budget airlines bring anglo-saxons and binge drinking to italy

according to this article budget airlines and organized pub crawls are one of the culprits that have changed the italian culture of drinking only with food to one of binge drinking, especially for young people. ‘For Italians, becoming drunk in public was once a social taboo – a cause for shame, particularly for women. But now, neighbourhood enoteca bars, where a glass of wine is often accompanied by a plate of cured meat and bits of cheese, are being crowded out by British-style pubs with names like The Drunken Ship and Sloppy Sam’s.’

public relations and positioning talent in the new media age

talent is sort of a bizarre syn for actor. i mean, not all actors have talent –look at brad pitt. or matt damon. but i guess one would rather be referred to as a talent agent as opposed to an actor agent, right?

but as this year is showing, by the endless stream of flops by so-called a-list ‘movie stars’ such as matt damon, julia roberts, denzel washington, and megan fox, is that, well basically, perception is not _everything_. especially in the case of megan fox and her new flop called something ‘body.’

so what’s happening this year. the new york times recently touched on this phenomenon of endless flops by a-list stars. but sort of came up dry. deadline hollywood covers this this weekend with questions about steven soderbergh and his matt damon vehicle which might just eek out $11M this weekend.

is the real reason that julia roberts can no longer open a film because she took too much time off? or is it all that plastic surgery she had at an unnecessarily young age? she does not look good. but we digress.

the real reason is what pat kingsley pointed out as she exited her own p.r. agency, is that the p.r. landscape has changed. information moves at lightening speed. overexposure sets in quickly. but underexposure is the kiss of death. in the age of the internet, the publicity guru needs to feed a steady stream of information. not on a daily basis. but days seem like weeks and weeks are more like months and months are more like years. and vaccums need to be filled.

that’s entertainment public relations which is primarily geared towards publicity. while what about other areas such as books? what if we replace the word ‘talen’ with the word ‘book’ or ‘product?’

for books, there’s generally no such thing as overexposure. although it would be a good idea for series authors like martin amis or will self to turn down any offer to appear on the oprah winfrey show (popular in the uk as well as the us) as jonathan franzen did in the early naughties. one wouldn’t always want to deal with the lowest common denominator.

it used to be that most mainstream books in the u.s. lived and died by whether or not they get reviewed in the new york times. now this is no longer true. the new york times certain has some bearing on success in the u.s.. but no one could attribute the success of j.k. rowling or stephenie meyer to the new york times. it’s the harry potter series which caused the newspaper to create a whole separate section for children’s books since the publishers were complaining that they could no longer get their wares on the list.

isn’t it ironic that the money losing book review section of the nytimes.com actually creates revenue for booksellers and book publishers? funny how the media industry works.

the internet is the natural friend of book publishers, although many are still quite wary of google. but as it is hard on the eyes to read 795 pages of text online, this has saved book publishers from biting the big one. and though seniors love kindle (not really), it’s merely a placeholder for something more substantial.

plastic logic has a collapsible screen coming out next year which may either start a revolution or end up in the dumpster as previous ebooks have. as people around the world are wrapping up their summer holidays, we ask ourselves, would we have liked to have spent time on the bach reading a computer screen? would it have melted in the heat or merely exploded. i have failed to find one person rocking out to his ipod (or iphone) on the beaches on any side of the mediterranean i’ve visited over the past few summers.

increase in signs of puberty in pre-teens

this article appears in the copenhagen post. according to the article, ‘medical experts fear that chemicals found in food and cosmetics are contributing to early signs of puberty in pre-teen girls.’

squeaky manson freed

squeaky ‘fromme’ from the manson family has been freed after more than 30 years in prison.

pubs closing in uk at alarming rate

is it the anit-smoking laws that’s killing business or the recession? or combination of the two? why go out with friends when you could invite them over, by a 6 pack that costs as much as 1 pint in a pub and hey, you can even smoke away.

michael jackson hiding out at mom’s; twilight duo giving birth

one story feeds into the michael jackson/2pac/elvis conspiracy theory. the other into the robert pattinson coverup.

we know michael is alive and well and hanging out at graceland. gotta wonder about that closed golden casket. we know his brain was removed for tests not to preserve. yes yes. but maybe other tests could be a good idea. a tragic life. but well, should the u.s. congress be considering passing any sort of motion honoring you know, the man who really really loved children?

will the twilight duo of kristen stewart and robert pattinson give birth to a baby vampire. there are photos of stewart everywhere with her belly hanging out due to those super tight joan jets pants she’s been forced to fight her way into for the movie she’s currently filming. or maybe she’s just phat. but me thinks this is a rock hudson cover up scenario with stewart as pattinson’s doris day. what say you guildenstern? put out as many unsubstantiated-able (not a word, i know) rumors just to keep the tweens and teenage girls happy and clueless until pattinson gets pushed out of the closet. don’t you wonder why summit films is rushing all 3 sequels out?? it’s not just because these bloody vampires in real life actually age pretty quickly considering the caucasian love of sunbathing with and without suntan lotion (oh the wrinkles). kristen stewart already looks like she’s at least 30 sometimes. and if pattinson doesn’t wash his hair soon, it’ll all fall out before ‘breaking dawn’ starts filming.

Berlin Fashion Week Day 4 Part 2

berlin fashion week has ended. highlights rom the saturday runway shows include kaviar gauche and scherer gonzalez.

the summer 2010. the collection was solidly elegant yet vibrant in a subdued way. nine of the outfits, including most of the highly ornamental formal gowns included swarovski crystalized elements.

a more complete roundup will be added later one of the highlights of the event was the ‘green showroom’ event at the adlon hotel.

berlin fashion week scherer gonzalez

berlin fashion week day 4

yesterday was an eventful day at berlin fashion week what with the gala magazine bruch, the esther perbrandt drinks/drums/ice cream event in which media wonks gathered in front of the designer’s store to watch models wearing the designer’s outfits sauntered down almstadt strasse accompanied by a mini brass band and drummers. it was a compelling way to show case the designer’s new collection. her handbags (in general) got a big thumbs from a WWD writer. photos will be added later as well as information on the scherer gonzalez summer 2010 collection, which was absolutely fabulous.

mississippi still the fattest state in the u.s.

for the 5th year in a row, mississippi ranks as the fattest state in america. 30% of kids in america are overweight.

is johnny depp cashing out?

with no less than 14 films in pre-production, including ‘the lone ranger,’ one film coming out this summer (public enemies), one film in production (sin city 3), and three films in post production (including alice in wonderland) looks like (at least at a glance) that either johnny depp has michael jackson proportion debt or he’s trying to cash in before he hits 50 and may no longer be able to carry a film.

amanda knox symbol of moral decay of society

is amanda knox, the alleged killer of meredith kercher, and her boyfriend raffaelle sollecito as well as the third guy whose already been convicted, symbols of the moral decay of society. are young people, the entitled generation (gen-y) only obsessed with pleasure and what they can get in the short-term? could we tie this narrative to that of the financial crisis and investment bankers who only thought in terms of immediate profit and not long term losses and the disaster the world currently faces?

it’s interesting that none of the reports in the u.s. press really mention meredith kercher. well, her name is mentioned as a victim. but there seems to be thin reporting about her family. and no mention that she, (like barack obama) was black/mixed race. although in this case with a black mother and a white father. was the killing racially motivated? has this possibility been explored?

amanda knox defends self today in italy

accussed murderess amanda knox is scheduled to take the standtoday as her and her lawyer mount their defense against charges that she (and her boyfriend at the time raffaelle sollecito) murdered meredith kercher.

update: you can read more about what she said in court here and watch a video.

carrie prejean fired as miss california and miss u.s.a.

carrie prejean, who seems to have anticpated the california supreme court ruling regarding homosexual marriage in that western state has been fired as miss california. donald trump, who weeks ago assured her of keeping her crown reportedly gave his blessings. why is donald trump running a beauty pagent? could someone please get him a barber?

what is the ukip party really

nigel farage, head of the ukip party, claims they are libertarians. this could be true. since the european parliamentary elections, they are now the number 2 party in the uk. their platform is like ‘a vote for Ukip, is a vote for flat income tax (and no tax for those earning less than the minimum wage averaged over a year), grammar schools, smoking, small government, and two fat fingers to Europe.’.

healthcare bill with penalty for not having insurance

sounds like socialism to some americans. u.s. senator, ted kennedy, of the cursed kennedy clan, is proposing to force employers pay for health insurance and force individuals to pay penalties if they don’t get it. the penalties would be added to their tax bill. sounds like time for a tea partay.

david carradine found hanged in bangkok hotel

revived by that hack quentin tarantino. now grasshopper has died. well, he’s got about 6 films in post production. so guess he’ll live on for a while. there are questions asking whether or not this was a suicide or a sex game gone bad. kinda like the whole amanda knox/foxy knoxy murder sex game situation in italy. but we digress. perhaps the family needs the life insurance money, like heath ledger’s. but um. whether it is or isn’t the facts are, ‘he’s dead, jim.’

this is the first entry in our new ‘recently dead celebrities’ section. so just so people can find this story in the tags we include ‘did david carradine commit suicide’ and ‘david carradine commits suicide’ so we’ve got all the bases covered.

delaying puberty

this abc news story about doctors delaying puberty for children raises all sorts of questions not only regarding ethics and the medical field (see octo mom) but also regarding abc’s news gathering.

the article does not include ANY opinions of medical professionals who are against this controversial procedure. if you google this, you will find plenty.

