected to
vote for an increase. Despite the recent
hawkish statements, all members voted to
maintain the 2% level.
This confirms what I have said in recent
posts that hawkish talk does not
necessarily translate into hawkish action.
As I have said in my book, Follow the Fed
to Investment Success, "watch what the
Fed does not what it says."
The economy is still far too weak for the
Fed to begin raising rates.
Doug Roberts is the Founder and Chief
Investment Strategist for
ChannelCapitalResearch.com, and is the
author of Follow the Fed(R) to Investment
Success: The Effortless Strategy for
Beating Wall Street. He previously held
executive positions at Morgan Stanley
Group and Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
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email every day. Oh, and 66% of them
have purchased something they read about
from the Daily Candy.
Currently, there are local editions in 12
cities. Although, with the heft from
Comcast, I'm sure this number will
expand. There should also be some nice
synergy with the advertiser base as well as
cable assets like the E! Entertainment
future
By Joseph Lazzaro
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:30:00 AM
Filed under: Forecasts, Other issues,
Consumer experience, Competitive
strategy
What's one over-the-horizon trend that
passengers (and investors) would be wise
to monitor closely? Micro airlines.
Micro airlines will be small carriers that
target the leisure travel market, stock
analyst and frequent flier C. Leonard
Bauer told BloggingStocks Tuesday.
Bauer is quick to point out that these
carriers don't exist today -- the commercial
aviation sector's financials can't currently
support them -- but when design advances
(including composites), increased engine
efficiency, and a drop in oil and aviation
channel.
Tom Taulli is the author of various
books, including The Complete M&A
Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to
Decoding Financial Statements. He also
operates MergerBook.com. Permalink|
Email this| Comments
fuel prices turn in the airline sector's favor,
look for micro carriers to sprout, he
predicted.
A streamlined air itinerary
Further, Bauer doesn't count current
'regional airlines' or 'express airlines' such
as United Express as micro airlines
because micro airlines will differ from the
former in one significant way: "They'll
have vastly reduced check-in times
compared to regional airlines," Bauer said.
"For a portion of the leisure travel public,
this will be the deal-clincher." Bauer added
that he doesn't own shares in nor have a
rating on any airline.
Continue reading There may be a 'micro
airline' on your itinerary in the near future
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Fortune article on the
downside of cheaper oil gets it
backwards
By Melly Alazraki (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 8:40:00 AM
Filed under: Newspapers, Rants and
raves, Commodities, Oil, Recession
I don't usually get peeved by misleading
headlines, but given the amount of
attention Fortune magazine's"Falling oil
prices: The downside" by Colin Barr has
been receiving -- see Slate's Beware of
cheap oil for an example -- I felt compelled
to comment.
If you haven't read the article, here's the
tag line: "Lower prices mean less pain at
the pump -- but tougher times ahead for the
economy." And here's the main point: But
falling oil prices also suggest that the
recession the U.S. has so far avoided is
well on its way, as consumers pull back
Business* Tech* 5
Ok, How About A
$12 Computer?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 6:20:02 AM
Last week, we wrote about supposed
efforts in India to build a$10 computer.
However, Indian officials later explained
that there was a typo in the transcript to the
speech in question, and they really meant a
$100 computer. But don't think others
aren't trying for cheaper computers. The
Raw Feed points out that some folks at
MIT (ironically, the home of OLPC
founder Nicholas Negroponte) are working
on building $12 computers for the
developing world, using the old Apple II as
a base. It seems like an interesting plan,
though still quite far away from reality.
But, still, in this space, more competition is
good, no matter how much Negroponte
wishes he were the only provider.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
from the spending spree that drove
economic growth earlier this decade. A
weakening economy will mean more
layoffs, further pressuring already reduced
spending.
Two beefs I have with the above: First,
anyone suggesting the U.S. has avoided a
recession so far is playing with semantics.
The second and main beef is that lower oil
prices didn't cause, and will not cause, the
economy to slow down. Rather, the
slowing economy has caused oil prices to
drop. Lower oil prices only reflect the state
of the economy.
Continue reading Fortune article on the
downside of cheaper oil gets it backwards
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
6 Business* Tech* Biz Buzz
Closing Bell: Archer-Daniels still Circuit City flip flops on MAD
falling, but Lehman shows a Magazine
strong gain By Zac Bissonnette
(BloggingStocks)
By Jon Ogg (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:14:00 AM
Filed under: Sirius Satellite Radio (SIRI),
Procter and Gamble (PG), Lehman Br
Holdings (LEH) Today's markets started
out strong and got stronger. If you were a
conspiracy theorist you might even make a
crack noting that Wall Street had already
seen the dovish FOMC comments which
signaled that rate hikes are not a certainty
until after the election. Throw in a
substantial drop in oil to new recent lows
of under $119.00 per barrel, and the rest is
all gravy.
Here are today's unofficial closing bell
levels:
D.J.I.A. 11,609.66 (+325.51)
Tyson (TSN) employees' Muslim holiday furor
much ado about nothing
By Tom Barlow (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:00:00 AM
Filed under: Rumors, Tyson Foods'A'
(TSN)
The internet was buzzing last week after
an article in the Shelbyville (that's right, I
said Shelbyville), Tenn. Times-Gazette
reported that Tyson Foods Inc(NYSE:
TSN) employees at the local poultry plant
could take off the Muslim holiday Eid Al-
Fitr, which celebrates the end of Ramadan,
instead of Labor Day. As you might expect
in year seven of our 'war' on terrorism,
some readers went apoplectic at the
Why Is Illinois Only Concerned About Canceling Online Gaming Services?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 2:27:04 PM
An anonymous reader points us to the
S&P500 1,283.28 (+34.27)
NASDAQ 2,347.36 (+61.80)
10YR T-NOTE 4.007% (+0.035%)
52-Week Lows
Top Analyst Downgrades
Top Analyst Upgrades
Archer-Daniels Midland
Company(NYSE: ADM) saw shares down
over 5% in today's final minutes. Despite
the stock being close to new fresh lows,
traders were very unenthusiastic after the
company missed earnings expectations.
Continue reading Closing Bell: Archer-
Daniels still falling, but Lehman shows a
strong gain Permalink| Email this|
Comments
thought of an American corporation
granting a non-Christian holiday.
Now Tyson is in a full-court press to
respond to the story, and I think the
news that the state of Illinois has passed a
law in response to the complaint of one
individual that it was extremely difficult to
cancel his online subscription to the game
Submitted at 8/5/2008 7:55:00 AM
Filed under: Management, Marketing and
advertising, Blockbuster Inc 'A' (BBI),
Circuit City Stores (CC) You might think
that corporate train wreck Circuit
City(NYSE: CC) would have a lot of
things to worry about -- like, oh, I don't
know, the fact that it lost $165 million last
quarter. Or the stock price, which has gone
from $30 to $2 in less than three years.
And with fellow wreck
Blockbuster(NYSE: BBI) having
withdrawn its proposal to acquire the
company, Circuit City is even out of the
running for the prestigious Stupidest
Merger in History That Doesn't Involve the
Company Which Owns This Website
Award.
You might think that Circuit City
management has plenty to keep it busy, but
you'd be wrong. Circuit City banned its
stores from selling an issue of MAD
Magazine that made fun of the company,
referring to it as "Sucker City." Hah.
company deserves consideration. Its press
release explains that the exchange affects
only this plant, and was granted in
response to a request from the Retail,
Wholesale and Department Stores Union.
Around 250 of its members are Somali
immigrants, legally in the U.S. as political
refugees, who work at the plant.
Continue reading Tyson (TSN)
employees' Muslim holiday furor much
ado about nothing Permalink| Email this|
Comments
Final Fantasy XI. So, now it's been added
to the state's consumer fraud law that any
online game needs to offer an easy online
way to cancel the service. That's all well
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
But yesterday the company reversed
course and allowed the magazines to be
sold, with a PR spokesman blaming"some
overly sensitive souls at our corporate
headquarters" --
Continue reading Circuit City flip flops
on MAD Magazine Read| Permalink|
Email this| Comments
Kindle. Or
Kindling?
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/4/2008 9:00:00 PM
Since the Kindle was launched last
November, it has been the subject of
careful dissection, review, and speculation
by countless blogs and news outlets,
sparking one of techland's all-too-frequent
debates: Is Amazon's new e-reader a game-
changer?
More pressing than whether the answer
KINDLE. page 7
and good, but I'm wondering why it's
limited only to online games? If you're
going to go that far, why not focus on any
online subscription service?
Worried about
recession, Fed leaves
interest rates alone
By Michael Rainey (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 8:25:00 AM
Filed under: Federal Reserve, Recession
The Federal Reserve has rightly been
worried that the economy may be both too
hot and too cold at the same time. But
today, the Fed leaned toward the recession
side of the worry ledger and left the federal
funds rate at 2%.
In a statement announcing the decision to
keep rates as is, the Fed stated that
"Although downside risks to growth
remain, the upside risks to inflation are
also of significant concern to the
committee."
So both inflation and a serious recession
are still cause for concern. But in leaving
rates alone, the Fed announced that low or
negative growth rather than an inflationary
spiral is now the main problem.
There are good reasons to focus more on
growth rather than inflation. The price of
oil is falling and talk of a global slowdown
is building. On top of that, labor is at an
epic low in terms of political and economic
power, so the price-wage spiral is unlikely
to occur.
Today's move (or non-move) suggests
that the next change in interest rates could
be down. Permalink| Email this| Comments
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
KINDLE.
continued from page 6
is yes or no is why we're even talking
about it in the first place. The game in
question is reading, after all—not exactly a
growth industry, as Simon & Schuster and
Random House will tell you.
While Amazon has yet to provide official
sales figures, TechCrunch has a source
saying that the online retailer has sold
240,000 of the e-readers in their first eight
months on sale, for a total of almost $100
million in revenue.
It's not difficult to imagine that, thanks to
its aggressive Kindle marketing push (such
as prime advertising space in the middle of
Amazon's homepage), those 240,000 units
represent a good portion of the total market
for the device out there.
Consider that the literate population of
the United States is about 270 million, and
that according to a 2007 A.P.-Ipsos survey,
one in four people didn't read a single book
in the past year. Of those who did read
books, the average consumption was seven
per year—too few by a long shot to
warrant buying a pricey e-reader device.
The Kindle is not going to make a reader
out of a nonreader. Few will say, "Gee,
reading books and magazines was
prohibitively difficult before, but now that
there's a $359 electronic reader available,
I'm going to start!"
A 2005 Gallup survey reported that 25
percent of people say they read at least part
of 10 to 49 books per year, which would
mean around 68 million qualify as having
a motive, at least, to use an e-reader.
Then there's the question of financial
means. Only the top 18 percent of
households make $100,000 or more, which
seems like a reasonable cutoff for figuring
out who would spend $359 (down from
$399) during a recession on a highly
discretionary device, even given a love for
reading.
Of the 12 million Americans with the
means and the motive to purchase a
Lenovo's S10 netbook gets the hands-on treatment
By Nilay Patel (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 2:01:00 PM
Filed under: Laptops
Kindle, a whole host of other factors come
into play.
Count out the technophobes and
Luddites, a demographic for which e-
readers like the Kindle tragically self-
select. The 2007 A.P.-Ipsos survey showed
that the heaviest readers are female and
over 50, while conversely, tech users skew
young and male.
Even those who play well with
microchips have plenty of reasons for
wanting to make reading a semiconductor-
free experience. It can be difficult to
unwind while interacting with a gadget,
and many people enjoy the physical
artifact of a book, relishing the feeling of
accomplishment when pushing through
something paper.
So the Kindle's target buyer would be a
person who reads so much that they have
ceased instilling books and periodicals
with nostalgic value…yet not so much that
they are rarely far enough from a computer
to really need a separate device.
To top it off, one can imagine a single
device (and Amazon account) being used
by an entire household. And we're talking
only about those that choose a Kindle, of
course, rather than a competing device
such as Sony's portable reader.
So, all things considered, how many
Kindles does that work out to? Two
million? One million? Five hundred
thousand?
Jeff Bezos surely did a market-sizing
exercise or two of his own before flying
off the handle in excitement over e-
readers, and he must have seen something
more than a few hundred million in
revenue (a mere rounding error to the
company's $14.8 billion annual take) worth
getting carried away over.
Two surefire benefits for Amazon to
having an installed base of Kindle users is
that profit margins on e-books are very
high, and given the ease of downloading
Lenovo's S10 netbook might not be too
daring in the design department, but it's
still a pretty classy piece of kit -- mix that
in with the $399 starting price point and
content to the device from Amazon, they
have a virtual lock on Kindle users' book
purchases.
Then there's the potential business from
the academic market. Textbooks are so
clunky, expensive, and universally
loathsome to free-spending college
students, one could imagine that
demographic paying a pretty penny for a
slender e-reader replacement.
What other options does Amazon have
for expanding the Kindle's market?
One factor that could really change the
game is if the Kindle dropped dramatically
in price; companies currently write off
their low margins on devices such as
gaming consoles, iPods, and printers as
marketing costs in return for selling in the
high-margin content.
But for this to be true with a Kindle,
you'd have to believe that users actually
read more than they otherwise would
because they have a kindle. The data
doesn't exist for this yet, but again, it
seems unlikely.
Book sales have been steady over the
past several years; the Kindle also offers
newspapers and magazines in digital
format, but newspaper circulation has
continued to decline over the past 20 years,
and the magazine titles currently stocked
by the Kindle store—such as Newsweek,
Time, U.S. News & World Report,
Readers Digest, and the Nation—are some
of the worst-faring out there.
The bottom line? Designing the game-
changing e-reader, it seems, is more like
designing the game-changing harpsichord
than the iPod.
Related Links
A Solar-Powered iPod? Puh-lease!
What to Expect From Apple at WWDC
How Apple Got Everything Right By
Doing Everything Wrong
Lenovo's marketing muscle, and we'd say
The Fed Sandwich
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 11:30:00 AM
Oil stuck above $110 a barrel? Grain
prices setting records? Iron ore doubling
overnight? Never mind. The Federal
Reserve held a key interest rate unchanged
today and signaled that a tepid economy
would likely keep board members from
hiking rates anytime soon.
The collapsing housing market and tight
lending conditions in financial markets
have been drags on growth for more than a
year now, but alarmingly steep gains in oil
prices had begun to shift some Fed
members' concern to inflation.
As energy prices ebbed over the last two
weeks—it fell below $120 a barrel today in
New York—the Fed has been forced back
on the fence between inflation and growth.
It's not a particularly comfortable
position. Evidence is growing that the
credit crunch is hitting consumers harder.
Credit card companies say that the number
of people unable to make their payments is
on the rise.
Still, the Fed's decision to keep its
federal funds rate steady at 2 percent
sparked a celebration on Wall Street.
Traders bid up stocks frantically, launching
the Dow Jones Industrial average on a 331-
point gain. It closed at 11,615, up 2.94
percent. The broader Standard and Poor's
500 index also gained almost 3 percent, as
did the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite
Index.
Traders' enthusiasm was encouraged by
the Federal Open Market Committee
members' statement, which said that the
committee's "substantial easing of
monetary policy"—it has cut the rate by
3.25 percentage points since
September—should help promote growth.
While the Fed also said that inflation was
of "significant concern," it dropped
language from its previous statement, in
June, which said that risks to economic
growth had been lowered.
Voting against the other members for the
fifth time this year was Dallas Federal
that these first hands-on shots are just a
prelude of things to come. Tons more shots
at the read link.
[Via jkkmobile] Read| Permalink| Email
Biz Buzz Gadgets* 7
Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher
who wanted to raise rates. He's unlikely to
get his way soon, judging by the markets.
Interest rate futures lowered their
expectations of a Fed interest rate hike
before 2009—coincidentally after the
presidential election.
"In the short-term, it's hard to envision
this scenario (of a rate hike)," Joe Davis,
chief economist at Vanguard, told Reuters.
"For that to happen, you would need to see
things improving significantly."
The Fed started the current cycle of
cutting rates last September, when it
dropped them a larger-than-expected 50
basis points, or half a percentage point, in
response to the credit crunch.
Including that cut, the bank has lowered
its federal funds target rate by 3.25
percentage points. The Fed has kept its
benchmark rate unchanged at 2 percent
since April as rising energy prices have
ignited concerns over mounting inflation.
In the weeks leading up to today's
meeting, those concerns led two regional
Federal Reserve bank presidents called for
tighter monetary policy—higher rates—to
be enacted sooner rather than later.
But with economic growth tepid and
banks still hesitant to extend credit, most
analysts don't believe the Fed will be in a
position to raise rates until 2009. In fact,
on the first anniversary of the credit crunch
last week, the Fed signaled it was still
concerned about liquidity when it added
new borrowing facilities for banks.
Meanwhile, policymakers are expected
to get some support from falling oil prices,
which will help check inflation in the
coming months.
Before today's meeting, the Fed swore in
new voting board member Elizabeth Duke
who will fill one of three empty seats on
the F.O.M.C.Related Links
Will 2 Percent Be the Floor?
Fed Tries to Loosen Up
Inflation Expectations: Main St. Versus
Wall St.
this| Comments
8 Biz Buzz Tech Tips*
News Corp.: Fine, for Now
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 4:30:00 PM
D espite a difficult economic
environment and a significant decline in
income from its television operations,
News Corp. said full-year earnings per
share rose 68 percent today.
In a breezy conference call from Beijing,
chief executive Rupert Murdoch, C.O.O.
Peter Chernin and C.F.O. David Voe
glossed over weak local advertising that
has plagued many smaller TV stations.
Chernin did concede that the local ad
market was down 10 percent in the fourth
quarter of this fiscal year, that 2009 looks
weak, and that the automotive, telecom,
and financial services advertising sectors
were particularly hard hit.
"Overall, the local advertising market is
highly challenged at the moment," Chernin
admitted, predicting that revenue for News
Corp.'s local TV stations might be down
by mid-single digits in 2009.
Despite that, he said, car companies are
still emphasizing national advertising, and
the overall outlook for News Corp.'s Fox
broadcasting unit—which just finished its
fourth season as the most-watched TV
network—is brighter, with a promising
slate of fall programming and Coke, Ford
and AT&T, the big three sponsors of Fox's
Rollin' Dolan
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 7:30:00 AM
The economy is in the toilet, the credit
markets are frozen, and the consumer is
pinched, but don't tell that to James Dolan.
His company, Cablevision, is on a roll.
The New York area cable company,
which also owns assets including Madison
Square Garden, the New York Knicks, and
the recently purchased Long Island-based
Newsday Media Group, announced plans
to boost shareholder value by establishing
a dividend, buying back stock, or spinning
off business units.
No matter that chief executive Dolan
already said as much during a quarterly
conference call late last week. Today's
press release made it official, and
Cablevision's shares are up more than 6
percent.
hit show American Idol, all locked in for
the new season.
The company's movie and TV
production division finished the year with
a $1.25 billion operating profit, its seventh
straight record. For that, executives
thanked the writers' strike, which cut down
on programming costs, as well as the
success of Juno and The Simpsons
Movie(which more than offset losses from
stinkers like The Happening and What
Happens in Vegas.
Best sellers like James Frey's Bright
Shiny Morning helped the company's book
publishing division squeak ahead last
year's operating income by just $1 million.
For many analysts and investors, the big
question going into the call was: When
will MySpace show them the money?
News Corp. doesn't break out numbers, but
does say that Fox Interactive
Media—which encompasses
MySpace—had revenue growth of 57
percent and increased operating profits five
-fold.
DeVoe said technical costs, international
expansion, and new features associated
with MySpace defrayed the site's gains
slightly. Still, the site continues to attract
users and advertisers: In May it reached an
all-time high in the number of unique
visitors.
The news comes on the heels of a
favorable court ruling yesterday that could
let Cablevision customers use a remote
digital video recording system to tape
television shows without using a set-top
box. Such a recording device would
dramatically increase the number of
households that could fast-forward through
television commercials.
The Motion Picture Association argued
that the remote system amounted to
unauthorized re-broadcasting of its shows.
It won an earlier legal battle, which was
overturned yesterday by the U.S. District
Court in Manhattan.
During the earnings call on Friday, after
Cablevision reported better than expected
second-quarter profit, Dolan said its stock
was undervalued. Dolan, whose family
controls Cablevision as its largest
shareholder, declined to provide details but
At the same time, "homepage takeovers,"
in which a single advertiser dominates the
home page, are becoming increasingly
popular (Warner Brothers scored 70
million streams of The Dark Knight film
trailer this way).
Also in the works: a new digital delivery
system for content from Dow Jones. Apart
from which, the new acquisition was
hardly mentioned.
Amid the good news, DeVoe sounded a
note of caution. Looking ahead to 2009, he
predicted that improved monetization of
Internet traffic at MySpace would be a
bright spot, but that the company would
have to contend with some problems.
These include the loss of the popular
Super Bowl, which buoyed Fox's ratings
this year; the addition of pilot and
programming costs erased by the writers'
strike; and a worsening economic
environment.
Together, he warned, they could lead to
an operating income rate that was
significantly lower than this year's.Related
Links
MySpace Is Mike's Place
Murdoch's Digital Agenda
'Museum' Boosts News Corp. Sales
said the company would explore ways to
boost shareholder value.
"We have a strong desire to close the
value gap between our operating
performance and the market value of our
debt and stock," Dolan said. "We
recognize that current capital market
conditions may contribute significantly to
this value gap. We are considering and
actively exploring alternatives that may
close this gap and want to assure our
investors that we will be open to listening
to their thoughts."
Today's announcement doesn't give any
more information, but merely talking about
it again is pleasing shareholders.
Cablevision shares rose nearly 5 percent
last Friday, and are soaring again today.
One option might be to spin its valuable
cable franchise off or sell its cable
networks, which include IFC and AMC.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Syron's Song
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 4:30:00 AM
It'll come as no surprise that allegations
have surfaced that Dick Syron, the now-
embattled boss of Freddie Mac, ignored
warnings from risk managers and
underlings to tighten up the mortgage
giant's balance sheet and cut risk as far
back as 2004.
According to this mornings New York
Times, Syron's defense is that—as he
collected $38 million in compensation
since 2003—he was under pressure from
competing interests to keep the American
homeownership juggernaut rolling. Now
that the housing crisis has rolled over his
company and a good portion of U.S.
homeowners, that protest rings hollow.
The executives around Freddie (and its
dysfunctional sister, Fannie Mae) says
Syron turned a blind eye to the company's
deteriorating lending standards and kept
snapping up portfolios of risky loans.
