Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Hillary-Obama Vs. Rudy-Romney Vs. Bloomberg-Arnold


Time: Friday, June 22 at 8:30 PM
Duration: 2 hours
Host: Generation Obama
Location:
Hammerstein Ballroom (New York, NY)
311 West 34th St.
New York, NY 11211

That is what it is looking like right now. Bloomberg-Arnold is a Warren Buffett idea, and if that were to float, and it could as early as February 6, 2008, since by then both parties will have had their nominees, that would be the first serious third party/independent ticket in American politics. That would make things seriously competitive.

How Obama Managed To Lose Steam After The Debate

Obama was leading Hillary by one point in one Gallup poll right after the last debate. And then he went ahead and squandered it. There was no follow up. And the outsourcing memos added to his downward slide. It was not the content of the memo that hurt him in mainstream America as much as the slowness with which he responded. It reminded people of how Bush was in this Florida classroom just whiling away while plane after plane had hit the towers on 9/11. Obama waited too long before he came out with the right response.

There is an urgent need for a dedicated rapid response team on the Obama team. Too many subtle attacks have gone unanwered. You don't have to get nasty, you don't have to engage in the politics of personal destruction. But you do have to answer back when you are hit. And the response has to be rapid.

What To Do

(1) Debates are key. Prepare, perform.

(2) Within a week of a debate, or a week before the debate, give a major policy speech in a large media market. One major policy speech a month.

(3) Do a major event a week after that in a large media market.

(3) Become a policy wonk. You are, but also got to give that public image. I keep thinking as to why videoblogged deep policy discussions are not put out by candidates. You have to be seen thinking, you have to be seen listening to the top brains on each topic, you have to be seen exploring all your options, you have to be seen weighing the political repurcussions of the policies proposed. Put the technology to work. Too much of the Obama image has come from the stump speeches and handshaking. That is good, but it can also lead to looking shallow.

(4) Obama has a beautiful, beautiful family. His wife and two wonderful kids, when they show up in photos and on TV, add to his image. And his wife sure is smart as hell. But she has not been a politician. She is a great example of a woman who has been fair to both her work and her family, but Obama is going to have to fan out into major policy - especially on domestic violence and equal pay - if he is to cut Hillary's 2-1 lead among women. I have always liked Hillary, and I continue to do so. And I can see what she means to women, symbolically speaking. But Obama can compete. Women will benefit if he does.

In The News

Would Bloomberg Have a Chance? TIME the press likes Bloomberg himself — he's one of us (just a tad richer) ...... many of the biggest players in New York and Washington media circles are chummy with the dinner-party-charming Mayor. .... Clearly Bloomberg does not plan to enter the race until he sees whom the major parties settle on as nominees, likely early next year. ..... "a short, Jewish, divorced billionaire" ..... he would almost certainly hurt the Democratic nominee more than the Republican .... it isn't impossible for Bloomberg to get enough votes to win, but it is tough indeed .... the all-New York match up of Giuliani versus Clinton versus Bloomberg is particularly imponderable ...... presidential campaigns live by one simple rule: don't worry about things you can't control.
