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Administration Wants Turks Out of Iraq
By Mark Impomeni (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 11:00:00 PM
Filed under: Bush Administration, Iraq,
TerrorDefense Secretary Robert Gates left
India for Ankara with a message for the
Turkish government: End the incursion into
northern Iraq soon. Gates' comments were
the first remarks by the Administration that
placed an expected time limit on the
Turkish military's pursuit of Kurdish
separatist rebels. "It's very important that
the Turks make this operation as short as
possible and then leave," he said. "They
have to be mindful of Iraqi sovereignty. I
measure quick in terms of days, a week or
two...not months."
The comments echo a call by the Iraqi
government for Turkey to immediately
Iraq. Baghdad is concerned about the
possibility of clashes between Turkish
forces and the pershmerga, the militia
forces of the Kurdish controlled region in
northern Iraq. Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded by
saying that the operation would end only
when its goal is achieved.
Turkey sent its ground forces, reportedly
some 10,000 strong, into northern Iraq last
week to track down suspected terrorists of
the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
Turkey has been fighting a low-grade civil
war with Kurdish separatists in its southeast
for a number of years and has claimed that
the PKK uses the Kurdish semi-
autonomous region of Iraq as a base of
Who Won Last Night's Debate?
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 2:18:00 PM
operations against Turkish targets. It has
also complained that the Iraqi government,
and U.S. forces in Iraq, has not done
enough to neutralize the threat from the
PKK. The Administration agreed to assist
Turkey, a NATO ally, with intelligence and
other information sharing last fall in the
hopes of forestalling just such an incursion
by Turkey.
In his comments on the situation, Gates
urged the Turks to find new ways to settle
its difference with the ethnically Kurdish
population both inside Turkey and in
Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Democrats,
Barack Obama, Breaking News
26/02/08 - 27/02/08
neighboring Iraq.
"There certainly is a place for security
operations, but these also need to be
accompanied with economic and political
initiatives that begin to deal with some of
the issues that provide a favorable local
environment where the PKK can operate.
They [Turkey] need to address some of the
issues and complaints that some of the
Kurds have and move this in a nonmilitary
direction in order to get a long term
solution."The Turks real fear is that the
Kurdish region of northern Iraq will break
with Baghdad and declare itself an
independent state. That could stir
nationalistic passions among Turkey's
Kurdish minority and create a movement
for a greater Kurdistan encompassing parts
of southeastern Turkey. The Bush
Administration finds itself in a hard place
on this question. The Kurds have enjoyed
U.S. protection since the end of the first
Gulf War in 1991; but Turkey has been an
important and strategically located ally in
the Muslim world for far longer. As the
only Muslim democracy, Turkey occupies a
special place in U.S. foreign policy and
serves as an important example to the rest
of the Muslim world. The U.S. will likely
not criticize Turkey too harshly in pubic for
its actions, predicated as they are on a
defense against terrorists. But the
Administration would certainly like to see
Turkey pull back and leave the terrorist
fighting to the U.S. military.
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LibertyNewsprint.
Ohio Debate Reactions
By Dave (Political Machine)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 11:05:00 PM
Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Republicans,
Barack Obama, 2008 President
This is the first Democratic debate I've
watched for awhile, and first let me say
how nice it is to watch a debate where all
the participants are relevant in the
discussion. No Ron Paul, no Chris Dodd,
no Duncan Hunter, etc.
Of course it makes the debates longer for
me to watch, as I rarely watch in real time
in order to fast forward through those guys
answers. I can't do that now.
Who won? Hands down Barack, but that's
no surprise. The buzz around the internets
this morning is that Tim Russert hit Hillary
hard on many questions while treating
Barack with kid gloves. That seems to be
what I saw, but I think it's also clear that
Hillary has invited that treatment with her
varying positions and way too clever no-
answer answers.
Typical of this sort of thing is her line on
NAFTA. Anyone who had a pulse during
the nineties knows that the Clintons were
pro-NAFTA and that position is one of the
few that earns them the "moderate" label. It
just so happens that NAFTA and free trade
doesn't sell so well in rust-belt Ohio, where
Democratic votes are predominant. Too bad
for Hillary, except now she's backing away
from her pro-NAFTA statements. That's all
well and good, but her whining about being
pressed on that point is unseemly. She's
been pro-NAFTA, it's in the public record,
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it's a fair issue for Barack and her
opponents.
Another awkward moment for Hillary came
in what will go down as the "first question
whine". This is when, for no apparent
reason, she ups and whines about always
getting the first question in debates. What
the hell? Why is that relevant? Even if true,
what purpose was served in complaining
about it, out loud and in public? It just
served to reinforce the perception she has
grown shrill and whiny.
This is even worse now that she is up only
against Barack, who is the embodiment of
cool in a debate situation. To be fair to her,
he is really hard to hit. For the John
McCain staff watching and mapping out a
Barack gameplan, Hillary is giving them
nothing except how not to debate Barack.
Go the high road, and you land no punches,
especially if you're down. Go the low road
and you just look desperate and pathetic.
Who won? Barack. It was no contest.
Hillary needed to change the tempo of the
race and stop Barack's momentum. She
absolutely did not do that. At this point she
is still leading in the polls but Obama has
narrowed to within single digits in some
polls in Ohio. He could deliver a knockout
in Ohio and end this race early. That seems
more likely now.
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2 Politics *
Poll Shows Ray of Light for McCain
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:00:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, John McCain,
2008 President, PollsAccording to the LA
Times, a new poll indicates some surprising
advantages for John McCain over the
Democratic candidates with regard to
public opinion. The LA Times/Bloomberg
poll shows McCain with advantages on
"leadership", handling Iraq, and the
economy. Some choice cuts from the story:
The findings underscore the difficulties
ahead for Democrats as they hope to retake
the White House during a time of war, with
voters giving McCain far higher marks
when it comes to experience, fighting
terrorism and dealing with the situation in
Iraq.
In head-to-head contests, the poll found,
McCain leads Clinton by 6 percentage
points (46% to 40%) and Obama by 2
points (44% to 42%). Neither lead is
commanding given that the survey,
conducted Feb. 21-25, has a margin of error
of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Even though McCain has joked about his
lack of expertise on economic issues, voters
picked him over Obama, 42% to 34%, as
being best able to handle the economy.
However, Clinton led McCain on that issue,
43% to 34%.
The story also has McCain winning the
Fear vote. Literally. Bob Fear is going to
vote for him: "I just think he's older, he's
more experienced, and he's got the
betterment of the country in mind," said
Robert Fear, 79, a registered Democrat
from Newton, Ill., who said he planned to
support McCain in November.How good is
this news for McCain, and conversely, how
bad for the Democrats? Brief analysis to
follow.
There's a lot of cognitive dissonance in this
poll, and McCain needs to figure out how
to innoculate his advantages against that.
On Iraq, for instance, he polls ahead of the
Democrats, despite overwhelming public
opposition to the war. Within the poll, he
has a sizeable margin over the Dems on the
"strongest leader" question, yet trails badly
when it comes to having the ability to make
changes in Washington. On the economy,
as the story states, McCain will be
campaigning against himself. His head-to-
head margin against Obama is very slim,
within the margin of error. With the
Democrats still settling on a nominee, they
haven't begun to campaign against McCain
in earnest, so now is the time to address
these issues.
The war in Iraq is a key vulnerability for
McCain, but a shift to a more flexible
outlook by McCain would help him a lot.
He needs to figure out a way to step back
from the "100 years" statement, while
maintaining message integrity. He needs to
show a light at the end of the tunnel.
On the economy, his best strategy is to
surround himself with credible, preferably
bipartisan, advisers. McCain will be
battling for independent and conservative
Democratic votes, and a lot of his appeal
with them has to do with the perception,
real or not, that he puts principles over
party.
Maintaining his lead over Obama will be
difficult, as negative campaigning hasn't
seemed to work on him. His biggest
advantage is in the "strongest leader"
category, so he needs to buttress that, while
avoiding the temptation to trash Obama on
that count. The two are in a near-total
deadlock in favorability, at 61% each, with
bipartisan support about equal. The same is
true of "honesty and integrity." With these
two candidates going after the same voters,
who like both of them, a negative campaign
seems like a really bad idea.
A great way around this is the "apolattack",
showcased in yesterday's denunciation by
McCain of comments by a radio host at a
McCain event. Whether deliberate or not,
McCain gets a powerful double-dip here. In
apologizing, he gets to repeat the charge, or
get the media to, and he looks like a good
guy for "taking responsibility", a phrase
that used to mean you would accept some
sort of consequence. Hillary Clinton has
used this to lesser effect, but McCain is
more believable. He can only go to this
well a few times, though, so he should use
this judiciously.
What he should not do is take Mark
Halperin's advice: (sorry, analysis):
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Things McCain can do when running
against Obama that Clinton has been unable
to do well or at all:
1. Play the national security card without
hesitation.
2. Talk about the Iraq War without
apologies or perceived contradiction.
3. Go at Obama unambiguously from the
right.
4. Encourage interest groups, bloggers, and
right-leaning media to explore Obama's
past.
5. Make an issue of Obama's acknowledged
drug use.
6. Allow some supporters to risk being
accused of using the race card when
criticizing Obama.
7. Exploit Michelle Obama's mistakes and
address her controversial remarks with
unrestricted censure.
8. Play dirty without alienating his party.
9. Dismiss Obama's brief national tenure
from his own lofty platform of decades in
the Senate - there will be no ambiguity
about who has more experience as
conventionally defined.
10. Use his sterling war record to reinforce
his image of patriotism and valor - and
contrast it with his opponent's.
11. Emphasize Barack Hussein Obama's
unusual name and exotic background
through a Manchurian Candidate prism.
12. Employ third party groups like the
NRA to hit Obama on issues that might
turn off general election voters. Perhaps an
ad such as this will run in Ohio: "So, what
do you really know about Barack Obama?
Did you know he supports meeting with the
head of terrorist states? Do you know he
wants to get rid of your right to own a
handgun? Do you know he is calling for the
repeal of the law preventing gay marriage?
Do you know he is for a trillion-dollar tax
increase? What do you really know about
POLL page 4
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Democratic Debate: Obama Wins Fixed Fight
By Tommy Christopher (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 4:28:00 PM
Filed under: Hillary Clinton, Democrats,
Barack Obama, DebatesAt tonight's
Democratic Presidential debate, possibly
the last one, Hillary Clinton needed a
knockout against Barack Obama to reverse
the downward momentum of her campaign.
She ended up fending off the moderators
more than her opponent. In between, she
failed to deliver on the radiant promise of
the last debate, while also landing a few
blows.
Once again an obviously scripted joke fell
flatter than Mike Huckabee's globe, but this
time, she had a real point there. Brian
Williams, and particularly Tim Russert,
gave Hillary a George Foreman-style
grilling, while Obama received only a quick
saute'.
However, even absent the moderating
inequity, Hillary's performance did little to
change the perception that her campaign is
flagging. After the jump, a quick look at
some key moments, including an
extraordinary commercial break.
Hillary set the tone early by complaining
anew about Obama's healthcare mailer and
his criticism of her positions on NAFTA,
which is fine, except she characterized as
"attacks" what were merely legitimate
policy differences. Obama scored here by
pointing out Clinton's own campaign tactics
and saying he wasn't going to "whine"
about them.
The healthcare question was remarkable in
that the candidates went 4 or 5 rounds on
that issue alone. Hillary tried to score by
prolonging the question, saying, "This is
too important...", but the moment was a
replay from the last debate, lacking
spontaneity. Although she is stronger on
the substance of this issue, Obama
countered effectively, and she came off a
Hitachi and Canon finalize paperwork on LCD partnership
By Richard Lawler (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:06:00 AM
Filed under: Displays, HDTVCompleting
the final segment of the three-way Hitachi /
little bit desperate.
Then came the awkward SNL line. It was
obviously crafted in advance, to be dropped
in at the appropriate moment. She picked
on the fact that she was being asked the
questions first, a pretty weak point, and the
crowd reacted with murmurs and a muted
jeer or two.