conservative anthem a hit on youtube

andrew breitbart appears on the national review’s online video program (whatever its called) and said that he was angry that conservatives gave up pop culture to the liberals in the united states. well perhaps with this young con anthem, some people are trying to take it back:

this young con anthem is apparently by a bunch of dartmouth students.

plane disappears between rio and paris

an airfrance plane has gone missing after taking off from brazil, on its way to paris. it has disappeared from the radar. let the conspiracy theories begin. sounds like an episode from the now defunct t.v. show, the lone gunmen.

rosa luxemburg body found in german hospital

90 years following the murder of rosa luxemburg, a german doctor has found what he believes to be the real body of communist revolutionary rosa luxemburg deep in the cellar of charite hospital in berlin, germany ohne kopf.

american government ready to hand over hundres of millions if not billions to european companies

to build its high speed rail system. not that the u.s. actually has a company that knows anything about the technology behind high speed rail. i mean, look at amtrak still chugging along.

but wouldn’t it make more sense to tell these companies that in order to get the contract they have to establish offices in the u.s. and vocational schools that will specifically train people to be engineers. who does the government expect will ultimately maintain these trains? france? spain? canada?

father has 21 different children

by eleven women. gotta wonder what’s going through his head.

latina girl called loser student by high school math teacher wins national science foundation scholarship

well, she didn’t exactly say loser. but this just underscores how bad teachers are in california.

healthcare coverage and your family vs. gay marriage

you know. once the whole gay marriage thing goes through more u.s. states, here’s what you’re probably gonna see happen.

a lot of businesses will cease to offer healthcare coverage that covers the entire family. statistically speaking, 33% of gay men are HIV positive, and the medication needed to keep AIDs suffers alive is really expensive.

if a small business, for example (this example is based on first hand knowledge) has a family with a severly handicapped child, for instance, medical insurance companies tend to drop these companies because of the prohibitive expense in caring for such a child. from a value perspective, it is unfortunate. it doesn’t always happen, but it can. in the end, everyone in the company ends up with really marginal health insurance with a super high deductible that doesn’t really cover diddiley squat.

additionally, loads of people will claim to be in these ‘relations’ with their friends so that their best friend dying of cancer will be able to get healthcare coverage as well. this may already be the case with heterosexuals, but the level of fraud will increase exponentially.

companies are not obligated to provide healthcare coverage to entire families. in business school, we call this negative hygiene factors, meaning, this has been available for so long and people just accept that it is part of the package and don’t think about it, but when taken away people will really feel it.

american companies are always looking for ways to cut costs. this can be done by laying people off, slashing benefits, and cutting out perks. as these things are neither mandated nor regulated by the u.s. government, and every state has a different set of laws on the books, companies will do what they feel is best for the bottom line.

arguably, this might call for better oversight and more regulation. but as the u.s. is essentially 50 different fifedoms, if a business does not love the business client in one state, it will relocate to another state. which is what has happened to california over the past 20 or 25 years. it’s an un-userfriendly state when it comes to big business. and colorado and states in the hinterlands (read mountain time) have benefitted substantially because of the unfriendly business climate in california.

citigroup charman parsons has love child

wonder what the nwife and children of citigroup’s chairman think.

are newspapers necessary?

this opinion piece by frank rich in the new york times, argues that without newspapers google news wouldn’t exist. which isn’t entirely true as google news also runs press releases.

newspapers and journalism. americans seem to have less and less use for the print and for the profession. is this perhaps because american newspapers have failed the u.s. public? for instance in terms of the twin towers disaster in manhattan as well as the current financial crisis. where were the investigative reporters pre-bear sterns’ implosion. and not just in the u.s. but on both sides of the atlantic and the pacific oceans. wasn’t it queen elizabeth II who said ‘why didn’t anybody see this coming?’

since the american media has sort of wrapped itself (and joined in some cases) the obama administration, its credibility has taken a nosedive. not that there aren’t legitimate news sources floating about.

but perhaps the mumbai attacks which one could follow in real time via twitter and with slight delay on youtube, showed that the newsgathering media has been a bit slow on the uptake.

it’s like the music industry in 1997. ‘people will always want to hold something in their hands.’ i was told when writing an article on digital distribution for wired back in the day.

amazon’s kindle wants a 70 percent cut

the cs monitor reports amazon told one newspaper executive that it wanted 70 percent of kindle subscription revenue and the right to license the content elsewhere. and what’s in it for the news guys? well, they have the opportunity to be available on kindle.

tea partay

in honor of the april 15 tea parties. and as comic relief to swine flu (–you know, what some conceivably believe to be the 3rd of 7 plagues –following SARS and bird flu, which is leading us to the apocalpse. actually, if this is true, swine flu is arguably the 4th of the 7. although the 3rd of the 21st century.) and to take our minds off the financial crisis. here’s a blast from the past.

porsche museum

yesterday, had a chance to see the new porsche museum. amazing. whether or not one is into big muscle cars, everyone can appreciate the slopping architecture of the white and glass building.

entrance fee is 8 euros with a special price for students and children up-to 14 are free. anyone can pick up a pair of the co-branded seinheiser-porsche personal audio guide with head phones. after exiting the escalator, you have the option of heading for the pre-1948 displays to discover the origins of of the 911, 586 and the boxster as well as just porsche in general and the evolution of the engineering and design. most of the auto displays also have a small t.v. screen. you can select the code next to the car and the auto synchs up with the images.

needless to say the museum was wall-to-wall men. a great place to hang out if a woman is looking to meet her future husband. but the question is how to encourage more females to study engineering?

caroline kennedy vetoed by vatican

2009 isn’t turning out to be a great year for caroline kennedy. first she was snubbed by david paterson, governor of new york, for hillary clinton’s open senate seat. then she was lambasted by the financial times for the audacity of coloring her own hair what looks like putrid orange with roots. and now supposedly she’s been passed over by the vatican to be and an envoy to vatican city.

rick warren in a quandry

a lot of people are wondering why pastor rick warren, author of the bestseller, ‘a purpose drive life’ has begun to back pedal on his stance regarding california’s proposition 8. town hall has compared his performance to that of the disciple peter. a jump to youtube and a viewing of warren’s interview on ‘larry king live’ will probably clear that up in a few minutes. which will happen on this end once we take the time to google this. although generally speaking, watching larry king live should only be forced upon someone while he is on the treadmill.

a viewpoint can generally be respected even if it it is not accepted by a small minority, if there is consistency in the way it is presented. everchanging viewpoints generally are not.

even before saddleback church broke off from calvary ministries, warren had caught quite a bit of flack from more traditional ministries for his so-called ‘feel good’ church and sermons which don’t necessarily align themselves with a whole lot of biblical dogma/orthodox teaching. so perhaps this just gets tossed into the ever growing pile of rick warren gripes.

washington post still taking pot shots at george w. bush

that the headline screams ‘A More Simple LIfe for Bush,’ can be interpreted as a play-on-words alluding to the reality show, ‘the simple life,’ that made paris hilton and nicole ritchie household names.

george w. bush is not the worst u.s. president. that distinction goes to ulysses s. grant, as most historians know. with herbert hoover falling in the top 5. bush’s one big mistake was iraq. yet he did manage to make americans feel safe after the twin towers incident and the meltdown of the u.s. economy. people seem to have forgotten the two previous nosedives the stockmarket took in the early 21st century. the first was following the indecision that was the 2000 election and the dithering about hanging chads and divining the intention of low income and elderly voters. this managed to shake world confidence in the u.s. political system. the second nose dive happened following nine eleven. manhattan was a ghost town for about 3 months.

maybe ecouraging americans to continue spending and the car companies practically giving autos away and further encouraging people to live beyond their means, from an ethical perspective, wasn’t necessarily a good idea. but given that the u.s. GDP is made up of almost 70% of consumer spending, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. you can’t really reverse such dynamics overnight. but perhaps someone could’ve considered the long-term implications of such prolifigate spending. and teaching americans not to live beyond their needs. could this be the lesson of the 2009 recession? and the 21st century. happy easter.

apple sells less than 20K iphones in india

innovative mobile technology never comes from the u.s. the rule of thumb is that everything starts in japan, then two years later, the europeans follow. japanese mobile customers have spent the past 3 years reading novellas on their mobile phones, having long ago grown accustomed to watching videos. while americans are just experimenting with the small screen and are excited by amazon’s kindle reader for some inexplicable reason.

india is of course, a different area. as it is east and has a lot of western influences. it is also, according to business week not a market that is smitten with the iPhone.

daily mail removes photo of michelle obama with girdle lines

the link from yesterday of michelle obama walking around in her j.crew outfit showed the obvious lines of a woman squeezed into a girdle. the link from april 1 has been switched and we are in the process of hunting this picture down.we think oprah winfrey’s people pulled a favor, given that the big ‘o’ (in this case, the other BIG ‘o’) is quite popular in the uk.

should american tax payer dollars go to financing facebook

facebook, the unprofitable company with 265 million users and the flimiest of business plans is in search of $100 million dollar to finance it’s growth over revenue business strategy. apparently the 100 million dollar infusion it got last year wasn’t enough. the company run by a 24 year old with zero business experience is looking at bank of america (which has borrowed money from the federal government) for assistance, according to business week.

do americans think their money is being tossed down one big black hole? you betcha.

senators who voted to deregulate banks

it was november 1999 and the following shows how senators voted to deregulate the u.s. banking industry (see below). this 90 u.s. senators voted yes to deregulating the banking industry. this list includes the following names: nancy pelosi, joe biden, chris dodd, evan byah, kit bond, and diane fienstein. the act is called the bank modernization act.

