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first time ever. Happened after I forgot and left a seed on for days. I dont get the point though,
Ive bought every season of house md on dvd, retail, from best buy. Anyways, I usually just download
direct, no bittorrent, but this time i decided to go that way after seeing the seeds, never
again.
Quote: Dear removed:
We recently received the attached notice from NBC Universal claiming that your Internet account may
have been used for copyright infringement. Specifically, NBC Universal claims that your account was
used to reproduce and/or distribute copyrighted content without authorization to other users of an
Internet-based file-sharing network. We are forwarding this notice at the request of NBC Universal
-- please see the enclosed document.
Content providers such as NBC Universal routinely monitor file-sharing networks to determine if
their copyrighted movies and music are being distributed illegally over the Internet. NBC Universal
identified your AT&T account by its numeric IP address, a string of numbers identifiable by any
site from which you upload or download files. When an Internet user connects to file-sharing
networks, the IP address assigned to the computer connected to the Internet becomes publicly
available to other members of the network. Consistent with our Customer Privacy Policy, AT&T
has not released your name or any other personal information to NBC Universal, but is forwarding
this notice to you so that this issue may be resolved without any further action.
You should be aware that copyright infringement is a violation of U.S. law, and potentially
punishable by fines and other criminal penalties. It also is a violation of the AT&T Acceptable
Use Policy, which governs your use of AT&T Internet services. If infringing activity persists,
NBC Universal may choose to seek a court order requiring AT&T to provide it with your name and
address so it can pursue legal action against you.
By forwarding this complaint, AT&T is not making any accusation of wrongdoing. Rather, we are
bringing NBC Universal's notice to your attention so that you can take prompt and appropriate steps
to prevent any further activity of this nature from occurring over your Internet account. Steps you
may consider taking include:
1. Ceasing any sharing of copyrighted content that might be occurring via file sharing software,
services or networks;
2. Securing your home Wi-Fi network to ensure others are not accessing the Internet through your
connection to download or distribute illegal content;
3. Talking with family members or guests who may have used your Internet connection in ways you are
not aware of;
4. Using virus and spyware protection software to protect against security threats and ensure your
Internet connection is not being used in ways that you have not authorized;
5. Learning how federal copyright law applies to online activities by visiting the U.S. Copyright
Office's website at http://www.copyright.gov/.
Violations of the Acceptable Use Policy can result in termination of your AT&T service. We
encourage you to review the AT&T Acceptable Use Policy online at http://www.corp.att.com/aup/ and the AT&T
Customer Privacy Policy at http://www.att.com/privacy.
AT&T is committed to protecting your personal information and ensuring the best possible online
experience for all customers. Please review the attached letter for information regarding the
alleged copyright infringement. If you have any questions regarding your AT&T Internet account
or AT&T policies, please call us at 1-866-618-7991
begin_of_the_skype_highlighting**************1-866-618-7991******end_of_the_skype_highlighting or
email us at complaintresponse@abuse-att.net.
Notice of Copyright Infringement
Re: Infringement of NBC Universal Properties
Notice ID: removed
removed
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am contacting you on behalf of NBC Universal, Inc. and its affiliated companies ("NBC Universal")
regarding certain activity on your Internet account. NBC Universal owns intellectual property
rights, including exclusive rights protected under copyright law, in many motion pictures,
television programs and other audiovisual works ("NBC Universal Properties"). Based on our data, we
believe that your Internet account was recently used to reproduce and/or distribute unauthorized
copies of one or more NBC Universal Properties in violation of NBC Universal's rights. We have set
forth below the details concerning this infringement, including the title(s) in question, the IP
address of the account at the time of the infringement, and the date and time of the
infringement.
Your Internet service provider (ISP) has agreed to forward this notice to you in order to provide
you an opportunity to remedy this situation. Your ISP has not provided your personal information to
us, but NBC Universal reserves the right to obtain that information through legal process in
appropriate circumstances.
Unauthorized copying or distribution of copyrighted works may give rise to significant liability
for copyright infringement, including statutory damages of up to $150,000 per infringed work for
willful infringement. Such action may also constitute a violation of your Internet provider's Terms
of Use and may result in suspension or termination of your Internet service account. Accordingly,
we request that you immediately: (1) cease from any further unlawful copying or distribution of NBC
Universal Properties; and (2) delete any unauthorized copies of NBC Universal from your
computer.
We encourage you to learn the facts about Internet piracy, including the economic harm that piracy
causes to creative industries in the United States and the danger of exposure to viruses, worms,
hacking and identity theft as a result of using peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Information
regarding Internet piracy may be found on the web site http://www.mpaa.org/piracy.asp, which is maintained by the Motion Picture
Association of America for the purpose of educating consumers.
A true and correct list of the titles of the NBC Universal Properties which NBC Universal believes
in good faith have been illegally offered for downloading using your Internet account is noted
below.
We would be pleased to respond to any questions or concerns you may have concerning this notice.
You may direct any such questions or concerns to us through the following Internet site: http://webreply.baytsp.com/webreply/...0dcb845e6bf764. Please include the
Notice ID in the subject line of any correspondence.
The undersigned has a good faith belief that use of the NBC Universal Property or Properties in the
manner described herein is not authorized by NBC Universal, its agent(s) or the law. The
information contained in this notification is accurate. Under penalty of perjury, the undersigned
is authorized to act on behalf of NBC Universal with respect to this matter.
This letter is not intended to be a complete statement of the facts or law as they may pertain to
this matter, or of NBC Universal's positions, rights or remedies, legal or equitable, all of which
are specifically reserved.
Very truly yours,
Mark Ishikawa
CEO, BayTSP inc.
c/o NBC Universal Anti-Piracy Technical Operations
100 Universal City Plaza
Universal City, CA 91608
** For any correspondence regarding this case, please send your emails to antipiracy@nbcuni.com and refer to Notice ID: remove. If you
need immediate assistance or if you have general questions please call the number listed above.
