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Taunting Prospects
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 10/9/2008 1:24:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, Barack Obama,
John McCain, Featured Stories, Sarah
Palin As Tommy Christopher has been
chronicling this week, a trend has emerged
on the campaign trail. Specifically, it has
been in evidence most frequently -- but not
exclusively -- at the rallies of Sarah Palin
and John McCain. The pattern springs
forth in the form of a taunt, usually
shouted and received with cheers or a sly
wink. In the past week alone,
McCain/Palin supporters have released
their pent-up anger at Barack Obama with
cries of " terrorist!" " treason!" " kill him!"
and " off with his head!" -- among others.
Truly, the basest of instincts seems to
have been unleashed (like a pack of pit
bulls) at these events. The question before
us is whether McCain himself bears any
responsibility for the uptick in the
impassioned outbursts. If he does not, as
some will argue, then they can be put
down to the excitement of the pep rally.
Words are not deeds, after all. And, let's
face it, we can all get a little carried away
when it comes to politics.
On the other hand, some might counter
that the timing of this sudden flurry of
verbal assaults is no coincidence. Indeed, it
comes at the very moment when the
McCain's campaign itself promised more
negativity. This view holds that McCain
and Palin are playing more of a call-and-
response game with their audience.
Whatever the cause, this issue is now
New PSA: Mary Hart with both Obama and McCain
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 12:55:00 PM
front and center in the campaign. There's
no doubt that hotter rhetoric excites the
partisan base. In fact, the hotter it is, the
more excited they get. Such taunts
infuriate and worry the opposition, and
they positively disgust independent voters.
Still, the controversy remains. Do we have
a simple case of lax crowd control? Or is
the pattern reflective of a mob following
marching orders?
ABC News weighs in today with, " Is
Negative Rhetoric a License to Taunt?":
As the rhetoric at Palin rallies has
ratcheted up, so too has the language of
supporters in the crowds coming to see her.
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank
described a recent Palin rally in Florida:
Palin's routine attacks on the media have
begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater,
arriving reporters were greeted with shouts
and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000.
Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric's
questions for her "less-than-successful
interview with kinda mainstream media."
At that, Palin supporters turned on
reporters in the press area, waving their
thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others
hurled obscenities at a cameraa crew. One
Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at
an African American sound man for a
network and told him to "Sit down, boy."
The LA Times contemplates which anger
came first, the crowd's or McCain's, in
with " McCain campaign ratchets up the
rhetoric":
Egged on by a surly crowd, John McCain
and Sarah Palin delivered a stark
condemnation of Barack Obama's policies
and character Wednesday, casting him as
ET's own Mary Hart is teaming up with
Democratic presidential nominee Barack
Obama and Republican presidential
02/10/08 - 09/10/08
an unreliable choice for president.
The edgy tone of the rally here [in
Bethlehem, PA.] was set before the duo
arrived onstage, when local Republican
official William Platt warmed up the
audience by twice referring to the
Democratic nominee as "Barack Hussein
Obama."
On "The Early Show" yesterday, Joe
Biden called the McCain campaign's
repeated invocation of William Ayers,
"mildly dangerous."
nominee John McCain in a brand-new
voting PSA! Watch the video above, and
take Mary, Barack and John's advice -- get
LibertyNewsprint.com U.S.
Some see a direct correlation between
flagging poll numbers and the surge of
negativity, such as Salon's Alex
Koppleman:
As it's become increasingly clear that the
McCain campaign is in serious trouble,
they've been shifting from the issues and
trying to stoke voters' fears and prejudices
about Barack Obama. This turn toward the
negative has been ugly, but the invective
the attacks are whipping up among the
faithful at Republican rallies is far uglier.
out and vote in the U.S. presidential
election on November 4!
Patrick Ruffini, on the other hand, thinks
that McCain's only real mistake in all of
this was not going this negative earlier:
The Ayers stuff will be useful in
solidifying the base and getting Obama's
unfavorables to 40. But it's not a game
changer. A casualty of McCain's months-
long delay in going on offense is that he's
had to debut his harshest material in
October rather than road-testing it over the
summer. In this sense, throwing the
kitchen sink now looks desperate and
reactive, even thought it was probably
inevitable. Still, it would have been far
better had McCain given his campaign
license to launch these attacks at a time
and place of its choosing, rather than
having events force his hand.
Cindy McCain has also gotten into the
act of warming up the crowd, and recently
called Obama's effort, " the dirtiest
campaign in American history."
So, we'd like to hear what you think.
Clearly, no politician can control what his
or her supporters blurt out during a
campaign rally. But should John McCain
stop and acknowledge these instances in an
attempt to restore civility? Or is he, in part,
the main instigator in their proliferation
this month?
Here's some footage taken recently at a
Sarah Palin campaign rally:
And more from yesterday's McCain rally
in Pennsylvania. No, these are not isolated
incidents:
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2 Politico* Movies* Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper

The Affirmative Case: Dave for McCain Obama: 'McCain Won't

By Dave (Political Machine) even though everyone told him that he was
Submitted at 10/9/2008 1:12:00 AM Say it to My Face'
Filed under: Endorsements, John McCain,
likely giving up his chance for the
Republican nomination and the presidency.
They were wrong and McCain was right. By Tommy Christopher (Political
Featured Stories, 2008 President Because McCain knew what apparently Machine)
This is in response to an interesting very few in the intelligentsia know: You
assignment from our blog overlords. don't bet against the American military. Submitted at 10/9/2008 8:56:00 AM