Alphabetical by Senator Name
Abraham (R-MI), Yea
Akaka (D-HI), Yea
Allard (R-CO), Yea
Ashcroft (R-MO), Yea
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Bennett (R-UT), Yea
Biden (D-DE), Yea
Bingaman (D-NM), Yea
Bond (R-MO), Yea
Boxer (D-CA), Nay
Breaux (D-LA), Yea
Brownback (R-KS), Yea
Bryan (D-NV), Nay
Bunning (R-KY), Yea
Burns (R-MT), Yea
Byrd (D-WV), Yea
Campbell (R-CO), Yea
Chafee, L. (R-RI), Yea
Cleland (D-GA), Yea
Cochran (R-MS), Yea
Collins (R-ME), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Coverdell (R-GA), Yea
Craig (R-ID), Yea
Crapo (R-ID), Yea
Daschle (D-SD), Yea
DeWine (R-OH), Yea
Dodd (D-CT), Yea
Domenici (R-NM), Yea
Dorgan (D-ND), Nay
Durbin (D-IL), Yea
Edwards (D-NC), Yea
Enzi (R-WY), Yea
Feingold (D-WI), Nay
Feinstein (D-CA), Yea
Fitzgerald (R-IL), Present
Frist (R-TN), Yea
Gorton (R-WA), Yea
Graham (D-FL), Yea
Gramm (R-TX), Yea
Grams (R-MN), Yea
Grassley (R-IA), Yea
Gregg (R-NH), Yea
Hagel (R-NE), Yea
Harkin (D-IA), Nay
Hatch (R-UT), Yea
Helms (R-NC), Yea
Hollings (D-SC), Yea
Hutchinson (R-AR), Yea
Hutchison (R-TX), Yea
Inhofe (R-OK), Yea
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Jeffords (R-VT), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kennedy (D-MA), Yea
Kerrey (D-NE), Yea
Kerry (D-MA), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Kyl (R-AZ), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lautenberg (D-NJ), Yea
Leahy (D-VT), Yea
Levin (D-MI), Yea
Lieberman (D-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
Lott (R-MS), Yea
Lugar (R-IN), Yea
Mack (R-FL), Yea
McCain (R-AZ), Not Voting
McConnell (R-KY), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Nay
Moynihan (D-NY), Yea
Murkowski (R-AK), Yea
Murray (D-WA), Yea
Nickles (R-OK), Yea
Reed (D-RI), Yea
Reid (D-NV), Yea
Robb (D-VA), Yea
Roberts (R-KS), Yea
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Roth (R-DE), Yea
Santorum (R-PA), Yea
Sarbanes (D-MD), Yea
Schumer (D-NY), Yea
Sessions (R-AL), Yea
Shelby (R-AL), Nay
Smith (R-NH), Yea
Smith (R-OR), Yea
Snowe (R-ME), Yea
Specter (R-PA), Yea
Stevens (R-AK), Yea
Thomas (R-WY), Yea
Thompson (R-TN), Yea
Thurmond (R-SC), Yea
Torricelli (D-NJ), Yea
Voinovich (R-OH), Yea
Warner (R-VA), Yea
Wellstone (D-MN), Nay
Wyden (D-OR), Yea

here are the Nays teased out. there are only 8 of them. plus one ‘Not Voting’ (john mccain). and one present (fitzgerald, who is no longer an illinois senator).

NAYs —8
Boxer (D-CA)
Bryan (D-NV)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Shelby (R-AL)
Wellstone (D-MN)
Present – 1
Fitzgerald (R-IL)

Not Voting – 1
McCain (R-AZ)

this has been posted twice before. but only with a link. the link tends to mysteriously change on the senate voting page. curious that.

bill clinton repeal of glass stegall and the financial crisis

this was originally posted spetember 2008.

the glass steagall act passed during the depression era, tightly regulated the u.s. banking system. it stood the country in good stead for about 70 years –until bill clinton signed the bill in 1999 which repealed the glass steagall act.

according to an article in the new york times, from 1995, robert rubin, treasury secretary at the time, is on record as saying the clinton ‘administration continues to favor allowing banks to merge with insurance companies as well as securitites firms.’

the 1999 financial services modernization act, written by phil gramm, who had been advising john mccain up until this past july, was passed by both houses of congress and signed by bill clinton in the same year, the new law effectively repealed glass steagall and the bank holding act of 1956 which prohibited financial companies from owning banks and insurance companies.

glass steagall prohibited the merging of banks, securities firms, and insurance companies, while the financial services modernization act allowed for huge financial conglomerates.

both nancy pelosi and joe biden voted yes on repealling glass stegall on november 4, 1999 as did chris dodd and and bill clinton signed the bill into law one week later. barack obama was in the state senate at the time, so his hands are clean. and john mccain abstained from voting.

the gramm-leach-bliley act, also known as the financial services modernization act of 1999, passed the senate 90-8 and the house 362-57 on november 4, 1999.

i will continue to post variations of this post every few days or at least every few weeks. it is important for people to know where the blame lies. and it is squarely on the shoulders of congressional members from the 90s and especially bill clinton.

celebs admit they can’t write, need help with twitter

twitter is all about expressing oneself in 140 characters or less. it’s like the motorola pagers that americans (and nobody else around the globe) embraced during the 1990s. this online version of the pager at least doesn’t charge you by the character. celebs like 50 cent, who doesn’t even know how to spell his own name, confess to using ghost writers to compose their tweets.

jade goody dies of cervical cancer

there’s a lot of stories about this uk reality t.v. star turned celebutante who died today. she was the much despised ’star’ of the uk version of big brother. and then celebrity big brother.

in the endless reams of articles that have poured out over the past few months since jade goody was diagnosed with cervical cancer, there seem to be a big hole in the coverage. yes, her situation has pushed the NHS in the uk to consider screening women under 20 for this disease. this disease as seen, can be fatal, and is generally contacted by highly sexually active women. if you read this bit in the guardian, it explains how the disease is contacted. with the most important lines being “The evidence shows, however, that the more often somebody picks up the virus (picked up via a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer), particularly if they have many sexual partners, the higher their risk that HPV will trigger cervical cancer.” there’s no conversation about abstinence. or questions about teen sex. how many sex partners did ms. goody have? is it unfeeling to ask? could be good information. as she lived and died in public, it doesn’t seem to be a question that should be put off limits. we know that the whole abstinence thing didn’t really work with bristol palin. but for someone to die at 27, it could’ve been a good question for the british media to have asked.

elisabeth fritzl tells horror story via video; josef fritzl confesses

yesterday and apparently one day prior, a video testimony from elisabeth fritzl and her brother was given in front of a jury. today, josef fritzl, the man who cried about his lost childhood, confessed to the charges.

josef fritzl cries as he talks about his mother

in the bild zeitung article, josef fritzl talks about his childhood and his mother, saying ‘Ich war ein ungewolltes Kind.’ i was an unwanted child. it seems that people the world over have an on going fascination with the elisabeth fritzl and the fritzl family chronicles.

the moral of this whole story is that well, family members and neighbors can never be too curious. especially if a family member mysteriously disappears.

timothy geithner gay?

burried in the financial times’ review of the new book ‘house of cards’ is a quote from the book ‘house of cards’ which alludes to the new u.s. treasury secretary (aka the man who pays his taxes many years too late), timonthy geithner’s sexuality. you can read the excerpt at the wall street journal.

well, if eric holder is being touted as the first black attorney general and barack obama as the first black president, why hasn’t someone issued a press statement regarding geithner, a man who may possibly be (if it’s true) the first homosexual u.s. treasury secretary. or perhaps he’s actually not. not gay or not the first gay treasury secretary. the previous one was the first christian scientist treasury secretary. thank god he didn’t need a blood transfusion while he was in office.

rumours aside, geithner is under pressure for having held a press conference last month during which he looked exremely uncomfortable while revealing absolutely nothing regarding his plans to stabilize banks and prop up the u.s. financial system. this in turn sent the stock market into a long slide well below the levels that had been reached last november.

the lack of respect for geithner is starting to surface. bbc world reported today on the group of 20 meeting of finance secretaries in london. when refering to a joint photo being taken, the journalist pointed out the uk chancellor of the exchequer and noted that the french finance minister was sitting on his left yet conveniently neglected to mention timothy geithner who was sitting on his right.

geithner, former president of the new york federal reserve, is part of the trioka which includes bernanke and the former treasury secretary, henry paulson, who had the misguided notion that it would be okay to let lehman brothers fail last september, thereby basically handing barack obama the presidential election.

apparently, according to the new yorker, Geithner rejected a proposal to turn Lehman into a commercial bank, which Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were allowed to do soon after Lehman’s failure.

obama looks like he needs a cigarette

this is sort of a part 2 from the daily telegraph (or perhaps a part 3 or 4) regarding the mishap that was gordon brown’s visit to the oval office last week. you know. the one in which, the obama’s gave brown, a half-blind man with a PhD a box of DVDs that included copies of ‘the wizard of oz’ and ’star wars’ and failed to give gordon a state dinner.

amanda knox cartwheels and flips in italian police station

amanda knox is on trial for the murder of british student meredith kercher, along with her boyfriend (at the time of the murders) raffaele sollecito. according to testimony given today, as reported by the bbc, knox and sollecito were told they had been acting inappropriately while they were at the police station for questioning back in 2007. the italian police squad chief recalled that knox had been turning cartwheels and flips while at the station.

ittierre files for bankruptcy

on thursday ittierre, an italian manufacuter that works ( or should we say worked) with roberto cavalli and john galliano went into administration

are facebook and myspace hazardous to your health?