Title: House MD (TV)
Infringement Source: BitTorrent
Initial Infringement Timestamp: removed
Recent Infringement Timestamp: removed
Infringing Filename: House.S06E13.HDTV.XviD-XII.avi
Infringing File size: 366464038
Infringers IP Address: -removed-
Infringers DNS Name: -removed-
Infringing URL: removed
Bay ID: removed
Port ID: removed
- ---Start ACNS XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<Infringement xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="http://mpto.unistudios.com/xml/Infringement_schema.xsd">
<Case>
<ID>20891161</ID>
<Status>Open</Status>
</Case>
<Complainant>
<Entity>NBC Universal</Entity>
<Contact>Mark M. Ishikawa, c/o NBC Universal Anti-Piracy Technical
Operations</Contact>
<Address>100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California 91608 United States of
America</Address>
<Phone>removed</Phone>
<Email>antipiracy@nbcuni.com</Email>
</Complainant>
<Service_Provider>
<Entity>AT&T</Entity>
<Address></Address>
<Email>acns@att.com;</Email>
</Service_Provider>
<Source>
<TimeStamp>removed</TimeStamp>
<IP_Address>removed</IP_Address>
<Port>removed</Port>
<DNS_Name>removed</DNS_Name>
<Type>BitTorrent</Type>
<UserName></UserName>
<Number_Files>1</Number_Files>
<Deja_Vu>No</Deja_Vu>
</Source>
<Content>
<Item>
<Title>House MD (TV)</Title>
<FileName>House.S06E13.HDTV.XviD-XII.avi</FileName>
<FileSize>366464038</FileSize>
<URL>removed</URL>
</Item>
</Content>
</Infringement>
- ---End ACNS XML
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 8.0
Hollywood has a sad history of lost props and costumes. On one hand, you can't blame them. Who can
predict what is going to become iconic? Why not reuse that pretty white dress from The Seven
Year Itch? But then there are unforgivable examples. The Wizard of Oz was
pretty iconic by the time MGM decided to do a garage sale of props, and pieces of history (such as
the Lion's suit) flew out the door for pennies. Even when plucky individuals like Debbie Reynolds
have tried to set up some kind of museum or preservation group, no one is interested in funding it.
Movie history, like so much "real" history, is unappreciated by those with the money to study it.
So, The LA
Times' story about the lost set of Cecil B. DeMille's 1928 The Ten Commandments
isn't at all surprising, but Peter Brosnan's quest to find it is pretty fascinating.
DeMille filmed his original Ten Commandments in the scorching Guadalupe-Nipomo dunes of
Santa Barbara, California. As old film buffs know, it was a popular location to film anything that
needed a desert sequence until the mid 1940s, when films began shooting on location. There are a
few remnants of Gudalupe's glory days kicking around the town, but none so weird and creepy as
DeMille's Art Deco Commandments set, which is buried somewhere under the dunes. Pieces of
it have popped up from time to time and decorated the town, but the majority of it is still lying
in the trench DeMille bulldozed it into.
Brosnan has been trying to find it for nearly thirty years, but has had no luck securing enough
funding. He had hoped to film a documentary about DeMille's lost city, but unable to truly dig it
up, he's decided to change the focus to that of Gudalupe's glittery history in the hopes of helping
a struggling town find its economic footing.
The shortest way to describe this is that Google is no longer a verb. It's becoming
a noun. Not just the few clicks to find information, but the information itself and the
experience surrounding it.
Today, we get to add Google's chapter to "Will One Company Dominate
the Cloud" introspective series and take a glimpse of the silent revolution from "index" to
"be" that is transforming the company and it's products to the default way to engage the
Internet.
As fate has it, Google done us a big favor in preparing for this piece. The company has launched
an assault on the enterprise with its movement in the Google App Engine, having a
stand-off with China, and negotiating with the EU. And that was
just a bit of Google
news from this week.
Sponsor
Whereas it's a bit more clear where Amazon and Cisco win (our
recent analysis) as they head towards the cloud, with Google it takes a bit more expansive view.
We have to take the focus out a bit, to be able to dial in on the details.
Acknowledgment: Developers are the Products they Build
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Tim Bray. He has been a key contributor and thought leader
in key areas of interoperability and information design, including his leadership in bringing XML
to the world. He recently announced that he's joining Google and focusing on Android in a
transition from Sun.
Several things struck us about our dialog that we think are key for Google.
First, when Bray described his new job at Google, he talked about what he wanted to do and what
he saw that needed to be done. Within three days of being there, he has a sense of ownership of
the companies products and mission. In some organizations, you may never get such a luxury.
Second, Bray described his opportunity to "roll up his sleeves" and get back in the groove as a
developer on a project he feels passion for. He mentioned his desire to take the open APIs of
Android and expose some of the information in a more portable way, for example to transfer a call
log from one phone to another. A very interesting project, with tangible results. This type of
innovation lives on top of all the work the company has done to make the API exist, and to
attract individuals who are willing to rethink how it should really work.
We think that this is the most interesting thing about where Google is right now. It's "open"
mantra gives the company the ability to see a whole generation into the future of information
channel disruption. And, by bringing in "no holds barred" developers like Bray and a legion of
others, the company is patiently solving problems that many of us don't even know exist.
Lastly, Bray said something that caused us some deep thought.
His comment, "when the Drizzle team was moved into Google, they
just kept working on the their open source project and things stayed nearly the same."
What caused us to pause was that open source development, whether Linux or XML, gives the
developer, as a person, a way to contribute to the world. And it's documented. If the Internet
was the Bible, leading a key open source initiative, is like getting your own chapter in the
book, where time will be the judge of your actions. Much better than your manager alone.
To know that hard work, intellectual capital, libraries are available to the world after the
contract is complete. This really speaks to the artist in us, in a way, the paid open source
developer is using Google as a canvas.
If working at Google offers this emotional spark to employees, it will gain entirely new
efficiencies in solving the big problems, in the context of individual efforts. Maybe this open
source spirit is embedded into Twitter, and is why it works. We like to contribute to our version
of the greater good...and want fans to cheer us on.
What we learned; acknowledgment matters, and connections to the whole population of people is an
amazing vehicle. Google: become an indie rock star - with the strength of grep.
All of the Information on Earth
Google's destiny to become the hub of the worlds information is
intertwined with history. And this comes with artifacts of policy and posturing. To start with,
not everyone agrees that Google should achieve a dominant cloud position. As we're noticing,
stopping it is another matter.
We'd like to suggest that in 2010, the company is not shy about stepping towards its future and
will use its power, technology, and cash to stir it up. Here is our list of organizations in the
world that Google has, is, or will be, continually bumping into in its quest for cloud
information dominance.
China (counties own the filters for the people)
ATT (service providers own consumer on the network)
Penguin (book publishers own the words in the texts)
Visa (financial institutions own the digits in the transactions)
Facebook (social networks know the details)
Amazon (commerce sites own the decision point)
Twitter (owns "what's happening")
Microsoft (owns the computer applications and files)
Open can be a Key to Unlock Doors
We see both practical and strategic reasons that Google has a
deep connection with the open source movement. Strategically, being the new optimized layer,
removing all historic barriers to information give the company more leverage. Practically,
solutions can be built where information is free.