Instead of concentrating on all the
problems of the other guy, why are we
voting FOR our candidate of preference?
For this article, choosing the area to focus
on for John McCain is easy. In terms of
foreign policy experience he is exactly the
kind of president we need. But it's not just
his experience that distinguishes him, it's
several character qualities that he has
exhibited over the past few years during
our battle with the forces of terror.
Unlike many politicians, John McCain is
not afraid to speak up when he feels
something isn't correct. He was one of
those who definitely spoke up and
criticized the Bush administration over
their handling of the insurgency in Iraq. He
had seen this before, in Vietnam, closely,
and he knew instinctively that a change in
tactics was needed. So he joined with
Norman Schwarzkopf and blasted
Rumsfeld, declaring he had "no
confidence" in Rumsfeld's tactics in Iraq.
Unlike most members of the opposition
party, McCain was able to separate tactics
from strategy. The failure of Bush and
Rumsfeld did not necessarily mean we
PUMA Attacks!
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 10/9/2008 1:00:00 AM
Filed under: Barack Obama, John
McCain, 2008 President, Sarah Palin
Filmmaker Brad Mays, director of the
upcoming documentary "The Audacity of
Democracy," has posted more footage
online, this time of a confrontation at
PUMAPAC headquarters in Denver. This
is the clip that PUMAPAC is using on its
website to pimp pre-orders of the film.
For the uninitiated, PUMAPAC is the
political wing of PUMA, an umbrella
group comprised of former Hillary Clinton
wave the white flag and go home. It meant
that we change our tactics to something
that would work. McCain's efforts in this
area would eventually enable Gen. David
Petraeus to assume command and shape
the tactics and strategy of the surge that
has been so successful over the last year
and a half.
When the Bush administration did finally
give Petraeus the resources for the surge,
McCain stuck by his word and supported it
supporters who now support the election of
John McCain. I've done a lot of reporting
on PUMA, both here and at
YestoDemocracy.com.
In this video, I go to PUMAPAC
headquarters for a prearranged interview
with Brad and PUMAPAC founder
Darragh Murphy. Of course, in what
Darragh Murphy calls a piece of "pure
comedy gold," she agreed to the interview
knowing full well that her flight out of
Denver would have her far away from
answering any questions about her smears
and questionable Democratic bona fides.
Of course, when I go to the place to
which they invited me, they try to throw
McCain is also able to see the big picture
and recognize that Iraq had become a
battleground, a last stand, and a proxy war
for al Qaeda. Losing there would have
emboldened our enemies and doubtless led
to more attacks abroad and even here in
America. Winning in Iraq would show the
Arab world that the USA stands by our
word and that a functioning democracy
with civil liberties and rights is worth
fighting for. And functioning democracies
that don't threaten and attack their
neighbors are the real key to peace in the
Middle East. That is the big picture that
McCain understands, that Iraq is just a
small part in what will likely be a decades-
long slog to eradicate terrorism.
That's not a very happy thought, but it is
the world we live in. A president who is
both aware of that fact and is willing to do
what is necessary to protect our nation,
even at great personal sacrifice, is exactly
the kind of leader I'm looking for in this
election.
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me out. Brad started rolling a few minutes
after I got there, and of course, missed the
best part.
Brad will be our guest on Unusable
Signal tonight, where we will discuss the
film, PUMA, and the goings-on in Denver.
Warning: Explicit Language(in the video
and on tonight's show)
Tommy Christopher co-hosts " Unusable
Signal",on BlogTalkRadio, Tues through
Thurs at 10pm, and Fri, and Sat at 11pm.
(Eastern) Click here for the Unusable
Signal homepage.
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Filed under: Democrats, Barack Obama,
John McCain, 2008 President In an
interview with ABC's Charlie Gibson,
Barack Obama was asked about the
increasingly nasty attacks on him by the
McCain campaign. ( Transcript) Obama: In
what aspect, Charlie? Just kidding. The
Democratic nominee went at the question
head-on, and pointed out that the
seemingly shameless McCain has, indeed,
shown some: Obama: Why don't we just
clear it up right now? I'll repeat again what
I've said many times. This is a guy who
engaged in some despicable acts 40 years
ago when I was eight years old. By the
time I met him, 10 or 15 years ago, he was
a college professor of education at the
University of Illinois . . . And the notion
that somehow he has been involved in my
campaign, that he is an adviser of mine,
that . . . I've 'palled around with a terrorist',
all these statements are made simply to try
to score cheap political points...
I am surprised that, you know, we've
been seeing some pretty over-the-top
attacks coming out of the McCain
campaign over the last several days, that he
wasn't willing to say it to my face. But I
guess we've got one last debate. So
presumably, if he ends up feeling that he
needs to, he will raise it during the debate.
Obama showed, during the debate, that he
has earned his reputation as a cool
customer. It will be interesting to see how
he reacts if McCain does raise the attacks
at the next debate. As Mo Rocca observed,
people may expect more of a fight out of
Courteney Cox on Botox: 'I hated it'
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 1:45:00 PM
Courteney Cox admits to hating a Botox
treatment! "I went to this doctor once and
he was like, 'Oh, let me do it just here and
here and here.' And I was miserable."
The 44-year-old actress tells Marie
Claire that she has a love-hate relationship
with the procedure. "Botox? I think it's
Obama.
I can't see Obama escalating a
confrontation like that. I can see him
calmly rebutting McCain in a way that
amplifies the contrast in the temperaments
of the two men. Aside from everything else
in this campaign, Obama's coolness has
emerged as a major factor in earning
voters' trust.
McCain, by contrast, has seen his
campaign grow desperate, throwing
punches wildly at Obama like a toddler
having a tantrum. It may make for good
political theater, and whip the base into a
froth, but it's cold comfort for struggling
Americans deciding with whom to entrust
their fates.
Here's the video. Tommy Christopher co-
hosts " Unusable Signal" , on
BlogTalkRadio Tues Wed & Thur at
10pm, and Fri, & Sat at 11pm. Click here
for the Unusable Signal homepage.
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fantastic and also horrible." She explains,
"I mean, I'm an actor, I've got to be able to
move my face. When people start messing
with their foreheads and can't lift their
eyebrow, that's weird. It's not that I haven't
tried Botox- but I hated it."
She continues, "I mean, they've come up
with this stuff that can make you not look
angry. But you have to use it sparingly."
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
McCain's Mortgage Bait-and-Switch
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 10/9/2008 3:02:00 AM
There was a moment during Tuesday's
debate that felt a lot like that episode of
Oprah, where she suddenly blurte d out,
"Everybody gets a car!"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, John McCain
pulled a fantastic giveaway out of some
hidden orifice, a plan to buy up bad
mortgages. He triumphantly announced
that it was "my proposal, it's not Sen.
Obama's proposal, it's not President Bush's
proposal." As president of the United
States, Alan, I would order the secretary of
the treasury to immediately buy up the bad
home loan mortgages in America and
renegotiate at the new value of those
homes -- at the diminished value of those
homes and let people be able to make those
-- be able to make those payments and stay
in their homes. Check and...(sound of
needle scratching record)
As soon as he said it, I smelled a rat.
Every good idea McCain has contains a
magical "bad idea" seed that results in a
beanstalk of horror. This one is no
exception.
Politico reports that McCain's proposal,
which originally called for the US
Government to buy the mortgages at a
discounted rate commensurate with
Pollster: Prez Race Can Still Break Either Way
By Christopher Weber (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 10/9/2008 5:53:00 AM
Filed under: Barack Obama, John
McCain, Breaking News, 2008 President,
Polls Tempting fate, DailyKos and other
bloggers leaning left have suggested
Obama might win big on November 4. The
word "landslide" has been bandied about.
Of course, this isn't just wild-eyed
optimism. Many polls show Obama with a
growing lead. In survey after survey, on
both the national and state levels, Obama is
the one with the momentum.
But one pollster ain't buying it. John
New on DVD and Blu-Ray: October 7
(ETonline - Breaking News)
updated home values, has been tweaked
slightly: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made
an overnight change in the homeowner
bailout he proposed at Tuesday's
presidential debate, making it more
generous to financial institutions and more
costly for taxpayers.
The document posted and e-mailed by
Zogby insists this race is still too close to
call. "I don't think Obama has closed the
deal yet," he told the Boston Herald.
Zogby's latest poll has Obama leading
McCain 48-45 percent. The margin of
error is about three percent, making it a
statistical dead heat. Zogby says he's seen
these kinds of numbers before:
Zogby said the race mirrors the 1980
election, when voters didn't embrace
Ronald Reagan over then-President Jimmy
Carter until just days before the election.
"The Sunday before the election the dam
burst," Zogby said of the 1980 tilt. "That's
when voters determined they were
comfortable with Reagan."
the McCain campaign on Tuesday night
says at the end of its first full paragraph:
"Lenders in these cases must recognize the
loss that they've already suffered."
So the government would buy the
mortgages at a discounted rate, reflecting
the declining value of the mortgage paper.
But when McCain reissued the document
on Wednesday, that sentence was missing,
to the dismay of many conservatives.
There's no reason mortgage companies
should be paid face value for these
mortgages. Even selling them at a loss,
they're better off than if they hold on to
bad paper. Why can't the government
negotiate to buy these loans at what the
market will bear?
The McCain campaign called the original
language a "simple mistake."
Not so fast. The original document hews
closely to what McCain said onstage at the
debate. It seems more like the "simple
mistake" is taking McCain's word at face
value. And unless we want to take all of
those mortgages at face value, we shouldn't
make the simple mistake of voting for
McCain. Tommy Christopher co-hosts "
Unusable Signal" , on BlogTalkRadio Tues
& Thur at 9pm, and Wed, Fri, & Sat at
11pm. Click here for the Unusable Signal
homepage.
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Zogby says believe it or not there is still
a significant group of people -- holding
down what he calls "the big middle" --
Politico* Tech* Movies*
'Ayers' - New McCain Spot
By Greg McNeilly (Political Machine)
Submitted at 10/9/2008 1:17:00 AM
Filed under: Ads, John McCain, 2008
President John McCain's campaign has a
new 1:40 minute web video titled "Ayers,"
out today. It's unclear if a :30 or :60 second
TV version of the ad connecting Barack
Obama to bomb-making Bill Ayers will
make circulation or not.
Obama is just too risky?
If the Bill Ayers mantra becomes a
compelling narrative, it has the potential to
be a winning message.
Like most political cover-ups, trying to
hide a connection makes the original
association even more damaging. While it
might not be fatal, this was certainly a
misstep by Obama's machine.
The spot's script reads:
Barack Obama and domestic terrorist
Bill Ayers. Friends.
They've worked together for years. But
Obama tries to hide it. Why?
Obama launched his political career in
Ayers' living room.
Ayers and Obama ran a radical
"education" foundation, together.
They wrote the foundation's by-laws,
together.
Obama was the foundation's first
who remain undecided. These are voters
who might not make up their minds until
they walk into the booth on Election Day
and they are the monkeywrench in the
mechanism of electoral polling.
Still, as a rule Obama has the edge
among independent voters. He leads
McCain among independents, 48 percent
to 39 percent, according to the poll.
Obama also has support from a slightly
higher percent of conservative voters than
McCain gets from liberal voters, but the
advantage is small, according to the poll.
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3
chairman.
Reports say they, "distributed more than
$100 million to ideological allies with no
discernible improvement in education."
When their relationship became an issue,
Obama just responded, "This is a guy who
lives in my neighborhood."
That's it?
We know Bill Ayers ran the "violent left
wing activist group" called Weather
Underground.
We know Ayers' wife was on the FBI's
10 Most Wanted list.
We know they bombed the Capitol. The
Pentagon. A judge's home.
We know Ayers said, "I don't regret
setting bombs. .... I feel we didn't do
enough."
But Obama's friendship with terrorist
Ayers isn't the issue.
The issue is Barack Obama's judgment
and candor.
When Obama just says, "This is a guy
who lives in my neighborhood."
Americans say, "Where's the truth,
Barack?"
Barack Obama. Too risky for America.
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Can A Moron In A Hurry
Tell The Difference
Between A Nude Model
And A Car?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 11:47:00 AM
An anonymous reader sends in word of
yet another highly questionable trademark
infringement lawsuit, as Toyota, makers of
Lexus vehicles has filed a lawsuit against a
nude model, who goes by the name Alexus
Winston(link is probably NSFW,
depending on your work environment). As
the folks at Fleshbot note: "Lexus is a line
of luxury automobiles put out by Toyota.
Alexus Winston is a naked model."
Anyone want to volunteer to be the moron
in a hurry to prove that it's rather easy to
tell the difference between the two?
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4 Politico* Movies*
McCain, Here Comes the
Fork: 11 Points
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:42:00 PM
Filed under: Republicans, John McCain,
2008 President, Polls You heard it here
first: McCain is done.
Barack Obama has taken an 11 point lead
in Gallup's Daily Tracking Poll, 52% to
41%, Obama's heftiest support yet in the
poll. From my pre-debate analysis: With
Obama's lead growing steadily, McCain
could find himself on the wrong end of a
high double-digit deficit by week's end,
frenetically dodging the insertion of the
proverbial fork. This poll's results include
surveys taken through yesterday, before
the debate, but McCain didn't score the
knockout he needed, and by most accounts
lost the debate. The Ayers/Wright Shark
Jump has failed. In the days since Sarah
Palin started the yellow campaign,
Obama's poll numbers have surged. The
McCain campaign has seen its crowds get
uglier, and the warmup acts at their rallies
feed into it.
Obama, meanwhile, has remained the
picture of cool, turning in a steady debate
performance and focusing on the issues.
The bloom is off the rose with Sarah
Palin now, and voters haven't even heard
the worst about her. Without the shine of a
new candidacy, all that's left are Palin's
nasty attacks and lack of qualifications.
John McCain is in serious trouble here.
With Obama polling at 52%, McCain can't
win by picking up undecideds anymore,
he's got to pick up all of them, and then
some of Obama's, too. Once the debate is
factored in, look for the gap to widen, and
McCain to get more desperate.
Tommy Christopher co-hosts " Unusable
Signal",on BlogTalkRadio, Tues through
Thurs at 10pm, and Fri, and Sat at 11pm.
(Eastern) Click here for the Unusable
Signal homepage.
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The Affirmative Case
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 10/9/2008 1:08:00 AM
Filed under: Endorsements, Barack
Obama, John McCain, Featured Stories
Today we begin a new series at Political
Machine. Titled, The Affirmative Case,
our bloggers will put forth the positive
reasons that he or she will be supporting
John McCain or Barack Obama as the next
president of the United States.
Though it goes against basic blogging
Hugh Hefner on His Breakup: 'I Was Road Kill'
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:23:00 PM
Playboy's main man talks candidly.
Hugh Hefner is opening up about his
emotional breakup with main girlfriend
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
instincts, each writer's endorsement will
stubbornly refrain from any and all attacks
on the opposing candidate. Our hope is that
you, the readers, will engage these posts in
a similar spirit, refraining, if but for a brief
time, from the impulse to view the race in
negative terms.
First up is Dave, who weighs in with his
thumbs-up of John McCain.
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Holly Madison.
"I had planned to spend the rest of my life
with Holly," the Playboy mogul told Us
magazine, explaining that after their falling
out, "I was road kill a couple of weeks
ago."
A Palin Pumpkin or
Barack-O-Lantern?
By Mo Rocca (Political Machine)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:15:00 PM
The response to my post on Sarah Palin's
mysterious orangeness (read it here) was
overwhelming. Thanks to everyone who
chimed in and voted.
It only made sense to contact my cousin
Chrissy Lewin. Why Chrissy? It just so
happens she runs the non-partisan
Candidate Pumpkin Project out of
Middletown, Connecticut. She instantly
sent me images of the two major party
candidates, Sarah Palin and Barack
Obama, carved out of pumpkins. (To be
fair, many readers feel that Palin is more
creamsicle than pumpkin-colored.)
Check them out and tell us what you
think! Who makes a better pumpkin?!
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Hef, 82, admits that he and Holly, 28,
were unable to have kids, and that played a
role in the split: "We tried to have a baby
earlier this year and it didn't work out," he
said. "She became very depressed."
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Get ready for the BlackBerry Storm 3G
By Michael Fowlkes
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:30:00 AM
Filed under: International markets,
Launches, Consumer experience,
Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL),
AT and T (T), Research in Motion
(RIMM), Verizon Communications (VZ)
Research in Motion Limited
(USA)(NASDAQ: RIMM) announced
today the launch of a new touch screen
BlackBerry, which will go under the name
of the Storm 3G.
The move comes as the company tries to
make another big step in gaining market
share in the consumer segment. For most
of the BlackBerry's existence, the phone
has been regarded as mainly a device for
professionals, but RIMM has been trying
to break that reputation, and is banking on
the fact that its newest touch screen will
help move the company in that direction.
All of the major mobile phone makers
have been scrambling to keep up with the
mania that Apple, Inc.(NASDAQ: AAPL)
created last year when it released its
Pending home sales rise in August
By Michael Fowlkes
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 10:30:00 AM
Filed under: Forecasts, Good news,
Consumer experience, Housing, Recession,
Financial Crisis With all the negative news
that we have seen lately, it's nice to hear
one piece of positive news regarding the
housing market. We got that today on news
that pending home sales rose unexpectedly
in August.
The National Association of Realtors
tracks home sales in its index, and reported
today that its pending home sales index
rose from 87 in July up to 93.7 in August.
Going into today's report, analysts had
been expecting to see the index actual fall,
and were thinking that we would see the
number drop down to 86 in the month, so
the increase was definitely a bit of good
news in an otherwise rocky market.
The areas of the country that saw the best
blah
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 3:19:00 PM
iPhone, and then again this year when that
mania spiked once more with the release of
the upgraded iPhone 3G.
The new BlackBerry will have a
"clickable" touch screen that will respond
like a regular keyboard, and recognize both
single and multi-touch gestures to make it
easy to move around its applications.
As an owner of the iPhone 3G, I have
seen many eyes widen when people play
around with my phone. My sister has a
BlackBerry, and despite loving her
BlackBerry definitely expressed interest in
switching over the iPhone, only to be
dissuaded by the fact she would have to
leave her Verizon network. This is the
exact type of user that RIMM is hoping to
keep by introducing this new touch phone,
as well as attracting new users by offering
a similar device to the iPhone, but allowing
users to avoid the AT&T, Inc.(NYSE: T)
network.
How well and easy the Storm will be to
use remains to be seen. We will not know
exactly how well the phone will be able to
compete against the iPhone until the
devices start to become available, but there
jump in July were the same ones that have
been beaten up the most over the past year,
including California, Nevada, Florida, and
Arizona.
While this is some good news for the
market, we shouldn't read too much into
the August numbers. What is on most of
our minds these days is the declines we
have seen in home prices so far this year.
We should not expect today's news to
mean that home prices are going to start to
move higher any time soon.
The National Association of Realtors'
chief economist, Lawrence Yun, stated that
he does not think that prices are going to
rebound during the latter part of 2008, and
that it will not be until 2009 that prices will
start to move higher, and even then we
should not expect to see too much in the
terms of price gains. Yun believes that
2009 will see home prices rise by about 2
to 3%.
The battered housing market has been a
are already a few features that we know the
phone will posses that the iPhone 3G lacks.
These include (but are probably not limited
to) cut-and-paste, Microsoft Office
document editing, stereo Bluetooth support
and a removable battery.
The Storm is going to be running on
Verizon Communication Inc's(NYSE: VZ)
network, and overseas users will be
running on Vodaphone's network. The
company plans to start selling the devices
next month in Europe, India, Australia and
New Zealand. There are still no price
details being made available, and the
American release date is still unknown.
The stock, which has been beaten up
pretty badly over the past month is trading
up in the green today, gaining 8.7% on the
day, to $59.86, up $4.81 in today's action.
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock
trader for seven years and spent the last
four years working as an analyst for the
online investment advisory service
Investor's Observer.
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major factor in the overall economic mess
that the country is now in the midst of.
Falling prices and rising foreclosure rates
have led to a credit crisis that continues to
rock Wall Street. The Fed is trying its best
to help combat the situation, and today
lowered its key federal funds rate by 50
basis points down to 1.75%, and its
discount rate by a similar 50 basis points,
Business* Tech* Movies*
Sad guys on trading floors
By Tobias Buckell (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:52:00 AM
Filed under: Financial Crisis The recent
financial crisis has spread all throughout
the various levels of our society, and that
includes creeping its way down into little
memes. One of those is Sad Guys on
Trading Floors, a Tumblr blog with
pictures of... sad guys on trading floors.
Somewhere between lolcat and poignant,
the blog shows traders at their rawest and
most vulnerable state: watching their
fortunes and jobs melt away in the high
pressure of the financial crisis, each day
bringing worse news.
The range of emotions the reader has to
this series of images ranges as well: from
sympathy knowing that these traders are
suffering with the rest of the country, to
laughing at the snarky subtitles.
down to 1.5%.
It is definitely going to take a little more
time for the housing market to regain its
strength, but at least August sales give us a
little reason to be optimistic, and only time
will tell how the rest of the year will play
itself out.
Are you currently in the market, as either
a buyer or seller? If so, let us hear what
you going through, and what you think the
near future holds in store for the housing
market.
Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock
trader for seven years and spent the last
four years working as an analyst for the
online investment advisory service
Investor's Observer.
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5
No matter what your reaction, it is a
reflection of a mood sweeping through the
internet and the financial world. A
snapshot of our current state.
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Lebanon Claiming Only It
Owns Hummus, Falafel,
Tabouleh And Baba
Gannouj
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 10:31:00 AM
Another day, another ridiculous
intellectual property lawsuit. Along the
same lines as various regions in France
declaring that only they can sell
"Champagne" or Greece being the only
one allowed to offer "feta," a group in
Lebanon is claiming that various popular
middle eastern foods such as hummus,
falafel, tabouleh and baba gannouj are
property of Lebanon and Lebanon alone.
In fact, the group is planning to sue Israel
for "stealing" its food. They're actually
claiming that this could be a violation of a
"food copyright" (something that doesn't
actually exist). Specifically, the group says
that since Israel sells such foods, it's taking
"tens of millions of dollars" away from
Lebanon, where those foods should be
bought. This, folks, is what happens when
you build up a society around the idea of
"owning" infinite goods.
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6 Business* Tech*
Closing Bell: Volatility &
exhaustion (BAC, MET,
YRCW, AA, GM)
By Jon Ogg (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:05:00 AM
Filed under: General Motors (GM), Alcoa
Inc (AA), Bank of America (BAC), YRC
Worldwide (YRCW), MetLife Inc. (MET)
Today's market moves almost felt
irrational and counter-intuitive. We had a
global coordinated rate cut from the U.S.,
Canada, the U.K, The ECB, Switzerland,
and China. Some might have thought this
would create a 1,000 point rally, but many
sellers are still winning out and the intra-
day volatility was more than present.
The DJIA opened down around 200
points, rallied to being up roughly 200
points, went negative again to roughly the
same levels, and then staged an afternoon
rally. And then the selling came on again
at the end of the day. Historically, this is
what traders would look for as
capitulation. Unfortunately, these are
extremely unusual times and history books
are of little use.
Here were the unofficial closing bell
levels:
• DJIA 9,245.76 -201.35 -2.13%
• S&P500 983.96 -12.27 -1.23%
• NASDAQ 1,740.33 -14.55 -0.83%
• 10YR T-Note 3.713% (+0.207%)
• 52-week lows (major list)
Bank of America Corp.(NYSE: BAC)
sold its 455 million shares secondary
offering at $22.00, yet selling took shares
down to under $20.00 early in the day.
What does Google charge you to use its services?
By Brian White (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:40:00 AM
Filed under: Products and services,
Google (GOOG), Marketing and
advertising If you're a Google,
Inc.(NASDAQ: GOOG) user, you
probably enjoy the relatively high quality
of the company's products at t cost of --
zero. How does Google give all this away
for free, you ask? It's the same as any other
Shares were down almost 8% at $21.95
right before the close.
MetLife Inc.(NYSE: MET) fell sharply
after the insurance giant said increased
losses were bringing earnings down
sharply to where it would only make two-
thirds of its estimates. It was also going to
sell about 75 million shares. Shares were
down 24% at $28.00 right before the close.
YRC Worldwide(NASDAQ: YRCW) is
seeing shares jump this morning after the
company issued a statement saying that its
financial position was solid. That wasn't
any reassurance of great earnings growth,
but it wasn't the sound of a ploy of
someone about to drown. Shares were up
23% $6.30 right before the close.
Alcoa, Inc.(NYSE: AA) shares traded
lower after reporting earnings of $0.33
EPS vs. $0.54 estimates. More
importantly, the company announced hard
times to continue and cost cutting
measures look like a company in total
retreat. Shares were down 12.5% at $14.56
right before the close.
General Motors Co.(NYSE: GM)
originally traded up on the global rate cut
scenario, but Citigroup made a big call by
downgrading shares to a Sell rating with
the stock already on 52-week lows. Shares
were down 7% at $7.03 right before the
close.
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company on the web that features quality
products at no cost. The cost is your
privacy. You are paying, and paying big.
Do you mind? It's hard to say what kind
of personal, financial and psychological
profile Google has on millions of its
customers, but you can believe that this
massive marketing database exists. How
Google manages this will be the most
important decision in the company's
young, decade-old existence, but the
McCain stock: Stick with
dividend growers
By Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 10:05:00 AM
Filed under: Newsletters, Presidential
elections, Stocks to Buy, Financial Crisis
This post is part of a series in which
TheStockAdvisors.com asked financial
experts to name their top stock pick if
McCain or if Obama wins the election.
"If John McCain wins, there's a greater
likelihood the reduced-dividend and capital
gains tax rate will be extended; in that
case, I would favor a tax-advantaged fund
such as the Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged
Dividend Income Fund(NYSE: EVT),"
says Carla Pasternak in High Yield
Investing.
"Eaton Vance Tax-Advantaged Dividend
Income Fund has a solid tax-advantaged
yield of more than 11%, of which the
entire 2007 amount qualified for the
reduced dividend tax rate of up to 15%.
"EVT focuses on strong dividend-
growers and undervalued stocks with room
to move. About 80% of the fund's holdings
are in common stocks, with the rest of the
portfolio in high-yielding preferred shares.
"Top holdings include oil giants Chevron
and ConocoPhillips, as well as utilities like
Edison International and dividend stalwart
Philip Morris.
"The fund does have large exposure to the
financial sector, as it accounts for about
20% of the portfolio. Due to the turmoil in
question remains: do many of us sell our
souls for freebies? Every time you sign up
for something free but fill out a complete
demographic profile to get it, you're selling
out. Google is doing nothing different --
but its scale is so huge that all this data
controlled by one entity does cause for
concern among the informed consumer
inside us all. It should, anyway.
Google, like anyone in business who is
savvy, knows that giving away products or
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
the sector, EVT has seen its share price
sink amid the credit crisis.
"While we can't be sure of when the crisis
in the financial industry will subside, we
can be assured this fund will benefit once
things turn around. Meanwhile, investors
are able to lock in a juicy double-digit
yield.
"Investors seeking international exposure
will also do well with this fund. Less than
half (45%) of the fund is invested in the
U.S. The remainder is spread evenly across
Europe's major economies, including
Germany, the U.K. and Finland.
"With a solid record for dividend growth,
and selling at a steep discount of about -
20% to the value of its underlying portfolio
assets (meaning investors can pick up a
dollar's worth of assets for only 80 cents),
EVT might be attractive no matter who
assumes the presidency.
"However, due to its tax-advantaged
nature, having a Republican in the White
House who favors keeping the current
reduced-dividend tax would be a direct
benefit to EVT investors."
Steven Halpern's TheStockAdvisors.com
offers a daily look at the latest market
commentary and favorite stock picks and
investment ideas from the nation's leading
financial newsletter advisors.
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services for "free" on the front end is made
up for on the back end. In other words,
would you rather pay for every single
product or service you use and not have
any entity know how to market to you -- or
would you rather get a good majority of
your products and services at no cost but
with the attached condition that there are
many entities out there that know you
better than you know yourself?
More importantly, they know how to
Sequoia's Optical Scan Vote
Counting Machines Giving
Different Results Every
Time
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:07:00 AM
Remember the election mess in Palm
Beach, Florida from last month? The one
where votes seemed to be randomly
disappearing, and each recount came up
with different results? Originally the blame
was put on the fact that different scanning
machines from e-voting firm Sequoia,
would somehow count the votes
differently. That seemed scary enough, and
Sequoia protested, insisting that it was all
human error. However, when human errors
happen every time the machines are used,
it's time to suggest that the real problem is
with the machines.
Wired is running a long, and somewhat
scary, report about the ongoing situation in
Palm Beach, where every time the votes
are counted, a different vote count comes
out. A test was set up by the local
newspaper to scan a sampling of ballots,
and every time the results of those tests
were different -- sometimes in extreme
ways. Quite often, the machines seemed to
count perfectly marked ballots as invalid,
while at other times it accepted votes from
invalid ballots. In other words, the
machines basically don't work. And we're
relying on them in many areas for the
election coming up in a month. Isn't that
comforting?
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push your exact buttons to have you
behaving like a robotic consumer or a slot
machine junkie? With the U.S. consumer
responsible for two-thirds of economic
activity (as little as that is at the moment),
the harnessing of this kind of power
becomes clear. Okay, I'm off to perform a
Google search...
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Costco holding up for now, Leading technical analyst
but will it continue to hold says U.S. stocks 'halfway
up? through' decline
By Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 7:50:00 AM
Filed under: Earnings reports, Wal-Mart
(WMT), Costco Wholesale (COST)
Costco(NASDAQ: COST), the shopping
club that competes with BJ's(NYSE: BJ)
and Wal-Mart(NYSE: WMT), reported
earnings for the fourth quarter on
Wednesday. Sales did well, rising 13% to
$22.6 billion. On an adjusted basis,
excluding a litigation charge, the bottom
line came in at $0.92 per share, and
according to this source, that is one penny
below expectations. Excluding the effect of
gasoline inflation, comparable sales
increased 6%.
For the most part, I think Costco held up
well during the quarter. Yes, the
warehouse club didn't wow the Wall Street
analysts this time around. But comps were
pretty decent for the quarter, and the top-
line performance was acceptable, all things
considered. Membership-fee revenue went
up by 22%, which was cool.
This doesn't mean that Costco won't have
a tough time going forward. As the
economy worsens (and it will), Costco is
going to face intense competition for the
attention of the consumer's cash and credit
cards. Keep in mind, though, that Costco
has some good brand equity when it comes
to discount shopping. The company's
image is of a place where people can buy
in bulk and get great deals. In a bad market
environment, consumers may flock to
Insurance takes a bloody bath
By Peter Cohan (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:45:00 AM
Filed under: Allstate Corp (ALL),
Financial Crisis, MetLife Inc. (MET)
As the U.S. market wraps up a wild day
in which central banks cut rates in unison,
one sector has no doubt at all about where
it wants to go -- down. Three leading
insurance companies have lost as much as
Costco to save money. So the company
might do okay (on a very relative basis)
during the crisis.
Of course, the stock is another thing.
While I think the company's numbers
might be decent, there's no guarantee that
we won't get profit warnings and dismal
comps reports later on, things that would
get the stock punished. And keep in mind
that the market for equities is awful overall
(actually, I probably didn't need to write
that out).
Looking at the AOL Finance snapshot
taken at the time of this writing, I see that
Costco's shares have performed poorly,
like just about everything has, as of late.
Year-to-date it's down almost 10%. Over
the last month, the shares have shed over
16% of their value. If you're trading, those
stats don't make the stock too tempting.
Longer-term, Costco will do well, and if
you wanted to do a little buying here to
hold for a lengthy time period, you could.
But remember that you will probably get
lower prices later on. It's that kind of
market.
Disclosure: I don't own any company
mentioned; positions can change at any
time.
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a 28% of their stock market value in
today's trading alone. How so? As I posted,
insurers are the next part of the financial
foundation to crumble due to mortgage-
backed securities (MBS) gone sour.
Here's the latest insurance industry
carnage:
• XL Capital(NYSE: XL)-28%. The
property-casualty insurer holds$29 billion
in asset-backed securities such as MBSs
By Joseph Lazzaro
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:10:00 AM
Filed under: Forecasts, Indices, Technical
Analysis, S and P 500, DJIA, Recession
The S&P 500 has dropped 36% in the past
year and the Dow is down about 35% since
hitting a high around 14,280 about a year
ago.
Each decline is large enough to qualify
as a bear market. And yet there's much
more downside ahead? Say it ain't so.
Top-ranked analyst is bearish
Top-ranked market analyst Jeffrey de
Graaf says it is so, or it will be so,
according to his analysis, telling
Bloomberg News Wednesday U.S. stocks
are only 'halfway through' their current
decline. In Wednesday afternoon trading,
the Dow was down about 18 points to
9,428 and the S&P 500 was up 1 point to
997.
"The big concern is that we're going into
recession,'' de Graaf, a senior managing
director at ISI Group Inc. in New York,
told Bloomberg News."The first part is the
unwind of the previous boom, the second
is the recession that follows. We're in the
camp that we're only halfway through
and collateralized debt obligations
(CDOs), 330% of its shareholders' equity.
• Met Life(NYSE: MET)-27%. This life
insurer announced plans to sell 75 million
shares and to fire an unspecified number of
employees. It also expects to earn between
83 cents and 93 cents per share -- way
below analysts'$1.44 forecast.
• The Allstate Corp.(NYSE: ALL)-21%.
This property-casualty insurer holds$83
this." De Graaf has been the top-ranked
technical analyst in Institutional Investor
magazine's poll the last four years.
As many investors/readers are aware,
technical analysts use price and chart
patterns to predict stock and index levels.
This differs from fundamental analysts,
who base predictions on company
performance (future revenue, earnings,
cash flow etc.) and economic data (retail
sales, housing starts, industrial production,
etc.).
De Graaf added that there's no "fuel to in
the tank" to get stocks rising, but he would
not specify a low for the S&P 500 or Dow,
Bloomberg News reported.
Market Analysis: Far be it for yours truly
to argue with tech analyst extraordinaire de
Graaf, who forwards a compelling
argument. A cyclical economic downturn,
combined with a new, more-cautious,
regulated credit environment -- after the
financial crisis has ended -- suggests a
challenging environment for companies
and stocks, in the immediate quarters
ahead, at minimum.
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billion in fixed income securities such as
MBSs, 421% of its shareholders' equity --
and the$22 billion in Level 3-- difficult to
value -- fixed income securities exceed
its$19.7 billion in capital.
I expect this problem to affect every
insurance company to some extent. Will
the$810 billion rescue plan relieve these
institutions of their bad investment
decisions? We might know in a year. Until
Business* Tech* 7
Another YouTube
Speeder Found Not Guilty
Due To Lack Of Evidence
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:36:18 PM
It seems that it's becoming somewhat
common for police to scour YouTube for
videos of people filming themselves
speeding. However, at the same time, we're
seeing at least a few of the tickets handed
out for such YouTube speeding thrown
out. The latest is over in the UK, where a
guy charged with speeding due to a
YouTube video has been found not guilty
because there's not enough evidence that
he was the one actually driving the car --
or that the car was really traveling at the
speed shown on the speedometer. This
doesn't mean that folks posting their
speeding videos on YouTube won't still be
fined, but it appears that (at least in the
UK) courts are making sure that there's
enough actual evidence there to make the
fines stick.
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then, look out below.
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S.
Cohan & Associates. He also teaches
management at Babson College and edits
The Cohan Letter. He has no financial
interest in the securities mentioned.
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8 Business* Biz Buzz Tech*
Wal-Mart gets downgraded Don't Bury Fair-Value Accounting Just
while stock up in 2008 Yet
amid the turmoil
By Brian White (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:25:00 AM
Filed under: Analyst upgrades and
downgrades, Wal-Mart (WMT) Wal-Mart
Stores, Inc.(NYSE: WMT) has not
followed the trend of blue chip stocks that
have seen 20% losses in the last few
months along with the broad market.
Indeed, WMT shares are up from just over
$46 per share in January to over $56 per
share today. WMT shares hit $63 just
under a month ago, so yes -- they are down
since September.
So, what's going on? Why were Wal-
Mart shares downgraded this week?
Sentiment from the downgrade states that
Wal-Mart is most likely not immune from
the continuing economic situation in the
U.S. (and worldwide, of course).
Prices will continue to rise,
unemployment may get worse and growth
may stall (of wait -- those are all already
happening). When this happens, what do
consumers do? Why, they flock to Wal-
Mart, of course. The haven of low prices
becomes a hideout in turbulent economic
times, and the stock market must agree
EFF Challenges Another Bogus
Online Music Patent
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 7:32:00 PM
The EFF's patent busting project
continues, as it's filed a challenge against
an online music patent held by a company
named Seer Systems. The challenge
includes plenty of prior art, including some
published by the patent holder in a book,
long before the patent application was
actually filed. It's great to see the EFF
continue to try to mow down these patents
after looking at WMT share price
trajectory in 2008.
Will Wal-Mart weather the storm? To a
point, it already is. Sure, all retailers are
expected to have a dismal holiday season
this winter, but Wal-Mart will do better
than the competition. It has more stores,
more pricing leverage and more
wherewithal to hold customers hostage
with lower prices and inventory turns at a
time when it's needed most. Perhaps we'll
see WMT return to the $60/share level by
Thanksgiving -- if not sooner.
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one by one, but it's worth noting how slow
and cumbersome this process has been.