Ironically, the line would have scored big
had she waited a minute, as Tim Russert
launched into a blistering critique of her
statements on NAFTA. She countered
effectively by explaining, very naturally,
the nuances and context of her NAFTA
record, and Russert went back at her not
once, not twice, but three times.
This is Russert's MO, to eschew substance
in favor of "Gotcha!" word games. Both
candidates felt the sting of Russert's wet
noodles, but Hillary was clearly on the
wrong end of that scale. These were her
strongest moments, where she most often
shied away from scripted talking points and
just worked on her feet.
A great example was Russert waving
Hillary's "Economic Blueprint", and trying
to get her to backpedal on job creation in
the context of net job losses in New York
State. She correctly pointed out that her
predictions for the state were predicated on
a Gore presidency and a national
Democratic agenda.
She missed the opportunity again to
modulate her comments on Obama's
readiness as Commander in Chief, or to
take ownership of it, again deflecting to her
own bona fides.
Russert is also a serial interrupter, but
clearly used the tactic more sharply and
frequently on Clinton. Perhaps the SNL
comment unleashed a peevishness in the
moderators. He then began to engage in
Panasonic / Canon LCD mashup, Hitachi &
Canon have finalized paperwork on the
deal. Canon will take its 24.9% piece of
Hitachi Displays, Ltd, pending regulatory
approval, which should pave the way for
silly foreign policy hypotheticals, and both
candidates affected a reasoned tone that
underscored the absurdity of asking a
Presidential candidate, "Pop quiz,
Hotshot..."
At one point, Hillary tried to respond to
Obama, and Brian Williams and she had a
near shouting match, as Williams tried to
explain the "hard break" to her. It is hard to
believe that there is no mechanism to
forewarn the candidates, like they have at, I
don't know, every comedy club, or that a
pro like Hillary wouldn't have known it.
plenty of sweet IPS-enabled panels and
Politics * Tech Gadgets *
Coming back from the break, Hillary was
helped back into her seat by a stagehand,
and I could swear I heard her say, "Cut me,
Mick, cut me!"
Obama scored big when they played the
"Celestial Choir" clip (by "mistake"), and
remarked with aplomb, "Sounds good!"
Russert did launch into a couple of
ridiculous "Gotcha's" on Obama, along the
lines of, "Farrakhan endorsed you, your
pastor likes Farrakhan, doesn't that then
mean you have Cooties?"
Obama answered well, but Hillary went
maybe even some OLED action in the
future if anyone feels up to it. The specifics
are in the read link as usual, we'll judge the
wisdom of this partnership when there's a
new HDTV on the shelf.
3
back at him and forced him to reject
Farrakhan's endorsement, an unusual
surrender for one of these debates.
These two candidates agree on much of the
substance, so much of these debates rest on
the perception game. Obama was cool and
confident, while Hillary was clearly
pressing. The only silver lining here is the
possibility that the moderators' unbalanced
pressure on Hillary engenders support for
her, a thin hope indeed.
Update: TFitz, I saw you on the preview,
hope you make it here. I keep missing my
regulars. Just know that I do read all of the
comments eventually. Thee have just been
a lot lately.
Everyone, please keep in mind, this type of
debate analysis has only a small part to do
with policy issues and debating skill. The
substance of these candidates was
hammered out long ago, in the first 15
debates. Now, the thing that matters most is
where the debate moves the voters. In that
context, Obama is the clear winner, as I
didn't see the punch from Hillary that
would stop Obama in his tracks.
Having said that, I hope that the media and
the anti-Hillary voting public do some soul-
searching on where this level of hostility
comes from. It ain't healthy.
There you are, Tom! Yeah, Hillary really
needed to blow Barack out of the water.
Still, the moderators' behavior really has
me wondering if this could still help her.
We'll know more tomorrow, if that
becomes the story. It was pretty stark to
me. Yourmarketedge, Russert's NAFTA
litany was prepared and unprovoked.
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4 Politics * Business *
Bush's Faith-Based 'Silent Revolution'
By Justin Paulette (Political Machine)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:02:00 AM
Filed under: President Bush, Featured
Stories, Religion
President Bush recently hailed the efforts of
"America's armies of compassion,"
celebrating 7 years of service under his
Faith-Based and Community Initiative. The
program ended years of blatant
discrimination against religious groups,
which President Clinton had barred from
even competing for federal projects.
The occasion raises the question of
charitable giving, and the dispersions cast
about in political circles regarding concern
for the poor. Liberal have a propensity for
claiming greater concern for the needy,
branding conservatives as corporate misers
unconcerned with the lower classes.
The truth is quite the opposite.
Take, for example, the Catalogue for
Philanthropy's Generosity Index, which
ranks states by charitable contributions as a
percentage of annual income. ("Generosity
is not just how much you give, but how
much you give in relation to how much you
have.") The states, ranked by generosity,
Organ Harvesting Doc On Trial
By Eric Schulzke (Political Machine)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:56:00 AM
Filed under: AbortionWhere is the line
between humanitarian and inhuman? A
surgeon in California is on trial for
administering a deadly drug to a fatally ill
handicapped man in order to get him to die
more quickly so that they could harvest his
organs while they were still useful. His
lawyer thinks he did nothing wrong:
The doctor's lawyer, M. Gerald
Schwartzbach, said that Roozrokh, 34, who
moved to Wisconsin from Iran when he
was a toddler and excelled as a collegiate
swimmer, did "nothing that adversely
affected the quality or length" of Navarro's
life.The man is not innocent. He admits
have then been colored according to
whether they voted for Bush (red) or Kerry
(blue) in the last election. The results: The
25 most generous states are all red.
Next, let's take a look at Forbes' 10 Largest
Charities By Revenue:
1. Mayo Clinic
2. Salvation Army
3. YMCAs in the United States
4. United Way
5. Cleveland Clinic Foundation
6. American National Red Cross
7. Catholic Charities USA
8. New York-Presbyterian Hospital
9. Goodwill Industries International
10. The Arc of the United States
having administered a deadly drug with
intent to kill, in clear violation of the
Hippocratic oath. Thus, the Kevorkian logic
takes its next fully predictable turn of the
screw. Handicapped advocates had fought
voluntary suicide laws because the line
between right to die and duty to die would
never hold. As soon as it is OK to take
yourself out when you find yourself a pain
in the butt, the next step is that someone
else will feel entitled to reach the same
conclusion.
And they will cloak it in humanitarian
logic. These resources -- your organs -- will
be better devoted to someone who can
better use them. The greatest good for the
greatest number. The harsh, inhuman
utilitarian logic.
Seven of the top ten charities are religiously
-oriented. And Catholic Charities, for
example, is only the domestic arm of the
U.S. Catholic Church's charitable mission -
Catholic Relief Services (a bit lower on the
list) is the Church's principle foreign
charity. Further, these religious charities
spend extremely well. Catholic Charities
gets nearly 90% of its funds directly to
those in need (only 10% overhead and
expenses).
The link between the greater generosity and
conservative religiosity of "red states" is
obvious - as is the dominance of religious
organizations among the largest charities.
Claims that liberals are more concerned
with the poor than conservatives ring
hollow in light of the facts. Perhaps the
former group is too busy talking about its
righteousness - and waiting for the
government to institute a tax-funded charity
- to actually bother performing charitable
acts. Conservatives and people of faith
should be proud (yet humble, of course) of
their good deeds.
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The slippery slope of the abortion logic is
in play here. And it's not just found in
hospitals with doctors. It's also found in the
most prestige universities. Take Peter
Singer, the "bioethicist" at Princeton, who
believes that infants are not fully human
because they lack self-awareness: "I do not
think it is always wrong to kill an innocent
human being," and "Simply killing an
infant is never equivalent to killing a
person."
The controversy has the organ donation
community flummoxed:
David Fleming, the executive director of
Donate Life America, a nonprofit group
that promotes donations, said the case had
"given some support to the myths and
POLL
continued from page 2
Barack Obama?"
13. Face an electorate less consumed with
"change change change" (the main priority
for Democratic voters) and keenly
interested in "ready from day one" as an
equally important ideal.
14. Link biography (experience/courage)
and leadership (straight talk) to a vision
animated by detail - accentuating Obama's
relative lack of specificity.
15. Give Obama his first real race against a
credible Republican. (Clinton has always
asserted that Obama would wilt before a
fierce Republican assault.) 16. Confront
Obama with a united, focused campaign
absent of second-guessing, which hits the
same themes and message every day.
misperceptions we spend an inordinate
amount of time telling people won't
happen."
Yeah, well, when you spend an inordinate
amount of time explaining a myth that
people in their gut know is entirely possible
unless stiff ethical barriers are in place, and
you see society all around you busily
disassembling those barriers, it does get a
little tough.
Once Nietszsche declared that "God is
dead" it was, I suppose, inevitable that the
little punks He created would promote
themselves to fill the vacancy.
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Your Click and Print Newspaper
Note: This is analysis, not advice.
One final thought: Obama needs to think
seriously about choosing Hillary as his
running mate. While gender has not proven
to be a positive in making up voters' minds,
a perception of "history denied", coupled
with McCain's high approval with women,
could be a strong negative for Obama.
Anything less than the so-called "Dream
Ticket" could end up being a nightmare for
the Democrats.
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Option update:
Apple (AAPL)
volatility low
By Paul Foster (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:14:00 AM
Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL),
International Business Machines (IBM),
Options
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is recently
trading up 12 cents to $119.29. AAPL has a
market cap of $104 billion with zero long-
term debt and $18.4 billion in cash and
short term investments.
AAPL has been subject to unconfirmed
stock buyback chatter after IBM (NYSE:
IBM) announced an additional $15 billion
buyback on Feb. 26. AAPL March option
implied volatility of 42 is below its 26-
week average of 47 according to Track
Data, suggesting decreasing price
movement.
Option Update is provided by Stock
Specialist Paul Foster of
theflyonthewall.com
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Your Click and Print Newspaper
Hold Your Nose and Vote
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:06:00 AM
Filed under: Democrats, Republicans,
Featured Stories, HumorBy now, the
inevitable might just be finally sinking into
the minds of those who have supported a
candidate who did not win the presidential
nomination. As the prospective field has
winnowed down, and we prepare to fix our
gaze on a single standard bearer for each
party, many Americans whose first choice
did not make the cut are steeling
themselves. Soon, it will be time to Hold
Your Nose and Vote.
Conservatives, especially the outspoken
pundit variety, are at wits end with John
McCain. His perceived betrayal of their
core principles leave them with a dilemma.
Who should they hold their nose and vote
for, exactly? While some will jump the
fence and pull a Democratic lever for the
first time, others will, for what they see as
the good of the country, stick with the vows
Obama's Church Gets an Audit
By Justin Paulette (Political Machine)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:11:00 AM
Filed under: Barack Obama, Religion
The IRS is apparently nosing around
Obama's church - not because the pastor
under-declared the coins in their coffers,
but because a speech by the Democratic
candidate delivered at the pulpit may have
violated federal law. Churches, considered
non-profit organizations under federal tax
codes, are not permitted to endorse or
support political candidates at the risk of
Bill Cunningham, Legend
By David Knowles (Political
Machine)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 12:28:00 AM
Filed under: Republicans, Barack Obama,
John McCain, Featured StoriesHey, here's a
surprise. Sean Hannity loves fellow right-
wing radio firebrand Bill Cunningham. The
latter is a frequent guest on the former's
show, after all. So neither Hannity, or co-
they made to the R's, till death do they part.
Others may adopt a policy of abstinence. A
pox on both houses.
The hotly contested Democratic race has
yielded an unusual animosity between the
supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack
fine or lose of tax-exempt status.
Obama's church apparently attempted to
jump through hoops in order to avoid this
very occurrence - lawyers were consulted,
disclaimers were announced, leaflets were
prohibited. And yet, a church-member
speaking in his own church about his views
on politics has invoked the wrath of the
state.