What is shocking is that both Syron and
his counterpart at Fannie, Daniel Mudd,
The latter is currently basking in the
success of its original program Mad Men.
But certain spinoffs might crimp Dolan's
style, as Cablevision has used its lucrative
cable business to fund unrelated
acquisitions, a move that some analysts
have questioned. In July, it closed its $650
million purchase of the struggling
newspaper publisher Newsday.
Last year, Dolan offered to take the
company private at $36.26 per share, but
its shareholders rejected the offer. Today
its shares trade for $27.65.
Related Links
Disconnecting a Cable Buyout
And There You Have It: Cablevision
Buys 'Newsday'
The Time Warner Cable Control
Premium: $0
say they had it all covered and that only a
precipitous decline in the U.S. housing
market could've hurt them.
What exactly, one might ask, did they
expect after a cheap-money housing rally
that lasted for the past decade? A soft
landing. They should at least be honest that
they knew they'd be bailed out and shot the
moon.
Most appalling, however, is Syron's self-
interested take on a collapse that's crippled
the housing market. "If I had better
foresight, maybe I could have improved
things a little bit. But, frankly, if I had
perfect foresight, I would never have taken
this job in the first place."
Hmmm. Maybe, with perfect hindsight,
shareholders (or maybe even taxpayers)
will sue to get some of that $38 million
back.
Related Links
Hoping for a Fed Encore
Memo to the Next President
Wait. Weren't Treasuries Supposed to Be
Really Safe?
Aurora Concept Video
Proposes the Future of the
Web [Video
Demonstration]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 3:10:05 AM
What will browsing the web be like a
decade from now? Leading design and UI
company Adaptive Path offers one
possible answer in a new concept video
series called Aurora. Jesse James Garrett
(the guy who coined the term AJAX)
designed and narrated part one of a video
series demonstrating what the future of the
web might look like. There's some
gorgeous, imaginative, and high-tech stuff
going on here—hit the play button below
to watch.
Note: To watch this clip in HD, play it
on its source page on Vimeo.
What do you think of the first installment
of Aurora? Is it a web you hope to use
sometime in the future? What do you love
and what would you change? Let us know
what you think in the comments. Aurora
Concept Video[Adaptive Path]
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
The Pain Spreads
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/4/2008 9:00:00 AM
Is the unemployment rate headed north of
6 percent?
The Conference Board thinks so, and
others supported that view by saying they
found mounting anecdotal evidence that
big job cuts are spreading beyond the
banks and builders already clobbered by
the housing meltdown.
July marked the second time in three
months that companies announced job cuts
of at least 100,000, the outplacement firm
Challenger Gray & Christmas said, as
airlines, retailers, automakers and parts
suppliers, entertainment companies, and
health-care providers all announced deep
cuts.
The Conference Board's Employment
Trends Index also fell 0.9 percent in July
from June, and was down more than 7.5
percent from July 2007.
"Unless the labor market turns around
soon, unemployment could pass 6 percent
in early 2009—and the Conference Board's
Horrible, or Just Grim?
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/1/2008 8:30:00 AM
Okay, news on the job market is out and
everyone agrees it's not good. But how bad
is it?
In its press release on the latest numbers,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics notes that
"over the past 12 months, the number of
unemployed persons has increased by 1.6
million, and the unemployment rate has
risen by 1 percentage point."
Lest you think the problem might be
limited to new workers entering the market
faster than the economy can create jobs for
them, the B.L.S. has a little factoid to
disabuse you: "The number of unemployed
persons who had lost their last job...has
risen by 778,000 over the year."
Felix Salmon of the Market Movers blog
elsewhere on Portfolio.com sums up the
jobs situation in one word: "ugly."
"Remember too that the official
unemployment rate understates the severity
of the downturn, as it doesn't count
formerly full-time employees now working
Employment Trends Index isn't signaling
any such improvement around the corner,"
said Gad Levanon, senior economist at the
board.
The official unemployment rate ticked up
two-tenths of a percentage point on Friday,
clocking in at a four-year high of 5.7
percent.
The Challenger Gray survey showed the
transportation industry racking up the
greatest jobs losses last month: 17,051.
"Transportation cuts in 2008 have been
dominated by airlines, which are reeling
from higher fuel prices and cutting flights,
amenities, and workers to offset their
costs," said John Challenger, the
company's C.E.O.
The still-ailing financial sector chalked
up the next-biggest toll, with 15,517 jobs
eliminated. Retail was third, with 12,160
losses, followed by automakers with
11,631 cuts. Entertainment and leisure
rounded out the top five, announcing plans
to cut 10,893 jobs.
For the year so far, financial institutions
retain the lead in job destruction, having
part-time," Salmon writes. "The number of
people now who are either unemployed or
underemployed is surely larger than it has
been for many, many years."
Even Larry Kudlow on CNBC, a
notorious economic Pollyanna, says the
country is in a "mild recession." "There's
no way around it," he said.
Maybe, maybe not, says John
Challenger, chief executive of the
recruitment firm Challenger Gray. "It
probably feels like a recession for many
Americans, particularly those looking for a
job," he said, but he encourages people to
keep today's number in "perspective."
He notes that the biggest reason for the
jobless-rate spike is teenagers. More than
20 percent of them are without work, the
B.L.S. says; Challenger attributes this to
the unavailability of summer jobs.
Challenger adds that the unemployment
rate for people at least 25 years old is 4.4
percent, "hardly a level indicative of
widespread joblessness."
Fair enough. But it's not so much the
absolute number that worries people as
erased 100,775 through July—50 percent
more than at the same time last year. With
five months remaining, financial firms are
only 52,330 job losses away from last
year's record, said Challenger. He said the
industry could top its 2007 total of 153,105
by the end of October.
In all, the survey found that employers
said last month that they plan to eliminate
103,312 jobs, a 26 percent rise from the
81,755 announced in June. May job cuts, at
103,522, edged out the July losses.
Of the 25 industries tracked by
Challenger, 17 have seen job losses
increase from a year ago.
The biggest reasons cited for the job
losses were market conditions, company
closings, bankruptcy, restructuring, cost-
cutting, and downturn in demand. Related
Links
Unemployment Spikes
A Trickle-Down Theory of Subprime
Pain
High Anxiety
much as the trend: The overall
unemployment rate jumped 0.2 percent in
a month; for men, it's risen 0.4 percent in
two months.
That compounds worries about $4-a-
gallon gasoline, an economy in the
doldrums, sclerotic credit markets,
plummeting housing values, and well-
publicized bank failures.
Even Challenger concedes that, to a large
degree, all economics—like all
politics—ultimately are local.
"This is not to say that people, regardless
of age, are not struggling to keep and find
jobs," he said. "The payroll survey
confirms that employers are shedding more
workers than they are adding.
"Of course, for the individual who is out
of work," he added, "the unemployment
rate is not 20.3 percent, 5.7 percent, or 4.4
percent. It is 100 percent."Related Links
Unemployment Spikes
The Pain Spreads
Slouching Toward a Recession
F.C.C.: Feds Censure
Comcast
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/1/2008 11:00:00 AM
In a ruling that could have far-reaching
implications for how broadband providers
manage their networks, federal regulators
ordered Comcast to change the way it
manages internet traffic and be more
transparent about its practices.
The Federal Communications
Commission ordered the change on a 3-2
vote today.
See Portfolio.com's timeline of the
Comcast investigation.
"Subscribers should be able to go where
they want, when they want, and generally
use the Internet in any legal means,"
F.C.C. Chairman Kevin Martin said in a
statement.
The commission did not vote to levy a
fine against the company. It did say that
Comcast must disclose details of how it
slowed or blocked websites, explain how it
will stop those practices by the end of the
year, and tell customers explicitly about
any similar practices it adopts in the future.
In response, Comcast said: "We are
disappointed in the Commission's divided
conclusion because we believe that our
network management choices were
reasonable."
"We also believe that the Commission's
order raises significant due process
concerns and a variety of substantive legal
questions," the company said, adding, "We
Psystar Looking To Charge Apple
With Antitrust Violations
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 11:08:00 AM
Once "unauthorized" Apple clone maker,
Psystar, was sued by Apple, we fully
expected it to challenge the legality of
Apple's EULA (end user license
agreement) which forbade putting the
software on non-Apple hardware (a
provision that even Apple has been known
to ignore). The comments to our post
suggested that a more likely option would
be for Psystar to claim that Apple was
Biz Buzz Tech* 9
are considering all our legal options."
Comcast has argued that the F.C.C. lacks
the authority to enforce its 2005 Internet
Policy Statement, which established four
principles intended to guarantee consumers
open access to all legal internet content.
Advocates of "network neutrality"—the
principle that all Web traffic should be
treated equally—hailed the ruling as
"landmark decision." Last year, a coalition
of consumer-rights groups led by Free
Press filed a complaint with the F.C.C.
after Comcast was discovered to be
interfering with peer-to-peer Web traffic.
Digital-rights advocates and
telecommunications companies both
watched the case closely, seeing it as a
bellwether for how the F.C.C. would
regulate the companies whose networks
carry the Web.
"The F.C.C.'s bipartisan decision to
punish Comcast is a major victory," said
Josh Silver, executive director of Free
Press, which filed the original complaint
against the cable giant. "Defying every
ounce of conventional wisdom in
Washington, everyday people have taken
on a major corporation and won an historic
precedent for an open Internet."
Related Links
Comcast's Compromise
Piling On
The Comcast Mystery Deepens
violating antitrust laws in requiring the
software and hardware be bundled that
way.
Indeed, it looks like both of those
predictions were correct. Psystar's response
is likely to focus on both the legality of the
EULA and whether or not Apple violated
antitrust law. As predicted, this case may
be very interesting to watch -- and the end
result could be very important for many
other companies in the tech space.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
10 Biz Buzz Tech*
Oil is Falling. Blame the
Shorts!
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/4/2008 12:00:00 PM
Oil speculators. Legislators love to blame
them for the spike in oil prices, but it's
unlikely they will speak out to commend
them for its reversal.
Hedge fund managers and other traders
reaped huge windfalls as the price of a
barrel of oil more than doubled over the
past year to a high of $147 last month.
While the cost of a gallon of gas surpassed
$4, legislators wanted some accountability,
and they looked squarely at the investors
who profited most from it.
But now oil is falling, and hedge funds
are again poised to benefit. Oil dipped
below $120 per barrel on Monday for the
first time since May. And the data from the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission
shows that short positions on oil
outnumbered long positions in July for the
first time since the start of 2007.
This begs the question, then. Are hedge
funds the arbiters of the reversal or merely
the lucky beneficiaries of it?
It's hard to ignore the other market forces
at work here, since there's always an
explanation for the movement of oil prices.
Today's fall of more than $4 per barrel, for
instance, can be attributed to the
weakening threat from tropical storm
Edouard on operations in the Gulf of
GumGum Rethinks Its Approach. Drops Flash
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/31/2008 2:13:16 PM
Music and movies may grab the most
headlines when it comes to piracy, but
many content providers on the web are
also having trouble managing their images,
which are easy to crop, resize, and copy.
Some services, like Attributor, try to
monitor and track offending images, but
the ultimate solution may well lie in
removing the temptation in the first place
by offering cheap and easy to find legal
images.
Earlier this year, GumGum launched an
image licensing platform that was designed
to help publishers quickly locate and
Mexico.
Investors are also more bearish on oil
since the threat of a prolonged economic
recession could weaken demand. Last
week, the government reported evidence
that gasoline consumption is down slightly
from this time last year.
And of course, there is evidence that
even some of the savviest investors might
not have properly timed oil's reversal. The
Wall Street Journal reports that several
funds, including Jana Partners and
London's RAB Capital, took a hit in July
due to declining energy prices. The New
York Post reports that Phil Falcone's
Harbinger Capital, which made winning
bets on the subprime crisis, hasn't fared so
well since oil started its dive in recent
weeks.
So it's most probable that some
combination of the short bets and the
market forces are fueling the decline in oil
prices. Hedge funds are often made the
scapegoats for the capital market's woes,
but they almost never get recognition for
helping to cure them.
Related Links
Just How Rich Are the Richest Hedge
Fund Managers?
Credit Market Quote of the Day
When a Curve Steepener Loses $800
Million
license images. The site served as a content
hub, offering a searchable database of
images that could be licensed on a CPM
basis or for free alongside an ad.
Unfortunately, every one of GumGum’s
images was served as an embeddable Flash
widget, which made them both clunky and
annoying for publishers, as the images
couldn’t be resized or modified. The use of
Flash allowed GumGum to include their
ads with the images, and also made it
harder for people to rip them off (though
you could always just take a screenshot).
PicApp, a similar image search and
licensing platform, uses Flash as well and
suffers from the same issues.
Today GumGum has announced a new
One Year Later, Holding
On
(Portfolio.com: News and Markets)
Submitted at 8/4/2008 5:30:00 AM
As the credit crisis turns one year old this
week, some European banks appear to be
weathering the storm better than others.
HSBC, Europe's largest bank, reported a
significant decline in profit for the first
half of this year, but it still outperformed
expectations. Net income fell to $7.7
billion from $10.9 billion last year.
Analysts expected it to post $7.3 billion in
profit.
But HSBC's pain appears to be
concentrated in its North American
operations, due in large part to its exposure
to the mortgage market through its
ownership of Household International,
which is the largest subprime lender in the
U.S. HSBC bought the lender in 2003.
The bank's profit rose in Europe, Latin
America, and most of Asia. But the
HSBC's chairman said he expects the
momentum of growth in Asia and other
emerging markets to slow.
Meanwhile, the bank that started the
approach to their licensing platform, and
this time, there won’t be any Flash
involved. To use the system, users need
only include a single line of JavaScript on
their page. From there, they can include
any image they want using a standard
HTML tag. The pricing models will be the
same: publishers can either pay a fee based
on image impressions, or they can include
ads on top of their images. GumGum’s
new platform can detect licensed images
and overlays the ad on top of it, so there’s
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
credit crisis on August 9, 2007, by halting
withdrawals from certain subprime funds,
BNP Paribas, is expected to post a decline
in profits later this week. But analysts
expect BNP's results to exceed those from
its French competitors such as Société
Générale.
"It's surprising, they've resisted very
well," Pierre Chedeville, banking analyst
with CM-CIC Securities, told Bloomberg.
"They spent all of last summer calling
clients to reassure them."
BNP Paribas' move to halt withdrawals
sparked a massive wave of fear across the
global banking system and was considered
to be the official start of the credit crisis.
Other European banks, such as Royal
Bank of Scotland and UBS, have endured
deeper losses.
Related Links
HSBC Bails Out Its S.I.V.s
Unsecured Personal Debt: The Next
Shoe to Drop?
HSBC Takes a Hit But Sees Profit
no need to use a special widget.
Another key shift in GumGum’s new
approach is its decision to stop acting as an
image hub - you’ll no longer be able to
search through content catalogs to find an
image. Instead, GumGum says that it will
connect you directly with the content
providers, who typically offer their own
databases. By taking this approach,
GumGum is turning away from the typical
consumer and is becoming more of a B2B
solution for blogs and sites that frequently
rely on licensed images.
GumGum isn’t going to be able to stop
image piracy - there’s simply no way to get
around the “Print Screen” function without
including an annoying watermark. But
Connecticut Gives Up
Banning Cameraphones
In Court Rooms
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 3:46:02 AM
It's been somewhat amusing watching as
various folks overreacted to the rise of
cameraphones over the past few years,
with some companies banning them
entirely, and a few clueless industry
analysts insisting that they were just a fad
that should be banned from any workplace.
However, as cameraphones have become
much more common, it seems that this
mass hysteria is, thankfully, dying down.
Over in Connecticut, they've even backed
down on a rule that banned cameraphones
in the court room. You're still not allowed
to use them, but the courts realized now
that nearly every mobile phone is a
cameraphone, that it was becoming
ridiculously time consuming to stop
everyone from entering the courthouse,
and make them tag and bag every mobile
phone for storage and later pickup.
Apparently, the lines to get into the
courthouse were getting rather long.
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businesses who can’t afford to be caught
up with illegal content may well appreciate
GumGum’s new more flexible system,
provided the company can make good on
its arrangements with content providers.
The service has already landed some big
customers, including MTV Europe.
In conjunction with the launch of the
new platform, GumGum has annouced a
Series A funding round of a reported$1.2
million.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Amazon To Acquire AbeBooks, And
With It A Stake In Library Thing
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 8/1/2008 8:49:00 AM
Amazon has acquired twelve year old
Canadian company Abebooks(formerly the
Advanced Book Exchange), the companies
just announced. AbeBooks is an online
marketplace for books focusing on used,
rare and out of print titles for sale by
independent booksellers - it currently has
110 million books for sale from 13,500
sellers.
The company has been around since
1996 and fills a niche for Amazon in hard-
to-find or out-of-print books. Rather than
hold its own inventory, it acts as a digital
marketplace for established booksellers.
AbeBooks also owns 40 percent of
LibraryThing(a social app for keeping
track of your books and finding other like-
minded book lovers). Whereas Amazon is
an investor in Shelfari. Now Amazon will
own a piece of both of those competing
startups.
AbeBooks CEO Dr. Hannes Blum sent
an email out to its booksellers today
talking about the acquisition, saying the
company would continue to operate as a
stand-alone business. The email is below;
the press release is here.
Dear Booksellers,
AbeBooks has reached an agreement to
be acquired by Amazon.com, Inc. This is a
major landmark in the 12-year history of
BBC And IBM Reinvent The Music Chart
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 7:34:03 AM
The idea of the "Top 40" music hit seems
like a relic of a different age, and the
Billboard best sellers list hasn't done much
to really update with the times. However,
reader Will North writes in to point us to a
rather interesting experiment being done
by the BBC and IBM to basically reinvent
the concept of the music chart with a beta
test of a new offering called Sound Index.
Rather than just checking on sales at
certain shops which (as Will notes in his
submission) can be easily gamed, Sound
Index tries to look at a variety of online
AbeBooks.
AbeBooks will continue to operate as a
stand-alone business with all aspects of
AbeBooks’ bookseller and customer
experience remaining intact. AbeBooks’
headquarters will remain in Victoria, BC,
Canada, and our European offices will
remain in Dusseldorf, Germany. We will
continue to support both our international
marketplaces and our domestic
marketplace here in Canada. I will
continue to lead AbeBooks.
We expect this change to allow
AbeBooks to expand its offerings and
introduce new features and services to
enhance the book buying and selling
experience. Amazon is committed to
further developing the AbeBooks brand
and building upon the success of the past
sources to find out what music people are
really interested in:"Crawls some of the
biggest music sites on the Internet - Bebo,
MySpace, Last.FM, iTunes, Google and
YouTube - to find out what people are
writing about, listening to, watching,
downloading and logging on to. It then
counts and analyses this data to make an
instant list of the most popular 1000 artists
and tracks on the web. The more blog
mentions, comments, plays, downloads
and profile views an artist or track has, the
higher up the Sound Index they are." In
other words, they're reinventing the music
charts, but making it much more accurate
and relevant. But it doesn't stop there,
12 years. This is not the first time
AbeBooks has changed hands since being
launched in 1996. Hubert Burda Media, a
German media company, took a majority
shareholding in 2003.
The bookselling community has been a
vital component in our success, and we are
grateful for your continuing support. We
will be happy to answer questions about
our new ownership and what the future
holds. A bookseller Roundtable will be
held on Thursday August 7th at 2:30pm
PDT/9:30pm GMT/7:30am AU where I
and the Director of Sales & Account
Management, Shaun Jamieson, will answer
any questions you might have. In addition,
the ‘Ask AbeBooks a question’ folder will
continue to be available for ongoing
questions from the seller community.
We realize this is important news for our
community, and we are confident that this
acquisition will greatly benefit AbeBooks’
sellers and provide us with many
opportunities for future growth.
For more details please see the official
release posted today.
Regards,
Dr. Hannes Blum
President and CEO
AbeBooks
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
either. Rather than assuming there's just
one single chart to rule them all, the
system lets you create custom lists for a
better understanding of more niche-
targeted music. So, say, if you wanted to
know who's hot on YouTube and Last.fm
in the indie and punk worlds among US
listeners between the ages of 20 and 30,
you can create just that list. Or, as per
Will's suggestion, you could find out what
female Emo fans between the age of 15
and 20 are talking about on Bebo -- and get
that list.
It does seem a little limited right now,
but it's definitely a step up from the lists
you normally see these days, and shows
Advice For Google's VC
Arm: Don't Be Boring
By Michael Ho (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:55:00 AM
Last week, there was a lot of skepticism
surrounding Google's VC effort as
observers pointed out all the pitfalls of
corporate venture capital funds and the
historic performance (or lack thereof) of
other companies that have tried to do what
"real VCs" do. And since Google is often
painted as an unconventional company
with its Google.org efforts for
philanthropy, the search giant may also
face some pressure to do something
unconventional with its VC investments.
So what is a company with $12.7 billion
in cash to do? Ignore its compulsion to do
things differently and simply try to
maximize its own investment profits...
would be the boring answer. The more
exciting answer would be to throw caution
to the wind (as well as a lot of money) and
try to become a VC with a bit less of a
singular profit-taking mindset. It's been
noted that corporate VCs don't have the
same profit motivations anyway, so why
try to mimic pure venture capitalists?
Perhaps Google's VC arm should try to
offer more of a helping hand to its
employees (who may be just counting the
minutes until they're ready to jump ship
with their own business ideas) and try to
preserve a startup culture inside Google.
Doing so might foster innovation within
that niche appeal can actually be worth
something these days. That's a big deal,
because the believers in old time copyright
insist that with more file sharing and such,
only "mass market" music will survive.
Instead, the opposite seems to be
happening, as it's easier than ever (often by
leveraging such tools) for more targeted
niche music to create a modest success by
being tremendously successful within its
own niche. Tools like Sound Index should
make it easier to get even more recognition
of success in those niches.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
Tech* 11
Google's campuses and shift the profit-
making incentives more towards the
existing innovators at Google -- instead of
the fund manager(s).
Google's opportunity to do something
different could have other possibilities as
well. Google already sponsors the Lunar X
Prize, and it could create its own series of
challenges that might benefit Google's
existing businesses (similar to the Netflix
Prize). Google's giant pool of money could
also be put towards small developer teams
(a la Y Combinator) to create a "minor
league" of future Google engineers.
Basically, Google's VC arm may want to
create other metrics in addition to a
monetary return on investment -- so that its
efforts are not judged solely on the
performance of creating the next Google.
That way, Google's VC arm might develop
stats like the number of Google employees
hired via its VC efforts or the number of
projects based on Google's platform
technologies.