Reviewing a few examples, such as Google Earth, Android, and even GMail and we see that where
there are open protocols and information disruptive products can be built. Once they are built,
the Google wields a significant economic advantage in binding the worlds information assets and
converting them to eyeballs.
Here, we take a quick look at the information assets that Google is investing the global cloud.
Results: Google has moved away from Page Rank to "Closest Object" in it's
default results. What this means is that many businesses today show up as widget in the results
in google with embedded links, maps, and other efficiencies.
Ads: This is perhaps the best known and most valuable insight and unique
asset, who wants to pay for what customer
Realtime index: Google has worked to keep up with Twitter's realtime firehose
Semantic index: The company continues to add more and more microsyntax parsers
into its index, giving more controlled tools for publishers
GMail: It had to be done. And it is monetized.
Documents and files: Google Docs and the Apps Marketplace create a whole new
stream of information about an individual. Private, personal, and shared.
Mobile transactions: This is an interesting sample of where Google's strategy
to build the Android OS pays off in the cloud. Not only does Google get to connect mobile to
the rest of the offerings, but also to be able to dial in on movements, calls, and other
critical tasks in our real-time lives.
Books: Indexing all of them, first is an interesting piece of the strategy to
break apart historic containers of knowledge. Is the book copyrighted? How about the quote?
Browsers: The browser knows a lot. Google's Chrome moves it from being default
search, to being default experience. This was a great example of where access to information
"Faster pages" is the simple value proposition for consumers to switch.
Filters: Protecting companies, trademarks, and interpreting the legality of
free speech. Someone has to do it, if we're all one people.
Health transactions: Google has even taken on one of the most sensitive
challenges, private health information. And, it's connections to legacy systems that prefer EDI
to JSON.
It's clear that Google is making progress. What we've also learned in this review is that the
companies biggest asset - people - may scale to solve problems in lightweight ways that entire
teams and companies haven't been able to in the past. Perhaps being open, or transparent, gives
the company a unique advantage in being prepared for a cloud future.
Is the cloud where the action is?
What verb would you be if you were hired at Google?
Chirita commemorates its 10th anniversary with the Louis XVI computer - a steampunk retro
computer which is fit for royalty. Meant to blend in the elegance of a majestic living room or
office, this computer is made out of brass, bronze, alabaster, malachite and lapis lazuli, while
most of its metal parts are covered with gold leaf. The asking price for such luxury?
€13,000. Now we truly know that the economic recovery is well underway.
Julia Alexandratou, a 23-year-old minor Greek-British celebrity, attained Paris Hilton-esque infamy
overnight when a controversial porn film starring her went on sale across Greece this month. Rather
than focusing on Greece's unprecedented economic crisis and the harsh new measures aimed at
reducing the state deficit, 240,000 copies have been sold.
During my recent trip to India, I flew down to Bangalore for one
reason: To meet N.R. Narayana Murthy. Murthy is the co-founder, executive chairman and former CEO
for 21 years of Infosys, the first Indian company to go public on Nasdaq and effectively the
company that began the $30 billion Indian IT outsourcing market.
Murthy’s idea was so successful that it quickly became controversial—not
only within the United States where some Americans feel Indians are “stealing jobs,”
but also in India where many are concerned about a tech economy that doesn’t make
anything. I wanted to meet with Murthy, because in many ways he’s the best person to
address what Indians at home and abroad are facing and where Indian entrepreneurship goes from
here.
Here are a few highlights from our meeting:
His Day Job. Murthy thought he was stepping down from Infosys back in 2002, but
he couldn’t fully let go. As such, he still works pretty much full time for the company,
traveling to meet with customers and running a lot of the company’s mentoring and training
programs. The more surprising aspect of his job: He personally signs off on the architecture of
every building on each one of Infosys’ campuses that employ some 17,000 people around the
world. The one we were sitting in was spread of eight acres and had some remarkable buildings,
including one that looked like the Luxor casino in Las Vegas.
I asked why this was a top priority—after all, many Valley campuses are plush
but from an architecture standpoint look about the same. He said when GE and other American
multinationals were starting to come into his business everyone thought Infosys would lose the
local talent war. So Murthy studied why people want to work at a particular place. One of the
results was the comfort and design of the facilities. That was in 1994 when Infosys was designing
the very building we were sitting in as we had this conversation. “I’ve been in
charge of every building since– all over the world,” he says.
Hurting or Helping Local Entrepreneurship? Given exactly how plush Murthy and
his colleagues have worked to make Infosys, has he indirectly hurt Bangalore’s
entrepreneurship scene by making the risk of leaving so daunting? He smiled when I asked this and
said, “We may have unwittingly. But I do feel like the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive
and kicking in Bangalore.”
Further, I asked about Bangalore’s Zippo-flipping, free-spending generation of young
techies who’ve graduated to a huge wave of multinational jobs that pay them far more than
their parents ever made, in many cases more than the rest of their families combined. Murthy
didn’t deny that that instant-gratification, “gimmie” contingent was strong in
the city he helped build, economically speaking. But he blames the Internet and the
mass-cross-pollination of Western pop culture, not the bigger paycheck from companies like his.
“We are moving towards a uniform, global culture with an intense competitive spirit and an
intense desire for instant gratification,” he says. “But I have a firm belief that
each generation is better than the previous one. The Indian entrepreneurs today are more daring
than we were.” (This from a man who became a capitalist after after hitchhiking across
communist Eastern Europe and getting thrown in jail for chatting up someone’s girlfriend on
a train. “More daring” is a tall order, young Indian techies.)
Is India’s Tech Community Too Addicted to Services? Clearly, services has
been a great business for Infosys and the hundreds of dollar-millionaires and even more
rupee-millionaires that the company’s generous stock program has created. But a lot of
Indian CEOs and investors complain that in most cases services-based tech businesses are a great
way to get revenues quick, but not a way to build a huge, high-growth business. There’s a
big question of whether India’s tech sector has a worrying lack of product-building
know-how.
Murthy says it’s a progression. “India missed the industrial revolution, but Indians
had intelligence,” he says. “We had to make do with pen and paper. We were always
forced to look at the abstract. What is happening in India today is the creation of jobs.
Let’s create jobs as long as they are legal and ethical, it doesn’t matter, as long
as we make money. The time will come for creating products. I wouldn’t lose sleep over
this. If we create enough jobs we’ll raise the confidence of the youngsters and
they’ll create products.”