The EFF first announced its patent busting
project more than four years ago. And,
while the program has had successes, it's
been very slow going. If it takes this long
to bust such obviously bad patents, just
think of the trouble dealing with ones that
aren't quite as obviously bad.
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(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/7/2008 9:00:00 AM
T he Securities and Exchange
Commission and the Financial Accounting
Standards Board jointly issued a release
last week to respond to the current crisis in
the financial markets.
Contrary to what some seem to believe,
the S.E.C./F.A.S.B. release does not do
away with or otherwise change the
F.A.S.B.'s guidelines for determining fair
value in Statement of Financial
Accounting Standards No. 157 that went
into effect for many companies just this
year.
Rather, the S.E.C./F.A.S.B. release
affirms the objective of fair value, even
when used for illiquid assets, and clarifies
how companies should apply the new
guidelines when determining the fair value
of mortgage-backed securities or other
assets in markets that are no longer active.
In particular, the S.E.C./F.A.S.B. release
clarifies that when determining fair value,
companies should focus on the relevance
of the pricing information that is currently
available. The new guidelines actually help
assess the relevance of pricing information
because F.A.S. 157 establishes a hierarchy
that puts that information into one of three
levels to convey the relative reliability and
relevance of the asset fair values. F.A.S.
157 also requires companies to disclose the
asset fair values by level in the hierarchy.
Level 1 assets have directly observable
market prices in active markets, like stocks
traded on major exchanges. Valuing Level
2 assets, including derivatives, isn't as
straightforward, but can be done by
looking at other observable market
information. Level 3 assets are those for
which there is no active market; and
pricing them can be a more involved
process that relies on the holder's forecasts
of expected cash flows based on its own
market assumptions.
The S.E.C./F.A.S.B. release notes that
although these levels were not intended to
establish "bright lines" for the valuation,
companies must consider all available
information in the valuation. Companies
cannot, for example, arbitrarily choose to
ignore Level 2 pricing information that is
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
available and immediately default to Level
3 pricing information.
But when markets are no longer active,
as appears to be the case now for many
assets, there might be some circumstances
in which Level 3 pricing information is
more relevant than the Level 2 pricing
information available in those markets and
should be used for the valuation.
These circumstances might be indicated
when significant adjustments are made to
Level 2 pricing information. For example,
companies may well need to make
significant adjustments to arrive at a
reasonable estimate of what a current
market price would be for the asset that is
being fair-valued when Level 2 pricing
information represents prices in disorderly
(so-called fire-sale) transactions, broker
quotes that are based on models that use
information available only to the broker, or
other market quotes that are merely
indicative bids.
As a follow-up to the S.E.C./F.A.S.B.
release, the F.A.S.B. issued for public
comment a proposal called"Determining
the Fair Value of a Financial Asset in a
Market That Is Not Active." The proposal
would illustrate how the new guidelines
might apply in more specific
circumstances.
(The deadline to comment on the
proposal is this Thursday, October 9; the
F.A.S.B. plans to hold a meeting on Friday
to discuss the comments and vote on a
final document so it can be used by
companies in preparing their third-quarter
financial statements.)
At the same time, the Emergency
Economic Stabilization Act of 2008—the
$700 billion package passed by Congress
and signed into law by President Bush on
Friday—contains a provision that restates
the S.E.C.'s authority to suspend F.A.S.
157 if the S.E.C. determines that "it is
necessary or appropriate in the public
interest and is consistent with the
protection of investors."
Further, amid calls to suspend fair value
accounting to put an end to more asset
impairments, Representative Spencer
Bachus, Republican of Alabama, has asked
Barney Frank, chairman of the House
Financial Services Committee, to convene
hearings on fair-value accounting and the
need for reforms to F.A.S. 157.
It is worth noting that F.A.S. 157 is not
the reason that in today's markets many
assets are impaired. Further, F.A.S. 157
does not require any assets to be recorded
at fair value, whether on an ongoing basis
(so-called "mark-to-market" accounting) or
when impaired.
The fair-value concept was established
long before F.A.S. 157 and was referred to
in more than 60 of the authoritative
pronouncements that were being used by
companies when F.A.S. 157 arrived. Many
of those pronouncements contained
guidelines for determining fair value that
were similar to the guidelines in F.A.S.
157 but that were replaced by the new
guidelines to improve consistency in
application.
With that, conventional wisdom tells us
that suspending F.A.S. 157 alone would
not do away with fair-value accounting.
Fair-value accounting would still be
used—but without the new guidelines for
determining fair value and without the new
disclosures about fair value, which could
add to, not reduce, the confusion that
currently exists over what fair value is and
what fair value means when used in
financial reporting today.
The fair-value debate seems certain to
continue, having potential implications for
the fate of F.A.S. 157. But for now, F.A.S.
157 is holding. So in preparing their
financial statements, companies should
plan to continue to use the new guidelines
(as clarified) for the fair values that are
either required or permitted under other
authoritative pronouncements. The views
expressed in the article are held by the
author and are not necessarily
representative of FTI Consulting. Related
Links
Do-It-Yourself Dubious Accounting
A Vote of Support for Sarbanes-Oxley
Did FASB Scupper the Auction-Rate
Market?
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Rolling Out the TARP
(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 5:30:00 AM
N ow that the TARP bill has passed, Neel
Kashkari and his team at the Treasury
Department are going to have to very
quickly come up with a fair and
transparent way of spending $700 billion
on a very wide range of complex financial
assets. How are they going to do that?
The most detailed public proposal to date
comes from Lawrence Ausubel and Peter
Cramton at the University of Maryland. In
a densely argued 21-page paper, they
propose a two-part reverse auction, starting
with the more commonly held assets and
then moving on to the stuff that is really
difficult to value.
The cleverest bit of the Ausubel-Cramton
proposal is that it recognizes that banks
don't have a single price below which
they're unwilling to sell any given asset.
Instead, as the price falls, they are still
willing to sell some, just not all, of their
holdings.
Let's say you're a bank with $100
million, face value, of a subprime-
mortgage-backed security. You would love
to get that asset off your balance sheet,
since the market is worried that if it turns
out to be worthless, you might be
insolvent. But, at the same time, the bond
is still paying out money, and according to
your best estimate of its expected future
cash flow, if you hold it to maturity you
should get a present value of 60 cents on
the dollar.
Right now, you can't mark the bond to
market, because there is no market for such
instruments. The only people remotely
interested in buying up subprime-mortgage
bonds are the distressed-debt hedge funds,
and they're looking to make annualized
returns of more than 30 percent.
Enter the Treasury. Kashkari puts you
into a virtual room with a handful of other
financial institutions that hold that same
bond: All of you own $1 billion, face
value, of it. He announces at the end of the
auction that he's going to buy half of the
bonds in the room. And then the reverse
auction starts.
The bidding starts high: at, say, 100 cents
on the dollar. At that point, you're more
than willing to tender all your bonds to be
sold—and so is everybody else. So you bid
100 percent of your bonds at 100 cents on
the dollar, everybody else does too, and the
total quantity of bonds tendered comes to
the full $1 billion. Supply ($1 billion)
exceeds demand ($500 million). And so
the price gets brought down a notch.
At 90 cents on the dollar, everybody's
still interested in selling all their bonds.
And the same thing happens at 80 cents.
But at 70 cents, something interesting
happens: Not all the bonds are tendered.
You're still happy to sell your full $100
million holding at that point, but when the
bids are tallied up, it turns out that only
$950 million of bonds have been tendered.
Some bank has started paring back its bid.
At 60 cents, you still bid the full $100
million. You think that the bonds are
probably worth that much, but you'd much
rather have $60 million in nice liquid cash
than $100 million face value of bonds you
think are probably worth 60 cents on the
dollar. Most of your fellow bidders seem to
think the same way: The amount tendered
at 60 cents on the dollar is $850 million.
But it's coming down.
And so the auction moves to 50 cents.
Now what do you do? You think that the
bonds are worth 60 cents, but the stock
market doesn't necessarily believe you, and
it would start bidding up your stock price if
you said you'd managed to sell off most of
your subprime debt at 50 cents on the
dollar. On the other hand, you think that
the bonds are actually a reasonably good
investment at that level. So you tender $80
million of your bonds. That way, you get
$40 million in cash—which would
certainly be welcome—and you also retain
a small $20 million holding in a security
which you think will bring in a good 60
cents on the dollar if you hold it to
maturity. The holding is small enough that
the market no longer worries about your
solvency, and everybody comes away
happy.
At 50 cents, however, there's still $650
million of bonds tendered. And so the price
comes down again, to 40 cents. At that
point, you really don't want to sell—you
think that there's a lot of upside in the
security at that level. But you also need the
liquidity, and you want to be able to
demonstrate that you've managed to get at
least some of your subprime assets off
your balance sheet. So you offer to sell
Treasury $40 million of your bonds at 40
cents on the dollar. That brings you $16
million in useful cash and reduces your
subprime exposure by a significant
amount. You don't like it, but it's better
than selling nothing at all and ending up
where you started.
At 40 cents, the total number of bonds
tendered is the magic $500 million, and the
auction clears. Some banks will have
ended up tendering all of their bonds at
that level—maybe they're more pessimistic
about that security's intrinsic value, or
maybe they just really need the money or
to get the bonds off their balance sheet. In
any event, there's now a public and
transparent price for the bonds: 40 cents.
That can be used to mark all the bonds that
were not tendered to market, rather than
guessing wildly on the basis of credit-
default swap prices or some model.
This is the basis of the Ausubel-Cramton
approach. It's quite elegant, in that clearly
solvent banks will tend to drop out of the
bidding quite early, once it reaches their
own estimation of the value of the
securities, while more troubled banks will
end up selling bonds to Treasury at
discount prices. Taxpayers are protected,
and although the more troubled banks will
end up with more government funds,
they'll still be losing out on an intrinsic-
value basis.
Once marks are set for a wide range of
relatively widely held subprime and other
mortgage securities, the Ausubel and
Cramton proposal foresees a second round
of auctions for less liquid assets, which
involves using the prices generated in the
first round as inputs to help get at least a
rough idea of how much the more complex
instruments might be worth. Conceivably,
there could even be a third round along
similar lines. Eventually, the $700 billion
is spent; the government ends up with a
large number of mortgage-backed assets,
as well as various chunks of bank equity
that were extracted along the way from the
largest participants in the program.
There is a problem with this model,
however.
There's an evolving consensus that we're
no longer seeing a liquidity crisis, but
rather a solvency crisis. Banks don't just
lack cash; they're fundamentally insolvent,
with their assets (things like mortgage-
backed bonds) worth less than their
liabilities (including their deposits).
Improving liquidity, through rate cuts or
swap lines or discount windows or buying
unsecured commercial paper or any other
means, can no longer get us out of our
present hole. What we need is a
recapitalization of the banking system.
The thinking behind the TARP is that the
solvency crisis is a direct result of the
liquidity crisis. (Remember that it was
conceived before the most recent
downward lurches in global markets.) Why
are banks insolvent? Because they're
sitting on worthless assets. Why are the
banks' assets worthless? Because there's no
bid for them. So create a $700 billion bid
for those assets, get a two-way market in
them moving again—and presto—the
solvency disappears.
There are more than a few problems with
this line of thinking. Firstly, the logic is a
bit screwy: Even if insolvency was a direct
result of illiquidity, there's no guarantee
that you can simply run the movie
backward and hope that restored liquidity
will result in solvency.
What's more, just because the
government is willing to spend 40 cents on
the dollar for a mortgage-backed bond at
the end of a descending clock auction
doesn't mean anybody else is: The market
won't necessarily really believe those
bonds are worth 40 cents. Sure, the banks
will use that mark when officially valuing
their balance sheet. But investors in the
banks' stocks and bonds might well still be
skeptical and mark those instruments down
accordingly.
In order for people to really start
believing in the price, you need a two-way
market, with multiple sellers and buyers at
or around the 40-cent level. If Treasury
remains the only buyer in town, that's not
going to happen.
But more important, what if the banks
really are insolvent at that level of 40 cents
on the dollar? The price revealed by the
TARP would make crystal clear what
many investors already suspect—that the
banks are worthless. Far from rescuing the
market from crisis, if the TARP auctions
Biz Buzz 9
cleared at a very low level, they could
actually precipitate it.
In that event, Treasury would have to try
a very different tack. They could use the
TARP, still, and try deliberately
overpaying for bank assets: Instead of
paying 40 cents, they'd bid 80 cents. That
would help to recapitalize the banking
system, since the banks would be getting
the fair-value 40 cents for their toxic loans,
plus another 40 cents on top, which they
could use to stay afloat.
Under that kind of system, Treasury
would presumably be much more
aggressive in terms of the amount of equity
that banks would have to give them in
order to participate in the auction. Or
maybe the auction would be a decreasing-
equity auction, rather than a decreasing-
price auction: Treasury would set the bid at
80 cents, and then see if there were any
bidders willing to hit that bid and give up
10 basis points of equity per $10 million of
bonds sold. If there weren't, they would
bring the level down to 9 basis points, and
so on.
The big problem with any kind of
recapitalization auction, however, where
the Treasury deliberately pays above the
market rate for toxic securities, is that it
defeats one of the main purposes of the
TARP: to set a transparent mark for
illiquid bonds. If everybody knows that
Treasury is overpaying, then no one will
believe for a minute that the securities still
left on banks' books are worth nearly that
much—and the market in such securities
will remain frozen.
It's probably much simpler and easier to
take the route chosen by Gordon Brown,
the British prime minister: Ignore the asset
side of banks' balance sheets altogether,
and just start writing multibillion-dollar
checks to big entities in the financial
system in return for shares and/or preferred
stock.
That's essentially what the U.S.
government did with American
International Group; it's a bit weird that it
chose a very different route for the banking
system as a whole.
Related Links
Beware ETNs
Google's Goof
Giselle Was Right
10 Biz Buzz Tech*
No Yogi Bears
(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/7/2008 9:00:00 PM
C hristine Day, the recently appointed
C.E.O. of Lululemon Athletica, exhibits
the kind of optimism usually reserved for
religious leaders and self-help gurus.
"Even the Great Depression only lasted a
certain number of years!" she chirps, by
way of justifying the company's expansion
plans in the face of a retail climate going
more sour by the day.
For those who aren't familiar with the
budding specialty retailer from Canada,
Lululemon is a purveyor of $90 yoga pants
and $60 sports bras. Its stores have
"guests" rather than customers and
"educators" rather than employees. At the
core of the brand's identity is a 31-point
manifesto that includes such imperatives
and affirmations as "dance, sing, floss, and
travel"; " do one thing a day that scares
you"; and, somewhat more oddly,
"children are the orgasm of life."
In short, this is the type of company that
would seem to be on the endangered-
species list at a time when consumers are
becoming less and less brand-centric and
buying purely on price.
Investors appear to agree. The stock is
down 60 percent since its high of $58 last
October, underperforming peers like J.
Crew, American Eagle, Urban Outfitters,
or Gap for the period.
But if Lululemon breaks the mold of the
fad, overexpanding retailer doomed to
Chapter 11 scrap heap, the story behind it
may be in some numbers that have been
overlooked well into the current retail
recession.
Lululemon averaged a stunning 34
percent same-store sales growth in 2007,
and as of July, it still boasted an 18 percent
comparable store sales gain from a year
earlier. When Lululemon announced
second-quarter earnings in September, it
beat analyst expectations for the period
while maintaining its full-year guidance.
Analysts estimate that the retailer, which
generated revenues of $275 million in
2007, averages sales per square foot
around $1,000—by comparison, Gap's
sales per square foot of $376 in 2007, and
American Eagle's were $638.
All of that explains why, of the nine
analysts covering Lululemon, seven rate
the stock as a "strong buy" or "buy," and
two rate it as a "hold." Sharon Zackfia, a
research analyst at William Blair &
Company, explains the poor performance
over the past year as a combination of
jitters over changes in senior management
and the stock experiencing the multiple
compression that most retailers already
underwent in 2007.
Still, while others are being forced to
shutter stores, Lululemon is expanding. It's
looking to add 30 to 35 stores per year to
its current count of 91, launching an e-
commerce site next fall, and quietly
moving beyond yoga and into product lines
for running, dance, and Pilates.
The hope inside the company is that
Lululemon's customers are becoming
devoted in a segment that has been
chronically ignored.
"The women's athletic market has long
been underserved by industry behemoths
that have simply offered smaller sizes of
men's patterns as their female product,"
says Zackfia.
While apparel spending overall has been
one of the softest areas of consumer
spending over the past year, activewear
continues to be a bright spot. Zackfia
estimates that the women's sports-apparel
market in the U.S. is as large as $10
billion.
"Activewear is a category where women
continue to spend, especially as there
becomes increased acceptability of
multiple wearing occasions beyond simply
exercising," explains Kelly Tackett, a
senior consultant at TNS Retail Forward.
Lululemon is not, by a long shot, the
only retailer noticing the opportunity. J.
Crew, American Eagle, Victoria's Secret,
Gap, T.J. Maxx, J.C. Penney, and Wal-
Mart are among the retailers shifting focus
to activewear offerings through
acquisitions or new product lines.
But analysts such as Howard Tubin, a
senior analyst with RBC Capital Markets,
see Lululemon as strategically superior to
these players due to its premium image and
product designs that are fashionable as
well as technically sophisticated.
"Lululemon is one of a handful of retail
apparel doing well right now," says Tubin.
"The brand is unique, the grassroots
marketing they do is unique, and the price
point is relatively expensive, but people
have continued to pay up for it."
Lululemon might remind you of another
"lifestyle brand" that became a pillar of
yuppie culture after pioneering the $4 latte;
perhaps it's no coincidence that Day came
to Lululemon after more than 20 years at
Starbucks, where she served most recently
as president of the Asia Pacific group.
But don't think Lululemon is Starbucks
minus the stimulants.
While the Seattle-based coffee giant
fashioned a global expansion plan based on
turning out ubiquitous, carbon-copy
outlets, the cornerstone of Lululemon's
strategy is maintaining a local, distinct feel
to each store.
Day says that the Lululemon values
individualism over uniformity, an ethos
which extends to each store's unique
"community board" listing local fitness
events to every outlet designing its own
window displays.
Lululemon has rejected traditional
advertising in favor of converting local
yoga teachers, dance teachers, and running
coaches in advance of a store opening to
create buzz in the community. The retailer
also hosts free in-store yoga classes and
fitness clinics (including "dog yoga," no
less) to help build consumer familiarity
and loyalty.
Unlike many of its competitors,
Lululemon has pursued an all-retail rather
than wholesale approach, believing that the
in-store experience and employing
knowledgeable salespeople was integral to
supporting the high price point.
"I learned from Starbucks to be really
focused on the core of the brand and to
make sure that you protect it at all costs,"
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
says Day. "At Starbucks, we kind of
moved on to Frappuccinos and Caramel
Macchiatos before we really owned latte.
So sometimes innovation, while it can
drive new customers, also takes you away
from your core business."
Day stresses that while Lululemon's
growth plans may seem aggressive, the
near-term expansion goal is for just 200
stores in the U.S. and 45 in Canada—still
small enough that the chain can continue to
rely solely on affluent consumers.
Giving some credence to Day's
assertions, shares of Lululemon have
added 17 percent over the past
month—perhaps the beginning of a full
recovery, but that's still far from a sure bet.
Howard Tubin worries that in a period of
rapid expansion, the retailer's necessarily
time- and labor-intensive approach to
opening new stores will be difficult to
maintain. Lululemon's (appropriately)
selective approach to real estate could also
lead the retailer to fall behind with
openings, putting pressure on current
growth forecasts.
And even given Lululemon's promising
strategy, analyst Tackett points out that the
exodus to value stores is a very real trend
even amongst high-income
households—and one that could persist
and worsen.
"We're increasingly worried that there
will be fundamental shift in shoppers'
preferences towards value-oriented
retailers and brands," says Tackett.
"Obviously the hope is that they come
back when they have the money, but the
concern is that the longer this goes on, the
more entrenched the shopping behaviors
will become."
Related Links
Morning Hemlines: Rochas, Retail,
Narciso, Lululemon, LA Fashion Week,
Project Runway
Morning Hemlines: Nexcen, Milan,
Paris, Margiela, Theysken, McQueen,
Project Runway, Burberry
Holiday Forecast: Severe Chill
The Ridiculous History Of
The Job And Dollar Loss
Numbers Cited By IP
Proponents
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 7:40:00 AM
Earlier this week, we talked about how
the US Chamber of Commerce was citing
the totally bogus stat that 750,000 jobs are
lost in the US due to intellectual property
violations. The original article tried to
track down the source of the number and
found a tangled web of government
agencies all pointing at each other. Julian
Sanchez has apparently been hot on the
trail of the real source of that number,
along with the equally bogus claim of $250
billion lost to IP infringement in the US.
While it took plenty of digging, he seems
to have found the origin of each number--
and they're both basically completely made
up.
The 750,000 job number actually dates
back to 1986, when then-Commerce
Secretary Malcom Baldridge, in promoting
a stronger copyright bill from the Reagan
era, mentioned to a newspaper reporter that
infringement cost anywhere from 125,000
to 750,000 jobs. That quickly morphed into
"up to 750,000 jobs" and eventually just
became "750,000 jobs" with no actual
backing data. It's almost surprising that the
industry hasn't tried to expand that number
since, surely, infringement has become a
bigger issue in the intervening 22 years. Of
course, doing that might require actual
proof, of which there is none, so that might
present a problem.
As for the $250 billion, well, that's even
weaker. It's gone through a number of
versions of the game "telephone," and
while it's often attributed to the FBI, they
don't do studies like that. Instead, Sanchez
eventually tracked it down to a brief aside
in a 1993 Forbes article, where it wasn't
even talking about losses in the US. Hell, it
wasn't even talking about losses. It was
talking about the size of the counterfeit
market (which, as you know, does not
equal losses) in the world. But, the number
has been passed around over and over
again -- and has been included in various
government publications, so the industry
(and politicians) take it as fact.
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Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
A.I.Greed
(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/7/2008 9:30:00 AM
WASHINGTON—Two former C.E.O.'s
of American International Group insisted
today that the insurance giant was a victim
of unruly markets. But lawmakers on
Capitol Hill confronted them with what
they said was evidence of executives'
missing warning signs while awarding
themselves rich payouts.
Federal regulators warned A.I.G. in
March that corporate oversight of major
subsidiaries, including its finance products
and lease finance units, "lacks critical
elements of independence, transparency,
and granularity," said Henry Waxman, the
Democratic chairman of the House
Oversight and Government Reform
Committee, reading from a letter from the
Office of Thrift Supervision.
As the economy is roiled by a credit
crisis, Congress is starting to examine the
reasons why the government became
embroiled in providing support for
financial companies, including $85 billion
in assistance for A.I.G.
Committee members were sharply
critical of the compensation received by
A.I.G. executives, in particular former
C.E.O. Martin Sullivan, who attended the
hearing with his successor, Robert
Willumstad.
"Shame on you," said Jackie Speier,
Democrat of California, to Sullivan, who
was chief executive from 2005 to 2008.
"The shareholder has nothing, but you
walked away with $15 million."
Not only did A.I.G. executives receive
big payouts, but less than a week after the
federal bailout, the committee said that
executives frolicked during a week-long
retreat at the exclusive St. Regis Resort at
More pics of Apple's supposed new laptops surface
By Joshua Topolsky (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/9/2008 12:56:00 AM
Filed under: Laptops
Oh Apple -- release some new laptops so
this madness can end. The forums at
MacRumors are abuzz over a Taiwanese
site that's showing off pictures of what
Monarch Beach, California. Rooms at the
resort—a photo of the luxury hotel was
flashed on the screen—can go for more
than $1,000 a night.
The meeting cost about $500,000,
including $23,000 on spa services, which
prompted Elijah Cummings, Democrat of
Maryland, to complain that A.I.G.
employees were "getting facials,
manicures, and massages and the
American people were footing the bill."
In one of the few light moments,
Cummings wondered out loud what
$10,000 on "leisure dining" was for.
"Bars!" was the helpful shout-out from
someone in the audience.
But dwarfing any fancy spa or huge bar
tab were the sums awarded to executives,
not only to Sullivan but also to Joseph
Cassano, the London-based head of A.I.G.-
Financial Products. As Lynnley Browning
reported for Portfolio.com, A.I.G.-
Financial Products was largely responsible
for nearly toppling the insurance company
with its huge losses on credit default
swaps.
Over eight years, Cassano—who was not
present at the hearing—received $280
million in salary. Since leaving A.I.G. in
March, he has been on a $1 million-a-
month retainer.
An incredulous Waxman asked both
Sullivan and Willumstad, who was chief
executive from June until the September
bailout: "Why didn't you fire him?"
The long and short of Sullivan's answer:
Cassano has long-term knowledge of the
investments and his expertise in "winding
down exposure would be valuable to the
company."
"Is it a good signal when a man makes
appears to be a very close cousin of that
MacBook Pro-esque casing we saw earlier.
This isn't the same model, surely, but it
does bear a striking similarity in both
design and materials -- and after lots of
deliberation and comparisons, we're fairly
sure this isn't the Air either (the hinge ends
in a totally different spot in relation to the
these derivative deals and he gets $1
million a month?" asked an obviously
frustrated Waxman.
Other committee members were
frustrated trying to connect the dots. Mark
Souder, Republican of Indiana, denounced
A.I.G.'s actions as "unbridled greed."
There were also hints of how tracking the
financial crisis may well involve a lot of
conspiracy theories. Lawmakers tried to
delve into Goldman Sachs' possible role in
the bailout of A.I.G., but those lines of
inquiry did not get very far.
Scheduled to appear with Sullivan and
Willumstad was another former C.E.O.,
Hank Greenberg, who had built the
company into a global titan over four
decades. But Greenberg pleaded illness
and avoided an appearance—perhaps
spooked by the angry, placard-waving
protesters who chased former Lehman
Brothers head Richard Fuld to his car
following his appearance before the
committee Monday.
Failing to show before Congress didn't
prevent Greenberg from trying to throw a
little sand into the gears with his prepared
testimony.
In his statement, he criticized the $85
million bailout, saying, "Those millions of
Americans could have fared better if
A.I.G. had filed for bankruptcy protection,
since they would have at least have had the
chance of recouping value on their
investments in A.I.G. over the longer
term."
Greenberg's refusal to accept any blame
for the collapse of the company—which
was noted by Waxman as he opened the
hearing—was echoed by Sullivan when his
turn came before the committee.
keys). That machined quality we noted in
Biz Buzz Gadgets* Tech*
Sullivan, who headed the company from
March 2005 to June 2008, insisted that his
tenure had been "marked by unprecedented
transparency with our investors and
regulators."
He attributed A.I.G.'s problem to one
"particular factor— the role played by one
accounting rule applied to corporations."
Those accounting rules require certain
assets be "market to market," he said. That
requires companies to declare the value of
those assets on a quarterly basis at the
price such assets could sell for on the
market at that point in time. But, in a time
of crisis, companies, he said, "are forced to
declare the value of those assets at fire-sale
prices."
But Lynn Turner, former chief
accountant for the Securities and Exchange
Commission who appeared at an earlier
panel with Eric Dinallo, the New York
state insurance commissioner, took
exception to his explanation.
The rule, he said, requires the company
to separate the value of the investments in
such a way so they can "understand with
greater confidence in the nature and types
of investments."
"That's like blaming the thermometer for
the fever," he said of the accounting rule.
Waxman's focus was on compensation,
contending that in this financial crisis,
"each executive grew rich by taking
excessive risk."
"In each company, when risk turned bad,
the companies collapsed. And in each case,
executives walked away with millions of
dollars while taxpayers are stuck with
billions of dollars."
Related Links
A.I.G.'s House of Cards
A.I.G.'s House of Cards
A.I.Goodbye
the earlier post is present, though as we
said previously, the sides of these housings
do look like separate pieces. Regardless, if
any of this is even remotely true (and not
another Photoshop from someone's
mother's basement), Apple is indeed taking
its laptops in an Air direction, which isn't
surprising -- but signs of these being the
11
Michael Moore Admits He
Doesn't Care About
International Downloads,
But He Has To Pretend To
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 5:44:55 PM
We were a bit surprised recently when the
news came out that lawyers representing
Michael Moore were making the rounds
concerning international downloads of his
latest documentary, Slacker Uprising.
Moore had decided to give the movie away
free online, and given his past statements
about having no problem with folks
sharing a movie online, it seemed out of
place to complain about any sharing that
didn't just happen in the US and Canada.
Now it appears that Moore himself has
taken the initiative to explain, and the
answer is effectively that he doesn't care --
but he has to pretend to, because he only
holds the rights for the US and Canada. In
a note to the site TorrentFreak, he
wrote:"What do you think I'm up to? I
know it may not be obvious to most, but I
think you guys get it. I only own the US
and Canadian rights. So my hands are tied.
But this is the 21st century. What are
'geographical rights'?" He then went on to
point to the silliness of trying to prevent
fans from sharing a movie:"I'll say it for
the hundredth time: If I buy a book and
read it, and then give you the book to read,
I have broken no laws. Why is that not true
for all media?" I'm not always a fan of his
movies (though I do find them
entertaining), but it's nice to see another
moviemaker recognizing how
counterproductive it is to try to stop file
sharing, when embracing it has many more
benefits.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
end-result of new manufacturing process?
The jury's still way out. One more pic after
the break of that controversial side piece.
[Via MacRumors]
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12 Biz Buzz
Investing In Our Future
(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/7/2008 9:00:00 PM
T here has been little discussion about
what $700 billion would buy if the federal
government were not spending it on the
bailout. Maybe we're too shell-shocked by
this huge dollop of borrowed money to go
through this exercise of "What if...?"
For the sake of argument, however, here
is a short list of what $700 billion would
buy in the realm of science and
technology:
• Five complete Apollo space programs,
which put 12 men on the moon between
1969 and 1972. Cost of Apollo program in
2005 dollars: $135 billion.
• 23 years of funding for the National
Institutes of Health. The 2009 fiscal budget
is $30 billion, the same as 2008.
• 259 years of funding for the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency, an
independent research agency within the
Department of Defense that has funded
some of America's major innovations,
including key elements of the solid-state
electronics revolution.
• 304 human genome projects at $2.3
billion apiece.
• 653 MacBook laptops fully loaded with
software for every child on Earth between
the ages of 4 and 18.
• 1,850 years of funding for the
Department of Energy's National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, which is on
the front lines of developing alternative
sources of energy. The lab's budget was
increased in 2007 to $378.4 million, from
$209.6 million in 2006.
I could go on, but you get the idea: Even
a modest sliver of the Wall Street bailout
could dramatically increase government
support for research and development of
science and technology in the U.S.
This may be exactly what we need right
now, to pitch a little cash toward a major
effort to support and speed up our non-
defense national research-and-development
expenditure—which now accounts for less
than one-half a percentage point of G.D.P.,
the lowest in nearly 50 years.
Historically, human innovation has
produced wonders and horrors, but more
often than not dramatic new technologies
have given the edge to nations, cultures,
and civilizations that embrace them.
Whether it was the invention of the wheel
or of the microchip, those who failed to
embrace science and technology tended to
fail, or to be left behind.
This is why the next president should
launch an initiative akin to John F.
Kennedy's call to put a man on the
moon—with a nod to Franklin Roosevelt's
Works Progress Administration during the
Great Depression.
The effort would employ not just Ph.D.'s,
but workers of all levels of education and
training for projects ranging from pure
research to building things based on new
technologies.
Some innovations might be imminently
practical, such as applying new computer
systems and algorithms to managing the
nation's infrastructure of air and ground
traffic; applying technology to build green
cars; and developing new materials for the
thousands of highways and bridges in
desperate need of upgrades.
If this sounds pie-in-the-sky in an era of
crisis deficits, let me throw out another
number. The entire Works Progress
Administration program, which employed
millions and festooned America with state-
of-the-art roads, bridges, and dams during
a massive global depression, cost about
$11.5 billion between 1935 and 1941.
That's $159 billion in 2007 dollars for a
stimulus that's not a one-time tax cut
encouraging people to buy another iPod,
but an investment in ideas and in capital
assets. Not incidentally, it would also
upgrade our deteriorating
infrastructure—some of which hasn't been
updated since the W.P.A. 70 years ago.
Tacked onto a $700 billion
bailout—which is really $1.6 trillion when
Fannie, Freddie, and the rest are added
in—what's another $159 billion, if it's used
to actually build things that will last, and
will make the nation more efficient and
competitive?
Call it the New Technology Initiative, or
New Tech. The plan would articulate a few
basic, but highly ambitious goals that
would be determined by a series of
meetings called by the president-elect.
Attendees would represent a variety of
points of view in science, technology, the
environment, economics, labor, finance,
and public policy; together they could set a
national investment agenda.
Once the president has made his
decisions and consulted with Congress and
other leaders in the U.S., he might then
engage world leaders. The U.S. would be
in a position of leadership—for a
change—on critical global crises such as
lessening carbon-dioxide emissions, and
ending the world's dependency on oil.
Some will howl that government is too
incompetent and corrupt to handle such an
initiative. But I can give you 700 billion
reasons why it can't do worse than the
private sector, which has brought the world
to the brink of economic collapse.
There is no shortage of ideas. Despite
little help from Washington for the past
seven years, entrepreneurs across America
have been developing technologies for
everything from green fuels and novel
drugs to new materials to build roads.
Some ideas won't work. Failure and
waste will be part of the equation—as it
always is, in private as well as public
enterprises—although one critical element
that may help temper this would be a
leadership that inspires people to think
beyond their personal gain, at least for a
minute or two.
When Barack Obama and John McCain
talk about change, let's hope it includes a
realization that real change means a
recommitment to creativity and adaptation.
We have made many mistakes as a species
in using technologies that ultimately
proved dangerous, but what choice do we
have other than trying to learn and adapt
with new and improved technologies?
Much more than our economy is at
stake—this is survival.Related Links
Government Hypocrisy in GSE Bailout?
Larry Summers
Should the Bailout Reduce Other
Government Spending?
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Chipping Away
(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/7/2008 7:30:00 AM
A nd now for some good news.
This morning, chipmaker AMD
announced one possible way to avoid a
diving share price and even create new
jobs: It's selling off part of the company,
and the Middle East is coming to the
rescue.
In a long-expected plan, AMD will get
out of the manufacturing business by
spinning off those operations into a new
company, called The Foundry Company.
With a $6 billion investment from Abu
Dhabi-based Advanced Technology
Investment Company and Mubadala
Development Company, which already
owns 8 percent of AMD, Foundry will
assume control of the company's
manufacturing operations in Germany, and
has plans to open facilities in Saratoga
County, New York, adding 5,000 jobs to
the area. The plan may be AMD's only
hope in its endless battle with market
behemoth Intel, a fight that has drained
AMD's resources and left it with less than
20 percent of the market, backed into a
corner.
"With The Foundry Company, AMD has
developed an innovative way to focus our
efforts on design while maintaining access
to the leading-edge manufacturing
technologies that our business needs
without the required capital-intensive
investments of semiconductor
manufacturing," said AMD C.E.O. Dirk
Meyer in a statement. "Today is a
landmark day for AMD, creating a
financially stronger company with a
tightened focus."
The spinoff moves the manufacturing
business off its balance sheet
entirely—along with the company's $1.2
billion debt, which will be assumed by
Foundry.
"Finally, [AMD] gets a brain, wrote
Douglas McIntyre on BloggingStocks.com
today. AMD's share price had plummeted
over the last two years, from $40 in 2006
to $4 this month. Shares were up in
morning trading, but it was hard to tell
how much was driven by the
announcement versus the rising tide of the
market this morning after further overnight
moves to shore up the global financial
meltdown.
Foundry will be run by Doug Grose,
currently AMD's senior vice president of
manufacturing operations. Hector Ruiz, the
former C.E.O. of AMD, will become
Foundry's chairman. AMD will maintain a
44 percent stake in the new venture,
though analysts expect the chipmaker to be
diluted out over time by A.T.I.C.
A.T.I.C. is an investment company
formed by the Abu Dhabi government.
And while Middle Eastern sovereign
wealth funds and other investment funds in
the region have remained strong, the global
crisis has begun to spread in that direction.
Yesterday, Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All-
Share Index (TASI) fell 9.8 percent and the
Dubai Financial Market General index
dropped 7.6 percent. AMD may have
chosen the wisest moment ever to do this
deal before all capital markets freeze up.
How much of an advantage this move
will give AMD against Intel is hard to say.
Intel is still the far-dominant chipmaker,
holding 80 percent of the market on the
world's 1 billion personal computers.
AMD will surely have shored up its own
financial health, but it will need more than
a tighter balance sheet to find clever new
ways to grab market share from Intel.
Related Links
Intel: Entertainment Company?
All's Well at Intel
First Bytes: Hulu Goes Live, AppsSavvy,
AMD, Industrial Origami
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Firing Blanks on Banks
(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/7/2008 5:00:00 AM
O h, Ben.
Stocks tumbled again even though the
Federal Reserve pulled out a new tool and
