"AIR AMERICA: STEALING FROM POOR KIDS?!"
Air America desperately doesn't want the right to laugh at its poor performance and near meltdown. I guess some of them are willing to do anything to keep the act up. From Michelle Malkin:
Air America is being investigated in New York for diverting federal/local funds--possibly "hundreds of thousands of dollars"--meant for inner-city kids and senior into the station's coffers.
Um, why isn't the New York Times, which has spilled tons of adulatory ink on the liberal radio network, covering this scandal on its front page?
Radio blogger Brian Maloney has the lowdown. Read the whole thing. He sniffed out the story when he spotted this tidbit buried in the NY Daily News about Air America being targeted in a NYC Department of Investigation probe of kids' and seniors' programs being ripped off in the Bronx... (full post)
Junto Boyz
Friday, July 29, 2005
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PRESIDENT BUSH AND THE ENVIRONMENT... STROKE OF GENIUS
Great post by Power Line on President Bush's recent Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate:
It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
Hyperbolic? Well, maybe. But consider Bush's latest master stroke: the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. The pact includes the U.S., Japan, Australia, China, India and South Korea; these six countries account for most of the world's carbon emissions. The treaty is, in essence, a technology transfer agreement. The U.S., Japan and Australia will share advanced pollution control technology, and the pact's members will contribute to a fund that will help implement the technologies. The details are still sketchy and more countries may be admitted to the group later on. The pact's stated goal is to cut production of "greenhouse gases" in half by the end of the century.
What distinguishes this plan from the Kyoto protocol is that it will actually lead to a major reduction in carbon emissions! (full post)
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Great post by Power Line on President Bush's recent Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate:
It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.
Hyperbolic? Well, maybe. But consider Bush's latest master stroke: the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate. The pact includes the U.S., Japan, Australia, China, India and South Korea; these six countries account for most of the world's carbon emissions. The treaty is, in essence, a technology transfer agreement. The U.S., Japan and Australia will share advanced pollution control technology, and the pact's members will contribute to a fund that will help implement the technologies. The details are still sketchy and more countries may be admitted to the group later on. The pact's stated goal is to cut production of "greenhouse gases" in half by the end of the century.
What distinguishes this plan from the Kyoto protocol is that it will actually lead to a major reduction in carbon emissions! (full post)
END OF EMAIL IN KOREA... NOW IN THE U.S. TOO
As I've written before, I believe technology market trends we have seen in Korea will be seen in other markets, such as Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S. Last year, I posted at AlwaysOn about a study that revealed more than two-thirds of middle, high school and college students in Korea "rarely use or don't use e-mail at all."
Now the Pew Internet & American Life Project has released a study showing U.S. teens are following in a similar trend:
Teens tired of 'boring' email
US teenagers are shunning email in favour of other forms of communication, according to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Teens are now more likely to use instant messaging (IM) and SMS to communicate with friends and family. This is despite the number of teenagers using the internet growing by 24 per cent in the past four years, with 87 per cent of those between the ages of 12 and 17 now online.
The main growth is the number of teens playing games on the internet, looking for news, shopping online and researching health information.
Email is described by teenagers as a tool for communicating with 'adults' and 'institutions', such as teachers and schools, and as a way to convey lengthy and detailed information to large groups.
But IM is used for everyday conversations with friends that range from casual chat to more serious and private exchanges. (full article)
Another view of the study from The Mercury News is here. And you can download the report on Teens and Technology here.
Doing a search, Steven Streight recently discussed this topic and my prior post at his Vaspers the Grate blog.
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As I've written before, I believe technology market trends we have seen in Korea will be seen in other markets, such as Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S. Last year, I posted at AlwaysOn about a study that revealed more than two-thirds of middle, high school and college students in Korea "rarely use or don't use e-mail at all."
Now the Pew Internet & American Life Project has released a study showing U.S. teens are following in a similar trend:
Teens tired of 'boring' email
US teenagers are shunning email in favour of other forms of communication, according to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Teens are now more likely to use instant messaging (IM) and SMS to communicate with friends and family. This is despite the number of teenagers using the internet growing by 24 per cent in the past four years, with 87 per cent of those between the ages of 12 and 17 now online.
The main growth is the number of teens playing games on the internet, looking for news, shopping online and researching health information.
Email is described by teenagers as a tool for communicating with 'adults' and 'institutions', such as teachers and schools, and as a way to convey lengthy and detailed information to large groups.
But IM is used for everyday conversations with friends that range from casual chat to more serious and private exchanges. (full article)
Another view of the study from The Mercury News is here. And you can download the report on Teens and Technology here.
Doing a search, Steven Streight recently discussed this topic and my prior post at his Vaspers the Grate blog.
Thursday, July 28, 2005
REMEMBERING NETSCAPE
Entertaining article that I read in Fortune last week about the 10th anniversary of Netscape's IPO. I found out that CNet did a piece last year for the 10th year of Netscape's existence. This month's Wired also touches upon Netscape's 10th year in a cover story, "10 Years That Changed the World."
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Entertaining article that I read in Fortune last week about the 10th anniversary of Netscape's IPO. I found out that CNet did a piece last year for the 10th year of Netscape's existence. This month's Wired also touches upon Netscape's 10th year in a cover story, "10 Years That Changed the World."
FOR YOU GEEKS... KODERS, SOURCE CODE SEARCH ENGINE
If you're a programming geek, check it out. It seems cool, but I really wouldn't know.
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If you're a programming geek, check it out. It seems cool, but I really wouldn't know.
THE ULTIMATE TINKERER
My friend, Peter, is the ultimate tinkerer in my circle of friends. I met him through my friend, Jimmy, and then we meshed to do two startups together. The first was a video-on-demand company, ViewPlus, and the second was HeyAnita Korea, where the core technology was built by some Microsoft guys who founded the parent company. Peter was CTO of both companies.
Peter has a degree in electrical engineering and a masters in computer engineering, and he doesn't have deep experience in either one. What always amazed Jimmy, myself, and the engineers that he worked with was the wide range of his technical knowledge (e.g. programming, electronics, wireless, automotive engineering), relative depth in each field, and the ability to operate comfortably in each area.
If there was an example of modeling between father and child, it would be between Peter's father and Peter. Prof. Chang studied electrical engineering up til a masters and then received his Ph.D. in physics. He was president of Ssangyong Computer, headed Korea's NASA (Korea Aerospace Research Institute), and then went off to start a company based on his invention, a torque sensor for cars. The auto engineers at Hyundai couldn't believe a physics professor invented a torque sensor that improves the inefficiencies in gear shifting until he integrated it into one of their cars as proof. They were stunned, to say the least, and probably bowing to him behind the walls.
Like his father, Peter is always in a tinkerer mode. For a while, at least once a week, he would bring up an idea to bounce off or be working on some new thing. Every few months, Jimmy and I would laugh at his sheer intelligence and ability to innovate. I posted a little while ago that Jimmy and Peter are now leading the company I helped out during my last months in Seoul.
Anyway, Jimmy calls me up yesterday and tells me the latest story. They ran into some delays with their OEM partner for touchscreen PDPs (Plasma Display Panel) in Japan. So Peter takes a look at a PDP in their office, thinks about it, and says he can build one. And that he can build a better one based on a better technology, so he's working on it now. Jimmy and I started to laugh. The strength of Peter's technical knowledge and skills were confirmed to us once again.
Look forward to doing another startup with Jimmy and Peter a few years from now. Hopefully within a decade :)
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My friend, Peter, is the ultimate tinkerer in my circle of friends. I met him through my friend, Jimmy, and then we meshed to do two startups together. The first was a video-on-demand company, ViewPlus, and the second was HeyAnita Korea, where the core technology was built by some Microsoft guys who founded the parent company. Peter was CTO of both companies.
Peter has a degree in electrical engineering and a masters in computer engineering, and he doesn't have deep experience in either one. What always amazed Jimmy, myself, and the engineers that he worked with was the wide range of his technical knowledge (e.g. programming, electronics, wireless, automotive engineering), relative depth in each field, and the ability to operate comfortably in each area.
If there was an example of modeling between father and child, it would be between Peter's father and Peter. Prof. Chang studied electrical engineering up til a masters and then received his Ph.D. in physics. He was president of Ssangyong Computer, headed Korea's NASA (Korea Aerospace Research Institute), and then went off to start a company based on his invention, a torque sensor for cars. The auto engineers at Hyundai couldn't believe a physics professor invented a torque sensor that improves the inefficiencies in gear shifting until he integrated it into one of their cars as proof. They were stunned, to say the least, and probably bowing to him behind the walls.
Like his father, Peter is always in a tinkerer mode. For a while, at least once a week, he would bring up an idea to bounce off or be working on some new thing. Every few months, Jimmy and I would laugh at his sheer intelligence and ability to innovate. I posted a little while ago that Jimmy and Peter are now leading the company I helped out during my last months in Seoul.
Anyway, Jimmy calls me up yesterday and tells me the latest story. They ran into some delays with their OEM partner for touchscreen PDPs (Plasma Display Panel) in Japan. So Peter takes a look at a PDP in their office, thinks about it, and says he can build one. And that he can build a better one based on a better technology, so he's working on it now. Jimmy and I started to laugh. The strength of Peter's technical knowledge and skills were confirmed to us once again.
Look forward to doing another startup with Jimmy and Peter a few years from now. Hopefully within a decade :)
TV GUIDE CUTS CIRCULATION IN HALF
I didn't know that Business 2.0 has a blog until I came across this post on TV Guide:
TV Guide Gets Gunned Down By New Media
TV Guide, the couch potato's bible, is paring down its magazine from a circulation of 9 million to half that amount, and instead of 140 different regional editions it will publish just one national edition. Former TV Guide critic and uberblogger Jeff Jarvis weighs in: "This is the official end of the mass market."
This should come as no surprise since TV Guide's parent, Gemstar, makes all of its profits from electronic listings that it licenses to cable companies. (full post)
Yep. No surprise here. For my first startup, a video-on-demand company, we were very focused on our electronic program guide and thought that strategically it was important for capturing our audience and a gateway into other services and revenue streams. Gemstar, through it's aggressive patent strategy, did well to lock in and grow its market share. Of course everyone hated Henry Yuen (probably would have sued his mother if it threatened Gemstar's patent positions), its founder, for years and most were happy to see him fired in 2003 for SEC violations.
Anyway, I like the Business 2.0 blog, so I'm adding it to my blogroll. Erick Schonfeld, who's writing I enjoy, seems to be the sole blogger for the site.
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I didn't know that Business 2.0 has a blog until I came across this post on TV Guide:
TV Guide Gets Gunned Down By New Media
TV Guide, the couch potato's bible, is paring down its magazine from a circulation of 9 million to half that amount, and instead of 140 different regional editions it will publish just one national edition. Former TV Guide critic and uberblogger Jeff Jarvis weighs in: "This is the official end of the mass market."
This should come as no surprise since TV Guide's parent, Gemstar, makes all of its profits from electronic listings that it licenses to cable companies. (full post)
Yep. No surprise here. For my first startup, a video-on-demand company, we were very focused on our electronic program guide and thought that strategically it was important for capturing our audience and a gateway into other services and revenue streams. Gemstar, through it's aggressive patent strategy, did well to lock in and grow its market share. Of course everyone hated Henry Yuen (probably would have sued his mother if it threatened Gemstar's patent positions), its founder, for years and most were happy to see him fired in 2003 for SEC violations.
Anyway, I like the Business 2.0 blog, so I'm adding it to my blogroll. Erick Schonfeld, who's writing I enjoy, seems to be the sole blogger for the site.
MONSOON IN INDIA... DEATH TOLL AT 500
The worst rains in the Bombay area ever. It was described as a wall of water:
Rescuers searched for survivors buried under debris Thursday and rushed aid to villages cut off by record-breaking rains that paralyzed Bombay and its surrounding state, leaving more than 500 dead.
At least 273 people died in Bombay after being crushed by falling walls, trapped in cars or electrocuted when the heaviest rains on record swept through the city late Tuesday. Phone networks collapsed, highways were blocked and the city’s airports were closed.
At least 513 people were reported dead in the state of Maharashtra, said D.M. Kulkarni, the deputy secretary in charge of emergency operations in Bombay. Hours earlier, the death toll had been around 450. (full article)
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The worst rains in the Bombay area ever. It was described as a wall of water:
Rescuers searched for survivors buried under debris Thursday and rushed aid to villages cut off by record-breaking rains that paralyzed Bombay and its surrounding state, leaving more than 500 dead.
At least 273 people died in Bombay after being crushed by falling walls, trapped in cars or electrocuted when the heaviest rains on record swept through the city late Tuesday. Phone networks collapsed, highways were blocked and the city’s airports were closed.
At least 513 people were reported dead in the state of Maharashtra, said D.M. Kulkarni, the deputy secretary in charge of emergency operations in Bombay. Hours earlier, the death toll had been around 450. (full article)
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SKYPEOUT
Skype's premimum service hits the one year mark. Amazing. 1.8 SkypeOut customers so far along with 142,150,277 downloads. More from their press release.
They are kicking ass and I assume they are in the run-as-fast-as-you-can stage since the gingerbread man, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and possibly Google are going after them.
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Skype's premimum service hits the one year mark. Amazing. 1.8 SkypeOut customers so far along with 142,150,277 downloads. More from their press release.
They are kicking ass and I assume they are in the run-as-fast-as-you-can stage since the gingerbread man, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and possibly Google are going after them.
COLUMN IS UP AT ALWAYSON... BLAKE ROSS INTERVIEW
Rich, the AlwaysOn editor, decided to put my piece a day early. I interviewed Blake Ross, co-creator of Firefox (my standard web browser), a few weeks back and enjoy meeting this tech prodigy and young entrepreneur. It will be interesting when he reveals what product he's developing as his startup comes out of stealth mode. Anyway, check out my article:
When Good Enough Isn't
Firefox co-creator Blake Ross talks about what inspired his browser's invention and what drives its success.
A few months ago I met Firefox co-creator and Stanford University undergrad Blake Ross at a Churchill Club event. In asking him for an interview, I told him that I write for AlwaysOn, a website and "blogozine" created by the person who founded the Churchill Club and Red Herring. This information was met with a blank stare from Mr. Ross, who told me he'd never heard of Red Herring. Suddenly, I realized how young he was and how middle-aged I've become.
Despite this awkward start, Mr. Ross agreed to the interview, and we met a couple weeks ago at a Palo Alto, Calif., coffee house so that I could get to know this tech prodigy and potential serial entrepreneur. Not surprisingly, he seemed bright, grounded, and with a clear vision for his near future. More surprisingly, he seemed not at all caught up in the hype surrounding him. (full article)
[tags: blake ross, firefox, mozilla, opensource, browser, alwayson]
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Rich, the AlwaysOn editor, decided to put my piece a day early. I interviewed Blake Ross, co-creator of Firefox (my standard web browser), a few weeks back and enjoy meeting this tech prodigy and young entrepreneur. It will be interesting when he reveals what product he's developing as his startup comes out of stealth mode. Anyway, check out my article:
When Good Enough Isn't
Firefox co-creator Blake Ross talks about what inspired his browser's invention and what drives its success.
A few months ago I met Firefox co-creator and Stanford University undergrad Blake Ross at a Churchill Club event. In asking him for an interview, I told him that I write for AlwaysOn, a website and "blogozine" created by the person who founded the Churchill Club and Red Herring. This information was met with a blank stare from Mr. Ross, who told me he'd never heard of Red Herring. Suddenly, I realized how young he was and how middle-aged I've become.
Despite this awkward start, Mr. Ross agreed to the interview, and we met a couple weeks ago at a Palo Alto, Calif., coffee house so that I could get to know this tech prodigy and potential serial entrepreneur. Not surprisingly, he seemed bright, grounded, and with a clear vision for his near future. More surprisingly, he seemed not at all caught up in the hype surrounding him. (full article)
[tags: blake ross, firefox, mozilla, opensource, browser, alwayson]
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
"THE OPEN SOURCE BUSINESS PROCESS"... MORE ON GOINGON
Dana Blankenhorn has more on GoingOn here and corrects some things he initially wrote over at his Corante column. This was a response to Marc Canter's post that made corrections in Dana's first post:
3. We didn't just release GoingOn. We just announced it. Dana is an old enough of a hand to know there's a big difference. Tony has this yearly conference so it was apropos for us to use that as a vehicle for getting the word out - but we'll be silent until we can put up - which will probably (hopefully) by in about 3-4 months.
4. We appreciate having our social network compared to MySpace - but that's where it should end. We're not throwing raves, encouraging mating or in any way focused on teeny boppers or 'young people'. We're focused on business - small, large, corporations or independents - who need to communicate, market, sell and in general - act like adults.
5. And while we're on the subject of SNS - GoingOn is not just that. Social networking is a feature. It's about putting people into context. Just like CD ROMs, web access or (shudder) multimedia. I call this new category of products - DLAs (digital lifestyle aggregators.) Integration, aggregation and customization is at the core of these new kind of products. And in addition to social networking, there's personal publishing (pushing into the realm of micro-content publishing), communication, mobile and media. ALL of these aspects together make up DLAs. All sitting on top of open standards.