In any case, the direction of Google's VC
arm could be a telling signal for Google's
maturity -- and whether Google is settling
down and becoming another corporate
giant that will eventually put an end to the
bean bag chairs, free M&M's and child
care or if it still has that under-30 spirit to
try out different angles.
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12 Tech* Tech Tips*
Skyfire Brings Full Browser Tap Tap Revenge
Experience To Nokia S60 Phones Approaches 1 Million Users,
(200 Private Beta Invites) Music Industry Takes Notice
By Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 8/1/2008 7:39:02 AM
Throw out that WAP browser on your
cell phone. We are quickly approaching a
point where a full browser experience is
available on our mobile devices. And it is
not just the iPhone. A startup called
Skyfire is in some respect even further
along than Apple in bringing the entire
Web to your phone. Its mobile browser lets
you slide Web pages around and zoom in
like with the mobile version of Safari. But
it also supports Flash and Ajax sites. (It
does this by offloading most of the heavy
lifting to its servers rather than the mobile
client). That means you can watch
Youtube videos and go to Google Maps
right in the mobile browser instead of
having to download separate apps. In
contrast, the iPhone’s Safari browser still
does not support Flash and so to watch a a
video you have to launch the separate
Youtube app.
As it becomes possible to do more and
more inside the mobile browser itself, it
raises the question of whether that indeed
is the killer app for mobile Web phones.
For the most part, you still get a richer
experience by downloading a separate
single-purpose app to your phone. But
efforts like Skyfire’s point to a future
where that may no longer be necessary for
all but the most sophisticated apps and
games.
Skyfire launched on Windows Mobile,
but as of today it is also available in a
private beta for Nokia phones running
Symbian’s S60 operating system. The first
200 TechCrunch readers to sign up for the
beta here will get invites (enter invite code:
Tcrunch).
I just tried it on a Nokia N95, and
watching video in the browser looks great
as long as you are connected via WiFi. As
3G networks become a reality, that should
change (although I am supposedly on
AT&T’s 3G network in New York City,
and videos take so long to load that they
are basically unwatchable at this point).
And I still prefer the speed of the Safari
browser overall in terms of responsiveness.
But for other mobile platforms, Skyfire is
going to give mobile browsers like Opera’s
a run for their money. And if Apple ever
actually allows another browser on the
iPhone, it could add some much needed
competition there as well.
The company recently raised $13 million
in a series B round from Lightspeed,
Matrix, and Trinity. Below is a video demo
of Skyfire on Windows Mobile:
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/31/2008 5:50:09 PM
Tapulous, the company behind Tap Tap
Revenge, has announced that the popular
iPhone app will hit 1 million installs some
time this weekend. The app is the second
we’ve heard from to hit the milestone
(Facebook reached it last week), and is
another testament to the extremely rapid
growth some applications have seen on
Apple’s newly launched App Store.
Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem says that the
application has been downloaded about
900 thousand times since its launch, and
expects to hit the 1 million user milestone
over the weekend. Tapulous’s iPhone
Twitter client Twinkle is significantly less
popular, with around 80,000 installs, but it
was released after Tap Tap Revenge.
Decrem notes that there is a total install
base of about 5-6 million iPhones and iPod
Touches running the 2.0 firmware (which
is compatible with the App Store). With
about 1 million downloads, this puts
Tapulous applications on around 20% of
all devices - a very impressive feat.
One of best features in the original
version of the game (which was only
available on hacked iPhones) was that
users could create tab sheets and play the
game with any song in their iPhone’s
library. Unfortunately, Apple prohibits any
developer from accessing the iPhone’s
library with a native application, so
Tapulous has been forced to come up with
a different way to introduce new content to
the game. For the time being they’re
CordWrap Keeps Cords Off the Floor and
Plugged In [Stuff We Like]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 5:00:04 AM
While it's probably not something you
want in your living room, the CordWrap
outlet faceplate keeps long cords off the
floor and from being accidentally pulled
out of the wall. Fit for garages or
workshops, the CordWrap doesn't seem to
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
offering free downloads of new songs
directly through the app, but these songs
have all been submitted to the company by
indie artists (impressively, 2.5 million
songs have been downloaded so far).
As it turns out, a number of record labels
have taken notice of Tap Tap Revenge’s
quickly growing install base, and are eager
to use it as a means of exposing users to
new music. Decrem says that the company
is in talks with both indie and more well
known artists to create a premium package
of songs, which will likely be released in
the App Store as a separate game for a
small fee. Subsequent packages will also
likely be released as their own independent
games, as Apple does not currently offer a
way for developers to sell new content
from within an application.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
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be for sale, but DIYers could easily put
one together. It's simply a regular outlet
faceplate with protruding ends. Wrap extra
cord length around the ends and keep a
coiled pile of cable off the floor.
CordWrap[keep it cartesian - design via
Make]
A Lot More At Stake In
TorrentSpy vs. MPAA
Email Snooping Lawsuit
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 12:50:03 PM
For a few years now, we've been covering
the battle between TorrentSpy and the
MPAA. While TorrentSpy has given in
and shut down on the question concerning
the operations of its business, there was a
separate legal question that is still being
fought in court. As we noted recently,
TorrentSpy has appealed the judge's ruling
that the MPAA didn't break any laws in
gaining access to its executives' emails. As
you may recall, the MPAA hired a guy
who hacked into TorrentSpy's servers to
send copies of all the emails to himself
first, which he then sold to the MPAA (he
later regretted this decision and confessed
to TorrentSpy, which is what resulted in
the lawsuit in the first place). When the
issue first came up in court, the MPAA
played dumb, and pretended that it
assumed the guy had legal access to the
emails.
While this may seem like just a straight
privacy case, the EFF, along with the
ACLU and others, have filed a brief noting
that there's much more at stake here.
Specifically, the EFF is concerned that the
court ruled that since the email messages
were not technically "intercepted" under
the wiretap act, due to the fact that the
emails were stored, however briefly, on a
mail server before they were copied and re
-forwarded. In other words, as the EFF
points out, if you have access to any server
that handles a message as it travels across
the internet, it's not "intercepted" for you to
read that message. That has huge and very
dangerous implications for any sort of
internet wiretapping -- suggesting that as
long as the government routed all
communications through its own
machines, it could read everything without
a warrant. This case is about a lot more
than a BitTorrent tracker battling the
MPAA.
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
TSA Loses Laptops With
'Verified' Flyer Details
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 5:06:00 AM
The concept of a "trusted" or "verified"
traveler program at airports has been
shown as not particularly secure for years -
- but it didn't stop the TSA from
aggressively rolling out the program.
There's no doubt that, for frequent travelers
to locations participating in the "Clear"
program, it's wonderful. You pay
$100/year and you get to bypass all the
security lines, and head to a special faster
security screening line, supposedly
because your background is already
"cleared." As Bruce Schneier writes in the
above link, in terms of security, all this
really does is give those looking to break
security a better target. Get some
"terrorists" on the list, and you've just
made life a lot easier.
Either that, or pretend to be someone on
the list.
And what better way to do that then to
get your hands on the details of everyone
on the list. Well, it appears that the TSA
has forgotten its middle name, and failed to
protect its own laptop carrying the
(unencrypted, of course) details of 33,000
people on the clear list( Update: to clarify,
The Reports of Usenet’s Death are Greatly Exaggerated
By John Biggs (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 8/1/2008 8:18:09 AM
Sascha at PCMag writes a charming little
piece on the death of Usenet as a method
of discourse and its eventual rebirth as a
repository for porn, spam, and pirated
warez. He recalls the days of “serious
conversations” on 8-bit Atari architecture
the laptop was actually lost by a TSA
vendor, but considering these were
applications made to the TSA, it's not clear
that the difference here really matters).
While it certainly may have just been lost
or stolen by someone who wanted a free
laptop, whoever has that laptop now has
the names, addresses and driver's license or
passport numbers of 33,000 applicants. It's
unclear if it indicates which of those
applicants were approved, but I would still
imagine that info would be useful to
someone looking to bypass airport
security.
The company that runs the program,
Verified Identity Pass, issued statement
that isn't particularly comforting:"We don't
believe the security or privacy of these
would-be members will be compromised
in any way." First of all, that's not true. If
you've exposed people's names, addresses
and driver's license or passport numbers,
their security has certainly already been
compromised. But, more importantly,
rather than those individuals' security and
privacy, I would be worried about overall
airport security, which has now been
compromised.
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and the rise and fall of net.manners as
more and more n00bs came on to mess up
in-depth threads on symbolism in Bob
Dylan’s Street Legal.
Is Usenet dead, as Sascha posits? I don’t
think so. As long as there are folks who
thing a command line is better than a
mouse, the original text-only social
network will live on. Sure, ISPs will shut
Tethering Briefly Comes
To The iPhone, Tempers
Flare
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/31/2008 8:13:24 PM
Macrumors reports that Apple’s App
Store was selling a tethering app
compatible with the iPhone (both 3G and
EDGE) for a brief period earlier this
evening. The $10 application, called
NetShare, was developed by Nullriver
software, and would be a godsend for
many iPhone owners. After going up
around 8PM EST to the elation of a lucky
few, the application was pulled down
around 20 minutes later.
Phone tethering allows users to access
the internet from their laptop computers
wherever they get service on their
cellphone carrier’s data network. The
feature is common on many phones with
high speed (namely 3G) data access, and
has been noticeably absent from iPhones.
While 3G is typically slower than most Wi
-Fi access points, having internet
connectivity on the go is a huge plus for
many people - enough so that many
carriers charge on the order of $30 a month
to enable it.
Users with jailbroken (hacked) iPhones
have been able to enable tethering to their
phones through a complicated process for
some time, but such tethering is prohibited
by AT&T’s terms of service. The release
of NetShare seemed to indicate (albeit
briefly) that AT&T had changed its mind
on the matter.
Now, users who try to download the
application are told that it is no longer
available in their country. So what
down access out of mislaid kiddie porn
fears but the real pros know where to go to
happened? The app may have snuck past
Apple’s approval process - but with
reported wait times of weeks (or months) it
seems unlikely that anything appears there
accidentally. Then again, Apple has been
dealing with a massive influx of new
applications - they may simply be
overwhelmed and are getting sloppy.
It is also possible that the app was
supposed to be limited to a few select
countries, and was accidentally posted on
the US store. Finally, AT&T may have
really changed its mind, but it seems
unlikely that they’d pass up the chance to
tack one more fee on our data plans.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
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get their angst-filled, nit-picking, obsessive
fix.
In a way inconceivable in today’s Web-
fragmented marketplace, Usenet was
where you went to talk. Conceived back in
the idealistic, non-profit days of the
Internet, it was—well, it is, but it mostly
was—a series of bulletin boards called
“newsgroups” shared by thousands of
Tech* 13
Philip Rosedale Doesn’t
See Browser-Based Virtual
Worlds As A Threat to
Second Life. Is He In
Denial?
By Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/31/2008 3:38:03 PM
Recently, there’s been a growing wave of
startups and products appearing that are
bringing 3-D virtual worlds to the browser.
These include Vivaty, Google’s Lively
project, and the Electric Sheep Co.’s
WebFlock. And I’ve seen a few stealth
companies working the same vein.
None of these are as fully featured or
immersive as Second Life, which requires
a separate desktop client download. But it
may not matter because a good-enough
experience available via standard browsers
may eventually qwn Second Life. Linden
Lab, which operates Second Life, is
working with IBM and others to make
virtual worlds interoperable with each
other. Still, for the most part, they don’t
play nicely with the Web.
Last week I caught Linden Lab founder
Philip Rosedale on video at Fortune’s
Brainstorm conference in Half Moon Bay,
and asked him if Second Life is threatened
by browser-based virtual worlds. In the
video above, he argues that the browser is
not yet ready to deliver the type of
experience that you can get in Second Life.
He does acknowledge that virtual worlds
need to be opened up and standardized.
But he doesn’t see the browser as a viable
alternative to client-based virtual worlds
any time soon.
Is he right, or is he in denial?
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because
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computers, which traded new messages
several times a day.
Read more…
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over
the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
14 Tech* Tech Tips*
New Recommendation Police And Newspaper Say
System = 40 Percent More The Internet Turned 10,000
Diggs Australian Kids On To Crime
By Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/31/2008 1:28:27 PM
One month after launching its new
recommendation system, Digg is already
reporting positive results. Digg
recommends stories based on other
members with similar voting patterns and
interests. Chief scientist Anton Kast writes
on the Digg Blog:
- Digging activity is up significantly: the
total number of Diggs increased 40% after
launch.
- The Recommendation Engine is running
strong: at any given point in time, the
system is generating over 54 Million
Recommendations, with the average
Digger having nearly 200
Recommendations from an average of 34
“Diggers like you”.
- Friend activity/friends added is up 24%.
- Commenting is up 11% since launch.
Digg’s recommendation engine takes a
Last.fm approach to finding people’s
whose tastes overlap with yours and then
suggesting stories they’ve Dugg up but that
you’ve missed. It is collaborative filtering
for news.
As Digg becomes more mainstream, it
needs technologies such as this to bring it
back to its glory days when everybody was
interested in the same niche categories.
Social recommendations work best when
they are extracted from niche communities
who are obsessive about one or two topics.
NBC Launches On-Demand Olympic Coverage In HD
By Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/31/2008 4:39:14 PM
NBC has launched its online video hub
for the 2008 Olympics, which features free
on-demand video for over 20 sports. In
order to maximize quality, the videos are
available as downloads (you can start
Digg started out as a haven for hardcore
techies, but has branched out.
The recommendation system is designed
to, in effect, help Diggers carve out their
own niche communities again. If you
happen to like tech industry news, you will
see stories from other like-minded Diggers.
If you prefer politics or sports, you’ll get
those stories. And if you like a
combination, the system will grab
recommendations from each appropriate
bucket.
At least, that is how it is supposed to
work in theory. The recommendations
seem decent. But I personally haven’t
noticed anything that really strikes home.
Over time, it should get better.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered
Daily.
watching before the download finishes)
and will be in “up to HD” quality.
Unfortunately, the video downloads will
only be available on Windows machines
running Windows Media Center - once
again Mac users are left in the cold, likely
because of DRM issues (and the fact that
Lenovo and Microsoft are sponsors).
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 2:32:00 AM
madlep writes in to point us to a story out
of Australia, where police in Victoria are
blaming the internet for a recent rise in
youth crimes. Of course, this seems to go
against almost all other evidence, but why
let that stop a little fear mongering: The
head of the police youth affairs office,
Inspector Steve Soden, said too many
children were viewing inappropriate
content on the internet and this, coupled
with boredom due to a lack of community
services on Melbourne's fringes, was
behind the alarming rise in youth crime.
Does he have any evidence of this? Nope.
But it doesn't stop the newspaper from
Yahoo Turns Yelp, Yahoo Local and LinkedIn
SearchMonkey Apps On In Search
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 7/31/2008 9:31:23 PM
Yahoo is making a number of changes to
its default search experience tonight to add
more structured data to results. Yelp,
Yahoo Local and LinkedIn SearchMonkey
widgets are being added to search results
automatically, eliminating the need for
users to go into the search gallery and add
them manually.
SearchMonkey is a key part of Yahoo’s
attempts to embrace the semantic web and
open standards in general.
With SearchMonkey, site owners create
“applications” for Yahoo search that can
While the Olympic ceremonies don’t
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
going with the headline: "Net blamed as
10,000 kids turn to crime." In fact, buried
way down towards the end of the article, is
the news of an actual research paper that
looked into what was causing the growth
in youth crime: The paper says social
factors, including unemployment, drug and
alcohol abuse, sexual abuse and
homelessness, contribute to youth crime.
But the two key factors influencing young
offenders are poor parenting and
schooling. Notice that the internet is totally
absent. Yet, why is this fact buried in the
13th paragraph, when the headline and the
first few paragraphs blame the internet?
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be installed by users in the same sense that
Facebook applications can be installed.
Each application modifies results for a
certain URL specification (for example, all
reference pages on Wikipedia or product
kick off until August 8, NBC has already
posted footage of Olympic trials. Once the
games begin, NBC expects to have the
footage available around 12 hours after
each competition (which shouldn’t be too
annoying given the time difference).
Microsoft is participating in the
partnership, so access to the videos will be
Mixin Simplifies
Collaborative
Scheduling [Calendar]
By Tamar Weinberg (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 6:00:00 AM
Webapp Mixin is a social calendar that
accepts short messages describing not only
what you're doing but when, and shares
that info with your friends. Plan and
propose events or enter where you're going
to be when with Mixin's drop-down box on
-site, or wish for things or events (which
have no specific time). Alternately use
Mixin's short Twitter-style one-line
commands (in the format of what @where
when, like "Rock Band @Adam's at 7") to
enter events via SMS or IM. You can also
let your friends know where you are for a
possible impromptu meet-up with Mixin.
Check out a video demonstration of how
Mixin works.
Mixin[via WebWare]
pages on Amazon). Modifications include
both changes to the basic elements of a
search result (the title and description) and
additions such as an image, deep links, and
key/value pairs.
Users can also add additional widgets via
the Yahoo Search Gallery.
Here’s the Yelp search result example
we used in our first post about
SearchMonkey:
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integrated into Media Center’s main panel.
Users can also visit this TVTonic page,
and the content will be available directly
from NBCOlympics.com beginning next
week. You can read more about the service
at the TVTonic blog post here.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Glaucoma monitoring contact
lenses crafted at UC Davis
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 5:08:00 PM
Filed under: Wearables Far from the first
circuit-laden contact lens we've laid eyes
on (ahem), researchers at UC Davis have
more than bragging rights in mind with
their "smart" contacts. The devices are
infused with a "pattern of conductive silver
wires, which could be used to measure
pressure inside the eye." The material,
dubbed polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS),
would boast antimicrobial properties and
could enable scientists to better study
glaucoma. How so? By sending pressure
data to computers sans wires. Better still,
the contacts also include the ability to
automatically dispense medication into the
eye, making this beneficial in more ways
than one. The creators are expected to
apply for approval to begin testing the
How to Get More Info About Your iPhone in
iTunes [Screencasts]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 10:42:04 AM
Here's a quick tip for iPhone or iPod
touch owners who want to get more details
about the device, the software it's running,
and exactly how many days of songs are
stored on it: in iTunes, click on the device's
informational details to display additional
bits, like software build number, ICCID,
Identifier (whatever that is), the number of
JVC lets new Alneo XA-M series DAPs loose in Japan
By Donald Melanson (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 10:33:00 AM
Filed under: Portable Audio
It's just been a short little while since
JVC let loose its Alneo XA-V series
DAPs, but the company has already
churned out another slightly different entry
in the Alneo line, with its new XA-M
series players shaving off just enough
features to save you a few bucks. That
lenses in humans here shortly, and barring
any unforeseen (sorry, totally unintentional
there) setbacks, we would hope these could
be put to use within the next few years.
[Via medGadget] Read| Permalink| Email
this| Comments
songs and the number of days worth of
music you've got stored. Here's a 15
second screenshot of this in action.
Thanks, Sameer!
includes a drop down to 1GB, 2GB, and
4GB variations, and a smaller black and
white OLED display, which should help
out with battery life but will put a end to
Guardium UGV robot tears it up to
keep watch on trespassers
By Donald Melanson (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:26:00 AM
Filed under: Robots
We've seen plenty of robot security
guards before, but not one quite like this so
-called Guardium UGV built by G-Nius,
which is apparently just as comfortable
going off-road as it is patrolling a parking
lot. Unlike some other "robots," this one is
also fully autonomous, with it relying on
GPS most of the time, and it able to fall
back on its own decision-making skills to
overcome poor GPS conditions and avoid
any notions of watching video on one of
these. Otherwise, you can expect the usual
support for MP3, WMA, and WAV file
formats, a built-in FM radio, a voice
obstacles. Naturally, the bot can also be
loaded up with any number of different
payloads to let it take on more ambitious
missions, including a hostile fire indicator,
a missile approach warning system,
chemical snifters, fire extinguishers, and
even an "RFID Interrogator," to name but a
few. Be sure to head on past the break to
check it out in action.
[Via Crave]
Continue reading Guardium UGV robot
tears it up to keep watch on trespassers
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
recorder, and your choice of five different
colors. As with the XA-V series players,
these will also apparently be confined to
Japan, where they'll set you back the rough
equivalent of $110, $130, or $150
depending on the capacity.
[Via Akihabara News]
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Gadgets* Tech Tips* 15
Move over, OLPC
-- the $12 Apple II-
based PC is coming
By Nilay Patel (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 11:37:00 AM
Filed under: Desktops
Alright, so it won't be a laptop, adorable,
or have a cheeky Linux-based OS that's
eventually replaced by Windows, but
unlike the OLPC or the too-good-to-be-
true$10 laptop, the $12 PC currently being
developed at MIT will probably hit its
price target. The project, being
spearheaded by Derek Lomas and Jesse
Austin-Breneman, is centered around
cheap Apple II-based machines currently
on sale in India and other developing
nations that plug into televisions, and the
goal is to update the systems with more
memory, web access through cellphone
tethering and actual storage. Considering
we've already seen Apple IIs updated with
Bluetooth and USB, and the less-powerful
Commodore 64 can be used at LAN
parties, we'd say all that stands between
this project and reality is manpower -- any
Apple II hackers out there ready to help?
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
16 Gadgets*
Lightspeed Design / InFocus team up
on DepthQ 3D projectors
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:59:00 AM
Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home
Entertainment Although high-end
projection makers have been figuring out
this whole 3D beaming thing for awhile
now, Lightspeed Design and InFocus are
looking to bring the technology to a wider
audience with the introduction of its
DepthQ stereoscopic 3D projectors.
Available in XGA and WXGA flavors,
these PJs promise "rock-solid, 120Hz
stereo 3D at 1,280 x 720 or 1,024 x 768
resolution" and feature Texas Instruments'
DLP / BrilliantColor technologies, a
2,000:1 contrast ratio and a total weight of
just 6.9-pounds. Best of all, these undercut
Spanish scientists develop "electronic
tongue" that can taste wine for Dutch scientists develop kite power
quality, drifter appeal system with enough juice for 10 homes
By Nilay Patel (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 12:34:00 PM
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Look, we
know the appeal of the occasional Franzia
stand or one-armed Rossi pull, but at some
point you've got to put the 20/20 down and
stop drinking like a hobo -- and it sounds
like a new device being developed in Spain
might help you learn to appreciate some
classy wine for once. The "electronic
tongue," as it's called, features six sensors
that can measure factors like acidity, sugar,
and alcohol levels, and use them to
determine the age and variety of the wine,
just like NEC's adorable little drink-bot.