promised an old one. Ben Bernanke, the
chairman of the Federal Reserve, gave the
strongest hint yet that an interest rate was
imminent, while the Fed moved to shore
up the commercial paper market.
But the Dow Jones industrial average
slid more than 500 points, and the S&P
500 fell below 1,000 to its lowest close in
five years. The market reaction
underscores that many investors believe
that central banks and governments are
running out of ammunition to fight the
global financial crisis.
Fears over the health of many large
banks dominated trading today. Shares of
Bank of America tumbled after the bank
announced late Monday its plans to cut its
dividend in half. It also plans to raise $10
billion in capital through a stock offering.
Shares of rival Citigroup fell nearly 13
percent. Morgan Stanley shares plummeted
nearly 25 percent amid rumors, denied by
the firm, that its deal with Mitsubishi UFJ
was in trouble. Since a year ago, financial
stocks have slid 55.2 percent, losing $1.48
trillion, Standard & Poor's estimates.
In a speech in Washington, Ben
Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal
Reserve signaled that a cut in interest rates
is in the offing.
"The heightened financial turmoil that we
have experienced of late may well lengthen
the period of weak economic performance
and further increase the risks to growth,"
Bernanke said. "To support growth and
reduce the downside risks, continued
efforts to stabilize the financial markets are
essential. The Federal Reserve will
New Xbox 360 dashboard coming November 19th
By Joshua Topolsky (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/9/2008 12:07:00 AM
Filed under: Gaming
Been wondering when you were finally
going to get your eyes on that fancy new
Xbox 360 experience? Well the secret is
continue to use the tools at its disposal to
improve market functioning and liquidity."
His comments came after the Fed
announced a plan to provide a "liquidity
backstop to U.S. issuers of commercial
paper." It will do so through a special-
purpose vehicle that will buy commercial
paper, short-term debt that many
companies use to finance their day-to-day
operation
The plan buoyed the market in early
trading. But stocks resumed their slide
after the Fed chairman's speech. At 1:30
p.m., the Dow was down more than 230
points.
The Fed said that the commercial-paper
market "has been under considerable strain
in recent weeks." The stresses in that
market have been cited as evidence that the
credit crunch is spilling beyond Wall Street
and hindering nonfinancial companies and
businesses.
"The Treasury believes this facility is
necessary to prevent substantial disruptions
to the financial markets and the economy
and will make a special deposit at the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York in
support of this facility," the Fed said. It did
not indicate how much commercial paper it
might buy.
Yves Smith on Naked Capitalism is
skeptical that this would be effective.
"Once the Fed steps in as a major player
(major is required to have any impact),
how does the Fed wean the market of its
support?" she asks.
"Warm up the helicopters, and welcome
to central planning."
On Monday, markets around the world
plunged. The Dow Jones industrial average
fell as much as 800 points before trimming
its losses to a decline of 369.88 points. The
out -- come November 19th, your
dashboard will never be the same. The
good folks at Joystiq have delivered this
wonderful news live-and-direct from the
Tokyo Game Show, where they're
blogging the Microsoft press briefing
while undoubtedly enjoying the finest
plan buoyed the market in early trading.
But stocks resumed their slide after the Fed
chairman's speech. At 1:30 p.m., the Dow
was down more than 230 points.
Also today, the Federal Reserve Bank of
New York held a meeting with banks and
institutional investors about setting up an
exchange or clearinghouse for credit-
default swaps.
The idea would be to give greater
transparency and oversight to the $55
trillion market, whose opaqueness and
complexity have been a fertile breeding
ground for fears.
And the Fed is now widely expected to
cut its benchmark interest rates, now at 2
percent, by a half point, possibly in
conjunction with rate cuts by the European
Central Bank, the Bank of England, and
other central banks.
Markets were buoyed a bit today by a
surprise move by Australia to cut its
benchmark interest rate by a full
percentage point. But other than India's, no
other major central bank followed.
The stresses in the global financial
system were evident today. Iceland
nationalized its second-largest bank and
said it was in talks with Russia (Russia!)
over a $5.4 billion loan.
The British government is in talks with
three of the country's largest banks—Royal
Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, and
Barclays, fresh off its purchase of Lehman
Brothers' U.S. operations—over a possible
public investment of $79 billion,
Bloomberg News reports.
Related Links
Hit the Panic Button
Why Lehman Wasn't Saved
The End of Lehman
cowboy rolls known to man and hob-
What's Wachovia Worth?
(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/6/2008 12:00:00 PM
There has perhaps been no more
mysterious or anomalous banking
transaction in recent history than the sale
of Wachovia Bank. Its fate remains up in
the air as of this writing: Citigroup has
sued Wachovia, its board, and rival suitor
Wells Fargo, but the parties have agreed to
put their litigation temporarily on hold as
they try to reach a compromise. (Karen
Donovan looks at the litigation here.)
But hedge fund manager Bill Ackman
isn't one to let a lack of disclosure keep
him from capitalizing on it.
Speaking before a group of investors at
the Value Investing Congress today, the
Pershing Square Capital manager walked
through his reasoning for buying 180
million shares of the bank seven days ago
after it announced it would sell most of
itself to Citigroup for $2.1 billion in stock.
What it boils down to is the basic tenet of
value investing: Wachovia's shares were
trading at a level significantly below what
Ackman believes the sum of its parts was
worth. In fact, if Ackman's math is right,
they still look cheap, even after the stock
rose on Friday following Wells Fargo's
unexpected announcement to buy the
entirety of Wachovia Bank. (Felix Salmon
wonders why.)
Given that Wachovia never filed the
requisite 8-K with the Securities and
Exchange Commission after the Citigroup
announcement last Monday, Ackman and
his team quickly began pulling together
their own best guess of what the remaining
parts of Wachovia—which included its
retail brokerages like its A.G. Edwards
unit, the asset management arm Evergreen,
and an insurance subsidiary—were worth.
His conclusion? The shares, which
traded as low as $1.84 last Monday, were
nobbing with other glorious gamers. Feel
free to check into their live coverage via
the link below, and start prepping for
serious avatar creation.
PS.- Check out our earlier gallery of the
new dash here.
Read- New Xbox Experience coming
Biz Buzz Gadgets* 13
worth somewhere between $7.29 and
$19.59 in Ackman's estimation. (The
biggest unknown factor is Wachovia's cash
balance, which was at $22 billion as of
June 30. The low end of his valuation
range assumes a $2 billion cash balance.)
In a surprise move, Wells Fargo swept in
on Friday with plans to buy the entirety of
Wachovia for $6.88 per share, still below
what Ackman believes the parts that
Citigroup rejected were worth.
Ackman believes that, given the
skittishness in the overall market, the fate
of Wachovia will have to be resolved
quickly. He advocates for the company to
be sold in two separate parts instead of as
one whole company as Wells Fargo has
proposed.
If Citigroup prevails as the buyer of the
commercial bank, Ackman believes that
what's left would be a great buy for a bank
like Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs.
He can even imagine Berkshire Hathaway
scooping it up as an "ideal investment
vehicle."
Ackman did sell 9.5 million shares on
Friday after the Wells Fargo
announcement, but he is still one of the
largest shareholders of Wachovia with his
remaining stake. He's pleased that a
bidding war has developed over the bank,
but it's not an outcome he necessarily
predicted when he made his investment
last week.
Shares of Wachovia were briefly halted
during Ackman's speech, which got the
crowd buzzing on their BlackBerrys. Just
as with everything else connected to this
Wachovia sale, no explanation was
provided when trading resumed.
Related Links
The Bank Heist
Citi Slickers
Did Citi Question its Wachovia Deal?
Nov. 19
Read- Joystiq live from Microsoft's TGS
2008 press conference Permalink| Email
this| Comments
14 Biz Buzz Tech*
Shock, Not Much Awe
(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 5:00:00 AM
T his had better work.
The Federal Reserve and central banks
around the world have slashed interest
rates in a last-ditch bid to shore up a
teetering financial system. Markets had a
cool response, however. Stocks at first
steadied after the coordinated rate move.
But later in the day, stocks in the United
States swung wildly, falling sharply in the
final minutes of trading to close down 2
percent. Credit markets remained locked
up.
The late sell-off in stocks came as
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson gave a
gloomy outlook on the weeks ahead as
governments work to combat the global
credit crisis.
"One thing we must recognize—even
with the new Treasury authorities—some
financial institutions will fail," he said at a
news conference.
Earlier in the day, the Fed unanimously
agreed to cut its benchmark rate by a half
point, to 1.5 percent.
The central bank said it "took this action
in light of evidence pointing to a
weakening of economic activity and a
reduction in inflationary pressures."
The Biggest Loser
(Portfolio.com: Top 5)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:30:00 AM
H igh noon in the battle over Wachovia
Bank has come and gone, but instead of
heading back to the courtroom Citigroup
and Wells Fargo are continuing their talks
until Friday.
Signs of hope that the battle would be
resolved by the end of their two-day
standoff were dashed when the noon
deadline came today but reports that
negotiations continue renewed them. The
Wall Street Journal reported that Citigroup
was seeking partners to join its bid for the
ailing North Carolina-based bank.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported that
Wells Fargo and Citigroup were in talks to
split up the assets of Wachovia by
"Incoming economic data suggest that the
pace of economic activity has slowed
markedly in recent months. Moreover, the
intensification of financial-market turmoil
is likely to exert additional restraint on
spending, partly by further reducing the
ability of households and businesses to
obtain credit."
The European Central Bank, the Bank of
England, the Bank of Canada, and the
Riksbank of Sweden all cut their rates by a
half point as well. The Bank of Japan said
it supported the effort but did not cut rates.
And both the central banks of Switzerland
and China cut rates.
It was the first worldwide coordinated
rate cut since the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks.
But lending rates among banks remain
high. "It does not do anything to change
the price of money, it is the availability of
money" that is the problem, one trader told
the Financial Times' Alphaville blog.
For the Fed, the half-point cut may be as
low as it dares to go, says Yves Smith on
Naked Capitalism: "The Fed is probably
unwilling to cut beyond that for fear of
winding up in Japan-style zero-interest-rate
territory."
geographic area, with Citigroup getting its
Northeast branches and Wells getting its
footprint in the South and Mid-Atlantic.
But the desperation factor is rising in all
corners of this fight. And perhaps nowhere
as much as it is in Vikram Pandit's corner
office. It looks as if Citigroup will turn out
to be a loser in this takeover, even if it
does end up with some piece of Wachovia.
Everyone with a stake in this race is
baffled about why Citigroup never signed a
merger agreement with Wachovia in the
first few days after it announced its
intention to buy it for $2.2 billion and help
from the federal government. Such an
agreement might have kept Wells Fargo at
bay.
And Pandit's response to this so far is
weak. In a town hall meeting with
Still, the rate cuts came on a day when it
appeared that the global bloodbath in the
stock markets would only grow, with
Tokyo closing down 9.4 percent.
And the Lex column on the Financial
Times’ website argues that the rate cuts
will make a difference:
"What they will do is generate a
positively sloped yield curve on
government bonds. Crucially, this will help
banks recapitalize themselves as they
borrow at the short end, lend to
governments at longer maturities, and
pocket the spread."
The coordinated action also came on a
day when Britain announced that it would
buy some $88 billion of preferred shares in
eight banks and building societies (the
U.K. equivalent of savings and loans).
"We have led the world today with a
proposal to restructure our banking
system," Prime Minister Gordon Brown
said. "We are taking the steps that I believe
that other countries will take in the future."
Related Links
Hit the Panic Button
Broken English
The Fed Turns Up the Tap
employees earlier this week, he claimed
that Wachovia chief executive Robert Steel
verbally confirmed they had a deal two
days before the Wells offer.
"We saved Wachovia from collapsing,"
Pandit told employees, according to the
Financial Times. "We have to be
compensated for that. That is like
somebody buying a $2 ticket, winning
$10…and somebody says, 'I am going to
come and steal it away from you for two-
and-a-half bucks.'"
Actually, that's not a great analogy. It's
more like agreeing to give your used sofa
to someone for free, but then turning
around and taking fifty bucks from
someone else who's willing to come pick it
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Why Did ISPs Take Down
Ronald Riley's Sites?
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:32:30 PM
Paul Alan Levy writes"In a new post, I
consider the Dozier-Riley controversy
from a different angle. Some ISPs
knuckled under to Dozier's threats of
trademark claims, while others stood up to
him (or tried to do so). Consumers who are
considering purchasing web hosting
services should consider the host's record
on free speech issues. I also discuss
whether the CDA should be amended to
provide immunity against trademark
claims. "
Levy raises some excellent points. I, too,
was troubled by various ISPs caving in to
Dozier's complaints, when it seemed clear
that there was little real legal basis for
them. While I had pointed out that the ISPs
should be protected by Section 230 safe
harbors, Levy mentions that Dozier is
relying on the fact that Section 230
exempts "intellectual property" claims,
which is a loophole that Dozier is
exploiting. Levy points out, as we have
plenty of times in the past, that trademarks
up from you sooner. Why wouldn't you
take the better offer? It's not as if you
signed a contract with the first guy.
Meanwhile, an editorial in the Wall
Street Journal suggests that Pandit's effort
to paint Citigroup as the Sunday night hero
(à la Jamie Dimon) is way off base.
Indeed, the Fed's motivation for
orchestrating the Citigroup deal may have
been to help boost confidence in Citigroup
just as much as it was to save Wachovia. A
beefed-up Citi, after all, would be less
inclined to need a government bailout
down the road.
"We suspect [the government's] real
agenda has little to do with who gets
Wachovia's branch network and mortgage
really shouldn't be considered "intellectual
property" any way. They don't stem from
the same part of the constitution, and they
are designed to do totally different things.
Trademark is really about consumer
protection in protecting a buyer from being
tricked into buying Bob's Cola believing
he is buying Coca-Cola. It's not about
"property" at all. And, of course, copyright
has its own safe harbors as found in the
DMCA. The fact that trademark is
somehow left out seems like an accidental
loophole that will hopefully be closed
shortly. Still, it's troublesome that Dozier
was able to get so many ISPs to shut down
Riley's websites over highly questionable
claims. I may dislike Riley quite a bit (and
while he had been silent since the lawsuit,
he showed up again last Friday in full
form, insulting me repeatedly, and never
even acknowledging that I've been
defending his position in this lawsuit), but
I will stand by his legal right to post his
obnoxious websites.
Permalink| Comments| Email This Story
portfolio and everything to do with
convincing investors and other banks that
Citigroup isn't itself in trouble," the editors
write. "The feds appear to be acting on the
belief that if Citi were left on the outside in
this deal, the markets would take that as a
sign that it is being culled from the
federally protected herd."
This all leaves Pandit with very little
ground to stand on. Meanwhile, the
earthquake rattles on.
Related Links
Did Citi Question its Wachovia Deal?
Charlotte's Web
What's Wachovia Worth?
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Congressional Hyperbole Used To Urge
Bush To Accept A Copyright Czar
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 3:56:00 PM
We've already seen that the Bush
administration has said that it really doesn't
want the "Copyright Czar" that Congress
has been trying to give the White House.
However, as the bill sits on his desk to
sign, it appears that plenty of folks are
trying to pressure Bush into signing it (he
has until Tuesday to veto or it
automatically becomes law). We already
noted that the US Chamber of Commerce
was using totally ridiculous and made up
numbers about job and dollar losses to get
Bush to sign, and now it appears that
various politicians are sending ridiculously
hyperbolic letters to the White House to
push for signing the bill as well (thanks to
Jim Harper for alerting me to this).
Let's start with Senator George
Voinovich, who actually claimed that
signing this bill "would be a fitting
achievement and legacy." Now, I don't
Nobel Prize Winning Physicist Explains
How Intellectual Property Damages
Innovation
By Michael Masnick (Techdirt)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 1:10:44 PM
Over the last year or so, there have been a
bunch of excellent books that have come
out highlighting many of the issues we talk
about here on a regular basis. The latest
may be The Crime of Reason and the
Closing of the Scientific Mind, written by
Nobel Prize winning physicist, Robert B.
Laughlin. I became aware of the book
thanks to the fact that he'll be speaking at
the Cato Institute this week about the book,
for those of you in the Washington, DC
area.
It's funny, because when we point to all
the economic research on intellectual
care what you think of the present
administration, but you'd have to be pretty
disconnected from world events to think
that adding a copyright czar will ever be
considered a part of Bush's "legacy."
Somehow, I would imagine that there is a
long list of other things that will most
likely be on his legacy list before anyone
gets around to a totally unnecessary
copyright czar.
Then there's Rep. Lamar Smith, who ran
the intellectual property subcommittee in
Congress before the Democrats and
Howard Berman took over. However,
Smith and Berman -- despite being on
different sides of the aisle, have pretty
much identical views on intellectual
property, so it's no surprise that he would
tell the President that signing this bill is
"not merely desirable, but necessary."
Necessary, huh? For what? That seems like
a pretty strong claim without an iota of
proof. That's because it's not "necessary" at
all. In fact, about the only thing it's likely
property and innovation, we've been told
that economists know nothing. In fact, one
critic of our site has claimed that even
Nobel Prize winning economists aren't
worth paying attention to -- and the only
Nobel Prize winners who matter are those
in the hard sciences. So, I'm sure those
critics will be interested in the conclusions
of Laughlin, who notes that the
strengthening of intellectual property laws
has harmed the ability to share knowledge
and to innovate. He's quite worried about
how it's impacting research and
development. Newly aggressive patent
practices are increasingly violating a
principle that has been with us since
Roman times and is built into our societies
to do is to hold back the more innovative
business models the economy needs by
propping up one industry's obsolete
business model.
Then we've got Senator Arlen Specter,
who complains that vetoing this bill could
lead to "fallout" with trading partners,
concerning the equally awful ACTA treaty.
That makes very little sense. Both this bill
and ACTA were basically written by the
same lobbyists, and both serve to do the
same thing: prop up a broken and obsolete
business model of the American
entertainment industry. Vetoing the bill is
unlikely to have any serious international
ramifications, other than from countries tha
might stand up for themselves and push
back every time the US demands they
strengthen IP laws just to protect a few
American businesses who refuse to
innovate.
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at many levels, including our religions: the
laws of man flow from the laws of nature
and are subservient to them. Patenting
nature is transparently immoral. So is
patenting reason, since reason and nature
are one and the same. Thus, the current
problem with patent law is more serious
than the bellyaching of a few jaded
engineers. It's a crisis of legitimacy. So,
now we can add a Nobel Prize winning
physicist to the list of critics of the patent
system, along with a few Nobel Prize
winning economists.
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Tech* Gadgets* Web Apps*
Azentek SmartMirror heading to
"major retailers" by end of the
year
By Donald Melanson (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 7:27:00 PM
Filed under: GPS, Transportation
Azentek apparently managed to get a few
of its SmartMirror rearview mirror
replacements out the door back in August,
but that brief spat of availability promptly
gave way to back orders and waiting lists,
and no doubt a few disappointed
customers. According to the company,
however, it's now not only ramping up
production of the GPS-packing mirrors,
but promising that they'll be available at
"major retailers" by the end of the year as
Forget AdSense on YouTube,
give me explosions
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 12:28:00 PM
In light of Tuesday's announcement of the
click-to-buy option heading to YouTube
videos, it's worth mentioning Nintendo and
YouTube's two-week old special
promotional page for the Wii game Wario
Land: Shake It. What makes it so special?
It dynamically deteriorates based on what's
happening in the video.
Coins explode out of the top of the
player and trickle down the page, while
various elements get knocked down with
each headbutt, explosion, and power up.
15
well. In case you missed it the first time
around, the $800 device crams a 4-inch
GPS unit up alongside an apparently
standard-sized rearview mirror, and it
surprisingly doesn't skimp on too many
features, with it boasting handsfree
Bluetooth calling, a built-in speaker, text-
to-speech functionality, and an SD card
slot for expansion (a 2GB card is
included). For some true redundancy, you
can also use the mirror as a monitor for a
rearview camera.
[Via TWICE]
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
There's no way to regenerate items as they
fall off without refreshing your page,
although you can pick up each piece and
throw it around, which is almost as much
fun as watching it fall apart. Some things
like the share and favorite buttons remain
clickable too.
Useful if you were trying to read the
video information while it flies off the
screen? No. Mind-bogglingly cool and
memorable? Definitely.
As the video plays bits and pieces of the
page fall apart, including the video
itself.(Credit: CNET Networks)
16 Gadgets*
Gigabyte M912X hack makes a
smarter, cheaper Modbook
By Samuel Axon (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 10:06:00 PM
Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs A
fellow named Stuart Lowe installed
Leopard on his Gigabyte M912X netbook /
tablet hybrid, and we like the results.
Though this isn't the first Mac tablet hack,
it's a tightly wrapped little package: the
interface seems smooth with either fingers
or a stylus, and Inkwell's onscreen
keyboard allows complete functionality
when the computer is folded into its slate
configuration. Much of the necessary
software functionality existed in Leopard
Latest NPD data shows RAZR V3 still top-selling handset in America
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:07:00 PM
Filed under: Cellphones
No need to defog your spectacles, what
you just read there in the headline is the
truth. Astoundingly enough, Motorola's
nearly archaic (in cellphone years,
already, and since installing OS X on
something other than a Mac isn't the
challenge it used to be, we're envisioning a
pretty smooth ride for other would-be-
hackers. We've embedded a video on the
other side of the jump -- take a look, and
then cast your vote on what to call this
niche category of netbook-like tablets.
[Via Slashgear]
View Poll
Continue reading Gigabyte M912X hack
makes a smarter, cheaper Modbook Read|
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anyway) RAZR V3 is still the top-selling
handset in the United States. Of course, it
helps that it's highly subsidized on
practically every carrier from coast to
coast, but we're still a little stunned that it's
selling this well nearly 2.5 years after
Moto moved its 50 millionth unit. The rest
of the top five isn't nearly as shocking,
World's largest LED screen coming
to Dubai
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 6:48:00 PM
Filed under: Displays, HDTV
By this point, you should fully
understand that " Dubai" and " world's
largest" go hand-in-hand, so it's quite
fitting that said city is receiving the
planet's most humongous LED screen.
Designed by UAE development company
Tameer Holding, the 33-story high display
will reportedly be "embedded on an
intended commercial tower in the Majan
with Apple's iPhone snagging the silver,
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
district of Dubailand," where it will stand
tall and blast out advertisements to
onlookers some 1.5-kilometers away.
Dubbed Podium, the building will also
house 33 levels of "premium commercial
office space, two floors dedicated to retail
and four floors for parking." There's no
word on when the project will be
completed, but we don't suspect Tameer
will be dragging its feet in getting this up.
[Via Coolbuzz] Read| Permalink| Email
this| Comments
RIM's BlackBerry Curve grabbing the
bronze, LG's Chocolate at number four and
the BlackBerry Pearl at five. With the
original RAZR still selling so well, one
would think Motorola could just tweak it
slightly and issue a second iteration for
even more windfall profits. Er, wait. Read|
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Kota the Triceratops
ships from the land
before time to your home
By Samuel Axon (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:00:00 PM
Filed under: Robots
Playskool's Kota the Triceratops is a
robot dinosaur that uses 11 sensors to
respond to touch and sound by wiggling its
horns, wagging its tail and turning its head.
It also plays a few "adventure themed
songs." Best of all, it can't stampede or
impale anyone; like the animatronic
Triceratops in Jurassic Park, Kota can't get
up and move around. That won't stop kids
from adoring it though. Like Pleo before it,
Kota's cuteness overpowers all. Don't
believe us? Shipments have begun, so you
can buy the cuddly robot and see for
yourself. All you need is 300 bucks. Or
you could just check out the video beyond
the cut.
Continue reading Kota the Triceratops
ships from the land before time to your
home Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Fujifilm FinePix S2000HD gets
reviewed, all 15x of it
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 11:10:00 PM
Filed under: Digital Cameras
With a zoom this long, it has to be good,
right? Evidently that's absolutely correct,
as the critics over at PhotographyBLOG
adored what the FinePix S2000HD was
packin'. The camera wasn't the sharpest nor
most evenly exposed megazoom they'd
ever seen, but given the respectable asking
price ($269), it was still deemed a winner.
Paris' New Presidential Spoof
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 3:15:00 PM
See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or
More specifically, reviewers found the
image quality to be "perfectly acceptable
given the build and asking price," and
while the video wasn't true HD, it still
trumped that of most rivals. In the end, the
relatively compact 10-megapixel cam was
seen as a perfect option for those not ready
to splurge on a DSLR and a decent zoom
lens, notching a very admirable 4 out of 5
overall rating. Read| Permalink| Email this|
Comments
Die
Paris Hilton launched her latest
presidential video today on
www.funnyordie.com, this time, asking
SlingCatcher now officially for sale
By Nilay Patel (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/9/2008 12:01:00 AM
Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
It's been over a year and half since Sling
first announced the SlingCatcher, but the
mythical streamer is finally, finally here --
it's now officially for sale on Sling's site
and at other major retailers. You already
know most of the details about the $299
Incrudo 8GB flash drive reeks of expensive
By Darren Murph (Engadget)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 6:22:00 PM
Filed under: Storage
Don't spaz out or anything, but that thing
you're peering at above actually isn't a
small flask of cologne. No, no -- it's an
8GB USB drive, and it's one of the most
Shoeboxed now tags scanned receipts for you
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 10:38:00 AM
Receipt-scanning service Shoeboxed just
launched a new feature that automatically
files scanned receipts into one of 15
expense categories. These include
groceries, gas, and travel expenses, which
you can view simply by clicking on them.
Users can also create their own expense
categories, although there's currently no
way to have the service auto-tag expenses
by keyword.
advice from a former American
"president," (or at least someone who
played one on TV), Martin Sheen!
"Nowadays, soundbites, not sound policy,
Gadgets* Web Apps* Movies*
box -- Slingbox playback, SlingProjector
computer streaming, extensive codec
support including XviD, eventual
Sling.com content delivery -- so we'll just
let you hit the order page, but rest assured
we'll be tearing this thing apart when our
test unit arrives. Read| Permalink| Email
this| Comments
expensive you can buy. Reportedly built
with titanium, the drive is water-resistant,
In addition to new receipts, users will
find a good number of their old receipts
categorized. Dan Englander, Shoeboxed's
VP of Communications says some may not
get the tagging treatment if the system
can't find a match, but that a "large
majority" have.
Users of Mint.com and other online
determine our country’s course. I plan to
bring a fake balanced approach to these
real problems," Hilton promises in the
video.
17
With 'Ubiquity,' Mozilla
chooses functionality
over security
By Chris Soghoian (Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 1:27:00 PM
How popular can a piece of software get
before being in "beta" is no longer a
legitimate excuse for known software
flaws? Or, to put it another way, is it
responsible to allow hundreds of thousands
of people to install your product, when you
know ahead of time that doing so opens
crush-proof and fancied up further with a
single red ruby. Sure, it's 21,750 rubles
($837), but dollars to donuts they'd trade
you one for a sure-to-be-authentic iPhone.
[Via Gadgets-Weblog] Read| Permalink|
Email this| Comments
banking services have been enjoying auto-
categorization for some time now, but keep
in mind these places are getting the
information digitally. Shoeboxed must first
scan your receipts then run them through
optical character recognition. The
categorization is not just for the scanned
receipts though; any online receipts you
"CC" Shoeboxed with will get tagged too.
If an item fits into a category it's now
automatically tagged with it for easy
sorting later on.(Credit: Shoeboxed /
CNET Networks)
18 TV*
WITH
continued from page 17
them up to attack?
The software visionaries at the Mozilla
Corporation, which makes the popular
Firefox web browser, have taken the
approach that creativity and functionality
is king--even if security has to take a
backseat. Case in point: The widely
praised"Ubiquity" software add-on, which
brings an amazingly rich and extensible
new form of interaction to the Firefox Web
browser.
The technology press has showered
praise upon the developers of this software
tool. However, in prioritizing functionality
over security, Mozilla Labs punted
complex trust choices to end users--the
vast majority of whom are ill-equipped to
make such decisions. The end result is that
the hundreds of thousands of users of
Ubiquity face a significant risk of browser
hijacking by attackers, which could result
in the theft of e-mail and online banking
account information.
Mozilla's Ubiquity in Action
The Ubiquity add-on brings a new form
of command-driven interaction to the
Firefox Web browser. Using the tool, a
user can perform actions based on the
contents of a page--such as translating the
foreign text on a page into English, or
generating a Google map of a highlighted
address. While this is certainly cool, it is
the extreme extendability of Ubiquity that
makes it a truly compelling tool.
One of the main design goals for
Ubiquity was that it should be extremely
easy for users to be able to create their own
commands, which they could then share
with others. As a result, a useful command
can be whipped together in a couple lines
of JavaScript--for example, allowing a user
to send a Twitter message from within the
browser. Aza Raskin, the head of User
Experience at Mozilla Labs summed up the
goals of Ubiquity in a blog post
introducing the tool:
The fundamental problem is that
Note: Saturday Night Live doesn't really want you to shoot anyone
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 1:06:00 PM
Filed under: Late Night, Saturday Night
Live, Reality-Free When I watched the
Nancy Pelosi/President Bush/Barney Frank
bailout sketch on last Saturday's Saturday
extending the browser, and hence the Web,
is too difficult. The closer new browser
functionality can be packaged to look like
standard HTML and (Javascript), the larger
and more diverse a community will create
it. The desktop paradigm for extension
development, while powerful, has a high
cost of adoption. Right now we have a
short tail of browser functionality with
thousands of add-ons. There should be
millions. We can get to that long tail using
a more Web-like model for functionality
development--tools that are accessible to
hobbyists and tinkerers, but that scales to
professionals.
Mozilla Labs was hugely successful, and
within a week of the first public beta
release of Ubiquity, over 100,000 users
downloaded and installed the tool. Even
more telling, is the number of commands
that have been created and shared by users.
The Ubiquity Wiki lists 300-plus different
commands, while Mozilla's Raskin wrote
in his blog that "thousands of commands
(have been) written for Ubiquity" and that
"in under a week, we have a roughly
comparable number of Ubiquity
commands as there are Firefox
extensions."
Mozilla does not release stats on the
number of downloads, but given the rapid
adoption of the browser add-on, it is quite
reasonable to assume that by now it has
been installed by at least 250,000 users, if
not far more.
The Ubiquity command installation
screen
No security, no problem
The success of Ubiquity has come at a
high cost--the Mozilla Labs team
completely punted on the issue of security,
and made users responsible for judging the
safety of downloadable Javascript,
something that few of the hundreds of
thousands of its users are likely able to do.
When a user wishes to install one of the
thousands of publicly available Ubiquity
Night Live, I had no idea that one of the
couples featured in the sketch (played by
Darrell Hammond and Casey Wilson) was
actually based on a real-life couple, and
now that couple is angry at how they were
portrayed. And by "portrayed" I mean that
SNL putting up the words "People That
commands, they are first taken to bright
red warning screen. The user is clearly told
the risks that they face should they
accidentally install a malicious command,
and then they are given the opportunity to
read through the command's JavaScript
source code in order to see if it is good or
evil.
The vast majority of the users on the
Web are not able to read JavaScript. Even
those skilled users that know enough to
throw together a Ubiquity command or two
are unlikely to be able to properly assess
the security of someone else's code. This
point can be clearly driven home by
looking at the success of the Underhanded
C Programming Contest, in which users
submit code that "looks" clean and safe,
but which actually performs evil actions.
Furthermore, while Mozilla has been
surprisingly frank with users about the
risks they face when installing commands,
this approach of education and disclaimers
is simply not enough. It is totally
unreasonable to offer a shiny, awesome
and powerful new tool to the Internet at
large if clicking on a wrong link could
result in a user suffering identity theft or
worse. Bruce Schneier has often said that
humans are really bad at judging risk, and
so of course, the vast majority of
Ubiquity's users are going to install foreign
and unknown commands, simply because
they offer awesome functionality.
Security Warnings in Ubiquity
In addition to the general problems of
untrusted JavaScript, Ubiquity also suffers
from significant security issues due to the
ability to auto-update commands. By
checking a box, a user can permit the
browser to automatically upgrade
commands whenever the author releases a
new version. This option creates two major
issues.
First, a developer could release a
legitimately useful command, wait until
thousands of users have subscribed to it,
Should Be Shot" on the screen while the
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
and then send out a malicious update to
those users that have enabled auto-updates.
Since users only get to see the JavaScript
at the time of first install, they face
significant risks from future malicious
updates.
Second, command updates are currently
served via non-encrypted HTTP
connections, and the Ubiquity
infrastructure lacks the code-signing
functionality that is provided to Mozilla
add-ons. This creates a significant potential
for man-in-the-middle attacks against the
Ubiquity update process, particularly when
users are connected to the Internet via a
public wireless network. Last year, I
revealed that a number of toolbars for the
Firefox 2.0 browser were vulnerable to this
same type of attack. This flaw was
eventually fixed by moving the distribution
of commercial browser-addon updates to
SSL-encrypted servers.
The Mozilla Labs team has recognized
these risks, and has plans to fix them at
some point in the future. However, for
now, users of Ubquity remain vulnerable
to attackers, particularly those who have
opted to allow automatic updates of
commands.
In releasing Ubiquity, the Mozilla team
also created a Web site it calls the Herd,
which enables users to opt-in to reporting
which commands they have installed.
Thus, one assumes, if 20,000 other users
have installed a command, it is probably
safer than one that five other people are
using. While better than nothing, Herd is
still very new, and due to the pro-privacy
opt-in model chosen for data reporting, it
only captures a small slice of the Ubiquity
user base.
When asked to comment on some of the
security issues, Aza Raskin issued the
following statement regarding security
issues in Ubiquity:
Mozilla Labs is a shared space for
exploration for future user experiences on
couple was talking.
NBC has edited the segment (which you
can see at the link above) so that the words
no longer appear on the screen. In fact, in
this new edited version, you can actually
hear the audience laugh at the on-screen
joke, even though nothing appears there
the open Web. It's a place where we, as a
part of larger community, can experiment
and iterate on new ways of interacting with
the Web, having the Web fundamentally
enhance the browsing experience. It's also
a place where we can safely explore new
security and trust models among a
technically savvy group, before bringing
them to a wider audience.
The Herd is one way of trying to involve
the community as a corner-stone of solving
the security problem. It's still in its infancy.
We are working towards creating an open
API so that everyone can pitch in to create
a safe place for everyday users to get
commands. Just like Ubiquity UI not being
right yet, neither is the Herd.
Eventually, I expect there to be hybrid
models. Mozilla, and other trusted sources
(think folks like Bruce Schneier), will vet
core and recommended commands. The
Herd, enhanced by numerous metrics of
"browser health," will constantly be
watching for bad actors. Clearly, we don't
expect end users to need to read code--and
we do plan on adding manifests of some
form to sandbox certain types of
commands. Right now, however, the
emphasis is on empowering verb authors to
be generative.
Raskin did not answer specific questions
posed by this blogger, and neither he nor
Dan Veditz, Mozilla's security lead, would
confirm if the Ubiquity code base was
audited by members of Mozilla's security
team before being released to hundreds of
thousands of users. I'd be willing to bet a
few beers that it hasn't.
There is of course a legitimate reason to
release beta software, even when it has
known security flaws. Were Ubiquity
available only to those Web programmers
proficient in JavaScript, this wouldn't be an
issue. However, when hundreds of
thousands of people are using your
product, you can no longer reasonably hide
behind the claim of "beta."
now.
Continue reading Note: Saturday Night
Live doesn't really want you to shoot
anyone
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Angel investor Ron Conway to portfolio: Cut expenses
now
By Rafe Needleman
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:08:00 PM
Ron Conway, an investor in more than
100 contemporary tech start-ups and about
that many in the last tech boom, sees the
current financial environment as very
similar to the 2000-2001 tech economy
meltdown. His advice, as he laid it out to
me earlier today and to his portfolio
companies yesterday in an e-mail (after the
jump), is the same as it was then: "Raise
money internally by reducing cost."
He says, "The funding climate is going to
tighten no matter what we do. The sooner
we can prepare for it, the better."
At least, he says, entrepreneurs are more
mature and proactive than they were in the
last downturn. They're coming to him,
some with cutback plans and some just
seeking advice. As he puts it, the ones who
come to him and say, "Walk me through
the steps I should be taking," are the ones
that will weather the storm.
Conway still feels it's a great time to start
a company: if you're a "great entrepreneur
with a great business idea," he says, "now
is as good a time as any." But "hold on to
your day job while you are raising money."
The letters:
From: Ron Conway
Date: Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 12:12 PM
Subject: IMPORTANT PLEASE READ
ASAP .....REGARDING CURRENT
MARKET CONDITIONS...Confidential
We have all been absorbed by the
turmoil in the financial markets the past
few weeks
Unlike the turmoil of 2000 when the
"action" was centered right here in Silicon
Valley this time is it centered on Wall
Street.....but it has rippled to the west coast
quickly and we will not be "immune" to its
drastic effects.
I was an active investor in 2000 when the
"bubble burst" and remember it vividly and
want to give you the SAME EXACT
advice I gave to my portfolio company
CEOs back then.
I have pasted in the emails I sent on
April 17th 2000 and May 10th 2000 and
every word applies today.