6. It's great that Dana got it right about GoingOn being an Identity Hub. It's not ONLY an Identity Hub - but at least he got it right that we use Sxip - and other ID systems - to interconnect one's various digital IDs tgoether (which are currently scattered throughout the web.) By combining all these 'digital presenses' together, we can provide whole new kinds of experiences and tools to end-users. Compelling experiences and useful, handy functionality is what it's all about. So this is not a correction as much as a slight adjustment. In addition to being a Digital ID Hub, we're also a micro-content publishing system, a meta-network and a kick-ass new tool! [Shhhhh: don't let anybody know that we're a new kind of tool - then we'll start getting comapred to Macromedia/Adobe!] (full post)
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Dana Blankenhorn has more on GoingOn here and corrects some things he initially wrote over at his Corante column. This was a response to Marc Canter's post that made corrections in Dana's first post:
3. We didn't just release GoingOn. We just announced it. Dana is an old enough of a hand to know there's a big difference. Tony has this yearly conference so it was apropos for us to use that as a vehicle for getting the word out - but we'll be silent until we can put up - which will probably (hopefully) by in about 3-4 months.
4. We appreciate having our social network compared to MySpace - but that's where it should end. We're not throwing raves, encouraging mating or in any way focused on teeny boppers or 'young people'. We're focused on business - small, large, corporations or independents - who need to communicate, market, sell and in general - act like adults.
5. And while we're on the subject of SNS - GoingOn is not just that. Social networking is a feature. It's about putting people into context. Just like CD ROMs, web access or (shudder) multimedia. I call this new category of products - DLAs (digital lifestyle aggregators.) Integration, aggregation and customization is at the core of these new kind of products. And in addition to social networking, there's personal publishing (pushing into the realm of micro-content publishing), communication, mobile and media. ALL of these aspects together make up DLAs. All sitting on top of open standards.
6. It's great that Dana got it right about GoingOn being an Identity Hub. It's not ONLY an Identity Hub - but at least he got it right that we use Sxip - and other ID systems - to interconnect one's various digital IDs tgoether (which are currently scattered throughout the web.) By combining all these 'digital presenses' together, we can provide whole new kinds of experiences and tools to end-users. Compelling experiences and useful, handy functionality is what it's all about. So this is not a correction as much as a slight adjustment. In addition to being a Digital ID Hub, we're also a micro-content publishing system, a meta-network and a kick-ass new tool! [Shhhhh: don't let anybody know that we're a new kind of tool - then we'll start getting comapred to Macromedia/Adobe!] (full post)
IT SECTOR THRIVING DESPITE OUTSOURCING
Good post by Dan Drezner, who has written some great articles on outsourcing:
Six months ago I posted on how the IT sector seemed to be thriving as of late despite the rise of offshore outsourcing.
Here's some more evidence from Thomas Hoffman at ComputerWorld:
A strengthening U.S. economy that's fueling increased IT spending and creating a tighter labor market has led to moderate pay gains for technical workers such as application developers and database administrators, according to new research and interviews with IT executives last week.
"There is a noticeable wage increase" for technical skills, said David Myers, director of project management at Solo Cup Co. in Highland Park, Ill.
Myers said he believes that the pay gains are the result of a general rise in IT capital spending, which has resulted in more projects being launched and a decreasing supply of available domestic IT labor....
A report released last week by Foote Partners LLC, a New Canaan, Conn.-based market research firm, found that pay for noncertified and certified technical skills has risen 3.8% and 1.3%, respectively, through the first six months of this year.
Pay raises this year have been particularly strong for people with skills in operating systems (up 8.2%), networking and internetworking (up 5.1%), and databases (up 4.3%), the report said. (full post)
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Good post by Dan Drezner, who has written some great articles on outsourcing:
Six months ago I posted on how the IT sector seemed to be thriving as of late despite the rise of offshore outsourcing.
Here's some more evidence from Thomas Hoffman at ComputerWorld:
A strengthening U.S. economy that's fueling increased IT spending and creating a tighter labor market has led to moderate pay gains for technical workers such as application developers and database administrators, according to new research and interviews with IT executives last week.
"There is a noticeable wage increase" for technical skills, said David Myers, director of project management at Solo Cup Co. in Highland Park, Ill.
Myers said he believes that the pay gains are the result of a general rise in IT capital spending, which has resulted in more projects being launched and a decreasing supply of available domestic IT labor....
A report released last week by Foote Partners LLC, a New Canaan, Conn.-based market research firm, found that pay for noncertified and certified technical skills has risen 3.8% and 1.3%, respectively, through the first six months of this year.
Pay raises this year have been particularly strong for people with skills in operating systems (up 8.2%), networking and internetworking (up 5.1%), and databases (up 4.3%), the report said. (full post)
CHINESE PIG DISEASE... 24 DEATHS SO FAR
'Bird flu' now 'pig disease' in Asia. This mutant disease broke out in Beijing (hope my friend Kenneth is okay). Interesting how diseases are recently mutating from within animals and affecting humans.
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'Bird flu' now 'pig disease' in Asia. This mutant disease broke out in Beijing (hope my friend Kenneth is okay). Interesting how diseases are recently mutating from within animals and affecting humans.
YAHOO! 360 PUBLIC BETA RELEASE
I got an email last night announcing that the Yahoo! 360 beta is going public, so everyone can try it out. Read their blog for more information and a link to create your own blogging/social networking site.
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I got an email last night announcing that the Yahoo! 360 beta is going public, so everyone can try it out. Read their blog for more information and a link to create your own blogging/social networking site.
Monday, July 25, 2005
SOUTH KOREAN AMBASSADOR RESIGNS... BREAKING NEWS
Heard through the D.C. grapevine just now that South Korea's Ambassador to the U.S., Hong Seok-hyun, has resigned. A few days ago there was turmoil in the South Korean media when it was discover there were illegal recordings of a secret meeting between Hong Seok-hyun, then president of the JoongAng Ilbo (leading newspaper), and Lee Hak-soo, Vice Chairman of Samsung Group’s corporate restructuring office. The topic covered illegal contributions to the two leading candidates of the last presidential election.
Ambassador Hong has felt pressured to resign and didn't do so until now. Some more information:
South Korean Ambassador to the United States Hong Seok-hyun is caught in the biggest scandal of his seven months in office over illicit dealings in the lead-up to the 1997 presidential race.
He has so far managed to sidestep hullabaloos that threatened his career, but now he faces a graver quandary, as some have questioned whether he should continue his duties as one of the key diplomats to represent the in handling such important problems as the North Korean nuclear issue.
It was in 1997, just months ahead of the presidential election in December, when executive officers of a business conglomerate and a major daily allegedly had a secret meeting to illegally contribute to viable candidates.
Only some parts of the case, which also involved the public prosecution as well as politicians, have been reported by the local news media since Thursday based on an audiotape said to have been recorded by a secret team of the country’s counterespionage agency.
At first, most of the reports were cautious to leave the key figures involved unnamed. But Hong, then president of the JoongAng Ilbo, and Lee Hak-soo, vice chairman of Samsung Group’s corporate restructuring office, exposed they were the unnamed figures by filing a court request to prohibit broadcasting the news. (full article)
When my uncle was Ambassador to the U.S., there was an honorable and trustworthy person in that post. This current situation is typical and reflective of South Korea's President Roh Moo-Hyun. Yeah, I sometimes hit low:)
[tags: south korea, southkorea, scandal]
UPDATE: Today (Tuesday, July 26) the media writes on Ambassador Hong's resignation.
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Heard through the D.C. grapevine just now that South Korea's Ambassador to the U.S., Hong Seok-hyun, has resigned. A few days ago there was turmoil in the South Korean media when it was discover there were illegal recordings of a secret meeting between Hong Seok-hyun, then president of the JoongAng Ilbo (leading newspaper), and Lee Hak-soo, Vice Chairman of Samsung Group’s corporate restructuring office. The topic covered illegal contributions to the two leading candidates of the last presidential election.
Ambassador Hong has felt pressured to resign and didn't do so until now. Some more information:
South Korean Ambassador to the United States Hong Seok-hyun is caught in the biggest scandal of his seven months in office over illicit dealings in the lead-up to the 1997 presidential race.
He has so far managed to sidestep hullabaloos that threatened his career, but now he faces a graver quandary, as some have questioned whether he should continue his duties as one of the key diplomats to represent the in handling such important problems as the North Korean nuclear issue.
It was in 1997, just months ahead of the presidential election in December, when executive officers of a business conglomerate and a major daily allegedly had a secret meeting to illegally contribute to viable candidates.
Only some parts of the case, which also involved the public prosecution as well as politicians, have been reported by the local news media since Thursday based on an audiotape said to have been recorded by a secret team of the country’s counterespionage agency.
At first, most of the reports were cautious to leave the key figures involved unnamed. But Hong, then president of the JoongAng Ilbo, and Lee Hak-soo, vice chairman of Samsung Group’s corporate restructuring office, exposed they were the unnamed figures by filing a court request to prohibit broadcasting the news. (full article)
When my uncle was Ambassador to the U.S., there was an honorable and trustworthy person in that post. This current situation is typical and reflective of South Korea's President Roh Moo-Hyun. Yeah, I sometimes hit low:)
[tags: south korea, southkorea, scandal]
UPDATE: Today (Tuesday, July 26) the media writes on Ambassador Hong's resignation.
NUMBERS WE PLAY WITH... IRAQI BODYCOUNTS
Great post at The American Thinker that refers us to a dead link that was to an article by U.S. News' John Leo. I like John Leo's writing a lot (and The American Thinker's primary writers):
Isn't it awful, a friend said at dinner the other night, that 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the U.S. invasion? When I asked where the statistic came from, he said maybe it was 8,000, but definitely somewhere between 8,000 and 100,000. That's a pretty broad spread, so I decided to do some checking. The 100,000 estimate is from a survey of Iraqi households conducted last year by a team of scholars from Johns Hopkins University and published in a British medical journal, the Lancet. As luck would have it, the team was anti-war, and the study was released just before the presidential election. The study's coauthor called the 100,000 figure "a conservative estimate," the customary phrase attached to politically useful wild guesses. The study said, "We estimate there were 98,000 extra deaths (95 pct. CI 8,000-194,000) during the postwar period." Writing on Slate, Fred Kaplan translated that little technical phrase between the parentheses: It means that the authors are 95 percent certain that war-caused deaths totaled somewhere between 8,000 and 194,000. Kaplan's conclusions: "The math is too vague to be useful."
.....
The modern numbers game of war dead began with the Gulf War. Greenpeace said 15,000 Iraqi civilians died. The American Friends Service Committee/Red Crescent claimed that 300,000 civilians died. Various media assessments hovered around 1,200. Later, Foreign Policy magazine put the civilian dead at 1,000. Unsurprisingly, the high estimates come from antiwar groups, often described in the media as neutral and nonpartisan. A New York Times article during the Afghan war ("Flaws in U.S. Air War Left Hundred of Civilians Dead") relied heavily on Global Exchange, a hard-left, pro-Fidel Castro group blandly identified by the Times as "an American organization that has sent survey teams into Afghan villages."(more)
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Great post at The American Thinker that refers us to a dead link that was to an article by U.S. News' John Leo. I like John Leo's writing a lot (and The American Thinker's primary writers):
Isn't it awful, a friend said at dinner the other night, that 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died since the U.S. invasion? When I asked where the statistic came from, he said maybe it was 8,000, but definitely somewhere between 8,000 and 100,000. That's a pretty broad spread, so I decided to do some checking. The 100,000 estimate is from a survey of Iraqi households conducted last year by a team of scholars from Johns Hopkins University and published in a British medical journal, the Lancet. As luck would have it, the team was anti-war, and the study was released just before the presidential election. The study's coauthor called the 100,000 figure "a conservative estimate," the customary phrase attached to politically useful wild guesses. The study said, "We estimate there were 98,000 extra deaths (95 pct. CI 8,000-194,000) during the postwar period." Writing on Slate, Fred Kaplan translated that little technical phrase between the parentheses: It means that the authors are 95 percent certain that war-caused deaths totaled somewhere between 8,000 and 194,000. Kaplan's conclusions: "The math is too vague to be useful."
.....
The modern numbers game of war dead began with the Gulf War. Greenpeace said 15,000 Iraqi civilians died. The American Friends Service Committee/Red Crescent claimed that 300,000 civilians died. Various media assessments hovered around 1,200. Later, Foreign Policy magazine put the civilian dead at 1,000. Unsurprisingly, the high estimates come from antiwar groups, often described in the media as neutral and nonpartisan. A New York Times article during the Afghan war ("Flaws in U.S. Air War Left Hundred of Civilians Dead") relied heavily on Global Exchange, a hard-left, pro-Fidel Castro group blandly identified by the Times as "an American organization that has sent survey teams into Afghan villages."(more)
YAHOO BUYS PIXORIA, MAKER OF KONFABULATOR
Yahoo continues to be active in acquisitions. More from SiliconBeat:
Yup. Yahoo has acquired Pixoria, maker of a scripting application called Konfabulator that allows people to run mini desktop applications called widgets. These tiny apps can perform simple tasks or put content from the web on their desktops. (Think alarm clocks, calculators, RSS feeds from favorite sites.). Apple has helped mainstream the concept of widgets with its new operating system Tiger. But Pixoria was doing widgets first, and Konfabulator runs on both Macs and Windows.
What does Yahoo want with widgets? It's content and services on your desktop, for starters.
"It's really an exciting new distribution channel for Yahoo," said Toni Schneider, vice president of the Yahoo Developer Network, and co-founder of another start-up recently bought by Yahoo, Oddpost. "It's perfect for the kinds of things where you don't want to be constantly going back to a web page, like your portfolio for example. To have it there on your desktop just constantly updating and easily glance-able is a really important new distribution channel." (full post)
UPDATE: My friend, Jeff, emailed me to try it out if I haven't. I haven't so I did. It's very cool. Check out Konfabulator here.
UPDATE II: I checked out a fair amount of "widgets" in the Konfabulator platform and it's very cool. Reminds me of my old Mac days when I would download and use various utility add-ons.
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Yahoo continues to be active in acquisitions. More from SiliconBeat:
Yup. Yahoo has acquired Pixoria, maker of a scripting application called Konfabulator that allows people to run mini desktop applications called widgets. These tiny apps can perform simple tasks or put content from the web on their desktops. (Think alarm clocks, calculators, RSS feeds from favorite sites.). Apple has helped mainstream the concept of widgets with its new operating system Tiger. But Pixoria was doing widgets first, and Konfabulator runs on both Macs and Windows.
What does Yahoo want with widgets? It's content and services on your desktop, for starters.
"It's really an exciting new distribution channel for Yahoo," said Toni Schneider, vice president of the Yahoo Developer Network, and co-founder of another start-up recently bought by Yahoo, Oddpost. "It's perfect for the kinds of things where you don't want to be constantly going back to a web page, like your portfolio for example. To have it there on your desktop just constantly updating and easily glance-able is a really important new distribution channel." (full post)
UPDATE: My friend, Jeff, emailed me to try it out if I haven't. I haven't so I did. It's very cool. Check out Konfabulator here.
UPDATE II: I checked out a fair amount of "widgets" in the Konfabulator platform and it's very cool. Reminds me of my old Mac days when I would download and use various utility add-ons.
Sunday, July 24, 2005
MICROSOFT LAUNCHING VIRTUAL EARTH... HEAR THOSE FOOTSTEPS, GOOGLE?
HatTip to my wife, Christine. Definitely the big dog is stepping up its pace. Microsoft is launching a competing service to Google Maps, MSN Virtual Earth. Check out the service. It's pretty good. Of course the satellite images come from same source, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), so it's a matter of presentation, speed, and the user interface (UI). Microsoft is still the big dog on the street.
UPDATE... Email from a friend:
Try the "Location Finder" feature that's really cool. Way cool. One time it was fifty feet off and another time a couple hundred feet off. Supposedly it uses Wi-Fi to identify my location. To use it, I installed the ActiveX control.
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HatTip to my wife, Christine. Definitely the big dog is stepping up its pace. Microsoft is launching a competing service to Google Maps, MSN Virtual Earth. Check out the service. It's pretty good. Of course the satellite images come from same source, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), so it's a matter of presentation, speed, and the user interface (UI). Microsoft is still the big dog on the street.
UPDATE... Email from a friend:
Try the "Location Finder" feature that's really cool. Way cool. One time it was fifty feet off and another time a couple hundred feet off. Supposedly it uses Wi-Fi to identify my location. To use it, I installed the ActiveX control.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
REVIEWS OF THE AOSUMMIT 2005
A good amount of buzz about the AlwaysOn Innovation Summit. Steve Gillmor has a great post on it:
Tony Perkins is hitting his stride. I wasn't around for most of the bubble, woodshedding as I was in Charleston and commuting to Palo Alto for the XML run-up. Now the traffic is back, the VCs are swarming here at the AlwaysOn conference on the Stanford campus, and Tony Perkins is working his magic. (full post)
More from:
-Skype's blog, Share Skype, has a post on the first public test of their video service at the AO Summit 2005 here.