The tongue is supposed to be used to help
wine industry officials assess wine quality
Nikon D90 rumors heating up ahead of Photokina as well
By Nilay Patel (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 3:36:00 PM
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Man, all these old camera rumors are just
seeping out of the woodwork ahead of
Photokina next month -- now it's the Nikon
most other single-lens 3D projectors by
coming in somewhere under $6,000
apiece, though exact numbers have yet to
be disclosed.
[Via AboutProjectors] Read| Permalink|
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in the field and detect frauds, but we've got
a feeling it's going to be a hit around
snooty wine bars worldwide.
[Thanks, Yossi] Read| Permalink| Email
this| Comments
D90 getting the zombie rumor treatment.
At least we're getting specs this time
around, and they're not bad at all: 12
megapixels, Live View, video mode
(necessitating a built-in mic), HDMI out,
optional GPS, and a new 18-105mm f/3.5-
5.6 VR lens. Sure, it's a worthy successor
By Nilay Patel (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 11:03:00 AM
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Sure, the Netherlands might be known
for its windmills, but a group of scientists
at the Delft University of Technology is
aiming to harness the wind in a different
way: by using kites to generate electricity.
A recent test generated 10 kilowatts, or
enough juice to power 10 homes, and the
plan is to eventually send an array of kites
to the D80 -- but we'll believe it when we
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
called the Laddermill up to 30,000 feet in
order to generate nearly 10 megawatts of
power. Of course, that's all in the future --
for now, we've just got two dudes, a kite,
and a pretty dry video after the break.
[Via Inhabitat]
Continue reading Dutch scientists
develop kite power system with enough
juice for 10 homes Read| Permalink| Email
this| Comments
see it.
P.S.- Yes, that's another old, probably
Photoshopped image that's been floating
around, so don't get crazy -- like we said,
these rumors aren't exactly new. Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
DIY USB pan cooks
your egg faster than
a cellphone
By Thomas Ricker (Engadget)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 6:19:00 PM
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Look, we know it's pointless and likely
in violation of even the most rudimentary
safety codes enacted since the Middle
Ages. But there's something about DIY
hackery of that 500mA USB port that tugs
at the little Erector Set cobbling kid in each
of us. Just wire up an off-the-shelf pan
with some insulated tungsten filament and
you'll be cooking an egg in about 7
minutes -- you know, after an overnight
pre-heat, presumably. Now prepare to have
your noodle scrambled along with an egg
in the video after the break.
Continue reading DIY USB pan cooks
your egg faster than a cellphone Read|
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Old Media Deathrace 5000
By Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins
(Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 1:36:37 AM
I know there’s a good portion of you that
are going to instantly groan at the headline,
either because it’s a territory that’s been
hashed out a number of times from a
number of different angles or because
you’re one of those folks who simply
doesn’t believe there are such thing as
“killer” technology (I’ve had that
conversation with a few folks recently).
But Duncan Riley put out an interesting,
if not provocative, editorial this evening
entitled “Television will be the first
traditional media medium to fall.”
Personally, I have always felt that radio
would be the first to falter, though in a
neck-and-neck race with newsprint, but
Duncan Riley puts some new stats to work
in support the prediction today:
The television switch off is real. In the
United States, 2.5 million viewers
switched off in the spring on 2008
compared to the same time in 2006.
Statistically this is only a small percentage
of the overall viewing audience, but among
those still watching television, the amount
of television they watch each day is
declining.
The decline in television viewing is
stronger among younger statistical groups.
In Europe, a 2005 study from the European
Interactive Advertising Association found
almost half of 15- to 24-year-olds are
watching less TV in favor of browsing the
web. A study reported in The Guardian in
2007 headlined with “Young networkers
turn off TV and log on to the web.” The
television switch off in the United States
among younger people has seen the
average age of a TV viewer increase to 50.
The stats are compelling, and certainly
point to an uncertain future for Old Media
television, particularly in the face of the
ever increasing volume of studies showing
that pretty soon we’ll be watching video
online more than we’ll be sleeping.
Duncan goes on to say that while
newsprint and radio have some harrowing
times ahead of them, they’ll survive. At
least, for now.
I’m not sure that I agree that TV is the
first to go, though. Certainly Duncan
makes a compelling case, and I’m not one
of those folks who thinks new technology
incapable of killing old technology (you
certainly don’t see a lot of eight-tracks for
sale these days, and photograph developing
is quickly becoming a thing of the past).
But we’re seeing a lot more rapid
detioration taking place in the music and
radio business than we’re seeing even in
newspaper and television. It’s an
interesting deathrace between the
industries, and it’s difficult to call a
‘winner’ to the finish line.
Newspaper death watch.
For instance, newspaper decline is
largely financial in nature. Certainly,
when you’re talking about business, that’s
the most important factor to measure a
media type’s life span. Is that what we’re
really talking about here, though? The
death of the media type or the changing of
the guard in terms of the dominant
companies behind them. In either event,
newsprint and text delivery of news is
increasingly being dominated by online
blogs and news portals. Circulation may be
technically up, but revenues for the
companies that resist the transition to
online delivery are most decidedly down.
Wise newspaper publications are
managing some sort of a transition to an
online revenue, but most companies that
have their base in serialized news in the
printed form still have problems adjusting
to the new formats that we in the blogging
business take for granted.
Duncan is very positive that newspapers
will always go the distance because of the
need for quality journalism. Unfortunately
(at least for the newspaper industry) I don’t
see this as a particularly convincing
argument. Quality journalism can and
does take place outside of newsprint, and
for a much greater profit. Some traditional
text journalism outfits may realize this and
make the transition. Most won’t.
Disclosure: I may be particularly
negative towards newspaper futures due to
the fact that in a previous life I consulted
for several newspapers in their New Media
efforts. In my experience they’re generally
not a very forward thinking bunch.
TV death and destruction.
As I said, Duncan makes a compelling
point for the impending doom of
television, and I’d go even further than he
in my prognostications of doom for the
media type. Again, like I said regarding the
newspaper business, when you’re talking
about the death of a media, you’re
potentially talking about two things: either
the media type itself or the industries
behind that media production.
In this situation I think it’s silly to say
we’ll stop watching video in our
livingrooms on television sets. Where the
video that plays on those sets comes from
is very likely to change very soon. Just
yesterday I talked about a very clear path
for Netflix and Roku to make a play for the
livingroom very soon, but they’re
obviously not the only ones competing for
eyeballs. TiVo, Apple, and a cadre of
other set-top device manufacturers are
working on taking real-estate in your
entertainment center.
Traditional television has something that
no set-top box solution has tackled or
mastered yet (aside from coverage of live
sporting events), and I’ve talked about it in
the past here in my editorials on the
subject: the “ veg-factor.”
To illustrate the veg-factor, think about
the type of media consumption you do in
the morning, while you’re getting the kids
ready for school, or fixing breakfast in the
morning while you’re getting ready for
work. Morning show format news-ish
programs are designed for this low-
engagement, veg-factor consumption.
They’re, in large part, designed to be
background noise that delivers some
entertainment and utility to your morning.
Likewise, in the evening, you come
home from work, you switch on the TV
and catch the local news or a Seinfeld re-
run, and leave the TV on through Wheel of
Fortune or whatever reality program du
jour is on this season. Most people won’t
even touch the remote until prime-time
starts. That’s the veg-factor in action.
Very simply, no one is doing this for the
set-top box experience. Until there is a one
-to-one equivalent for this, you won’t see a
complete replacement for television.
Radio apocalypse.
The radio business has been even more
dominated in recent years by mega-
conglomorates and mergers. With this has
come the ‘Clearchannel approach,’ that has
driven almost all radio towards a formula
for profit. Anecdotally, this was hashed out
recently in the comments of an editorial I
recently wrote about the impending doom
for radio at the hands of the iPhone’s on
demand music applications. Sean and I
talked about this the other day, and the
argument is compelling that radio is doing
a decent job of killing itself, and requires
Web 2.0 17
no new technology to hasten its death.
But the fact remains that new
technologies like smartphones and other
pocket devices coupled with the impending
ubiquity of wireless Internet access makes
things look pretty bleak.
I say that, and I can almost hear Steven
Hodson’s voice cracking as he crankily
reminds me that impending ubiquity of
access is anything but certain (most likely
because he reminds me once a week on
Elite Tech News). He makes a compelling
case for it, but recent news like the coming
embedded “Internet Chips” from Intel as
VentureBeat reported on the other day
makes me think otherwise.
Here’s the thing that really makes radio’s
future look particularly bad compared to
the rest - the record labels. Talk radio is
very ably making the transition to
podcasting and other forms of online audio
entertainment media types, but the record
labels have very famously dug in their
heels and made it next to impossible for
broadcasters to adapt their business models
for the online environment using popular
music.
Given that, it isn’t surprising to see radio
clinging the hardest to their dying business
models. I predicted back in December that
we’d see an end to at least one major
record label this year, and I stick by that
assessment. Given that the mainstream
record labels are so integral to traditional
radio’s survival (and their demise is key to
online radio’s ascendence), I think it’s now
more than ever we should be looking to
traditional radio as the first to die off.
---
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Collective Media Acquires Personifi
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Firefox Extension
Specific Media Acquires AdViva
HubLove Contest: Your Clue Inside
18 Web 2.0 Food*
Why I Love Corporate Blogs (And You
Should Too)
By Don Reisinger (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 8:50:56 AM
It seems that everywhere I look, there’s
someone telling us why corporate blogs are
not only a waste of time if you’re looking
for something to read, but they offer no
value and should be taken down as soon as
possible.
The detractors claim corporate blogs lack
transparency, fail to adapt to the changing
times, and generally play the PR game
without ever admitting issues or entering
into a discussion with the reader.
I think that’s pure rubbish.
Sure, most of these corporate blogs play
the PR game and would rather tell you how
wonderful they are than how awful they’ve
performed over time, but who cares? Do
you really go to a corporate blog looking
for the company to bash itself? I seriously
doubt the shareholders would be too happy
with that.
Instead, corporate blogs provide me with
some insider knowledge into what’s really
going on behind the scenes at some of
these companies. And while some make
the complaint that transparency is an issue
and corporate blogs keep things guarded,
most corporate blog posts are actually
quite transparent if you read between the
lines.
Is the company trying to hide something
when it uses some clever language and
side steps some major issues? Is the
company saying something different than
it’s writing by including some innuendos?
These are the questions you need to ask
when you read a corporate blog and
generally, the answer is yes.
That said, not all corporate blogs are
created equal. Zillow has a great blog and
Garmin has done a fantastic job of adding
some personality to an otherwise vanilla
landscape. Twitter has a nicely informative
blog now that it’s trying to have a dialogue
with its users and explain its issues and
Google is easily one of the most
Salmon Provencal
By Elise
Submitted at 7/30/2008 4:01:50 AM
entertaining companies in the corporate
blogging space.
These blogs, much like countless others
from companies across vastly different
industries, may not offer something
compelling with each post and sometimes
they’re nothing more than an extension of
the PR team, but even the most self-
adulating blogs tend to offer some
entertaining and extremely informative
posts that not only act as the backbone for
news stories, but for shareholder
consumption as well.
Who can forget Palm CEO Ed Colligan’s
response to Engadget’s open letter? Who
else finds value in Garmin’s answers to
reader questions? How about Zillow’s
celebrity listings that show you how much
some of your favorite celebrities’ homes
are worth?
See, it’s not that I love corporate blogs
because they only talk about a company,
but I love corporate blogs because they
give a company some personality and they
offer you some insight (no matter how
guarded) into the people behind an
organization that seems so cold and
calculating.
Lest we forget, tech companies are
moneymaking machines. Sure, some may
not turn the kind of profit Microsoft does
and others don’t seem to have their finger
on the pulse of consumers like Apple, but
each is managed by individuals with
unique identities and something interesting
to say – if we’ll listen.
From the recipe archive.
Here's a salmon dish made for summer.
Fresh tomatoes, fresh chopped herbs, a few
I don’t love corporate blogs because they
spread propaganda – that’s a guarantee that
you should be aware of before you head to
the site – or because they tend to gloss
over some of the less glowing facts. I love
corporate blogs because at the very least,
they provide a human element to
something that is devoid of emotion,
understanding, and personality.
On top of that, I love corporate blogs
because they’re the easiest way to file a
complaint and tell more than a recording or
a customer service agent that something is
wrong. In a matter of seconds, you can file
a complaint in the comments and if people
agree, they’ll jump on the bandwagon and
in one fell swoop, your singular issue
becomes a major problem and someone
will be forced to listen.
I understand that most people look at
corporate blogs as nothing more than
another propaganda machine, but I don’t.
Sure, they’re inundated with useless crap
from time to time, but I see them as more
than a place for a company to write things
about itself. Corporate blogs give you
clues about the organization’s culture, its
people, and why (right or wrong) most of
its employees believe in what they’re
doing.
And if you ask me, there’s nothing
wrong with that.
[Image credit: Wyetha Lipford(
attribution)]
---
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What Would You Ask Robert Scoble?
A Peek Behind The Curtain Of The
Purchase Of MySQL
Microsoft Exec Fired for Company
Violations
YouTube and CBS Censoring Comments
Blogging’s 10th Birthday: Your 10
Favorite Blogs?
CoComment is The Best Web 2.0
Service Launched This Year
shallots, lemon juice, balsamic and olive
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Firefox Plugin socialbrowse
Expands Commenting
Features (400 Invites)
By Kristen Nicole (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 8:01:37 AM
socialbrowse, the Firefox plugin that lets
you surf the Web in a link-sharing social
manner, has just re-released its service
with a couple of major new features. The
Y Combinator-backed startup as been in
private beta for some time, and will remain
in private beta for a little while longer, but
those users testing the service will be able
to access and utilize its new features (get
your invite below).
The new features revolve around the
social sharing capabilities that
socialbrowse has already laid out. The first
new feature supports in-page commenting,
which allows you to leave comments on a
link you’re visiting without having to leave
the page. Submitting a comment, just as
with a shared link, will broadcast your
content across the Web in real time.
Comment icons will also appear on pages
you visit so you and your friends will
immediately be able to see the connection
between your own activity and that of your
friends.
An interesting visual tool accompanies
the socialbrowse sidebar, offering a very
direct and internally circular view of the
Web as well as your own browsing
behavior. This of course can be turned into
immediate recommendations as well as
useful information regarding a particular
site that may be more difficult or time-
consuming to find otherwise via
standalone bookmarking sites. This
capability also ties in closely with
socialbrowse’s second major new upgrade,
the embedded icon expansion option.
Icons that display on pages as you surf
the Web, indicating comments and shared
links, can now be expanded when you
oil make a perfect sauce to accompany
baked salmon fillets.
Continue reading "Salmon Provencal" »
hover over them, so you can get an at-a-
glance view of the details behind each
icon; who submitted the link, and what
friends have contributed to the comments
thread. Similar to the concept now being
employed by JS-Kit, the act of turning
comments into a more visual and social
component of Web surfing is a budding
function that can be leveraged for all sorts
of things.
While socialbrowse uses these comments
on a more internal basis and JS-Kit acts as
a centralizing factor for comments you
leave across the Web, they both result in a
useful capacity for direct and indirect
marketing and recommendations. JS-Kit
has already begun to expound upon its
features for the use of third-party sites like
evite, and Socialbrowse being the existing
community that it is can begin to leverage
its capabilities in different ways, which
will be interesting to observe as
Socialbrowse continues beta testing and
moves into a more public space.
socialbrowse is offering Mashable
readers 400 invites. Click here to get
yours.
---
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Web 2.0 Invites for July 1st, 2008
Web 2.0 Invites for July 4th, 2008
New RealPlayer Now Available for
Download
20+ Free Press Release Distribution Sites
Firefox 3 Beta 3, Now Available for
Download
Apple’s iPhone to Hit Stores June 29th?
Wordpress 2.3 Released
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper Web 2.0 19

Thanks to This Week’s Sponsors Streamfile Simplifies On-

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

Thanks to this week’s advertisers and

partners for helping us grow to be the #1
social news blog in the world. Advertise
with us and get noticed.
Help us to help you. Mashable is seeking
out site sponsors for our large diverse
audience — social media users, venture
capitalists, PR people, developers,
bloggers, and many more. You’ll receive
hundreds of thousands of views a day in
addition to weekly recognition to thank
you as our premium sponsors. Are you
interested? Contact us for more
information and to receive our brand new
media kit and rate card.
This week, our valued sponsors are
DEMOfall08, EdgeCast, IDrive, Clickatell,
and Userplane.
On September 7 through 9th, 2008, be
the first to see the most innovative,
marketing defining new technologies
unveiled for the very first time. Attend
DEMOfall 08 on September 7-9, 2008 in
San Diego. Mashable readers are invited to
attend for a special rate of only $2,395 – a
$600 savings off our regular rate. Click
here to learn more and register:
http://www.demo.com/F8mashable
EdgeCast Networks offers a superior,
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competitive advantage in the delivery of
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delivery platform provides customers the
cost benefits and flexibility of controlling
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liberating them from ISP contracts, capital
investments and operational hassles.
Social Networks and Applications are the
bread and butter of the new age Internet,
commonly referred to as Web2.0.
Clickatell believes that using SMS to bind
the two worlds together is the most cost
effective, reliable and simple to implement
method available. With Clickatell’s truly
global reach, your social application can
now extend its mobile communications
channel to 750 networks spanning 212
countries
IDrive is a leading Consumer and Small
Business focused Online Backup service.
IDrive is a simple and safe way to back up
all the important stuff on your computer. A
copy of user data is stored in a secure,
remote location for safekeeping, so that in
the event of disaster user data is retrievable
from anywhere via Internet. IDrive’s
features include automated critical data
selection and scheduling via web as well as
desktop agent, fast search to backup data,
central console to manage multiple
accounts, Continuous Data Backup, Open
File and Locked file backup, Virtual Drive
access and many more.
Userplane is the premier communication
platform for online communities. The
company’s hosted applications enable
instant community and communication for
websites of any scale and audience. The
combination of instant and elegant with
robust and powerful has made the platform
a must-have for thriving sites worldwide -
supporting millions of daily users.
Additionally, thanks to the following
partners for making Mashable happen:
Thanks to ConVerdge for implementing
our My Mashable social network and W3
MARKUP for the development and
maintenance of Mashable.com
We can get your name out there.
Contact us for more information on
supporting Mashable’s growth and
development. Alternatively, visit our
advertise section for more details about:
-Competitive direct ad sales
-Sponsorship Opportunities for Events,
The Daily Poll, and other channels
-Sponsored giveaways and contests
-Custom ad deals and partnerships
CPM-based advertising is available
through our partner, Federated Media, but
contact us for information and unpublished
discounts.
---
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Community Director
Happy New Year!
Meebo Hyping Kanye West Listening
Party Tonight
Rocketboom’s New Sponsorship
Program Launches with YouTube
Another Googler Moves On
Demand File Sharing (The
Startup Review)
By Paul Glazowski (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 10:10:48 AM
Editor’s Note: This post is part of an
ongoing series at Mashable - The Startup
Review, Sponsored by Sun Microsystems
Startup Essentials. If you would like to
have your startup considered for inclusion,
please see the details here.
STARTUP DETAILS:
Company Name: Streamfile
20-word Description: Streamfile is an
emerging startup with revolutionary
technology in the file transfer space.
CEO’s Pitch: Streamfile.com allows
anyone to “stream” files that are too big to
email without any additional need of
installed software other than a browser.
Streamfile is a hosted FTP replacement
solution that allows streaming
functionality. By streaming, we mean that
when an uploader sends a file,
downloaders are able to start the download
process immediately. This single
functionality enhancement actually allows
time savings of up to 90% (compared to a
traditional FTP server-to-client transfer).
It’s like P2P, but with a 24h answering
service. All of the file transfers have the
option to be encrypted with high-grade
AES 256-bit SSL encryption.
Mashable’s Take: Streamfile is
intriguing not only for its ability to rather
quickly broadcast files of up to 2GB in size
to specified email addresses, but its simple
construction as well. Everything is done
via the browser within an elegant and
sparse input menu. There is absolutely no
need to operate proprietary software. Just
browse for a file, provide one or more
email addresses (you can also specify
whom the package is from), and begin
“streaming.”
At the backend, Streamfile operates as a
replacement to your traditional FTP
transfer service. As with some other
modern transmission options of today,
Streamfile allows for files to be
downloaded almost immediately after an
upload is begun. A similar option is
offered by Pando, yet that service requires
the use of proprietary software at either
end of an established link to function
properly. Streamfile can go without. And
the fact that it is able to maintain 256-bit
encryption if requested will please some
privacy seekers.
As it explains within its site copy,
Streamfile hosts data for a total of 24
hours. Which might irk some users,
particularly if a situation isn’t time-
sensitive and could ideally do with, say, a
week’s worth of server/network access.
The reason provided for this limit is quite
logical for a startup of its type to cite: “By
storing data for shorter time periods than
our competitors… we can maximize
performance and bandwidth to guarantee
superior door-to-door delivery speeds.”
For the time being, Streamfile, based in
Stockholm, Sweden, comes free of charge
for users. (Period ends August 31.) Its
stated profit model is business-to-business
file transfers (integration with corporate
websites is said to be possible). Such
subscriptions run 49€/month or more.
Sponsored By: Sun Startup Essentials
20 Web 2.0 TV*
Twitter’s Communication
Classification (video)
By Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins
(Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/24/2008 7:42:19 PM
Last Friday, our resident cranky fart
Steven Hodson posited that Twitter wasn’t,
in fact, a status micro-blogging utility but
in fact a communictations tool most
closely resembling instant messaging.
Certainly when I’m attempting to explain
Twitter to newbies, that is the easiest way
to explain it, but quite a few of you
Mashable readers took exception to the
characterization. As of the time of this
writing, the debate still rages on with the
comment count in the triple digit range.
From Steven’s editorial:
It amazes me how anyone in all
seriousness can even consider the inane
twaddle that permeates the Internet from
services like Twitter as even coming close
to blogging or micro-blogging. Has anyone
really paid attention to what is being said
on Twitter these days – that is if you can
make it through the growing amount of
spam that is occurring. Sure micro-
blogging is a valid term when used to
describe things like tumblr or posterous but
not when used to describe Twitter.
On Mashable Conversations today, Sean
and I try to make sense of the debate and
put together what our take is on it. Sean
came into the discussion pretty squarely on
Steven’s side, but I was a bit unconvinced.
I’m one of those guys that views the act
of blogging, for almost all purposes, as a
form of conversation (even if it is
occasionally a conversation with yourself).