This is a scenario that should never arise in
a nation which loves religious liberty. In
host Alan Colmes, is really surprised by the
vitriol Cunningham spewed at a John
McCain rally yesterday. McCain, on the
other hand, seems to have just woken up to
the fact that the man he asked to warm up
his audience in Ohio yesterday is, and
always has been, an idiot. But hey, you go
to war with the Army you've got. I guess
Gallagher was already booked. Have a look
Obama, with members of either camp
pledging to pinch nostrils together and vote
Republican should their candidate ascend to
the nomination. This spiteful temper-
tantrum would seem to be illogical, given
that the two Dems. are so much more alike
than they are different. Then again, when
has sexism or racism ever been a product of
a logical mind?
Most of us, however, take a practical
approach. We know that voting in America
is not about compiling a check-list of
demands and only approving the person
who adheres to each one. Our two-party
system forever leaves us with regrets, but
that's OK. If we can't always get what we
want, we'll settle for the next best thing,
even if it requires a bit of nasal
realignment.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs |
Comments
1819, John Marshall recognized, "The
power to tax involved the power to
destroy." Religious institutions should not
at the woeful state of conservative punditry.
One wonders: Why was Cunningham asked
to speak at the McCain rally in the first
place? It's not as if the guy doesn't have a
history of making blatantly false, offensive
remarks about Obama. It's like telling
I love this guy
Moonves: Pilots are
'vastly overrated'
By Steven Mallas (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:40:00 AM
Filed under: General Electric (GE), Time
Warner (TWX), Walt Disney (DIS),
Viacom (VIA), CBS Corp 'B' (CBS), News
Corp'B' (NWS)
So, I was checking out headlines on The
Hollywood Reporter'swebsite when I came
across an article that discussed CBS
(NYSE: CBS) CEO Leslie Moonves and
his comments regarding pilots and the TV
development process in general; these
comments were made during CBS' earnings
call. Moonves believes that developing a
network series is more expensive than it
needs to be, and he was quoted in the piece
as describing the generation of multimillion
dollar pilots as "vastly overrated." He said
that the writers' strike actually saved CBS
be curtailed in their freedom of expression
by secular speech-codes threatening
financial ruin. What interest has the
government in censoring what a pastor may
say to his congregation? The use of taxation
as a weapon by which to silence religious
opinion is both shameful and tyrannical.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs |
Comments
David Duke to go out and crack a few jokes
about Jews, and then feigning shock at the
result. If this is the "red meat" that
conservatives so badly crave, they face a
big reality check this November.
Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs |
Comments
Politics * Business * 5
Apple's iTunes set to
displace Wal-Mart as
largest music retailer in
U.S.
By Brian White (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:10:00 AM
Filed under: Products and services,
Competitive strategy, Apple Inc (AAPL),
Wal-Mart (WMT), Target Corp. (TGT),
Best Buy (BBY)Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
(NYSE: WMT) is the world's largest
retailer, and the largest U.S. retailer of
music. The retailer sells more CDs than
anyone, but that dominance is being
threatened in a paradigm shift that's been
coming for years now: the digital
download.
Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s iTunes
online music, video and movie store will
likely surpass Wal-Mart as the largest
music seller in the U.S. without a single
physical product being sold some time this
year. Research group NPD estimates that
iTunes has moved past discount retailer
Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and consumer
electronics retailer Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE:
BBY)
"Digital sales were up close to 50% and CD
sales were down 20 % last year ... even at
half that growth rate in digital sales, Apple
will in all likelihood catch Wal-Mart this
year," according to NPD. As has been
predicted for quite a long time, the CD,
while still popular, is slowly fading away,
although the transition to an all-digital
music future in the U.S. is far from
complete.
But, it's happening -- and with teens leading
the way (but not owning credit cards in
most cases), online music retailers need to
make it easier for core customer groups to
buy online. If every 15 year-old can go
online and buy music without a credit card
in the future, the transition will only see
more speed.Read | Permalink | Email this |
Comments
6 Business *
LOVE
continued from page 5
about $70 million. And, he seems to
question the correlation between expensive
sums thrown into the development of a
series and the odds of success.
All I can say is -- thank you! Finally, the
religion is starting to spread (I hope). It's
not popular to state this, but I just don't
think media companies such as Disney
(NYSE: DIS), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS),
Viacom (NYSE: VIA) and Time Warner
(NYSE: TWX) need to bid up the
compensation of talent to be effective at
assembling a valuable library of
entertainment product. Let's face it -- we've
always known that big salaries for stars
and/or an expensive development process
never guaranteed a good return on invested
capital on an entertainment project -- there
are just too many variables, too many
vagaries involved in the acceptance or
rejection of a project by the public at large.
I truly hope that CBS, Fox, ABC, General
Microsoft may have to up Yahoo!'s bid due
to Asia holdings
By Douglas McIntyre
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:35:00 AM
Filed under: Deals, Competitive strategy,
Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT),
Yahoo! (YHOO), China, Japan
Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) may have a
better foothold in Asia than any other large
internet company. This is driven by its
holdings in Yahoo! Japan and Chinese e-
commerce company Alibaba. According
toThe Wall Street Journal, "Depending on
how their value is calculated, the stakes
account for $9 billion to $14 billion of
Yahoo's value."
Electric (NYSE: GE)'s NBC, and the CW
start to cut development costs as
aggressively as possible following the
lessons learned from the writers' strike.
I'm not holding my breath, however. I
know that whatever lessons have been
learned will be forgotten soon enough.
Shareholders in media companies need to
pressure their CEOs into reducing costs
spent on the creation of entertainment.
Execs like Moonves should have had the
guts to call pilots overrated a long time ago;
I don't think a writers' strike was necessary
to bring this issue to the forefront. Please,
don't forget your current sentiment -- a lot
of shareholders are counting on you.
Disclosure: I own shares in Disney and
General Electric. Read | Read | Permalink |
Email this | Comments
The valuations are old news. What is not so
old is that it is dawning on Microsoft
(NASDAQ: MSFT) that having Asian
allies may help the company fight off
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) in the fast-
growing markets of the Far East. It is
something that the world's largest software
company does not have now.
The Yahoo! board has a unique opportunity
to talk the strategic value of these holding
Ford: No more middle-class
wages -- shooting itself in the
foot?
By Michael Rainey (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:22:00 AM
Filed under: Industry, Ford Motor (F),
EmployeesFord Motor (NYSE: F) is
pulling out all the stops to entice more of its
workers to leave the company. According
to a piece in The New York Times, the
automaker is using DVDs and glossy
brochures to pitch its buyout packages,
which range from free college tuition for
entire families to cash payments of
$140,000.
Ford has eliminated 32,000 jobs in the last
two years, and plans to cut more. But it's
not just jobs that it's getting rid of. The real
target is more troubling: middle-class
wages. As the Times puts it, Ford is a
company "that long offered middle-class
wages for blue-collar jobs." That deal is
now coming to an end. Many of the
workers who leave will be replaced by new
workers making much lower wages,
roughly $14 an hour. And $14 an hour is
not a middle-class wage.
up with shareholders in public and with
Microsoft in private. The prevailing
wisdom is that Yahoo! has no alternate
other than to sell to Redmond, and that the
price is the issue. Yahoo! management
should be saying that the Microsoft bid
does not take into account the value of
having powerful partners in Japan and
China and that these are worth several more
dollars a share.
It is an argument that has the benefit of
being true.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at
27wallst.com. Read | Permalink | Email this
| Comments
Ford played a central role in creating an
American working class that could afford
to participate in the economic life of the
country. Ford's famous $5 a day for his
factory workers was not altruistic. It was
intended to create a much broader range of
consumers who could afford to buy Ford
cars and trucks. Henry Ford understood that
the expansion of his company and the
industry required relatively high-earning
workers.
Continue reading Ford: No more middle-
class wages -- shooting itself in the
foot?Read | Permalink | Email this |
Comments
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Income expert focuses
on 'partnership' profits
in energy
By Steven Halpern (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:48:00 AM
Filed under: Newsletters, Commodities,
Oil, Stocks to Buy
"We don't have to leave the US to find
plenty of bargain buys in partnerships and
pass-throughs," says Neil George in his
new specialty service designed for income
investors, The Partnership Letter.
In his search for "solid, heavy-cash-
generating assets," the advisor takes a look
at two of his new portfolio holdings, Kinder
Morgan Energy Partners (NYSE: KMP)
and Kinder Morgan Management (NYSE:
KMR).
"Right now plenty of partnerships and pass-
through entities in the US and around the
world are down in price. The real work
comes in finding and buying partnerships
that have solid, heavy-cash-generating
assets that make for bargains.
"And they need to pass two other tests. The
first is that they need to be financially
sustainable. With the ongoing credit
crunch, partnerships we own need to be
able to carry themselves without having to
face a cash crunch.
"The second test is one of business
sustainability: Can the operation behind the
partnership keep running and expanding
even if the global economy slows? are
widely held by investors. And though
neither has been relegated to the bargain,
both represent solid deals.
Continue reading Income expert focuses on
'partnership' profits in energyPermalink |
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Your Click and Print Newspaper
Analyst downgrades: Golar LNG, Analyst upgrades: Overseas
Yingli Green Energy, Bill Barrett Shipholding, Tenet Healthcare,
Corp. Luxottica
By Eric Buscemi (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:52:00 AM
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst
upgrades and downgradesMOST
NOTEWORTHY: Golar LNG, Yingli
Green Energy and Bill Barrett were today's
noteworthy downgrades:
• Jefferies downgraded shares of Golar
LNG (NASDAQ: GLNG) to Hold from
Buy on valuation, as they see limited
upside over the next 12 months.
• Banc of America downgraded shares of
Yingli Green Energy (NYSE: YGE) to
Neutral from Buy on difficult
fundamentals, as they believe solar industry
gross margins will continue to contract due
to silicon competition and decelerating
Honda (HMC) see no U.S.
recession
By Douglas McIntyre
(BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:01:00 AM
Filed under: Forecasts, Good news,
Economic data, Recession
Almost every man, woman and child in the
U.S. thinks the country is in a recession or
heading for one. The head of Honda
(NYSE: HMC) disagrees. "It's true that our
sales are falling in Florida and California,
but we're recording our best-ever sales in
the East Coast and Midwest," Chief
Executive Officer Takeo Fukui told a news
conference according to Reuters.
Odd as it may seem, he could be right.
Honda sells about 1.4 million cars in the
U.S., so the company should have a fairly
demand in Spain and Germany.
• SunTrust lowered Bill Barrett
Corporation (NYSE: BBG) to Neutral from
Buy based on valuation and lack of near-
term exploration catalysts.
OTHER DOWNGRADES:
• Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) was
lowered to Accumulate from Buy at
ThinkEquity.
• Goldman removed Oneok (NYSE: OKE)
from its Conviction Buy List.
• Merrill Lynch downgraded Boardwalk
Pipeline Partners (NYSE: BWP) to Sell
from Buy.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
good take on the market. The firm's CEO is
making the point that much of America is
still in relatively good shape while some of
the states hit hardest by the real estate
downturn may have "recessions" of their
own which may not spread into the
economy as a whole.
Honda also has the unique perspective of
dealing with the "value" buyer who looks
for reasonably priced products. Honda cars
have a reputation for fairly low price
points, few defects and high mileage.
A recession that only hits certain regions?
Let's hope Honda is right.
Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at
247wallst.com. Read | Permalink | Email
this | Comments
By Eric Buscemi (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:32:00 AM
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst
upgrades and downgrades, Luxottica Group
ADS (LUX)MOST NOTEWORTHY:
Overseas Shipholding, Tenet Healthcare
and Luxottica were today's noteworthy
upgrades:
• Bear upgraded Overseas Shipholding
Group (NYSE: OSG) to Outperform from
Peer Perform following its Q4 results,
citing seasonal strength.
• Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) was
upgraded to Hold from Underperform at
Jefferies after quarterly operating trends
showed signs of stabilization.