-William Luciw has an overview of the AO Summit here.
-TechCrunch (Day Two) and (Day Three).
-John Furrier's Podtech.net has an interview with Mark Cuban.
-Barney Pell on Mark Cuban's session.
-Renee Blodgett has several posts, such as one on the "Dislocation of Media and Entertainment" seminar and one on the "Tapping Into the Blogosphere" seminar.
-Lewis PR's blog has a post by Morgan McLintic on the "Tapping Into the Blogosphere" seminar.
-ZDNet's Dan Farber has good commentary on the "Is technology making us safer?" seminar, which I posted about below.
-Christopher Carfi has a post on the chat wall here and others at his blog.
-Denise Howell has some nice comments about the AO2005 here and more at her blog.
-Ross Mayfield has a nice wrap-up here.
[tags: alwayson2005, ao2005, blogging]
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A good amount of buzz about the AlwaysOn Innovation Summit. Steve Gillmor has a great post on it:
Tony Perkins is hitting his stride. I wasn't around for most of the bubble, woodshedding as I was in Charleston and commuting to Palo Alto for the XML run-up. Now the traffic is back, the VCs are swarming here at the AlwaysOn conference on the Stanford campus, and Tony Perkins is working his magic. (full post)
More from:
-Skype's blog, Share Skype, has a post on the first public test of their video service at the AO Summit 2005 here.
-William Luciw has an overview of the AO Summit here.
-TechCrunch (Day Two) and (Day Three).
-John Furrier's Podtech.net has an interview with Mark Cuban.
-Barney Pell on Mark Cuban's session.
-Renee Blodgett has several posts, such as one on the "Dislocation of Media and Entertainment" seminar and one on the "Tapping Into the Blogosphere" seminar.
-Lewis PR's blog has a post by Morgan McLintic on the "Tapping Into the Blogosphere" seminar.
-ZDNet's Dan Farber has good commentary on the "Is technology making us safer?" seminar, which I posted about below.
-Christopher Carfi has a post on the chat wall here and others at his blog.
-Denise Howell has some nice comments about the AO2005 here and more at her blog.
-Ross Mayfield has a nice wrap-up here.
[tags: alwayson2005, ao2005, blogging]
MORE PRESS ON GOINGON... SOME CORRECTIONS NEEDED
Matt Marshall put up a post on our startup Friday with some information on our seed investor, Daniel. I believe his company, TRADEX, was DFJ's greatest return on investment when it was sold to Ariba a few years ago. Daniel has been a great seed investor and enjoyable to work with.
Marshall also had some incorrect ideas about our service and targeted market. We're focused on the corporate market and will not be a online social scene or dating service. Also we don't really overlap with Linkedin, MySpace, etc. Anyway, Marc has a response here. Matt's article that's a polished version of his post at SiliconBeat is here... the title is great, "GoingOn aims to be social `network of networks'," except the "social" part in it.
Dana Blankenhorn has some more thoughts here.
JD has more with some key notes and comments:
Said Perkins: "We think what makes great communities is content."
Yes, Tony, yes!
More Tony Perkins: "The world is breaking into millions of little media brands. A couple of years ago there was a fear that all roads lead to Rupert Murdoch. ... Individuals now have to think of themselves as media brands, because IBM is not to going to promise to employ you for the rest of your life. ... The media world is where the music world was six years ago. ... The customer always gets what he wants. ... I believe the media world will ultimately succumb to open media and allow for more participation."
Venture capitalists tend to see spaces like social networks as a horse race with a maximum of three winners in the end, Perkins said. The GoingOn gang offers a different vision: The most effective social groups will have no more than 100 to 200 people. So GoingOn will be a network of networks. Added Perkins: "It's not about closed silos. If you want to have it reflect our lives, you need thousands or millions of these things with 200 members each."
Tony's got the religion. Seriously.
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Matt Marshall put up a post on our startup Friday with some information on our seed investor, Daniel. I believe his company, TRADEX, was DFJ's greatest return on investment when it was sold to Ariba a few years ago. Daniel has been a great seed investor and enjoyable to work with.
Marshall also had some incorrect ideas about our service and targeted market. We're focused on the corporate market and will not be a online social scene or dating service. Also we don't really overlap with Linkedin, MySpace, etc. Anyway, Marc has a response here. Matt's article that's a polished version of his post at SiliconBeat is here... the title is great, "GoingOn aims to be social `network of networks'," except the "social" part in it.
Dana Blankenhorn has some more thoughts here.
JD has more with some key notes and comments:
Said Perkins: "We think what makes great communities is content."
Yes, Tony, yes!
More Tony Perkins: "The world is breaking into millions of little media brands. A couple of years ago there was a fear that all roads lead to Rupert Murdoch. ... Individuals now have to think of themselves as media brands, because IBM is not to going to promise to employ you for the rest of your life. ... The media world is where the music world was six years ago. ... The customer always gets what he wants. ... I believe the media world will ultimately succumb to open media and allow for more participation."
Venture capitalists tend to see spaces like social networks as a horse race with a maximum of three winners in the end, Perkins said. The GoingOn gang offers a different vision: The most effective social groups will have no more than 100 to 200 people. So GoingOn will be a network of networks. Added Perkins: "It's not about closed silos. If you want to have it reflect our lives, you need thousands or millions of these things with 200 members each."
Tony's got the religion. Seriously.
Friday, July 22, 2005
AO SUMMIT REVIEW... BILL JOY'S APOCALYPTIC VISION, DETERMINISM, AND COMMONALITY WITH STEPHEN HAWKING
Bill Joy's apocalyptic vision of our future and is in line with the the world's greatest mind and one of the greatest intellects of the modern era, Stephen Hawking. Horribly bleak are such worlds without God.
The AO Summit definitely kicked ass this year (better than last year's conference). The energy, knowledge shared, and information provided by a top-tier cast of speakers and attendees was excellent. For me, one interesting moment was during the "Is Technology Making Us Safter?" session with George Gilder, Bill Joy, and Jaron Lanier yesterday, when a man pretending to be Ray Kurzweil kept posting on the chat board "Bill Joy: What technologies would you end?"
Paul Saffo, the moderator, kept ignoring the question after realizing it was probably not the real Ray Kurzweil, but others on the chat board soon kept posting for "Ray." The audience soon joined in shouts and chats to ask "Ray's" question. Eventually a man in the audience was picked to ask a question and he asked "Ray's" question to the delight and cheers of the audience. Bill Joy went on to give a brief answer and cited aspects of genetic engineering and nanotechnology, which I don't remember in detail but you can find more here.
It was interesting since I didn't know Bill Joy, who has been called the "Edison of the Internet" and designed Berkeley UNIX, Java, and Solaris among many things, had this apocalytic view of man's future and was in essence a determinist. I went home and Googled him and found his Wired article from 2000, "Why the future doesn't need us.", which I surprisingly missed.
From Joy's Wired essay: "I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals."
As I read his article and other references, I found Joy's view of the future to be very similar to Stephen Hawking, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University and our modern day Einstein (his assistant once told of a time when he was dictating volumes of notes and on the 46th page he recognized that there was an error 20 pages before and corrected it). While Hawking's raw brain power is greater than Joy's, the only difference I have read is that Joy goes into detail about the hows of this apocalyptic vision and presents a different solution than Hawking. Joy wants to end certain areas of scientific research, such subgroups within as robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology, while Hawking hopes science will take us to the point where we can escape the earth:
"My only fear is this. The terror that stalks my mind is that we have arrived on the scene because of evolution. Because of naturalistic selection, and natural selection assumes natural rejection, which means we have arrived here because of our aggression. And my hope is that somehow we can keep from eating each other up for another 100 years. At that point science would have devised a scheme to take all of us into different planets of the universe and no one atrocity would destroy all of us at the same time."
Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist, commented on Hawking’s lecture, "Hawking was unavoidably caught on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, if there is no God he could feel the hold of determinism from which evolutionary theory could not escape—out of flux, nothing but flux. What followed from that deduction was even more troubling. For on the other hand, if evolution held true, he could not further ignore the aggression and violence through which man has evolved. Therefore, Hawking offered mankind’s only hope—that the savior of technology would come riding on the wings of science to rescue us from the clasping teeth of determinism."
It's interesting to see how these two great minds have derived at this hopeless conclusion. In a world without God, it is logical to conclude based on humankind's nature, history, and continuing progress that the ending will be horrible for all of us. But this is not my world nor the world of many in this world.
"We have educated ourselves into imbecility." – Malcolm Muggeridge
Zacharias quoted Muggeridge in his seminar and went on to explain how even the greatest of minds in the world today should not ignore the logical and rational existence of God. He was criticizing determinism and how flawed it is and a more logical explanation is having God govern and control the laws and powers of the universe. This notion may be unsettling for Joy, Hawking, and others, but it is the reality and a future to consider. (more of my random thoughts on this subject from an old post)
[tags: ao2005, alwayson2005, alwayson, billjoy, stephenhawking]
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Bill Joy's apocalyptic vision of our future and is in line with the the world's greatest mind and one of the greatest intellects of the modern era, Stephen Hawking. Horribly bleak are such worlds without God.
The AO Summit definitely kicked ass this year (better than last year's conference). The energy, knowledge shared, and information provided by a top-tier cast of speakers and attendees was excellent. For me, one interesting moment was during the "Is Technology Making Us Safter?" session with George Gilder, Bill Joy, and Jaron Lanier yesterday, when a man pretending to be Ray Kurzweil kept posting on the chat board "Bill Joy: What technologies would you end?"
Paul Saffo, the moderator, kept ignoring the question after realizing it was probably not the real Ray Kurzweil, but others on the chat board soon kept posting for "Ray." The audience soon joined in shouts and chats to ask "Ray's" question. Eventually a man in the audience was picked to ask a question and he asked "Ray's" question to the delight and cheers of the audience. Bill Joy went on to give a brief answer and cited aspects of genetic engineering and nanotechnology, which I don't remember in detail but you can find more here.
It was interesting since I didn't know Bill Joy, who has been called the "Edison of the Internet" and designed Berkeley UNIX, Java, and Solaris among many things, had this apocalytic view of man's future and was in essence a determinist. I went home and Googled him and found his Wired article from 2000, "Why the future doesn't need us.", which I surprisingly missed.
From Joy's Wired essay: "I think it is no exaggeration to say we are on the cusp of the further perfection of extreme evil, an evil whose possibility spreads well beyond that which weapons of mass destruction bequeathed to the nation-states, on to a surprising and terrible empowerment of extreme individuals."
As I read his article and other references, I found Joy's view of the future to be very similar to Stephen Hawking, the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University and our modern day Einstein (his assistant once told of a time when he was dictating volumes of notes and on the 46th page he recognized that there was an error 20 pages before and corrected it). While Hawking's raw brain power is greater than Joy's, the only difference I have read is that Joy goes into detail about the hows of this apocalyptic vision and presents a different solution than Hawking. Joy wants to end certain areas of scientific research, such subgroups within as robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotechnology, while Hawking hopes science will take us to the point where we can escape the earth:
"My only fear is this. The terror that stalks my mind is that we have arrived on the scene because of evolution. Because of naturalistic selection, and natural selection assumes natural rejection, which means we have arrived here because of our aggression. And my hope is that somehow we can keep from eating each other up for another 100 years. At that point science would have devised a scheme to take all of us into different planets of the universe and no one atrocity would destroy all of us at the same time."
Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist, commented on Hawking’s lecture, "Hawking was unavoidably caught on the horns of a dilemma. On the one hand, if there is no God he could feel the hold of determinism from which evolutionary theory could not escape—out of flux, nothing but flux. What followed from that deduction was even more troubling. For on the other hand, if evolution held true, he could not further ignore the aggression and violence through which man has evolved. Therefore, Hawking offered mankind’s only hope—that the savior of technology would come riding on the wings of science to rescue us from the clasping teeth of determinism."
It's interesting to see how these two great minds have derived at this hopeless conclusion. In a world without God, it is logical to conclude based on humankind's nature, history, and continuing progress that the ending will be horrible for all of us. But this is not my world nor the world of many in this world.
"We have educated ourselves into imbecility." – Malcolm Muggeridge
Zacharias quoted Muggeridge in his seminar and went on to explain how even the greatest of minds in the world today should not ignore the logical and rational existence of God. He was criticizing determinism and how flawed it is and a more logical explanation is having God govern and control the laws and powers of the universe. This notion may be unsettling for Joy, Hawking, and others, but it is the reality and a future to consider. (more of my random thoughts on this subject from an old post)
[tags: ao2005, alwayson2005, alwayson, billjoy, stephenhawking]
Thursday, July 21, 2005
MICROSOFT SUES GOOGLE FOR POACHING... THE WAR IS HEATING UP
Kai-Fu Lee, vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Services Division, left to head a research and development center in China and possibly head Google's whole China operations. So Microsoft is crying foul and a break of its non-compete clause in Lee's employment contract. Another clip here.
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Kai-Fu Lee, vice president of Microsoft's Interactive Services Division, left to head a research and development center in China and possibly head Google's whole China operations. So Microsoft is crying foul and a break of its non-compete clause in Lee's employment contract. Another clip here.
A MARINE’S JOURNAL
Since June 12, I have been activated in the Marine Corps Reserves. Since then I have been keeping a journal and felt it would interest Bernard’s readers if I submitted an excerpt from time to time. Currently, our unit is at 29 Palms, CA going through the training phases before we deploy in September. *Sensitive material changed
July 20, 2005 1107 PCT
There is a Staff Sergeant that works in * named SSGT Sadler. He doesn’t look very intimidating, doesn’t walk with a strut, doesn’t speak with a voice that commands attention, but if that man asked me to jump off a cliff, I would. He leads his Marines with character and understated charisma. He is highly proficient in his MOS, always puts his junior Marines before himself, and in fact goes out of his way to protect and accommodate Marines that aren’t under him as well. The brass and higher enlisted seek out and highly respect his opinion, and he carries himself nonchalantly; letting all this ridiculousness here roll off his back. He smiles when he sees you or adds a smartass, sarcastic comment and chuckles with you. His spirit and leadership motivates the men and everyone aspires to be like him. He does this naturally because of his character rooted leadership style. The men gravitate to him because they trust him. They believe that he looks out for them and would never ask them to do something simply to keep the uppers happy. SSgt Sadler looked out for me as well and even tried convincing me not to come out to Iraq with them, while the 1stSgt and Maj told me how valuable of an asset I would be if I came along with them. I trust this man with my life, because I know he cares for his Marines unlike many others who are in positions of authority and would never unnecessarily jeopardize the lives of his Marines.
I asked him to pin my chevrons on me when and if I ever got promoted to Sergeant. He chuckled because he never expects the respect and gratitude we give him. To him, he’s just doing his job. “Yeah Ahn, I’ll pin those bad boys on you. No problem.”
2042
“Are you ready to die?”
“Well… I don’t want to die…” I responded.
“That’s not what I asked. I’m asking you, if you are seriously ready to die.”
Kang and I were driving to a local restaurant cause we missed evening chow today, and he asked me out of nowhere as I was lamenting on my problems with my girlfriend.
“No… I’m not”
“Well you have to be with where we’re going. If you’re so worried about staying alive, you’re not going to be able to react when the bullets are flying at you. What if someone gets hit, and you’re so worried about staying alive, you can’t save that Devil Dog cause you hesitated. That split second decision could save his life, but if your worried about living, and the bullets are whizzing by, you’re not going to be able to think clearly. We have to start forgetting about home, forgetting about girlfriends, everything. I know it’s hard, I can’t help stop thinking about my wife, but if we want to survive, we got to prepare ourselves, and stop letting shit like this boggle our mind. That’s not our reality, man. Our reality is being able to go to that shitbox and coming back alive, and the only way we can improve our chances, is to get ready and forget about coming back. You have to be able to tell that LCPL or PFC to run across the street when they’re shooting at us, and convey courage to them. If we’re too afraid to cross the street ourselves, how can we tell them to do it? If we freak out, the non-NCOs will freak out too, if the non-NCOs freak out, we have to shake them out of it. You know what I mean?”
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
AO2005 INNOVATION SUMMIT... QUICK REVIEW
Yesterday was a good start to the AO2005 Innovation Summit. Great energy. Definitely up a notch from last year's conference.
The opening session by Peter Hirshberg and Michael Markman was creative and engaging. The keynote session with Sandy Berger, Michael Medved and Jerry Brown was solid with good information and statements by all three panelists. It was the first time I heard Medved and he was awesome. Brown and Berger represented the left well, but of course I thought some of their views were off :). Many of the attendees started to trickle out about 30 minutes into it and by the end more than 60% left. This was expected since many people are not that interested in politics much less political seminars, but if you are this was a great session.