India’s Infrastructure. Here’s something it’s hard for even
Murthy to be upbeat about: India’s shoddy physical infrastructure. Murthy has traveled the
world and it’s frustrating that so much money has poured into the country he loves, and
yet, the infrastructure is still so shockingly bad.
There is progress—Infosys for instance has benefited from a new overpass that
cuts down on the drive to the campus by more than thirty minutes. (See!) But it’s
not moving nearly fast enough, he says. “I don’t know if we will reach the level of
the United States or China,” he adds.
Murthy gave a more nuanced explanation than the usual “it’s corruption” answer
you get in India. He explained that 65% of India’s population lives in rural areas and 35%
live in cities. And there’s such polarity between the quality of life that politicians have
to appear to be doing more for the villages than the cities if they want to get re-elected. That
leaves prosperous economic cities blighted by poor sewage systems, pollution spewing generators
and beggars weaving through traffic tapping on car windows. “Different emerging nations
take different paths,” he says. “In China, they chose to emphasize giving people
economic freedom first and political freedom second. In India we chose the opposite path.”
Hurting or Helping US-based Indians? All you have to do is read the comments on
one of Vivek Wadhwa’s posts to see the ugly, anti-immigrant, anti-Indian fervor
that’s been whipped up in America, post-recession. A lot of it has to do with outsourcing.
I asked Murthy if he felt his company and industry’s huge success has indirectly made life
harder for Indian-Americans. He turned the blame on xenophobes like Lou Dobbs and grandstanding
politicians who use the wedge issue to get viewers and votes.
But it’s an issue he has to address a lot. He answers it by saying every morning he gets up
and gets a Pepsi out of his GE Fridge and drives his American car to work where he sits down at
his Dell computer. India used to have companies that made soft drinks, refrigerators, cars and
computers. But the American ones were better. Allowing them in hurt Indian workers in the short
term, but provided a far better quality of life for a much bigger swath of Indians long term. He
argues outsourcing has done the same thing for US companies. Greater efficiencies and
cost-savings enables these companies to stay competitive and there’s no reason they
can’t—in theory—plow those savings into better local
jobs or job training.
This argument isn’t going to pacify hate-mongers, because nothing will. Murthy knows that
too and while he regrets it, he seems to accept it as reality.
Advice for Entrepreneurs. Murthy has started a $170 million venture fund, so
although he spends most of his time still at Infosys, he clearly cares about encouraging the next
generation of entrepreneurs. He had two big pieces of advice for them. One, be able to articulate
what you do in one sentence. If you can’t, you don’t have a good idea. And two, make
sure the market is ready. Businesses are killed, not congratulated, for being ahead of their
time.
Conference organizer Leipziger Messe will no longer operate its GC Asia event,
originally scheduled for this September in Singapore, citing the "overall currently prevailing
economic situation." "It is a regrettable, but necessary decision", says Jorg Zeissig, managing
director of LMI Asia. "We will continue to keep an eye on the Asian games market so that we can
pick up again with new concepts if this becomes appropriate." The event and its associated
developer conference ran ...
With a possibile vote to finalize passage of health care reform approaching, Fox News has thrown
everything but the kitchen sink to rally opposition, with guest host Laura Ingraham proclaiming,
"Let's kill the bill." For example, Fox News personalities have portrayed the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office as unreliable, falsely claimed that a 2006 earthquake did not occur
and attacked an 11-year-old and his family that support reform.
Fox News sets up oppo shop for the weekend
Ingraham on hosting for Fox News: "Let's kill the bill!" Fox News contributor
Laura Ingraham posted the following message on her Twitter account: "I'll be hosting the O'Reilly
Factor on Friday, 8pm eastern. Let's kill the bill!"
From Ingraham's March 19 post
on her Twitter account:
Beck encourages viewers to hold candlelight vigil against health care reform.
Glenn Beck asserted: "It is time that you
have a candlelight vigil. You peacefully assemble in front of your Congressman's local doors. You
go to his office locally, not to Washington. You gather your friends and you stand there, you
sleep there. You make sure the press covers a peaceful assembly of people saying, 'We will
remember your name 'til the end of time, sir.'" [Fox News' Glenn Beck,3/15/10]
The Fox Nation highlights "call to arms" in opposition to health care reform. On
March 18, The Fox Nation published a
headline, "Alert: Jon Voight's Call to Arms - Come to D.C. Sat. to Oppose Obamacare."
Fox & Friends channels GOP on "facts that people need to know" about health
care reform.Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy announced: "So the
Republicans have put out some facts that people need to know about this." Fox News then displayed
images under the heading, "GOP: What you need to know. Facts on the Dem health bill." Doocy
continued: "For instance, they say, what they're not talking about is the fact that there's going
to be a new Medicare tax on capital gains." [Fox News' Fox & Friends,3/19/10]
Cavuto promotes weekend coverage tilted toward conservatives.Your
World host Neal Cavuto has promoted
his upcoming "Health Care Showdown: What's really up Doc?" coverage, which will air on Saturday,
March 20. Cavuto will host conservative radio host Mark Levin, Rep. Jason Altimire (D-PA), Dom
Imus, and Mike Huckabee. Cavuto also promoted Friday's Your World guests, including Rep.
Elijah Cummings (D-MD), conservative radio host and columnist Jeri Thompson, Rep. Paul Ryan
(R-WI), and Republican candidate for California governor Carly Fiorina.
Fox hosts Gene Simmons to bash health care and promote his insurance company.
During Fox News' America Live, host Megyn Kelly hosted K.I.S.S. front man Gene Simmons to discuss
health care. During his appearance, Simmons called health care reform "horrific" and promoted his
life insurance company.
Fox News' weeklong assault: Distortions and falsehoods abound
Fox falsely attributes doctor survey to New England Journal of
Medicine. Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Brian Kilmeade, Sean Hannity and Marc Siegel
all pushed the falseclaim that a New England Journal of
Medicine (NEJM) survey found that 46 percent of primary care
physicians would consider leaving their profession if health care reform legislation passes. In
fact, NEJM says they didn't publish or conduct the 3-month-old email "survey," which was
actually conducted by The Medicus Firm and published in an employment newsletter.