Reluctant Dems on Immigration Reform Immigration "is the most talked about issue in my district" ...... Nancy Pelosi is considering breaking up the Senate measure into smaller pieces of legislation, omitting one major component — the path to citizenship the senators propose to offer the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S. ....... Green card holders can apply for citizenship after five years. ..... many of the seats gained by the Democrats are in conservative areas ..... Pelosi told Bush in January that she will need at least 70 Republican votes to pass the measure.
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg changes party affiliation abc13.com, TX First, both party's nominees need to have unfavorable ratings at least in the 40s. Second, 70 percent of the nation needs to think the country is headed in the wrong direction, as is the case currently. We're there right now. Third, at least 60 percent of those polled need to have their minds open to a possible third-party bid. Lastly, 20 percent to 25 percent need to be open to the notion of President Mike Bloomberg. If those four criteria are met, Bloomberg will throw his hat into the ring. ...... "Americans are fed up with Washington. President Bush is near a record low in approval ratings. The Democratic Congress is near a record low in approval ratings. More Americans call themselves independent. He's seeing if he can create a movement out of this mood." ..... a possible Bloomberg/Schwarzenegger ticket -- as their mutual friend, billionaire investor Warren Buffet has urged ..... "A short, Jewish billionaire from New York?" Bloomberg said. "C'mon." ..... if Bloomberg runs, he doesn't want to make a point .. He wants to win.
Secret Service Dubs Presidential Candidate Barack Obama "Renegade" AHN Barack Obama is the "Renegade." .. Hillary Clinton has been dubbed "Evergreen," a name she's carried since Bill Clinton became the "Eagle" in 1993. .... Almost prophetically, John Kerry was named the "Minuteman." President Bush was named the "Tumbler," an allusion to his wild days, when his father, the "Timberwolf," first became president. ..... Al Gore's detail (who was known as the "Sawhorse" and eventually "Sundance"). ..... What started as a security measure when technology didn't permit the Secret Service to have ultra-secure communication lines has now carried on as a convenience and a tradition
Barack Obama Launches SMS Campaign Cellular-News
Sikh fundraiser for Clinton criticizes Obama memo
San Diego Union Tribune
Clinton Gets Better Reception on Iraq
New York Times
Clinton campaign says 'Sopranos' spoof drew 500000 to its website USA Today
'Hindu Al-Qaeda' training suicide bombers in Nepal Hindustan Times A band of former soldiers, ex-police personnel and victims of Maoist guerrillas have united in Nepal to form a Hindu army with suicide bombers to fight Islamic and Christian zealots as well as communists. ...... Parivartan .... nearly 1,200 trained soldiers who possess arms and have the expertise to manufacture explosives. ..... his group had no links with King Gyanendra. ..... We don't dabble in politics. Our sole aim is to form a Hindu state. .... I stopped plans to assassinate Maoist chief Prachanda and Maoist minister Dev Gurung. ..... The shadowy leader held Maoists as their main enemy. .... We have trained five suicide bombers who can go anywhere, including Singh Durbar

NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg leaves GOP China Daily, China
Nyc Mayor Michael Bloomberg Leaves Gop Guardian Unlimited, UK
New York Mayor Leaves GOP Forbes, NY
Bloomberg Presidential Buzz Grows ABC News
After months of 2008 speculation, New York mayor leaves GOP Newsday, NY
Poll: Bloomberg trails Clinton, Giuliani in New York state Newsday, NY
NYC Mayor Bloomberg leaves GOP BusinessWeek
Bloomberg exit from GOP hints at '08 run Baltimore Sun, United States
NY’S OTHER MAYOR FOR PRESIDENT? San Francisco Chronicle, USA
Bloomberg Severs GOP Ties, Fueling Talk of ’08 Bid New York Times, United States during a campaign-style swing through California, during which Mr. Bloomberg, 65, a billionaire businessman, used increasingly sharp language to criticize both parties in Washington as too timid to take on big problems and too locked into petty squabbling to work together. ...... real results are more important than partisan battles, and that good ideas should take precedence over rigid adherence to any particular political ideology ...... His very public flirtation has helped him, in his final term as mayor, avoid lame duck status and enhance his influence among city, state and federal lawmakers. It has also elevated his profile as an important voice in policy issues, and that stature could give him added heft if he pursues philanthropy full time after leaving City Hall, a path he has frequently mentioned as a possibility. ....... Bloomberg, who has called it flattering to be viewed as presidential material, clearly enjoyed the attention ...... the governor would challenge him to an arm wrestling contest to see which of them should run at the top, while he would consult the Constitution ....... We continue to struggle from big problem to big problem with Band-Aids and the bleeding continues ....... he has never proved to be a particularly personable campaigner, known for giving a stiff speech and given to impatience at the often numbing demands of retail campaigning.
NY's Bloomberg quits Republicans BBC News, UK
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg Leaves GOP Hartford Courant, United States
New York mayor Michael Bloomberg leaves Republican Party International Herald Tribune, France
NY Mayor Bloomberg becoming an independent Reuters Canada, Canada
Mayor Bloomberg bids farewell to the Republican Party Los Angeles Times, CA
Bloomberg tells GOP ‘goodbye’ Newsday, NY
Could Bloomberg's decision mean the time is right for an independent? Seattle Times, United States
NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg leaves GOP Boston Globe, United States
NY's Bloomberg leaves Republican Party Irish Times, Ireland
Bloomberg Abandons Republican Party CBS News, NY
NYC mayor changes party status to unaffiliated Toronto Star, Canada
Bloomberg No Longer A Republican Guardian Unlimited, UK
Nyc Mayor Michael Bloomberg Leaves Gop Guardian Unlimited, UK
NYC mayor leaves Republican Party, registers as independent Los Angeles Times, CA
Bloomberg Quits GOP, Sparking Speculation Hartford Courant, United States
New York mayor leaves Republican party, registers as independent Canada.com, Canada
NYC mayor leaves Republicans The Australian, Australia
Bloomberg Drops GOP, Fuels Talk of Presidential Bid NPR
NY Mayor Bloomberg leaves Republicans The Age, Australia
Third-party candidates long shot in US election ABC News the odds of winning are practically nil ..... success is elusive, even for people who can spend a billion dollars ..... He has crisscrossed the country, visiting 20 cities in the past 18 months .... Third-party candidate Ross Perot played a large role in the 1992 and 1996 elections, and Ralph Nader had an impact in 2000. ..... Some experts argue he would draw Republican votes, others say Democratic votes, still others think he could draw equally from each.
Bloomberg: 'Greatest job in the world Chicago Tribune “I was driving to some event and called 311 and I reported it,'' the mayor recalled today. (The woman on the phone said,) ‘We’d like to have your name…’ I said, ‘Fine, the name’s Michael Bloomberg.’ And she said, ‘How do you spell that?’’’ ..... Asked about polling showing he might not run so well nationally, Bloomberg said: "I think they're wasting their time -- I'm not a candidate.'' ..... Clinton has been a very good senator, and she deals at a very different level ..... founded the Bloomberg News Service ..... queries in 179 languages .... based on the simple concept of public service… Our customers are 8.3 million New Yorkers