Thus conversation being a form of
communication, it isn’t a leap to classify
Twitter in the realm of conversational tool
(though I’ve always tended to view it more
Talk Talk: Regis and Kelly, Rosie Perez, Toby Keith
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 10:03:00 AM
Filed under: Late Night, TV Royalty,
Programming, Celebrities, Talk Show,
Reality-Free Here's who's on the late night
shows tonight.
• Charlie Rose: Bob Woodruff
• The Daily Show: Seth Rogen
as a lifestreaming tool).
Also on today’s program is another
exciting episode from the SummerMash
tour, this from the San Francisco tour stop
with a conversation with the FiltrBox
folks(who we had on Mashable
Conversations recently ourselves).
You can check it all out by downloading
the MP4, subscribing to our feed, or
watching the embed below.
Never Miss an Episode!
Get the Mashable Conversations podcast
here(video feed).
Get the Mashable Conversations podcast
here(audio feed).
---
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Investor
Twitter Ads on the Way?
Twitter is Not a Micro-Blogging Tool
Twitter Commerce - New Trend?
Fake Spanish Twitter Gets Hopes Up
• The Colbert Report: David Carr
• The Late Show with David Letterman:
Kelly Ripa, Steve Coogan, and
Spiritualized
• Jay Leno: Robert Downey, Jr., Anna
Faris, and Toby Keith
• Jimmy Kimmel Live: Rosie Perez,
Brandon T. Jackson, and Tyga
• Tavis Smiley: Governor Bill Ritter and
And This is Why China is
Every Internet Company’s
Wet Dream
By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 1:38:14 AM
According to the latest government data,
China now has 253 million Internet users,
due to recent sharp growth - 56 percent
from last year. The inevitable has
happened: China now has more Internet
users than the USA, which is at 223.1
million with 71% online penetration. The
fact that the Chinese government is
exercising very strict control and
censorship over internet use has
immensely slowed down the growth of
Internet use in this country, but when
you’ve got a population of over 1.3 billion,
even a relatively small fraction of it is
enough to become a global leader.
Yes, the really amazing thing is the fact
that the online penetration is China is mere
19.1 percent, way, way lower than the
USA and most European countries.
Financial facts are even more revealing:
total revenues for all of China’s internet
companies was $5.9 billion in 2007 while
in the U.S. online advertising revenues
alone in that same year were $21.2 billion.
For companies such as Google, Microsoft,
Yahoo and other giants, this means two
words: untapped potential.
Research firm BDA China Ltd. estimates
that China’s online population will keep
growing by 18 percent annually - a modest
estimation, considering that this growth
was 56% this year - and reach 490 million
by 2012. The US online market suddenly
seems small in comparison. Due to strict
Chinese government regulation of the
Thurston Clarke
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien: Seth
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Internet, financially the Chinese market
will not catch up as fast as it could, but
with a little (inevitable) westernization and
a little globalization it’ll get there, and
every online firm will want a slice of the
pie. This one growing market might be
more important than most other world’s
markets put together.
---
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Social Networking Blog:
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Microsoft & Yahoo Sign Pact Pushing
Blog Censorship in China
Skype Falling Prey to Chinese
Censorship?
Google China Adding 200 To Workforce
China Blocks RSS Feeds
China Becomes Largest Web Surfing
Country In The World
Yahoo China Launches a MySpace
Clone
Meyers, Sharon Osbourne, and N*E*RD
• The Late, Late Show with Craig
Ferguson: Regis Philbin and Paula Patton
• Last Call with Carson Daly:
Emmanuelle Chriqui and Tristan
Prettyman (repeat - oh, who cares
anymore?)
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
So, That’s Why Google
Bought Russian Ad
Company Begun
By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 5:50:42 AM
The 140 million dollars that Google
dished out for Russian contextual ad
company Begun now seems rather cheap,
given their fantastic financial results for
the first half of 2008.
As reported by Profy, Begun has had
25% higher profits in the first two quarters
of 2008 than in the entire 2007. Add to that
the 173.000 publishers (an increase of
30.000 over last year) in Begun’s roster
and it’s obvious that this company is on
track to completely corner the huge
Russian contextual advertising market.
In other words, Begun was ripe for
acquisition; it probably needed funds to be
able to sustain its quick growth, and on the
other hand it showed huge potential. The
question is, how do Microsoft, AOL and
others always manage to miss chances like
this one, while Google always seems to
snag them at the exactly right time?
Check out the press release (in Russian)
here.
---
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Revenue Up 57 Percent
The Daily Poll: What’s Wrong at
Google?
Ien Cheng Switches FT With Google
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Four More SummerMashes,
Eight More Chances to Win
Tickets to SXSWi in 2009!
By Tamar Weinberg (Mashable!)
Submitted at 7/25/2008 7:25:08 AM
Mashable is headed on its second leg of
the Summer Tour, beginning with Austin,
followed by Miami, Boston, and ending at
New York City. During each of these
SummerMashes, attendees have a chance
to score some sweet tickets to Austin’s
hottest interactive festival. That’s right, the
nice folks behind South by Southwest are
giving away two tickets per city to SXSWi
2009, which will be held from March 13-
17 next year.
Be sure to sign up for the events now if
you haven’t, because prices will go up (and
not down) for each individual
SummerMash. You could win tickets to
one of the best tech events of the year!
---
Related Articles at Mashable! - The
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FlashMashMeet @ Austin Airport
Concludes SXSWi
Chance to Win 1 of 4 tickets to Future of
Web Apps Miami
StubHub Ordered to Give User Info to
Stargate Atlantis to return in the fall
By Richard Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:41:00 AM
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural
Shows, Programming, Stargate, Reality-
Free
Many on this site, both reviewers and
commenters, have complained for many
years now on the way that Sci Fi Channel
handles the airing of their original
programs. The main complaint has been
that viewers have had to wait nearly six
months, or more, between the time part
one of the season ended in the summer and
part two began at the end of January. Most
recently these complaints have been
addressed about Stargate Atlantis.
New England Patriots
Future of Web Apps Miami - Vote for 4
People to Win Tickets
Future of Web Apps Miami Mini-
Contest Winners
MySites Offers Free Tickets to
SummerMash Events
NFL and Ticketmaster to Take On
StubHub Next Season
Well, those complaints may have finally
been heard by the programming wonks
over at Sci Fi because Atlantis looks to be
continuing its season through the fall.
After completing the first half of its run on
Mashable Rocks: Get Your Mac OS X Coccinella IM Client
Dashboard Widget Includes a Whiteboard
By Tamar Weinberg (Mashable!)
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Submitted at 7/24/2008 6:35:31 PM
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Kuler Could Be Adobe’s First Apollo
Release
Universal Widget API Debuts
September 26th, with a break for Labor
Day, Atlantis will return to the schedule on
Friday, October 10th at its new time of
9:00 PM. The week before, it will be
preempted by the two-hour series premiere
of Sanctuary, which will move into the
10:00 PM slot in back of Atlantis.
Atlantis will continue to run through
October, with a preemption on Halloween
night due to the Ghost Hunters Live event.
Whether or not the remaining ten episodes
of the series will wind up in 2008 or
continue into 2009, when the last half of
Battlestar Galactica airs, has yet to be
addressed.
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Web 2.0 TV* Tech Tips* 21
By Jason Fitzpatrick (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 7:00:00 AM
All platforms: Free multi-protocol instant
messenger client Coccinella offers all the
features of an IM app you'd expect, plus
one more: a whiteboard. Chat on AIM,
ICQ, MSN, and GTalk with Coccinella,
which also supports voice chat. But the fun
feature is the whiteboard which lets
chatting pals collaborate with text,
drawings, and image and audio files.
ReverbNation Widget Available in Coccinella is a free download for
Freewebs Windows, Mac, or Linux. Coccinella[via
gHacks]
Poptopus Pays When Your Song Gets
Played
Placely’s Public Beta Launches with
New Features
MuseStorm Launches Widget Tracking
Christopher Knight to host
Trivial Pursuit
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 11:06:00 AM
Filed under: Celebrities, Game Show,
Reality-Free This was inevitable, really.
Ex- Brady Bunch star and current reality
show favorite Christopher Knight is going
to host a new syndicated version of the
board game Trivial Pursuit.
I have to agree with Rich Heldenfels
when he says this press release for the
show is rather odd. It's way too long, the
type of bio you get when someone is trying
to look more important, more well-rounded
than they are. Not that Knight hasn't been
around a while, but a list of the TV shows
he's done would be enough, instead of quotes?
saying weird things like "once and forever Anyway, maybe they'll have celebrity
a Brady!" and "Christopher's successful contestants on at some point. Maybe
endeavors beyond showbiz exist in Peter's mom can be on the show. It bows
peaceful subordination to his portrayal of on September 22.
Peter and his arguably estimable [via TV Tattle]
contribution to American pop culture." Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Wha? And when talking about the show
TV Road Trip, why is the word "host" in
22 TV*
Larry Wilmore: The TV
Squad Interview
By Joel Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 8:41:00 AM
Filed under: The Daily Show, Interviews,
TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free Almost as
soon as I arrived in Beverly Hills for the
press tour on July 13, I had an assignment:
find a power brick for my laptop, which I
had left behind in New Jersey. One frantic
and sweaty trip to Radio Shack later, I was
ready for my next assignment: a brief
interview with The Daily Show's Senior
Black Correspondent, Larry Wilmore.
Wilmore was on hand to promote Make
'Em Laugh, a wide-ranging PBS
documentary series on the history of
modern comedy that's set to air in 2009 (it
was announced that day that Billy Crystal
is hosting the series). Right after the
interview, Wilmore was on a panel with
two other documentary participants:
original SNL writer Anne Beatts (whom I
also interviewed) and comedian Richard
Lewis.
I only had a few minutes with Wilmore,
so I quickly moved on from the special to
ask him about how he got the Daily Show
gig after a career spent behind the scenes
The presidential debate moderators are chosen
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 10:21:00 AM
Filed under: News, Reality-Free John
McCain wanted ten town hall style debates
with Barack Obama, but after 22
Democratic debates, Barack said, "Thanks,
but no thanks." So now the Republican and
Democratic presidential candidates will
meet three times: two traditional, one-on-
one debates with a single moderator for
as a writer and producer ( The PJs, The
Bernie Mac Show). I also asked him what
it's like to work on a show that's so
influential on the political and news scene.
The interview is after the jump.
Continue reading Larry Wilmore: The
TV Squad Interview
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
each, and one townhall-style session with
questions from the crowd.
The Commission on Presidential Debates
announced that NBC's Tom Brokaw, PBS's
Jim Lehrer, and CBS's Bob Schieffer will
be the moderators, with Gwen Ifill, the
host of PBS's Washington Week handling
the chores for the one vice presidential
debate.
What's interesting here is that of the big
three, ABC is not represented. Among the
What's On Tonight: Japanese
Game Show, Poker, The Cleaner
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:00:00 AM
Filed under: Programming, What To
Watch Tonight, Reality-Free
• At 8, ABC has a new Wipeout, followed
by the two hour season finale of I Survived
A Japanese Game Show.
• ABC Family has a new Secret Life of
the American Teenager at 8, then the new
movie Picture This!
• ESPN has two new episodes of The
World Series of Poker at 8.
• At 9, CBS has a new Big Brother.
• NBC has a new America's Got Talent at
9.
• Sci-Fi has a new Eureka at 9, then a new
ECW.
cable news crowd, Fox News and MSNBC
were equally snubbed as was CNN.
I can't say why ABC was left out of the
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
• Food Network has a new Food
Detectives at 9, followed by a new Road
Tasted with The Neelys.
• At 9:30, HGTV has a new episode of
The Stagers.
• At 10, A&E has a new episode of The
Cleaner.
• FX has another new Rescue Me
minisode at 10.
• There's a new How To Look Good
Naked on Lifetime at 10.
• Discovery has a new Smash Lab at 10.
• At 11, Bravo has the season premiere of
Million Dollar Listing.
Check your local TV listings for more.
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
loop. However, George
Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson were
both roundly criticized for their work on
the Democratic debate they helmed.
Continue reading The presidential debate
moderators are chosen
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Recently
canceled shows
I mourn
By Debra McDuffee (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 8:23:00 AM
Filed under: Cancellations, TV Squad
Lists, Moonlight, Reality-Free There will
always be Buffy, Angel, Quantum Leap
and Magnum, P.I. on my "Oh Man I Want
New Episodes of These Shows" list, but
what about the more recently canceled
shows of the past few years? Are there any
worth mourning?
Maybe not in the same way I mourn my
culty loves and classic '80s shows, but
there are a few worth mentioning....
Moonlight
Yep, I know, I am one of Those People --
a fan of Moonlight. Though I agree it was
weak when it returned after the writer's
strike, there were lots of things to love
about this show: the vampire lore, the
episodic mysteries, the way they could
have taken the love story (had they not
muffed it up in the last four episodes), the
actors ( Jason Dohring and Alex
O'Laughlin; not Sophia Myles). I can't
believe that I won't find out more of the
back story with Joseph's family and
Coraline.
Continue reading Recently canceled
shows I mourn
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Big Brother 10: Live feeds report -
August 5
By Jackie Schnoop (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 1:13:00 PM
Filed under: OpEd, Big Brother (US)
Doctor, I have a problem. You see, I've
been watching the 24/7 live feeds from
inside the Big Brother 10 house. I watch
them every season. Just admitting to that
should make you realize my psyche is a bit
on the shaky side. I mean, I could be out
solving the ills of the world. I could be
writing the Great American Novel.
Nah, that's just not me. I'd rather mock
people far more foolish than myself --
those who actually take the step to be
hamsters. At least I ain't no freakin'
hamster. For extreme show spoilers, read
Another change for Jay Mohr's new show
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:22:00 AM
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows,
Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free First
they changed the title from Project Gary to
Gary Unmarried, and now we have another
change coming to Jay Mohr's new CBS
sitcom.
Ed Begley, Jr. has been cast as the
therapist who treated Mohr and his ex-
wife, played by Paula Marshall. The role
of the therapist in the pilot was played by
comic Larry Miller, who just did a guest
turn on Burn Notice(maybe this will give
him time for more appearances on that
on past the jump!
Continue reading Big Brother 10: Live
feeds report - August 5
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
show).
Continue reading Another change for Jay
Mohr's new show
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
TV* Movies* 23
Oh, so THIS is where Carson Daly has
been - VIDEO
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 8:02:00 AM
Filed under: Late Night, Video,
Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free I've
been really snarky the past few weeks
about Last Call with Carson Daly. The
show has just seemed to be on an endless
stream of repeats, even when all of the
other NBC late night shows have been
new, and I (and several readers) haven't Daly has been touring America!
Continue reading Oh, so THIS is where
understood why the show can't air some
new episodes (or why the show is still even Carson Daly has been - VIDEO
on, to be honest). Now I think I've figured Permalink| Email this| | Comments
out at least part of the reason why the show
has been in repeats lately.
Review: Pineapple Express
By Scott Weinberg (Cinematical)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 2:03:00 PM
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Sony,
Theatrical Reviews
(No, I'm not stoned. It's just that
Pineapple Express opens today (8/6), but
my review was published over a week ago.
This reprint is brought to you by
Cinematical's Recycling Division. We care
about wasted bandwidth.)
I won't get into the precise reasons, but
my friends always seem to think I'm going
to LOVE the next big "pot comedy." They
chuckle and assume such silly things
despite the fact that the only real pothead
comedies that I truly enjoy are Up in
Smoke, Next Movie, and a large portion of asking. shy about passing those joints around. Best
the Harold & Kumar misadventures. So it is with much pleasure, enthusiasm, of all, while Pineapple Express will
Frankly I'm of the opinion that most pot and recently-applied Visine that I offer you absolutely appeal to both the casual and
comedies feel like they were written by Pineapple Express, which just may be the committed pot-smokers, it's also just a very
someone very stoned, and let's just say that Casablanca of Pot Comedies. Or perhaps funny buddy comedy / action flick parody
writers don't always do their best work it's more like When Ultra-High Harry Met that comes bearing the very unique stamp
when they're extra-baked. (They might Super-Stoned Sally, but either way of director David Gordon Green.
THINK their stuff is hilarious, but usually Pineapple Express showcases some of the Continue reading Review: Pineapple
it's not. That's just the weed talking.) Oh, funniest "weed culture" insights since the Express
you'll definitely find a few cannabis-caked arrival of Richard Linklater's fantastic Permalink| Email this| Comments
giggles in Half-Baked, Grandma's Boy, Dazed & Confused-- which I wouldn't call
and Smiley Face-- just not enough to a full-bore "pot comedy," but it sure isn't
sustain a whole movie, if it's me you're
24 Movies* Food*
A Look Back: Israel's
Horny Role in the Teen
Sex Comedy Genre
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 1:02:00 PM
Filed under: Comedy, Romance, Fandom,
Newsstand
At least once every month -- and
especially during the recent Apatow craze -
- my friend and I briefly discuss the
heartbreaking awesomeness that is The
Last American Virgin(1982). Not only
does this film feature one of the greatest
soundtracks in movie history, but also
included is this vicious tonal shift that
sticks with you (in my case, for years and
years ...). The flick came up once again in
a conversation the other day, and only two
hours later we received an email from a
dude who wrote up a solid piece on the
history of the Israeli teen sex comedy
series Last American Virgin is based on,
beginning with the one and only Lemon
Popsicle(or Eskimo Limon) as it celebrates
its 30th anniversary.
Consisting of nine different films, the
Wax Beans with Mint
By Elise
Submitted at 7/30/2008 3:28:08 AM
From the recipe archive.
Every weekend during the summer, if we
Lemon Popsicle series is kinda like the
American Pie series here in the states,
except the former always focused on the
same three guys and whatever horny
misadventure they found themselves in at
the time. Some suggest Lemon Popsicle
inspired Porky's(released the same year as
LP's American remake, Last American
Virgin) -- which, of course, helped inspire
the teen sex comedy genre going forward -
- and there's no denying its influence on
the future of the teen sex comedy; the pop-
centric soundtrack, the awkward set of
friends (fat guy, cool guy, nerd formula),
the story beats (losing of virginity) and so
on.
If you're a fan of the genre (and a lot of
us are), definitely check out Oren's article,
How To Stuff A Lemon Popsicle, over at
Films in Review. What do you think?
Without Lemon Popsicle, do you think
we'd have films like Superbad?
Permalink| Email this| Comments
are lucky, there will be a good supply of
wax beans at the farmers market. These
golden yellow (and sometimes purple)
versions of green beans are harvested
young, and are sweet and tender. Here is a
Update: Kevin Smith Wins
His 'R' Rating for 'Zack
and Miri'
By Christopher Campbell
(Cinematical)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 12:02:00 PM
Filed under: Comedy, Celebrities and
Controversy, The Weinstein Co., NSFW,
Movie Marketing, Cinematical Indie The
most we can hope for now is the unrated
director's cut of Kevin Smith's Zack and
Miri Make a Porno, because the filmmaker
has won his appeal with the MPAA and
received an R rating, according to the
Associated Press. It's been a long road for
Smith's movie, which was unsurprisingly
smacked with an NC-17 last month -- as if
we didn't see it coming due to Smith's
track record and the fact that it's a movie
about a couple who, yes, that's right, make
a porno. Oh, and of course there was that
raunchy trailer, which gave us some
semblance of the material the movie is
dealing with (coprophilia jokes are likely
always deemed adults-only content, at least
in the initial ratings board screening).
So much for the MPAA and National
Association of Theatre Owners' plans to
remove the stigma attached to the NC-17.
If ever there was a popular filmmaker to
usher in a new wave of non-porn adults-
only fare, Smith would be that person. And
considering that Zack and Miri is about
porn, it would be an appropriate gateway
for the rating. Last week, when Smith
simple way to prepare them, with the
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
spoke to AICN about the appeal, he
seemed fine with the need for an R rating,
stating that it's just "part of the process."
Of course it is. The process consists of
toning down a film to ensure an R and then
releasing the original raunchier version on
DVD in order for Hollywood to get the
most buck for its bang.
Update: Cinematical contacted Smith for
a response, and here it is: "I'm very happy
with the result of the appeals process.
Sadly, however, it doesn't cure my biggest
headache: I'm still grossly overweight."
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
subtle flavor of a mint infusion.
Continue reading "Wax Beans with
Mint" »
James 'Scotty' Doohan's
Ashes Still Not in
Space; Missing Instead
By Christopher Campbell
(Cinematical)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 11:02:00 AM
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Obits
Hopefully, one day, space will actually be
the final frontier for James Doohan, the
actor who played "Scotty" in the Star Trek
series. Three years after his death from
Alzheimer's disease, all of his ashes have
still not reached their intended destination.
Back in December 2006, some of Doohan's
remains were to be rocketed into space, but
the launch was delayed, and new plans
were made for the actor's ashes, along with
more than 200 other people's remains.
According to Doohan's Wikipedia page,
the ashes' first mission went as planned, as
they were blasted into space for four
minutes in April 2007 and then were
parachuted back to Earth. This past
Saturday, they were all set to again be shot
into space and to remain there this time,
but the launch failed.
Now BBC News reports that following
the failure of the mission, Doohan's ashes
have gone missing. It's unclear what the
details of the disappearance are, but it's fair
to assume that much of the rocket's
contents went missing during the botched
launch, which took place from the island of
Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. In
that case, it would seem the ashes will not
actually be recovered. One of Doohan's
sons wrote a message posted on
BoingBoing, in which he stated that he'd
like to "finish saying goodbye," and that
"every launch attempt is like reliving his
funeral." Apparently, according to the NY
Times, another launch will happen in the
future and that any unrecovered ashes will
be replaced with backup ashes.
Continue reading James 'Scotty'
Doohan's Ashes Still Not in Space;
Missing Instead
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
'Rogue' Killer Croc Finally George Lucas Talks
on DVD! 'Indiana Jones V'
By Peter Martin (Cinematical)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 12:32:00 PM
Filed under: Horror, Thrillers, New on
DVD, The Weinstein Co., Home
Entertainment
I've always been a sucker for killer croc
movies. But, as Scott Weinberg so
eloquently wrote in the recent past:
"There's maybe one true 'classic' of the sub
-genre (that'd be Lewis Teague's and John
Sayles' Alligator, of course), and the rest of
'em are pretty much floating crap." Scott
was ranting about the limited theatrical
release by The Weinstein Co. (actually,
their"dumping ground" subsidiary Third
Rail Releasing) for Greg McLean's Rogue,
which was limited to ten US cities.