Fox News erases 2006 Hawaii earthquake to attack Obama. Responding to President
Obama's statement during a Fox News interview that Hawaii "went through an earthquake" and could
benefit from a health care reform provision that would help Louisiana cope with Medicaid
shortfalls resulting from Hurricane Katrina, Doocy asked, "What Hawaiian earthquake?" In fact, as
Fox News itself reported at the time, President Bush declared a "major disaster" after Hawaii was
hit by a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in October 2006. [Fox News' Fox & Friends,3/18/10]
Beck attacks family of 11-year-old who spoke about his mother's death at health
care event. Following 11-year-old Marcelas Owens' appearance at a health care
reform event to speak about his mother, who reportedly died after losing her health insurance,
Beck asked, "Where was grandma" when Marcelas' mother was sick and attacked her work with the
organization Washington Community Action Network, saying the group was "all about economic,
racial, gender, and social justice for all," which he called, "pesky phrases." [Fox News'
Glenn Beck,3/15/10]
Fox calls CBO score untrustworthy. After the Congressional Budget Office
estimated that the health care reform reconciliation package would reduce the deficit by $130
billion over 10 years, Fox News -- led by Beck, Hannity, Doocy, Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer and
The Fox Nation -- attempted to
portray the nonpartisan CBO as untrustworthy and unreliable. By contrast, after the CBO gave
a "favorable" score to the GOP health care plan, Fox praised the office as "nonpartisan" and
advanced false GOP claims about the CBO's findings.
Fox News suggests Dems were bought off to support health care reform. Dick
Morris suggested that Obama "illegal[ly]"
nominated Rep. Jim Matheson's (D-UT) brother Scott "to a judgeship with an implicit quid pro
quo." Rep. Matheson's office and the White House have called the smear "ridiculous" and
"absurd," former Bush-appointed judge Michael McConnell definitely debunked the smear and conservatives
have stated that Scott Matheson is "plenty qualified for the job." Likewise, following Rep.
Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) appearance on Fox & Friends to discuss his decision to
support the bill, Fox News displayed a
graphic stating: "What was Kucinich promised? Congressman changed vote from no to yes."
Fox anchors falsely attack House rule as
undemocratic. Fox News anchors, during their self-described daytime
"news hours," repeatedly forwarded
the false suggestion that by using a legislative procedure known as the "self-executing rule" to
finalize health care reform in the House, Democrats would be passing health care reform "without
actually voting for it." In fact, passing legislation by using the procedure would require a
majority vote. Fox News contributor Newt Gingrich criticized the rule as "incredible" and
"passing bills without voting on them," despite the fact that the Republican Party
"set new records" for its use of the self-executing rule in the years following Gingrich's
ascension as Speaker.
Grasping at straws: Fox News regurgitates tired health care
falsehoods
Fox repeatedly inaccurately reported on abortion
funding.Doocy, Hemmer, Kilmeade, Bill O'Reilly, Carl Cameron, Dana Perino and Greta Van Sustren pushed the
debunked claim that the Senate health
care reform bill contains language that would allow federal funding for abortion beyond what is
currently allowed under federal law. In fact, the Senate bill -- which will be considered by the
House -- prohibits health insurers from using federal subsidies to pay for abortion services
restricted by current federal law.
Hemmer perpetuates debunked health care myth: "Could
people be going to jail for not owning health insurance?" Hemmer revived the debunked myth that not buying health
insurance "could lead to prison" and asked: "Could people be going to jail for not owning health
insurance?" In fact, the penalty for
failure to purchase insurance is a tax, not jail time, and willful failure to pay taxes of any
sort can result in civil or criminal penalties.
Perino misleads on Medicare tax impact on small
businesses. Guest hosting on Fox & Friends, Perino
trumpeted the myth that a Medicare
investment tax on those making more than $200,000 would affect most small business owners. In
fact, fewer than 1.3 percent of small business owners would be affected by the tax.
Ali Abdullah Saleh says end to government's long-running battle with fighters in north of country
has been agreed
The Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, today declared an end to a long-running war with Shia
rebels in the north of the country.
Saleh said a ceasefire with Houthi separatists had begun yesterday. "The war is over, not stopped
or in a truce," he told the Arabic al-Arabiya TV station.
It is believed that part of the deal to end the conflict will include landmines and roadblocks
being removed by rebels. "These are considered positive indications to prove good intention not
to return to a new war," Saleh said.
News of the peace deal came a day after the Yemeni government said it would free Houthi rebel
prisoners as part of the truce.
The Houthis, part of a powerful clan believed to have between 5,000 and 10,000 fighters, have
used roadside bombs, rockets and other arms to protest against perceived religious, political and
economic discrimination by the government.
The path to a settlement has not been easy, with the government recently accusing the rebels of
returning to vacated positions and holding on to cleared landmines.
Some have questioned how long a ceasefire between the two groups will last, but a statement
released by the rebel leader, Abdel-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi, said fighters would "cease combat
on all fronts".
"Once the ceasefire is consolidated, we will proceed to reopening roads and dismantling
checkpoints and barricades," he said.
The rebels are reported to have released around 170 pro-government fighters.
The end of hostilities with the Houthis closes one of three fronts on which Yemeni government
forces have been battling. The government still faces pressure from western countries and
neighbouring Arab nations to deal with al-Qaida
militants who have taken advantage of instability to establish militant training camps.
It is still also involved in fighting separatists in the south, who have staged demonstrations
calling for independence amid reports of escalating violence.
Appearing as a guest host on Fox & Friends, Dana Perino asserted that the health
care reform bill's Medicare investment tax on those making over $200,000 a year is "so disturbing
... because the people who make that money are the small business owners." In fact, fewer than
1.3 percent of small business owners would be affected by the tax.
Perino claimed "small business owners" are "the people who make" over $200,000
Perino: Medicare investment tax on wealthy is "so disturbing" because "the people who
make that money are the small business owners." From the March 19 edition of Fox News'
Fox & Friends:
PERINO: One of the most disturbing things to me is a 3.8 percent tax on unearned income, so
that's all your investment income, if you make over $200,000 a year. The reason that's so
disturbing is because the people who make that money are the small business owners, and they're
the ones who create the jobs. And so this will feel like, as I've said, a lead-blanket on
economic growth and then supposedly the administration's next priority is going to be increasing
jobs in the states.
In fact, fewer than 1.3 percent of small businesses make enough to be affected by
the tax
Medicare investment tax does not apply to those earning less than $200,000. The
House Rules Committee's section-by-section analysis
of the health care reconciliation act states that the 3.8 percent Medicare tax on investment
income -- which
takes effect in 2013 -- "does not apply if modified adjusted gross income is less than
$250,000 in the case of a joint return, or $200,000 in the case of a single return":
Sec.