according to biologist, the journal of the institute of biology, social networking is harmful to one’s health and as reported by the bbc, could increase health problems such as cancer, stroke, dementia.

the oscars, ho hum

reading nikki finke’s deadline hollywood about how this year’s might be the most boring ever. but in reality, perhaps that was last year’s and the year before that and the year before that.

out of all the films that have been nominated, perhaps one has been seen by more than half a dozen people. should we take our hats off to the academy for nominating obscure films?

the best part about finke’s deadline hollywood column is actually the comments section. the best one so far regarding the oscar’s sorry state is by anonymous: “Hollywood no longer has any actor/actress who qualifies as a star. All the men look like hoboes and the girls look like street walkers.”

although hugh jackman doesn’t remotely resemble a hobo. but brad pitt most certainly does. and angelina jolie as a streetwalker. anyone could imagine that.

media bloggers association helps bloggers over hurdles

ever wonder why matt drudge primarily only writes headlines and links directly to a news story? it’s probably neither because he’s busy nor lazy. but so he won’t get sued. media bloggers association, which helped wisconsin blog navigate itself out of a sticky oprah winfrey defamation lawsuit, helps bloggers navigate their way through the media biz and sort out legal insurance.

this organization is needed now more than ever as they’ve started offering online courses to help journalists sort out stuff like what the word ‘copyright’ really means. which is information that artist fairly whats-his-name could’ve used when he allegedly took an associated press photo and basically painted over it –i mean, transformed it into that so-callled iconic barack obama image. you know the one where ‘o’ looks pensive and is outlined with multiple colors from the u.s. flag. any way, if fairly had been a blogger and had actually signed up for this media bloggers association courses, he might not be in the hot water he’s in at the moment you know, standing on the precipice of handing over loads of money to the associated press.

due to the assistance of media bloggers association, ‘a blog about whatever’ was able to gain accreditation to the capital conference( NAA/ASNE)’s annual newspaper conference. over the course of a few days, ‘a blog about whatever’ covered the associated press’ annual meeting featuring john mccain as well as their luncheon, which feature barack obama as well as a separate event in which hillary clinton (who was a presidential candidate at that time) spoke.

turkish embassy party at berlin film festival

last night, the turkish embassy hosted a swank party at the ritz carlton during the berlinale. the country has two films at the festival, ‘hayat var’ (my only sunshine) and ‘momma’ (the bogeyman).

turkey embassy hosts party at berlin film festival

moralizing u.s. media drags octuplet mother through mud

are fertility clinics only for the likes of JLo and angelina jolie –you know, rich celebs. the southern california mother of 14 (8 plus the previous 6) is catching a lot of hate from the media.

in the early part of the 20th century, and prior to that when the world was primarily an agrarian society, it was not unusual to have large families of 10 or so kids.

starbucks solves stinky sandwich smell in shops

according to the seattle times not only is starbucks laying off another 1000 people, they’ve pulled the plug on ditching their smelly breakfast sandwiches. apparently the powers that be thought the smell was overwhelming the coffee. but they’ve apparently figured out that they can ditch the smell by removing one piece of cheese.

ireland the financial crisis and the pajama index

the bubble has really exploded in places like iceland and ireland. the pajama index refers to the phenomenon of well, parents picking their kids up from school in their pjs. meaning, the more people quit getting dressed in the morning, the worse off the economy.

is intolerance monopolized by left or right

is intolerance now monopolized by the left? and is the center more or less filled with apathy? the 90s, during the clinton administration was filled with media images of right wing fanatics harassing women at planned parenthood. these images have given way to lefties giving george w. bush the finger, harassment of mormons, and calling rick warren unprintable names. this editorial in the wall street journal makes a good argument for rick warren being a solid choice for speaking at barack obama’s inauguration. and points out that the political left (barney frank, etc.) could be the nail in the coffin for an obama presidency. while frank and the faction he represents may believe that obama has a mandate. the obama people are well aware that during this election, they only won the cities and made a very poor showing in the countryside.

michelle obama with do rag in hawaii

barack and michelle obama are enjoying their holidays at a $3500/day resort in hawaii, the home state of the president elect. michelle obama got caught by the daily mail sporting a wrap and a fairly unfashionable do rag.

researches force subjects to view bad jon cusack film

reasearches had research subjects view a string of romantic movies released between 1995 and 2005. one of which was the bomb ’serendipity,’ starring jon cusack. their conclusions indicate that watch romantic comedies can ruin your love life.

the bbc reported this information 1 week ago. time magazine (always on top of breaking news), just got around to reporting on this today.

dartmouth offers early retirement

you can read the whole story here. according to the union leader newspaper, ‘dartmouths’s endowment has dropped 6 percent, or $262 million. more than a third of the college’s $420 million operating budget (excluding grants) is supported by distributions from the endowment’

henry m. source for memento

if you remember “memento,’ the excellent film by christopher nolan, you might recall that the lead character has no short-term memory. the plot, which unfolds backwards put nolan, who co-wrote and directed both ‘batman begins’ and ‘the dark knight,’ on the map. could his tale have been inspired by the story of henry m.. a patient whose brain surgery went wrong, leaving him with perm. amnesia. not quite the same thing but who knows.

ulrike meinhof, portrayed by martina gedeick in the very well done film ‘the baader meinhof komplex’ had her brain removed by the german authorities following her suicide in the 1970s. as they wanted to see if the brain tumor she had removed in the 60s may have contributed to what they felt was an out-of-character deliquency. according to the bbc, as of the early naughties, the government still had her brain in a jar.

depression christmas cards a big hit for the holidays

humours cards with images from the 1930s makes you feel like maybe we’re not so bad off. you can find them at depressing times website.

how the u.s. political media blew the 2008 election coverage

how to amend the california constitution

click here for the details.

article 18: Amending and revision the constition. section 3 states ‘the electors may amend the Constitution by initiative.’

section 4 states: ‘a proposed amendment or revision shall be submitted to the
electors and if approved by a majority of votes thereon takes effect
the day after the election unless the measure provides otherwise. If
provisions of 2 or more measures approved at the same election
conflict, those of the measure receiving the highest affirmative vote
shall prevail.’

obama breaks 230 year old tradition

it is tradition that the outgoing president sits down with the president elect to have a private conversation. up until obama’s meeting with george w. bush, no one has ever blabbed about this conversation.

with bill clinton, someone once said this following his endless stream of bimbo eruptions, ‘once white trash, always white trash.’ perhaps this time around one might say, you can take the man out of the the southside of chicago, but you can’t take the southside of chicago out of the man. details about the conversation are on my way news.

the market weighs in on election dow falls 500 points

the dow fell 500 points today. but somehow this is not big news for the washington post. and you have to scroll down the home page of the new york times to find this information.

europeans want obama just not in their country

if you’ve been to europe any time since the democratic primary wound up last june, you would’ve been bombarded with europeans from the uk to germany begging you to vote for barack obama. we call this obama delusional syndrome.

had you paused long enough to ask ‘why should i vote for obama?’ you would’ve discovered, that like the u.s. media, the people had no idea what barack obama stood for or what his platform looked like, or had a clue about his life beyond what was clearly filtered and edited in his book. invariable one might say ‘he will end the iraq war.’ to which you could’ve replied, ‘and when the u.s. pulls it’s trooops out and declares victory as nixon did during the vietnam war, then what do you think will happen?’ and perhaps the response would’ve been, ‘i don’t know, but i’m tired of watching bad t.v.’

had you paused long enough to ask any random european the following question, ‘could barack obama get elected in your country?’ the answer would’ve been a resounding no.

here are some images on the wall street journal website of people all over the world celebrating barack obama’s win. as obama once said, his story wouldn’t even be possible in any other country. and although we had to listen to this line for about one and a half years, unfortunately, it’s true.

john mccain concedes to u.s. first non-white president

bearing in mind that all elements were against him, john mccain managed to put in a good showing on election night. here is his concession speech. and here’s the reverend jesse jackson having a breakdown. crying in the way obama cried for his grandmother. net rumors and conspiracy theorists believe that she died last week and the obama campaign held the announcement until the last minute to counter anything salacious that the GOP might cook up.

lindsay lohan america ferrera feud

last week, it was announced that lindsay lohan would be cut from ugly betty. some reports had her guest appearance being cut from 6 to 4 episodes, other’s mentioned that she was being x’d from all the episodes she’d already shot.

there are rumors flying around about a feud between america ferrera and lohan.

lohan is a terrible actresses. the only reason she’s a publicist’s wet dream is because she’s such a f**k up. maybe she was pulling the ratings down.

barack obama’s 12.5% tax

aside from the wall street journal, most of the political media has buried this tidbit. barack obama wants to attach an extra 12.5% tax on those who make more than $97,000 per year. this was initially floated on the campaign trail and covered by abc news in 2007.

earlier this month, the same media outlet wrote that this tax would be 12.4% and hit those making $102,000 or more (the rate rose to $102K in 2008).

barack obama echoed this on meet the press in november 2007.

in this wall street journal article obama says he wants to increase payroll taxes for those making over 250K. and applies to household income.

campaign expenditure breakdown mccain and obama

apparently the barack obama campaign spent 430K on food (which presumably includes michelle obama’s $500 snack at the waldorf astoria last week) $44m on salaries and benefits, 160m on broadcast media and $10m on internet media. there is an area called unknown which sucked up $550K. what unknown element consumes half a million dollars?