So Scott (and most of you reading this)
probably didn't get to see Rogue in a
theater, but I did -- even if I had to drive 45
minutes to the only multiplex playing the
dang thing. Me and the five (!) other
people at that Friday night screening
enjoyed a good old-fashioned suspense tale
that played very well on the big screen. In
a review I wrote for another site, I
described it as "a taut and thrilling ride ...
brimming with well-earned tension."
Radha Mitchell stars as a tour boat captain
on a river in the remote Northern Territory
of Australia. She and a group of tourists
end up being stalked by a killer croc "with
an exaggerated sense of territorial
possessiveness."
New 'Wonder Woman' Trailer
Lacks Voice(s)
By Monika Bartyzel (Cinematical)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 11:32:00 AM
Filed under: Animation, Casting, Movie
Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek,
Trailers and Clips
Have you seen the recently-released
trailer for the animated Wonder Woman?
If not, you can check it out above.
Firstly, I must admit that they certainly
did a great job portraying Wonder
Woman's toughness, although it's a bit
Rogue is out today in an unrated version
on DVD. Dread Central got an advance
peek and agrees with me that it's a good
flick. The DVD includes an audio
commentary by McLean, a 46-minute
"making of" directed by McLean, and a
gallery of mini-docs on the effects, the
music, and the setting. Let's declare today
"Killer Croc Day"!
Permalink| Email this| Comments
tainted by the lone piece of dialogue in the
trailer: "It's not polite to hit a lady." There's
nothing to weaken the muscles of
toughness like references to ladies and
impoliteness. If they changed "lady" to
"goddess," then I'd be good -- it would be a
nice play on words.
Anyway, what really surprises me is that
there's no dialogue, save for the above
quote. Sure, it's important to show the
NEW page 26
By Christopher Campbell
(Cinematical)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 1:34:00 PM
Filed under: Action, Casting, Paramount,
RumorMonger, George Lucas, Steven
Spielberg, Remakes and Sequels Less than
three months ago, Eugene told us George
Lucas was hinting that his Indiana Jones
franchise might continue on with Mutt
Williams (Shia LaBeouf) as the main
character and that Indy (Harrison Ford)
would be more of a secondary figure. But
MTV Movies Blog now reports that Lucas
has had a change of mind and instead plans
to make a fifth installment with our
beloved hero still in the lead. During
promotions for the new Star Wars: Clone
Wars movie, he apparently stated that,
"Indiana Jones is Indiana Jones. Harrison
Ford IS Indiana Jones. If it was Mutt
Williams it would be 'Mutt Williams and
Samuel L. Jackson Picks 10 New Asian
Classics
By Peter Martin (Cinematical)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 2:36:00 PM
Filed under: Action, Foreign Language,
Fandom, Lists
What do celebrities really know about
movies? Samuel L. Jackson, for one,
demonstrates a good knowledge of recent
Asian cinema with his selection of
"favorite 10 New Classic Asian Films"
from the past 25 years for Entertainment
Weekly. The best part? He picks the type
of popcorn action flicks that got me
interested in Asian films in the first place.
A couple of his selections are easy to
understand: John Woo's Hard Boiled and
Ringo Lam's City on Fire are definite guns
'n' gangsters classics of late 80s / early 90s
Hong Kong cinema. (Quentin Tarantino
blatantly stole borrowed from the latter for
Movies* 25
the Search for Elvis' or something."
Could it be, as MTV suggests, that due to
fans' dissatisfaction with Mutt and/or due
to LaBeouf's problems with the law that
Lucas no longer sees the character as a
viable investment? Or did he merely come
to his senses about how much more money
the movie would make with Ford starring?
Lucas says that "Indy 5" is still only an
idea but that people are researching
possible artifacts to base the movie around.
Personally, I don't care what kind of
MacGuffin is used, so long as the Nazis
are the villains again. The commies in Westward Ho with
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull just didn't do
it for me. I know the temporal setting can't
be WWII anymore, but Indy could always
the 'Appaloosa'
head back into South America and battle
the Nazis who escaped to Argentina and
Trailer
Brazil and elsewhere. By William Goss (Cinematical)
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments Filed under: Action, Drama, New Line,
Submitted at 8/5/2008 10:33:00 AM
His Korean picks are Park Chan-Wook's
diabolical, masterful Oldboy and the
visually splendid, yet somewhat shallow
Duelist, from 2005. Cut from the same
cloth, he also endorsed Japanese swordplay
dazzler Azumi by director Ryuhei
Kitamura ( The Midnight Meat Train), and
demonstrated his fondness for strong
directors by selecting two films by Takashi
Miike, the well-known, chilling horror
flick Audition and the much less known
Yakuza pic Family, which I confess I
haven't seen.
Continue reading Samuel L. Jackson
Reservoir Dogs.) Jackson also includes the Picks 10 New Asian Classics
great Infernal Affairs trilogy, directed by Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, a high water
mark from 2002 / 2003 and later remade
into the Academy Award-winning The
Departed.
26 Movies* Tech Tips*
WESTWARD
continued from page 25
Movie Marketing, Toronto International
Film Festival, Western, Trailers and Clips
I don't necessarily have a soft spot for
westerns -- although 3:10 to Yuma,
Seraphim Falls, and The Proposition
certainly didn't hurt that cause -- but
because we as moviegoers aren't exactly
inundated with them, it always feels like
they tend to have more effort and care put
into them than most other genre fare.
Judging from the MSN exclusive trailer
for the upcoming Appaloosa, this looks to
follow suit as Ed Harris(who also directed
and co-wrote the film) and Viggo
Mortensen(for whom Harris played an
Cinematical Seven: More Than One Woman ...
(The Bechdel Rule)
By Jette Kernion (Cinematical)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 3:02:00 PM
Filed under: Comedy, Gay & Lesbian,
Independent, Cinematical Seven
The other day, a blog entry from the
cinetrix about "The Rule" evoked a flood
of memories from my love-movies-hate-
the-patriarchy college days. In 1989, my
then-roommate's then-girlfriend showed
me a comic strip from the series Dykes to
Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel. The
strip was called "The Rule" and it was
about a character who explained that she
only went to movies that met three criteria:
YouTube File Hack (and Others) Download Clips to
Your Desktop [Featured Windows Download]
By Tamar Weinberg (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 9:00:00 AM
Windows only: Free software YouTube
File Hack is a standalone application and
Internet Explorer integrated menu item that
downloads videos to your desktop from the
popular video sharing site. Simply run the
application, enter the URL of the YouTube
video you want to view offline, and press
the Download button. When all is said and
done, you'll have an FLV file for watching
offline (we recommend the free VLC
adversary in A History of Violence) deal
with lawlessness in a small town out west,
while the widowed Renée Zellweger surely
tempts them both.
Toss in a supporting cast that includes
Jeremy Irons and Lance Henriksen(that
reminds me, The Quick and the Dead
merits mention as well), and the benefit of
my doubt at least has been earned.
Appaloosa is scheduled to play Toronto in
September, followed by an October 3rd
release.
Permalink| Email this| Comments
1. Two of the characters had to be
women --
2. Who talked with each other --
3. About something other than a man.
player to do so).
To use the Internet Explorer integration,
navigate to any web page, right click on a
YouTube video link, and choose the
"Download this YouTube Video" option
from the right-click menu. (Note that the
"Download this" menu item displays
regardless of whether a video is present or
not.)
YouTube File Hack is one of several
ways to download YouTube video clips.
Let's review just a few of our favorite
options:
DEBUNKING
continued from page 26
debunk them once and for all. Disabling
QoS to Free Up 20% of Bandwidth
This tip made the rounds with people
believing that Microsoft always allocates
20% of your bandwidth for Windows
Update. According to the instructions, you
were supposed to disable QoS in order to
free up bandwidth. Unfortunately this tip
was not only wrong, but disabling QoS
will cause problems with applications that
rely on it, like some streaming media or
VoIP applications.
Rather than taking my word for it, you
Read the original strip for yourself. At
the time, "The Rule" had a big impact on
my life -- it explained a lot about what I
found lacking in movies. I wanted to watch
strong action heroines, but I also wanted to
see movies with women who talked about
ordinary stuff that didn't involve
boyfriends or husbands.
Continue reading Cinematical Seven:
More Than One Woman ... (The Bechdel
Rule)
Permalink| Email this| Comments
• The All-In-One Video Bookmarklet
works in IE or Firefox and requires no
installation—just drag and drop it to your
browser toolbar.
• The Better YouTube Firefox extension
adds a "Download this video" link to any
YouTube page in Firefox.
• Vixy.net and Viddownloader takes the
URL of a YouTube clip, converts it to a
format of your choice, and offers it for
download.
For more video handling desktop and
online apps, check out our top 10 free
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
NEW
continued from page 25
action, but considering the voice talent
connected to this project, I see no better
way to get people interested. Keri Russell
is Wonder Woman, Virginia Madsen is
Hypolyta, Nathan Fillion is Steve Trevor,
Alfred Molina is Ares, Oliver Platt is
Hades, Rosario Dawson is Artemis, and
David McCallum is Zeus.
Now that's the sales kicker for me. The
feature will hit shelves in February of
2009.
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Debunking Common
Windows Performance
Tweaking Myths
[Mythbusting]
By The How-To Geek (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 1:43:02 PM
As a tech writer, one of my biggest pet
peeves is the plethora of bad advice littered
across almost every web site dedicated to
system tweaking. Besides the tweaks that
simply don't work, some of them will
actually cause your computer to run even
slower—or worse. Let's examine some of
the most offensive myths out there
regarding PC performance tweaking, and
video rippers, encoders, and converters.
Currently, YouTube File Hack works
within Internet Explorer only; the software
is a free download for Windows only.
What's your favorite way to download
YouTube clips? Let us know in the
comments.
YouTube File Hack[via Tech Links
Daily]
Best To-do List
Managers? [Hive Five
Call For Contenders]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 8/5/2008 8:00:00 AM
Over the last few years, to-do list
applications have blossomed across the
internet like wildflowers in a
meadow—but which ones are the best?
We've already covered your favorite GTD
applications, but for readers who like to get
things done with just a regular list (sans all
the GTD frippery), this week's Hive Five is
focusing on simple, no-nonsense to-do
lists. Whether it's desktop software, a web-
based app, a cellphone app, or plain ol' pen
and paper, cast your nomination for the
best to-do list on the block. On Thursday
we'll round up the top five candidates and
pit them all against one another in a final
vote.
The Hive Five nomination round takes
place in the comments, where you post
your favorite tool for the job. We get
hundreds of comments, so to make your
nomination clear, please include it at the
top of your comment like so: VOTE: To-
do List Manager Goes Here. If you don't
follow this format, we may not count your
vote. To prevent tampering with the
results, votes from first-time commenters
may not be counted. After you've made
your nomination, let us know what makes
it stand out from the competition.
About the Hive Five: The Hive Five
feature series asks readers to answer the
most frequently asked question we
get—"Which tool is the best?" Once a
week we'll put out a call for contenders
looking for the best solution to a certain
problem, then YOU tell us your favorite
tools to get the job done. Every Thursday,
we'll report back with the top five
recommendations and give you a chance to
vote on which is best. For an example,
check out last week's Hive Five Best Note-
Taking Tools.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
DEBUNKING
continued from page 26
can read the official Microsoft
response:"There have been claims in
various published technical articles and
newsgroup postings that Windows XP
always reserves 20 percent of the available
bandwidth for QoS. These claims are
incorrect... One hundred percent of the
network bandwidth is available to be
shared by all programs unless a program
specifically requests priority bandwidth."
Make Vista Use Multiple Cores to Speed
Up Boot Time
This bogus tip made the rounds recently
and almost everybody got caught including
Lifehacker and big brother site Gizmodo...
although commenters called it out quickly
on both sides, and the editors updated the
posts. (That's yet another reason to always
participate in the comments here.)
According to this tip, you were supposed
to use MS Config to modify the "Number
of processors" drop-down on the Boot tab.
The problem is that this setting is only
used for troubleshooting and debugging, to
be able to determine if there is a problem
with a single processor, or for a
programmer to test their code against a
single core while running on a multi-core
system. Windows will use all your
processors by default without this setting.
Clearing Out Windows Prefetch for Faster
Startup
The Prefetch feature in Windows XP
caches parts of applications that you
frequently use and tries to optimize the
loading process to speed up application
start time, so when a number of sites
started suggesting that you clean it out
regularly to speed up boot time it seemed
like good advice... but sadly that's not the
case, as pointed out by many Lifehacker
commenters.
The Prefetch feature is actually used as a
sort of index, to tell Windows which parts
of an application should be loaded into
memory in which order to speed up
application load time, but Windows doesn't
use the information unless it's actually
starting an application. There's also a limit
of 128 files that can be stored in the
prefetch folder at any point, and Windows
cleans out the folder automatically,
removing information for applications that
haven't been run as frequently. Not only
that, but a well-written defrag utility will
use the prefetch information to optimize
the position of the files on the disk,
speeding up access even further.
Windows expert Ed Bott explains it:
The .pf files don’t get used at all until
you run a program. What actually happens
when you click an icon is that Windows
uses the information in the Prefetch folder
to decide which program segments to load
and in what order to load those pages.
Cleaning the Registry Improves
Performance
The Windows registry is a massive
database of almost every setting
imaginable for every application on your
system. It only makes sense that cleaning it
out would improve performance, right?
Sadly it's just a marketing gimmick
designed to sell registry cleaner products,
as the reality is quite different... registry
cleaners only remove a very small number
of unused keys, which won't help
performance when you consider the
hundreds of thousands of keys in the
registry.
This isn't to say they are completely
useless, of course. I'd still recommend
cleaning the registry when you are trying
to troubleshoot a problem caused by
uninstalling buggy software that leaves
entries behind, but even then you should be
very careful to use a reputable application
like previously mentioned CCleaner and
review the entries before deleting anything.
Ed Bott weighs in with a stronger
opinion:
I’d go a step further: Don’t run registry
cleaner programs, period. I won’t go so far
as to call them snake oil, but what possible
performance benefits can you get from
“cleaning up” unneeded registry entries
and eliminating a few stray DLL files?
Clear Memory by Processing Idle Tasks
By this point you should be starting to
get the picture... if something sounds too
good to be true, it likely is. This well-
traveled tip usually claims that you can
create an "undocumented" shortcut to
R u n d l l 3 2 . e x e
advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks that will
clear out memory by processing all of the
idle tasks wasting memory in the
background.
What's the problem? Those idle tasks
aren't actually waiting in the background...
what you are effectively doing is telling
the computer that you've walked away so it
can now do other processing while you are
idle. Except you aren't. The real purpose of
this functionality is to finish all processing
before running benchmarks to ensure
consistent times, and according to the
Microsoft documentation there's a whole
different story:
When called from the command line, the
ProcessIdleTasks work is done in the
background asynchronously. It can take 10
to 15 minutes for idle tasks to complete.
Task Manager will report processes
running, and the disk will likely be active
during this time.
Read more at The Life of a Techno-Guru
blog in a post called Response to Digg
Article Claiming to Free up Memory.
Clean, Defrag and Boost Your RAM With
SnakeOil Memory Optimizer
Just take a quick look at any download
site, and you'll find hundreds of products
that claim to "optimize RAM to make your
computer run faster". Give me a break!
Almost all of these products do the same
things: they call a Windows API function
that forces applications to write out their
memory to the pagefile, or they allocate
and then deallocate a ton of memory
quickly so that Windows will be forced to
page everything else.
Both of the techniques make it appear
that you've suddenly freed up memory,
when in reality all you've done is trade in
your blazing fast RAM for a much slower
hard drive. Once you have to switch back
to an application that has been moved to
the pagefile, it'll be so slow you'll be likely
to go all Office Space on your machine.
Windows expert Mark Russinovich
agrees:
At best, RAM optimizers have no effect,
and at worst, they seriously degrade
performance. Disabling Shadow
Copy/System Restore Improves
Performance
I've barely come across a Windows Vista
tips site that doesn't tell you to disable
System Restore to speed up performance,
because it takes up to 15% of your hard
drive by default, which sounds like good
advice. Except it's not.
The reality is that System Restore only
actually kicks in when you are installing
updates or applications, or at pre-scheduled
times in the day, and the automatic
checkpoints will only happen when your
computer is not being used. These
checkpoints allow you to easily roll back
your system to a pre-crash state, and I can
tell you from experience that System
Restore is a critical feature when your
Vista machine has problems, allowing you
to easily get back to a working state.
Instead of disabling System Restore to
free up space, Ed Bott suggests that you
simply use Disk Cleanup to remove all but
the most recent restore point. (Under the
More Options tab, you'll find a Clean up
button). Enable SuperFetch in Windows
XP
Somebody decided to start spreading the
myth that you could enable SuperFetch in
Windows XP by adding the same
EnableSuperfetch key into the registry that
Windows Vista has, and it spread like
wildfire. Naturally, this tip was completely
bogus.
The good news is that this tip is one of
the few that will not harm your system in
any way, as long as you don't break
something while editing the registry. If you
insist on using it, I won't complain.
If you want some proof, you can use the
strings.exe utility to see that "superfetch"
doesn't exist anywhere in the XP kernel, or
you can believe Ed Bott and Mark
Russinovich, who have already debunked
this myth. Disabling Services to Speed Up
the Computer
Perhaps the most common myth is the
advice to disable all services that you aren't
using. I realize this will generate some
controversy, so let me clarify: Disabling
non-essential services that are NOT part of
Windows will sometimes yield a
performance gain if you have identified
27
those services as causing a problem. You
can identify or disable those services by
opening msconfig.exe and checking the
box for "Hide all Microsoft services" on
the Services tab:
The problem with disabling services is
that your devices will often not work once
you do: for instance, I disabled the
"Unknown" dlbt_device service in the list
above, and could no longer print to my
Dell printer... disabling the VMware
services made VMware unable to run, and
so forth.
You should be even more careful to not
disable built-in Microsoft services in
Windows, except for a select few under
certain circumstances:
• SuperFetch—This caching service
preloads applications into memory, and
actually does work. The problem is that it
can cause your hard drive to do a lot of
grinding while it's working, which is
especially irritating on a laptop.
• Windows Search—If you don't use the
Vista search or you use an alternate
desktop search engine, you really don't
need this service and can increase
performance quite a bit by disabling it.
• Windows Defender- If you are already
using another anti-malware product, you
really don't need this running as well.
Ed Bott's summary speaks for itself:
If someone tries to talk you into
disabling a bunch of other services, ask
them what you stand to gain. I’ll bet they
can’t tell you.
Editor: Readers should note that a recent
Windows Vista tweaking guide, offered for
download by Microsoft, does suggest
disabling unneeded services.
When it comes to performance tweaking,
a very large amount of testing is required
each and every time you make a change.
The better option is to simply install more
RAM and clean up your PC if you are
having performance problems, and perhaps
demand a little more proof before applying
secret hacks.
The How-To Geek is a tech writer and
geek enthusiast who loves to tinker with
hidden settings that actually work. More of
his tips and tweaks can be found daily at
28 Religion*
Trying to trim Solzhenitsyn down to size
By tmatt
Submitted at 8/4/2008 6:15:33 PM
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn did not live the
kind of life that fits easily into a 700-word
wire service story.
So we should all pause and contemplate
the challenge faced by the professionals
who had to report, write, edit and lay out
those Associated Press obituaries that ran
in tiny Monday newspaper editions all
across America. What a thankless job.
The basic AP story by Douglas Birch
does end with this reflection on the role of
faith in the great writer’s life:
During the 1990s, his stalwart nationalist
views, his devout Orthodoxy, his disdain
for capitalism and disgust with the tycoons
who bought Russian industries and
resources for kopeks on the ruble
following the Soviet collapse, were
unfashionable. He faded from public view.
But during Putin’s presidency,
Solzhenitsyn’s vision of Russia as a
bastion of Orthodox Christianity, as a
place with a unique culture and destiny,
gained renewed prominence.
As you would expect, the New York
Times had a giant story ready to run about
the life of this elderly giant. And, as you
would expect, it is the story of a man who
was admired by Western elites until it
became apparent that he was — deep down
— a man driven by a deep distrust of
modernity. On one level, Solzhenitsyn’s
reputation in America and Western Europe
never recovered from his famous 1978
address at Harvard University, entitled “ A
World Split Apart.”
You see, all of that moral outrage had to
have had an ultimate source and the Times
just couldn’t nail that down.
The story unfolds, act by act, like a
magazine feature, about a modern-day Old
Testament prophet — that’s an image from
reporter Michael T. Kaufman — who
always felt out of place in this world.
The background summary of his work is
stunning and must be read, especially the
parts about how he managed to work while
in the deadly work camps that he exposed
to the world. Try to forget this telling
detail:
. . . Mr. Solzhenitsyn was banished to a
desolate penal camp in Kazakhstan called
Ekibastuz. It would become the inspiration
for “A Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich.”
At Ekibastuz, any writing would be
seized as contraband. So he devised a
method that enabled him to retain even
long sections of prose. After seeing
Lithuanian Catholic prisoners fashion
rosaries out of beads made from chewed
bread, he asked them to make a similar
chain for him, but with more beads. In his
hands, each bead came to represent a
passage that he would repeat to himself
until he could say it without hesitation.
Only then would he move on to the next
bead. He later wrote that by the end of his
prison term, he had committed to memory
12,000 lines in this way.
Of course, Russian Orthodox believers
carry rosaries as well, called “Chotki,” that
are usually used while reciting the “ Jesus
Prayer” (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy on me, a sinner). They can be
made from twine, yarn or thread and it’s
safe to assume that these simple rituals
may have already been part of his life —
from his childhood. In general, this kind of
faith imagery and language is woven
throughout the piece, but never tied
together. This simple paragraph says a lot
in very few words:
He was religious. When he was a child,
older boys once ripped a cross from his
neck. Nonetheless, at 12, though the
Communists repudiated religion, he joined
the Young Pioneers and later became a
member of Komsomol, the Communist
youth organization.
In the Washington Post obit by J.Y.
Smith, that reference to childhood faith is
missing, strangely enough. Instead, we get
this:
A member of the first generation to be
raised entirely under communism,
Solzhenitsyn had experienced in his life
much of what he related in his books. As a
young man he was a communist in heart
and soul, although he never joined the
party.
As it turns out, that paragraph was
simply out of place — an accurate
statement when read in the context of later
material. Perhaps this was a copy-editing
mistake, while combining copy that was on
file with new material on deadline. After
all, the background paragraphs a few lines
later tell us:
Alexander Isayevitch Solzhenitsyn was
born in Kislovodsk, a mountain resort in
the north Caucasus, on Dec. 11, 1918. His
father, Isaaki, was an artillery officer in the
Imperial Russian Army in World War I.