This morning's session with Niklas Zennström, co-founder and CEO of Skype, and Tim Draper was cool. They were "skyping" in on Skype's new video phone system. Tim was hilarious and Niklas seemed poised and confident about his company's future success. Tony and MarketWatch's Bambi Francisco moderated the session. Also the chat board during this session had more substance than yesterday's chat string during the keynote session (70%+ of those comments was junk).
Some other reviews by TechCrunch, Outside The Star, Bag and Baggage. JD Lasica has some pictures here.
[tags: AlwaysOn, AlwaysOn2005, Stanford, SandyBerger, JerryBrown,MichaelMedved
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Yesterday was a good start to the AO2005 Innovation Summit. Great energy. Definitely up a notch from last year's conference.
The opening session by Peter Hirshberg and Michael Markman was creative and engaging. The keynote session with Sandy Berger, Michael Medved and Jerry Brown was solid with good information and statements by all three panelists. It was the first time I heard Medved and he was awesome. Brown and Berger represented the left well, but of course I thought some of their views were off :). Many of the attendees started to trickle out about 30 minutes into it and by the end more than 60% left. This was expected since many people are not that interested in politics much less political seminars, but if you are this was a great session.
This morning's session with Niklas Zennström, co-founder and CEO of Skype, and Tim Draper was cool. They were "skyping" in on Skype's new video phone system. Tim was hilarious and Niklas seemed poised and confident about his company's future success. Tony and MarketWatch's Bambi Francisco moderated the session. Also the chat board during this session had more substance than yesterday's chat string during the keynote session (70%+ of those comments was junk).
Some other reviews by TechCrunch, Outside The Star, Bag and Baggage. JD Lasica has some pictures here.
[tags: AlwaysOn, AlwaysOn2005, Stanford, SandyBerger, JerryBrown,MichaelMedved
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
"Bush to announce court nominee tonight"
"N. Korea Talks to Resume Next Week"
"IE 7 to boost Firefox growth"
"Hewlett-Packard to Cut 14,500 Jobs"
"Gates Puzzled by Computer Science Apathy"
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"Bush to announce court nominee tonight"
"N. Korea Talks to Resume Next Week"
"IE 7 to boost Firefox growth"
"Hewlett-Packard to Cut 14,500 Jobs"
"Gates Puzzled by Computer Science Apathy"
ALWAYSON SUMMIT STARTS... FREE WEBCASTS! VIEW IT LIVE!
The AO Summit Summits starts this evening with a great kick-off session:
6:00pm: Welcoming remarks from our hosts
Tony Perkins, founder & editor
Tom Byers, professor, Stanford University
6:10pm: The Giant Brain is Us!
Peter Hirshberg
Michael Markman
6:30pm: AO100 Top Innovators Awards
Tony Perkins, Editor, AlwaysOn
Packy Kelly, Partner, KPMG
Susan Ayers-Walker, Chairman, MIT/Stanford Venture Lab
7pm: Featured Keynote
Moderator: Tony Perkins, AlwaysOn
Sandy Berger, former White House National Security Advisor
Jerry Brown, Mayor of Oakland California, former Governor of California
Michael Medved, nationally syndicated radio talk show host, best-selling author, and veteran film critic
I believe the webcast links will be up on the AlwaysOn site. Anyway, check out the rest of the schedule here.
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The AO Summit Summits starts this evening with a great kick-off session:
6:00pm: Welcoming remarks from our hosts
Tony Perkins, founder & editor
Tom Byers, professor, Stanford University
6:10pm: The Giant Brain is Us!
Peter Hirshberg
Michael Markman
6:30pm: AO100 Top Innovators Awards
Tony Perkins, Editor, AlwaysOn
Packy Kelly, Partner, KPMG
Susan Ayers-Walker, Chairman, MIT/Stanford Venture Lab
7pm: Featured Keynote
Moderator: Tony Perkins, AlwaysOn
Sandy Berger, former White House National Security Advisor
Jerry Brown, Mayor of Oakland California, former Governor of California
Michael Medved, nationally syndicated radio talk show host, best-selling author, and veteran film critic
I believe the webcast links will be up on the AlwaysOn site. Anyway, check out the rest of the schedule here.
Monday, July 18, 2005
WHY CORPORATE EXECUTIVES SHOULD BLOG
HatTip to Doug. Great article by General Motors' Viceman, Bob Lutz.
To blog or not to blog? For a lot of senior executives these days, that is the question. The answer, simply enough, is to blog. No better opportunity exists to engage in an open dialogue and exchange of ideas with customers and potential customers.
Since January, I've been participating, along with other members of General Motors' senior management, in the GM Fastlane blog (fastlane.gmblogs.com). We've found the blog to be a hugely effective communications tool and a terrific way to conduct a grassroots, largely unfiltered conversation with GM fans and nonfans alike.
The key is to leave the corporate-speak behind and keep the tone conversational, open, and honest. Anyone who has read our blog sees the real deal, as produced by us and not polished by several layers of trained communications pros.
Another aspect that helps keep things real is the wealth of comments posted by readers and other bloggers. We don't filter out negative comments, complaints, or hate mail. All we do is screen for spam and posts from crackpots using language that most people would find offensive.
It's important that we run the bad with the good. We'd take a credibility hit if we posted only rosy compliments, and credibility is the most important attribute a corporate blog can have. Once it's gone, your blog is meaningless.
If you filter the negatives out, you don't have a true dialogue, so how can you hope to change anybody's mind about your products or your business? And changing minds is priority one at GM. The blog is a great opportunity to tell the public directly about the cars and trucks we have on the market and the ones we're bringing to market soon. It's one of the few chances we have to get the word out without running it through the media filter. Advertising is another avenue, of course, but it has much lower credibility than the blog, where we're engaging in a real conversation with readers. We've also used the blog to address specific media articles that we considered unfair, unbalanced, or uninformed.
To me, the blog is a way for GM to be culturally relevant. It allows us to be on the leading edge of new technology while getting our strong views out there about our cars and trucks. So far, response has been outstanding, with more than 5,000 visits and 13,000 page views a day.
To any senior executive on the fence about starting a corporate blog, I have a word of advice: Jump. (article link)
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HatTip to Doug. Great article by General Motors' Viceman, Bob Lutz.
To blog or not to blog? For a lot of senior executives these days, that is the question. The answer, simply enough, is to blog. No better opportunity exists to engage in an open dialogue and exchange of ideas with customers and potential customers.
Since January, I've been participating, along with other members of General Motors' senior management, in the GM Fastlane blog (fastlane.gmblogs.com). We've found the blog to be a hugely effective communications tool and a terrific way to conduct a grassroots, largely unfiltered conversation with GM fans and nonfans alike.
The key is to leave the corporate-speak behind and keep the tone conversational, open, and honest. Anyone who has read our blog sees the real deal, as produced by us and not polished by several layers of trained communications pros.
Another aspect that helps keep things real is the wealth of comments posted by readers and other bloggers. We don't filter out negative comments, complaints, or hate mail. All we do is screen for spam and posts from crackpots using language that most people would find offensive.
It's important that we run the bad with the good. We'd take a credibility hit if we posted only rosy compliments, and credibility is the most important attribute a corporate blog can have. Once it's gone, your blog is meaningless.
If you filter the negatives out, you don't have a true dialogue, so how can you hope to change anybody's mind about your products or your business? And changing minds is priority one at GM. The blog is a great opportunity to tell the public directly about the cars and trucks we have on the market and the ones we're bringing to market soon. It's one of the few chances we have to get the word out without running it through the media filter. Advertising is another avenue, of course, but it has much lower credibility than the blog, where we're engaging in a real conversation with readers. We've also used the blog to address specific media articles that we considered unfair, unbalanced, or uninformed.
To me, the blog is a way for GM to be culturally relevant. It allows us to be on the leading edge of new technology while getting our strong views out there about our cars and trucks. So far, response has been outstanding, with more than 5,000 visits and 13,000 page views a day.
To any senior executive on the fence about starting a corporate blog, I have a word of advice: Jump. (article link)
DUDE, I'M A C-LISTER... BLOGEBRITY
I came across this amusing blog called Blogebrity and its list of bloggers through Marc. I was graciously place on the "C-List." Marc was a "B-Lister" for whatever reason and you can see "A-Listers" at the site, where I don't recognize many of the names (i must get out more often).
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I came across this amusing blog called Blogebrity and its list of bloggers through Marc. I was graciously place on the "C-List." Marc was a "B-Lister" for whatever reason and you can see "A-Listers" at the site, where I don't recognize many of the names (i must get out more often).
CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG... GOINGON NETWORKS, OUR STARTUP
Okay. Matt Marshall let the cat out of the bag. This is the startup I've been referring to since January here. Tony brought me on board last January and it's been a fun ride so far... writing the business plan, creating the financials, watching Tony raise the money (definitely glad that's not my role for this startup), working on product specs, etc.
Since then we've been working to implement the meshed vision of Marc's and Tony's digital world, which Marc posts about today here. Valerie, who also works with IBDNetwork and blogs at their Under the Radar blog andThe Dealmaker blog, came on board at the end of March (part-time basis... she's hasn't ditched her clients) and we're working on recruiting a couple more people that I believe will join soon :) Carl is Marc's colleague at BroadBand Mechanics and our engineering chief (marc and carl are our advisors and technical consultants). He's our techy stud along with Gaurav and his team. Anyway, we're building out a solid team (that's brilliant, cool and fun to work with) and I'm definitely looking forward to helping this company become kick ass in our operations, products, and revenues.
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Okay. Matt Marshall let the cat out of the bag. This is the startup I've been referring to since January here. Tony brought me on board last January and it's been a fun ride so far... writing the business plan, creating the financials, watching Tony raise the money (definitely glad that's not my role for this startup), working on product specs, etc.
Since then we've been working to implement the meshed vision of Marc's and Tony's digital world, which Marc posts about today here. Valerie, who also works with IBDNetwork and blogs at their Under the Radar blog andThe Dealmaker blog, came on board at the end of March (part-time basis... she's hasn't ditched her clients) and we're working on recruiting a couple more people that I believe will join soon :) Carl is Marc's colleague at BroadBand Mechanics and our engineering chief (marc and carl are our advisors and technical consultants). He's our techy stud along with Gaurav and his team. Anyway, we're building out a solid team (that's brilliant, cool and fun to work with) and I'm definitely looking forward to helping this company become kick ass in our operations, products, and revenues.
NEWS CORP. BUYS INTERMIX (MYSPACE.COM) FOR $580 MILLION
Interesting play by News. Corp. I wonder if and how they'll integrate MySpace.com into their properties:
In a bid to build an Internet media network, News Corp. grabbed the wildly popular social-networking site MySpace.com by agreeing to acquire majority shareholder Intermix Media for $580 million in cash.
News Corp. said it would pay $12 per share for Intermix.
On the news, Intermix Media shares rose 9.3% to $11.72.
Separately, Intermix exercised its option to buy the 47% stake of MySpace.com that it didn't already own.
News Corp. plans to incorporate MySpace.com and Intermix's 30 other Websites into its newly formed Fox Interactive Media unit. The new additions will nearly double News Corp.'s U.S. Web traffic to more than 45 million unique monthly visitors, according to the companies. (full article)
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Interesting play by News. Corp. I wonder if and how they'll integrate MySpace.com into their properties:
In a bid to build an Internet media network, News Corp. grabbed the wildly popular social-networking site MySpace.com by agreeing to acquire majority shareholder Intermix Media for $580 million in cash.
News Corp. said it would pay $12 per share for Intermix.
On the news, Intermix Media shares rose 9.3% to $11.72.
Separately, Intermix exercised its option to buy the 47% stake of MySpace.com that it didn't already own.
News Corp. plans to incorporate MySpace.com and Intermix's 30 other Websites into its newly formed Fox Interactive Media unit. The new additions will nearly double News Corp.'s U.S. Web traffic to more than 45 million unique monthly visitors, according to the companies. (full article)
"WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE, AND BROKE"... BEN STEIN STARTS AT THE NY TIMES
HatTip to Power Line. Ben Stein is a new columnist for The New York Times' Business section. This week's article is solid:
AS should be clear to anyone who reads these columns, I am fascinated by finance. I have been since I was a lad. Finance distributes risk. The smart, aggressive, tireless men and women in it allocate capital. In many ways, this efficient allocation of capital - sometimes more efficient than others - explains why capitalism so thoroughly trounces socialism and communism.
Finance guys take risks that would terrify most of us. They carry immense burdens of fear and retribution on their shoulders. It is a wonder to me that the managers of hedge funds and the people who trade derivatives can even sleep at night. I know I wouldn't be able to catch one wink.
Still, when I read the daily news I am often struck by something that has nothing to do with the finance classes I took at Columbia or Yale, but in a way has everything to do with them.
Maybe I can summarize the dissonance in this little example: In the financial section of the newspaper or the business magazine, there is an article about a man, Philip J. Purcell, who has just left a huge financial services company after his performance was deemed subpar, and he's taking home a $113.7 million severance package.
.....
Then I turn from the financial news to the general news section of the paper, or to the barrage of e-mail messages I get from people in the Army and Navy and Marines and Air Force, and I read about men and women who are taking fire from insurgents in Iraq and being blown up by homemade bombs that the Pentagon refers to as improvised explosive devices. The people being blown up are maybe corporals, and they get $1,900 a month, including combat pay.
Or I read a letter from a buddy of a member of the Navy Seals who was killed recently in Afghanistan when his helicopter went down, and he was getting maybe $1,950 a month, fighting the Taliban and fighting Al Qaeda (which killed 3,000 innocent men, women and children on American soil on Sept. 11, 2001). That means the guy at the hedge fund is getting as much as, say, 10,000 of these corporals per annum.
What keeps going through my mind is that there is a big, yet always unstated, connection between these two groups of men and women - on one hand, the megastars of Wall Street and corporate boardrooms, with their vast paychecks, yachts and horse farms in the Hamptons, and, on the other, the grunts in body armor chasing down terrorists half a world away in 130-degree heat.
The link is that the men and women of Wall Street and of corporate America do their very important work - and it is vital work, indeed - inside a box of security and safety created by the courage of the men and women who wear battle dress uniforms and ride down the highway of death in Iraq in armored personnel carriers handling machine guns. (full article)
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HatTip to Power Line. Ben Stein is a new columnist for The New York Times' Business section. This week's article is solid:
AS should be clear to anyone who reads these columns, I am fascinated by finance. I have been since I was a lad. Finance distributes risk. The smart, aggressive, tireless men and women in it allocate capital. In many ways, this efficient allocation of capital - sometimes more efficient than others - explains why capitalism so thoroughly trounces socialism and communism.
Finance guys take risks that would terrify most of us. They carry immense burdens of fear and retribution on their shoulders. It is a wonder to me that the managers of hedge funds and the people who trade derivatives can even sleep at night. I know I wouldn't be able to catch one wink.
Still, when I read the daily news I am often struck by something that has nothing to do with the finance classes I took at Columbia or Yale, but in a way has everything to do with them.
Maybe I can summarize the dissonance in this little example: In the financial section of the newspaper or the business magazine, there is an article about a man, Philip J. Purcell, who has just left a huge financial services company after his performance was deemed subpar, and he's taking home a $113.7 million severance package.
.....
Then I turn from the financial news to the general news section of the paper, or to the barrage of e-mail messages I get from people in the Army and Navy and Marines and Air Force, and I read about men and women who are taking fire from insurgents in Iraq and being blown up by homemade bombs that the Pentagon refers to as improvised explosive devices. The people being blown up are maybe corporals, and they get $1,900 a month, including combat pay.
Or I read a letter from a buddy of a member of the Navy Seals who was killed recently in Afghanistan when his helicopter went down, and he was getting maybe $1,950 a month, fighting the Taliban and fighting Al Qaeda (which killed 3,000 innocent men, women and children on American soil on Sept. 11, 2001). That means the guy at the hedge fund is getting as much as, say, 10,000 of these corporals per annum.
What keeps going through my mind is that there is a big, yet always unstated, connection between these two groups of men and women - on one hand, the megastars of Wall Street and corporate boardrooms, with their vast paychecks, yachts and horse farms in the Hamptons, and, on the other, the grunts in body armor chasing down terrorists half a world away in 130-degree heat.
The link is that the men and women of Wall Street and of corporate America do their very important work - and it is vital work, indeed - inside a box of security and safety created by the courage of the men and women who wear battle dress uniforms and ride down the highway of death in Iraq in armored personnel carriers handling machine guns. (full article)
"ALWAYSON'S FOUNDER SAYS VALLEY STILL 'ATHENS OF INFORMATION AGE'"
Tony did a Q&A for the business beat of the San Jose Mercury News that went to print Sunday:
Tony Perkins is the founder of AlwaysOn, a publishing group that runs a commentary and networking site at www.alwayson-network.com. His group is organizing the AlwaysOn Innovation Summit at Stanford, to be held Tuesday through Thursday. Among other things, the conference will recognize what AlwaysOn and a team of judges have selected as the 100 top private companies. Perkins, who was also the founder of the former Red Herring magazine, recently spoke with Mercury News Staff Writer Matt Marshall about Silicon Valley's role in innovation, business in China and new forms of media. Here is an edited transcript of their conversation.