1402. Medicare tax. Modifies the tax to include net
investment income in the taxable base. Currently, the Medicare tax does not apply to net
investment income. The Medicare tax on net investment income does not apply if
modified adjusted gross income is less than $250,000 in the case of a joint return, or $200,000
in the case of a single return. Net investment income is interest, dividends, royalties,
rents, gross income from a trade or business involving passive activities, and net gain from
disposition of property (other than property held in a trade or business). Net investment
income is reduced by properly allocable deductions to such income.
Fewer than 1.3 percent of those who claim small business income would
be affected by Medicare investment tax. Despite Perino's claim that "small
business owners" are "the people who make" over $200,000 and would therefore be affected by the
Medicare investment tax, according to the Tax Policy Center's table of
2009 tax returns, 457,000 of the 36,064,000 returns that reported small-business income -- or
1.3 percent of them -- were in the top two income tax
brackets, which include all filers with taxable incomes high enough to trigger the investment
tax in the health care reform bill.
TPC: "[N]ot everyone who receives small business income should be classified as a small
business owner." Ben Harris wrote on the Tax Policy Center's TaxVox blog that "0.5
percent of small business owners both fall into the top two marginal tax rates AND derive more
than half their income from a small business." From the April 2009
post, which addressed Obama's proposal to "allow the top two marginal income tax rates to
revert to their pre-Bush levels":
Allowing these rates to rise would hurt very few small business owners. In 2009, about 36 million
taxpayers have small business income - defined as taxpayers who report a gain or loss on tax
schedules C, E, or F. This group includes not only sole proprietorships, S corporations and
partnerships, but also taxpayers who receive royalties, rental income, and income from trusts. Of
these 36 million small business owners, just
1.3 percent (about 457,000) fall into the top two tax brackets-indicating that approximately
99 percent of small business owners fare better under the President's proposed changes to the
statutory tax rates. Estimates by the Treasury Department and Joint Committee on Taxation reach a
similar conclusion.
And not everyone who receives small business income should be classified as a small business
owner; most derive the bulk of their income from other sources. TPC estimates show that only
about 174,000 taxpayers, or 0.5 percent of small business owners, both fall into the top two
marginal tax rates AND derive more than half their income from a small business. This group makes
up 0.1 percent of all taxpayers, meaning that the chances of being in this group-a small business
owner getting at least half of total income from small businesses and being subject to a tax
increase-is about one in a thousand.
For nearly 10,000 years--since the dawn of civilization and the Holocene era--our world seemed
unimaginably large. Vast frontiers of land and ocean offered infinite resources. Humans could
pollute freely, and they could avoid any local repercussions simply by moving elsewhere. People
built entire empires and economic systems on their ability to exploit what seemed to be
inexhaustible riches, never realizing that the privilege would come to an end.
But thanks to advances in public health, the industrial revolution and later the green
revolution, population has surged from about one billion in 1800 to nearly seven billion today.
In the past 50 years alone, our numbers have more than doubled. Fueled by affluence, our use of
resources has also reached staggering levels; in 50 years the global consumption of food and
freshwater has more than tripled, and fossil-fuel use has risen fourfold. We now co-opt between
one third and one half of all the photosynthesis on the planet.
Marvell is planning to take the ARMADA chips to school as it announced an initiative that will
deliver $99 tablets powered by the ARMADA 600 series SoCs to students around the world. Marvell's
cheapo educational tablet is called Moby and is claimed to deliver 1080p video, 3D media, and full
Flash Internet in a tight package that would have less than half the weight of a typical
textbook.
"Education is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country and our times. I
believe the Marvell Moby tablet can ignite a life-long passion for learning in all students
everywhere," said Weili Dai, Marvell's Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell
Semiconductor's Consumer and Computing Business Unit. "Marvell's goal is to fundamentally improve
the way students learn by giving them more efficient, relevant - even fun tools to use. Marvell's
Moby tablet recognizes that every student learns differently and so it delivers an array of media
choices for different learning styles."
Likely boasting a 10-inch display, Moby is expected to have a gigahertz-class processor, high
performance 3D graphics, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and full support for Windows Mobile and Android
operating systems. Battery life is also claimed to be high but that's yet to be confirmed with
hands-on testing.
Unfortunately, I can't find who first sent this in, but the site Inieoma recently had an
interesting multi-part "discussion" on
how independent artists are dealing with the issue of "piracy." Some of the parts are quite
interesting. Simon Indelicate has a bit of a bipolar post that does a fantastic job laying out the economic issues of music production and
consumption. He notes that the technology has flipped scarcity and abundance on its head --
entirely separate from the file sharing issue. He is pessimistic about new business models working
for most musicians (about the only point I disagree with him on), but thinks that the overall world
is a better place with the internet and cheaper production of music. Quite a good read.
Then there's an interview of Dan Bull, known around these parts for his musically brilliant open
letters to Lily Allen and
Peter Mandelson. In the
interview, he discusses his views on the music business and things like file sharing. He notes that
he's mainly "against... enforcing backwards laws in order to cling onto an obsolete business
model."
Next up, is an interview with Matt Stockman who is starting up a new record label, called
Sharabang, which plans to give away its music for free to "open up other revenue streams." No
matter what industry you're in, to thrive you must firstly listen to your customers. For Sharabang
Music it's about listening to music lovers, how music is now consumed and adapting to this to offer
genuine choices. What we're actually doing by offering music fans a choice is trying to put the
value back into recorded music by diversifying the product range and offering far more than can
simply be sent over the internet. The whole interview is interesting, as Sharabang is working
hard to come up with interesting scarcities. One cool idea is that every concert of a band on the
label will be filmed with audience participation encouraged. And there will also be limited edition
t-shirts that are tied to a specific event or group, to encourage people to buy more and "wear them
with pride." We keep hearing more and more about companies stepping up to help artists embrace new
business models, so it's great to hear of one more that appears to understand the best way to face
the modern era.
There are some other parts to the discussion as well -- some I agree with and others I disagree
with, but overall there are some great viewpoints and thoughts on this general issue of how
musicians can adapt to a changing world. Perhaps none of it's really all that different from what
we usually discuss around here, but it's still great to see how different people are expressing
their opinions on the issue.
Not so long ago, calling something “Web 2.0″ increased its value. It meant fresh,
new, interactive, responsive. Now, if someone uses that term you know they’re woefully out
of touch.
For me, it’s been a trip to re-adopt my former web beat on GigaOM after spending a few
years writing for our sister site NewTeeVee. I made the leap
to the world of web video in the fall of 2006, when YouTube had just been bought, Facebook had just opened to the general
public, and only a few people cared about a little service called Twittr.