He survived the war but was killed in a
hunting accident six months before his son
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
was born. His mother, Taissia Scherbak,
the daughter of a wealthy landowner, a
member of a despised class, struggled to
provide for herself and her son.
In 1944, she died of tuberculosis.
Growing up, Sanya, as he was called, had
learned the prayers and observances of the
Russian Orthodox Church from his mother
and an aunt. A family friend encouraged
him in science. At 9, the boy decided on a
career as a writer, and at 10 he read “War
and Peace.”
Later, readers learn that Solzhenitsyn
actually regained his Orthodox faith in the
crucible of pain — the labor camp. Of
course, the writer also struggled with his
own sins and faults, perhaps best
symbolized by the affair that ended his
first marriage, which he justified as a
consequence of his fierce pursuit of his art.
This leads to a question that none of the
obituaries answer (at least none of the
stories that I have seen): What was his
relationship to Orthodox Christianity in his
adult years? While he lived in the United
States? Upon his return to the deeply
flawed Mother Russia that he loved so
deeply?
Like I said, there is just too much life
here to put into a conventional news
account.
Nevertheless, Smith provides the single
best image that I have seen to capture the
triumphs and tragedies of this sprawling
life. In fact, Smith uses the image twice, in
a crucial transition paragraph early on and
then in a pitch-perfect ending:
Like Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor
Dostoyevsky, the 19th century masters of
Russian letters, his subject was considered
to be the struggle between good and evil in
the Russian soul. The line separating the
two, he said, ran through every heart.
And at the very end:
In the opening scene of “August, 1914,”
a character based on his father goes to join
the Army, although he might have avoided
service. He gives this explanation: “I feel
sorry for Russia.”
And, through his own experiences, the
author said, “gradually it was disclosed to
me that the line separating good and evil
passes not through states, nor between
classes, nor between political parties either
— but right through every human heart.”
Of course, Solzhenitsyn knew that
because he knew his own heart. Did he
learn that in Confession? Falling on his
face in a Forgiveness Vespers? After three
or four hours of a Divine Liturgy at
Pascha? Ultimately, these stories do not
tell us how his own heart was or was not
healed.
Second photo: An Eastern Orthodox
“Chotki,” or prayer rope.
Bookmark to:
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
AP twists Anglican timeline (again)
By tmatt
Submitted at 8/5/2008 10:00:59 AM
Another Lambeth Conference has come
and gone and, as you may have noticed,
there wasn’t much happening in the way of
news. That is, of course, the real news. The
archbishop of Canterbury and his staff
managed to hold a global meeting of most
of the Anglican bishops without anything
really bad happening in front of the
mainstream press.
The headline for this event: Stay the
course.
But there is a problem. Various parts of
the Anglican Communion continue to chart
separate courses, which was true before
Lambeth and that’s still true now.
The bishops who came to Canterbury —
as opposed to the 200-plus that did not—
agreed that they hope to hang together,
somehow. They agreed to produce a new
covenant that will draw a few crucial
doctrinal borders. Maybe. Someday.
And repeat after me, again: “The
Africans pray, the Americans pay and the
British write the resolutions.” Who do you
think will write this covenant? And, with
Lambeth about $2 million in the red by
many estimates, do you think the small,
but very rich, and thus powerful, American
church will have any chips to play in this
game of high-church poker? By the way,
there were 135 American bishops at this
conference, out of the 650 present.
The New York Times offers a few basic
facts to sum things up:
The push for a covenant amounted to a
stratagem for finding both short- and long-
term solutions to a dispute that has bitterly
divided an estimated 80 million Anglicans
worldwide. The split has expressed itself
most keenly in the starkly opposed views
of traditionalists, primarily in Africa and
Asia, who oppose any concessions on
homosexuality, and of more liberal
elements, especially in the United States
and Canada, who favor the ordination of
openly gay and lesbian clergy members
and church blessings of same-sex unions.
Archbishop Williams told reporters that
he hoped Anglican leaders could agree on
a draft covenant within a year, but said that
winning approval for it among the 44
national and regional churches of the
Anglican Communion could take until
2013. That period might coincide with a
push among the bishops here to hold
another Lambeth meeting after only five
years.
In the meantime, the archbishop said,
agreement was widespread for continuing
“moratoria” on the ordination of gay and
lesbian priests and blessings of same-sex
unions and for matching restraint by
conservatives who threatened to walk out
unless traditional views proscribing church
acceptance of homosexuality prevailed.
“Continuing”? There has been a
moratorium on strategic actions on the left
and the right? How did I miss that?
Meanwhile, the most important words in
the short Washington Post story about the
Lambeth finale were right there in the
byline above the lede:
By Karla Adam
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, August 4, 2008; A-8
LONDON, Aug. 3 — In the end, the
2008 Lambeth Conference will probably
be remembered most for the bishop who
was not in attendance but who nonetheless
threatened to break apart the world’s third-
largest church.
Note, in addition to the fact that this
story ran on A-8, those telltale words
“Special to. . .” That means that the Post
did not send a reporter to cover this event.
Without a doubt, high travel costs and
falling revenues had a major impact on
Lambeth coverage this time around. This
means that the basic Associated Press story
by veteran Rachel Zoll is even more
important than ever, since it will run in
many newspapers from coast to coast and
in other parts of the world.
I am sad to report that it repeats one of
the most important myths in recent
coverage of the local, national and global
Anglican wars. Here we go again:
The 77 million-member Anglican
Communion has been splintering since
2003, when the U.S. Episcopal Church
consecrated the first openly gay bishop, V.
Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.
Williams barred Robinson and a few
other bishops from the meeting, and
designed the event without legislation or
Religion* 29
votes, instead focusing on rebuilding
frayed relationships.
So what is wrong with that? Well, click
here and head on over to the home page of
the Anglican Mission in the Americas, one
of several conservative networks that is
working with Global South bishops to
offer alternative parishes and leadership
for Episcopalians and others. There you
will find this piece of history:
In a groundbreaking response to the
western crisis, some leaders of the
Anglican Church in Africa and Asia acted
to provide seeds of hope for the dire
situation in the U.S., by establishing the
Anglican Mission in America (AMiA) .
In 2000, Archbishops Emmanuel Kolini
(Province of Rwanda) and Moses Tay
(Province of South East Asia) consecrated
the Rev. Chuck Murphy and the Rev. Dr.
John Rodgers as missionary bishops to the
U.S. At a gathering in Amsterdam on July
28 of the same year, the Anglican Mission
in America was formalized as a missionary
outreach charged with fulfilling the Great
Commission through church planting. Four
additional bishops were consecrated in
Denver in 2001 by Archbishop Kolini and
Archbishop Yong Ping Chung
(Archbishop Tay’s successor who served
as archbishop until his retirement in
February 2006).
Note the dates on those extra-legal
consecration services — 2000 and 2001.
Those shots over the Episcopal bow took
place well before 2003, right? In fact, if
you look at a more detailed timeline of the
Anglican wars, you’ll see that things have
been rolling right along for a quarter of a
century or longer.
So it is simply wrong to say that
Anglicanism “has been splintering since
2003.” Also, there are a variety of
doctrinal issues involved in the fighting,
not just the raising of one noncelibate gay
male to the episcopate.
A correction is needed. Alas.
Bookmark to:
30 Religion* Food*
Almost getting Humane Vitae
By Mark Stricherz
Submitted at 8/2/2008 5:59:40 PM
I am remiss in not writing about coverage
of the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae,
the papal encyclical that upheld the Roman
Catholic Church’s prohibition against
artificial birth control and contraception.
Here’s my excuse: When I was old
enough to read stories about this topic,
coverage of the church’s position relied
heavily on ad-hominem attacks and priests
rarely explained this unpopular church
teaching. I knew I would have to go back
and re-read Humanae Vitae as well as the
U.S. Catholic Bishops’ 2006 document
against artificial birth control and
contraception. (Bear with me. This
preamble will be important later in the
post.)
I am glad to report that coverage has
improved. Gone is the implied criticism
that because the Pope and Vatican officials
are all single males, they have no right to
tell married couples what to do in the
intimacy of their bedrooms. In fact, several
stories are serious and thoughtful. Yet I
think that none truly get religion.
For Religion News Service, reporter
Daniel Burke wrote about Humane Vitae
and its legacy. His lede struck a fair and
accurate note:
Some say Pope Paul VI predicted the
dangers of loosening sexual morals:
widespread divorce, disease and
promiscuity. Others say he cracked open a
culture of dissent that has seeped into
every corner of the church.
Either way, 40 years after Paul VI
released “Humanae Vitae” on July 25,
1968, the papal encylical banning most
forms of birth control continues to be a
flashpoint in the Catholic Church.
Throughout his story, Burke treated the
encyclical seriously, as a document that
Catholics struggle with. For example, he
presented what I regard as the best
argument against Humanae Vitae:
Lisa Cahill said young Catholics in her
ethics classes at Boston College don’t
understand why the church allows married
couples to avoid pregnancy through what
the church calls “natural family planning”
but not by other means.
“The arguments don’t really fit together
coherently,” she said. “As soon as you
concede that it is moral to have sex while
trying not to procreate,why does
everything rest on the natural structure of
the act?”
In addition, Burke also gave readers the
historical and theological context in which
Pope Paul VI wrote the encyclical. While
Burke could have dismissed the pope’s
perspective and rationale, he sought to
explain it:
In July of 1968, expectations ran high for
Paul VI to at least partially allow artificial
contraception. The Second Vatican
Council had just called for lay Catholics to
play a larger role in the church. The now
widely available birth-control pill offered a
discreet means to avoid pregnancy. A
leaked press report hinted that a Vatican
committee studying the ban favored ending
it.
Instead, Paul VI dug in. He defended
tradition and encouraged Catholics to
savor “the sweetness of the yoke.” Sex
exists for the connected purposes of
unifying married couples and creating new
life, Paul reasoned. Contraceptives break
that connection and frustrate God’s
designs, he said. Abstinence during a
woman’s fertile days to avoid pregnancy
— known as “the calendar method” — is
acceptable. But other forms of birth control
are “repugnant” and wrong in all
circumstances, Paul said.
What Burke did not do, however, was
present the encyclical’s main argument
against artificial birth control and
conctraception. As Peter Steinfels notes,
Humanae Vitae was not at its heart a
warning against the evils of the sexual
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
revolution in general and artificial birth
control specifically. Its essence was
theological, not sociological:
The central point of “Humanae Vitae”
was that each and every act of sexual
intercourse had to be free of any deliberate
effort to prevent conception.
It was here that Pope Paul VI rejected the
recommendation of his own papal
commission. After extended study and
debate, the commission, though heavily
weighted with conservative churchmen,
concluded that the inseparability of the
Baked
bonding and procreating aspects of human
sexuality had to be respected over the
course of a marriage but not necessarily in
Stuffed
every instance of sexual intimacy.
Steinfels got that first part right at least.
And while like John Allen, Jr., he strives to
Clams
explain the theological basis of the By Elise
encylical and church teaching, going so far Submitted at 7/28/2008 2:42:14 PM
as to quote from an interview with
Cardinal Ratzinger a decade ago, his For most California girls, the idea of
summary too is incomplete. "digging for clams" isn't really part of our
Humanae Vitae forbids Catholic couples cultural makeup. But out in Rhode Island,
from using artificial birth control for one and the beaches south of Cape Cod,
main reason: those who use artificial birth digging in the sand for your dinner is
control attempt to assert mastery over their apparently a regular summertime activity.
own fate rather than being open to God’s My friend Alden (age 8) and her sister
will. It casts the issue as one of control — Piper (my goddaughter, age 5) took me
Man’s vs. God’s. As the encyclical states, clam digging this weekend. It wasn't
[T]o experience the gift of married love exactly what I expected. Although we went
while respecting the laws of conception is out in low tide, we still had to get chest
to acknowledge that one is not the master deep in the water to find a sandy spot to
of the sources of life but rather the minister scrape the bottom of with our toes. We
of the design established by the Creator. found about 6 empty shells or rocks for
Just as man does not have unlimited every intact clam. We were out for more
dominion over his body in general, so also, than an hour, shoulders sunburned and toes
scraped, nearly stung by red jelly fish, and
and with more particular reason, he has no
such dominion over his specifically sexual managed to get a grand total of 9 clams (3
clams each). I know there are more
faculties, for these are concerned by their
very nature with the generation of life, of efficient ways to do this (as I'm sure some
of you will tell me), but at the end of the
which God is the source
It is probably too much to expect Burke day, it didn't matter. Hunting for clams was
just a great excuse to play in the warm sea
to described this theological justification
accurately. With its elliptical sentences and water on a beautiful sunny day.
Here's the recipe for stuffed clams (also
length, Humanae Vitae is no easy read.
(The Bishops’ 2006 statement is clearer called "stuffies") that Alden and Piper's
mom Heidi made with our hard-earned
and better written.) But I do think that
Allen and Steinfels, two prominent catch. Do you have a favorite recipe for
stuffed clams? Please let us know about it
Catholic thinkers, should have described
this admittedly thorny church teaching and in the comments. I've heard that they are
especially good with a little Portuguese
encyclical more accurately.
Bookmark to: sausage mixed in the stuffing.
Continue reading "Baked Stuffed Clams"
»
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Bush’s worship plans in China
By dpulliam
Submitted at 8/5/2008 4:16:33 PM
The media is starting to cover the ironies
and excitement of President Bush’s visit to
China for the 2008 Olympics. The New
York Times has already appropriately
played up the fact that Bush attempted to
go to worship at a house church but was
denied by the Chinese government.
Here’s the lead of the article which
appeared Tuesday:
WASHINGTON — Aides organizing
President Bush’s trip to China for the
Olympics considered having him worship
at a house church, one of the underground
religious institutions that routinely face
official harassment, but the Chinese
authorities ruled it out.
Pastors, lawyers and other political
activists whom Mr. Bush considered
meeting in Beijing as a signal of support
have instead been ordered by the Chinese
authorities to leave the city during the
president’s visit. Scores of others have
been arrested.
The idea of giving a Reaganesque “tear
down this wall” speech on human rights in
China — as members of Congress and
others are calling for Mr. Bush to do —
has been abandoned as potentially
insulting to the president’s hosts, one
senior administration official said. Besides,
most Chinese would probably not see or
hear it, because of state control of the news
media.
While this is symbolically ironic and
important, it should not come as a surprise
to anyone. The fact is that these house
churches are operating outside the
country’s laws whether we like it or not.
Now please don’t jump to the comment
button and call me some sort of freedom
hater. I am not. My point is that
Americans, Christians, people of any faith,
freedom lovers, and the entire Western
world may not like the China’s laws, but it
is in fact the law of China and Americans
don’t get to decide Chinese laws. Also, the
comparisons with Reagan’s “tear down
this wall” speech ought to be either
explained better or dropped all together
because the situations are hardly the same.
The real story here is that the Bush
White House seemed to make a big deal
out of Bush’s request to visit a house
church. Does anyone really expect the
Chinese authorities to allow that to happen
in their country or to even attempt to
reform their laws overnight?
Some of the NYT’s coverage reflects the
viewpoint that Americans can go over to
other countries and convince them to make
exceptions to their laws to make everyone
happy:
While he evidently will not worship at an
underground church, Mr. Bush does plan
to attend services on Sunday at the Beijing
Kuanjie Protestant Church, one of the most
prominent of those officially registered by
the government. (And then, that night, he
will watch Kobe Bryant and the rest of
USA Basketball play China.)
Kenneth Roth, the executive director of
Human Rights Watch, who was among a
group of advocates who met with Mr.
Hadley last week to discuss China, said the
problem with the balance Mr. Bush was
striving for was that it too readily accepted
the Chinese authorities’ conditions.
Referring to the decision to visit an
authorized church, he said: “It’s not an
affirmation of religious freedom. It’s an
affirmation of government-controlled
religion.”
An aspect of the story that is missing is
the reality of Chinese law. The law in
China is fairly flexible. The massive size
of the county and huge population makes
the American concept of law and order
seem an impossible objective. Would it
have been possible for Bush to quietly visit
a house church during his visit? If Bush
minimized any notion that his presence in
China would somehow release the bonds
on the country’s religious freedoms,
perhaps the government would have
allowed him some flexibility. That said,
Bush is president of the United States and
he has made his goal as president is to
spread freedom around the world. Any
notion of avoiding publicity or quietly
visiting anything in China is probably my
own wishful thinking.
As the next couple of weeks play out,
watch for the media’s portrayal of the
underground religious groups in China,
along with their government-approved
counterparts and let us know your thoughts
on how they are portrayed and covered. I
would be particularly interested if the
subject of religion came up during any of
NBC’s coverage of the games.
The Christian church overall is growing
quite rapidly in China. I recently heard a
statistic that there are more Christians in
China than Communist Party members. I
hope the issue receives the in-depth
coverage it deserves, but think worry that
Kobe Bryant’s jump shot will receive most
of the attention.
Photo of President Bush with Vice
President Cheney addressing the media at
the State Department, August 14, 2006
used under a Wikimedia Commons license.
Bookmark to:
Religion* Food* 31
Zucchini Bread
By Elise
Submitted at 7/31/2008 12:44:23 AM
Updated.
I still remember the first time I
encountered zucchini bread as a teenager. I
had a hard time getting my mind around
the concept. At the time, zucchini was
something my mom made me eat, and not
anything you would bake into something
sweet. Fortunately, the pathway into my
naturally resistant-to-new-foods teenage
mind had already been cut with carrot
cake. Heck, if you could get something
that good out of carrots, why not zucchini?
After one bite, I was sold forever. Grated
zucchini, mixed into the batter, brings
moisture and tender texture to what is
essentially a spice cake.
Here are two favorite, tried-and-true
zucchini bread recipes. The first couldn't
be easier; you don't need a mixer and can
make the whole thing in one bowl. It's
basically our zucchini muffin recipe in a
bread form. The second recipe is adapted
from one in an old issue of Sunset
Magazine(September 1974) and is the
recipe I used to follow as a teenager to
make zucchini bread. The pineapple,
walnuts, and raisins (my substitute, the
original recipe called for currants) make
the bread even more interesting.
Continue reading "Zucchini Bread" »
32 Religion* Food*
“Emerging church” in Indy?
By dpulliam
Submitted at 8/5/2008 12:46:58 AM
One of my favorite religion reporters is
Robert King from The Indianapolis Star. A
certain amount of my enjoyment reading
his pieces comes from the fact that he
writes about my local Hoosier Heartland
community, but I think I can say
objectively that King generally gets
religion in his work as a journalist, and
I’ve heard others around the community
reflect similar thinking. He also knows the
Indianapolis community.
On the cover of Sunday’s Metro section,
King wrote about a struggling downtown
United Methodist congregation that meets
in one of the cities many aging, beautiful
and historic church buildings. The church
is a combination of two “dying” downtown
churches with a history in the community
that spans more than 125 years, as King
notes later in the article. (Also see
accompanying photo gallery of one of the
church’s events).
One church was founded in 1877, and
started what is today one of the area’s
largest hospitals. Indiana’s senior Senator
and former Indianapolis Mayor Richard
Lugar was once a member. Immigrants
founded the other in 1880. Services at this
church were held in German initially.
With that background in mind, the article
left me pondering whether this story was
more about a growing social center and
movement or place of entertainment than it
was about a struggling church, as its
traditionally defined. In fact, that was the
point of the article:
As 24-year-old member Hilary Updike,
Jordan’s wife, says: “I think we are all
kind of burnt out on the traditional church
model.”
The consensus among members is that
Lockerbie Central now sits squarely in the
emergent church movement —
Coconut Cupcakes with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
By Garrett McCord
Submitted at 8/4/2008 9:07:09 PM
Please welcome guest author Garrett
McCord of Vanilla Garlic who shares his
recipe for some of the best cupcakes we've
ever had. ~Elise
characterized by its emphasis on the arts,
social justice causes and a willingness to
question long-held traditions and
conventions.
At Lockerbie Central, it also reflects
something of a backlash against the
conservative, suburban megachurch that
has come to dominate much of the
religious and political landscape.
Reporting on the “emergent church”
movement is never easy. Sometimes the
point of the movement is to defy any
traditional labels that reporters can slap on
the congregation. Check out this section of
King’s story:
Now, the room the German immigrants
Most coconut cupcakes are often a bit
too dense and flavorless in my opinion,
often presenting bland cake with a
avalanche of coconut plopped on top.
Tired of coconut cupcake posers, I decided
to develop a recipe that would really rally
in the flavor of coconut in a cupcake. This
and generations of churchgoers used as a
fellowship hall features a temporary
display of “fringe” artists.
Prominent among them is a painting of
President Bush who, though a famous
United Methodist himself, is featured here
with horns protruding from his head. The
caption above him carries the apocalyptic
message of many a street preacher: “The
End is Near.”
And in lieu of a pastor, the church this
week is giving itself, heart and soul, to an
experiment in worship in which everyone
participates in a communal service.
Today’s highlight will be a “piece” poem
cobbled together from the words audience
one uses coconut milk in place of milk,
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
members scribble on cards.
The closest thing to preaching — a five-
minute “sermonette” — will challenge the
view that Jesus would not have approved
of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima,
which occurred 63 years ago this week.
King’s reporting reveals something
unique about this congregation: while they
average about 30 worshippers on Sunday,
about 2,400 people come through the
church every month on days not
traditionally known as the Sabbath. The
church has so much going on that King
aptly describes the place as “perhaps the
busiest church in danger of dying in
Indianapolis.”
The one thing I kept looking for in the
story was an explanation for the church’s
views on the direction of the United
Methodist denomination nationally or
some sort of determination of the church’s
theological baseline. Of course since the
congregation lacks a pastor and by
definition attempts to avoid religious and
political labels, that basis is difficult to
establish, but there are certain basic things
that can be asked about.
For example, there is the Apostles’ Creed
and the Nicene Creed. Both are generally
accepted by Methodists. Are these every
used in the church’s worship? Why not ask
the tmatt trio questions? I am sure others
can think of many ways of giving readers a
sense for what this group of people
believes.
I also wondered whether there are other
churches in Indianapolis that would call
themselves “emerging.” Actually, I know
there are. Will they also be written about?
Photo by author of post taken in
downtown Indianapolis.
Bookmark to:
and butter instead of oil, and has shredded
coconut through and through giving it a
divine taste that puts other coconut
cupcakes to shame.
In light of that, the cupcake itself is
surprisingly light in texture, almost airy.