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We think there are two bubbles going on. We think there's a Chinese bubble, and we think there is [laughs], ironically, somewhat of an open media bubble -- and we sit in the middle of that bubble.
If you look at the Chinese market like a sports writer, you'd see there aren't a lot of obvious private company horses emerging of significance. Not in terms of being tech leaders. However, in saying that, I would add China is still an opportunity because it represents a large number of buyers, and because you can get cheap software development and manufacturing there. So I think the Silicon Valley obsession with China right now is a good thing. But the day when we'll see China producing dozens of Silicon Valley-type emerging companies, in my opinion, is a long way off.
.....
We're confident of our position, but we think there's a lot of irrational exuberance in the blogging and the whole area around it. When it comes to the open media bubble, as a journalist, I just see a large landscape of feature-based companies and ultimately they will serve a role in showing the word that wow, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) aggregation is a good thing, quick and easy Web publishing is a good thing, social networking under the right circumstances can be valuable. But it is going to take time for all of those features to come together, and if they are to be successful, they're all going to need to be bought by Google or Yahoo. Or we'll see a new Google come out of this generation, but it will be one of the few private companies that pulls a lot of features into a bigger idea. In the old days, companies used to be ridiculed as a one-product pony. Today, some of these guys are not even a product, but a one-feature pony. (full article)
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Tony did a Q&A for the business beat of the San Jose Mercury News that went to print Sunday:
Tony Perkins is the founder of AlwaysOn, a publishing group that runs a commentary and networking site at www.alwayson-network.com. His group is organizing the AlwaysOn Innovation Summit at Stanford, to be held Tuesday through Thursday. Among other things, the conference will recognize what AlwaysOn and a team of judges have selected as the 100 top private companies. Perkins, who was also the founder of the former Red Herring magazine, recently spoke with Mercury News Staff Writer Matt Marshall about Silicon Valley's role in innovation, business in China and new forms of media. Here is an edited transcript of their conversation.
.....
We think there are two bubbles going on. We think there's a Chinese bubble, and we think there is [laughs], ironically, somewhat of an open media bubble -- and we sit in the middle of that bubble.
If you look at the Chinese market like a sports writer, you'd see there aren't a lot of obvious private company horses emerging of significance. Not in terms of being tech leaders. However, in saying that, I would add China is still an opportunity because it represents a large number of buyers, and because you can get cheap software development and manufacturing there. So I think the Silicon Valley obsession with China right now is a good thing. But the day when we'll see China producing dozens of Silicon Valley-type emerging companies, in my opinion, is a long way off.
.....
We're confident of our position, but we think there's a lot of irrational exuberance in the blogging and the whole area around it. When it comes to the open media bubble, as a journalist, I just see a large landscape of feature-based companies and ultimately they will serve a role in showing the word that wow, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) aggregation is a good thing, quick and easy Web publishing is a good thing, social networking under the right circumstances can be valuable. But it is going to take time for all of those features to come together, and if they are to be successful, they're all going to need to be bought by Google or Yahoo. Or we'll see a new Google come out of this generation, but it will be one of the few private companies that pulls a lot of features into a bigger idea. In the old days, companies used to be ridiculed as a one-product pony. Today, some of these guys are not even a product, but a one-feature pony. (full article)
MICROSOFT AND MARVEL SIGN ONLINE GAME DEAL
Great step for Microsoft in the fight against Sony and PlayStation. Content is key to this battle for video game dominance. More at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and commenting too, which was new to me.
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Great step for Microsoft in the fight against Sony and PlayStation. Content is key to this battle for video game dominance. More at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and commenting too, which was new to me.
Friday, July 15, 2005
A MARINE’S JOURNAL
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Since June 12, I have been activated in the Marine Corps Reserves. Since then I have been keeping a journal and felt it would interest Bernard’s readers if I submitted an excerpt from time to time. Currently, our unit is at 29 Palms, CA going through the training phases before we deploy in September. *Sensitve material changed.
July 15, 2005 0734 PCT
We’re in the theatre now waiting (as we always do) for the EMP class to begin. Of course the class was to have started at 07, but this is the Marine Corps, where we hurry up to wait.
Two nights ago, during our secured time, Gunny D* walked into the NCO squad bay and saw the rug I had bought and the blanket I brought from home. Well apparently, owning a rug and a blanket is some kind of crime, and he blew up in my face accusing me of trying to decorate my area and not keeping uniform with everyone else. Of course, he wouldn’t let me explain that I never left neither item out during the day and I used the rug to dry my feet after taking a shower than for silly decorations, but what can you expect from a man who works at Sgt Grit and has a modeled in the catalogue wearing an Oo-rah Kilt. If a man’s aspirations after leaving the Marine Corps is to work at an online/catalogue warehouse, peddling Marine Corps paraphernalia, but won’t even stay in the active duty side to retire, he’s just a man who holds the Marine Corps spirit with fear, not with pride. If he’s so gung ho, why get out? Why is he in the reserve, where we are considered second-class Marines? His entire identity is shaped by being a Marine, and without it, he feels like he has no purpose, yet he only does it once a month. Seems like he just wants to be called Gunny, but not be a Gunny.
It’s amazing the logic and the way the military operates sometimes. Keeping a combat mindset is completely understandable. However, I don’t understand how placing my bare feet on a plush surface, and combating the air conditioning vents that run full blast on my rack by using a blanket somehow prevents me from preparing my emotions and mindset for war.
Then yesterday, the Gunny and I had a heart to heart where he accused me of trying to make him look like a fool. Apparently my old NCOs gave him the story of how I led a “Lance Corporal Insurrection” against the Sergeants, which actually made me laugh. Suddenly, looking out for my other Non-NCOs, and trying to make things more efficient so the NCOs wouldn’t need to work so hard, was now an “insurrection”. Hilarious.
So I explained to him that with my blood pressure, and a possible ulcer, I was literally fighting all the medical personnel to let me stay here and train with the men. I convinced them to give me about a month under their observation, but still train as much as the doctors would clear me, so that if I was cleared for deployment, I wouldn’t be behind in training, and I would be able to leave with the unit, and be with my boys. The Gunny told me he wasn’t sure if he could believe me, being that I had such a “shady past”. After much reassurance to the Gunny, he relented and gave me a “second chance”. Wow, thanks Gunny.
I often feel so disrespected here because we’re treated like little children. Many of the men are in their mid twenties to thirties, have children, and jobs with numerous responsibilities, but here, we’re all 18 year old kids, fresh out of high school with the stigma that if we were allowed to make decisions, we would make the wrong one. Thus, we’re told when to eat, sleep, use the bathroom, how to make beds… you get the idea.
Yet I really can’t blame the leadership because the reserve system is based off the active one, where a restrictive rule may be the best way to administrate. But one cannot ask why the reservists cannot modify its techniques to better fit a unit made up individuals with completely different motivations and mindsets than active duty Marines, and in turn, receive a better return on productivity and efficiency.
0754 and the class still hasn’t started.
The men have become quite used to expecting things not to work or be on time. Actually, it’s more of a surprise when things actually do work and or on schedule. For instance, for the last two or three weeks, the men have had no schedule for month, week, or even day. They literally awake each morning having no idea what is in store for them. The reason being, Chaggit (a Warrant Officer that’s a shit bag-first name Chad and he’s a faggot) completely botched the training schedule, by making reservations to ranges that could not be modified, assigning training classes that were not proportionally divided, and other wonderful fiascos; he’s been relieved of his duty and has been relegated to a box of an office where he makes contact with only one other Marine daily.
So the schedule is constantly being redone, with complete rescheduling occurring almost daily, and it has become pointless notifying the men of what would be next for them, because the schedule would change in a matter of hours. The logistical disaster here is at times, awe inspiring, and has done considerable damage to the moral of the men. Without a set date of liberty, and no clear goal, asking the men to stay motivated and function at a 100% is has been difficult.
Running with no finish line and no fuel is not an effective way to keep an emotional machine running for a long time.
It’s 0815. Class is starting. Exactly on time.
KARL ROVE PSEUDO-SCANDAL
So much noise about this Karl Rove situation, I decided to avoid posting on the topic until now. I believe Dems are either showing their fear of Rove since he's been kicking their ass or their desparation as a aimless party since they lack substance and leadership by calling for his head.
"Was that a headless chicken that just passed by?"
"No, no. That was just the Democrats."
The Wall Street Journal came out with their "ra-ra" editorial Wednesday:
If there's any scandal at all here, it is that this entire episode has been allowed to waste so much government time and media attention, not to mention inspire a "special counsel" probe. The Bush Administration is also guilty on this count, since it went along with the appointment of prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in an election year in order to punt the issue down the road. But now Mr. Fitzgerald has become an unguided missile, holding reporters in contempt for not disclosing their sources even as it becomes clearer all the time that no underlying crime was at issue.
As for the press corps, rather than calling for Mr. Rove to be fired, they ought to be grateful to him for telling the truth.
Vodkapunit had a different view:
"Thank you, Mr. Rove" is taking things a bit too far for my tastes.
Even if Rove didn't give out Valerie Plame's name (which appears, for now, to be the case), it also looks like he pointed a pretty bold arrow her way. That kind of leak is breaking the rules, and that's a bad thing.
Now, as I understand the law regarding intelligence officers, Karl Rove didn't do anything illegal. But was he right to leak? Or was he to be, as the WSF editors did, to be congratulated? My gut tells me no on both counts.
As a practical matter, leaking classified information has usually been treated as a matter of discretion for higher-ups - and Rove's actions might fall under that historical leeway.
Even if Plame wasn't covered by the law, and even if her husband was a lying ass, and even if Rove was acting within the tradition discretion accorded someone in his position... Rove's leak - at the very least - sent a bad message to other intelligence officers: "Toe the line or we'll out you."
Well, I don't see how that kind of thing can be good for "company" business. (full post and comments)
As always The American Thinker's Thomas Lifson writes a solid piece on what I think is the most important issue for Democrats:
Desperate people say stupid things. Democrats are increasingly desperate, and in increasing numbers have moved from uttering the merely ridiculous to shouting self-destructive rhetoric from their media rooftops.
Karl Rove occupies a unique role in the demonology of fundamentalist Democrats. You know who these FundieDems are. They practice politics as their religion, seeing Republicans not as opponents but as the embodiment of evil, endowed with supernatural abilities to deceive ordinary people in Kansas and elsewhere into voting against their obvious self-interests. (full post)
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So much noise about this Karl Rove situation, I decided to avoid posting on the topic until now. I believe Dems are either showing their fear of Rove since he's been kicking their ass or their desparation as a aimless party since they lack substance and leadership by calling for his head.
"Was that a headless chicken that just passed by?"
"No, no. That was just the Democrats."
The Wall Street Journal came out with their "ra-ra" editorial Wednesday:
If there's any scandal at all here, it is that this entire episode has been allowed to waste so much government time and media attention, not to mention inspire a "special counsel" probe. The Bush Administration is also guilty on this count, since it went along with the appointment of prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in an election year in order to punt the issue down the road. But now Mr. Fitzgerald has become an unguided missile, holding reporters in contempt for not disclosing their sources even as it becomes clearer all the time that no underlying crime was at issue.
As for the press corps, rather than calling for Mr. Rove to be fired, they ought to be grateful to him for telling the truth.
Vodkapunit had a different view:
"Thank you, Mr. Rove" is taking things a bit too far for my tastes.
Even if Rove didn't give out Valerie Plame's name (which appears, for now, to be the case), it also looks like he pointed a pretty bold arrow her way. That kind of leak is breaking the rules, and that's a bad thing.
Now, as I understand the law regarding intelligence officers, Karl Rove didn't do anything illegal. But was he right to leak? Or was he to be, as the WSF editors did, to be congratulated? My gut tells me no on both counts.
As a practical matter, leaking classified information has usually been treated as a matter of discretion for higher-ups - and Rove's actions might fall under that historical leeway.
Even if Plame wasn't covered by the law, and even if her husband was a lying ass, and even if Rove was acting within the tradition discretion accorded someone in his position... Rove's leak - at the very least - sent a bad message to other intelligence officers: "Toe the line or we'll out you."
Well, I don't see how that kind of thing can be good for "company" business. (full post and comments)
As always The American Thinker's Thomas Lifson writes a solid piece on what I think is the most important issue for Democrats:
Desperate people say stupid things. Democrats are increasingly desperate, and in increasing numbers have moved from uttering the merely ridiculous to shouting self-destructive rhetoric from their media rooftops.
Karl Rove occupies a unique role in the demonology of fundamentalist Democrats. You know who these FundieDems are. They practice politics as their religion, seeing Republicans not as opponents but as the embodiment of evil, endowed with supernatural abilities to deceive ordinary people in Kansas and elsewhere into voting against their obvious self-interests. (full post)
Thursday, July 14, 2005
"THE RETURN OF THE RIPPER"... REVEALING THE UNHEARD MURDERS IN IRAQI
Insightful post that make you think. Wretchard strikes the nail dead on again. Check it out:
The bodies of young women began to appear in Basra six weeks ago. First there was a group of three, then two, and last week the corpses of six were found, each victim riddled by gunshots and left on the street to die in pools of blood. The Iraqi police say they have no strong leads. But it is an open secret in the port city why they died.
They worked as prostitutes and their killers are widely believed to be one of the city's armed militias. In recent months they have become increasingly violent in their campaign to enforce a strict interpretation of the social code of Islam.
.....
It is not enough, as the British Army has done, to look on at this mayhem from the outside in, blinded by the illusion that these executions are just one more quaint ethnic practice that the guilt-ridden West has no right to criticize; that it is one more expression of identity that one is obliged to tolerate, whether these sanguinary events happen in British-patrolled Basra or the British city of Leeds.The wellsprings of terrorism arise from certain tendencies within Islamic society itself; and unless the weeds are pruned the flowers will never grow, until we find ourselves alone at midnight in the Garden of Evil. (full post and comments)
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Insightful post that make you think. Wretchard strikes the nail dead on again. Check it out:
The bodies of young women began to appear in Basra six weeks ago. First there was a group of three, then two, and last week the corpses of six were found, each victim riddled by gunshots and left on the street to die in pools of blood. The Iraqi police say they have no strong leads. But it is an open secret in the port city why they died.
They worked as prostitutes and their killers are widely believed to be one of the city's armed militias. In recent months they have become increasingly violent in their campaign to enforce a strict interpretation of the social code of Islam.
.....
It is not enough, as the British Army has done, to look on at this mayhem from the outside in, blinded by the illusion that these executions are just one more quaint ethnic practice that the guilt-ridden West has no right to criticize; that it is one more expression of identity that one is obliged to tolerate, whether these sanguinary events happen in British-patrolled Basra or the British city of Leeds.The wellsprings of terrorism arise from certain tendencies within Islamic society itself; and unless the weeds are pruned the flowers will never grow, until we find ourselves alone at midnight in the Garden of Evil. (full post and comments)
ONE, THE CAMPAIGN TO MAKE POVERTY HISTORY
A bit late on posting about The One Campaign, but I thought I should since I posted about Live 8 and related topics on this campaign against poverty.
There are some questions in the blogosphere about whether it has been an effective collaborative effort from the left (e.g. Brad Pitt, Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs, and bunch of other stars) and right (e.g. Pat Robertson, Michael W. Smith) and how truly effective this is in the long-term. I didn't dig so deep into these issues, but I'd say it's a good start. Of course much these star-studded campaigns are fluff and feel good movements (dude, that was inspiring... awesome... the best experience of my life, going to the Live 8 concert and volunteering...), but you discount these factors and it did some good. Anyway, here is the One Blog.
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A bit late on posting about The One Campaign, but I thought I should since I posted about Live 8 and related topics on this campaign against poverty.
There are some questions in the blogosphere about whether it has been an effective collaborative effort from the left (e.g. Brad Pitt, Sean 'P. Diddy' Combs, and bunch of other stars) and right (e.g. Pat Robertson, Michael W. Smith) and how truly effective this is in the long-term. I didn't dig so deep into these issues, but I'd say it's a good start. Of course much these star-studded campaigns are fluff and feel good movements (dude, that was inspiring... awesome... the best experience of my life, going to the Live 8 concert and volunteering...), but you discount these factors and it did some good. Anyway, here is the One Blog.
BECKER AND POSNER THINK MORE ABOUT LIVE 8 AND AID TO AFRICA
Great post and comments over at The Becker-Posner Blog:
Aid to Africa: Will it Help?
Accompanied by rock concerts in different countries and a push from activist rock stars like Bono and Bob Geldof, the world's richest democracies, called the G8 nations, met this past week in Gleneagles Scotland to decide how to help African nations. The publicity surrounding their meeting was reduced by the terrorist attacks in London, but they still managed to get considerable newspaper coverage. They committed to $25 billion in extra annual aid to Africa by the year 2010, sizeable debt relief for Africa, trade talks to eliminate agricultural support in the rich nations, and a promise to make low cost AIDS treatment widely available in Africa.