Unfortunately history DOES repeat itself
but I hope we can learn from history and
prevent the turmoil from occurring again.
The message is simple. Raising capital
will be much more difficult now.
You should lower your "burn rate" to
raise at least 3-6 months or more of
funding via cost reductions, even if it
means staff reductions and reduced
marketing and G&A expenses. This is the
equivalent to "raising an internal round"
through cost reductions to buy you more
time until you need to raise money again;
hopefully when fund raising is more
feasible. Letting go of staff is hard and
often gut wrenching. A re-evaluation of
timelines and re-focus on milestones with
the eye of doing more with less will allow
you to live many more days, and the name
of the game in this environment in some
respects is survival--survival until
conditions change.
If you are in a funding cycle, you should
raise your funding as soon as possible and
raise as much as possible but face the fact
that if you can't raise money now you must
cut costs.
While I do not own a large percentage of
your company I hope you will consider
this thoughtful advice.
I was here in 2000 and want to share
what I learned through many years of
experience and historical "pattern
recognition"!
Here are the two emails from the year
2000 that I referred to above and all the
statements apply in today's market:
----------------------------------------
To: Angel Investors, L.P. Portfolio CEOs
Date: 04/17/2000 05:24 PM
From: Ron Conway
RE: Market Conditions Effect on Angel
Investors, L.P. Portfolio Companies
The down draft in the stock market sends
us some obvious "signals" and we can't
help but mention them.
1. If you are in a funding cycle, you
should raise your funding as soon as
possible and raise as much as possible.
2. Many companies are ignoring certain
VC leads we've provided in order to
concentrate on the top tier only. While we
have preached that in the past, this is no
longer the case. Currently, top-tier VC
bandwidth constraints, coupled with the
market down draft, make it very important
to take meetings with any VCs where you
can get their attention. We have been
working hard to open up this new
bandwidth.
3. You must aggressively examine and
pursue M&A opportunities (unless you
have over 12 months of cash reserves!) ro
insure you have critical mass (including
funding, customers, rolodex power, market
share, cash, synergy, etc.).
4. Be realistic on valuations - they will
fall so be ready and willing to co-operate.
5. Look for corporate partners to invest
so you can raise more money. You should
also consider a sale of your company to
your corporate partners.
6. If you are entering a funding cycle
start raising money sooner rather than
later.
7. While it's safe to say entrepreneurs
have had negotiating leverage with the
"down draft" in the market, the VC
community will start exercising their
leverage.
----------------------------------------
To: Angel Investors, L.P. Portfolio CEOs
Date: 05/10/2000 05:23 PM
From: Ron Conway
RE: Market Conditions Effect on Angel
Investors, L.P. Portfolio Companies
I want to "touch base" again; given the
continued uncertainty in the capital
markets.
As the market turmoil continues, we
must underscore the advice that we have
provided since mid April and it boils down
to just a few points:
1) The capital market window is shut,
including IPOs and VC Funding (VCs are
looking at their existing portfolio funding
needs - not new opportunities). Basically
the market is now looking for PtoP (Path to
Profitability) instead of BtoC, BtoB, etc!
PtoE will prevail price to sales ratios! You
must lower your "burn rate" to raise at
least 3-6 months more of funding via cost
reductions, even if it means selective staff
reductions and reduced marketing and
G&A expenses. This is the equivalent to
'raising an internal round" through cost
reductions to buy you more time until you
need to raise money again; hopefully when
fund raising is more feasible.
2) If you have $10M or less in the bank
you must do #1 above plus look at M&A
options for your company; especially if
your company is BtoC, content,
advertising model, community, commerce,
and even BtoB. An M&A transaction will
allow you to gain critical mass and to get
two sets of funding sources and rolodexes
working on your behalf. M&A transactions
take over 90 days so you need at least that
much cash to fund your company. You
must attend our M&A day on May 24th at
the San Mateo Marriott at 3:00 PM. We
will have investment banks there in
addition to entrepreneurs who have
successfully accomplished M&A
transactions. We will send you details.
We are still developing many new
funding sources for our portfolio
companies that are in funding cycle.
See also:
CNET's roundup coverage: Tough times
for tech
Gigaom: Sequoia rings the alarm bell:
Silicon Valley is in trouble
Web Apps* 19
Yahoo relaunches
IndexTools as
Web Analytics
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 4:51:00 PM
Yahoo on Wednesday announced the
rebranding of IndexTools as Yahoo Web
Analytics(beta). Currently an enterprise
product, the move brings it closer to being
a consumer and small business tool,
although it's not available to everyone just
yet.
Yahoo acquired IndexTools back in early
April and promptly made it a free service.
Its big advantage over Google Analytics is
that the information is updated within a
few minutes of user activity. In
comparison, stats from Google tend to take
about 24 hours, however anyone can sign
up for it. Both products feature colorful,
easy-to-read charts and graphics for data
reporting, deep tie-ins with each
company's ad services, and a single-service
user log-in that works with other company
properties.
According to a post on Yahoo's blog the
updated version of the service is already
out to advertisers and third-party
application developers, with Yahoo Small
Business users to follow. If you try to sign-
up on the new site, there's simply a wait
list where you can subscribe to updates.
Yahoo's Director of Data Insights Dennis
Mortensen says the easiest way to get your
hands on this before Q4 is to become an
advertiser.
You can read more about the changeover
here. I've also embedded a five-minute
overview of what the service did (five
months ago) after the break.
Yahoo's new Web analytics dashboard is
clean and colorful, although unless you're
an advertiser you're not bound to see it
until 2009.(Credit: Yahoo Inc.)
20 Web Apps* TV*
Still believe in the stock market? Try
Inner8
By Rafe Needleman
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:30:00 AM
Inner8 is a recently launched social-stock
picking service. CEO Doug Doyle says the
company's mission is to provide an online
alternative to the traditional investment
advisor, who, he says, typically
underperforms the market at large.
Obviously, that's never been more true
than in recent days, making Doyle's goal
to, "steal share from the advice industry,"
quite modest. If, that is, there remains any
industry to steal share from.
Inner8 is indeed a good source of
investment ideas, but it's no replacement
for an advisor. It's too technical and too
involved. You can't just put your money in
its hands and walk away. Not that you
should do that with an advisor, either, but
if the goal is to provide users with the
same appearance of full-service
management that they get with personal
advisors, Inner8 is a failure.
This investor, whose investing style is a
99 percent match with mine, is only 25
percent accurate in his predictions. Maybe
I need to take advice from people with
different mindsets.
But it is a solid stock community, and
The forecast for NBC's Weather Plus: darkness
(because, you know, it's being shut down)
By Richard Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 6:00:00 PM
Filed under: News, Industry,
Programming, Cancellations, Reality-Free
This was bound to happen. When NBC
Universal decided to purchase The
Weather Channel earlier this year I'm sure
there were some questions as to how this
would affect the network's Weather Plus
operation. You mean you don't know about
Weather Plus? Sure you do! It's the 4-year
old digital content operation that paired the
network with their affiliates to air its
content on their digital channels. It's also
worth exploring by anyone who is fed up
with either advisors or with the current
tools for selecting investments, and who
realizes that they would do well to spend
some time with their money if they want it
to work for them.
The site has two main feature areas.
First, it's a social stock site. You tell the
service what your investing profile is like
(though a questionnaire) and it will find
other users who are similar to you. Then
you can see what they're recommending.
You can also have it select the users who
are the most unlike you, if you're looking
for a fresh perspective.
Second, it's a prediction market. But its
mechanics are greatly simplified from
most other prediction markets, where you
wager fake money on real outcomes and
where the best performers are the ones
who have won most of these virtual bucks.
In Inner8, you select a stock, and then,
from a slider, predict the price of it one
month out. The system tracks your
performance and calculates your accuracy
score over time. Doyle says it's a better
system than the standard social stock site
method of rating users' portfolios based on
ROI, since those can be heavily skewed by
hail-Mary investments that happen to
strike it big. I agree in principle, although I
what MSNBC and CNBC have been using
the last few years during times of severe
weather.
Well, the answer to if both Weather Plus
do like to take advice from investors with
skin in the game, and Inner8 doesn't yet
connect to real portfolios at all.
Inner8 is well structured, although too
technical and complex for the intended
audience, in my opinion. Still, if it collects
a solid community of users it will reward
them with good advice. People who have
money in the market have a responsibility
to that money to play a more active role in
its management than the advice
community encourages, so Doyle struck a
chord with me when he said, "It genuinely
pisses us off, the good money that people
are spending on financial advice. And it's
not helping." To that end, Inner8 is a good
service for the times.
The product will be pitched at the
Finovate conference about online financial
tools in New York next week. It should be
a rockin' good time. A paid version with
additional features (I'm predicting portfolio
tracking and real-time stock data) is
scheduled for 90 days from now.
There is useful and interesting data on
the Inner8 stock pages. See also: The mob
is my broker: Cake launching
crowdsourced stock fund.
and The Weather Channel would be run
simultaneously has been answered: they
won't. NBC News President Steve Capus
said Weather Plus operation would be
phased out in stages through the end of the
year, affecting both on- and off-air staff.
There is no word if any of the Weather
Plus technology or staff will be integrated
into other aspects of the News division or
into TWC in general.
Continue reading The forecast for NBC's
Weather Plus: darkness (because, you
know, it's being shut down)
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Reframe It launches
community markup system
for Web pages
By Rafe Needleman
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:00:00 AM
Here we go again. A new company,
Reframe It, is launching its Web markup
product on Wednesday. Like ThirdVoice
and Stickis before it, Reframe It lets you
highlight a piece of a Web page, comment
on it, and discuss those comments with
other visitors to the site.
I found using the service a good
community experience, although I believe
the concept is dated. For one, nearly all
sites now have their own communities and
discussion threads, and adding another
discussion system could actually splinter a
community instead of drawing it together.
Furthermore, Reframe It currently works
primarily through a browser plug-in (on
Firefox and Internet Explorer). Betting on
software to carry community is a long shot.
On this New Yorker article, the user
highlighted text (in yellow, left) and then
commented on that clip in the Reframe It
sidebar at right.
The company, though, is actually
oriented around making that software
dependency into a strength. CEO Bobby
Fishkin wrote to me, "Within mass
communities we can let members discuss
the news as a community, filter for only
comments by members, improve fund-
raising by helping improve engagement,
and drive traffic for these nonprofits with
free branded groups." By which I think he
means that he envisions Reframe It being
used sort of like a tour bus for the Web, in
which groups can see everything out there,
but stick together nonetheless.
The service also integrates with other
social networks, Fishkin says, so when
you're trolling the Web with Reframe It
active you can easily filter out comments
from people outside your circle.
All well and good, but I stand by my
assertion that the technology has no hope
for widespread adoption as a standalone
browser extension. To be fair, the company
has a widgetized version of the product
that publishers can add to their sites. This
lets visitors to the site flag items on pages
and chat about them. They can't, though,
just go to any site on the Web and have the
same experience, as they can if they have
the extension. But the tool for publishers is
Reframe It's best avenue for success, even
though it competes with other native
comment systems (the ones you get on any
blogging platform) as well as third-party
comment products like Disqus.
Alternatively, I could see this concept
getting necessary traction, even as an
extension, if it was very closely married to
an existing social-network platform like
Facebook. Reframe It needs a viral
distribution push that I don't think it will
get otherwise.
See also: GooseGrade lets readers
copyedit your blog.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
New Wikia interface
enables search-results apps MyAnalytics puts Google
By Stephen Shankland
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:53:00 AM
Wikia Search has opened an interface that
lets others build miniature applications
within search results.(Credit: CNET News)
Wikia Search has released an interface
called Wikia Intelligent Search Extensions
(WISE) that lets sites build their search
results into custom-made applications.
WISE launched Wednesday with a
number of partners offering sample
"WISEapps," including AccuWeather,
Digg, and The Washington Post, which
built an application that can show its news
articles directly within search results.
The technology is similar to Yahoo's
SearchMonkey.
Incorporating the collaborative Wiki
philosophy, Wikia Search lets people edit
search results, including the order in which
results appear. Google has begun a much
narrower experiment that lets people move,
add, and remove search results, but Wikia
co-founder and Chairman Jimmy Wales
wants to offer more.
"While others have announced they're
simply 'experimenting' with allowing user
input on search results, the Wikia Search
project continues to seek ways to provide
unmatched levels of input from users,"
Wales said in a statement. "Today we've
taken another significant step in that
direction and firmly believe anyone who
uses our search tool will find the results
better for it."
Personally, Wikia Search hasn't changed
my search habits, though I occasionally try
it to see what comes up. I tried a sample
WISEapp module with mixed results: a
Wikia search for "buffalo weather"
successfully returned the AccuWeather
forecast application--but for Buffalo, Iowa,
which probably isn't the first city named
Buffalo on most people's search priorities.
Also, retrieving search results was fairly
pokey, and Google has shown that snappy
results are an essential part of the user
experience.
Analytics in your pocket
By Josh Lowensohn
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:54:00 PM
If you're too impatient to wait for Google
to release its own iPhone app or Safari-
optimized version of Google Analytics you
might want to check out myAnalytics. This
$1.99 iPhone application ( app store link)
lets you see a general overview of how
your sites are doing, and stores the data
locally on your device so you can access it
when you're away from a data connection.
Considering Google's most recent release
of Analytics requires Adobe Flash, this is
the easiest way to get it short of getting
your hands on a real computer.
While convenient, it is worth noting that
myAnalytics can get bogged down if you
intend on using it for more than eight
different sites. Also, the current version
only shows you basic numbers and a small
chart, unlike Google Analytics, which lets
you dig deeper into each component of
your site. Version 1.1, which is coming
soon, will let you view each individual stat
on its own graph, which is a good start.
Related: Sergej Müller's mobile Safari-
friendly version of Google Analytics(Note:
this only lets you see page views and
visitor counts.)
If you're trying to access Google
Analytics on the go you can avoid looking
at the Flash cube of fail, and instead see
some simple, and colorful graphs and
charts with myAnalytics.(Credit: iphone-
analytics.de)
Web Apps* 21
Attention, Google
Maps fans: Here
come GeoEye photos
By Stephen Shankland
(Webware.com)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:16:00 PM
This shot of Kutztown University in
Pennsylvania is the first image from the
GeoEye-1 satellite. Google is a
commercial customer for the satellite's
imagery. Click for a larger view.(Credit:
GeoEye)
Golden Bears fans, take note: The first
high-resolution photos from GeoEye's
newest satellite, GeoEye-1, have begun
arriving, and Kutztown University in
Pennsylvania is the first subject of
scrutiny.
These are the shots that eventually will
show up on Google Maps and Google
Earth; Google has an exclusive partnership
to use the GeoEye-1 imagery for online
services. The satellite's camera can capture
image details as small as 41 centimeters,
though commercial customers only get 50-
centimeter resolution because of U.S.
regulations.
The Kutztown University image was
taken at noon EDT Tuesday while the
satellite was moving south at an altitude of
423 miles at a speed of 4.5 miles per
second relative to the Earth's surface,
GeoEye said.
GeoEye launched the satellite on
September 6; GeoEye-2 is slated for a
launch in 2011 or 2012. It has a 25-
centimeter resolution.
22 TV*
What's On Tonight: Bones,
Mythbusters, South Park,
Letterman
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 4:03:00 PM
Filed under: Late Night, Programming,
Talk Show, What To Watch Tonight
• At 8, ABC has a new Pushing Daisies,
then new episodes of Private Practice and
Dirty Sexy Money.
• CBS has a new Old Christine at 8,
followed by new episodes of Gary
Unmarried, Criminal Minds, and CSI: NY.
• NBC has a new Knight Rider at 8, then
new episodes of Biggest Loser and
Lipstick Jungle.
• FOX has new episodes of Bones and'Til
Death(two episodes).
• The CW has a new America's Next Top
Model at 8.
• At 9, Discovery has a new Mythbusters.
• There's a new Ghost Hunters on Sci-Fi
at 9, then a new Destination Truth.
• History Channel has a new
MonsterQuest at 9, followed by a new
Jurassic Fight Club.
• Also at 9, Showtime has a new Inside
The NFL.
• At 9:30, A&E has a new Dog The
Bounty Hunter.
• At 10, Comedy Central has the season
premiere of South Park, then the season
premiere of The Sarah Silverman Program.
• FX has a new Sons of Anarchy at 10.
• TV Land has a new Myths and Legends
at 10.
Patrick Stewart to portray a Time Lord?
By Richard Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:03:00 PM
Filed under: Watercooler Talk, Doctor
Who, Casting, Reality-Free
Okay, let me preface this first: this tidbit
of information comes directly from The
Sun. Not the piece of crap North American
tabloid but the piece of crap United
Kingdom tabloid. This was the same paper
that reported Doctor Who was ending after
• At 11, Food Network has the series
premiere of My Life In Food: T he Chef
Jeff Project.
Check your local TV listings for more.
After the jump, the late night talk show
listings.
Continue reading What's On Tonight:
Bones, Mythbusters, South Park,
Letterman
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
the fourth series, which ended up being
refuted by millions of other reputable
sources. So, take this information I write
below with a grain of salt.
The Sun is reporting that Captain Jean-
Luc Picard himself, Patrick Stewart, has
agreed to guest star in the next Doctor
Who series (season, to us in the Colonies)
as a Time Lord. The agreement came after
Stewart performed with Who star David
Tennant in a summer production of
Ratings for Heroes falling
fast; Chuck not doing too
well either
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 12:07:00 PM
Filed under: Industry, Programming,
Heroes, Ratings, Chuck, Reality-Free
Ratings for NBC's Heroes are falling each
and every week. The most recent episode
was down 11% from the previous week's
numbers.
I gotta tell ya, I don't get it. I'm really
loving this season, but TV critics left and
right have given up on the show. Sure, it's
completely ridiculous and over the top, but
if you remember the first season wasn't
exactly a PBS documentary. The show has
always been comic-book crazy, so I
wonder if the writers strike had a bigger
impact on the show than we all thought. Or
maybe people have just gotten tired of the
show, not because of any massive drop in
quality but just because they're watching
other things, not into sci-fi as much
anymore, or don't want to follow another
show with a continuing storyline and a lot
of characters. I don't know, but I do know
that the show is a ton of fun to watch, and
even if there is a lot going on, it's a great
ride.
It probably doesn't help that the ratings
Hamlet. According to the report, Stewart
would team up with the Doctor in a two-
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
for the lead in show, Chuck, are down
15%. Wow, if these two shows go away,
what other hour-long shows will there be
left to watch on NBC? I'm not sitting
through The Biggest Loser or Knight
Rider, sorry. I wonder how My Own Worst
Enemy will do in the Monday at 10 time
slot when it premieres next week?
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
part episode involving the Daleks (who
just. Won't. Die.). He would play the role
of a renegade Time Lord seen during the
early days of the first Doctor Who series
called the Meddling Monk.
Continue reading Patrick Stewart to
portray a Time Lord?
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
David E. Kelley
pitching - surprise!
- a new legal show
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 11:03:00 AM
Filed under: Other Drama Shows,
Industry, Reality-Free It's looking like
David E. Kelley's plan is to have at least
one of his legal shows on the air at all
times.
The producer/writer is now pitching a
new legal drama series to the networks.
CBS and NBC are particularly interested.
No word on whether or not ABC is
interested in the new show, which would
be odd since they've had some success
with one of Kelley's other legal shows,
Boston Legal, which is ending after this
season.
To refresh your memory, here are the
other legal shows that Kelley has created,
written, and/or produced over the years:
Ally McBeal, The Practice, The Law Firm,
Girls Club, and L.A. Law. Actually, even
some of his non-law shows have had
strong law elements, including Picket
Fences.
Kelley was working on the American
version of Life On Mars, which premieres
on ABC later this month, but left after the
pilot. The show is getting good buzz so far.
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
FX cancels The Riches
By Joel Keller (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:03:00 AM
Filed under: OpEd, Cancellations, The
Riches, Reality-Free The Riches was one
of those shows that suffered from the p-
word: potential. With an interesting story -
- a family of Travelers settle into a stolen
life as an upper-middle-class suburban
family -- and excellent acting
performances from Eddie Izzard and
Minnie Driver, the show had the same
breakout potential as any of FX's other
dramas.
But the show's potential was never
realized, either creatively or in the ratings.
The show always had trouble balancing
dark comedy and intense drama, and it
strained to make the audience care about
the Malloys, who were dealing with the
consequences of stealing the American
Dream. At the end of its aborted second
season, FX had not committed either way
Pushing Daisies: Circus Circus
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 10:06:00 PM
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Pushing
Daisies, Reality-Free(S02E02) I love the
romanticism of Pushing Daisies, especially
the way this episode presented it. Instead
of all the usual sunshine and sweetness,
Ned was actually acting petulant and
sullen. Chuck was asserting her
independence and feeling the need for
seizing the opportunity of a new
beginning.
For a change, these two that are normally
so in sync had to deal with an internal
challenge, as opposed to the physical
constraints that are inherent because Ned
cannot touch Chuck lest he lose her
Forest Whitaker to Play Louis Armstrong
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 4:58:00 PM
He'll portary the legendary musician in a
biopic.
After winning an Oscar for his intense
portrayal of Idi Amin in 'The Last King of
Scotland,' Forest Whitaker will transform
himself into another historic figure, jazz
to bringing the show back. Well, now we
know: Mike Ausiello of EW confirmed
yesterday that The Riches has been
cancelled.
Continue reading FX cancels The Riches
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
forever. Ned had to accept that Chuck was
living next door -- in Olive's apartment --
and happy about it.
Continue reading Pushing Daisies:
Circus Circus
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
great Louis Armstrong.
Whitaker will direct and star in the
Armstrong biopic ‘What a Wonderful
World,’ says Daily Variety. The film will
follow the legendary trumpeter and
singer’s rise from a poor New Orleans’
youth to a music icon. (you dont have to
change i guess)
"Armstrong left a monumental mark on
The Avengers are returning to
television
By Brad Trechak (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 3:10:00 PM
Filed under: Industry, Pickups and
Renewals, Reality-Free I'm not referring to
Emma Peel and John Steed. Apparently
there's a new cartoon heading to television
based on the Marvel Comics superhero
team of the same name. Is it just me, or are
the characters' shapes reminiscent of the
excellent Batman, Superman and Justice
League cartoons from recent years?
Obviously, this is crossover marketing
with the Marvel-financed movies that are
coming out using the "shared universe"
approach that was popular in their comics.
Movies like Iron Man, Thor, and The First
Avenger: Captain America(while I
understand the marketing behind "The
First Avenger" tag, I don't really like its
Will these celebrities be part of the next
Celebrity Apprentice?
By Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 5:09:00 PM
Filed under: The Apprentice, Celebrities,
Casting In case you forgot, yes, The
Celebrity Apprentice got picked up for a
second season. I must admit that I was
entertained by the first season (mostly
thanks to winner Piers Morgan and his
antics). If they follow about the same
schedule as last year, NBC will announce
the second season's cast in about a month.
What does this mean to us? That it's time
to play, "Will these celebrities be part of
our lives and our culture," said Whitaker,
who also played jazz man Charlie Parker
in 1988's ‘Bird.’ "He lived an amazing life
and, through his art, shifted the way music
was played and would be heard after him,
not just here in the U.S. but all over the
world."
use) are leading up to The Avengers movie
in which all the aforementioned
superheroes appear on the same screen.
Continue reading The Avengers are
returning to television
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
the next Celebrity Apprentice?" game!
Continue reading Will these celebrities
be part of the next Celebrity Apprentice?
Permalink| Email this| | Comments
Foo Fighters to John McCain: Hands off
Our Song!
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:50:00 PM
The band is against the pres. hopeful
using their tune.
The Foo Fighters have thrown a monkey
wrench in John McCain's use of one of
their big hits on the campaign trail -- and
they're not the first big-name band to do
so!
The Foos are requesting that McCain
TV* Movies* 23
Beyonce Dishes
on Her Super-
Secret Wedding
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 6:29:00 PM
In an all-new interview with Essence
magazine, ultra-private songbird Beyonce
Knowles is finally giving her fans a teeny
bit of insight into her nuptials with hubby
Jay-Z.
Of tying the knot, she tells the mag that
she and Jay-Z, who've been together for
six years, "always knew it would happen."
Beyonce and Jay-Z kept their April 4
wedding in NYC small, and the superstar
told Essence she didn't want or need a big
wedding because, "It's been my day so
many days already." Another tradition she
eschewed was an engagement ring, telling
Essence, "People put too much emphasis
on that. It's just material and it's just silly
to me."
She does wear a wedding band, she says,
and she and Jay-Z both go the roman
numeral IV tattoed on their ring fingers
since they were both born on the 4th of the
month, and they got married on the 4th.
stop using their tune "My Hero," says the
Associated Press.
"The saddest thing about this is that 'My
Hero' was written as a celebration of the
common man and his extraordinary
potential," the band said. "To have it
appropriated without our knowledge and
used in a manner that perverts the original
sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the
song."
24 Movies* Tech Tips*
The LAPD Honors Producer Jerry
Bruckheimer in 'True Blue' Style
(ETonline - Breaking News)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 6:02:00 PM
Hollywood mega producer Jerry
Bruckheimer, whose new show "Eleventh
Hour" premieres Thursday night (Oct. 9)
on CBS, was honored by the Los Angeles
Police Foundation at their 9th annual True
Blue event on the New York Streets
backlot of Paramount Studios -- and ET
was there!
"It's a fantastic organization; these young
Block Ads on Your Jailbroken iPhone or Opera Updates to Version 9.6,
iPod Touch [Step By Step] Gets Faster, Adds Features
By Kevin Purdy (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 10:05:00 AM
Whether you're on Wi-Fi or an EDGE/3G
cellular connection, many web pages
would load up a heck of a lot faster on the
iPhone's Mobile Safari browser if you
weren't stuck waiting for "LOWER YOUR
INTEREST RATES NOW" and the like to
push through on Mobile Safari. If you've
jailbroken your iPhone or iPod touch,
however, there's a none-too-hard hack you
can make to block a good number of ads
from slowing down your page loads.
Here's the step-by-step instructions for
doing so:
• If you haven't done so already, you'll
need to jailbreak your iPhone or iPod
touch. We've previously posted guides for
doing so in Windows with WinPwn, and
with the PwnageTool on a Mac.
• Click the Cydia icon on your jailbroken
device. Choose the "Search" function from
the bottom, and type in "OpenSSH"
(without the quotes) until you can see that
package. Click it, choose "Confirm" in the
upper-right to install, then re-start your
device.
• Once your iPhone/touch reboots, head
to Settings, then Wi-Fi, then click the
arrow next to the Wi-Fi server you use at
home. Write down the IP address. Head
back to Settings, choose General, and set
men and women take care of our city and
protect us," Jerry tells ET. In addition to
producing blockbusters like the 'Pirates of
the Caribbean' movies as well as cutting
his teeth on franchises like 'Beverly Hills
Cop,' Jerry is the man behind such police
shows as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"
and its successful spinoffs.
"We try to have verisimilitude in
everything we do," says Jerry. "It's really
hard, but we try."
Auto-Lock to "Never" (for the time being).
• You'll need an FTP client with SFTP
(secure SSH connection over FTP) to
connect and trade files with your device.
Windows users should try the free
FileZilla(which also comes in a no-install
portable package), and Mac users' best bet
is Cyberduck.
• On your computer, download this
replacement hosts.php file from the James
is Bored site. Open your FTP client, set it
to connect over an SFTP connection, and
then put your iPhone/touch's IP address in
the "host" section. Your username and
password (unless you changed them) are
root and alpine, respectively. The
connection may take a few minutes at first,
and you may be asked to accept a host key;
say yes to any prompts, and be prepared to
try again if the connection fails at first.
• Navigate to to the/etc folder at your
device's root. Grab the hosts.php file you
see there, and place it somewhere secure
on your computer (i.e. somewhere it won't
get over-written with the James is Bored
modified file). This can usually be done in
a drag-and-drop fashion.
• Copy the modified hosts.php file to your
device and replace the version there. Close
your FTP client, and restart your iPhone or
iPod touch.
You should start seeing blank spaces or
compressed frames where ads used to be.
This hack will still leave blank spaces
where Flash-based ads would normally be,
but display ads from a number of common
ad servers should be blocked. If anything
important gets blocked, you can easily re-
copy your original hosts.php file back to
your device.
I found a few sites—including the New
York Times—where the ad-blocking just
didn't seem to work, likely because the ads
are served through an in-house server.
Other places, it worked liked a charm.
Got another method for scaling back ads
on your iPhone? Have a better, compatible
hosts file to replace the default with? Tell
us about it in the comments. Blocking
Safari Ads[James is Bored]
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
[Featured Download]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:00:00 AM
Windows/Mac/Linux: Popular web
browser Opera just pushed out a new
stable release featuring overall speed
improvements, several cool feature
updates, and a laundry list of bug fixes.
Opera still has all the excellent features
that made us declare that Opera is still in
the browser race with its previous release,
but this latest release is faster, and it
continues to add innovative features that
most browsers only support through third-
party extensions. Keep reading for a closer
look. Better Syncing
Opera Link, the feature that syncs Opera
browser settings across multiple computers
(sort of like previously mentioned Mozilla
Weave but built into Opera), has expanded
to support custom search engines and your
typed URL history in addition to the
information it already syncs (which
includes Speed Dial, Bookmarks, and
more). Feed Previews
The new Feed Preview feature lets you
view a site's RSS feed before you
subscribe to it in Opera's built-in RSS
reader. It's nicely formatted so you can get
a quick glance at what kind of content is
included in the feed (e.g., whether or not
it's a full or partial content feed) similar to
the RSS preview feature in other browsers.
Low-Bandwidth Email
Opera's built-in email client is also
sporting several cool new features,
including a low-bandwidth mode that
reduces data downloads for faster email
along with two new thread options to
alternately help you keep a closer eye on
an email thread or ignore a thread that's not
important to you. And All the Rest
Of course, the latest Opera still sports the
excellent stable of features we focused on
last time we took a close look at Opera,
including Speed Dial (the homepage idea
that's inspired countless Firefox knock-
offs), mouse gestures, note-taking,
BitTorrent support, and even voice-
controlled browsing.
As I mentioned above, this release is also
supposed to be significantly faster. If
Opera is your browser of choice, let us
know if the speed improvements show up
in your browsing in the comments.
Opera[via Gizmodo]
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
The Mac Meets Windows Dual-Desktop
[Featured Desktop]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 4:00:00 PM
Reader Dylan Boom shows how to mix
operating systems environments with style
in his Mac Meets Windows Dual-Desktop.
Dylan is running OS X with XP in a virtual
machine, and each system is completely
customized to form a beautiful transition
between Mac and Windows. Frankly,
neither system puts the other to shame.
Here's a rundown of all the hardware, apps,
and tweaks Dylan made to both operating
systems to pull off this pleasant
Tech Tips* 25
What You Didn't Hear During
the Presidential Debate
[Personal Finance]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:30:55 AM
Personal finance blogger Ramit Sethi
theorizes that there were a whole lot of
things the Presidential candidates didn't
(and couldn't) say about your money
during the debate last night. For example:
Not all homeowners deserve to stay in
their houses. Renting is a perfectly
reasonable alternative, but the idea of
Americans “losing their houses” is
politically untenable. Why? Because
America perpetuates a mistaken culture of purchase of your life, you need more than
homeownership. Owning your own home a slogan — you need to take the
is the kind of BS sacred cow that got us responsibility to do some research.
into this mess: Our parents tell us to buy a Hit the link to see the rest of Sethi's list
house. Our friends are impressed if we of political suicides Obama and McCain
own a house in our twenties. The didn't commit last night. The Truth: What
government literally encourages us to own Obama and McCain won't tell you about
a house by offering tax deductions. your money[I Will Teach You To Be Rich]
Homeownership is the American Dream!
The truth is, if you’re making the largest
Rules for Computing Happiness and
Simplicity [Simplicity]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 12:00:00 PM
Developer Alex Payne likes his software
simple and his computing experience
coexistence: Icons: Serenity 2 streamlined, and he offers up a list of rules
Computer: CD Art Display sans art "for computing happiness" right along
15 Inch 2008 MacBook Pro Hardware: Time, Date, & Battery Power: HUD those lines. Many of Alex's rules ring true
Dual Core 2.20Ghz Processor Vision to the Lifehacker philosophy—like know
4 GB RAM Dock: HUD Dock Port for Rocketdock and use a good text editor, remove any
nVidia 9800 GeForce Graphics Card Background: Aurora Borealis traces of software you don't use from your
Operating Systems: Presumably Dylan is using Spaces to run computer, and use a password manager.
Mac OS X 10.5.5 Windows in fullscreen on a separate virtual Others are potential holy war-starters, like
his rule about using only a Mac at home, or had a list of rules for computing happiness,
Windows XP Service Pack 3 Software desktop from OS X, placing the two what would they be? Post up yours in the
(Mac): operating systems a quick keystroke away. only having a desktop computer unless you
edit video or audio on a daily basis. (See comments. Photo by givepeasachance.
Background: GRNSCR Great work, Dylan! Mac Meets al3x's Rules for Computing
Adium Theme: HUD Windows[Flickr] more explanation about Payne's rules using
the Unclutterer link below.) Obviously Happiness[Alex Payne via Unclutterer]
Icon Set: Black System
Dock: Huddy Software (Windows): these rules are Payne's personal computing
choices, but they beg the question: if you
26 Tech Tips* Food*
Synkron Syncs Files and Folders
Across Platforms [Featured
Download]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 1:30:32 PM
Windows/Mac/Linux: Free, open-source
application Synkron is a powerful file-
syncing utility that syncs files across
platforms. The apps's marquee features
include support for syncing multiple
folders, automatic scheduled syncs, and
restore capabilities for files that may have
been accidentally overwritten during a
sync. Apps like previously mentioned
Dropbox boasting instantaneous sync
between your PCs and the web are all the
Always Show the Subject Line When Composing a
Gmail Reply [Lifehacker Code]
By Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 3:25:00 PM
Firefox with Greasemonkey only: Unlike
most other email clients, when you reply to
a message in Gmail, the subject line
doesn't automatically become
editable—you have to click the "Edit
Subject" link in order to change it. If you
edit your email subject in reply to
messages frequently, but hate to have to
reach for the mouse to start in Gmail,
Applesauce
(Simply Recipes)
Submitted at 10/7/2008 1:17:13 PM
Updated. From the recipe archive.
rage right now, but Synkron has its own
appeal—namely that it's a local sync tool,
so your files never pass through any third-
party server. It also supports filtering by
extension and file and folder blacklists. So
while Synkron may not be up to the instant
syncing standards you can expect from the
likes of Dropbox, it does support complex
backup schemes and is a great alternative.
Synkron is free, works on all platforms.
Synkron[SourceForge via Download
Squad]
there's now a Greasemonkey user script for
you. Download the Show Editable Subject
user script for Gmail and give it a spin. If it
There is nothing better than homemade
applesauce with hand-picked apples, and it
is so easy to do! If you want chunky
applesauce, use a potato masher to mash
Integrate Remember The Milk's To-
Do Cow with Google Reader
[Featured Greasemonkey User Script]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 11:00:00 AM
Firefox with Greasemonkey: The
Remember The Milk Cow in Google
Reader Greasemonkey script integrates
web-based to-do list application
Remember the Milk with popular
newsreader Google Reader. After
installing the user script and reload Google
Reader, you'll notice RTM's cow-head icon
next to items in Google Reader. Clicking
the link opens a RTM mobile window with
seems to work for you (like my initial tests
work here), then we'll include it as a new
feature in Better Gmail 2's next release.
The Show Editable Subject user script is a
free (exclusive!) download right here, and
works with Firefox and the Greasemonkey
extension. Thanks for the suggestion,
Andy! Show Editable Subject User Script
v. 0.1
the cooked apples. If you prefer smooth
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
the item's title, the URL for the post, and a
default tag ('website') already filled in.
This handy little addition to Google Reader
makes it easy to create a to-do or reminder
from something you just read, and if you're
already using the previously mentioned
RTM in Gmail extension, you're Google
account just integrated that much more
with your to-do list. Thanks wavetheory!
Remember the Milk Cow in Google
Reader[Forgot the Milk]
YouTube Adds Audio Preview to Comments
[YouTube]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:10:00 PM
In what's presumably an attempt to curb
the comment cesspool at YouTube, the
popular video sharing site has added an
Audio Preview button to the comment
section. Inspired by web comic xkcd, the
positive effect of the audio preview seems
questionable. Until audio previews prove
their efficacy, we'll stick with the
apple sauce, run the cooked apples through
a food mill. The key is adding a few strips
of lemon peel to the apples while cooking.
The lemon heightens the apple flavor.
Getting Good with
Photoshop's Lens Blur
Tool [Photoshop]
By Adam Pash (Lifehacker)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:00:00 PM
Weblog TUAW posts a detailed step-by-
step tutorial for using Photoshop's Lens
Blur tool to clip objects from one
photograph to another. In the example, the
author moves an open book from a plain
white background to a wood floor, and
though the lighting is a little conspicuous,
the results are still impressive. The guide is
also packed with helpful screenshots,
which makes any good Photoshop tutorial
stand out. Check out how to blend layers in
Photoshop with displacement for a
similarly cool effect, or try TUAW's other
guide to simulating a tilt-shift lens with the
Lens Blur tool. How to use Photoshop's
Lens Blur tool with masking (Part 2 of
2)[TUAW]
previously mentioned YouTube Comment
Snob extension, thankyouverymuch. [ via]
Continue reading "Applesauce" »
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper Google* Auto* 27