January new home sales fall 2.8%
to 588k annual rate, below
estimate
By Joseph Lazzaro (BloggingStocks)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:19:00 AM
Filed under: Bad news, Economic data,
Housing, RecessionSales of new homes fell
2.8% to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of
588,000 in January 2008, the U.S.
Commerce Department announced
Wednesday (pdf). Economists surveyed by
Bloomberg had expected a seasonally
adjusted rate of 600,000.
Meanwhile, the December 2007 seasonally-
adjusted total was revised to 605,000.
The median sales price of new houses sold
in January 2008 fell 4.3% to $216,000; the
average sales price rose 0.7% to $276,600.
In addition, the seasonally-adjusted
estimate of new houses for sale at the end
of January 2008 was 482,000 --
representing a 9.9-month supply at current
the current sales rate.
Economist Steve Affinito told
BloggingStocks Wednesday the January
Business * Tech Gadgets *
• Goldman raised Luxottica Group (NYSE:
LUX) to Buy from Neutral and added
shares to their Conviction Buy List as they
find the valuation attractive at current
levels.
OTHER UPGRADES:
• UBS raised Telefonica (NYSE: TEF) to
Buy from Neutral.
• Goldman added El Paso Pipeline Partners
(NYSE: EPB) to its Conviction Buy List.
• Royal Ahold (OTC: AHONY) was
upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Merrill
Lynch.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
2008 new home sales data is in-line with
earlier data on existing home sales,
indicating that the housing slump is far
from over.
Continue reading January new home sales
fall 2.8% to 588k annual rate, below
estimatePermalink | Email this | Comments
7
Microsoft slammed by
European Commission
with $1.35b fine
By Joshua Topolsky (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 12:24:00 AM
Filed under: Desktops, LaptopsIt's a good
thing Microsoft has tons and tons of
money, because they keep finding
themselves in a position where they've got
to pay out -- big time. Such is the case
today, where the European Commission has
fined the monolithic company €899 million
(or $1.35 billion) due to failure to comply
with a 2004 ruling on monopolistic
business practices. The Commission found
that the folks in Redmond had been guilty
of -- gasp! -- freezing out competition by
not providing "vital information" to rival
software companies. This isn't the first time
it's had to pay, as the company already
dropped $357 million on the case back in
2006. "Microsoft was the first company in
50 years of EU competition policy that the
Commission has had to fine for failure to
comply with an antitrust decision," said
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes.
Perhaps Ballmer and co. saw this one
coming when they went "open" last week,
though we're fairly confident this kind of
fine carries only the slightest sting for the
software giant.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
8 Tech Gadgets *
Vista Capable sticker lawsuit gets
class-action status
By Donald Melanson (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:49:00 AM
Filed under: Desktops, LaptopsIt looks like
that little lawsuit over "Vista Capable"
stickers on PCs could now be about to get
quite a bit bigger, as a federal judge has
now bestowed class-action status on the
suit, which accuses Microsoft of misleading
marketing. More specifically, as the AP
reports, the suit alleges that the "Vista
Capable" stickers slapped on PCs during
the 2006 holiday season created an
"artificial demand" for the computers, and
"inflated prices for computers that couldn't
be upgraded to the full-featured version of
Vista." As we've seen, those stickers even
took in at least one higher-up at Microsoft
itself, who has made his thoughts on the
program quite well known. While things
are still obviously in the early stages, the
law firm that filed the suit is now looking
for others that feel they've been burned by
MSI intros "anion" laptop, power
saving Turbo Battery Technology
By Joshua Topolsky (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:56:00 AM
Filed under: LaptopsIt looks like MSI has
some big plans for CeBIT, if the company's
latest news is any indication. The computer
-maker is gearing up for two innovative
new laptops, both of which are part of its
ECOlution "green" line of systems. The
first model will bizarrely feature a high
concentration of anions -- negatively
charged ions which the company believes
will "enhance the body's condition,
promote nervous stability and recovery
from fatigue, and encourage circulation of
halted blood." The second, less magical
entry from MSI comes in the form of the
GX600-08 laptop, which utilizes a new
battery design intended to extend life up to
20% by engaging a "Turbo Battery Mode"
which automatically adjusts the system's
the stickers, and ComputerWorld has the
details on you can get involved at the link
below.
[Via ComputerWorld]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
workload to conserve power. We'll
undoubtedly be hearing more about these
from CeBIT, so keep your eyes peeled.
[Via Fareastgizmos]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
E-book concept combines leather
and multi-touch
By Joshua Topolsky (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:28:00 AM
Filed under: Handhelds
It's likely that the Kindle's popularity is
going to spawn a whole slew of e-books
vying for the eyes of readers. A concept
from a student named Nedzad Mujcinovic
at Monash University could very well stoke
the fires of competition if his Livre ever
makes it to store shelves. The system uses
an e-ink screen overlaid with a touch
surface, thus forgoing the multitudinous
buttons of the Kindle for an ultra-simple,
gesture-based input scheme. Pages can be
turned by sliding your finger from corner to
corner, though double- and triple-finger
gestures will advance the book by ten and
50 pages, respectively. Most notable for
real book fans is the inclusion of a leather
stitched cover, meant to evoke the look and
feel of the device's analog counterpart.
Amazon's designers would be wise to, uh...
take a page from Nedzad's book for the
Kindle 2.
[Thanks, Nick B.]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Sony and Samsung
may expand LCD
partnership
By Richard Lawler (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 11:55:00 PM
Filed under: HDTV
Despite Samsung's solo expansion plans
and Sony's alliance with Sharp, the two are
not only maintaining their current 8th-
generation LCD line, but may build another
one, and a new plant after that. A source
within Samsung told Reuters of the almost-
final plans for a second 8G line from S-
LCD, and the possibility that Samsung will
cut Sony in on its 10th-generation facility,
much like the one its already partnering
with Sharp on. Like Sharp, Samsung likely
wants to be sure someone will buy all those
flat panels once the line is running, and
Sony can make sure its got a cheap source
to stay competitive on prices when
competition will be even higher in 2010.
The only thing we can be sure of is it will
be nearly impossible to tell who really
made that flat panel hanging on your wall,
no matter what brand name it says.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Everex Cloudbook teardown bares all
By Paul Miller (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:27:00 AM
Filed under: Laptops
What's more fun than seeing a highly-
anticipated device get the full-on dissection
treatment? Upgrading it, of course.
Cloudbooker forum member Azazel got a
Cloudbook to play with and is doing just
that: ripping apart the laptop piece by piece
for you viewing pleasure, while also
Poll: What's it going to take to make you buy a PS3?
By Paul Miller (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:25:00 AM
Filed under: Features, Gaming
Dare we say it, the tide is turning. With
some hot numbers projected for 2008, the
PS3 is seeing a lot of wins lately, most
notably that little format-war scuffle you
may have heard about. Now that we've
upgrading the RAM and documenting the
process. He's already spotted a way to add
Bluetooth internally, and how to open up
the laptop without voiding your warranty,
but we've still got a long ways to go before
we start to see Eee PC-level hackerdom.
Read - Part 1
Read - Part 2
Permalink | Email this | Comments
(finally) got wind of a release date for the
DualShock 3, and an SKU that includes
MGS4 sweetening the deal, the still-pricey
New MacBook Pros get dissected, look
like old MacBook Pros
By Joshua Topolsky (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 12:47:00 AM
Filed under: Laptops
We'd love to tell you that during
AnandTech's dissection of the "new"
MacBook Pros they made a shocking
discovery about the internals of the systems
that brought into light significant changes
and / or upgrades to the computers. We'd
PS3 is looking mighty alluring. So, what's
your story, what's it going to take?
View Poll
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Tech Gadgets * Social Net *
like nothing more then to say that it appears
Apple has completely reworked the
architecture of these machines to be harder,
better, faster, and stronger. But honestly?
They're exactly the same as the old models,
save for those little Penryns, and as a result,
kind of boring. Don't believe us? Take a
look at the photos -- you'll see.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Hotmail’s Weird Bug Keeps Users
Logged Off
By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 11:34:21 PM
Microsoft’s free email service Hotmail is
currently suffering from a bug that logs off
users and prevents them from logging into
the service again. Currently, this behavior
is affecting only a fraction of the userbase,
but the bug has not been fixed yet.
Microsoft spokeswoman Samantha
McManus said the following in a statement:
“The issue is purely impacting the login
process for customers and largely does not
impact customers who were already logged
9
Sony Centre UK
celebrates Blu-ray's
victory
By Richard Lawler (Engadget)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:59:00 AM
Filed under: HDTV
Engadget reader Raheem spotted this cheap
shot on the door of Sony Centre in London,
just in case anyone's not sure of the latest
developments in the high definition format
war. Ouch, still, they may want to fax that
over to Dreamworks Animation, cc: Jeffrey
Katzenberg. Check after the break for
another pic of the atrocity.
.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
in. We have made significant progress in
decreasing the number of customers
currently affected since initial reports, but
the issue has not yet been completely
resolved.”
As a consolation, McManus added that
Hotmail should be fully operational
“shortly,” whatever that means.
ShareThis
10 Technology * Your Click and Print Newspaper

Blog Network MyKinda May Be Pulling Rollbase PaaS Service To

A BlogNation - Writers Going Unpaid Launch, Invites For
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch) burning a lot of cash. €15-20k per month.
Submitted at 2/27/2008 12:06:32 AM

Anyone who watched the BlogNation

implosion last year certainly doesn’t want
to see a rerun of that particular debacle. But
there are worrying signs coming from
Romania-based blog network MyKinda that
suggest the young startup is facing some of
the same cash flow issues that plagued
BlogNation.
Like BlogNation, MyKinda is a network of
country-specific blogs. It’s somewhat
different in that the blogs are written in
local languages (BlogNation was all
English), and it covers a wider variety of
topics (BlogNation was tech news only,
MyKinda covers business, politics, culture,
lifestyle, science and tech/gadgets).
MyKinda launched blogs in Romania,
Russia, Bulgaria and the Ukraine.
The two networks have a common founder
in Lee Wilkins, although Wilkins left
BlogNation early on under allegedly
questionable circumstances (I wrote about
some of the issues here). As BlogNation’s
debts rose and funding failed to happen,
Wilkins started MyKinda to compete head
on.
The biggest issue with Blognation was that
writers went half a year or more without
pay, while being told by the company that
funding was imminent, or had already
happened. The funding never happened,
and the company folded in December.
Writers were owed, by some estimates, as
much as $200,000 in aggregate.
Now MyKinda is falling behind on
payments to writers too, although on a
much smaller scale. And to Wilkins credit,
he seems to be dealing with the problems in
a much more orderly fashion than
BlogNation did. He’s shut all but the
Romanian blogs, he says in a blog post.
And he promises to pay the writers of the
other blogs what they are owed - around
€11,500. In an email to me, he writes:
As you may know we launched Russia and
Bulgaria on Sept 16th ‘07. Unfortunately,
at the beginning of February, I decided to
close down RU & BG to focus efforts on
Romania, and because RU & BG were
Closing these two countries (along with
Ukraine) was very tough, as it dented plans.
I close them because I am bootstrapping
MyKinda alone by myself, and right now I
cannot keep it all going. I am not saying we
are heading to the deadpool. When closing
RU & BG, I occurred debts of approx €6k
for RU & €5k for BG. €500 for Ukraine.
The past month we have been going
through a little cost cutting here @ MK, as
we are generating alot of uniques/visitors.
And we are nothing like Blognation, the
debts occured for RU & BG were for
January 2008 until closing them in
February. I have never lied to my people,
maybe a little lack of communication yes,
but lying, no! I should’ve, in hindsight,
communicated earlier that I couldn’t keep
RU & BG going, but I had hopes of being
in a position to finance it myself. Right
now, I am in the process of making calls, to
get my people their money asap, as i
promised. I am not a thief, nor am i liar.
These people delivered for me, I will
deliver my promise to them.