Since then, one thing that’s gone by the wayside is the term “Web 2.0,” which
got its start as a marketing phrase to build a conference around, and spawned both a new class of
companies and sites dedicated to writing about them, such as TechCrunch and Mashable. TechCrunch,
whose original tagline was “tracking Web 2.0,” itself declared the death of the term
in February 2009, citing a perceived drop in the number of pitches mentioning it. Indeed, while
the AJAX-y web services and user-generated content at the core of Web 2.0 haven’t gone
anywhere, now the preferred term seems to be “social media.” Google Trends says that search volume for “social
media” surpassed “Web 2.0″ right in the middle of January this year, though the
new hotness has yet to reach the heights of “Web 2.0″ circa 2007.
Feel free to chalk it up to a matter of trendy semantics, but here are the material differences I
see between these two mini-eras:
Building for the Mainstream
These days, starry-eyed entrepreneurs are building for the mainstream, not just for themselves.
One of the reasons I was happy to leave the GigaOM Web 2.0 beat the first time around was that I
didn’t want to write about yet another social bookmarking service trying to copy the
innovative but narrowly used Delicious (then spelled del.icio.us, which kind of says it all).
Sure, one of the best ways to come up with something truly useful is to build something you
yourself want, like a repository for saving all the web sites you visit — and as Twitter
has proven, niche products can evolve to satisfy the needs of those beyond just early adopters.
But some of the most exciting new services online today are aimed at serving broader interests,
such as the search for deals (Groupon, Gilt Groupe), and procuring real physical products and
human services (Alice.com, Sears’ ServiceLive).
I think MySpace
and Facebook deserve a lot of credit for bringing the Web 2.0 era to the mainstream, helped along
by major portal offerings like Gmail. Those services and products continue to provide value to a
broad audience. On the flip side, startups like Foursquare and the many folks who pitch us on,
say, tweaks to Google Reader aren’t building with Middle America in mind. They may get
there eventually, but not just yet.
All the World’s a Platform
The rise of platforms, app stores and mobile makes web applications better, more accessible and
more useful. Facebook, with its platform launch in 2007, showed the value (and eventually, the
dangers) of building on top of someone else’s pre-existing audience, making use of inherent
viral channels and the continuity of experience provided by a popular platform. The distribution
power of the platform was huge.
Then the iPhone App Store came along, offering far more functionality and exposure to developers
(if they could get through its approval process). On the user side, just about every web app is
better when it rides along in your pocket, ready when you need it. The iPhone and all the
knock-offs and competitive one-ups it has inspired are tremendously popular. And
as a corollary, the benefits of the mobile app platform model is now so obvious that the number
of them grew to 38 from eight in the span of 2009 alone,
according to new research.
The Most Obvious Answer
Of course, the one thing
that affected every business, web or otherwise, was the economic downturn. However, Web 2.0
startups — until of course their funding ran out and/or they had to layoff employees
— seemed woefully out of touch with the rest of the world.
Valleywag, which never missed a chance to declare something dead, might have actually been right
when in it ran
with the headline “It’s the end of Web 2.0 as we know it” in reference to a
carefree music video released by Web 2.0 entrepreneurs cavorting in Cyprus to the tune of
Journey. It was October 2009. Their timing was pretty bad.
Meanwhile, one of the sectors hit hardest by the downturn was the media, which was already being
brought to its knees by its failure to adapt to the web. Now, your Facebook newsfeed really is
your hometown paper (though its investigative reporting skills may be limited to relationship
status changes), and Twitter really is your personal real-time newswire. And accordingly, social
media referrals from sites like Digg and Twitter are increasingly important to media business
models — and sites like Facebook and YouTube are among the most-trafficked,
and therefore most powerful, on the web.
Maybe “social media” just sounds less like a buzzword or a brand name than “Web
2.0,” while at the same time pointing to a sort of social facelift for all content —
a feature that can be included or integrated into everything on the web, rather than being
segmented in its own category. Or perhaps it was the futile attempts to brand disparate things
“Web 3.0” that
made people realize how silly the naming convention was. But “social media” has its
issues, too. As Aliza argued earlier this
month on WebWorkerDaily, many new web tools are just useful, not necessarily social. Perhaps what
was wrong with “Web 2.0″ was that the term implied a fixed version — while
it’s cute, the metaphor of a software upgrade doesn’t carry over very well in
reference to something that changes every day. Innovation on the web is fluid and builds on
itself, and that naming convention just got stale.
Middle photo and post thumbnail courtesy of Flickr user chegs.
Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my
bio.
Universal Music Group will drop the prices on the majority of its new CD releases to between six and 10
dollars. This plan — dubbed the Velocity program — will go
into effect in the second quarter of this year.
UMG hopes this plan will at least slow the serious
decline in CD sales that has been going on since MP3s and other digital music downloads came
on the scene.
While UMG has its hands in music downloads and streaming, too, the profit margins are usually
better with CDs. UMG claims that its cheaper CD plan will maintain a 25% profit margin.
Up until now, most new CDs have actually been more expensive than their download counterparts. If
the price comes down, consumers will be more likely to purchase the goods. It’s a simple
economic principle. But to try to incentivize music fans even further, UMG plans to load the
jewel cases with “deluxe” content that you won’t usually get with online
purchases.
We’re not going to complain about lower prices. We welcome anything that reduces
consumers’ expenses. But do you think this will actually make a difference? A couple of us
in the Mashable office haven’t bought a CD in years — if you’re
the same, will UMG’s plan turn you around?
In anticipation of the upcoming immigration marches, Media Matters for America has
compiled a review of the hateful and outrageous right-wing rhetoric surrounding the immigration
debate in 2006.
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigrant-rights marchers, immigrants are seeking to
reclaim the Southwest for Mexico
"Reconquista" is a discredited smear used by the right to generate fear of Latino
immigrants. During the 2006 immigration debate, right-wing media repeatedly advanced the
discredited smear that Mexican-Americans and Mexican citizens -- particularly "illegal
aliens" -- are plotting to take over the U.S. Southwest for Mexico.
Dobbs referred to potential "army" of "illegal alien" "invaders" taking over
Southwest. During an April 2006 broadcast of his now-defunct CNN show, Lou Dobbs introduced a
report by stating: "There are some Mexican citizens and some Mexican-Americans who want to see
California, New Mexico and other parts of the Southwestern United States given over to Mexico.