the mccain campaign spent $6m on broadcast media and $3m on internet media. miscellaneous expenses with insufficent info sucked up about $160K –about $400K less than the obama campaign.

from the 2004 presidential campaign, john kerry, a staunch barack obama supporter, still has incomplete finance reports. there is no disclosure for $26m of funds and incomplete information on $4m funds. that’s about 19% and $30m that is unaccounted for.

josef fritzl revisits cellar

josef fritzl, who allegedly kidnapped and allegedly did naughty things with his daughter elisabeth fritzl, gave the austrian police a tour of his dungeon.

londoners enjoy the art of slow living at festival of food

the three day festival of food event ends today (sunday). the celebration of good eating and responsible buying includes music, cooking demonstrations, a slow food bee day, and of course, lots of food. assorted treats which have been locally and ethically produced include wine, lamb, produce and sausages are featured in the slow food market. the slow food movement

London Slow Food Market

sympathy for the investment bankers

the company formerly known as lehmen brothers and shearson lehmen hutton is now bankrupt. who has sympathy for the investment bankers who got tossed out of their offices at lehman’s london office. all they got on their last day of work was a cardboard box. the best part of the article are the readers’ posts.

rewind obama speech versus mccain speech

you can watch both speeches on c-span’s website. or here:

inbev looks for new head, but does he have a passport?

is it true that inBev, the belgian-brazilian company that just forced anheuser busch into submission, might be considering someone to head their north american division who according to an unconfirmed rumour may not even have a passport. or is everyone doing a song and dance with the media considering, according to the wall street journal, that inBev-anheuser busch (or is that anheuser busch – inBev) will be axing about 1,000 employees before the merger officially goes through. usa today estimates that anheuser busch spends $378M on advertising. maybe they should consider trimming that figure a bit.

man forgotten in st. louis jail

this guy has set in jail for 2 years.

mccain’s new ad featuring biden

here we go. the mccain campaign has produced a pretty good commercial. but the real question is, does the campaign have enough money to get it on t.v.?

bruce ivins grass recycler

bruce ivins, the science geek who committed suicide last week by downing a bottle of tylenol (insert free ad here) prior to being formerly charged with the anthrax case from 2001, is described in this washington post article by a former neighbor: “That’s not the Bruce we knew. He was sweet, friendly. I mean, he was into grass recycling.” on the flipside, you’ve got his ex-psychiatrist blurting out her client’s mental history to the court, the audio of which has been obtained by the associated press and is now beingcirculated to the media. let the x-file-esque conspiracy theories begin.

my daddy’s name is donor

this article in the london times is about 8 months old, but it’s topical, don’t you think? this article raises debates how contemporary methods take into account only the wishes of the parents, not ivf (aka petri-dish) children.

the heart of poland in a bottle of cognac

the heart of frederic chopin, the 19th century romantic pianist, has been lying in a jar of alcohol, which looks an awfully lot like cognac, in poland since his death in 1839. the native son’s heart was removed from the holy cross church in warsaw during ww2.

dna experts are keen on examining chopin’s heart to find out if perhaps chopin died from cystic fibrosis as opposed to tuberculosis. as yahoo tends to move their links around, if you read this post after 26 july, perhaps you’ll have to do a search for the original article.

berlin fashion week more images

berlin fashion week ended last night. here’s a longer and better video of vivenne westwood and kim cattrall. cattrrall selectively made the rounds this week. she turned up for hugo boss’s opening show.

would you use germany to research happiness

according to the bbc, economists from france, the uk, and the u.s., studied a group of germans for 20 years. and found that for germans, happiness is immune to life events. perhaps the economists should’ve take a look at this 2005 report fromthe bbc about germany and depression.

american expat faces murder trial in italy

this story is about 9 months old. although it seems like it’s from 2 years ago. amanda knox, from seattle washington, had been in a italian jail since last november or december waiting to be charged for along with her italian boyfriend an a guy from the ivory coast with the murder of her roommate, british student meredith kercher.

austrian authorities question elisabeth fritzl while one child goes to camp

the woman who was allegedly kidnapped by her father, josef, and held in a dungeon for 24 spoke to the police about her ordeal. according to the telegraph, one of elisabeth fritzl’s incest children attended summer camp this summer on the D.L.

farming makes comeback

in detroit, a local charity is transforming whole areas with a simple idea. set up local gardens manned by the locals and let people take what they need. so far, they’re finding that this is exactly what people are doing. and as the concept spreads around the city, the areas where the farms have cropped up have seen their crime rates drop

germany double standard for immigrants

in germany, if you’re an immigrant and you beat up a german, you’ll get 8 – 12 years in prison. if you’re a german and you beat up an immigrant, you get a slap on the risk and a suspended sentence. the message here seems clear, xenophobic/racist attacks are okay as long as they are committed by germans.

california fires still out of control

we know california has been on fire for years. and i’ve only been peripherally paying attention to this story. 1700 fires started in a 48 hour period starting june 21. if i were into nostradamous, i might start trying to tie this to something. 960 square miles have been scorched and according to bloomberg 10K building are under threat. the big sur fires are within 200 miles of the bay area and less than 90 miles of los angeles.

now that the governator has been replaced by christian bale in terminator iv, can arnold schwarzenegger, the fake republican, save california?

fire and brimstone hit california

over 500K acres of land scorched. and it’s not just northern california anymore. the original fire, which started in big sur 2 weeks back, according to the article, may not be contained until the end of july. a new fire threatens the santa barbara area.

as arnold schwarzenegger is presently governor of california, one can’t help but think of his financial dud of a movie from 1999, the end of days.

will this lead to a heinz boycott?

a new ad by heinz’s uk devision has been pulled because it uses a non-traditional family with 2 men as parents and a little girl and a little boy. it finishes with a kiss. wonder if teresa (that’s tereeza john kerry) heinz is behind this. click here for more information.

new york times culture writer gets berlin all wrong

if you were to travel to berlin and follow the new york times’s guide, you would never get out of west berlin. the completely dead part of the city. the writer seems to think kruezberg is part of east berlin and never ventures beyond museum island or friedrichstrasse in mitte.

mobile phones and depression

are you addicted to texting? do you feel down when your incoming calls are non-existent. do you think this means you should be carted off to a mental hospital?

kerstin fritzl takes first steps

19 year old kerstin fritzl, who until recently, had spent her entire life in a dungeon like area below her grandfather/father josef fritzl’s house has taken her first steps and is set to recover. she was hospitalized for organ failure.

too fat to fly in india

5 flight attendants in india filed a lawsuit against air india for grounding them for being too fat.

dresden tries to replace berlin

dresden, aka the florence of germany, is not generally on people’s lips when they think of travelling to europe. those outside of europe generally think of visiting london and paris and then place berlin, rome or prague somwhere around choices number three, four, and five. berlin has a nice bar scene, but dresden is far prettier.

natascha kampusch gets her own chat show

natascha kampusch, the austrian girl who spent 8 years in captivity in a village outside of vienna, became the media darling of austria the day she escaped from her kidnapper. 2 years later, she is now the host of a new talk show that debuts today on austrian t.v..

elisabeth fritzl turns down multi-millions for interview and daughter wakes up from coma

more on elisabeth fritzl and various interview offers. according to uk tabloid, the daily mail, fritzl has turned down at least 10 million pounds (about 20 million dollars) in interview requests. the austrian cellar kidnap victim, who gave birth to 7 children, 6 of whom are still alive, might have something to be happy about. her 19 year old daughter, kerstin fritzl, recently emerged from a coma. the uk’s daily record reports that the fritzl family’s new identities are merely a signature away.

what happened to the elisabeth fritzl interview

i blinked and forgot to watch orf on monday. and now it seems that it’s been discoverd that as soon as the interview was confirmed, it was called off. at least, according to this article from . the english translation of the headline is ‘no interview with elisabeth fritzl.’ more info on the way.

schwarzenegger invites elisabeth fritzl and her kids to hollywood

according to the german tabloid, bild zeitung arnold schwarzenegger, aka schwarzi, has invited incest victim fritzl, who was held captive by her father in a cellar for over 20 years, to visit the sunshine state.

ban on genetic discrimination

well, hmm. so if you get your DNA done and it shows you just might get some horrible disease, in the u.s., insurance companies can’t discriminate against you.

cellar girl elisabeth fritzl gives first television interview

on may 26, incest victim elisabeth fritzl, imprisoned in a cellar for 24 years, gives her first television interview. the interview is set to air on the vienna based station, ORF at 8:15pm. her father is accused of having imprisoned elisabeth.

on the eve of the european championships austria gets a lot of attention

but it’s not the attention austria wants. the country is due to co-host the european football championships with switzerland next month. but instead of reams of footballs stories, the countries is being viewed through the prism of locked girls in cellars. 3 years ago, at the age of 18, natascha kampusch escaped from a man who had snatched her off the streets of vienna at the age of 10. now we have the unbelieveable story of josef fritzl and the daughter he kidnapped and held in a dungeon for 24 years. here’s how the european media has been covering it.

a zine symposium in east london

here are some additional images from the london zine symposium i attended 27 april. i will always have a soft spot in my heart for zines as this is how i cut my teeth writing back in the day. my ex-san francisco roomie used to play risk every week with the maximumrocknroll staff in the 90s. but that may have ended after the owner died. i can’t remember. the 90s. now we’re in the naughties.

st. george’s day

i’m in london at the moment. i arrived on st. george’s day. whomever he is, these days he is more known for the red cross (the cross of st. george) on a white background, which is the flag of england and the emblem for the english football team. and today you could walk through trafalgar square experience the celebration. i took a few photos.