Memo on HIllary Clinton 'stupid and caustic: Obama Deccan Herald Obama has blamed lower-level officials in his team for the document and described it as "stupid and caustic". .... "It wasn't anything I had seen or my senior staff had seen," he added. ..... "I thought it was stupid and caustic and not only didn't reflect my view of the complicated issue of outsourcing ... it also didn't reflect the fact that I have longstanding support and friendships within the Indian-American community," he said. .... With his efforts to raise money from the rich Indian American community on the line, Obama, in a posting on his website, said he was not aware of the contents of the memo before it was released and a new policy put in place would ensure that senior staff will review materials distributed. ..... the Clinton campaign as also Sant Chatwal, who was mentioned by name, have not commented on it.
Obama terms memo on Clinton as 'stupid and caustic' Hindu
Obama Apologizes for Document That Mocks Clinton on India New York Sun
Presidential Hopeful Barack Obama Calls India Memo Attacking ...
FOX News
Obama apologises for memo NDTV.com
Clinton takes 13-point lead on Obama
Vancouver Sun
In poll, Clinton widens her lead Boston Globe
Former President Clinton to campaign with wife in Iowa
Los Angeles Times
Bill Clinton Campaigns For Hillary In Iowa Atlantic Online

A win, not a landslide Economist Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) took 314 seats out of 577. ..... a dip from the 359 seats the UMP held in the outgoing parliament, and well below the 400-odd seats predicted by polling agencies after first-round voting a week previously. ...... The Socialists and their allies took 207 seats, a sizeable increase from their 149 seats in the outgoing parliament. ...... a desire by centrist voters for a more effective opposition to Mr Sarkozy ...... Ms Royal said that the French had elected a “real force of opposition”. She also announced her separation from Mr Hollande, who is father to her four children, on election night. ....... Sarkozy managed to turn himself into an emblem of change and renewal, and campaign against the record of his own political party ...... Yama Rade, a young black (female) politician from the right. ....... Four draft laws are already in preparation: one to tighten sentencing on repeat young offenders; a second to give universities more autonomy to recruit staff and students; a third to guarantee minimum service on public transport during strikes; and the fourth a tax-cutting package. ...... With a handsome parliamentary majority, Messrs Sarkozy and Fillon will now face only limited opposition in parliament. Opposition on the streets, however, could be another matter altogether.
After the showdown events have moved on with astonishing speed ...... a prosperous Fatah-run West Bank, where peace is a real hope, and a disintegrating, impoverished Gaza under Hamas ...... Nearly two thirds of the members of parliament are from Hamas, although more than half of those are in Israeli jails. ...... Hamas members always hated Mr Dahlan, who was Yasser Arafat’s security chief in Gaza in the 1990s. ..... Hamas is not entirely united.
Really New Advances beginning to dawn on biologists that they may have got it wrong. Not completely wrong, but wrong enough to be embarrassing ...... scnRNAs, snRNAs and snoRNAs. There are rasiRNAs, tasiRNAs and natsiRNAs. The piRNAs ..... a “pregnancy-induced non-coding RNA”, cutely termed PINC. ...... a group called the RNA Ontology Consortium has been promised half a million dollars to prune and tend the growing thicket of RNA-tailed acronyms. ....... Philosophers of science love this sort of thing. They refer to it as a paradigm shift. Living through such a shift is confusing for the scientists involved ...... C. elegans, a tiny worm that lacks a proper brain but is nevertheless widely studied by geneticists, has about 20,000 genes—only a little bit short of the number in a human ........ “hard-wired” simple organisms, which mostly stick to using RNA for fetching and carrying, and “soft-wired” complex ones that employ it in a management capacity ........ Small RNAs have been linked to many types of cancer, to genetic diseases of the central nervous system, and even to infections. ....... A hypothetical RNAi drug might, for instance, become the ultimate analgesic by affecting the activity of SCN9A, a gene recently pinpointed as the reason why a Pakistani street performer—who put knives through his arms and walked on burning coals—could not feel pain. The technology has also helped over-eating mice stay slim and live a fifth longer. That was done by choking an insulin-receptor gene in the animals' fat cells. This made the cells less inclined to store every calorie. The technique has even created edible cottonseed (for anyone who might want to try it) by eliminating cotton's gossypol toxin. Not least, it can claim to have produced allergy-friendly soya beans, by turning off the gene that encodes the protein that provokes the reaction. ....... RNAi drugs stop the production of disease-related proteins at source—they hold the tap turned off whereas most medicines try to mop up a continuous leak. ...... About 8% of the microRNAs that are expressed in the human brain were unique to it, much more than chance and the evolutionary distance between chimps and people would predict. ....... RNA sometimes carries genetic information down the generations independently of DNA ...... What is being proposed is the inheritance of characteristics acquired during an individual's lifetime, rather than as the result of chance mutations. This was first suggested by Jean Baptiste Lamarck