The G8 nations are rich enough to easily afford the increased aid committed to Africa. Perhaps for this reason, some of the activists denounced the aid as too small and miserly. But that these countries can certainly "afford" to spend more does not mean that much greater aid will help the millions of poor Africans. Indeed, it is doubtful whether more aid will speed up economic growth, given both Africa's experience with aid during the past half century, and the evidence from other poor nations that internal reforms that produce sizeable and persistent growth are the only really effective way to reduce a nation's poverty. (Becker's full post)
Foreign Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa
I do not favor foreign aid, debt relief (which is simply another form of such aid), or other financial transfers to poor countries, in Africa or anywhere else. Countries that are not corrupt do not require foreign aid, and foreign aid to corrupt countries entrenches corruption by increasing the gains to corruption. Foreign aid to Zimbabwe, for example, will simply prop up dictator Mugabe.
Foreign aid makes people in wealthy countries feel generous, but retards reform in those countries as well as in the donee countries. Obviously from a world welfare as well as African welfare standpoint Europe and the United States should not impose tariffs on agricultural imports in order to protect their rich farmers. Eliminating tariffs would do more for Africa than giving them an extra $25 billion a year to squander. (It would also increase the wealth of the countries that eliminated their tariffs.) Since there are 650 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa, the extra $25 billion will increase per capita annual income (assuming it isn't squirreled away by corrupt elites) by only $40. Not that such an increase is wholly trivial in relative terms—Nigeria, for example, has an annual per capita income of only about $300, and it is not the poorest country in Africa. But it is unlikely that the poorest people in these countries will benefit from the extra money; even if most of it isn't skimmed off by corrupt officials or squandered on dumb projects, it is likely to stave off fundamental political and economic reforms. (The G8 nations at Gleneagles also agreed to forgive some $50 in African debts to them, but that is a one-time event and its annualized value is therefore much less than $25 billion a year.) (Posner's full post)
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Great post and comments over at The Becker-Posner Blog:
Aid to Africa: Will it Help?
Accompanied by rock concerts in different countries and a push from activist rock stars like Bono and Bob Geldof, the world's richest democracies, called the G8 nations, met this past week in Gleneagles Scotland to decide how to help African nations. The publicity surrounding their meeting was reduced by the terrorist attacks in London, but they still managed to get considerable newspaper coverage. They committed to $25 billion in extra annual aid to Africa by the year 2010, sizeable debt relief for Africa, trade talks to eliminate agricultural support in the rich nations, and a promise to make low cost AIDS treatment widely available in Africa.
The G8 nations are rich enough to easily afford the increased aid committed to Africa. Perhaps for this reason, some of the activists denounced the aid as too small and miserly. But that these countries can certainly "afford" to spend more does not mean that much greater aid will help the millions of poor Africans. Indeed, it is doubtful whether more aid will speed up economic growth, given both Africa's experience with aid during the past half century, and the evidence from other poor nations that internal reforms that produce sizeable and persistent growth are the only really effective way to reduce a nation's poverty. (Becker's full post)
Foreign Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa
I do not favor foreign aid, debt relief (which is simply another form of such aid), or other financial transfers to poor countries, in Africa or anywhere else. Countries that are not corrupt do not require foreign aid, and foreign aid to corrupt countries entrenches corruption by increasing the gains to corruption. Foreign aid to Zimbabwe, for example, will simply prop up dictator Mugabe.
Foreign aid makes people in wealthy countries feel generous, but retards reform in those countries as well as in the donee countries. Obviously from a world welfare as well as African welfare standpoint Europe and the United States should not impose tariffs on agricultural imports in order to protect their rich farmers. Eliminating tariffs would do more for Africa than giving them an extra $25 billion a year to squander. (It would also increase the wealth of the countries that eliminated their tariffs.) Since there are 650 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa, the extra $25 billion will increase per capita annual income (assuming it isn't squirreled away by corrupt elites) by only $40. Not that such an increase is wholly trivial in relative terms—Nigeria, for example, has an annual per capita income of only about $300, and it is not the poorest country in Africa. But it is unlikely that the poorest people in these countries will benefit from the extra money; even if most of it isn't skimmed off by corrupt officials or squandered on dumb projects, it is likely to stave off fundamental political and economic reforms. (The G8 nations at Gleneagles also agreed to forgive some $50 in African debts to them, but that is a one-time event and its annualized value is therefore much less than $25 billion a year.) (Posner's full post)
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
"PUTTING ABORTION BEHIND US"... REVEALING NUMBERS BEHIND ABORTION AND PUBLIC OPINION
"Only 16% of Americans believe, as Roe vs. Wade has dictated, that abortion should be legal for any reason at any time during pregnancy."
Found out about this late, but a great post by Tony at the AO site:
In light of the inevitable battle over the next Supreme Court nominee – where the right to abort an innocent child will be a central issue of contention, I thought it is important to note that there is not a single major religion on this planet that I can find that supports abortions (except when the mother’s life is at risk – which they all agree on).
Also, when you really examine the facts, most Americans agree that abortion is morally wrong.
I am fully confident that President Bush will choose a nominee that will protect life from conception to natural death. With this new appointee, we will finally put this horrendous chapter in our history behind us where we have averaged over 1.3 million abortions a year in the America alone. To use an eastern expression, this will put our “karma” back on track. (full post)
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"Only 16% of Americans believe, as Roe vs. Wade has dictated, that abortion should be legal for any reason at any time during pregnancy."
Found out about this late, but a great post by Tony at the AO site:
In light of the inevitable battle over the next Supreme Court nominee – where the right to abort an innocent child will be a central issue of contention, I thought it is important to note that there is not a single major religion on this planet that I can find that supports abortions (except when the mother’s life is at risk – which they all agree on).
Also, when you really examine the facts, most Americans agree that abortion is morally wrong.
I am fully confident that President Bush will choose a nominee that will protect life from conception to natural death. With this new appointee, we will finally put this horrendous chapter in our history behind us where we have averaged over 1.3 million abortions a year in the America alone. To use an eastern expression, this will put our “karma” back on track. (full post)
RANDOM NEWS QUICKLIST
Ebbers gets 30 Years. Great news.
Death toll in Pakistani train wreck rises to 127
"Police blogger files complaint after losing job"
"Police Seek Evidence From Homes in Leeds"
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Ebbers gets 30 Years. Great news.
Death toll in Pakistani train wreck rises to 127
"Police blogger files complaint after losing job"
"Police Seek Evidence From Homes in Leeds"
KLEINER PERKINS SIGN UP COLIN POWELL... BECOMING THE CARLYLE OF VCS?
Kleiner Perkins has been busy this year recruiting various partners or special partners. Now they've signed on Colin Powell:
That's right, General Powell, the former U.S. secretary of state, will joining Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm, as a "strategic limited partner."
We'll provide a link tomorrow morning to our full Mercury News story about tech-savvy Powell, who owns a Treo, a Motorola Razr and three different computers. But Powell, who resigned last November, will not relocate to Silicon Valley from his office in Virginia. Instead, Kleiner Perkins has created a new kind of position for him, to draw on Powell's considerable global experience to help mentor entrepreneurs.
"I wanted to be on the leading edge of technology developments in American and in the world, which will not only benefit America, but all of human kind,'' Powell said in an interview. (full post)
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Kleiner Perkins has been busy this year recruiting various partners or special partners. Now they've signed on Colin Powell:
That's right, General Powell, the former U.S. secretary of state, will joining Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm, as a "strategic limited partner."
We'll provide a link tomorrow morning to our full Mercury News story about tech-savvy Powell, who owns a Treo, a Motorola Razr and three different computers. But Powell, who resigned last November, will not relocate to Silicon Valley from his office in Virginia. Instead, Kleiner Perkins has created a new kind of position for him, to draw on Powell's considerable global experience to help mentor entrepreneurs.
"I wanted to be on the leading edge of technology developments in American and in the world, which will not only benefit America, but all of human kind,'' Powell said in an interview. (full post)
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
THE 506TH AIRBORNE INFANTRY REGIMENT ASSOCIATION WIDOWS AND ORPHANS FUND
Thomas Lee is establishing The 506th Airborne Infantry Regiment Association (Airmobile-Air Assault) Widows and Orphans Fund. Here is part of his letter:
As some of you know, I served eight years in the United States Army and I am a veteran of the first Persian Gulf War. Therefore, as you can imagine, I have a deep interest in following the unit I once served in while they provide us with their service in the War on Terror.
One of the units I was part of for three years is the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment (Airmobile-Air Assault). You may have heard of this Regiment if you have ever seen the HBO series “Band of Brothers”. The 506th is known as one of the toughest and most proud units in the United States Army.
The 506th was based at Camp Greaves, Korea before being deployed to Iraq. Many of the soldiers in the 506th were just completing their one year hardship tours on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) when they were informed they were to deploy directly from Korea to Iraq. A hardship tour is a tour in which a soldier’s family is not allowed to accompany them due to the dangers of the area where the soldier is serving. Therefore, many of these soldiers have not seen their families for more than a few days during the last two years.
As mentioned, I have been following the 506th for a year now while they have served in some of the most difficult areas of Iraq. The 506th has suffered 12 KIA (killed in action) and more than 50 seriously WIA (wounded in action) and therefore, permanently disabled.
As we all know, the US military provides some benefits to the soldiers injured and to the families of the soldiers killed. However, it is never enough to help the soldiers and their families through these difficult times. Therefore, I have put together a “Wounded Soldiers’, Orphans’ and Widows’ Fund” for which I currently raising donations. Please know that anything you can provide will be greatly appreciated by, and helpful to, the soldiers and their families.
The good news is that the unit will be returning to Fort Carson, Colorado later this month. Once the soldiers have been debriefed and gone through a “reintroduction to society” program, they will take 30 days of leave to spend with their loved ones. When they return from leave Gene Overton, a Vietnam Vet and President of the 506th Infantry Association and I will present our “gift” to the unit.
If you are interested in helping this cause, I can email you the original letter I received with more detail and a donation form. For direct questions please contact Thomas Lee at thomasglee@gmail.com or you can just send your donation to:
Currahee Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund
% Unitel
7310 Smoke Ranch Road
Suite R
Las Vegas, NV 89138
Attn: Thomas Lee
NOTE: The IRS has recognized the 506th Association as a War Veterans Organization under section 501(c)(19), so donors making contributions to the Association can deduct such donations on their personal or corporate tax filings. For exemption/deduction purposes, the 506th Association Employer Identification Number (EIN) is 91-2088108.
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Thomas Lee is establishing The 506th Airborne Infantry Regiment Association (Airmobile-Air Assault) Widows and Orphans Fund. Here is part of his letter:
As some of you know, I served eight years in the United States Army and I am a veteran of the first Persian Gulf War. Therefore, as you can imagine, I have a deep interest in following the unit I once served in while they provide us with their service in the War on Terror.
One of the units I was part of for three years is the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment (Airmobile-Air Assault). You may have heard of this Regiment if you have ever seen the HBO series “Band of Brothers”. The 506th is known as one of the toughest and most proud units in the United States Army.
The 506th was based at Camp Greaves, Korea before being deployed to Iraq. Many of the soldiers in the 506th were just completing their one year hardship tours on the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) when they were informed they were to deploy directly from Korea to Iraq. A hardship tour is a tour in which a soldier’s family is not allowed to accompany them due to the dangers of the area where the soldier is serving. Therefore, many of these soldiers have not seen their families for more than a few days during the last two years.
As mentioned, I have been following the 506th for a year now while they have served in some of the most difficult areas of Iraq. The 506th has suffered 12 KIA (killed in action) and more than 50 seriously WIA (wounded in action) and therefore, permanently disabled.
As we all know, the US military provides some benefits to the soldiers injured and to the families of the soldiers killed. However, it is never enough to help the soldiers and their families through these difficult times. Therefore, I have put together a “Wounded Soldiers’, Orphans’ and Widows’ Fund” for which I currently raising donations. Please know that anything you can provide will be greatly appreciated by, and helpful to, the soldiers and their families.
The good news is that the unit will be returning to Fort Carson, Colorado later this month. Once the soldiers have been debriefed and gone through a “reintroduction to society” program, they will take 30 days of leave to spend with their loved ones. When they return from leave Gene Overton, a Vietnam Vet and President of the 506th Infantry Association and I will present our “gift” to the unit.
If you are interested in helping this cause, I can email you the original letter I received with more detail and a donation form. For direct questions please contact Thomas Lee at thomasglee@gmail.com or you can just send your donation to:
Currahee Widows’ and Orphans’ Fund
% Unitel
7310 Smoke Ranch Road
Suite R
Las Vegas, NV 89138
Attn: Thomas Lee
NOTE: The IRS has recognized the 506th Association as a War Veterans Organization under section 501(c)(19), so donors making contributions to the Association can deduct such donations on their personal or corporate tax filings. For exemption/deduction purposes, the 506th Association Employer Identification Number (EIN) is 91-2088108.
DISAPPOINTING STORY ON JOHN MCCAIN... CAMPAIGN FINANCE PET ISSUE OR PET ROCK?
From Power Line. If this is true, it's very disappointing for me. I like McCain and think he's a great Senator for America. He has long been in the forefront of campaign finance reform, but if the following and related article is true then his leadership on the issue was probably just a fabrication from his staffers feeding him the information and positions. Really sucks.
Mr. Smith said he doesn't think Mr. McCain understands his own signature issue. "He is woefully ill-informed on campaign finance issues," Mr. Smith said. "I have seen him repeatedly misstate what the law is, misstate what court decisions held, and I think that's one reason he gets so angry when he talks about it. It's because he doesn't really understand what a complex issue it is, what a difficult issue it is, he doesn't understand the court hearings, he doesn't understand how we've gotten where we are -- so he just gets mad." (full post)
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From Power Line. If this is true, it's very disappointing for me. I like McCain and think he's a great Senator for America. He has long been in the forefront of campaign finance reform, but if the following and related article is true then his leadership on the issue was probably just a fabrication from his staffers feeding him the information and positions. Really sucks.
Mr. Smith said he doesn't think Mr. McCain understands his own signature issue. "He is woefully ill-informed on campaign finance issues," Mr. Smith said. "I have seen him repeatedly misstate what the law is, misstate what court decisions held, and I think that's one reason he gets so angry when he talks about it. It's because he doesn't really understand what a complex issue it is, what a difficult issue it is, he doesn't understand the court hearings, he doesn't understand how we've gotten where we are -- so he just gets mad." (full post)
Monday, July 11, 2005
FIRST CNN VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM LONDON BOMBINGS FROM A CAMERA PHONE
Pretty decent article by the Chicago Tribune's Mike Hughlett on how technology is changing the manner and method of how big media covers stories:
CNN viewers were greeted Thursday with video footage of bent metal and broken glass from a bombed-out London train. The images' source: a video camera phone, a first for the news network.
Meanwhile, amateur pictures of the bombing began popping up on Flickr, a photo swapping Web site, at the same time mainstream news organizations were announcing the tragedy.
Welcome to the world of citizen newsgathering, where technology and the age-old desire to communicate hot information, be it hard news or soft gossip, are converging and forcing traditional news outlets to dramatically change the way they cover big news events.
It got a big push from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and has gathered more steam as camera phones have become more ubiquitous, blogs have become more numerous, and mainstream media outlets have gotten more Web-savvy. (full article)
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Pretty decent article by the Chicago Tribune's Mike Hughlett on how technology is changing the manner and method of how big media covers stories:
CNN viewers were greeted Thursday with video footage of bent metal and broken glass from a bombed-out London train. The images' source: a video camera phone, a first for the news network.
Meanwhile, amateur pictures of the bombing began popping up on Flickr, a photo swapping Web site, at the same time mainstream news organizations were announcing the tragedy.
Welcome to the world of citizen newsgathering, where technology and the age-old desire to communicate hot information, be it hard news or soft gossip, are converging and forcing traditional news outlets to dramatically change the way they cover big news events.
It got a big push from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and has gathered more steam as camera phones have become more ubiquitous, blogs have become more numerous, and mainstream media outlets have gotten more Web-savvy. (full article)
"IT'S A GREAT TIME TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR"
Great post by Joe Kraus of Jotspot. Our startup is isn't that low budget, but will be pretty close. If we were building our product back in 1997-1999, it would definitely take over $3 million. Anyway, here is Joe's post:
There’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur because it’s never been cheaper to be one. Here’s one example.
Excite.com took $3,000,000 to get from idea to launch. JotSpot took $100,000.
Why on earth is there a 30X difference? There’s probably a lot of reasons, but here are my top four. I’m interested in hearing about what other people think are factors as well.
Hardware is 100X cheaper
.....
Infrastructure software is free
.....
Access to Global Labor Markets
.....
SEM changes everything
.....(full post)
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Great post by Joe Kraus of Jotspot. Our startup is isn't that low budget, but will be pretty close. If we were building our product back in 1997-1999, it would definitely take over $3 million. Anyway, here is Joe's post:
There’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur because it’s never been cheaper to be one. Here’s one example.