body shop owner cut kids out of will

not only did the owner of the body shop, anita roddick sell her p.c. shops to a very un p.c. cosmetic company, she apparently didn’t leave her kids one cent. so i guess now british society will have to take care of her penniless children when they hit old age or if they every become unemployed, etc. way to stick it to society.

mccain and obama speak at associated press events

john mccain was a special guest at the associated press annual meeting this morning in washington dc. the event was packed full of journalists and newspaper executives from the capital conference.

during the talk, mccain acknowledged that the u.s. is in a recession. he talked about race and equality in the u.s., saying the military is a glowing example of the kind of positive results that can be achieved in this area.

the ap moderators asked mccain about the age issue. the moderators, who brought sprinkled dunkin’ donuts and coffee for mccain, also quizzed him about the shield law bill that is making its way through congress, which could affect freedom of the press. he said if the law were to be put up for a vote, as it is now, he would vote for it. but unfortunately, he did not present a detailed rundown of what the bill currently looks like.

mccain was pressed on roe v. wade in terms of using it as a litmus test for future court appointees. he ducked the question repeatedly and even tried to duck it by saying “i’m not ducking your question.”

barack obama spoke at the luncheon, in which the moderator, toward the end slipped up and had a mitt romney moment, calling osama bin laden ‘obama bin laden.’ there was a bit of a hush through out the packed room and some nervous laughter. obama brushed the whole thing off with a self-referential joke.

apparently this was the first sold out luncheon ap has hosted in its 160 year history. the place was packed with journalists all of whom paid $75 for a ticket. security was well in effect or the obama event, a stark contrast to the mccain event whereby convention attendees just sort of made their way in.

while standing in line for the obama event, waiting to go through the security check, i overheard a two men speaking behind me talking about john mccain and the possibility of his running with condi rice. they both agreed that a mccain-rice ticket would be an unstoppable force.

yet another uneven handed sentence

is race an issue when it comes to sentencing? well, just ask the barbie bandits. some people get 10 years probabtion and others 15 years in the slammer for the same crime. the naacp is seeking a probe on the sentencing.

mccain defends obama on hannity

blackberry blackout

candian technology shows up what it’s made of with the great blackberry blackout.

goth on leash denied place on bus

kind of a humourous article.

play the RNC DNC game; tom daschel supports obama

you can go to smoking gun to look at mugshots, or to play this new game.

tom daschle, former senate majority leader from the ever red state state of south dakota, has come out swatting at billary rodham clinton for their treatment of obama. lies and distortions and carefully edited video to fit their agenda.

emi cutting 2K jobs

emi is rumoured to be giving about 2,000 employees the axe.

atheists want to have their cake and eat it too

why is it that atheists and agnostics want to have their cake and eat it too? religious tolerance is important. but in this article, you have a situation whereby a family pulled their child from religion courses earlier in the year because the family doesn’t believe in god or doesn’t believe in religion or something like that. but now that christmas has come along, the parents wants their kid to celebrate christmas. the mother is quoted in the daily mail as saying: “i’ve helped out at the christmas party before and it’s got absolutely nothing to do with jesus.” tell that to mike huckabee.

ben affleck replaces edward norton

a few weeks back, brad pitt dropped out ofstate of play, directed by kevin macdonald you know, the guy who led forrest whittaker to an oscar, to be replaced by the more skilled russell crowe. now apparently –supposedly, edward norton has had to pull out due to a delay in filmming. does this bode well for the film? ben affleck is an okay actor when cast in an appropriate role. he was solid in ‘good will hunting.’ but maybe only because he played himself. and he was pretty great in that j.lo video. you know, ‘jenny from the block.’personally, i prefer this version: 

dutch diplomat and wife give daughter back

a dutch diplomat and his wife adopted a south korean girl when she was 4 months old. now, 7 years later, they’ve decided . hope this doesn’t happen with brangelina.

on a different note. 49% of men in japan pee while sitting down due a perceived inability to aim straight while using the smallest room in the house.

hillary clinton cockblocks the press and connives with CNN

according to an aritcle in the prestigous washington post, hillary rodham clinton can’t be bothered to engage directly with the press. so much so, that she is one of the lone candidates who has failed to provide journalists with a bus. one might ask, what does she have to hide? is it because she can’t speak off-the-cuff without putting her foot in her mouth? mid-summer, the financial times invited hillary clinton to sit down with them for their weekend edition ‘lunch with’ article. according to the FT reporter, hillary’s spokes person told the FT that there was no way that hillary would sit down with anyone for 90 minutes and let the whole conversation be on the record. how paranoid is that?that a member of hillary’s campaign was planted to ask a question during the clinton news channel (aka cnn) debates is not surprising. denials are everywhere, but some ace bloggers have caught her in the act. what’s she up to? the whole thing was hers to lose. now she’s running behind 5 republicans who barely know their own platforms in the national polls.

hundreds of black holes found

perhaps you didn’t even know they were missing. but now rest assured. they were just lurking in glaxies far far away.

california confusion

hasta la vista arnie. you can bet he’s not going to be appointed to any position within a republican administration if the republicans take the white house. after vetoing a bill which would change the definition of what a ‘man’ and a ‘woman’ is in school textbooks one year ago, after being re-elected, arnold decided to sign a bill, which looks exactly the same. quite a few conservatives have their panties in a bunch. and a few prominent organizations are calling for parents to pull their kids out of the public school system. could happen. home schooling is legal in california. california already has some of the worst schools in the country. if a whole swath of orange county yanks their kids out, the school system will no longer have to do battle with louisiana and mississippi for the’worst schools in america’ spot. after all the conservatives pull their kids out of schools, they will then decide to always vote against any bill begging for more money for repairing public schools, getting new textbooks, getting new equipment. and so forth. other people believe the 3 (or was it 4) similar bills which schwarzenegger has signed are so loosely written that california schools are left wide open for lawsuits.

priest poses as gay to research a group of satanists

that’s what an official at the vatican has claimed in defense of his being caught on tape propositioning another man.

reuters gets it wrong

from the headline from reuters, the article has obviously been written by someone who doesn’t understand german very well. last tuesday, eva herman was kicked off the johannes kerner show on ARD. HELLO REUTERS, she didn’t walk off. kerner asked her to leave. herman claims that her previous quote, which have led to her losing her job on NRD and being on kerner’s show have been taken out of context.

italian journalist admits to living with parents at 42

loads of italian men stay home until the age of 36. the italians have a special name for such a man, which loosely translates as ‘mama’s boy.’

paltrow desperate for cash brushes up on schoolgirl spanish

gwyneth paltrow is doing a made-for-PBS travel-log about spain. in this article, the reporter notes that gwyneth paltrow is a vegetarian and then quotes her as saying that she will (i paraphase) ‘tuck into the rice and fish dishes.’. i thought vegetarians never eat anything that ever had a face.

canadians treat us like third world country

as the dollar continues it’s downward fall, the british view new york real estate as cheap and canadians continue to cross the boarder for really good deals.

another problem in louisiana the jena 6 possible prison for school fight

thursday, thousands of african americans descended on a small town in louisiana to voice their outrage about the possibility that a group of black teens –all around 15 and 16 when the fight took place, might end up in prison for a tit-for-tat school yard fight in which they allegedly beat up a white teen. additional background on the case can be found here. if you are interested in donating money to the legal fund you can follow this link.

stars can run people over

fred (limp bizkig) durst gets off light. the guy plead no contest to having basically intentionally hit 2 people with his automobile last year. well, he gets to pay a fine of 750 pounds and do community service work. read here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6998744.stm for the details.  sorry, can’t post these links as html at the moment. will fix it later.

bilingualism protects brain

perhaps that’s why angelina is trying to teach her new kid french and english simultaneously. to protect herself from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3794479.stm dementia.

john cusack gets it right

the brief moment i lived in los angeles, i had at least 2 john cusack sitings. once in malibu at a pizza parlor and one time on rose avenue walking down the street. he was always dressed in black. and dare i say the tall one slouches when he walks. years ago, when i lived in the midwest, i glimpsed him and his pals (perhaps the future ari gold?) pogoing up and down to a fishbone song at the cabaret metro.

it touched my little heart to read that john cusack agrees with me, that so far in his career, which launched with ‘16 candles’ (the only john hughes film that holds up over time), he’s only made 10 good films.

whatever happened to reporters and where news is going

it is generally accepted (by whomever these powers that be) that matt drudge, with the drudgereport largely reset the playing field for journalism when he broke the bill clinton/monica lewinsky story. although this bit of reporting happened in 1998, one can safely say that that was the year when news gathering entered the 21st century.

natascha kampusch documentary

natascha kampusch, who was kidnapped at 8 years old and escaped 10 years later (around this time last year) has agreed to be in a documentary produced by an austrian t.v. station. according to the bbc http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6958733.stm kampusch is a bit mythed that her mother has revealed intimate details about natascha like that she walks around with a picture of her kidnapper’s coffin in her purse in her new bestselling book called Verzweifelte Jahre (the desperate years). in the article, kampusch says she has the photo on her handy. how many of us have odd photos on our phones? although perhaps it does sound a tad bit too goth for me.

daily mail sewing the seed of hatred?

there’s an article on the daily mail website which claim that 1 in 6 east europeans claim social benefits in the uk. you won’t see articles like this in germany as the basic laws ‘guarantees’ citizens and legal residents a minimum income to live on. and most people realize that if the money doesn’t go to help the general population, the government will either line its own pockets or will funnel it into developing military weapons, like the united states. generally governments don’t know how to save and/or invest money (look at the state of pension plans) they only know how to spend or cut.