More as this develops, but MyKinda is on
DeadPool watch.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoardbecause it’s
time for you to find a new Job2.0
TechCrunch Readers
By Duncan Riley (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 2:18:19 PM
Rollbase will tomorrow officially launch its
do-it-yourself, on-demand application
development and delivery platform offering
Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for users who
aren’t programming experts.
Rollbase can be used to design, develop
and deploy custom Web-based applications
using intuitive and interactive tools within a
web browser. It’s pitched as providing “an
easy to learn and flexible toolset in a rich
AJAX-based user experience” making
“web-based application development
possible for people who may not have the
time, resources or expertise to create on-
demand applications using traditional
software development methods.”
In laymen’s terms: it allows the rest of us to
design and customize business applications.
Rollbase components include
• wizards for creating database tables,
fields, relationships and other application
components
• interactive drag and drop page editor with
ability to embed any HTML, scripts or
widgets
• portal technology for building
sophisticated external-facing applications
that can be embedded in other Web sites
and Web-based applications
• workflow engine with automation, trigger
conditions and event queue management
• search engine with global full text search
and field-specific indexing control
• Conversion maps for seamless integration
between and among all Rollbase
applications
• Custom ad-hoc reporting, 2D and 3D
animated real-time charting
Rollbase operates in the same space as
Force.com, but Rollbase notes that it’s
designed for business users that don’t have
access to programmers or developers.
TechCrunch readers can click here to sign
up for a free 60 day trial account on
Rollbase.
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time for you to find a new Job2.0

Eurekster Debuts Improved Swicki Results Pages

By Mark Hendrickson (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 5:00:28 AM
Site-specific search provider Eurekster is
today releasing a new version of its Swicki
product that features a set community
features on its results and home pages.
The free Swicki search widget, used here
on TechCrunch in the right-hand column,
provides a cloud of popular search terms
and leads to a page with results voted on by
users and optionally collected from related
sites.
The new version attempts to bring even
more attention to the site-specific Swicki
community built around search. The
following components will now show up on
the results page: a summary of the most
recent comments (users can comment on
search results) and a list of the top Swicki
comment contributors. On the Swicki
homepage for a site (each site that adds the
search functionality also gets a community
overview homepage), you will now be able
to see the top voted search results, a list of
the most recent posts, and related RSS
feeds.
I’ve never been a huge fan of the Swicki
search we have here on TechCrunch, since
I prefer to see just a reverse chronological
list of the posts related to my search term,
not a list weighted by user votes. If you
search “facebook”, for example, the first
result comes from March 2006 and not
terribly relevant anymore.
However, I can understand why community
-based search is useful for less newsy sites,
such as the home repair example that
Eurekster has provided us to the left. For
standing resources such as this one, the
feedback of the community can be
particularly helpful for refining search
results, pushing the best to the top. Today’s
improvements should help to strengthen
that community and encourage
participation.CrunchBase
InformationEureksterInformation provided
by CrunchBase
Crunch Network: MobileCrunchMobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Make3D: Turn a 2D Picture
Into a 3D Model
By Duncan Riley (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:37:09 AM
Stanford University service Make3D
automatically converts a single picture into
a 3D model. We covered similar
technology from Fotowoosh in April 2007.
Make3D takes a two-dimensional image
and creates a three-dimensional fly around
model that includes depth and a range
views. Photos can be uploaded directly or
pulled into the site from Flickr.
The service is based on an algorithm
created by Stanford students Andrew Ng,
Ashutosh Saxena and Min Sun that won the
best paper award at the 3D recognition and
reconstruction workshop at the
International Conference on Computer
Vision in Rio de Janeiro in October 2007.
A January Stanford News Service piece
explains it some more:
…the algorithm breaks the image up into
tiny planes called “superpixels,” which are
within the image and have very uniform
color, brightness and other attributes. By
looking at a superpixel in concert with its
Facebook Gets More Orderly: Multi-Tab
For Profiles
By Michael Arrington (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 3:59:56 PM
Facebook has always had much cleaner,
less chaotic profile pages than “anything
goes” competitor MySpace (MySpace
continues to experiment with less chaotic
default themes). Facebook just seems to
like things to stay orderly and structured on
their site. But as users add dozens of
applications and other content to their
profiles, it’s becoming harder for friends to
quickly find basic information about you.
They recently allowed users to clean up
their own profiles. Today, they’re
announcing further changes - a multi-tab
profile that separates personal information,
wall posts and photos into separate pages.
neighbors, analyzing changes such as
gradations of texture, the algorithm makes a
judgment about how far it is from the
viewer and what its orientation in space is.
Unlike some previous algorithms, the
Stanford one can account for planes at any
angle, not just horizontal or vertical. This
allows it to create models for scenes that
have planes at many orientations, such as
the curved branches of trees or the slopes of
mountains.
The service is in the same space as
Microsoft Photosynth, but unlike
Microsoft’s more extensive product that
meshes many images together to create 3D
models, Make3D is a one image only
service. If you like, Make3D is Photosynth
for the common man, quick, simple, and
although the results don’t come close to
Photosynth, they are still very impressive.
A full gallery of Make3D renders can be
found here.
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Screen shots are below. One thing that’s
unclear, and that I’m trying to get more
information on, is whether wall posts have
now been combined with the news feed.
The screen shots suggest they have. Also,
I’m assuming the tabs are loaded with
Javascript, so the pages aren’t refreshing
every time a user clicks to a different area
of the profile, but I have not confirmed that
Microsoft Picks Up Israeli Ad-
Targetting Software Startup YaData for
a Reported $20 Million to $30 Million
By Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 8:58:10 AM
In other Microsoft news, the company
bought an Israeli startup today called
YaData, which makes analytic software for
marketers to help them micro-segment
consumers. (Redmond is not going to let a
little thing like a $1.4 billion fine slow it
down). The purchase price was
undisclosed, but Israeli newspaper The
Globes is reporting that the price is between
$20 million and $30 million.
YaData will be folded into Microsoft’s
Israeli R&D center in Herzliya, Israel and
its product will be sold through Microsoft’s
Advertiser and Publisher Solutions group.
Maybe this will help Microsoft do some of
that mysterious “engagement mapping” it’s
been talking about. From the press release:
YaData’s technology will enable Microsoft
to provide its advertisers with richer
targeting capabilities so they can connect
with their audience in more efficient and
engaging ways, at the same time providing
yet either.
Application developers aren’t going to like
the new layout because it looks like they no
longer appear on every profile page view -
viewers will have to click on a tab to see
the user’s installed applications. In a blog
post last Friday giving developers a heads
up on the upcoming changes, though, this
was spun as good news. We’ll see how they
react.
This is not being rolled out immediately.
Facebook has set up a Facebook Profiles
Previews group to track feedback and keep
interested users up to date.
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its customers more relevant and focused
ads.
YaData’s technology will be integrated into
Microsoft’s Advertiser and Publisher
Solutions group and will add advanced
behavioral targeting tools and capabilities
to Microsoft’s online advertising platform.
The addition of YaData’s technology will
help Microsoft’s efforts to improve
advertisers’ ROI and to provide more
focused and relevant advertising, tailored to
specific client needs.
The company, which was founded in 2005,
raised a $4 million series A financing from
Giza Venture Capital and Ofer Hi-tech.
And back in 2006—you’ve got to love
this—it raised a seed round from Oracle.
Larry Ellison, the check from Microsoft is
in the mail.CrunchBase
InformationYaDataInformation provided
by CrunchBase
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over
the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Technology * 11
Zoho Writer Gets An
Update—More Than One
Million Documents Served
By Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 7:40:37 AM
Web-based word processors keep closing
the gap with Microsoft Office. Since its
launch, Zoho now has 650,000 users, a 30
percent increase from just last November,
the company tells us. It is doing 2 million
user sessions per month. And its users have
created more than one million documents
on Zoho Writer (1.6 million, if you include
its online presentation and spreadsheet
products, Zoho Show and Zoho Sheets).
Today, Zoho released an update to Zoho
Writer that includes:
Docx Suppor—the ability to export
documents in the new docx Word file
format (this is in addition to existing
support for doc, txt, html, pdf, odf, sxw, rtf
files).
Thesaurus—a thesaurus in ten languages
(English, Czech, German, Greek, French,
Irish, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Slovak).
Groups—Now you can save emails
forgroups instead of re-entering each one
every time you want to share a document.
Enhanced support for Endnotes/Footnotes,
Headers/Footers—Formatting is now
maintained when a document is exported,
as are manual page breaks.
Zoho still has along way to go to catch up
to Microsoft Word, and it trails Google
Docs in usage, but it is making steady
p r o g r e s s . C r u n c h B a s e
InformationZohoInformation provided by
CrunchBase
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12 Technology * Social Net *
Yelp Raises $15 Million
Fourth Round, Rumored
Valuation $200 Million
By Henry Work (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 8:35:08 PM
Yelp, the popular local review site, will
soon announce a new $15 million dollar
round of financing led by DAG Ventures.
The valuation is rumored to be in the $200
million range. Yelp says that they will be
using the money to expand geographically,
add onto their sales team, and establish an
office in NYC (they are based in San
Francisco). This is Yelp’s fourth round of
funding since their founding in 2004.
Yelp is also boasting some impressive stats:
8.3 million uniques in the past 30 days and
over 2.3 million reviews (with the 1 million
mark being reached on May 2007) (these
are internal Google Analytics stats that the
company shared with us). Yelp is in a
competitive space with InsiderPages
(acquired by Citysearch), and YellowBot.
The real competition, though, will
eventually be Google Local and Yahoo
Local.
With this latest round, DAG joins previous
investors Max Levchin ($1 million,
Summer 2004), Bessemer Venture Partners
($5 million, Q4 2005), and Benchmark
Capital ($10 million, Q4 2006). The
3BILL Acquires UK Social Network Profile Heaven
By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 10:36:32 PM
3BILL has announced that it has acquired a
UK Social Network Profile Heaven for an
undisclosed sum. Profile Heaven is a fairly
standard social network aimed at teen -
student demographics (15-24 years old); it
was brought in the spotlight in 2006 when
it was chosen as the best UK social network
of the year in the People’s Choice
competition.
company has now raised a total of $31
million. Revenues are rumored to be sub
$10 million/year.CrunchBase
InformationYelpInsider
PagesCitysearchYellowBotDAG
VenturesInformation provided by
CrunchBase
Crunch Network: CrunchGeardrool over
the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
3BILL, the mobile division of Symbios
group, will use its own mobile software and
content platform to integrate mobile socnet
capabilities into Profile Heaven. Several
new free applications and services are
planned, as well as redevelopment of the
entire site. The relaunch is planned for
early summer of 2008.
3BILL also plans to rebrand the site with
the help of the community; given the main
interests of the target demographics, 3BILL
will focus on music, film and gaming as the
EU To Microsoft: Not Open
Enough. Imposes $1.4 Billion Fine
By Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 7:59:14 AM
Microsoft’s sudden conversion to openness
and interoperability last week did not
impress the European Commission. Today,
the antitrust-enforcing arm of the European
Union imposed a $1.35 billion fine (899
million Euros) on Microsoft for failing to
comply with a 2004 order to supply
interoperability data for its products to its
competitors. That brings the total fine to
$2.5 billion.
At a press conference EC commissioner
Skuair: Turning Images Into Barcodes
for Your Mobile Phone
By Erick Schonfeld (TechCrunch)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 3:05:10 PM
From Mobilecrunch:
Daem Interactive has developed Skuair,
new technology that it is calling the next
generation of 2d code readers. Skuair isn’t
limited to reading barcode lines and
numbers but can read product logos or
images. Skuair works with any mobile
phone camera and is easy to operate. The
user simply takes a picture of an
advertisement or product logo and a low
resolution image is sent to the recognition
server and an associated URL is returned.
The user can receive a variety of
multimedia content from the company or
person who owns the image
main themes of the site.