The VP debate: Candidates, questions, and queries

By Karen
Submitted at 10/6/2008 6:35:37 AM
If information is the currency of
democracy, as Thomas Jefferson allegedly
said, then during last Thursday's vice-
presidential debate between Senator Biden
and Governor Palin a lot of people used
Google Search to get a bit wealthier,
metaphorically speaking. Using Google
Hot Trends, we can see some of the more
interesting things that people were
researching, and you can do the same to
follow along yourself during tomorrow
night's second presidential debate (9 PM
ET). But first, here's what people were
curious about during the VP match.
Many people were simply interested in
understanding the meaning of particular
terms. Governor Palin called Senator
McCain a "maverick" several times,
sending many viewers to Google to query
definition of maverick, what is a maverick,
and define:maverick.
As the debaters spoke, voters queried for
more information.
When Biden mentioned that the
"theocracy controls the security apparatus"
in Iran, users searched for the meaning of
theocracy— as they did when he spoke of
the windfall profits tax.
Getting these definitions got a bit
tougher when the candidates couldn't even
agree on pronunciation. Discussion about a
certain type of energy caused a flurry of
queries: nucular vs nuclear, nuclear
pronunciation, palin nucular, and even
nukular. And when Senator Biden talked
about the "7,000 madrasses built along [the
Pakistani-Afghan] border", the queries
ranged from madrass, madrases, madrasa,
and even madras, a major city in India
that's most definitely not on the Pakistani-
Afghan border.
Governor Palin's claim that "Israel is in
jeopardy of course when we're dealing
with Ahmadinejad as a leader of Iran" led
viewers to try to learn more about this
leader even if they could not spell his
name. They searched for [Achmadinijad],
[Akmadinijad], [Akmadinajad], and the
correct Ahmadinejad. Some did not even
try, instead looking for [president Iran] and
[Iran leader]. The Governor also referred
to General McKiernan, the U.S. military
leader in Afghanistan, as "McClellan",
sending viewers in search of McClellan,
general in Afghanistan, General McClellan
Afghanistan, and general Afghanistan
surge. Some searchers eventually did find
the correct general, but not that many.
Historical references abounded. When
Senator Biden claimed "This is the most
important election you will ever, ever have
voted in, any of you, since 1932", some
people wanted to know what it was about
the 1932 presidential campaign between
Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt
that was so special. And twice as many
them wanted to know about that " shining
city on a hill", a phrase from Ronald
Reagan's farewell address that was
originally coined in 1630 by John
Winthrop.
When Senator Biden offered a civics
lesson ("Article I of the Constitution
defines the role of the vice president of the
United States, that's the Executive
Branch") many people checked, and
learned that Article I of the Constitution
describes the legislative branch of the U.S.
government. The executive branch is
described in Article II. Others just
searched directly for the role of vice
president and vice president duties.
People searched on clean coal and took a
look at Senator Biden's position (as the
candidate asked them to) with queries like
Biden clean coal.
These are some of the more interesting
queries, but which were the most popular
ones? Among the candidates, Senator
Biden was a big winner. Searches on him Knight Rider: The
soared more than 70-fold, compared to a
week earlier. Governor Palin, much more Liveblog -- Season 1,
of a search favorite in the weeks leading up
to the debate, only saw a 6x jump, but her
Episode 3
volume outpaced Senator Biden's. By Alex Nunez (Autoblog)
Searches for the VP candidates peaked
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:18:00 PM
near the debate's end.
Beyond names, two search terms which Filed under: Etc.
triggered the most searches were [nuclear] Yeah, I know I'm late. Sue me. Against
(a 130x spike compared to a week earlier) my better judgement (and yours, based on
and [maverick] (70x). [ Register to vote] last week's poll), I'm here semi-
was also quite popular; we even have a liveblogging tonight's episode with the
special site for that. assistance of my Tivo.
The Commission on Presidential Tonight's episode:"Knight of the
Debates, which hosts the debates, has Iguana", a.k.a. "KITT and Mike go to the
stated its objective as providing "the best beach." Kill me now...
possible information to viewers and You know what to do. See you after the
listeners". From Google's perspective — jump.
the little search box on viewers' and Continue reading Knight Rider: The
listeners' computers and mobile phones — Liveblog -- Season 1, Episode 3 Permalink|
the vice presidential debate did a pretty Email this| Comments
darn good job.
We'll give you an update on tomorrow
night's debate later this week. In the
meantime, keep an eye on the most recent
queries yourself on Google Hot Trends;
they change frequently and will start to
reflect the debate's talking points soon after
it finishes.
Posted by Jeffrey D. Oldham, Software
Engineer; Fred Leach, Customer Labs
Analyst; and Betsy Masiello, Economics
Analyst