monster dot com hacked paris hilton on big brother

unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before this site would be hit. i would never put my cv on a resume posting service. maybe i’m behind the time.

according to die welt kompakt, paris hilton has been offered around 400K (or something like that. maybe it was more like 3 euros) to joined the ‘cast’ of big brother in the uk. is this news? no, not really. but i can’t find anything else to write about at the moment.

european commission strikes back at u.s., we can scrutizine your citizens too

last week, the u.s. passed a bill which will require all travellers from visa waiver countries to forward all their information to the u.s. at least 48 hours prior to travelling. the new policy takes effect in 2008. so no more last minute trips to shake hands on a deal. now the european commission has decided that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. all those american english speaking expats better take note. on the one hand, i can understand why a country might want to know who exactly is in their respective countries. but on the other hand, doing business in the age of globalization is centered around the free flow of people, information, and ideas. but as most americans

but i guess businesses will adapt and become more comfortable with doing everything via skype and then acknowledging that signed contracts exchanged via email are equally valid as ones signed in person on dropped in the mail or sent via fax.

homeless footballers go missing during denmark homeless world cup

looked like a grand idea on paper, but to actually bring homeless people over from a developing country and expect them not to disappear into the first world ether. well what were the organizers thinking? what do these guys have to lose?

new visa law for 2008 for western europe and visa waiver countries

would of thought this would be big news but so far i’ve only seen this on the financial times’ website. it seems to have been ignored by the mainstream u.s. media. business people will need to give 48 hours notice prior to flying to the u.s. the new law extends the visa waiver countries to include the czech republic, south korea, amongst a handful of others. apparently the new law does not apply to canada and mexico.

murdoch’s dad thought he had a van gogh

in 1939, keith murdoch, the father of rupert, took this painting to australia. at the time, it was thought to be a van gogh. it was later sold for 1,680 pounds (about A$4,000). i hate that these news reports don’t list things in real numbers (dollars, pounds, or whatever). that translates into more tha A$275,000 in real dollars.

is it 70,000 or 120,000 bridges international media weighs in on minnesota

news agencies around the world can’t get enough of death and destruction, especially when it happens in the u.s. according to pravda over 700,000 bridges in the u.s. are in danger. while der spiegel puts the total at 160,000 while the bbc states that “according to the federal highway administration, more than 70,000 bridges in the US – about 12% of all bridges – were classified `structurally deficient´ in 2006.”

prague tourism down

according to a recent report tourism has fallen in prague. many blame word-of-mouth regarding poor service. tax-free spending for japanese visitors has fallen by 26%. and apparently prague is having a difficult time attracting visitors for a second time.

i visited prague for the first time over 10 years ago. beer was still around 50 cents and the food was authentically czech. my friend and i were repeatedly ripped off at restaurants. whenever we sat down at a table, a waitress would immediately bring us condiments. and although we would never used them, we were charged for the stuff being on our table. we soon learned to wave these items away. but ultimately, we had an enjoyable time.

3 years back, i visited the city for a second time. i was amazed by the transformation. we were hardpressed to find a restaurant that sold gulasch. and everywhere we went we saw huge signs in front of pubs advertising the next game for chelsea or manchester united or arsenal being shown live on satellite tv. within 10 short years, prague had changed from a mini oasis for slacker americans to a haven for middle-class brits who could no longer afford live in london. i was truely amazed.

san francisco files lawsuits against gang members

the city that mistakenly believes it is the most tolerant in north america, engages in an intolerant act. if you are a minority and you’re hanging outside and talking to people on your street, the police could conclude you’re a gang member, and then boy have you got a lot of problems. whatever happened to civil liberties. or is this a case of what philip k. dick wrote and steven spielberg so elegantly bought to the screen coming true?

fat is contagious

according to an article on www.bbc.co.uk, obesity just might be contagious. our size could just be effected by the company and the society we keep. this could explain why samoans tend to be robust people. and why adults in small town and suburban america tend to be a whole lot fatter than people who live in manhattan. perhaps this could explain the city versus rural disconnect in the u.s.

velveta cheese fudge and coke salad

i’m not so sure about ron paul, a republican doctor running for the presidency. but i would sure like to have a look at his wife’s cookbook.

princes only want fat women

at least in nigeria thin is out. if prince harry lived in nigeria he wouldn’t be dating his beloved chelsea, nor would prince william be entertaining kate middleton. no, the both would probably be more smitten with rosanne barr.

anti-aging pill, just what the stones need

not that mick has  requested this. or as far as i know he hasn’t. but a seemingly legitimate pharmaceutical company wants to create a pill to help slow down the aging process.

mariane pearl files lawsuit, tries to salvage a mighty heart

i suspect there’s probably a statue of limitations on this. and of course she is due a lot considering what happened to her poor husband. but the timing is a bit suspect considering the film about her life is flopping (or shall i say, has flopped) at the box office.

focuses on brazil

do you love brazilelectro? do you like to samba? can you speak a bit of portugese? is ronaldhino your favourite football player?

in light of what recently happened in peru (the government shut down a restaurant for not letting in black peruvians), it’s great that the bbc news channel is focusing on race in a south american country. brazil has the biggest population of people of african descent outside of africa, yet the black population in brazil is treated the worst. according to the bbc. the channel’s series is making an impact locally.

the simpsons and springfield missouri

why should the simpson’s choose springfield missouri as opposed to springfield massachusetts for the site of the world premiere of the simpson’s movie? well for one thing, its quite obvious that homer and crew don’t live on the east coast. have you ever seen a cobblestone street on the television show? demographically speaking, its all wrong. well sort of. if we are talking about west springfield, it’s completely wrong. on the one hand, according to the 2000 census, the city is certainly small enough. springfield mass has 27,899 families. but when it comes to money, i think we’ve got the wrong town. according to wikipedia, the median income of the city is $40,000 and for households its $50,000.

although springfield, mo, with a population of 151,580, is probably too large. with a median income of $29,000 and a median family income of $38,000, and a short list of celebrities hailing from the town such as brad pitt and bob barker, it seems more like a place homer and madge might live.

u.s. publishers move center right

over the past 4 years, conservative publishers have slowly bought a number of american newspapers. 1.) wall street journal 2.) the new times group bought out most of the independent weeklies across the u.s. 2.) according to the entry on wikipedia the new owner of the tribune corporation, which includes the chicago tribune and the los angeles times, donates money to both the republican party and the democratic party, but gives more to the former and less to the later.

perhaps the people consider themselves moderates, i don’t know. but there was a feeling that in terms of the u.s., that the press was solidly on the left, loyal to the democratic party, and stuck in the 60s, during the last 2 presidential elections. in 2004 there were numerous opinion pieces, which ran in major city newspapers (also known as papers with a monopoly position), about how ralph nader shouldn’t run for president and how a vote for ralph nader or a third party candidate was a wasted vote.

deconstructing vanity fair germany part 1

well, i just picked up the new issue of vanity fair deutschland. das neu zeitschrift fuer deutschland. and i would like to of course, pick the whole thing apart. on a one hour train ride on DB, while the powers that be weren’t on strike. i pulled out germany’s weekly publication, vanity fair as well as a pen and a notepad. then i counted. what was i counting? ad pages. and unless my fingers were too fast. i counted exactly 8 ads. dolce and gabanna, cerruti, something with jens lehmann and oliver kahn in it, a double-paged spread from american express, a mobile phone operator, Duismann (a german book store). there were the obligatory advertisements from condé nast, which owns vanity fair. but i did not count the ads for AD(architectual digest), Glamour, or GQ in my final total. like i said, maybe i missed a page or two. but i’m pretty sure there are less than 10 ads in the current 162 page issue.

lindsay lohan is on the cover. but somehow the photo doesn’t look like an exclusive photo. but i can’t confirm this. paris hilton gets 4 pictures in the magazine, one double page photo for an article called ‘Sun for the Stars,’ then a smaller version of the same photo in the table-of-contents, and yet another one with in the story. she was on the cover 2 weeks ago.

tom cruise appears twice in the magazine. he’s in the ‘Sun for the Stars’ piece. there’s a double-paged spread of him and the spawn of l.r. hubbard frolicking somewhere. then there’s yet another article about prince william. last week’s cover was of princess diana and included a small photo of prince william and kate middleton.

there’s an article about tom cruise and the count von stauffenberg movie. the article includes a photo of bryan singer and tom cruise in berlin, a smaller photo of the count, and a picture of tom cruise and nicole kidman with sky du mont, one of germany’s most respected actors. the article seems to be all about promoting the film as being good for germany’s image. tom’s publicist must of put pressure on the editors because tom cruise is widely despised in germany because of his strange obsession with scientology. the article includes a quote from florian henckel von donnersmarck, who won an oscar earlier this year. the quote was pulled from an editorial the film director wrote for Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung. and basically says that having tom cruise play the role of von stauffenberg would be good for germany’s image. uwe wolff, who wrote the article writes ‘mit Valkyrie, werden rund 40 Millionen Euro in den Filmstandort Deutschland investiert, 500 Jobs geschaffen, auch für deutsche Schauspieler wie Daniel Bruehl und Armin Mueller-Stahl.’ translation. ‘with the film valkyrie, 40M will be invested where the filming takes place, 500 jobs will be created, also jobs for german actors like daniel bruehl and armin mueller-stahl.’ but tom hasn’t mentioned whether or not he’ll be erecting a scientology tent at the babelsberg studio set. we can only hope he doesn’t try to convert daniel bruehl.