Here’s some marketingese from Martin
Montague, the CEO of Symbios Group:
“This is a natural step for our business
within the exciting Social networking
channel, especially at a time when analysts
remain bullish about the market; users
Neelie Kroes said of Microsoft’s last-
minute overture last week: “We don’t want
talk, we want compliance. If you cheat the
rules, you will be caught.” She also noted
that was Microsoft’s fifth announcement
about improving interoperability.
One thing is for sure, if Microsoft does not
start acting sincerely in its interoperability
efforts, the EC will just keep on zinging it
with fines.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunchMobile
Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
User generated tags will be launched later
this year. A short demo of how Skuair
works.
Crunch Network: CrunchBoardbecause it’s
time for you to find a new Job2.0
accessing social networks are on the
increase too. I believe we can create a
unique and exciting proposition that will
become a benchmark for the next
generation of users and social networking
sites. We’ve been reading the market
through our continued play in the mobile
billing and dating sector, and at the top of
our existing customers’ priority list is the
requirement to access truly innovative
social networking sites complete with great
tools and apps that can be delivered to their
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Podcast: A Conversation
with Copenda’s Greg
Shverdin
By Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 10:24:21 PM
Kristen first reviewed Copenda, the dating
site metasearch tool, back in December of
last year:
What if you could take eHarmony and all
the other dating sites, and mash it up with
an aggregated people search engine, like
Wink? The love child would resemble
something like Copenda, the upcoming
people search tool that scours the web’s
dating sites to find you a perfect match.
Greg Shverdin of Copenda sat down to
speak a little bit about where the company
has done since in advancing the dating
search service.
This interview is another in a video series
taken by Brad Hunstable from the Open
Web Awards that we’ll be broadcasting
here at the blog and in our podcast over the
next several days.
The embed is available below, or you can
download the MP4 file directly here.
Get the Mashable Conversations podcast
here.
Add directly to iTunes here (or give us a
rating).
Add directly to your Zune here.
You can check out Copenda here.
ShareThis
page and mobile phone. Now we have
access to a thriving community of 15-24
year olds that will help get us off the
starting block quickly and improve our
insight. This will allow us to profile the
users more precisely. We aim to use this
intelligence to deliver some fantastic
benefits to existing and new users of our
brand.”
ShareThis
Your Click and Print Newspaper
Fav.or.it: RSS Reader with Integrated
Commenting Launches Public Beta
By Adam Ostrow (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 6:17:03 AM
Fav.or.it, a new RSS reader with integrated
commenting and community features, has
launched its public beta. One of the more
notable features of Fav.or.it is the ability
for users to make comments on blog posts
from within the reader, which will also
appear on the actual blog they came from.
What this means is that if you’re reading
Mashable in Fav.or.it and want to leave a
comment, you can do so from within the
reader, and that comment can be seen both
by the Fav.or.it community and on
Mashable.com.
Staying on the commenting theme, the
company has also announced that Disqus,
the distributed commenting system, will be
using the fav.or.it API. This means that
blog owners who use Disqus for their
comments will also have the benefit of
fav.or.it users being able to remotely leave
comments on their posts.
Returning to within the fav.or.it site, the
feed reader itself is quite impressive and
more feature rich than my current
“favorite” Google Reader. There are more
community features such as voting a story
up or down, sharing it, or add tags, which
are another big feature of fav.or.it. Top
voted stories show up on the fav.or.it
homepage.
Zoho Writer Gets Thesaurus And File Export Upgrades
By Paul Glazowski (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 5:52:22 AM
Zoho, the suite of Web-based productivity
software widely esteemed for its
collaborative powers, has revealed an
update to its Writer word processor utility.
Already well known for its comprehensive
compatibility with various document
standards (.doc, .txt, .pdf, .odf, .sxw, .rtf,
.html), Zoho Writer now supports the
export of .docx files, which correspond
with Microsoft’s new OOXML format. An
option to import OOXML files will soon be
introduced as well, according to the
The company has seeded their reader with
hundreds of feeds and categorized them.
Within each category, you can see related
tags. For example, within Technology, you
can click tags to see stories about
Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc. Also, when
you’re looking at a specific feed, such as
Mashable, you can drill down to see all
stories we’ve published about “social
networking” or “widgets.”
Taking it a step further, fav.or.it has a
feature called “slices,” which founder Nick
Halstead describes as “a cross section of the
blogosphere - it can be defined as
tags/categories/date/user(s)/topic(s)/feed
and any combination of. If you go to
profile/slices you will see our ‘advanced
editor’ to make very complex slices (this is
great for brand owners, to watch a
particular topic/brand).”
Overall, I like what I see so far with
fav.or.it. If you’re just starting out in the
blogosphere, I’d absolutely recommend it
as your feed reader for the commenting
feature alone – it’s simply much more
efficient than clicking thru to the actual
blog to leave your comment – which will
make it easier for you to start interacting
company.
Furthermore, Zoho Writer now boasts an
expansive thesaurus, complete with support
for 10 languages - Czech, German, Greek,
Polish, Russian, Slovak, Irish, Italian,
French, and, of course, English - with more
lingual additions yet to come. To trigger
this new feature, users must only right-click
on a word and option the thesaurus from
the pop-up contextual menu.
Zoho has also upgraded its collaborative
framework inside Writer. Users can create
groups with multiple email addresses and
with blogs and their communities. If you’re
already using a feed reader, switching is a
bit more complicated. The so-called “lock-
in” is strong for some users (like Scoble) –
especially if you’re a big user of things like
Google Reader’s Shared Items. On the
other hand, if you don’t have the following
of Scoble, is restarting your shared list such
a big deal? I’m not sure.
Thus, I think if you’re not already
“famous,” fav.or.it is worth considering. In
addition to being a strong feed reader, the
service makes it easier to leave comments,
which will make it easier for you to gain
mindshare, which, is ultimately the goal for
many people that participate in the
blogosphere. Beyond that, fav.or.it also
plans to launch their own blogging platform
in coming months, so you can both do your
feed reading and blog reading under one
roof.
That said, there isn’t much to stop Google
Reader from adding similar features, and
developers are already building
communities on top of Google Reader
shared items data, such as ReadBurner and
RSSMeme. But, with its current feature
roadmap, fav.or.it appears to be making a
play to take RSS mainstream, which, I’d
argue is still a wide open opportunity.
ShareThis
share documents. This essentially allows
users to cut back on the redundancy of
manually adding email addresses to each
document intended for sharing. If you
happen to work with a number of people
often, this could be an addition to Writer
that you find quite convenient indeed.
And if all of the above wasn’t enough to
Eurekster’s Swicki Gets
More Personal for Readers
By Kristen Nicole (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:50:39 AM
Eureskter, maker of the custom Swicki, is
coming out with a new release today. It’s
“next generation” of search, actually,
building from its existing tools for custom
search options used by web publishers. The
new search option is called SERP, which
boils down to a summary of community
content that’s more interesting. In a
nutshell, here’s what SERP consists of:
· Summary of recent comments on every
page
· Summary of contributors on every page
· Popular (top voted) articles summarized
on swicki home page
· Related stories from RSS feeds on swicki
home page
· Summary of recent posts on swicki home
page
This is all presented in a nice user interface
for readers to enjoy. It gives some of those
associated metrics that are often found on
community sites, and it looks like Eurekster
is hoping to incorporate some additional
community features into its Swicki tool.
With SERP, you’ll get metrics such as th
post popular community results, etc. The
layout allows you to see the popular
chew on, Zoho Writer now has “enhanced
support” for headers, footers, endnotes and
footnotes. The enhancements are to offer
export compatibility for .docx, .odf, .sxw,
and .rtf file formats. For all you word
hounds out there who’re still beholden to
referencing sources amidst the double-
spaced lines of your high school or college
class term papers, this is a plus. Can’t go
skimping on them bibilographic liners, after
all, can ya? Gotsta graduate, don’t cha?
ShareThis
Social Net * 13
community results based on RSS stories
and web results. This gives a more circular
experience for the reader, especially if
they’re an existing Swicki member on your
site. It also enables you as a web publisher
to provide more value within your Swicki
community, which is immediately extended
to your users.
SERP really is aiming to bring in some
additional community features throughout
its Swicki, which will hopefully engage
your users and provide a wealth of ongoing
communication amongst users. It’s this
level of social communication around
various media topcs that a good amount of
advertisers are looking for, so any web
publishers out there employing Eurekster’s
Swicki, let us know how your users
respond to the new community views that
are now available.
ShareThis
EU Raises
Microsoft Fine to a
Total of $2 Billion
By Stan Schroeder (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:34:54 AM
Microsoft and EU have a fine relationship:
Microsoft keeps on trying to wiggle out of
EU’s accusation of unfair business
practices, and EU keeps fining them. Now,
RAISES page 14
14 Social Net * TV *
RedEarth88 Totally Cops
LG15, and Succeeds
By Kristen Nicole (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 8:54:35 PM
There’s a point in every show’s run where
it loses popularity and the production team
behind it comes up with melodramatic plot
lines to increase interest. The more
extravagant the plot line, the more
unbelievable it is–thus creating the opposite
effect the production team was after in the
first place. There’s probably some scientific
name for it…that’s right: jumped the shark.
I wasn’t the most avid fan of LG15, but
from my point of view, the show reached
its shark-jumping point when a teenage
vlogger found herself mixed up in some
cult society, relying on real-life help from
her fans. One of the show’s creators, Glenn
Rubenstein, recognized the problems with
LG15’s straying plot line, and ended up
leaving the team for undisclosed reasons.
Rubenstein in fact went on to create his
own production, featuring none other than a
BBC defends dope smoking reporter
By Brad Trechak (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 4:05:00 AM
Filed under: Industry, OpEdThe BBC is
defending a reporter that took drugs live on
one of their television programs.
teenage vlogger that gets caught up in some
mysterious, murderous plot of some sort.
I just can’t keep up with the shows these
kids watch these days, but according to
NewTeeVee, Rubenstein’s show, called
REDEARTH88, has finally picked up
steam. Launching in July of last year, right
around the time LG15 found itself at the
height of its popularity (and shark-jumping,
in my opinion), episode 12 (of 25) of
REDEARTH88 has passed the 100k view
mark on YouTube not too long ago.
What’s it all mean? It means that
Rubenstein’s ideas on where LG15 should
go have been put into REDEARTH88, and
this act just might pay off. That should be
somewhat promising for any writers that
feel like striking again. Don’t like your
boss’ idea on where your sitcom should go?
Make your own show and syndicate it on
YouTube. That’ll show ‘em.
ShareThis
On the program, reporter Nicky Taylor
allowed herself to be injected with THC, a
chemical component of cannabis. She is
also seen smoking joints in Amsterdam.
The program, called Should I Smoke
Dope?, is scheduled to be broadcast on
BBC3 later this year.
RAISES
continued from page 13
the European Commision added a massive
899 million euros ($1,3 billion) to the
original fine of 497 million euros ($737
million), which brings us to the whopping
total of €1,35bn or $2,038bn. Hear that,
Yahoo? That’s $1.3 billion less in
Microsoft’s little takeover fund.
Why the added fine? The Commissioner for
Competition Neelie Kroes sings pretty
much the same tune, claiming that they’re
fining Microsoft for “clear disregard of its
legal obligations,” and that “The
Commission’s latest fine is a reasonable
response to unreasonable actions by
Microsoft.”
Microsoft, on the other hand, said in a
statement to The Register that “The
commission announced in October 2007
that Microsoft was in full compliance with
the 2004 decision, so these fines are about
past issues that have been resolved. As we
MashMeet LA 2.0 Announcement and Call for
Sponsors
By Adam Hirsch (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 6:40:00 AM
Los Angeles demanded Mashable’s return
and we responded. MashMeet LA 2.0 is
coming on March 29th to SEVEN
following the CommunityNext conference!
This time we are going bigger and better.
Feel free to relive the memories from our
first MashMeet LA here and here with
video!
Call for sponsors and partners: We have
several varying levels of sponsorships and
partnerships, please contact me to get on
board.