Pay as you grow Clinton years, when peace prevailed and a rising tide lifted all boats ...... When George Bush took office government outlays were 18.5% of GDP; by 2006 they were 20.3%. Most of the extra has been discretionary spending, with military costs up by a third. ...... more frugal fiscal policy, and a more balanced budget ...... his deficit-reduction plan. By cutting government demand for capital funds were freed for private investment, boosting productivity and expanding the economy, and tax revenue ...... America is awash with capital from foreign savers ...... Rising bond yields also hint that foreigners’ enthusiasm for American assets is waning ...... economic growth and inflation may erode the value of today’s debt .... unfunded liabilities of Medicare and Social Security, which will leave gaping structural deficits ....... By the latter part of this century Medicare alone is projected to cost 11% of GDP if left unchecked—over half of current federal tax collections. ...... Hillary Clinton’s proposal to concentrate spending on evidence-based medicine and preventative care.
Russia's booming economy Russian economic growth hit a six-year high of 7.9% year on year in the first quarter, propelled by strong growth in construction, manufacturing and trade. The result is particularly impressive in light of the small contribution made by oil and gas. ...... a 23.2% rise in construction, an 11.8% expansion in manufacturing and a 9.1% increase in trade ...... The 2006/07 Russian winter was the warmest since records began in 1879, according to Moscow’s weather service. This particularly benefited the construction sector.
Differing opinions Muslims in Britain were the most likely to identify themselves by religion rather than nationality. A massive 81% considered themselves Muslim first. This was higher than in Spain or America ........ in America, only 47%
Fear of flying prices much lower than a decade ago ...... Once only the rich flew; now everyone can. And with a bit of flexibility it is possible to buy a seat at the back of an aeroplane for only one-tenth of what someone else is paying to sit at the front ...... Terrorism shows no sign of easing. ..... the industry is a victim of its own success ..... In 2006 people took just over 2 billion journeys on scheduled airlines worldwide ...... By 2010 another 500m passengers are likely to join the fray ...... by then America's domestic market for air travel—at present the largest in the world, with around 750m passengers a year—will have been overtaken by both Asia's and Europe's. ....... growing prosperity. ..... in America ..... The industry is some $200 billion in debt. ....... a net margin of just 1.1% on combined revenues of $473 billion ..... A number of famous “flag carriers” have vanished, including PanAm, TWA, Sabena and even Swissair, once a byword for clockwork reliability. Successful airlines such as America's Southwest and new ones such as JetBlue have emerged. Dubai's Emirates is setting the pace in customer service. And Malaysia's AirAsia, the leading low-cost operator in that region, is about to usher in a new era of cheap long-haul services. ....... Too much of the air-travel business remains protected from genuine competition. That makes many airlines less fit than they should be, and more vulnerable when things get tough ....... once an aeroplane takes off, the empty seats lose all value ...... a long-held belief in the travel industry has been confirmed: passengers generally prefer an empty seat next to them ..... Airline reservation systems use “yield management” software to predict demand and extract the highest possible price for each seat, so fares go up if the plane looks like being fully booked. ..... America, champion of free markets and home of commercial aviation.
No lessons learned On June 23rd 1985 an Air India flight from Toronto was blown up by Sikh extremists off southern Ireland, killing all 329 people on board, many of them Canadian Hindus. ...... Militant Sikhs around the globe had vowed to avenge the Indian army's storming of the Golden Temple of Amritsar in pursuit of armed Sikh separatists in 1984. ...... the biggest obstacle to tighter security is not with the front-line (where police and intelligence services now co-operate well), but with the senior civil servants and politicians who have the power. “Like the Americans in Pearl Harbour, they know, intellectually, that terrorism is a threat, but they don't actually believe it” ...... 700,000 Canadians of Indian origin, already alarmed at signs of a Sikh extremist revival
Sex and money by 2025 women will control 60% of the nation's private wealth. They do better at school and in higher education, and they live longer. ...... the historical sources of women's wealth—marriage, inheritance and divorce—have been replaced by independent income, business ownership and investments. ..... More than 80% of women now derive their riches from personal earnings, it says, particularly from their own businesses. ...... the number of female senior managers in FTSE-350 firms had fallen by 40% since 2002. This may be due to a prevailing macho culture at the top; or it may reflect the costs of child care, which have risen by 27% in the same period. ..... men still dominate highly paid work, and the proportion of female graduates in low-level jobs has rocketed in the past decade ...... It will take another 60 years before there is equality between the sexes in British business (and 200 to achieve the same in Parliament) ..... Progress, it moans, is “painfully slow and at risk of going into reverse”. It's still hard to be a woman.
Another fine mess Last year Ford lost $12.6 billion, as sales in North America plunged by $11 billion. ..... its crippling pension and health-care liabilities. ..... Ford was badly positioned to cope with last year's rapid rise in oil prices. ..... Ford raised $18 billion in loans last year to see it through to 2009. ..... For Ford, Jaguar has been a glamorous money pit. Having splashed out $2.5 billion to buy Jaguar in 1989, an incredible figure to industry-watchers aware of the marque's precarious history and geriatric factories, Ford has been hosing it with cash ever since. ...... once again, frumpy “heritage” styling, apparently dictated by car clinics packed with elderly American owners, led to lacklustre sales. ...... Jaguar's history of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory ..... the way things are going, it may not be long before Ford has to find a buyer for itself.