o.k., so i was discussing how the magazine seems to be misreading germany. no one in germany likes to discuss there being an elite in the country. anyone with the word ‘von’ in their name is hissed at. der spiegel details this in its article. the article says the ‘…the problem is the magazine’s point of view.’ while popular celeb magazines take the piss out of celebrities, vanity fair, der spiegel notes, ‘…often prefers to shut itself out from its readers by associating itself with the world’s rich and powerful.’

how else are they out of touch? on one of their in/out pages, someone from their photo staff has found the dowdiest photo of julie delpy (above is a more accurate photo of delpy, which i took of her earlier this year) and slapped her image with the word OUT because she made a derogatory comment about quentin tarantino. the comment was made in a comical way. it’s about how poorly tarantino treats women in his films. yet, delpy’s directorial debut, 2 Days in Paris,(which stars herself and daniel bruehl), is doing quite well in germany. her little film has been in the top 10 for about 3 months. and all of the reviews have been infinitely positive.

for some inexplicable reason, the majority of the images in the magazine are of english speaking celebrities. the same is true for russian vogue btw. for vanity fair deutschland, the aging kate moss and the aging george clooney are seemingly favorites. they’re both in the new issue as is the basketball player tony parker (nobody cares about basketball in europe). the guest editor, rainer schmidt of the magazine talks about ‘the hollywood elite’ in his editorial without even a hint of irony. the magazine also bills itself as a new magazine for germany’s new elite, again without any hint of irony.

aside from the first issue with til schweiger dressed in a cowboy outfit rubbing his hose, i can’t think of another issue that’s had an actor from the german speaking countries on the cover. this brings me to another point, which i will, in a simone de beauvoir way mention now, but only get around to discussing later. basically, i want to tell the editors, it is perfectly okay to put danny bruehl or franka potente on the cover or michael ballack. they could even put roger federer on the cover. these people are all well known in german speaking countries. if the editors want a more european perspective. then put topical political stories on the cover. zapatero could be interesting. if the article runs for more than 2 pages. or what about the twin leaders from poland?

but perhaps the magazine’s fascination with american culture is a way for condé nast to try to minimize anti-americanism and anti-britishism by filling the magazine with the cultural elite of both countries so that everyone in germany will decide that they want to marry prince william, go partying with prince harry, and have a laugh with george clooney and leonardo dicaprio. without a bit of irony.

vanity fair german includes a mix of fashion, celebrity, and politics. just like vanity fair in the u.s. and the version in italy. ( i saw the italian version the last time i was in italy, it was about 10 pages. but perhaps it has improved.) but in the german speaking market (except for perhaps switzerland), this is not the same audience. people either want their hard political stories that go on and on in great detail for about 10 pages or they want a celebrity magazine and pictures of glamourous politicians from france are okay. note, i said france, not german. there are no glamourous politicians in deutschland. although it might be okay to put ursula von der leyen on the cover, despite her name having ‘von’ in the middle. she’s the 3rd most popular politician in germany, according to stern and she’s telegenic. but no. vanity fair just continuously runs photos of klaus wowereit. whose national popularity is quite low considering his city is 6 billion euros in debt. that’s almost 1 trillion dollars.

the political stories should run a minimum of 8 pages and include lots of charts because i’m convinced focus’s biggest readership comes from the people who have to camp out at their doctor’s office for two hours waiting to take advantage of their socialized medical system.

ross perot big sucking sound, microsoft goes to canada

think back to the presidential election of 1992. remember this little whiney guy from texas, no i don’t be george bush, or number 43 as he’s sometimes called. i mean ross perot. the thorn in the republicans’ side for most of the 1990s. he shaved off a good 6% of the first bush’s votes and took about 26% from bob dole, thereby allowing bill clinton to be president for 8 years.

back then, ross was one of the view politicians who was against NAFTA, the north american free trade treat. he thought that it would enable american companies to make a mad dash to mexico in search of cheap labor and cheap land. what he didn’t envision was that the sucking sound would come from canada.

not only have most famous american t.v. shows been shot in canada since the nineties (think The X-Files) so are most commercials. now microsoft wants to open an office in canada because it wants to move around the u.s. immigration quota system. microsoft is opening a development office in Vancouver. Vancouver, British Columbia is about 2 hours away from seattle and it takes anothe 45 minutes to get t redmond from there.

baby momma angelina jolie vs. brad pitt’s mom

sometimes we forget that superstars like brad pitt have family. according to life & style weekly, angelina has threatened not to let jane pitt see her granddaughter. what did jane do? sounds like a question from my first kindergarten class. jane is still on good terms with jennifer aniston and visits her from time-to-time. although angelina may think of herself as jennifer’s replacement. jen aniston was the only woman in brad’s endless sea of girlfriends (which suposedly includes gwyneth, juliette, thandie) who got a ring and wedding to go with the relationships. you say, it’s 2007 and marriage is just a piece of paper. but remember that when your boyfriend kicks the bucket, his mother pockets his life insurance payment, and his father places a ‘for sale’ sign on the lawn of your boyfriend’s house.

is prince william going bald?

i’d hate to start a rumour. but actually, i really don’t need to. there’s plenty of proof on the internet.

prada mobile, phone of the year?

like the iPhone, it too has a touch screenpad. if understated design is the hallmark of prada, this mobile phone falls in line perfectly. the black and silver mobile phone was recently introduced in europe. although apple is seemingly clueless to the phenomenon of first launching a phone in japan, then europe, and lastly, the u.s., prada has pretty much fallen in line with convention.

in terms of mobile technology, the rule of thumb is that japan is 2 years ahead of europe and europe is 2 years ahead of the u.s. although the iPhone is considered a new revolutionary toy in the u.s. it is infact, NBD (no big deal) to japanese and euro-trash teens. that there’s no handfree dialing and the phone labors slowly while online, the iPhone will, like the razor in the u.s. essentially be for the u.s. market. and that’s okay for apple, considering the u.s. has 300M people.

perhaps the powers that be at apple thought that since the iPod took off first in the u.s. and the enthusiasm of the early adopters in america infected the rest of the world, a similar occurrance might happen with the iPhone. that remains to be seen, considering the phone doesn’t hit europe until fall 07 and japan until 2008.

recently, i had a chance to play around with the prada mobile, which launched in europe in march. it’s slim, compact, and oh so flash. while the retail price of the phone is 600 euros, it is possible (in some european countries) to sign a two year contract and get the phone for between 52 euros and 260 euros, depending on what type of contract one opts for. the phone includes a document viewer (word, powerpoint, excel, pdf, or txt), as well as a video player, camera, a music player (mp3, wma, real, acc, acc+), a radio, and so forth. it was developed in conjuction with LG. for more information (in English) you can click here.

since it’s a triband, americans while travelling overseas, do have the option of picking one up and switching out their cards.

moscow’s 24 hour hair salons

apparently there are a lot of similarities between americans and russians. both love big cars, like to speak in superlatives, and love 24-hour shopping. while consumption and shopping are national pass times in both cultures, the impetuouss to shop in russia might have more to do with most of the general population having lost their life savings twice in the 1990s. 24 hour shopping in moscow is all the rage according to the bbc. you can have a manicure or a haircut at 1am.

business people should watch more movies, read less books

in italy, business managers are being told that they can learn loads watching steven spielberg films such as the terminal as well as films such as volver. the italian consultants who’ve expressed an interest in the widely panned the terminal, believe that the film teaches you how to overcome adversity. the organizaion think john wayne films can inspire leadership.

wikipedia could be instrumental in chris benoit/wrestler mystery

well, its not a mystery. the man and his family were found dead. i’ve intentionally not followed this story as it just underscores the level of violence in the u.s. that is absolutely chilly. but apparently, someone at wikipedia or one of their wiki people noticed that the update to chris benoit’s website about the death of the benoits was updated before the police found the bodies.

u.s. teen may get 20 years for school fight

why is it that an animal rights activist in holland can get 15 years in prison for assasinating a politician, but an african-american u.s. teen who gets in a school fight over a racial incident is, according to the associate press, looking at 20 years behind bars?
unfortunately, yahoo has taken this original link down. you can read more about the case on the bbc websites.

the daily mail strikes back liz hurley’s wobbly ass

it seems, the daily mail is intent on showing celebs at their worst. last week, we got a bunch a photos of kate moss and her wobbly knobby knees. this week, there’s photos of madonna’s over exercised arms and liz hurley’s cellulite ass. perhaps now that paris is out of the slammer, the tabloid celebs have now fallen out of favor. have they’ve become the ones the public and some journos luv 2 hate?

email privacy and u.s. courts

it’s official. emails are private. even if your isp is yahoo. that is if the u.s. supreme court doesn’t overturn this rulling.

my blog has moved

and the name has changed (old name –>http://same-old-scene.blogspot.com). i’ve deserted google as i don’t want to sign-up for a gmail account. do i really need another email account? one more pass word to remember. and i don’t like that google scans everyone’s email accounts looking for ads to target directly at YOU.

so, this blog is not about the krays, although it’s one of my favorite films. its for people in the entertainment and media who are clueless, skeptical, or mystified by the rapid changes occuring in the industry due to technology. my cv includes work with artists like timbaland, u2, beck, 4hero, taraf de haidouk, la haine, wyclef. i’ve worked on projects with tech companies including apple, intel and nokia. my byline has appeared in wired, l.a. weekly, s.f. bay guardian and i blog about the film industry for jane magazine. i penned the first article on digital distribution, which appeared in wired in 1997.