What: MashMeet LA 2.0 Baby! Drinks and
Networking!
Who: Pete Cashmore, Adam Hirsch &
LA’s hottest
When: Saturday, March 29th, 7:00 - 10:00
demonstrated last week with our new
interoperability principles and specific
actions to increase the openness of our
products, we are focusing on steps that will
improve things for the future.”
Remembering last week’s Microsoft
hullabaloo over openness, free access to
APIs and all the other niceties, it’s easy to
connect the dots and realize that Microsoft
has finally understood that paying zillions
of dollars on fines like this one is not good
for business, and maybe it was a
preemptive strike for damage control. The
EC, however, doesn’t seem to catch bait
easily, and they don’t seem too reluctant to
continue slapping multi-billion dollar fines
in the future if need be.
ShareThis
pm
Where:SEVEN, 7929 Santa Monica Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA
RSVP?: Yes, exclusively through
Mixergy.CommunityNext Discount for
Taylor has done previous investigations
aimed at younger viewers about the
negative effects of certain behaviors, such
as plastic surgery and binge drinking. In
each program, she has subjected herself to
the behavior in question. One could argue
that she's using the opportunity for free
Your Click and Print Newspaper
MyWaves Gets SI
Swimsuit Edition on
Your Mobiles. Enjoy.
By Kristen Nicole (Mashable!)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:11:55 AM
MyWaves, the company that lets you take
your video content mobile, is very proud of
its new partnership with Sports Illustrated.
This web-to-mobile service is the first to
partner with the publication for taking the
Swimsuit Issue to the mobile realm.
Mashable Readers!
At CommunityNext, attendees will learn
how the web and media are changing - and
what you can do to stay ahead of the curve.
They will also have opportunities to
connect with key players in online media,
including Robert Scoble of Fast Company,
Alexis Ohanian of Reddit, Veronica
Belmont of Mahalo, and others. A full list
of speakers is on the event page.
Use the code ‘mashmeetla’ to save 15% on
registration for the event (code expires
March 2nd, 9 am PST).
ShareThis
booze, drugs and plastic surgery.
Continue reading BBC defends dope
smoking reporter
Permalink | Email this | | Comments
Your Click and Print Newspaper
MYWAVES
continued from page 14
Those hot girls in bikinis will be available
on a dedicated MyWaves channel, which is
ad-supported, to it’s totally free for you.
I’m sure brands are looking forward to the
mobile advertising opportunities, more
importantly, so is MyWaves. In case you’re
a curious advertiser, MyWaves is reporting
180,000 impressions for the new channel,
in just one week.
The video clips being made available are
those featuring coverage of the photo
shoots, interviews with the models, and
more. Having just relaunched its mobile
Get Steve - Carell talks about the
new Get Smart movie
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:20:00 AM
Filed under: TV on the Bigscreen, The
Office, Celebrities, EmmysLast week, The
Office's Steve Carell attended WonderCon
2008, talking about his new movie Get
Smart. The picture, which is based on the
1965 NBC (and later CBS) TV series of the
same name, will be appearing in theaters
around the country on June 20, 2008. While
saying that he tried not to channel Don
Adams's performance so he could bring
something different to the role, in an
IESB.net interview with Carell, he said that
before he got the part of Maxwell Smart,
Agent 86, of CONTROL, both Jim Carrey
and Will Ferrell were considered. The film
had actually been in development for nearly
a decade. Steve recalled going to Warner
Brothers for a reading about three years
ago. "It was the most surreal moment,
because I went in thinking I was just going
Nielsen ratings for the week ending February 24
By Bob Sassone (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 12:20:00 AM
Filed under: Industry, Programming,
Ratings
Here are the weekly TV ratings, by number
service late last year, with support from
Nokia, MyWaves has been looking for
ways to make a big splash in 2008. Just as
web-based video networks saw an increase
in the number of content distribution
partnerships, MyWaves and other mobile
networks will be seeing similar deals made
between the and content providers as all in
this sector look to monetize video content,
and the mobile arena heats up.
ShareThis
to audition for a role. I didn't expect them
to offer me the part of Maxwell Smart."
Continue reading Get Steve - Carell talks
about the new Get Smart movie
Permalink | Email this | | Comments
of viewers.
Sure, we can talk about how this year's
Oscars were the worst-rated in TV history,
but its still came in at #1 for the week,
knocking American Idol from the top slot.
It also got the #5 slot with their red carpet
Jericho: Jennings & Rall
By Paul Goebel (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 12:39:00 AM
Filed under: Jericho, Episode Reviews
(S02E03) "Thanks for your help, Sheriff." -
Goetz
The prodigal weirdo returns! I know that,
like me, many of you were hoping that
Dale wouldn't return this season. However,
it's clear that the actor and the character
have grown quite a bit, so maybe he won't
be so annoying this season. Quite frankly as
long as his irritating girlfriend doesn't show
up, I'm happy.
I don't know about you but I'm getting a
little tired of seeing Dale get kicked around.
he seems to be the only merchant in town
and yet every time he makes a bold
decision he ends up getting slapped down
by someone. I don't think that he or the rest
Spoilers Anonymous
By Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:05:00 AM
Filed under: Spoilers Anonymous
This is Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly
column here at TV Squad where we'll
supply you with the dirt on some of the
more popular shows on the air. We'll never
put spoilers up here on the main page in
order to help the reformed stay unspoiled.
If you have anything to add to the group,
feel free to step up and let yourself be
heard, either with our tips form or by
special and the #13 slot with the Barbara
Walters special. Of course, the folks at
FOX aren't that worried: it still took the
next three slots, and hey, the Oscars won't
be on next week.
1. The Oscars (ABC)
of Jerichoare going to accept that Jennings
& Rall get to make the rules but don't have
to play by them.
Continue reading Jericho: Jennings & Rall
Permalink | Email this | | Comments
emailing us at tvsquad at gmail dot com or
call and leave a message at (775) 640-8479
- your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish
to remain as such.
This week we have: Boston Legal,
Breaking Bad, CSI: New York, Desperate
Housewives, Greek, Kyle XY, Lost and
Smallville. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)
Continue reading Spoilers Anonymous
Permalink | Email this | | Comments
Continue reading Nielsen ratings for the
week ending February 24
Permalink | Email this | | Comments
TV * 15
Super Skank Wednesday:
Bret's real reasons, Flav's
restaurant, and a Tanisha
remix - VIDEO
By Kristin Sample (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:01:00 AM
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, OpEd,
Video, Episode ReviewsWelcome toSuper
Skank Wednesday. This is where I
celebrate the awesomely skanky people on
the following shows: Rock of Love, Flavor
of Love, I Love New York (or whatever
show Tiffany Pollard is making next), The
Surreal Life, and Charm School. Basically,
I'll discuss the skankalicious shows that
make VH1 the network it is today.
After the jump, I delve into The Nitty
Gritty: The Real Reasons Behind Bret's
Eliminations, How to Run a Successful
Restaurant: Flavor of Love Style , and
Tanisha: The Remix.
Continue reading Super Skank Wednesday:
Bret's real reasons, Flav's restaurant, and a
Tanisha remix - VIDEO
Permalink | Email this | | Comments
16 TV * Movies Your Click and Print Newspaper
The Daily Show: February 26, 2008
By Annie Wu (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 12:01:00 AM

Filed under: OpEd, The Daily Show,

American Idol: Top 10 Boys Perform
By Jason Hughes (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 4:13:00 PM
Filed under: OpEd, American Idol,
Reviewcaps, Contestants
(S07E14) Tonight was a weird night for me
as the boys who blew me away last
week...well, kind of didn't. And the guys
who barely squeaked by upped their game
tremendously. It was like a mix-and-match
of who was good and bad from last week
and it made my brain hurt. Now I'm all
kinds of confused and don't know who
should go home anymore. There's still
some easy fat to trim, but now I don't think
it's nearly as obvious which six of these ten
should make the Top 12. Good for them,
but hard for us.
Continue reading American Idol: Top 10
Boys Perform
Permalink | Email this | | Comments
Episode ReviewsIn case you've been in a
coma or off the grid for the past six months,
you probably know that Jon Stewart hosted
the Oscars on Sunday night. He played host
once before, but the performance wasn't too
warmly received. This time, I personally
felt he did much better and looked more
confident. One great Jon moment was when Continue reading The Daily Show:
he let Once song winner Marketa Irglova February 26, 2008
come back onstage to give a quick (and
heartfelt) acceptance speech because the Permalink | Email this | | Comments
music completely cut her off before she
could start the first time.
'Maidenhead' (Creepy
New showrunner for Dirty Sexy Money Guy with Vampire
By Allison Waldman (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:23:00 AM Dad) Gets a Trailer
Filed under: House, Lost, Pickups and
Renewals, Dexter, Brothers and Sisters,
By Peter Martin (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 2:02:00 PM
Dirty Sexy Money, WGA StrikeThere's a
new guy running the show for ABC's Filed under: Horror, Independent, Images,
drama Dirty Sexy Money and his name is Cinematical Indie, Trailers and ClipsHere's
Daniel Cerone. Cerone replaces Josh a hypothetical question: How would you
Reims. As executive producer, Cerone will get along with your father if he was bed-
be working with creator Craig Wright Continue reading New showrunner for ridden ... and a vampire?!! That's part of the
(Lost), as well as Greg Berlanti (Brothers & Dirty Sexy Money premise for Maidenhead, an independent
Sisters), Matthew Gross and Bryan Singer film starring AJ Bowen (The Signal) and
(House) -- so the show's got lots of first- Permalink | Email this | | Comments the great Michael Parks (a bunch of cool
class pedigree. Now they have to put it all
together for the show.

Twenty-sevenish things the Arrested EXCLUSIVE: 'Superhero Movie' Poster Premiere!

Development movie must have
By Isabelle Carreau (TV Squad)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:02:00 AM
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, TV on
the Bigscreen, Watercooler Talk, TV Squad
ListsNow that the Arrested Development
movie is pretty much a done deal, fans are
dreaming of what the big screen event
should include. FilmSchoolRejects listed
eight things the Arested Development
movie must include, such as the stair car,
Lucille 2, and the banana stand. Being the
AD fan that I am (I've seen every episode at
least 5 times if not more), I've decided to
come up with my own list. A girl can
dream, no?
Continue reading Twenty-sevenish things
the Arrested Development movie must have
Permalink | Email this | | Comments
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 3:02:00 AM
Filed under: Action, Comedy, Fandom,
Movie Marketing, Posters
Cinematical has just received this exclusive
poster (click on the image for a larger
version) from the upcoming comedy
Superhero Movie -- which claims to be "the
greatest superhero movie of all time (not
including the others)." As you can see, the
poster is in line with those the Scary Movie
franchise have churned out over the years --
and I'm sorry, but I couldn't help but get a
kick out of Leslie Nielsen's t-shirt: "With
great power comes hot bitches." Nice. A
spoof of several popular superhero flicks,
Superhero Movie revolves around a high
school kid named Rick Riker who develops
superhuman abilities after being bitten by a
genetically altered dragonfly. Thus, he soon
becomes The Dragonfly ... and must go on
a quest to stop a supervillain called The
Hourglass from taking over the world. Of
course, look for a whole slew of ridiculous
antics in between. Superhero Movie
touches down in theaters on March 28, and
you can view the trailer over at
Moviefone.Permalink | Email this |
Comments
Your Click and Print Newspaper
New 'Incredible Hulk' Pics!
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:15:00 AM
Filed under: Action, Fandom, Movie
Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek,
Remakes and Sequels, Images
Something tells me you won't like Edward
Norton when he's angry. Oh yes, Empire
grabbed two new photos from this
summer's The Incredible Hulk; one of
which shows Bruce Banner (Ed Norton) all
kinds of pissed off. I think it's safe to say
you wouldn't want to be around that guy
when sh*t hits the fan. These are the first
images to hit in quite some time, as
marketing for the new Hulk flick has been
limited. The first trailer is supposed to hit
early next month, but in the meantime feast
your eyes on the new image above. Empire
also has a second image featuring a first
look at William Hurt as General Ross,
which you can view to the right of your
screen.