Policing the undergoverned spaces Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Partnership ..... small teams of American special forces train the local soldiers of Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, and work with the armies of Algeria, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Tunisia, to control what they call the “undergoverned” spaces of the Sahara: vast swathes of desert where people have been in various states of rebellion for years and which more recently have been visited by radical Islamist clerics and new terrorist groups ...... they may be able to penetrate into the soft underbelly of Europe via Morocco and Algeria ..... a full-blown offensive against al-Qaeda in Somalia ..... A new American command for Africa, known as AFRICOM, will for the first time co-ordinate all the superpower's various military deployments on the continent under a unified command. ...... “a recognition of the increasing and growing importance of Africa”—mainly due to terrorists and oil ....... AQIM may have about 100-150 operatives, who could be “force multipliers”, meaning that they could train many more jihadists in the mobile training camps the Americans claim to have identified in northern Mali's deserts ...... AQIM may link up with murkier groups, such as the Black Taliban of northern Nigeria ...... In Africa, the superpower's struggle for hearts and minds may be easier than in the Middle East. Africans still think of America as a foe of colonialism. ..... And in African eyes the American dream has lately been given a new fillip by the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama, the American son of a Muslim from Kenya.
Here comes Fanchester United
Thriving yet threatened Three years later, unstructured on-air debates have become Afghanistan's talk radio. ..... Since its overthrow in 2001 more than 60 FM radio stations, hundreds of magazines and newspapers and eight independent television channels have been founded. Young Kabulis devour satellite television and the unrestricted internet. ...... Freedom of speech is enshrined in the constitution and the existing media law is the most liberal in the region. ...... But the lower house of parliament has just finished discussing a law that includes ill-defined bans on and, more vaguely still, on “discussion that would ridicule, offend or defame an individual”anything that has an impact on “the manners and psychology of people, especially children”. ...... A bill put forward by the upper house's National Reconciliation Commission suggests censoring “trite movies and those TV programmes that are contrary to Afghan beliefs...and harm the feelings of our people”. It proposes an increase in religious programming instead.
Jim Clark Silver sheriff's star and, as the final touch, a small white button pinned on a lapel or beside his tie, reading “Never”. Never to letting the niggers overcome him. ...... people “of low mental IQ”, who nonetheless claimed they should have the right to vote, and who hung around the steps of the Selma courthouse until they were summoned inside to read “constitutionality” or “institutionalisation” without stumbling, or to say how many bubbles there were in a bar of soap, until they were laughingly pushed out again ........ Clark and his men once made 165 teenage nuisances run out of town and go on running, mile after mile, prod after prod, until they threw up with exhaustion ....... “One of the first things I ever learned was not to hit a negro with your fist because his head is too hard.” ...... keeping blacks in their place and rebuffing the “dupes” and “communists” who sympathised with them. ........ 57 people injured, national revulsion and, five months later, the Voting Rights Act.
Argentina
A plane that thinks it's a boat ships are much more lightly regulated than aircraft. ...... It flies only over water and only two metres above that water. This means the air beneath its wings is compressed, giving it additional lift. ...... makes it far cheaper to run than a plane of equivalent size, while the fact that it is flying means it is far faster—at 80-100 knots—than a ship of any size ...... using modern, light composite materials for the airframes, and propellers rather than jets for propulsion. ..... South-East Asia, with its plethora of islands and high rate of economic growth, is just the sort of place where ground-effect vehicles should do well. ..... Hovercraft have almost disappeared.
Charlemagne the default formula for Brussels policy seminars: good coffee and croissants, dull speeches and a brief exchange of conventional wisdom. ..... Luring arguments into the open is hard, because Brussels is a place where the same folk must deal with each other for years, haggling their way towards policy deals. The public demolition of somebody else's ideas is rarely a way to win friends. ...... Swedish Socialists are more committed to free trade than are nominally centre-right politicians from southern Europe. When it comes to defending farm subsidies, you will struggle to find much difference between a French Socialist and a French conservative. ....... In Washington think-tanks thrive not by reacting to the usual political process, but by supplying it with “the next big idea”. In Brussels analysts are sometimes said to be too outspoken, Mr Norberg marvels. “In Washington, if you're not outspoken, people will not listen to you.”
Tech.view the recent improvement in plastic electronics for ink-jet printers has invigorated the whole of the e-paper business