Excite.com took $3,000,000 to get from idea to launch. JotSpot took $100,000.
Why on earth is there a 30X difference? There’s probably a lot of reasons, but here are my top four. I’m interested in hearing about what other people think are factors as well.
Hardware is 100X cheaper
.....
Infrastructure software is free
.....
Access to Global Labor Markets
.....
SEM changes everything
.....(full post)
TECHNORATI'S BUSINESS MODEL... "THE SELLING OF THE BLOGOSPHERE"
Good post at SiliconValleyWatcher about Technorati's business model and revealing of their veil. I always wondered what their business model was going to be. I emailed Marc and he posted a whole "tirade" about it.
The selling of the Blogosphere—Technorati's big push into monetizing its treasure trove of data collected about millions of blogs
. . .helping corporations control their message
Last Friday I was on a panel with Sam Whitmore, of the popular Media Survey, and Peter Hirshberg, a very high powered marketing guy (see his bio) representing Technorati, a well known web site that is very highly regarded by the blogging community because of its early focus on the blogging phenomena.
Technorati has done an enormous amount of work in supporting the early blogging communities, and it has been a strong evangelist for bloggers everywhere through its promotion of blogs and bloggers. And through its close watch on blogs, it has helped the blogging community understand itself, and how it is evolving.
The subject of the panel was "How the Blogosphere is changing the game in PR and marketing" organized by the PR company Horn Group and nicely moderated by Shannon Latta, a partner of the Horn Group, and the panel included Horn Group's in-house blogger Blake Barbera, who writes an increasingly popular blog: Wet Feet PR.
What surprised me was how aggressively Mr Hirshberg was pitching Technorati's expensive blog tracking services to this audience of agency and corporate communications professionals. Mr Whitmore barely mentioned his company, and I didn't pitch anything, maybe I should have :-) (full post)
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Good post at SiliconValleyWatcher about Technorati's business model and revealing of their veil. I always wondered what their business model was going to be. I emailed Marc and he posted a whole "tirade" about it.
The selling of the Blogosphere—Technorati's big push into monetizing its treasure trove of data collected about millions of blogs
. . .helping corporations control their message
Last Friday I was on a panel with Sam Whitmore, of the popular Media Survey, and Peter Hirshberg, a very high powered marketing guy (see his bio) representing Technorati, a well known web site that is very highly regarded by the blogging community because of its early focus on the blogging phenomena.
Technorati has done an enormous amount of work in supporting the early blogging communities, and it has been a strong evangelist for bloggers everywhere through its promotion of blogs and bloggers. And through its close watch on blogs, it has helped the blogging community understand itself, and how it is evolving.
The subject of the panel was "How the Blogosphere is changing the game in PR and marketing" organized by the PR company Horn Group and nicely moderated by Shannon Latta, a partner of the Horn Group, and the panel included Horn Group's in-house blogger Blake Barbera, who writes an increasingly popular blog: Wet Feet PR.
What surprised me was how aggressively Mr Hirshberg was pitching Technorati's expensive blog tracking services to this audience of agency and corporate communications professionals. Mr Whitmore barely mentioned his company, and I didn't pitch anything, maybe I should have :-) (full post)
THE HOTLINE'S BLOGOMETER
HatTip to Instapundit. Great summary of the political blogosphere by the National Journal Group. Similar to The Week magazine, but for blogs.
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HatTip to Instapundit. Great summary of the political blogosphere by the National Journal Group. Similar to The Week magazine, but for blogs.
GOOGLE INVESTS IN POWERLINE BROADBAND PROVIDER
Interesting play by Google. Owning the end-user end to end.
But last week's investment by Web search leader Google, the media conglomerate Hearst and bankers at Goldman Sachs in a Germantown, Md., company called Current Communications Group has many wondering if the time is finally right for the oft-ignored BPL. Current didn't disclose the amount of the investment, but The Wall Street Journal reported it was about $100 million. IBM has also started making noise in this market, announcing on Monday that it is partnering with Houston-based power utility CenterPoint Energy to build a BPL network. (full article)
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Interesting play by Google. Owning the end-user end to end.
But last week's investment by Web search leader Google, the media conglomerate Hearst and bankers at Goldman Sachs in a Germantown, Md., company called Current Communications Group has many wondering if the time is finally right for the oft-ignored BPL. Current didn't disclose the amount of the investment, but The Wall Street Journal reported it was about $100 million. IBM has also started making noise in this market, announcing on Monday that it is partnering with Houston-based power utility CenterPoint Energy to build a BPL network. (full article)
AO TECHNORATI OPEN MEDIA 100 PARTY PICS
Last Thursday's casual beer and burger gathering at Rosati's in Portola Valley, CA was fun and cool. I did door duties most of the time helping to sign people in and give them their names tags along with Kathy, Anna, and Mike. I felt confident I could be a restaurant host afterwards :)
It was great meeting some people I either corresponded with online but never met (i.e. Susan Mernit) and people whose software I use frequently (i.e. Mark Fletcher).
It was very cool to meet with Charles Johnson and Roger Simon, who are bloggers whose blogs I read frequently. I also met with their friend, Jill Stewart, who I didn't know at the time was a journalist in California. Roger has his experience posted here.
Also egos in Silicon Valley crack me up sometimes. I was giving this guy his name tag and I ask if he wants his company name put on it, he gives me an odd look and says in an haughty tone, "You don't need to put it down. Everyone knows me here."
Give me a break, buddy. He was some guy in finance, but I don't belive he was a VC. First, it's a party celebrating Open Media, so it isn't an established space with that many repeat entrepreneurs. Second, as my AO colleague, Will, stated if Tim Draper takes a name tag without comment or attitude that guy definitely shouldn't. Kathy, who has been with Tony since the Red Herring days, didn't know him or Will, who grew up in insiders world of Silicon Valley, so I doubt if he really was someone that "everyone" knew. We definitely were amused by this guy and another who said a similar thing but without the arrogant tone.
Anyway, Valerie, who did most of the logistics for the party, has some pictures posted up on Flickr, so you can check them out here.
P.S. For you right-leaning people like me, Tony got Michael Medved to speak at the AO Summit. To be honest, when Tony told me I didn't know much about him and supposedly he's the second most popular radio talkshow host after Rush, but I'm not a talk-radio listener. Tony, who got most of the speakers for the conference, might secure Shimon Peres, which will be huge. My minor contribution is getting Sandy Berger, my friend's father and Clinton's National Security Advisor, to speak on the China panel. Though I'm not a supporter of his politics, Berger is incredibly sharp and intelligent and should be an excellent contributor to the discussion. Overall, the conference is going to be kick ass this year.
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Last Thursday's casual beer and burger gathering at Rosati's in Portola Valley, CA was fun and cool. I did door duties most of the time helping to sign people in and give them their names tags along with Kathy, Anna, and Mike. I felt confident I could be a restaurant host afterwards :)
It was great meeting some people I either corresponded with online but never met (i.e. Susan Mernit) and people whose software I use frequently (i.e. Mark Fletcher).
It was very cool to meet with Charles Johnson and Roger Simon, who are bloggers whose blogs I read frequently. I also met with their friend, Jill Stewart, who I didn't know at the time was a journalist in California. Roger has his experience posted here.
Also egos in Silicon Valley crack me up sometimes. I was giving this guy his name tag and I ask if he wants his company name put on it, he gives me an odd look and says in an haughty tone, "You don't need to put it down. Everyone knows me here."
Give me a break, buddy. He was some guy in finance, but I don't belive he was a VC. First, it's a party celebrating Open Media, so it isn't an established space with that many repeat entrepreneurs. Second, as my AO colleague, Will, stated if Tim Draper takes a name tag without comment or attitude that guy definitely shouldn't. Kathy, who has been with Tony since the Red Herring days, didn't know him or Will, who grew up in insiders world of Silicon Valley, so I doubt if he really was someone that "everyone" knew. We definitely were amused by this guy and another who said a similar thing but without the arrogant tone.
Anyway, Valerie, who did most of the logistics for the party, has some pictures posted up on Flickr, so you can check them out here.
P.S. For you right-leaning people like me, Tony got Michael Medved to speak at the AO Summit. To be honest, when Tony told me I didn't know much about him and supposedly he's the second most popular radio talkshow host after Rush, but I'm not a talk-radio listener. Tony, who got most of the speakers for the conference, might secure Shimon Peres, which will be huge. My minor contribution is getting Sandy Berger, my friend's father and Clinton's National Security Advisor, to speak on the China panel. Though I'm not a supporter of his politics, Berger is incredibly sharp and intelligent and should be an excellent contributor to the discussion. Overall, the conference is going to be kick ass this year.
"GOOGLE ABSORBS INNOVATION QUICKLY, EBAY DOES NOT"
Old post I forgot to put up earlier, but imporant enough to do so now. It refers to Louis Monier's, Alta Vista's founder and eBay’s Director of Advanced Technology, recent move from eBay to Google. One email from Larry and Louis made the move.
Why do I believe Google Wallet, if it does overlap with eBay's PayPal, will kick PayPal's butt? For the reasons mentioned here and Monier's statement:
"eBay does not absorb innovation at the pace I enjoy, and its focus is narrower than Google. So rather than chewing on variations of e-commerce for the next few years, I'm very tempted to play with radically new stuff..."
The quality of their products and impact on the development of web services each of them have simply are the best. Some products, such as Picasa, are not the most user-friendly and haven't led in their respective space, but I believe most of them have and will continue to do so.
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Old post I forgot to put up earlier, but imporant enough to do so now. It refers to Louis Monier's, Alta Vista's founder and eBay’s Director of Advanced Technology, recent move from eBay to Google. One email from Larry and Louis made the move.
Why do I believe Google Wallet, if it does overlap with eBay's PayPal, will kick PayPal's butt? For the reasons mentioned here and Monier's statement:
"eBay does not absorb innovation at the pace I enjoy, and its focus is narrower than Google. So rather than chewing on variations of e-commerce for the next few years, I'm very tempted to play with radically new stuff..."
The quality of their products and impact on the development of web services each of them have simply are the best. Some products, such as Picasa, are not the most user-friendly and haven't led in their respective space, but I believe most of them have and will continue to do so.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
"CITIZEN JOURNALISM IS THE COOL, NEW OLD THING"... TIME 50 COOLEST WEBSITES
Follow up to the post below, Tood asked me to write an article about OhMyNews' inclusion in TIME's 50 Coolest Websites and the AO Technorati Open Media 100. It went up Friday, but I didn't have time to post it up then. Here is it here.
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Follow up to the post below, Tood asked me to write an article about OhMyNews' inclusion in TIME's 50 Coolest Websites and the AO Technorati Open Media 100. It went up Friday, but I didn't have time to post it up then. Here is it here.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
TIME'S 50 COOLEST WEBSITES 2005
Todd from OhMyNews tipped me to this list since OhMyNews is on it. Congratulations to the OhMyNews team!
Check it out. There are some cool sites I didn't know about. Public Agenda is one and Clusty, a clustering search engine that groups your search results, is another.
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Todd from OhMyNews tipped me to this list since OhMyNews is on it. Congratulations to the OhMyNews team!
Check it out. There are some cool sites I didn't know about. Public Agenda is one and Clusty, a clustering search engine that groups your search results, is another.
TERRORIST BOMBING IN LONDON... COWARDS, COWARDS SHOULD JUST DIE
Cowards in London set off bombs that killed at least 33 people in the subways.
Tony Blair declared tonight that Britain "will not be terrorised" after a spate of bomb attacks that killed at least 37 people in London's morning rush hour today.
Four blasts hit London shortly before 9am, three of them in London Underground trains and one on a double-decker bus travelling through Bloomsbury. Police said that the confirmed death toll was 37 and rising. Some 700 commuters and tourists were injured, almost half of whom were taken to hospital by ambulance.
The blasts bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda attack, similar to the Madrid train bombings of March 2004. An unknown al-Qaeda cell claimed responsibility in an unverifiable claim on an Islamist website and declared: "Britain is now burning in fear." (full article)
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Cowards in London set off bombs that killed at least 33 people in the subways.
Tony Blair declared tonight that Britain "will not be terrorised" after a spate of bomb attacks that killed at least 37 people in London's morning rush hour today.
Four blasts hit London shortly before 9am, three of them in London Underground trains and one on a double-decker bus travelling through Bloomsbury. Police said that the confirmed death toll was 37 and rising. Some 700 commuters and tourists were injured, almost half of whom were taken to hospital by ambulance.
The blasts bore all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda attack, similar to the Madrid train bombings of March 2004. An unknown al-Qaeda cell claimed responsibility in an unverifiable claim on an Islamist website and declared: "Britain is now burning in fear." (full article)
COLUMN UP TODAY... CITIZEN JOURNALISM'S GLOBAL GROWTH
This week's article for my column was derived from my experience and thoughts while I was in Seoul for the OhMyNews conference a few weeks back. Anyway, check it out:
Open It Up, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle!
Taking a lesson from South Korea's OhMyNews, a horde of bloggers-turned-citizen journalists is about to storm the gates of traditional media.
It had been over a year since I'd left Seoul, South Korea, when I returned a couple of weeks ago to attend OhMyNews' Citizen Reporters' Forum. Upon arriving, I was immediately struck by just how ubiquitous technology is in that country—a fact that had faded from my memory in the interim. Wireless phones are everywhere, and PCs with broadband connections can be found in each mom-and-pop shop. At a conference to discuss, share, and learn about the global progress of online citizen journalism, I was reminded at every turn of the long tentacles of technology.
The most powerful reminder came in the form of OhMyNews itself. OhMyNews was born in the "Land of the Morning Calm," a land that also happens to be the broadband capital of the world. Begun in February 2000, by Yeon Ho Oh, the service—which grew out of Oh's vision of every citizen as a reporter—has grown to more than 38,000 citizen reporters, including approximately 600 international reporters and 54 full-time staff reporters. Since its inception, OhMyNews has also inspired countless other citizen journalism projects such as Dan Gillmor's Bayosphere. (full post)
[tags: citizenjournalism, journalism, blogging, micropayments]
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This week's article for my column was derived from my experience and thoughts while I was in Seoul for the OhMyNews conference a few weeks back. Anyway, check it out:
Open It Up, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle!
Taking a lesson from South Korea's OhMyNews, a horde of bloggers-turned-citizen journalists is about to storm the gates of traditional media.
It had been over a year since I'd left Seoul, South Korea, when I returned a couple of weeks ago to attend OhMyNews' Citizen Reporters' Forum. Upon arriving, I was immediately struck by just how ubiquitous technology is in that country—a fact that had faded from my memory in the interim. Wireless phones are everywhere, and PCs with broadband connections can be found in each mom-and-pop shop. At a conference to discuss, share, and learn about the global progress of online citizen journalism, I was reminded at every turn of the long tentacles of technology.
The most powerful reminder came in the form of OhMyNews itself. OhMyNews was born in the "Land of the Morning Calm," a land that also happens to be the broadband capital of the world. Begun in February 2000, by Yeon Ho Oh, the service—which grew out of Oh's vision of every citizen as a reporter—has grown to more than 38,000 citizen reporters, including approximately 600 international reporters and 54 full-time staff reporters. Since its inception, OhMyNews has also inspired countless other citizen journalism projects such as Dan Gillmor's Bayosphere. (full post)
[tags: citizenjournalism, journalism, blogging, micropayments]
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
MORE ON THE AO TECHNORATI OPEN MEDIA 100
A few weeks ago the AO Technorati Open Media 100 list was announced.
The concept was started by Tony Perkins, founder of AlwaysOn, to recognize those in this new, new media space, and he thought Technorati would be an ideal partner to work with in creating this list. We pitched Dave Sifry and his team and they loved the idea. I thought it was a great idea and a fun project to get involved in.
Initially Valerie, who is a marketing consultant for AlwaysOn, and I worked together on the project. Valerie established the framework and I led the process to fill in the blanks and research hundreds of people, blogs, and websites. I guess I was the middle relief pitcher to Valerie's start. The Technorati staff provide assistance throughout the process, and Niall Kennedy and Valerie led the final stage and both played closer as Jill, our editor and umpire, smoothed out the final plays.
Due to my wedding and honeymoon, I couldn't participate in the final innings of completing the AO Technorati 100 list, but what could I have done?
The initial stages of the list didn't go so smoothly, but in the end I believe most people were excited or satisfied. There were some silly complaints and questions as to why certain people or categories were left off, but those reactions are always expected when such lists are created. Even I was disappointed in some aspects of the list and I was part of the core team. Since I left for my honeymoon, I felt like I was part of a fantasy football draft and I didn't get to participate in the final rounds when a lot of action occurred... trades and deals without my say. Whatup with that!
Anyway for those voices that felt they were ignored or their favorites forgotten, believe me it wasn't an easy process. Here are some of mine that got ignored:
Issac Mao, a leading Chinese blogger whose Chinese language blog isn't tracked by Technorati but has a made a significant impact in the English language blogosphere through his less visible English blog.