Knol debates: See both sides, get involved

By Karen
Submitted at 10/7/2008 10:04:00 AM
As the election season builds to a climax,
the candidates have been engaging in a
number of debates. With all the
excitement, we wanted to get involved, so
we've started our own set of debates on our
new tool Knol. The debates on Knol are
meant to offer a variety of in-depth
opinions from experts so you can really
understand all sides of an issue.
Our first debate focuses on the economy.
Economists from the Cato Institute and the
Economic Policy Institute(EPI) have
offered opening arguments on what should
come next now that the Emergency
Economic Stabilization Act is law. Take a
look to see what they think -- but don't stop
there. As with most articles in Knol, these
are open to collaboration, so you can rate
what you read, submit comments, write
full responses (i.e. reviews), or even
suggest edits to the author by making
changes right in the knol itself. These
experts are using Knol because they want
to collaborate with readers, and they are
committed to updating the articles based
on your input.
In addition, there's a forum where you
can suggest additional topics that you'd
like to see debated in our new tool Google
Moderator. As we prepare for the election,
experts from leading think-tanks including
Cato, EPI, the Heritage Foundation, and
the Center for American Progress Action
Fund will conduct similar debates on the
issues you find the most important.
We hope these knols help inform your
decision on election day, and we
encourage you to voice your opinion.
Posted by Matt Ghering, Product
Marketing Manager
28 Google*
Your YouTube video: Hot or Not?
By A Googler
Submitted at 10/2/2008 11:01:12 AM
YouTube Insight has helped millions of
you learn more about your YouTube
videos and figure out when, where, and
why your videos are popular. But what if
you could learn not just which of your
videos are hot on the site, but which
specific parts of those videos are hotter
than others? What if you could know
exactly when viewers tend to leave your
videos, or which scenes within a video
they watch again and again?
This information is now available to all
YouTube video uploaders with an
innovative new feature for Insight called
"Hot Spots." The Hot Spots tab in Insight
plays your video alongside a graph that
shows the ups-and-downs of viewership at
different moments within the video. We
determine "hot" and "cold" spots by
comparing your video's abandonment rate
at that moment to other videos on
YouTube of the same length, and
incorporating data about rewinds and fast-
forwards. So what does that mean? Well,
when the graph goes up, your video is hot:
few viewers are leaving, and many are
even rewinding on the control bar to see
that sequence again. When the graph goes
down, your content's gone cold: many
viewers are moving to another part of the
video or leaving the video entirely.
Here's an example of Hot Spots in
action:
You can see that many viewers are not
impressed with the dance moves of
Michael Rucker, Associate Product
Marketing Manager at YouTube; they're
New Technology Roundtable series
By Karen
Submitted at 10/6/2008 2:47:00 PM
We've just posted the first three videos in
the Google Technology Roundtable Series.
Each one is a discussion with senior
Google researchers and technologists about
one of our most significant achievements.
We use a talk show format, where I lead a
discussion on the technology.
While the videos are intended for a
reasonably technical audience, I think they
leaving the video at a faster than average
rate almost immediately after the video
begins. But the longer the video goes on,
the more people tend to stay, generating a
hot spot at the end of the video. Better late
than never -- kudos, Rucker!
We think you'll find Hot Spots useful in
several ways. For example, users can
figure out which scenes in their videos are
the "hottest" and edit those videos, or
include well-timed annotations, to keep
their audience more engaged. Partners
might similarly create better content -- like
more exciting promotional trailers -- for
use on and off YouTube, and advertisers
and agencies can study the effectiveness of
may be interesting to many as an overview
of the key challenges and ideas underlying
Google's systems. And of course they offer
a glimpse into the people behind Google.
The first one we made is " Large-Scale
Search System Infrastructure and Search
Quality." I interview Google Fellows Jeff
Dean and Amit Singhal on their insights in
how search works at Google.
The next title is " Map Reduce," a
discussion of this key technology (first, at
Google, and now having a great impact
their creative, to make sure they keep
viewers' attention throughout an ad. Now
that Insight shows what parts of videos
viewers are watching and skipping,
creators no longer have to play guessing
games. YouTube, the world's largest focus
group, provides them with answers. You
can find this new feature under the "Hot
Spots" tab within the Insight Dashboard.
As with all of Insight's features, we learn
about the most creative examples from
you. We can't wait to see what you come
up with next.
Posted by Tracy Chan and Nick Jakobi,
Product Managers, YouTube Team
across the field) for harnessing parallelism
provided by very large-scale clusters
computers, while mitigating the
component failures that inevitably occur in
such big systems. My discussion is with
four of our Map Reduce expert engineers:
Sanjay Ghemawat and Jeff Dean again,
plus Software Engineers Jerry Zhao and
Matt Austern who discuss the origin,
evolution and future of Map Reduce. By
the way, this type of infrastructure
underlies the infrastructure concepts in our
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
I clicked to buy and I liked
it
By Karen
Submitted at 10/7/2008 2:35:36 PM
When you view a YouTube video with a
great soundtrack, you often see comments
from YouTube users asking about the
name of the song and where they can
download it. Or when users watch the
trailer for an upcoming video game, they
want to know when it will be released and
where they can buy it.
Today, we're taking our first steps to
providing YouTube users with this kind of
instant gratification, by adding "click-to-
buy" links to the watch pages of thousands
of YouTube partner videos. Click-to-buy
links are non-obtrusive retail links, placed
on the watch page beneath the video with
the other community features. Just as
YouTube users can share, favorite,
comment on, and respond to videos
quickly and easily, now users can click-to-
buy products -- like songs and video games
-- related to the content they're watching
on the site. We're getting started by
embedding iTunes and Amazon.com links
on videos from companies like EMI
Music, and providing Amazon.com
product links to the newly-released video
game Spore( TM) on videos from
Electronic Arts.
This is just the beginning of building a
broad, viable e-commerce platform for
recent post on " The Intelligent Cloud."
The third video, " Applications of
Human Language Technology," is a
discussion of our enormous progress in
large-scale automated translation of
languages and speech recognition. Both of
these technology domains are coming of
age with capabilities that will truly impact
what we expect of computers on a day-to-
day basis. I discuss these technologies with
human language technology experts Franz
Josef Och, an expert in the automated
users and partners on YouTube. Our vision
is to help partners across all industries --
from music, to film, to print, to TV -- offer
useful and relevant products to a large, yet
targeted audience, and generate additional
revenue from their content on YouTube
beyond the advertising we serve against
their videos. And those partners who use
our content identification and management
system can also enable these links on user-
generated content, by using Content ID to
claim videos and choose to leave them up
on the site.
These retail links are being gradually
added to our library of music videos and
are currently only available to users in the
United States, but our goal is to slowly but
surely expand the program to additional
content and product partners, as well as our
international users. We'll be experimenting
with the UI over time to make sure this
works for our community, and we'll
continue to innovate based on your
feedback. We're just getting started, so stay
tuned for other innovative new features
and product options soon.
YouTube partners interested in this
program should contact their partner
manager.
Posted by Glenn Brown, YouTube
Strategic Partner Development Manager,
and Thai Tran, YouTube Product Manager
translation of languages, and Mike Cohen,
an expert in speech processing.
We hope to produce more of these, so
please leave feedback at YouTube (in the
comments field for each video), and we
will incorporate your ideas into our future
efforts.
[Cross-posted on the Google Research
Blog.]
Posted by Alfred Spector, VP of
Research and Special Initiatives
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
The Presidential debate: Expanding the
town hall
By Karen
Submitted at 10/8/2008 2:19:42 AM
As we promised, here's an update on the
search patterns we observed during last
night's presidential debate. While a few
lucky citizens were able to ask the
candidates questions directly, millions of
others used Google to find their answers.
Similar to last Thursday, people sought
to understand the meaning of several
words mentioned in the debate: morass,
commodity, junket, cynicism, and
cronyism to name a few. In the chart below
you can see four of the most popular
queries during the debate. People were
quite interested in both Meg Whitman and
Warren Buffett, who were mentioned as
potential candidates for the Secretary of
Treasury, but the biggest rising query was
Senator McCain's paraphrasing of
Theodore Roosevelt's motto. Both
candidates spoke against genocide while
discussing the role of the United States as a
peacekeeper, and as we saw in the vice
presidential debate, nuclear energy and
weapons were prominent topics.
Queries occurred as the candidates
talked, but
the query volume dropped after 90-
minute debate ended.
Here's an additional view on queries for
each of the candidates, charting queries
from swing states (which had no more than
a 5% gap between votes for George Bush
and John Kerry in the 2004 election) and
non-swing states. Swing states generated
Amazon conservation in San Francisco
By Karen
Submitted at 10/4/2008 6:50:41 AM
For most of us, today is another Saturday.
For a chief of the Surui tribe in the
Brazilian Amazon, it's a unique day,
because San Francisco Mayor Gavin
Newsom has issued a proclamation
declaring October 4th as "Chief Almir
Surui Day."
Chief Almir and the Amazon
Conservation Team will be in the Bay
Area to attend the world premiere of a
proportionally more queries for the
candidates than non-swing states. Both
candidates peaked at the end of the debate,
with McCain showing a larger spike while
Obama has a larger overall volume.
Queries for the presidential candidates
form a higher fraction of all queries in
swing states.
We also were curious how queries for
Senator Biden and Governor Palin during
their debate compared to queries for
Senators McCain and Obama last night. As
you see here, searches on the candidates
during the VP debate came out on top:
Queries containing "Biden" and "Palin"
documentary film by Denise Zmekhol
called Children of the Amazon. They'll
also participate in a unique panel
tomorrow, October 5th.
In June, a team of Googlers went to the
Amazon to train indigenous people
including Chief Almir's Surui tribe on how
to use Google Earth, You Tube and other
Internet tools to show the world what's at
stake with deforestation in the Amazon.
The tribes are using this knowledge to
preserve their history, culture, and develop
a long-term sustainability plan to protect
had higher peaks during last week's debate
than did "McCain" and "Obama" queries
last night.
Using Google Hot Trends you can see
some of the more interesting things people
were researching during this debate. Visit
Google Election Trends to learn about
longer-term election-related Google search
queries, and read our previous post for the
earlier VP debate queries.
Posted by Jeffrey D. Oldham, Software
Engineer, and Fred Leach, Customer Labs
Analyst
their rainforest and create economic
opportunity.
Filmmaker Zmekhol joined us on the trip
Getting around your
neighborhood with Google
Maps
By Karen
Submitted at 10/8/2008 8:02:00 AM
When I moved to the Bay Area last year,
everything was new to me. I didn't know
Los Altos from Los Gatos, good eateries in
my neighborhood, or how to get to where I
wanted to go. Whether you're moving to a
new area, traveling to a new place, or
simply exploring a new part of town, this
may sound familiar to a lot of people.
There's a simple solution: turn to Google
Maps to find local information. We've
gathered a lot of useful info about local
businesses so you can find everything you
need in one place. You can find
neighborhoods and see if they're close to
downtown, parks or other places of
interest. If you're moving into a new home,
you can look for nearby supermarkets,
hardware stores, restaurants and other
places that will help you settle in. Almost
every business listing includes the phone
number, website, store hours, price and
more. Most also have user reviews and
photos.
and filmed dozens of hours of footage. Out
of this footage has come a story about
cloud computing from under a lush canopy
of Amazon rainforest, where a group of
emerging technologists are eager to share
their story about their culture and their
plan to preserve their forest and their way
of life. (Learn more about our trip here.)
Posted by Tanya Keen, Google Earth
Outreach
Google* Auto* 29
And it turns out I wasn't the only one
who turned to Google Maps to learn more
about my town. Watch this video to see
how Google Maps helped Ryan, a fellow
newcomer to the Bay Area:
Even if you know your hometown like
the back of your hand, odds are you'll want
to go somewhere new at some point. Not
only can you find out the address of a
specific location and get directions to it
before even heading out the door, but you
can virtually explore the neighborhood
with Street View (available in many cities
in the U.S., Japan, and Australia), or check
out live traffic conditions. You can also
use the "Send" feature of Google Maps to
text the address to your phone or email
directions to friends.
Watch this video to see all the things you
can do:
And don't forget, with Google Maps for
mobile, you can access all of this great
information on the go.
Posted by Cathy Tang, Google Maps and
Earth
2010 Mazda3
unveiled ahead of
LA Auto Show
By Jeremy Korzeniewski (Autoblog)
Filed under: LA Auto Show, Economy,
Submitted at 10/8/2008 9:24:00 PM
2010 page 30
30 Auto*
2010
continued from page 29
Sedans/Saloons, Mazda
Click above for three high-res images of
the 2010 Mazda3
Mazda has confirmed the time and place
for the unveiling of its all-new 2010
Mazda3: November 19th at the LA Auto
Show. In anticipation of the car's public
debut, the Japanese automaker released
these three images of the remodeled 3
sedan that reveal the car's new design.
While the new 3 retains a similar shape as
the current model with a high beltline and
rear decklid, the new car sports a much
more expressive face with a "smile" grille
positioned low up front that's flanked by
vertical air intake/fog light combos. The
front fenders, likewise, are more distinct
from the elevated hood and roll nicely
back into the car's forward canted character
line. Out back are bigger taillights
embedded in what appears to be a larger
Honda unveils V4 motorcycle concept
By Jeremy Korzeniewski (Autoblog)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 4:58:00 PM
Filed under: Concept Cars, Honda,
Motorcycles
Click above for high-res gallery of the
Honda V4 concept
Honda has just pulled the covers off a
radical new concept motorcycle at the
Intermot show in Cologne, Germany.
Technically, there isn't much here that's
real, but there's still plenty to dissect.
Honda is obviously feverishly working on
a new V4 engine and that will soon show
up in a production bike. Rumor has it that
the Japanese company is taking another
look at oval pistons, which would allow for
more valves and larger combustion
chambers. Could this powerplant show up
in a new Interceptor? While this is
currently nothing more than a sculpture, so
was the new VMax when Yamaha first
Volvo to cut 4,000 jobs worldwide
By Jeremy Korzeniewski (Autoblog)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 5:31:00 PM
Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs,
Volvo Times are tough for Sweden's safest
automaker. Ford-owned Volvo has seen its
sales decline by alarming amounts so far
this year. In fact, in last month's By The
trunk above dual exhaust tips. The overall
shape is a logical evolution of the current
car that combines current Mazda design
elements already found on the RX-8,
Mazda6 and recently refreshed MX-5.
Mazda also tells us that the 3 sedan will
carry over its 2.0L four-cylinder, but be
joined by a larger 2.5L engine to replace
the current car's 2.3L. As for the Mazda3
five-door hatchback, we'll have to wait
until some time after the LA Auto Show
for that, though we're hoping the new
Mazdaspeed3 is not far behind.
Gallery: 2010 Mazda3
[Source: Mazda]
Continue reading 2010 Mazda3 unveiled
ahead of LA Auto Show Permalink| Email
this| Comments
showed that concept. Studying the lines a
bit, we can tell that this wouldn't likely be
a race bike, but more likely a new street-
going model. We also see hubless wheels,
which would be an extremely far-out bit of
tech if they were to make it into
production. Is that possible? According to
Honda, yes. Big Red is saying this design
is a "new beginning" for the company and
Numbers post, the automaker's 51.8% drop
in U.S. sales trailed only HUMMER's
stratospheric plunge. Fewer cars produced
means fewer workers are needed, and with
numbers like that, it's no wonder that
Volvo needs to cut the rank and file a bit.
Volvo announced today that 4,000 jobs
worldwide will be cut. That figure includes
the direction that it's headed, and that
sounds awfully exciting. We'll be
watching.
Gallery: Honda V4 motorcycle concept
[Source: Honda]
Continue reading Honda unveils V4
motorcycle concept Permalink| Email this|
Comments
some 2,230 employees at Volvo Car
Corporation in Gothenburg, Sweden as
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Spy Shots: Ford Super-Duty's
new 6.7L Scorpion diesel
By Jonathon Ramsey (Autoblog)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 5:58:00 PM
Filed under: Spy Photos, Trucks/Pickups,
I.C.E., Ford As is well known by now,
Ford and Navistar have parted ways and
the Blue Oval is developing diesel engines
in-house to replace the PowerStroke lumps
still being used. Slated to appear in Ford's
trucks by 2011, the new oil burner code-
named Scorpion is a 6.7-liter V8 with a
host of innovations, some of them
seemingly borrowed from cross-town rival
GM.
But the first thing you'll notice is that
mammoth radiator. PickupTrucks.com diesel, and lighter aluminum cylinder
estimates that the cooler up front is up to heads. Nor will the Scorpion sacrifice mpg
20-percent larger than the one on the 2008 for its extra oomph: gains of 40 hp and 70
Super Duty, and that one had already been lb-ft will come with three more miles-per-
enlarged by 33-percent over its forebear.
The extra cooling could be needed for
"extreme towing applications", and if
gallon thanks in part to the truck's new 6-
speed tranny that's debut as we speak on
the new F-150.
there's one truck that's an extreme tower, [Source: Pickuptrucks.com] Read|
it's the F-Series Super Duty. Permalink| Email this| Comments
The Scorpion diesel's innards will be
enhanced with reversed intake and exhaust
flow, something found on GM's Duramax
well as 1,300 people, including Continue reading Volvo to cut 4,000 jobs
contractors, outside its home country. worldwide Permalink| Email this|
After all is said and done, the total number Comments
of job cuts, including those already
announced before today, will be about
6,000. The sober-sounding press release is
pasted after the break.
[Source: Volvo]
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
eBay Find of the Day: Lincoln
Town Car(nage)
By Alex Nunez (Autoblog)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 4:28:00 PM
Filed under: Sedans/Saloons, Auction
Action, Bentley, Lincoln
Click above for gallery of the Lincoln
Town Car(nage)
When is a 1996 Lincoln Town Car with
114,000 miles on the clock worth $15,098?
The correct answer should be never. In this
case, however, the answer is when
someone supposedly drops $45,000 worth
of work into one to make a fake Bentley
Arnage. The result is what you see above;
add a couple of fender-mounted
chandeliers and it could score a role as The
Duke's car in Escape From New York.
That giant C-pillar is more Rolls than
Toyota to export small trucks, minivans and SUVs from U.S.
By Jeremy Korzeniewski (Autoblog)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 6:30:00 PM
Filed under: Minivans/MPVs, SUVs,
Trucks/Pickups, Plants/Manufacturing,
Toyota
Click above for more high-res images of
the Toyota Sequoia
Bentley and those chrome dubs are more
bad than good. The biggest disaster comes
into view when you open the door and look
inside. That interior reportedly cost
$10,000. You'd think that amount would
buy more than quilted leather, a passel of
winged-B emblems that aren't fooling
anybody, and that stock instrument panel,
but apparently... no. Anyway, somebody
liked it enough to buy it, so what do we
know. We're sure it'll look great in their
garage. You know - right next to the
Fierarri.
Gallery: Lincoln Town Car(nage)
[Source: eBay via AutoFiends]. Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Toyota builds many of its U.S. market
vehicles right here in America. Among
them are the Toyota Tacoma, Sienna
minivan and Sequoia SUV, which is built
alongside its Tundra full-size truck sibling.
For the most part, they are all meant to be
sold in the States, their primary market. It's
no secret that sales of these big SUVs and
Carcade concept turns
passenger's view into video
game
By Frank Filipponio (Autoblog)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 7:28:00 PM
Filed under: Gadgets, Etc., Tech, Toys
Click above to view video after the jump
Imagine riding along in your family's car
as a kid. Your hand is out the window and
slicing through the air as you explore the
concepts of drag and lift. As a child you
might work that hand to rise and fall
around the objects on the horizon, dodging
treetops and ducking below bridges in the
distance. Some German students
apparently had this experience, and now
they've taken that basic premise and added
more cowbell. The result is Carcade, a
scrolling video game concept that uses a
webcam and laptop to scan the view out
trucks are way down, and Toyota doesn't
want to idle its plants if it can help it.
Therefore, the Japanese automaker is
rumored to be in the midst of sending these
light trucks out of the country. The
Tacoma, for instance, could be sent to
Mexico from Toyota's plant in Baja,
California. To keep the plant in Princeton,
your car window and use it as the
interactive background for a spaceship
adventure. It recognizes and uses the
objects in the view out your window as
obstacles, instantly incorporating them into
the action. It even adjusts game play speed
according to vehicle speed. It's all pretty
amazing work by the crew of Andreas
Nicolas Fischer, Martin Kim Luge and
Korbinian Polk. Watch the Carcade demo
after the jump and let us know if you
wouldn't have liked to waste away your
family's road trip playing this game.
Continue reading Carcade concept turns
passenger's view into video game Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Indiana running, the Sienna could be
exported to Latin America and the gas-
guzzling Sequoia to the Middle East, a
place where oil supplies are obviously not
in danger of dwindling.
[Source: Automotive News- sub. req'd]
Read| Permalink| Email this| Comments
Auto* 31
Mini V12 RC car
engine produces
not-mini power
By Jeremy Korzeniewski (Autoblog)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 7:57:00 PM
Filed under: I.C.E., Videos, Toys
Click above to watch a video of the mini
V12 engine in action
Today we've seen something quite small
and extremely awesome: a small-scale V12
engine designed for model radio controlled
vehicles. This is an entirely functional
model and features twin camshafts and
overhead valves. It's air-cooled to simplify
things by ridding itself of the need for
complex water jackets, radiators and the
associated plumbing, though the crankshaft
is made from multiple pieces. The
lilliputian engine displaces just 87-cubic
centimeters, but produces between 6 and 8
horsepower running on a mixture of
methanol and nitro methane. The best
thing of all is the builders say they will be
making kits available soon so enterprising
craftsmen can power their RC cars, planes
and boats with a real V12. To truly get an
idea of just how awe inspiring this little
machine is, click past the break for a video
of the mini V12 in action.
[Source: Wawu via Carscoop]
Continue reading Mini V12 RC car
engine produces not-mini power Read|
Permalink| Email this| Comments
32 Auto* Religion*
U.S. auto sales predicted to
plummet to 13.4 million in 2009
By Michael Harley (Autoblog)
Submitted at 10/8/2008 6:59:00 PM
Filed under: Car Buying,
Earnings/Financials Light-vehicle sales in
the U.S. are expected to continue their
decline in 2009. Global Insight, a firm that
has been forecasting sales since the 1960s,
is predicting sales of 13.4 million units
next year. That figure is slightly down
from the 13.8 million units automakers are
expected to sell in 2008. (For comparison
to recent years, 16.1 million vehicles sold
in 2007 and 16.5 million units sold in
2006.) Global Insight makes note of the
current U.S. credit crisis and the worsening
global economy, citing the worldwide
financial situation is more detrimental to
auto sales than oil at $200-a-barrel. When
oil is high, at least the countries benefiting
from the oil profits continue to purchase
cars - unlike today. While analysts differ
on when we may see a turnaround, the firm
feels it could take until 2013 for sales to
recover to levels seen just a few years ago.
[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]
Permalink| Email this| Comments
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Visiting a generic Christian campus
By tmatt
Submitted at 10/7/2008 6:49:48 PM
While I am on a post-denominational roll
here, let me — with a bit of a tired smirk
— point GetReligion readers toward the
following Associated Press report out of
Nashville, focusing on an interesting angle
linked to the presidential debate tonight.
Here’s the top of the story:
Alcoholic drinks have been forbidden on
Belmont University’s campus since at least
1951. The small Christian school in
Nashville has decided to make an
exception to the rule when it hosts a
presidential debate Tuesday.
A private school with a self-described
“strong commitment to providing a
Christian community of learning and
service,” Belmont is allowing alcohol to be
served at a hospitality tent for the news
media — one of several substantial
changes the college made to land the big
event.
Universities that vied to host the debates generic “Christian” school. However, it is Belmont University for its presidential
had to be willing to pay $1.35 million to also true that it has been a Baptist school debate Tuesday, it will be a result of years
cover production expenses, then millions for a long, long time. In fact, it’s core of unprecedented growth and unforeseen
more to erect facilities, spruce up campus values statement still states: struggles at a school that has redefined its
grounds and shuffle sports events. Some As a student-centered Christian place in Nashville.
also canceled or rescheduled classes to community with a rich Baptist heritage, Belmont administrators have made the
enhance security and debate setup. The Belmont University upholds the following debate one of the school’s loftiest goals
payback: instant international attention. core values as essential to intellectual, during nearly a decade of rapid expansion
The debates also help with a university’s spiritual, personal and corporate life: that has resulted in a quick rise for
mission by offering opportunities for Integrity Belmont in local and national prominence.
students and the community to learn more Inquiry But the changes have not come without
about politics and election issues. School Collaboration growing pains, including a protracted split
leaders say the sacrifices and concessions Service from the state Baptist convention and a
are worth it. Humility battle with a nearby neighborhood over
Yeah, right. I hear you. Here comes the However, the university’s values athletic facilities.
national press — break out the alcohol. statement has, in fact, dropped any use of What’s my point? I am not sure. I think
Actually, that isn’t what caught my the B-word. this says something about how Belmont is
attention. OK, that wasn’t the main thing I do not think that this seriously flaws the presenting itself. Maybe. At the same time,
that caught my attention. I was struck by AP story. I am just curious. Did the school, try to imagine AP hitting a Catholic,
the fact that the AP team clearly had taken in its dealing with the press on this national Lutheran, Jewish or Mormon school and
that self-described mission statement — -level story, avoid any use of the word not getting the identity fact straight. I
“strong commitment to providing a “Baptist,” especially in light of the mean, Belmont is still some kind of Baptist
Christian community” language — from university’s often bitter battles with school. Right?
the school’s website. Tennessee Baptists in the past decade or Bookmark to:
So far so good. However, there is an so? This is, after all, an angle that the
interesting word missing from this report. Nashville Tennessean managed to get at
Can you read between the lines of that lede the top of its own story about the location
and spot the missing logical fact? of the debate.
On one level, Belmont University is a When the national spotlight turns to
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Hey Times: Is the pope Catholic?
By tmatt
Submitted at 10/8/2008 10:11:03 PM
I have been surprised, quite frankly, that
the annual “Respect Life” emphasis in
Catholic churches has not received more
coverage in the mainstream press this year.
After all, as a famous American political
pollster told me a year or two ago: “All of
American politics today basically comes
down to Catholics in Ohio who go to Mass
once a month instead of once a week.” If
you can read between the lines of that
quote, then you’re ready to parse the
sermons being given in many Catholic
pulpits right now.
As you would expect, the New York
Times aimed one of its best reporters at
this topic, which led to David D.
Kirkpatrick’s recent story under the
headline, “ Catholic Church Is Riven by
Internal Debate.”
Now let me stress that I have the highest
respect for the work that Kirkpatrick has
done in recent years. I mean, how would
you like to cover political and religious
conservatives for the Times? Do you think
his work gets dissected from time to time?
Nevertheless, I have one or two problems
with this report. Consider, for example the
top of the story:
As the Roman Catholic Church observes
its annual “respect life” Sunday in this
heated presidential election season, the
unusually pitched competition for Catholic
voters is setting off a round of skirmishes
over how to apply the church’s teachings
not only on abortion but also on the war in
Iraq, immigration and racism.
In a departure from previous elections,
Democrats and liberal Catholic groups are
waging a fight within the church, arguing
that the Democratic Party better reflects
the full spectrum of church teachings.
Now, that is a hot story this year.
However, it was also a hot story in the mid
-1980s when I started receiving entire
folders and, from time to time, books from
Catholics and, yes, progressive
evangelicals (they existed even back then)
making precisely the same arguments. This
is news, but there is no way that this
strategy represents a “departure from
previous elections.”
That said, Kirkpatrick does a fine job of
showing that many of the tensions between
the Catholic left and right can be traced
into the tense and divided world of
“voter’s guides” that attempt to select
quotes from various church documents in
order to build a case for or against a
particular candidate. That’s easy to do with
Catholic social teachings, which are vast
and deep and at times confusing to those
not used to the terrain. There are times, as
E.J. Dionne, Jr., likes to say, when it seems
that the goal of Catholic doctrine is to
make sure that each and every Catholic
feels guilty about something whenever
they enter a voting booth. That’s the
reality, folks.
So what does all of this look like in
practice? Here is a large chunk of the story
that tunes in some of the conflict.
The two sides disagree over how to
address what the church calls “intrinsic
evils,” including abortion and racism —
the two examples singled out last year in a
guide for Catholic voters put out by the
United States Conference of Bishops. The
escalating efforts by more liberal Catholics
are provoking a vigorous backlash from
some bishops and the right.
In Scranton, Pa., every Catholic
attending Mass this weekend will hear a
special homily about next month’s
election: Bishop Joseph Martino has
ordered every priest in the diocese to read
a letter warning that voting for a supporter
of abortion rights amounts to endorsing
“homicide.”
“Being ‘right’ on taxes, education, health
care, immigration and the economy fails to
make up for the error of disregarding the
value of a human life,” the bishop wrote.
“It is a tragic irony that ‘pro-choice’
candidates have come to support homicide
— the gravest injustice a society can
tolerate — in the name of ‘social justice.’ “
In response, a coalition of liberal lay
Catholics is pushing back, criticizing the
bishop’s message for neglecting other
aspects of “life” talked about in Catholic
social teachings, like concern for the poor.
To underscore the point, a nun is
collecting the signatures of prominent
Catholic leaders there for a newspaper
advertisement reminding those who may
be wary of voting for Senator Barack
Obama that the church also considers
racism a sin that threatens the dignity of
life.
And so forth and so on. The article does
feature a wide variety of voices, from a
wide variety of Catholic groups on the left
and right. At one point, it mentions that the
conservative Catholic group Fidelis is
claiming that the issues of abortion and
same-sex marriage rank higher than other
vital moral issues. Catholics on the left, as
a rule, strongly disagree.
It was at this point in the article that I
began to wonder about something. There
seemed to be a major voice missing from
this debate. While there were many quotes
from the U.S. Catholic bishops, the Times
seemed to have left out a major player in
the world of Catholic thought.
You got it. This guy is missing in action:
As far as the Catholic Church is
Religion* 33
concerned, the principal focus of her
interventions in the public arena is the
protection and promotion of the dignity of
the person, and she is thereby consciously
drawing particular attention to principles
which are not negotiable. Among these the
following emerge clearly today:
* protection of life in all its stages, from
the first moment of conception until
natural death;
* recognition and promotion of the
natural structure of the family — as a
union between a man and a woman based
on marriage — and its defence from
attempts to make it juridically equivalent
to radically different forms of union which
in reality harm it and contribute to its
destabilization, obscuring its particular
character and its irreplaceable social role;
* the protection of the right of parents to
educate their children.
These principles are not truths of faith,
even though they receive further light and
confirmation from faith; they are inscribed
in human nature itself and therefore they
are common to all humanity.. . .
This quote is, of course, from Pope
Benedict XVI’s March 30, 2006, address
to members of the European People’s
Party.
The only reference to anyone named
“Benedict” in this article is to Benedict
Arnold.
Now, before you click “comment,”
please know that we will not be debating
who is right and who is wrong in this very
complicated debate about Catholic
doctrines and the public square. Leave the
candidates out of this, please. What we
will be discussing is whether it was wise
for the Times to cover this life-and-death
debate — at length — without a single
reference to what the pope and the Vatican
have to say about the matter.
Bookmark to:
34 Religion*
The president and the Supreme Conscience
By dpulliam
Submitted at 10/6/2008 6:49:22 PM
Three major American newspapers
published articles in the last two days on
the significance of the president’s power to
appoint Supreme Court justices and how
that significance is impacting, or not
impacting, the current presidential election.
The underlying issue these articles attempt
to highlight is the power the Supreme
Court has in shaping the lives of
Americans and how people often forget
that when they consider for whom they
will vote.
For good reason, primarily the economic
meltdown, the Supreme Court hasn’t been
much of a political item so far, but these
articles point out how that is about to
change. The issue is heavy in religious and
moral undertones since the Supreme Court
has long taken the job of speaking for the
country’s moral conscience. Or at least
what it thinks the country’s moral
conscience is, which is a huge reason why
this is such a significant issue. After all, for
more than 200 years (see image), the
Supreme Court has taken on the hefty job
of having the final say on what laws are
permissible under the U.S. Constitution.
To varying degrees and depending on your
political stripes, the Supreme Court is that
institution of nine people that tells us when
our laws go too far.
Here is The Washington Post quoting
Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack
Obama on the issue:
Obama said in a speech this year that the
court is in agreement much of the time.
But on the important constitutional issues
that divide the justices, “adherence to
precedent and rules of construction will
only get you through 25 miles of the
marathon,” Obama said.
“That last mile can only be determined on
the basis of one’s deepest values, one’s
core concerns, one’s broader perspectives
on how the world works and the depth and
breadth of one’s empathy.”. . .
When the court narrowly decided that
detainees held in the military prison at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have the right to
access federal courts, McCain called it one
of the “worst decisions in history.” Asked
two months later what prompted such a
strong denunciation, he said: “Sometimes
I’m given to a little hyperbole.”
To many religious people in the United
States, the treatment of detainees in our
military prisons are one of the most
significant moral issue of our time. You
won’t hear this said much these days, but
that sentiment exists.
The article by The Los Angeles Times
focused heavily on the issue of abortion,
which is what many people think of when
the issue of the Supreme Court is
mentioned. The article quotes advocates on
both sides and includes a lot of
conventional wisdom regarding the make-
up of the current court and the direction the
issue of abortion is headed in the United
States:
But that doesn’t mean abortion or the
fate of the Roe decision is a rallying cry on
the campaign trail for either Democrats or
Republicans. The two parties have staked
out opposite positions, but their candidates
rarely mention them when campaigning.
The abortion issue is enormously
important to the base of both parties,
political strategists say, but it is a touchy
and difficult matter to raise with an
audience of swing voters and those who
are undecided.
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
“People are conflicted about it,” said
Peter Fenn, a veteran Democratic
strategist. “If you are campaigning in
Scranton, you want to make the lunch-
bucket argument. When the economy is
driving the race, you don’t want to ignite
the culture wars.”
The New York Times has a slightly
different analysis in an article Monday that
says that abortion, along with other hot-
button social issues, could very well
become the issue in key swing states:
Both campaigns are also watching to see
if the future of the Roe v. Wade decision,
as well as issues like gay marriage and
school prayer, become galvanizing forces
for swing voters in battlegrounds like Ohio
and Pennsylvania. Advisers on both sides
say they doubt social issues will match the
economy’s problems in this election,
and Obama advisers say they are being
especially vigilant about not allowing
anything to overshadow that issue.
My follow-up question to those advisers
would be whether or not they see those
economic issues as all that far apart from
the social issues. See this later section of
the NYT article:
They point to remarks that Mr. Obama
made on CNN where, after saying he did
not believe “in a bunch of judicial law-
making,” he went on to describe in
relatively explicit terms for a presidential
candidate what sort of perspective he
would want his nominees to have.
“What I do want is a judge who is
sympathetic enough to those who are on
the outside, those who are vulnerable,
those who are powerless, those who
can’t have access to political power
and as a consequence can’t protect
themselves from being — from being dealt
with sometimes unfairly, that the courts
become a refuge for justice,” said Mr.
Obama, who taught constitutional law for
years at the University of Chicago.
Obama’s quote could just as easily be
describing a traditional social issue such as
abortion, but it could also be describing an
elderly couple who lost their retirement
savings in the recent economic debacle. To
what extent would the liberal-leaning ideas
of the Social Gospel inform a Supreme
Court nominee’s business and economic
principles and values? To what extent will
reporters cover this issue along with the
often-mentioned issues of abortion and gay
marriage?
Image of an inscription on the wall of the
Supreme Court Building from Marbury v.
Madison, in which Chief Justice John
Marshall (the statue in the image’s
foreground) outlined the concept of
judicial review used under a Wikimedia
Commons license.
Bookmark to:
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Exiting the thriving evangelical pews?
By tmatt
Submitted at 10/7/2008 1:52:47 AM
If you’ve been following our coverage of
the debates about Gov. Sarah Palin and her
faith, you know that many people do not
know what label to stick on her. Is she a
“fundamentalist”? Is she a “Pentecostal”
Christian? A “charismatic”? An off-the-
rack, nondenominational, evangelical
Protestant?
Let’s face it, the post-denominational
world is very complex and that reality is
not going away anytime soon. Honest.
For example, I ran across the following
passage in a Washington Times recent
column by veteran Godbeat reporter Julia
“Stairway to Heaven” Duin. She was
describing some frank remarks by the Rev.
Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in
Dallas, aired out for all to hear during a
forum at the Religion Newswriters
Association meetings here in Washington,
D.C. Some of the religion-beat pros were
stunned when Jeffress made it perfectly
clear that he thought it was crucial for
America to be led by Christians — period.
“I believe we should always support a
Christian over a non-Christian,” Mr.
Jeffress said, according to the Religion
News Service. (I was not taking notes.). . .
What’s important, he emphasized, is that
Christians rule the nation instead of
unbelievers.
Having lived four years in Texas, I know
plenty of folks there who feel that way.
Many of the evangelicals I cover would
agree with him, too. But many of the
journalists in the crowd acted as though
Mr. Jeffress was from the Blue Lagoon. I
could see some of the scribes practically
hyperventilating as the pastor talked. I
could hear muttered comments. “The
nerve!” “How dare he?” “Where did they
find this guy?”
Indeed, where did they find him? This
leads me to the Duin passage that I think is
relevant to the firestorm surrounding Palin.
You see, there are Americans out there
whose beliefs are similar to those of Palin
and, yes, even Jeffress. First Baptist Dallas
is not a small church. Thus, Duin provides
this punchy summary of the frightening
facts:
There’s a whole world out there into
which many in the media rarely venture.
At this same religion-writer event, I picked
up “Outreach,” a magazine on how to
“grow” bigger churches. According to it,
the three leading church-growth states are
California, Texas and Georgia. Florida and
Arizona aren’t far behind.
They found the largest 100 churches in
the country have a combined attendance of
1,128,451, or 11,000 people per church.
One of the fastest-growing congregations
(No. 4) was McLean Bible Church in the
Virginia suburbs, which added 3,399
people last year. Another is in the
Maryland suburbs: Reid Temple AME
Church in Glenn Dale, at 7,500 souls.
(Outreach claimed it was up by 50 percent
over the previous year.)
The magazine said nondenominational
Christian churches lead the pack, followed
by independent Baptists, Southern Baptists
and the Assemblies of God. I noticed every
pastor they cite is male. Almost no church
has a denominational tag — such as
Methodist, Lutheran or Presbyterian — to
its name. Very few of these churches
belong to the mainline Protestants. Most
have names like New Life Church, the
Rock Church, Potter’s House and Grace
Community.. . .
Fellow ink-stained wretches, there’s a lot
of folks in flyover land who feel the same
way he does. In fact, they outnumber us.
Now, before you think that Duin has
signed a contract to do public relations for
the nation’s megachurches, let me
shamelessly point you toward her new
book, which is called “Quitting Church:
Why the Faithful Are Fleeing and What to
Religion* Food* 35
Do About It.” Click here for a large chunk
of it. Also, here’s a Wall Street Journal
review and here’s my own Scripps Howard
News Service column about Duin’s own
remarks at another RNA panel.
You see, there is a paradox out there in
megachurch land. It seems that they are in
the best of times and, perhaps, in the worst
of times.
Membership statistics are high, but in
many cases they are stalled on a plateau.
It’s a large plateau, but there is evidence
that some of the natives are not happy.
Some are slipping out the back door. In a
column about this trend behind the large
statistics, Duin adds:
. . . Not all is well in the evangelical
house. There are a few canary-in-a-coal-
mine figures, such as a continual annual
decline in baptisms in the Southern Baptist
Convention (SBC) — the nation’s largest
Protestant group. The SBC numbers its
membership at 16 million, but 6.1 million
actually attend the major worship services
each week, according to the SBC’s 2007 Rabbit
annual report. Among its young people,
baptisms fell 40 percent between 1980 and
2005.
Cacciatore
Then there was a survey of 15,000 (Simply Recipes)
people taken a year ago by Willow Creek Submitted at 10/2/2008 1:28:51 AM
Community Church, a huge congregation
outside of Chicago. The results were The first time I had rabbit, I was 19,
disturbing: the older the Christian, the visiting a friend's grandparent's ranch in
more dissatisfied he or she was with the Cuernavaca, Mexico. They raised rabbits,
church. Researchers identified two among other things, and I was asked to go
segments of unhappy Christians — the outside and pick out a few from the
spiritually “stalled” and the “dissatisfied.” hundreds in their pens. Not knowing why I
The latter were mature Christians who felt was asked to perform this task, I picked
church was keeping them from growing. out the cutest ones I could find. An hour
Together, they made up 25 percent of those later I was mortified when I went in the
polled. That’s a big market share of fed-up kitchen and saw those rabbits, skinned and
consumers. sticking out of a huge steaming pot on the
This is one of those cases where stove. The menu for lunch that day was
reporters have to hold two big ideas in rabbit stew, and we were having a feast
their heads at the same time. The with my friend's extended family. White
megachurches remain large and powerful. linens, silver, fine china, 20 people
They are not going away. Yet there may be assembled at an impressively long dining
new stories — sobering stories, for table. Out of politeness, and my complete
evangelicals — emerging in the shadows lack of fluency in the language (if I had
of those huge sanctuaries. I urge other been more fluent I might have found a way
journalists to check out Duin’s book and out of this situation) I took a bite. It was
then try to figure out how to handle the absolutely delicious. From that point on, I
news implications of both of these trends. loved rabbit.
Bookmark to: Continue reading "Rabbit Cacciatore" »
36 Religion* Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper

Why are they reading the Bible?

By Mollie
Submitted at 10/7/2008 2:07:51 PM

So there are literally hundreds of stories

out there about Pope Benedict XVI
launching a marathon Bible reading this
week. And the vast majority have the Who
(The Pope), the What (marathon Bible
reading session), the Where (the Vatican)
and the When (right now). This Agence
France-Presse story is representative. This
Telegraph story was a bit better, but just
touched on it.
But it took me some searching to find the
Why. The Los Angeles Times had a good
report. After explaining the basics — all
the books of the Bible, broadcast live on
state television, lasting seven days and six
nights, 1,300 readers (including former
Italian presidents, current Cabinet
ministers, soccer stars, foreign diplomats,
cardinals, intellectuals, actors, opera
singers and ordinary citizens, and 6
Muslims and 15 Jews):
Organizers wanted to make it clear, the
Vatican said in a statement, that “the Bible
belongs to everyone without any
discrimination or cultural or ideological
barrier.” The message was underscored by
the pope’s decision to take part, as the
pontiff explained in comments to the
faithful after Sunday Mass at St. Peter’s
Basilica in Rome.
“In this way the word of God can enter
homes to accompany lives of families and
individuals,” Benedict said. “A seed that if
well received will not fail to bring
abundant fruits.”
Although the pope tends to have a quiet,
reserved style, he liked the idea of making
the Bible accessible, Vatican officials said.
Moreover, the timing was good because
Sunday marked the start of the bishops
synod, an assembly of bishops from
around the world.
“The reason the pope has agreed is to
give his support to a program intended to
bring the listening and reading of the Bible
to a wider public of every age and
condition,” said Father Federico Lombardi,
director of the Vatican press office, in an
interview. “The church encourages the
faithful to read and understand the Holy
Scriptures. . . . The pope, therefore, intends
to give a personal example . . . at a
moment when the entire Catholic Church
is reflecting and praying on the centrality
of the Holy Scriptures in its life.”
The BBC adds a bit from the Pope’s
address to the synod of cardinals and
bishops. Such a simple thing, but telling
readers why the Pope is doing this makes
all the difference in the world.
To that end, the Religion News Service
explained what was going on and managed
to be the most interesting while doing so:
Catholics over the age of 50 are old
enough to remember when the church
discouraged non-clergy from acquainting
themselves with Scripture, apart from
selections quoted in their catechisms or
read aloud at Mass. But that traditional
attitude has shifted amid the many
dramatic changes in Catholicism that
began in the 1960s. . . .
A survey commissioned in preparation
for the Synod showed Bible-reading in
traditionally Catholic European countries
to be markedly less common than in the
United States. Only 38 percent of Poles, 27
percent of Italians, and 20 percent of
Spaniards had read even one passage of
Scripture over the previous year, the study
found, compared to 75 percent of
Americans.
Of equal concern to the bishops is how
Catholics understand Scripture when and if
they read it. The Synod’s official agenda
notes the increasing popularity of
“fundamentalism,” which it says “takes
refuge in literalism and refuses to take into
consideration the historical dimension of
biblical revelation.”
Earlier this month, Benedict himself
stated that a proper understanding of the
Bible “excludes by its nature everything
that today is known as fundamentalism,”
and insisted that the “word of God can
never simply be equated with the letter of
the text.”
See, isn’t that interesting? The example
of reading the Bible might seem self-
evident but not only does it need to be
explained, the particularly Catholic
approach here needs to be explained. Only
RNS did that.
Bookmark to:
Homo doctus
in se semper
divitias habet
By Mollie
Submitted at 10/8/2008 3:57:36 PM
I wasn’t able to take very much Latin in
junior high school, but I’m pretty sure that
it was the most important subject I studied.
It helped immeasurably with learning other
foreign languages, English grammar and
vocabulary in general. When our children
are ready, we’ll be sending them* to a
school where Latin is a major component.
So I was pleasantly surprised to read
Winnie Hu’s story in the New York Times
about the rising enrollment numbers in
Latin classes:
The resurgence of a language once
rejected as outdated and irrelevant is
reflected across the country as Latin is
embraced by a new generation of students
like Xavier who seek to increase SAT
scores or stand out from their friends, or
simply harbor a fascination for the ancient
language after reading Harry Potter’s Latin
-based chanting spells.
The number of students in the United
States taking the National Latin Exam has

HOMO page 38
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper
Feeling less pain?
By Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans
Submitted at 10/6/2008 9:49:00 PM
Where’s the rest of the story?
That’s what I wanted to know after
reading Ian Sample’s article in last week’s
Guardian.
Sample covers science, not religion, so
perhaps his lede, with its rather reverent
(ancient and elaborate) approach to its
subject, should not be a surprise:
Scientists have uncovered an ancient and
elaborate source of pain relief that is based
purely on the power of the mind, according
to research published today.
The article recounts an experiment by
Oxford University researchers who showed
12 agnostics and atheists and 12
“practicing” Roman Catholics students a
depiction of the Virgin Mary by the 17-
century painter Sassoferrato and “Lady
with an Ermine” by Leonardo da Vinci.
Then the students were given electric
shocks and asked to rank their pain.
What happened?
Brain scans of volunteers who were
subjected to electrical shocks revealed that
Roman Catholics felt less pain than
atheists and agnostics when they were
shown a painting of the Virgin Mary.
Images of the volunteers’ brains showed
that in devout believers, an area of the
brain that suppresses reactions to
threatening situations lit up when they
were shown the picture.
I’m surprised, as a nonscientist, that the
author thought anything worth reporting
could be determined from an experiment
on 24 people. Does the aura of truth
associated with the word science carry that
much credibility in the world of
journalism?
It would have been wonderful, too, if Mr.
Sample had consulted someone who
bridged the worlds of theology and science
to offer an alternative explanation.
As interesting as the results of this
experiment are, the results, as explained by
Sample, sorely lack any context —
scientific or religious.
And what’s with the sexy, but inaccurate
headline — “Religious belief can help
relieve pain, say researchers”?
According to reseacher Katja Wiech,
quoted at the end of the story, faith doesn’t
seem to have had a whole lot to do with it.
The Roman Catholics engaged a brain
mechanism that is well known from
research into the placebo effect, analgesia
and emotional disengagement,” said
Wiech. “It helps people to reinterpret pain,
and make it less threatening. These people
felt safe by looking at the Virgin Mary,
they felt looked after, so the whole context
of the test changed for them.”
It is highly likely that non-religious
people could achieve a similar ability to
control pain, perhaps through meditation or
other mental strategies. “There’s no
suggestion that this effect is specific to
religion and we’ve not found the God blob
in the brain. This is about the state of mind
you can achieve,” said Wiech.
Preliminary studies on lapsed Catholics
suggest that images of the Virgin Mary
lessen their sense of pain too, the
researchers said.
How many lapsed Catholics? What does
it mean to say that they are “lapsed”? Does
that mean they do not believe in God — or
the Virgin Mary, for that matter? And
where was this research published, by the
way — in case we wanted to know more?
There’s a shadow story here — or,
rather, not here.
Bookmark to:
Another debate without
much religion
By dpulliam
Submitted at 10/8/2008 3:35:23 AM
The big issue in tonight’s debate was the
economy yet again (with foreign policy as
the side dish). The closest the candidates
came to discussing issues of morality or
faith was both candidates’ criticism of
Wall Street for corporate excess and greed
and McCain’s frequent calls for faith in the
American people.
Obama did mention that the country has
a “moral commitment” to providing
healthcare to people without health
insurance. McCain mentioned that
America is the greatest force for good in
the world. We send our military troops
everywhere — as peacemakers.
The transcript includes none of the
following words: God, faith, pray(er),
church, Islam, or Christ(ianity).
Michael Paulson’s Articles of Faith blog
over at The Boston Globe noted that there
was “[a]n unexpected twist in an otherwise
religion-free presidential debate tonight”
when moderator Tom Brokaw of NBC
News alluded to Buddhism:
Brokaw, of NBC News, introduced the
final question, from Peggy in Amherst,
NH, by saying “it has a certain Zen-like
quality.” He then proceeded to ask the
question, “What don’t you know, and how
will you learn it?” that both candidates
blew past on their route to closing
statements.
Paulson notes that the debate contained
religion issues arising out of the Middle
Religion* 37
East involving Israel, terrorism and
avoiding another Holocaust as a “moral”
duty.
Mark Silk at the Spiritual Politics blog
has a nice entertaining run-down, live-blog
style, of this evening’s debate.
There was an excellent (but short)
discussion between the candidates
regarding the candidate’s policy regarding
the use of military force where the United
States’ national security is not a risk. The
answers were cloaked heavily in terms of
moral duty and the country’s national
interest in intervening. Obama noted that,
“there is a lot of cruelty around the world,”
that we can’t be everywhere and the U.S.
must rely on its allies. McCain said you
have to be careful when you send
American soldiers into harms way.
UPDATE: I neglected to notice last night
Christianity Today’s live blog of the
debate:
There were seven references to God in
the vice presidential debate. Tonight, zero.
McCain said “my friends” or “my friend”
22 times, but there was little faith talk from
either candidate tonight.
Maybe the closest was Obama’s line
when referring to McCain’s approach to
health care: “So what one hand giveth, the
other hand taketh away.” Sounds a tiny bit
like Job’s“the Lord gave, and the Lord
hath taken away.”
Could the Job reference be counted as
religious code talk?
Bookmark to:
38 Religion*
Mortgaging souls
By Douglas LeBlanc
Submitted at 10/6/2008 10:59:43 AM
Time’s headline of “Maybe We Should
Blame God for the Subprime Mess” does
an injustice to David Van Biema’s brief
and informative update on prosperity
theology’s march through the
contemporary church.
The results of that march are ugly.
Christians who were persuaded that
faithful believers will prosper sometimes
ended up believing that a sudden decrease
in their monthly note was the work of God,
rather than of unethical and irresponsible
lenders.
Van Biema turns to religion scholar
Jonathan Walton, who will soon publish
the book Watch This!: The Ethics and
Aesthetics of Black Televangelism, to help
make sense of how prosperity has retained
loyalty among some believers:
. . . Walton suggests that a decade’s worth
of ever easier credit acted like a drug in
Prosperity’s bloodstream. “The economic
boom ’90s and financial overextensions of
the new millennium contributed to the
success of the Prosperity message,” he
wrote recently on his personal blog as well
as on the website Religion Dispatches.
And not positively. “Narratives of how
‘God blessed me with my first house
despite my credit’ were common. Sermons
declaring ‘It’s your season to overflow’
supplanted messages of economic
sobriety,” and “little attention was paid to.
. . the dangers of using one’s home equity
as an ATM to subsidize cars, clothes and
vacations.”
One quibble with Van Bienma’s report:
Saying that prosperity theology is “a type
of Pentecostalism” gives short shrift to a
Pentecostal denomination like the
Assemblies of God, in which the church’s
top councils have distanced themselves [
PDF] from the prosperity teaching that a
positive confession will guarantee a
Christian’s well-being.
Reporting on prosperity also would
benefit from D.R. McConnell’s argument,
in A Different Gospel, that prosperity
theology owes far more to pastor and New
Thought devotee E.W. Kenyon than to
anything in the Bible.
Van Biema’s closing paragraph brings
home the emotional and spiritual wreckage
of prosperity theology that’s left
unchecked by pragmatism:
Brownsville [Assembly of God] is not
even a classic Prosperity congregation — it
relies more on the anointing of its pastors
than on Scriptural promises of God. But
the believer’s note to his minister
illustrates how magical thinking can
prevail even after the mortgage blade has
dropped. “Last Sunday,” it read, “You said
if anyone needed a miracle to come up. So
I did. I was receiving foreclosure papers,
so I asked you to anoint a picture of my
home and you did and your wife joined
with you in prayer as I cried. I went home
feeling something good was going to
happen. On Friday the 5th of September I
got a phone call from my mortgage
company and they came up with a new
payment for the next 3 months of only
$200. My mortgage is usually $1,020.
Praise God for his Mercy & Grace.”
Image: Courtesy of PDPhoto.org.
Bookmark to:
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HOMO
continued from page 36
risen steadily to more than 134,000
students in each of the past two years, from
124,000 in 2003 and 101,000 in 1998, with
large increases in remote parts of the
country like New Mexico, Alaska and
Vermont. The number of students taking
the Advanced Placement test in Latin,
meanwhile, has nearly doubled over the
past 10 years, to 8,654 in 2007. While
Spanish and French still dominate student
schedules — and Chinese and Arabic are
trendier choices — Latin has quietly
flourished in many high-performing
suburbs, like New Rochelle, where Latin’s
virtues are sung by superintendents and
principals who took it in their day. In
neighboring Pelham, the 2,750-student
district just hired a second full-time Latin
teacher after a four-year search, learning
that scarce Latin teachers have become
more sought-after than ever.
Do you think religion has a role in this
story? It does come up briefly, but not in
the way I expected:
Latin was once required at many public
and parochial schools, but fell into disfavor
during the 1960s when students rebelled
against traditional classroom teachings and
even the Roman Catholic Church moved
away from Latin as the official language of
Mass. Interest in Latin was revived
somewhat in the 1970s and began picking
up in the 1980s with the back-to-basics
movement in many schools, according to
Latin scholars, but really took off in the
last few years as a language long seen as a
stodgy ivory tower secret infiltrated
popular culture.
Michael, the reader who submitted this
story suggested two ghosts:
I think there may be two ghosts here: 1)
People who want to learn Latin because of
the Catholic Church’s use of that language,
and 2) the “Classical” movement within
conservative private Protestant primary
and secondary schools.
I suspect number 2) in particular may be
part of the reason behind the increases in
numbers cited in the article, but Hu shows
no indication that she is even aware of the
movement.
Indeed, the school we’ll be sending our
children to is a Classical Lutheran
Academy. And the Classical Christian
School movement is significant. It’s also
worth noting that Classical Education is
huge among homeschoolers. Classical
education is about much more than Latin,
but Latin is a key component.
To write about the rise of Latin
instruction without recognizing how it
relates to the rise of the Classical
Education movement — both secular and
religious — is a bit odd. Still, it’s a very
interesting story about a phenomenon that
has not received a lot of attention.
*Yes, I’m cooking up Baby #2.
Bookmark to:
Daily -Click and Print- Newspaper Religion* Food* 39

Praying about the economy

By Mollie
Submitted at 10/6/2008 3:07:16 PM

Many GetReligion readers have been

anxious for more religion stories that deal
with the economic crisis.
In addition to the Time piece Doug
highlighted, National Public Radio had an
interesting story about how church leaders
are responding to the country’s financial
mess. Reporter Linton Weeks spoke with
Episcopal, United Church of Christ and
Orthodox clergy about what they’re doing
to help parishioners who have been
negatively affected.
The Episcopal priest says she has seen an
increase in attendance, particularly on
weekdays, and is offering extra prayer
sessions and career counseling to help
people cope. The UCC pastor has a
different response:
Across the country at the Parkrose
Community United Church of Christ in
Portland, Ore., the Rev. Chuck Currie has
noticed that his congregation is rife with
Pumpkin Cookies
“fear and distrust of leaders.” (Simply Recipes) knobby, colorful gourds ready to be
He tries to calm the flock by saying: about this, but I’m wondering if the We don’t pledge money in my church Submitted at 10/6/2008 11:12:11 PM
cooked. Roasted, pureed, curried, its all
“Ultimately, our hope rests with God.” reporter should have identified Currie as but a quick Google search showed good due to their playful versatility. Still,
But, he adds, “economic problems are being rather outspoken in his support of churches with stewardship drives in the Have you ever gotten a tummy ache from using them in baking is my preference;
moral problems and how we respond Obama. Is it relevant? Does it matter? I’m winter, spring, summer and fall. And I’m eating too many cookies? I did with these their rich flavors are tailor made for
speaks about our relationship with God and honestly not sure. not sure about hearing Acts 20:35 on “any cookies from our guest author Garrett sweets.
to the world.” There was another part of the story I given Sunday.” Liturgical churches have a McCord of Vanilla Garlic. Too good. Now the commonplace pumpkin cookie
Parkrose is no megachurch. With 114 wasn’t quite sure about: lectionary they follow. In my church (we ~Elise is often too bready for me and usually
members, it’s a small house of worship in The current meltdown comes at an follow the historic one-year lectionary) we What the heck? cried out my roommate covered in some too sweet glaze of sorts.
a modest neighborhood of low-income and especially inopportune time — stewardship heard this reading on July 13. I guess looking at the dinner table now covered in Its a cookie that I generally shy away from.
elderly people. “We have a responsibility,” season. technically it’s true that you might hear the produce. This one however is a bit different thanks
Currie says, “to care first for those Jesus Many churches calculate their finances verse on any given Sunday but that would What? to a nice dose of oatmeal to keep it very
called the ‘least of these’ in society: the according to the calendar year, and the first go for any verse in the Bible. Perhaps it Just how many squashes did you buy!? soft and chewy. Furthermore, the use of
poor, homeless, sick, children and the of October traditionally marks the time was just journalistic license but I think Only, like, seven. Enough to last us for cardamom, currants, and pumpkin seeds
elderly.” when preachers are talking about money stewardship issues are quite sensitive and most of Fall, I replied. And really, is seven give it a curiously different and delightful
I think it’s great to speak with a pastor anyway. On any given Sunday, you are should be handled carefully. of them too many? I think not. taste from other pumpkin cookies. It's a
who looks at the problem morally and who liable to hear the pastor refer to the Apostle Bookmark to: Once Autumn rolls around my kitchen combination that's a great way to use up
looks at the issue as having spiritual and Paul, who quotes Jesus as saying: “It is becomes overloaded with butternuts, any pureed squash and turn out a treat that
earthly dimensions. I’m really not sure more blessed to give than to receive.” kabochas, ambercups, and turban squashes. everyone will love.
Indeed I actually have extra baskets laid Continue reading "Pumpkin Cookies" »
out on the dining table overflowing with