In The News

The Street to Yahoo: Be Aggressive BusinessWeek analysts' more immediate, resounding message: Be aggressive. Be very aggressive. ..... In recent years, some of Yahoo's biggest failings have stemmed from an overly cautious stance on acquisitions and an inability, or unwillingness, to pounce on new trends. ...... "Yahoo's strategy strikes me as too reactionary. It seems like they are in the 'me too' camp" ...... Yang will have to encourage the company to recognize and incorporate interesting technological innovations faster. .... moving more swiftly on acquisitions. Instead of wasting energy building homegrown versions of popular Web sites ...... the 13-year-old company now risks being viewed as woefully Web 1.0. ...... Google is seen as an innovation powerhouse that announces a new test of some new feature on an almost weekly basis. ..... retention and innovation issues .... he's widely seen as a leading tech thinker
Google Takes YouTube Global Esmée Denter, an unknown Dutch singer who parlayed her rise to fame on YouTube into a recent deal with Justin Timberlake's new record label .... Denter, who before winning her record deal. ...... uploaded more than 50 video clips of herself and amassed over 21 million viewsYouTube already gets more than half its traffic from outside the U.S. Now, with its nine new global sites, which feature local-language interfaces and lists of the most popular videos in each country ....... "If we had the resources, we would be launching in 140 countries." ...... advertising-supported programming. "These deals will get more and more commercial as time goes on ....... the goal is to put YouTube on every screen ....... The rise of user-generated video sites already has pushed some traditional content owners off the list of the world's top 20 Web sites ..... German youth ages 14 to 19 would be willing to substitute up to a quarter of their current TV viewing with amateur videos if the clips were easily accessible on TV. ..... Google is still trying to figure out how to make money from YouTube, whose popularity far outstrips its revenue generation. ...... advertising of all kinds on video-sharing networks will amount to just $337 million worldwide this year—a small fraction of the $37.8 billion TV advertising business in the U.S. alone ...... 2011 ... $1.6 billion. ..... Paris-based Dailymotion, a two-year-old video-sharing site that has raised $9.6 million in venture capital and registered 1.3 billion page views in May ...... tagging and titling videos in non-Latin alphabets such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, and Greek. ...... MyVideo.de a German video-sharing Web site that models itself after YouTube ..... a way for consumers to lift clips from TV shows and mix them with their own material to produce new videos ..... "crowd-generated" content ..... 80% of the British online population 15 and older watched video on the Internet in April
Yahoo! After Semel
Yahoo! Turns to Yang shareholders very publicly laid the problems squarely at the feet of Semel, slamming his strategy, execution, and $72 million pay package last year. ...... veteran executive Susan Decker as president ...... Semel, who will remain nonexecutive chairman ..... a market value of $38 billion .... a steady stream of executive and engineering departures for more than a year ...... execute with speed, clarity, and discipline .... in recent weeks .. discussions of Semel's future intensified ...... the company became more bureaucratic under Semel, slowing innovation ...... Semel also represented a different mind-set and culture from Yahoo's Silicon Valley roots. His Hollywood style and focus never meshed there .... Semel also didn't develop a deep enough understanding of technology. "He was a fish out of water ..... "Jerry's got a uniquely honed intuition about the industry," says a former executive. "But does he have the skill set and the guts?" Decker, this person says, is smart and disciplined, but untrained in technology, marketing, or sales. "Together, they might be O.K. But they're exercising these muscles for the first time."
India's Got a Job for You fast-growing Indian companies eye Westerners for senior positions .... there are now around 1,000 foreigners holding senior positions in India, compared to 143 in 2005. By 2009, the number is expected to double. ..... Indian companies, many of which are making huge investments at home and abroad, are increasingly competing on a global scale and want the best person for the job ...... shortages of qualified managers in key areas such as infrastructure, aviation, retail, and life sciences. "India has good talent, but it's not deep enough for some of the new sectors" ..... New recruits don't come cheap. Most expect Western-sized salaries and perks ..... foreign salaries range from $300,000 to $600,000 .... Contracts are typically for three to five years. .... Yet with India booming the disparities appear to engender relatively little unease among locally hired colleagues. ...... Bureaucracy, slow decision making, and cultural differences remain major headaches. ..... U.S. native Rudy Vercelli, 47, chief operating officer of Mumbai International Airport, is often mistaken for a tourist at the airport he is helping modernize. He also has to contend with the 80,000 squatters that occupy 60% of the airport's land. ..... "I will stay in India until they kick me out. My family looks upon every move as an adventure"
Dell Raises Its Stake in India
The Murdoch Who Could Be King the senior Murdoch, a vigorous 76, shows few signs of relinquishing control. .... and then producing an Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire .... Murdochian tactics—blocking rival .... intense .... Even as a kid, he exhibited dad's competitive hunger: He would switch places at dinner to be served first. And he shares Rupert's laissez-faire politics. .... James, who had his own MySpace page.