Director Louis Letterier also talked about
this version will differ from the previous
Ang Lee film: "We didn't want to make a
cerebral movie. We wanted full action,
Hulk smashing stuff up. But Ed Norton's
script has given Bruce's story real gravitas -
Marvel has always made their superhero
movies with great actors to make it tangible
and Ed has nailed it here. Admittedly, I'm
not the most adult director, but just because
we're making a superhero movie, it doesn't
just have to appeal to 13-year-old boys. Ed
and I both see superheroes as the new
Greek gods, so there's a classical
undercurrent to Bruce's psycho-drama. It's
Prometheus, Pandora's Box, Hercules...but
with explosions." (Notice how he says "Ed
Norton's script." Way to give Zak Penn the
shaft on that one.)
The Incredible Hulk hits theaters on June
13. Permalink | Email this | Comments
Sundance Buzz Title
'Sunshine Cleaning' Finally
Picked Up By Overture
By Peter Martin (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 12:02:00 AM
Filed under: Comedy, Drama, Independent,
Deals, Sundance, Distribution, Cinematical
IndieIt's hard to believe it was just last
month that the film industry was trudging
through hill, dale and snow to watch
movies at the Sundance Film Festival, but
in this fast-paced world, it does feel like a
million years ago. One of the buzz titles at
the fest was Christine Jeffs' Sunshine
Cleaning, a tale of two sisters that start a
business tidying up crime scenes. Our own
Kim Voynar felt it wasn't the best film she
saw at Sundance, "but it certainly wasn't
the worst. It does have its flaws, but overall
it's a cute film that fans of [Amy] Adams
and [Emily] Blunt will enjoy."
Indeed, with the very talented and attractive
Adams (Junebug, Enchanted) and Blunt
(The Devil Wears Prada, The Wolf Man) in
the lead roles and Alan Arkin providing
support as their scheming father, how did
this film fail to get picked up during
Sundance? Anne Thompson of
Varietynotes that Sunshine Cleaning
"entered the fest as one of several highly
anticipated movies with stars attached that
were expected to make a big sale. It didn't
happen, though, partly because the
'Justice League' Set for 2009
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:02:00 AM
Filed under: Action, Fandom,
DIY/Filmmaking, Newsstand,
Comic/Superhero/Geek
With the writer's strike over, Warner Bros.
believes they have a winner in this Justice
League movie, and they're once again
plowing ahead to try to get the film up and
running for a debut in 2009. Variety tells us
that writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney
are currently re-tooling the script, while
George Miller remains in pre-production in
Australia. Additionally, the cast have been
filmmakers behind the film, Big Beach ...
were hoping to make back their $7-million
investment in a quick sale."
Ms. Thompson reports, however, that
Overture Films has now acquired the film
and plans to release it at the end of the year.
The distributor may change the title,
though, perhaps concerned that it might be
considered too similar to 2006 indie smash
hit Little Miss Sunshine, for which Arkin
won an Academy Award.Read | Permalink |
Email this | Comments
Movies 17
'MAIDENHEAD'
continued from page 16
movies, including both installments of Kill
Bill). The trailer is up exclusively at Icons
of Fright, and it is quite intriguing. It's shot
in black and white, has a lovely retro look,
and features a big-mouthed narrator with a
flat accent.
According to an interview the site
conducted with Bowen in the past,
Maidenhead is "kind of a counter culture
black & white Twilight Zone episode. ...
It's really about a creepy guy who finds his
soul." Bowen says that writer/director Jim
Spanos was influenced by the usual (good)
suspects: David Lynch, George A. Romero,
David Cronenberg, and Alfred Hitchcock.
As I commented above, the trailer has a
retro look; Bowen commented: "It's
stylistically, aesthetically not of this time.
... [But] we didn't want to try to say
specifically what time it is."
Dread Centralpointed to the trailer, and is
also hosting ten exclusive stills. Like the
trailer, they're evocative without being
explicit or giving anything away about the
story. The official Maidenhead site is no
less secretive; all it has is the trailer so far.
If nothing else, the film has a different look
and feel to it, so count me in as another
curious soul. We'll keep an eye out for
future details.
[ Via Dread Central ]Read | Permalink |
Email this | Comments
told to keep training for their roles. As
previously reported, JLA will feature Adam
Brody (the Flash), Common (Green
Lantern), Armie Hammer Jr. (Batman) and
Megan Gale (Wonder Woman). Other
actors are rumored to have landed roles, but
nothing seems to be official yet.
By mentioning Armie Hammer Jr., we
assume this means Batman and Superman
will play key roles in the film. Just recently,
there was a rumor going around that had
both characters scrapped from the new
flick. Then again, since the script is still
'JUSTICE page 18
18 Movies
More Images from Richard
Kelly's 'The Box'
By Erik Davis (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 2:32:00 AM
Filed under: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy,
Thrillers, Mystery & Suspense, Fandom,
Movie Marketing, Images
The other day we brought you the first
image from Richard Kelly's (Donnie
Darko) new film The Box, and now USA
Today has a whole slew of images featuring
the cast and that darn box. Imagine, if you
will, some guy who looked a lot like Frank
Langella showed up to your house with a
mysterious box, and said that you could
push a button on said box and come into
great wealth. However, once the button is
pressed, someone somewhere will die.
What would you do? Well, something tells
me we wouldn't have much of a movie if
Cameron Diaz and James Marsden (who
play the husband and wife who come in
possession of the box) didn't go ahead and
push the button.
On the film, Diaz says, "This is the most
beautiful love story ever. It's so romantic,
especially at the end. Other then that, it's a
crazy, si-fi psychological thriller with a
twist of conscience." The Box is supposed
to be Kelly's big commercial film, after the
writer-director had a hard time wowing
audiences with the experimental Darko and
the recent Southland Tales. But if you take
a couple and put them into a freaky
situation everyone can relate to, I imagine
ticket sales will look a tad better this time.
So far I'm loving the retro vibe and I truly
hope Kelly pulls off a damn good thriller.
We could use one of those. Check out one
more photo below, then head to USA
Today to view the rest.
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Spouting Off on Ways to
Improve the Oscars
By Kim Voynar (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 1:32:00 PM
Filed under: Awards, Oscar WatchThe
other day, Erik asked you for your ideas on
new Oscar categories to shake things up a
bit. I don't think it's Jon Stewart's fault the
Oscar's tanked, but will he be asked back
next year? I'm betting not, but who knows?
Meanwhile, Cinematical's Chris Campbell,
who also writes for Spoutblog.com with
former Cine EIC Karina Longworth, has
some excellent ideas for ways to boost the
Oscar ratings.
My favorite among his suggestions is the
Gary Busey Red Carpet. Hell yeah! Get rid
of Regis, who's about as boring as watching
bread get moldy, and bring on the Busey
action. He can show up drunk with his fly
open, and attack all the talent as they make
their walk up the red carpet. It'll be almost
like adding a sporting event to the Oscars --
duck and run from Gary Busey before he
attacks your neck!
Poor Jennifer Garner would probably have
to bring an entourage of everyone who's
f*cking her husband, Ben Affleck, to be her
body shield against further Busey attacks.
For added fun, Busey can bring along his
son Jake, who can also get drunk and talk
'JUSTICE
continued from page 17
being re-tooled, we really don't know what
the final outcome will look like. Assuming
all goes right, Warners will use Justice
League to launch solo films for a few of
these other characters, like the Flash and
Wonder Woman. Marvel, on the other
hand, is taking the exact opposite approach:
They're launching solo films -- and cross-
promoting characters within each solo film
loudly to everyone within ear range about
how he's Gary Busey's son. The two of
them could become a regular Oscar team
like Melissa and Joan Rivers ... only
drunker and with less cleavage and plastic
surgery.
For more of Chris's ideas, including what
Diablo Cody should have really done on
that stage, go read the full piece.Permalink |
Email this | Comments
-- before stepping up to the plate with an
Avengers film. Which do you think will be
the more successful route?
Also of note: Warners has set a October 16,
2009 release date for Spike Jonze's Where
the Wild Things Are.Permalink | Email this
| Comments
Your Click and Print Newspaper
New Images
From 'Batman:
Gotham Knight'
By Elisabeth Rappe (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 1:02:00 AM
Filed under: Animation, Warner Brothers,
Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and
Sequels, Images
Warner Bros has released a few new stills
from the animated feature Batman: Gotham
Knight, and they're available over at Kung
Fu Rodeo. I particularly like this one, it's
got that Frank Miller vibe to it.
Gotham Knight will be released directly to
DVD on July 8th, 2008, to coincide with
the theatrical release of The Dark Knight. It
will feature six interlocking stories that will
span the time between the two movies and
is penned by an impressive array of movie,
animation and comic book authors. Batman
fans will be particularly pleased that Alan
Burnett (Batman: The Animated Series),
Greg Rucka, and Brian Azzarello are
among them. Unless you really hated
anything Rucka and Azzarello wrote, in
which case ... I'm sorry?
Permalink | Email this | Comments
Your Click and Print Newspaper
The Rock will Play The
Tooth Fairy
By Monika Bartyzel (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/27/2008 4:02:00 AM
Filed under: Casting, Family FilmsNo, it
isn't April Fools Day yet. Now hearing this
news, that The Rock was going to be the
Tooth Fairy, led me to Bad Santa visions.
Or, maybe a bit role in some weird dream
sequence -- all the fairy tale people played
by muscle-rippling ex-wrestlers. Then
again, The Rock is pretty big on his feel-
good roles, so it could just be straight up
tooth saving -- and that's just what it seems
to be. Variety reports that Dwayne Johnson
is going to star in an upcoming project
called The Tooth Fairy for 20th Century
Fox. And these are the pens behind it --
Lowell Ganz & Babaloo Mandel, plus
Joshua Sternin & Jeffrey Ventimilia. Ganz
and Mandel wrote Splash (Oscar nom),
Spies Like Us, Parenthood, City Slickers...
If you're wondering how on earth The Rock
could play the dainty, tooth-sneaking fairy,
I have two words for you: Michael
Lembeck. That not enough? He's the
director behind the second and third sequels
of The Santa Clause. To top that off, the
Variety description goes right along with
any logical assumptions made, based on
Lembeck: "Johnson will play an ordinary
man who's brought in to try to save the
tooth fairy kingdom."
Does that mean he won't become the fairy
and just help the fairy keep her kingdom, or
are they about to get really progressive and
slowly morph the beefy star into the petite
dental icon of our youth? Production will
begin this August.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Movies 19
Fan Rant: If You Like Horror
Movies, You MUST See 'The
Signal'!
By Eric D. Snider (Cinematical)
Submitted at 2/26/2008 3:02:00 PM
Filed under: Horror, Sundance,
Distribution, Fan RantThirteen months ago,
at a midnight screening at the Sundance
Film Festival, Scott Weinberg and I saw a
new horror film called The Signal. We
loved it. We were sitting next to some guys
from Ain't It Cool News. They loved it, too.
Scott wrote a review for Cinematical; I
wrote one elsewhere (I wasn't on the
Cinematical team yet); the AICN guys
raved about it on theirsite. If I can presume
to summarize all our feelings, they were:
Wow. This is a really, really good horror
flick.
played on 160 screens last weekend and
Magnolia Pictures bought the distribution grossed only $144,836, or $905 per screen.
If you don't follow box office numbers, I'll
rights and finally released it last weekend.
Weinberg reminded us about it the day just tell you: $905 is awful for an opening
weekend. I Am Legend, playing on the
before, having already shown us the trailer.
We were glad it was finally seeing the light same number of screens, grossed more than
The Signal last weekend -- and it's been out
of day.
for 2 1/2 months!
And then nobody watched it. Continue reading Fan Rant: If You Like
Horror Movies, You MUST See 'The
According to Box Office Mojo, The Signal Signal'!Permalink | Email this | Comments