The coconut cream cheese frosting
Chicken Pozole
By Elise
Submitted at 7/26/2008 5:38:26 PM
I've been begging my friend Arturo to
teach me how to make pozole for months
now. The problem is that it is sort of like
asking someone to make you "taco night".
Pozole is a big production, not in the
making of it, but in all of the wonderful
garnishes you can add to it. Pozole is a
traditional soup or stew of Mexico, from
pre-Columbian days. The name is derived
from the Nahuatl "potzolli" and the stew is
made with hominy and pork or chicken.
This particular version of Arturo's is made
with chicken, and is called "pozole blanco"
in his native state of Guerrero, Mexico,
where pozole is practically the state dish.
While in New Mexico posole is
traditionally served on Christmas eve, in
Guerrero it is served every Thursday and
Saturday, all year long. Light and
healthful, pozole is also a common
Mexican cure for a hangover, ironic in that
it is also traditionally enjoyed with mezcal.
Continue reading "Chicken Pozole" »
enhances the cupcake so each bite is just
sweet and exotic, leaving whispers of
flavor behind. It is, in my opinion, the
ultimate coconut cupcake recipe.
Continue reading "Coconut Cupcakes
with Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting" »
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
A Cardinal in full — well, almost
By Mark Stricherz
Submitted at 8/4/2008 3:45:09 PM
As I wrote a few months ago, I appreciate
any serious newspaper profile of the local
Catholic bishop or cardinal. Not to bash
my hometown press unnecessarily, but I
don’t remember the Bay Area media in the
1980s or ’90s ever doing so. And this in a
region where not too long ago, the San
Francisco bishop could name the city’s
police chief or captain of the fire
department.
So I read with interest The Boston
Globe’s profile of Boston Cardinal Sean
O’Malley. Reporter Michael Paulson gave
readers a many-sided portrait of O’Malley.
Whether his portrait was full, let alone
complete, is another question.
One virtue of the story was its
presentation of reality from O’Malley’s
point of view. Paulson sat down with the
Cardinal for an interview, and this allowed
him to portray O’Malley intimately and on
his own terms, which are religious and
spiritual. ( Check out his blog.) His lede is
a good example:
Some bishops would have attended an
anniversary celebration. Others would
have held a public Mass. Cardinal Sean P.
O’Malley skipped town, checked into a
monastery, and prayed.
Five years after he was installed as the
Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston,
O’Malley remains in many ways the most
unusual of public figures. . . He arrived in
Boston on July 30, 2003, confronting, for
the third time in his career as a bishop, a
diocese thrown into crisis by clergy sexual
abuse. But if the situations confronting the
Fall River and Palm Beach dioceses had
been grim, the situation in Boston was
ruinous. So bad, in fact, that when Pope
John Paul II asked him to move to Boston,
O’Malley unsuccessfully sent a plea to the
Ginger Chicken with Almonds
By Elise
Submitted at 7/25/2008 8:14:53 PM
From the recipe archive.
My friend Steve-Anna recently sent me
this wonderful recipe for ginger chicken
and claimed that it was one of her all time
pope to reconsider.
“I dropped the phone . . . it was quite a
shock,” O’Malley said in an interview
Tuesday. “I did ask him to reconsider, and
it came back immediately with, no, this is
what he wants you to do.”
Another virtue of the story was its
summary of O’Malley’s accomplishments
and problems as Boston’s top prelate. Any
reporter in Boston might have done the
same as Paulson, and if anything Paulson
might have underplayed the Cardinal’s
successes, as O’Malley in his interview
mentioned accomplishments not listed in
the story.
Yet at least Paulson wrote about
O’Malley’s record and did so in a serious
and fair way. His descriptions conveyed a
key truth about Catholic prelates — their
job is primarily administrative, as this
passage below illustrates:
He sold the archdiocese’s leafy 64-acre
campus in Brighton to Boston College, and
used the proceeds to settle abuse cases. He
closed one-fifth of the parishes,
acknowledging that the archdiocese no
longer had the worshipers, the priests, or
the funds to justify 357 churches, and he
closed multiple parochial schools that he
favorites. My father doesn't eat ginger if he
can avoid it, so when I made it I just
warned dad ahead of time that he might
have to settle for yesterday's leftovers if he
couldn't bring himself to touch it. Well,
everyone loved it, even dad. Strips of
boneless, skinless chicken breasts are
said had become too small to survive. He
replaced nearly every top manager in the
archdiocese, reduced the size of the
administrative staff by about one-quarter,
spun off eight Catholic high schools, and
tried unsuccessfully to sell the Catholic
hospitals. He cut administrative spending
from $51 million the year before he arrived
to $35 million last year, and slashed the
annual deficit from $24 million the year he
arrived to $2 million last year.
He moved from the traditional
archbishops’ mansion in Brighton —
which he then sold — to a shabby rectory
in the South End; he traded down the
archbishop’s car to a Toyota Avalon, and
he continues to wear the brown hooded
robe and sandals that symbolize the vow of
poverty he took as a Capuchin friar.
What the story did not, however, was
include many different voices. While it
features quotes from two the presidents of
two local Catholic colleges, the mayor, a
business leader and a national sex-abuse
leader, it has none from independent
conservative, liberal or traditional
Catholics. This absence was evidence of
the story’s Establishment mindset.
I would have liked to have seen a quote
from, say, Philip Lawler, the former editor
of the archdiocese’s newspaper and author
of a well-regarded book on Boston’s
Catholics, or Ray Flynn, the city’s
longtime former mayor and former
ambassador to the Vatican. What do they
think of the Cardinal’s administrative,
spiritual or political record?
Yet these criticisms are minor. At least
this story not only acknowledges that a
Catholic Establishment exists, but also
seeks to understand its leader.
Bookmark to:
briefly marinated in ground coriander,
ground ginger, vinegar and oil, then they
Vacation
By Elise
Submitted at 7/28/2008 5:02:09 AM
Vacation. I don't take those very often, do
you? Here is the view from the beach in
South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where I
am encamped for the next two weeks. 3000
miles away from hot, dry, and smokey
California (if anyone is wondering,
Sacramento is not the place to visit during
July), I'm determined to relax, play with
my goddaughter and her sisters, and
accomplish as little as possible.
So far I've managed to get sunburned,
and learn two useful treatments for it (in
addition to aloe vera) - a clerk at the local
CVS told me the Russian remedy to put
cold sour cream on the sunburn
(surprisingly helpful actually) and Susan
the Food Blogga's dermatologist husband
recommends Advil among other things, to
reduce the inflammation. I've taught the
girls to count to 4 as well as sing
Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which we have
sung all over town, repeatedly, to the
annoyance of all who aren't singing with
us.
So, what does this mean for those of you
are stir-fried with scallions and julienned
ginger. They are mixed with a little mango
chutney and sprinkled with toasted
almonds before serving.
The whole dish can be made in half an
hour, especially if you do a lot of the prep
while the chicken is marinating.
Religion* Food* 33
who come here hoping and expecting to
find new recipes to try? Good news, the
girls love to cook, so I'm sure some of that
is on their agenda. But it might not exactly
be grown-up food. I've been adding recipes
to Simply Recipes for more than 5 years
now, so I may bring up a few of the
summertime recipes that we've done in the
past. I do have a couple of recipes waiting
in the wings, but just a couple. What I
would like to point your attention to is a
new feature linked to in the left side bar,
latest updates from favorite food blogs.
Here you'll find links to the most recent
articles and recipes from the food blogs
that I read almost every day. A good
source of inspiration is Food Blog Search.
Just type in the ingredients you want to
work with, and the customized search
engine will search for recipes in over 2000
hand-picked food blogs. Another source of
recipes are my recipe bookmarks on the
del.icio.us site. Here's where I bookmark
interesting recipes I find around the web.
Look down the tag list on the right if you
want to search this list by ingredient.
Continue reading "Ginger Chicken with
Almonds" »
34 Religion* Food*
“The most segregated hour . . .”
By Mark Stricherz
Submitted at 8/6/2008 2:23:31 AM
Every serious student of recent American
history and religion knows Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.’s quote about racial
segregation and Christian churches. But
few surely know the ways in which little
has changed from King’s day. They would
do well to read a CNN article on the
subject.
Reporter John Blake’s story was one of
unusual power and honesty. Rare is the
mainstream newspaper article that tells
uncomfortable truths about both black and
white Christians. This is one of those
stories. Consider Blake’s lede:
The Rev. Paul Earl Sheppard had
recently become the senior pastor of a
suburban church in California when a
group of parishioners came to him with a
disturbing personal question.
They were worried because the racial
makeup of their small church was
changing. They warned Sheppard that the
church’s newest members would try to
seize control because members of their
race were inherently aggressive. What was
he was going to do if more of “them” tried
to join their church?
“One man asked me if I was prepared for
a hostile takeover,” says Sheppard, pastor
of Abundant Life Christian Fellowship in
Mountain View, California.
The nervous parishioners were African-
American, and the church’s newcomers
were white. Sheppard says the experience
demonstrated why racially integrated
churches are difficult to create and even
harder to sustain. Some blacks as well as
whites prefer segregated Sundays,
religious scholars and members of
interracial churches say.
Later in the story, Blake elaborated on
the reasons for the racial segregation. He
summarized the views of the pastor of one
inter-racial church this way:
Potato Salad with Apples and Bacon
By Elise
Submitted at 8/1/2008 3:40:36 AM
Summer is the season for cookouts and
potato salad, isn't it? Our standard usually
Woo doesn’t say his church has resolved
all of its racial tensions. There are spats
over music, length of service, even how to
address Woo. Blacks prefer to address him
more formally, while whites prefer to call
him by his first name, (a sign of disrespect
in black church culture), Woo says.
The second sentence in this passage hit
home with me. My Catholic parish
technically is almost all black. I go there
for confession and for morning Mass; I
revere the pastor, a priest of uncommon
holiness and charity. Yet I don’t take my
wife and daughter there because the Mass
is too long. Our 14-month-old can barely
tolerates a 60-minute Mass (at the heavily
white parishes), let alone a 150-minute
one.
These long services survive regardless of
the pastor. The lesson is clear: the black
congregants prefer long services. Yet it is
also clear why few black Catholics attend
includes pickle juice and hard boiled eggs.
Here's a completely different take on a
summer potato salad, seasoned with
mustard, bacon, and the taste that makes
you smile with surprise when you bite into
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
the local white Catholic churches. Every
third or fourth sermon is a variation on the
Jesus-loves-you theme. Whether this
message would resonate with local
working- and middle-class blacks is
doubtful.
Perhaps I digress. Regardless, Blake’s
story also showed a firm grasp of the New
Testament and Christian theology. Besides
the impressive conclusion, Blake
summarized the theology of inter-racial
parishes this way:
interracial church advocates say the
church was never meant to be segregated.
They point to the New Testament
description of the first Christian church as
an ethnic stew — it deliberately broke
social divisions by uniting groups that
were traditionally hostile to one another,
they say.
DeYoung, the “United by Faith” co-
author, says the first-century Christian
church grew so rapidly precisely because it
was so inclusive. He says the church
inspired wonder because its leaders were
Blueberry Peach Fruit Salad
able to form a community that cut across
the rigid class and ethnic divisions that
characterized the ancient Roman world.
with Thyme
“People said that if Jews, Greeks, By Garrett McCord help using what I know best - food. I
Africans, slaves, men and women - the wanted to put together something that was
Submitted at 7/25/2008 12:52:01 PM
huge divides of that time period — could easy to prepare, full of flavor, and packed
come together successfully, there must be Please welcome Garrett McCord of with cancer fighting vitamins and
something to this religion,” DeYoung says. Vanilla Garlic who shares this delicious antioxidants. After a bit of research into
The passage above was not perfect. A cancer-fighting fruit salad with us. ~Elise cancer smart foods and what seemed to
brief passage examining whether Recently my mom, Suzanne McCord, work well, I developed this recipe.
segregation is itso facto bad would have was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was This simple fruit salad works at the start
been great. Catholic parishes were, and to surprised when I heard the news, my of the meal or as a dessert. The fruit is
an extent still are, segregated by ethnicity. mother is in her early sixties, but is lightly glazed with either a simple syrup or
Is it un-Christian that Hispanic Catholics insanely active and healthy. The woman agave syrup. Ginger, a bit of lemon, and
have their church, while Irish and Italian recently participated the AIDS lifecycle some savory thyme which pairs amazingly
Catholics have theirs? event; a 6 day, 550 mile bike ride. A few with summer fruits accents the tartness of
But those are quibbles. Blake’s story did days after, she was off to Egypt and the berries and the sweetness of the stone
more than Get Religion. It is one of the Russia. I get tired biking to work, and my fruit. In recognition of my awesome,
best newspaper stories I have read this last big trip was Napa which is only an kicking cancer-butt mom, Ive nicknamed
year. hour away. In fact, her main concern after this a Suzanne Salad.
Bookmark to: being diagnosed was that the surgery Continue reading "Blueberry Peach Fruit
would get in the way of her bike riding. Salad with Thyme" »
After hearing about mom, I went to work
doing some research about ways I could
made this potato salad for a group of us Continue reading "Potato Salad with
this week; it's based on a recipe she found Apples and Bacon" »
recently in the Boston Globe. Everyone
who ate it loved the apple, bacon, mustard,
it, chunks of apple. My friend Heidi H potato combo.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Church conversions to condos
By dpulliam
Submitted at 8/2/2008 1:29:03 PM
To my great satisfaction, a journalist has
given serious coverage to the religious
angle in the ongoing story of old churches
being converted to new condos. Kathy
McCabe of The Boston Globe does an
excellent job of wading into the religious
and spiritual significance of sacred places
of worship being converted into high-end
condo buildings.
I have fussed about this twice this year
(see Chicago Tribune here and Religion
News Service here): the religious and
spiritual angle in these stories does not get
enough attention. The RNS was a great
improvement over the Tribune, but The
Globe asks some questions that have gone
unanswered until now:
When developer Tony Pace had the
chance to turn the 100-year-old former
Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ipswich
into a luxury condo, he sought the blessing
of a parish priest.
“I needed to be sure it was OK,” said
Pace, 45, who was raised Catholic in
Medford. “He told me that if I treated it
with respect, there was nothing wrong with
it.”
Guilt about turning a house of worship
into a high-end home isn’t limited to crib
Catholics.
Karnig Ostayan asked his Armenian
pastor to bless the former St. Theresa of
the Child Jesus Church in Watertown,
before turning the church and rectory into
11 upscale condos.
“I want to sleep at night,” joked Ostayan,
who attends St. James Armenian Apostolic
Church, across Mt. Auburn Street.
“Seriously, I know how much this church
meant to people.”
The article does a good job exploring the
churches’ decision-making process and
procedures when they sell off their sacred
properties. One also gets the sense that if
developers were not grabbing these
properties, other churches would not be
finding a home in the buildings. In some
ways, the condominium developers are
stepping up to preserve at least some of the
beauty of these buildings.
One also gets the sense that there is a
certain amount of spiritual guilt present in
this story. Check out the irony of former
churches becoming $1 million luxury
condominiums:
When selling a church, the archdiocese
issues a request for proposals. The goal is
to select a buyer whose plan is consistent
with church teachings and social mission.
The archdiocese pulled out from a deal to
turn a Quincy church into a clinic that
would have provided counseling on
abortion. The former Blessed Sacrament
Church in Jamaica Plain is being turned
into a mix of upscale, market-rate, and
affordable condominiums. The final call on
Religion* 35
any property sale lies with Cardinal Sean
P. O’Malley.
“In general, the cardinal likes to hear
about things that are here to help people,”
Peterson said.
Even if that includes luxury condos,
some priced at over $1 million.
“It is providing someone with housing,”
said Peterson.
Yes, the church is providing someone
with housing. The White House also
provides someone with housing.
Okay, enough of my sarcasm. There is
also a beautiful photo gallery that goes
with the story, which appears in the
newspaper’s real estate section. Overall, I
get the sense that McCabe understands that
faith is important and that these churches
as sacred places matter.
The one angle that I am still hoping for
journalists to cover here is the community
perspective. Once a church and its
community has been replaced by
condominiums, what institution is
expected to serve the community’s
spiritual needs? On the other hand, has the
community changed to a degree that local
church life is no longer a priority? Are any
of these new condo dwellers attending
church outside their immediate
communities? Perhaps the mega-church in
the suburbs?
Photos, taken by the author of this post,
are of former downtown Indianapolis
churches which have been converted into
high-end condo buildings.
Bookmark to:
36 Religion* Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper

Mixed Karadzic messages, again

By tmatt
Submitted at 8/4/2008 2:12:13 AM

As you would expect, I am still following

the coverage of the Radovan Karadzic
case, still looking to see if anyone is going
to provide on-the-record information to
back up all of those charges that the
world’s most infamous war criminal had,
at some point, been hiding in Orthodox
churches or monasteries.
I wrote my Scripps Howard News
Service column about this issue last week,
turning to the leader of the Serbian
Orthodox Church in North and South
America for input on the situation. He was
not, to say the least, amused by all of the
anonymous charges against the Serbian
hierarchy, especially that ABC News
report that turned the bizarre news about
Karadzic’s career in alternative forms of
medicine and therapy into this label —
“Orthodox mystic.”
“It’s like that old saying that you can’t
fight city hall,” said Metropolitan
Christopher, in frustration. Journalists and
outsiders “want to link all of this to the
Serbian Orthodox Church. And they want
to say that all Serbs, everywhere, are guilty
of the actions of these violent men and
that, most of all, the Serbs are the only
people who have ever done these terrible
things to their neighbors.. . .
“They forget that men like Karadzic and Mr. Karadzic, even before the outbreak which left more than 10,000 civilians dead,
Slobodan Milosevic were enemies of the
church and used violence against the
Orthodox, too. Our bishops were jailed and
of war in Bosnia, often declared publicly
that his mission was to “protect” Christian
Serbs from Bosnian Muslims threatening
and the mass killings at Srebrenica, where
nearly 8,000 unarmed men and boys were
executed in a weeklong massacre.. . .
Sold on the Spirit
beaten for opposing the regime behind this to create an Islamic state. He made virulent The massacre at Srebrenica and the siege By Mollie Ministries. Of the six, Copeland has fought
violence.” speeches, warning that if Bosnia broke of Sarajevo have been thoroughly Submitted at 8/3/2008 8:06:54 PM
back the hardest, refusing to answer most
I know that this is all rather complex and away from Yugoslavia, its Muslim documented in other trials. Mr. Karadzic questions and inviting the Internal
byzantine. population could be decimated. himself has been filmed visiting the A couple of years ago, Eric Gorski — Revenue Service to conduct an audit,
But it’s crucial to realize that it was Note those quote marks around the word Serbian gun positions that were pounding then at the Denver Post— ran a a three-part which would keep information private.
possible, during all of that fighting, to be in “protect.” the civilians of Sarajevo. At Srebrenica, series on a local preacher of the Prosperity Gorski’s piece has run in one form or
favor of the defense of Serbian villages The first half of that paragraph does not Mr. Karadzic can argue he did not order Gospel. What I loved about the piece, another in some 280+ papers:
and churches and even to oppose the mesh with the second. Defending Serbs in the massacre; prosecutors will have to which exposed the pastor’s financial Here in the gentle hills of north Texas,
creation of an independent Kosovo, yet to war-torn areas is one thing. The charges prove that even if he did not issue such an success, was that it also explored televangelist Kenneth Copeland has built a
remain totally opposed to ethnic cleansing that Karadzic faces at The Hague go way, order, he was kept informed and could prosperity teaching in detail. religious empire teaching that God wants
and the kinds of hellish violence unleashed way, way past anything that military have stopped the killing. Now with the Associated Press, Gorski his followers to prosper.
by the likes of Karadzic. There were leaders would consider “defense.” If he I know it’s confusing. I know it’s hard to has been all over Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Over the years, a circle of Copeland’s
people who opposed the Milosevic regime had settled for a defensive role, he would keep all of this straight. But let’s focus on investigation of various televangelists. relatives and friends have done just that,
and who backed cease fires, over and over. not be on trial. Yes, there were Serbian Karadzic’s crimes, which were offensive, Grassley’s Senate Finance Committee is The Associated Press has found. They
These brave leaders included Muslims, villages and churches that needed to be not defensive. investigating allegations of questionable include the brother-in-law with a lucrative
Jews, Catholics and, yes, Serbian Orthodox defended. Photo: A damaged icon in a war-ravaged spending and lax financial accountability deal to broker Copeland’s television time,
hierarchs. However, that isn’t what this is all about: Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo. at six organizations that preach “health and the son who acquired church-owned land
Yet lines keep getting blurred in print. The indictment is a 25-page document Bookmark to: wealth theology,” as Gorski puts it. for his ranching business and saw it more
Notice this paragraph in a New York citing crimes in numerous locations, most For his latest, he produced a heavily-
Times report late last week: crucially the three-year siege of Sarajevo, researched expose of Kenneth Copeland
SOLD page 37
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
SOLD
continued from page 36
than quadruple in value, and board
members who together have been paid
hundreds of thousands of dollars for
speaking at church events.
Church officials say no one improperly
benefits through ties to Copeland’s vast
evangelical ministry, which claims more
than 600,000 subscribers in 134 countries
to its flagship “Believer’s Voice of
Victory” magazine. The board of directors
signs off on important matters, they say.
Yet church bylaws give Copeland veto
power over board decisions.
While Copeland insists that his ministry
complies with the law, independent tax
experts who reviewed information
obtained by the AP through interviews,
church documents and public records have
their doubts. The web of companies and
non-profits tied to the televangelist calls
the ministry’s integrity into question, they
say.
“There are far too many relatives here,”
said Frances Hill, a University of Miami
law professor who specializes in nonprofit
tax law. “There’s too much money
sloshing around and too much of it
sloshing around with people with
overlapping affiliations and allegiances by
37
either blood or friendship or just ties over
the years. There are red flags all over these
relationships.”
Copeland, 71, is a pioneer of the
prosperity gospel, which holds that
believers are destined to flourish
spiritually, physically and financially —
and share the wealth with others.
Those are the beginning paragraphs and
the remaining 2,000 words just dig deeper
and deeper into the finances. It’s terribly
difficult to investigate church finances
since religious non-profit reporting is
protected in a way that other non-profits
aren’t. But Gorski does a good job of using
the information at hand to paint a picture
of the Kenneth Copeland empire as one of
great financial success and somewhat
questionable governance.
I wish the article contained more
discussion of the prosperity gospel. The
sentence quoted above is about it for the
article. It was the main strength of Gorski’s
previous work on prosperity ministries.
Still, this is a fantastically researched and
well-composed piece.
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