Russian Bloggers: Working the Net Media professionals often describe democracy in modern Russia as "electronic" and "hypothetical," with the free exchange of opinion now restricted to the Internet, the last remaining censorship-free refuge in the country. Now they warn that even this last resort is under threat. ...... if convicted for using such language as "the cops and scum are the same thing" and suggesting that the "infidel police officers be burnt alive." ..... blogs are trusted more than propaganda and advertisements around the globe ...... ordered to pay 24,000 rubles in damages for "insulting the president .... number of Internet users in Russia ... 28 million today ..... 2 million Russian blogs already exist online, and this year 260 new blogs are being added every hour – 6,000 every day – compared to 100 per hour in the autumn of 2006. ...... 52 people are currently in jail in China for posting critical comments against the authorities on the Internet.
Uzbek Journalists: Lonely and Getting Lonelier Few independent journalists still work in Uzbekistan, one of the most repressive places to be a reporter. .... The committee also ranks the country as the world’s sixth-leading jailer of journalists, behind China, Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Burma, with five currently behind bars. ..... with the state media branding as terrorists and traitors independent journalists who had reported on the massacre
Croatia: Dual Citizenship Dilemma most members of Bosnia’s smallest ethnic group hold dual citizenship is an important element here. Croatia is far more attractive economically and socially, especially to the young and educated.
"Can Daily Motion Challenge YouTube?" 9,000 new videos pouring in each day and daily page views surpassing the 16 million mark .... Daily Motion (www.dailymotion.com) actually was online before YouTube ...... enabling uploads to the site directly from Webcams (something YouTube hasn't done yet) ......the company has raised just under $9 million in venture capital ... Germany's MyVideo or Israel's Metacafe, which has raised $20 million from Benchmark Capital and Accel Partners .... "There's more than one way to succeed [with Web 2.0 sites]" ..... "It's a mistake to say that if you're not as big as YouTube you haven't got a business."
"Babelgum's Big Bet on Internet TV" the transition from network to networked television. ..... isn't just going to try to replicate traditional television on the Internet .... niche fare, including independent and short films ..... tens of thousands of very good content providers in the world that don't distribute their content through TV .... allow professional independent producers to automatically upload their videos .. will be paid $5 per 1,000 views and a share of advertising revenues, once Babelgum starts attracting advertising ...... Joost recently hired Mike Volpi as its new chief executive officer; Volpi had been tagged as an heir apparent at Cisco Systems ..... extend into free, ad-supported programming ...... more than 100,000 users have published audio and video clips. ...... Apple ... launch an online film rental service .... It is not the company that gets out of the gate first, but the one that gets it right that will win in the end .... all of whom earned their fame and fortune in broadband, are simultaneously branching out into Internet TV ..... the price of servers that can store videos has dropped dramatically ...... a perfect storm that will transform television as we know it. ..... TV is just video—anytime, anywhere, using the Internet ...... "The fundamental limitations of traditional broadcast technologies simply won't be able to compete and everything will be done over Internet Protocol." ...... "audience companies" ..... U.S. television networks are themselves streaming advertising-supported, full-length episodes of their prime-time shows online .... original Web content—whether it's news, sports or entertainment—is starting to show real traction with audiences, producers, and advertisers ..... soon every TV show and movie will be available on demand somewhere on the Web ..... a new generation of products that marry the TV and the PC. .... over the next decade bandwidth will increase tenfold and compression will at least double while delivering higher quality ..... When it comes to shows about hunting, fishing, sailing, or cooking, he says, it makes more sense to watch them in an online, on-demand environment and to share opinions and advice with other viewers.
Criminal Probe Snares Morgan Stanley VP
a complex kickback scheme involving the lending of stock to hedge funds and other short-sellers ... But to keep the referrals coming, the middlemen would split their fees with the employees of the Wall Street firms who had hired them. ..... Morgan Stanley vice-president, Peter Sherlock, a 13-year veteran, resigned on June 18 .... Securities lending is a large, but little-understood business for Wall Street. Investment banks rake in roughly $10 billion a year on the fees they collect for lending stocks and bonds to short-sellers, hedge funds, and other professional traders who bet on falling prices. ...... the alleged kickback scheme drove up the borrowing costs for hedge funds and may have cost the funds millions of dollars in additional fees.
The Decline of the Dollar's Global Reign
Indian Aviation's Ambitious Flight Plan
Dell Raises Its Stake in India The company has invested just $30 million in the Chennai plant and only has plans to employ about 400 workers to make desktop computers. .... "India is Dell's largest-growing country in the world" ..... Sales amount to $500 million now .... In 2006, there were over 22 million computers in use in India, compared with just 9.5 million in 2003. That's only one for every 50 Indians. ..... China has quickly grown to become the world's second-largest PC market, after only the U.S., and it's likely to become No. 1 in the next few years. ..... the market in China is slowing down just as India is accelerating .... India's computer sales will grow at a rate higher than 20%. And it won't be a one-year rise. Growth that fast will continue "to at least 2011 ...... India where credit card usage is low and people are not accustomed to buying directly over the Internet.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

just a brief clarification, Arthur Leopold has done a great job of getting his name out there, but the fund-raiser is actually being organized by a big group of people with Generation Barack Obama.

Paul Mitchell said...

One problem with Arnold being a Vice-Presidential candidate, he is not eligible because he is not a natural born citizen. It can't happen.