Orkut Buyukkokten, creator of Google's Orkut service.
Lili Cheng, head of Microsoft Research's Social Computing Group.
David Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati. I disagree with people who say he can't be on this list because he's helping to create it. Since on merit alone he deserves to be on it, he should be on it.
Andrew Anker, EVP of Corporate Development at Six Apart. Some argued that there were too many Six Apart people in the 100, but who cares? Merit again should have won over.
As for some "Honorable Mentions":
Mitch Ratcliffe, founder of Persuadio
Nick Schulz, Editor-in-Chief of Tech Central Station. Simply a great source of opinions.
Wretchard, founder of Belmont Club. Great writing and thought-provoking posts.
Anyway, for those of you who have or will receive the AlwaysOn blogozine with the full feature of the AO Technorati Open Media 100 article, I apologize for some of the typos and handful of mistakes in the descriptions. I wasn't part of the final edits :), but I do apologize on behalf of our team.
There is a casual gathering of those on the 100 and the honorable mentions tomorrow, so it will be cool to meet and talk with those I never met.
[other tags: OpenMedia100, OpenMedia]
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A few weeks ago the AO Technorati Open Media 100 list was announced.
The concept was started by Tony Perkins, founder of AlwaysOn, to recognize those in this new, new media space, and he thought Technorati would be an ideal partner to work with in creating this list. We pitched Dave Sifry and his team and they loved the idea. I thought it was a great idea and a fun project to get involved in.
Initially Valerie, who is a marketing consultant for AlwaysOn, and I worked together on the project. Valerie established the framework and I led the process to fill in the blanks and research hundreds of people, blogs, and websites. I guess I was the middle relief pitcher to Valerie's start. The Technorati staff provide assistance throughout the process, and Niall Kennedy and Valerie led the final stage and both played closer as Jill, our editor and umpire, smoothed out the final plays.
Due to my wedding and honeymoon, I couldn't participate in the final innings of completing the AO Technorati 100 list, but what could I have done?
The initial stages of the list didn't go so smoothly, but in the end I believe most people were excited or satisfied. There were some silly complaints and questions as to why certain people or categories were left off, but those reactions are always expected when such lists are created. Even I was disappointed in some aspects of the list and I was part of the core team. Since I left for my honeymoon, I felt like I was part of a fantasy football draft and I didn't get to participate in the final rounds when a lot of action occurred... trades and deals without my say. Whatup with that!
Anyway for those voices that felt they were ignored or their favorites forgotten, believe me it wasn't an easy process. Here are some of mine that got ignored:
Issac Mao, a leading Chinese blogger whose Chinese language blog isn't tracked by Technorati but has a made a significant impact in the English language blogosphere through his less visible English blog.
Orkut Buyukkokten, creator of Google's Orkut service.
Lili Cheng, head of Microsoft Research's Social Computing Group.
David Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati. I disagree with people who say he can't be on this list because he's helping to create it. Since on merit alone he deserves to be on it, he should be on it.
Andrew Anker, EVP of Corporate Development at Six Apart. Some argued that there were too many Six Apart people in the 100, but who cares? Merit again should have won over.
As for some "Honorable Mentions":
Mitch Ratcliffe, founder of Persuadio
Nick Schulz, Editor-in-Chief of Tech Central Station. Simply a great source of opinions.
Wretchard, founder of Belmont Club. Great writing and thought-provoking posts.
Anyway, for those of you who have or will receive the AlwaysOn blogozine with the full feature of the AO Technorati Open Media 100 article, I apologize for some of the typos and handful of mistakes in the descriptions. I wasn't part of the final edits :), but I do apologize on behalf of our team.
There is a casual gathering of those on the 100 and the honorable mentions tomorrow, so it will be cool to meet and talk with those I never met.
[other tags: OpenMedia100, OpenMedia]
POWERLINE TAKES AIM AT GARRY TRUDEAU
Powerline definitely had some fireworks going on at their blog on the Fourth of July. Amusing commentary and analysis of Trudeau's recent Doonesbury comic that took a shot at bloggers:
Trudeau's clueless comic
I gave up reading Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury strip some thirty years ago. In the mid-1980's I attended a version of Trudeau's incredibly lame satirical revue Rap Master Ronnie when it played at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. By Trudeau's lights, Ronald Reagan was of course a stupid oaf. I haven't taken another look at Trudeau's work since then.
Yesterday, however, a reader asked us to respond to Trudeau's Sunday Doonesbury strip attacking bloggers (the reduced image below is linked to a full-size reproduction of the strip at the Slate archive of the Doonesbury daily strips). I'm not familiar with the characters Trudeau employs in this strip, but his point seems to be that bloggers are obsessive, clueless, vainly in love with the sound of their voice even if no one is listening, and perhaps delusional. I'm sure the portrait applies to some cartoonists as well as bloggers. (full post)
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Powerline definitely had some fireworks going on at their blog on the Fourth of July. Amusing commentary and analysis of Trudeau's recent Doonesbury comic that took a shot at bloggers:
Trudeau's clueless comic
I gave up reading Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury strip some thirty years ago. In the mid-1980's I attended a version of Trudeau's incredibly lame satirical revue Rap Master Ronnie when it played at the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis. By Trudeau's lights, Ronald Reagan was of course a stupid oaf. I haven't taken another look at Trudeau's work since then.
Yesterday, however, a reader asked us to respond to Trudeau's Sunday Doonesbury strip attacking bloggers (the reduced image below is linked to a full-size reproduction of the strip at the Slate archive of the Doonesbury daily strips). I'm not familiar with the characters Trudeau employs in this strip, but his point seems to be that bloggers are obsessive, clueless, vainly in love with the sound of their voice even if no one is listening, and perhaps delusional. I'm sure the portrait applies to some cartoonists as well as bloggers. (full post)
"WHERE TWO CULTURES CONVERGE"
My friend's essay for the Fourth of July that was printed in The Washington Post this past Sunday:
Where Two Cultures Converge
I never felt fully all American or all Korean. A visit to a war memorial changed that.
The Washington Post
Sunday, July 3, 2005
June 25 marked the 55th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, the first hot engagement of the Cold War. Although the date may have little meaning for many Americans, it altered my personal and cultural history forever. As a Korean American, I've lived a dual existence defined by two political and cultural influences. My parents were born in Korea in 1950, shortly after the outbreak of the war. During their childhoods, hunger and death were as prevalent as the will to survive. (full article)
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My friend's essay for the Fourth of July that was printed in The Washington Post this past Sunday:
Where Two Cultures Converge
I never felt fully all American or all Korean. A visit to a war memorial changed that.
The Washington Post
Sunday, July 3, 2005
June 25 marked the 55th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War, the first hot engagement of the Cold War. Although the date may have little meaning for many Americans, it altered my personal and cultural history forever. As a Korean American, I've lived a dual existence defined by two political and cultural influences. My parents were born in Korea in 1950, shortly after the outbreak of the war. During their childhoods, hunger and death were as prevalent as the will to survive. (full article)
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
LIVE 8
It's all over the news, but here's my plug for the LIVE 8 benefit concerts. My younger brother and his wife checked out the Philly show this past weekend. The last concert is tomorrow night in Edinburgh.
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It's all over the news, but here's my plug for the LIVE 8 benefit concerts. My younger brother and his wife checked out the Philly show this past weekend. The last concert is tomorrow night in Edinburgh.
FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND IN THE POCONOS AND NYC
12th Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification Conference
So Christine and I came back this morning from NYC. Horrible flight with Song, Delta's low-budget airline, but we were just happy to get back after a fun and tiring weekend.
Since I mentioned a couple posts below that I would provide more details here it is. First, we recently were accepted as members of the 12th Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification (ACDPU), which is organized by the South Korean government through the local Consulate General in San Francisco. Our friend, Patty, told us about it so we went ahead an applied. We really didn't know what it entailed, but it was part of our desire to get more involved in our new home, which I wrote about before.
A month or so after we submitted our application we got accepted and then informed about an upcoming conference in NYC. At the time, I told Christine that the ACDPU committee or South Korean Consulate General definitely doesn't read my blog since I clearly express my lack of fondness for South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun and his policies towards North Korea. But later we found out this two-year advisory council committee is independent of an administration and can overlap with two administrations on certain years.
Anyway, our parents didn't know about our commitment until I met with them for breakfast while I attended the OhMyNew International Citizen Reporters' Forum June 23-26 in Seoul. During an early morning breakfast with my parents (who are in Korea half the year for business and half in Chicago) and Christine's parents, I told them Christine and I were going to NYC for a conference for this advisory council.
Christine's father knew a lot of the details since he served as Consulate General in NYC years ago and my father knew a lighter side since his good high school friend, Jae Jung Lee, was currently heading the organization overseeing these advisory councils. He's Vice Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification, and the President of South Korean is the official chair (amazes me how he's president of South Korea). My father told me the position was relatively inactive, but welds a lot of power since this government entity had a lot of money and the current administration was using it as an organizing force for the next election campaign in South Korea. Since the ACDPU, or "Pyung Tohng" in Korean, is organized by districts it serves as a great campaigning infrastructure.
The conference was okay and a decent speech was given by Ambassador James Lilley. After the conference, Christine and I worked remotely and left Friday evening for the Poconos. We stayed at a bed & breakfast place in Jim Thorpe, a quaint town in Pennsylvania. On Saturday, we went whitewater rafting, which was a six hour adventure, and horseback riding on Sunday. Beautiful valley, river, and countryside. If you live NYC or the surrounding area and haven't visited, check it out and spend a weekend there.
Monday morning we got back into NYC and met up with my brother and his wife for dinner and then headed to Roosevelt Island for the annual New York City fireworks show. It was my first fireworks show in a long time and nice to watch in the company of family and loved ones. Here are some pictures below:
Roosevelt Island. July 4th, 2005
Macy's NYC Fireworks Show 2005
Bottom of Times Square 42nd & 7th
Bottom of Times Square
Definitely felt like a tourist taking the Time Square pictures. I miss the energy of NYC, but I enjoy my new life with Christine, quality of life in San Francisco, and the work of my new startup.
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12th Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification Conference
So Christine and I came back this morning from NYC. Horrible flight with Song, Delta's low-budget airline, but we were just happy to get back after a fun and tiring weekend.
Since I mentioned a couple posts below that I would provide more details here it is. First, we recently were accepted as members of the 12th Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification (ACDPU), which is organized by the South Korean government through the local Consulate General in San Francisco. Our friend, Patty, told us about it so we went ahead an applied. We really didn't know what it entailed, but it was part of our desire to get more involved in our new home, which I wrote about before.
A month or so after we submitted our application we got accepted and then informed about an upcoming conference in NYC. At the time, I told Christine that the ACDPU committee or South Korean Consulate General definitely doesn't read my blog since I clearly express my lack of fondness for South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun and his policies towards North Korea. But later we found out this two-year advisory council committee is independent of an administration and can overlap with two administrations on certain years.
Anyway, our parents didn't know about our commitment until I met with them for breakfast while I attended the OhMyNew International Citizen Reporters' Forum June 23-26 in Seoul. During an early morning breakfast with my parents (who are in Korea half the year for business and half in Chicago) and Christine's parents, I told them Christine and I were going to NYC for a conference for this advisory council.
Christine's father knew a lot of the details since he served as Consulate General in NYC years ago and my father knew a lighter side since his good high school friend, Jae Jung Lee, was currently heading the organization overseeing these advisory councils. He's Vice Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Council on Democratic and Peaceful Unification, and the President of South Korean is the official chair (amazes me how he's president of South Korea). My father told me the position was relatively inactive, but welds a lot of power since this government entity had a lot of money and the current administration was using it as an organizing force for the next election campaign in South Korea. Since the ACDPU, or "Pyung Tohng" in Korean, is organized by districts it serves as a great campaigning infrastructure.
The conference was okay and a decent speech was given by Ambassador James Lilley. After the conference, Christine and I worked remotely and left Friday evening for the Poconos. We stayed at a bed & breakfast place in Jim Thorpe, a quaint town in Pennsylvania. On Saturday, we went whitewater rafting, which was a six hour adventure, and horseback riding on Sunday. Beautiful valley, river, and countryside. If you live NYC or the surrounding area and haven't visited, check it out and spend a weekend there.
Monday morning we got back into NYC and met up with my brother and his wife for dinner and then headed to Roosevelt Island for the annual New York City fireworks show. It was my first fireworks show in a long time and nice to watch in the company of family and loved ones. Here are some pictures below:
Roosevelt Island. July 4th, 2005
Macy's NYC Fireworks Show 2005
Bottom of Times Square 42nd & 7th
Bottom of Times Square
Definitely felt like a tourist taking the Time Square pictures. I miss the energy of NYC, but I enjoy my new life with Christine, quality of life in San Francisco, and the work of my new startup.
Friday, July 01, 2005
SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR RETIRES FROM SUPREME COURT
Huge for Bush and Republicans since they only expected to fill two seats. Pro-choice organizations must be crapping now. Great news overview from Yahoo!
Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court and a swing vote on abortion as well as other contentious issues, announced her retirement Friday. A bruising Senate confirmation struggle loomed as President Bush pledged to name a successor quickly. "It has been a great privilege indeed to have served as a member of the court for 24 terms," the 75-year-old justice wrote Bush in a one-paragraph resignation letter. "I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the court and its role under our constitutional structure." (full coverage)
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Huge for Bush and Republicans since they only expected to fill two seats. Pro-choice organizations must be crapping now. Great news overview from Yahoo!
Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Supreme Court and a swing vote on abortion as well as other contentious issues, announced her retirement Friday. A bruising Senate confirmation struggle loomed as President Bush pledged to name a successor quickly. "It has been a great privilege indeed to have served as a member of the court for 24 terms," the 75-year-old justice wrote Bush in a one-paragraph resignation letter. "I will leave it with enormous respect for the integrity of the court and its role under our constitutional structure." (full coverage)
NYC FOR THE FOURTH
I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday since Christine and I were in NYC. We came here for a conference last night on North/South Korea unification issues. I'll write more later since I'm not in front of my laptop now. Have a great fourth of July weekend!
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I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday since Christine and I were in NYC. We came here for a conference last night on North/South Korea unification issues. I'll write more later since I'm not in front of my laptop now. Have a great fourth of July weekend!
Business & Technology, Politics, and Random Posts from the Left, Right, and Elsewhere
Place of Birth: Seoul, Korea
Hometown: Northbrook, IL USA
Lived in: Seoul, Chicago (Villa Park & Northbrook), Madison, WI, Springfield, IL, St. Louis, New York City, Chicago (Glenview), Seoul, San Francisco
Also blogs at: AlwaysOn, Coro Blog, SportsBlog
More on Bernard or Blogger profile or GoingOn profile or Linkedin profile
Max Yow
Homeland: Canada
Sports: combative sports, sports you play with a ball, sports with no swimming, sports you can play while drinking and smoking (pool, darts, bowling, video games).
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"You cannot go on explaining away things over forever or you will find that you have explained even explanation itself away. You cannot go on seeing through things forever because the whole point of seeing through something is to see something else through it." - C.S Lewis
December 11, 2005
"This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." - Western Union internal memo, 1876
December 4, 2005
"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individual. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful." - Marie Curie
November 27, 2005
"One cannot step into the same river twice." - Heratidus
November 20, 2005
"The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference and undernourishment." - Robert Maynard Hutchins
November 13, 2005
"We are moving away from the old idea of leadership -- leadership has less to do (now) with heroism. We don’t look for... unblemished omnipotent heroes, but leaders who are complex, dependent, changeable... We do not need one dominant authority structure telling all our inner voices to shut up..." - Walter Truett Anderson
November 6, 2005
"To know oneself is to know one’s [country]. It is also... paradoxically a form of exile from that world... to know oneself is, above all, to know what one lacks. It is to measure oneself against Truth, and not the other way around. The first product of self-knowledge is humility, and that virtue is not conspicuous in any national character." - Flannery O’Connor
October 30, 2005
"Men content themselves with the same words as other people use, as if the very sound necessarily carried the same meaning." - John Locke
October 23, 2005
"In order to thrive in a world of change and chaos, we will need to accept 'chaos' as an essential process by which natural systems, including organizations, renew and revitalize themselves." - Margaret Wheatley
October 16, 2004
"Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary." - Robert Louis Stevenson
October 9, 2004
"We will be better and braver if we engage and inquire than if we indulge in the idle fancy that we already know - or that it is of no use seeking to know what we do not know." - Plato
October 2, 2004
"Man's mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions." - Oliver W. Holmes
September 25, 2004
"What you learn intellectually lies in the shallow pools among the wrinkles of your brain. What you learn through the skin of experience sinks deep into your roots." - Hank Taft
September 18, 2004
"In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting us to enjoy him." - C.S. Lewis
September 11, 2004
"A society is judged by how it treats its least desirable people." - Anonymous
September 4, 2004
"This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to the future generations." - George Bernard Shaw
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