These groups call it the reconquista, Spanish for reconquest. And they view the millions of
Mexican illegal aliens in particular entering the United States as potentially an army of
invaders to achieve that takeover." Correspondent Christine Romans reported, "Long downplayed as
a theory of the radical ethnic fringe, the la reconquista, the reconquest, the reclamation, the
return, it's resonating with some on the streets," and went on to say: "A lot of open borders
groups disavow it completely. But the growing street protests in favor of illegal immigration,
Lou, are increasingly taking on the tone of that very radicalism." [CNN's Lou Dobbs
Tonight,
4/31/06]
CNN reporter referenced "the Vicente Fox Aztlan tour," used "Aztlan" graphic sourced to
hate group.Lou Dobbs Tonight correspondent Casey Wian characterized
then-Mexican President Vicente Fox's trip to Salt Lake City, Utah, as a "Mexican military
incursion" and claimed that "[y]ou could call" Fox's trip to the United States "the Vicente Fox
Aztlan tour." During Wian's report, CNN featured a graphic of "Aztlan" that was sourced to the
Council of Conservative Citizens -- an organization whose "Statement
of Principles" reads: "We also oppose all efforts to mix the races of mankind, to promote
non-white races over the European-American people through so-called 'affirmative action' and
similar measures, to destroy or denigrate the European-American heritage, including the heritage
of the Southern people, and to force the integration of the races." [Lou Dobbs Tonight,
5/23/06]
Malkin: "[T]he vast majority of mainstream Hispanic politicians" embrace "the
intellectual underpinnings of reconquista." On Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor,
columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin declared that protesters in Los Angeles were "people who
believe that the American southwest belongs to Mexico, that we don't have a right to enforce our
borders, and who do nothing more than try to sabotage our sovereignty." Malkin later added that
"the kind of quote-unquote 'pride' that a lot of these illegal alien activists are touting now
goes much further than just being proud about one's heritage and one's roots. The idea, the
intellectual underpinnings of reconquista, are embraced by the vast majority of mainstream
Hispanic politicians." [Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, 3/30/06]
Wash. Times editorial: Protesters approve of "reconquista" agenda. A
Washington Times editorial accused Latinos who protested against a proposal to restrict
immigration of either supporting or having given "tacit approval" to the "reconquista" agenda of
"Hispanic radicals," which the editorial said was the "reconquering of Mexican land lost during
the Mexican-American war." [The Washington Times, 3/30/06]
Fox's Gibson suspicious that Latino advocacy groups are set on "retaking old Mexico
territories ... by pure birth rate." While saying that he was citing an internal email
from the National Council of La Raza, John Gibson claimed on his
Fox News show that he was suspicious that advocacy groups like the NCLR favor "the so-called
reconquista," which Gibson described as the "retaking of old Mexico territories, which are now
part of the United States, by pure birth rate." Gibson also asserted that the NCLR "is a group
dedicated to the betterment of the race," adding, "good, but try being American while you are at
it, guys." [Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson, 4/3/06]
O'Reilly: Purported immigrant protest "organizers" have hidden "hardcore militant agenda"
to take back American Southwest. On his radio show, O'Reilly said that the "organizers"
of immigrant rallies have a "hardcore militant agenda of 'You stole our land, you bad gringos.' "
O'Reilly said that the "slogan" of the demonstrations' organizers was "[W]e didn't cross the
border, the border crossed us," and that this meant that the organizers believed that Americans
"stole [their] land." The organizers' hidden "agenda underneath," said O'Reilly, was that "now,
we're going to take it back by massive, massive migration into the Southwest." [Westwood One's
The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 5/1/06]
Buchanan: "Chicano chauvinists and Mexican agents" want to "take back through demography
and culture what their ancestors lost through war." In his book, State of Emergency:
The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, published in August 2006, MSNBC
contributor Pat Buchanan wrote: "Chicano chauvinists and Mexican agents have made clear their
intent to take back through demography and culture what their ancestors lost through war." He
also wrote that the United States must keep "Americans of European descent" from becoming the
"minority" in order to "survive[]." [State of Emergency (Thomas Dunne Books)]
Malkin: "[W]e saw ... that supposed fringe" that favors reconquista "come out into the
mainstream." O'Reilly said to Malkin, "So I know that there's an undercurrent of
militancy that says, 'Hey, this is our territory. You stole it from us in the Mexican-American
War. We're going to take it back now by illegal immigration.' But I think that's a fringe, nutty
group, not the mass of millions that we have." Malkin replied: "Well, I guess I disagree with you
there, Bill, because I mean, we saw in April and May of this year [2006] that supposed fringe
come out into the mainstream. And it wasn't just a dozen folks who are ensconced in the ivory
tower who believe that the Southwest is Aztlan and it belongs to them." O'Reilly later asked her:
"You think that this massive immigration to the United States, 15 million strong, is a part of a
plan to bring back territory to Mexico?" Malkin responded: "Well, I take the Mexican government
at its word when it says that is exactly its plan." [The O'Reilly Factor, 8/23/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigrant rights marchers are "racis[t]"
Malkin: "[M]ilitant racism from another protected minority group was on full display"
from "Latino supremacists." In her syndicated column, Malkin wrote of immigration rallies,
"Well, this weekend, militant racism from another protected minority group was on full display.
But you wouldn't know it from press accounts that whitewashed or buried the protesters' virulent
anti-American hatred." Malkin also wrote: "Apologists are quick to argue that Latino supremacists
are just a small fringe faction of the pro-illegal immigration movement (never mind that their
ranks include former and current Hispanic politicians from L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to
former California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cruz Bustamante)." [Creators Syndicate
column,
3/29/06]
Savage: "[B]rown supremacists" are "behind these protests." On his nationally
syndicated radio show, Michael Savage said: "So, it seems to me that there's a certain group of
immigrants that's not very happy and they're all Hispanic. I don't see any other racial group out
there in the streets, do you? Now, that's very interesting. I'm not allowed to raise the issue or
the specter of brown supremacists behind these protests. Don't tell me this is all about
compassion for immigrants, because it is not at all only about compassion for immigrants. They
are trying to provoke the takeover of the United States of America." [Talk Radio Network's
The Savage Nation, 4/11/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Pro-immigration marchers should be arrested or deported
Fox's Asman wondered whether marches are a perfect chance to "round up these lawbreakers
and ship them out." Guest-hosting Fox News' Your World, David Asman discussed
nationwide protests of immigration reform and wondered: "With so many illegals hitting the
streets, is this the perfect time to round up these lawbreakers and ship them out?" As Asman
spoke, the on-screen text read: "Round 'Em Up?" Later, the text read: "Perfect Chance to Arrest
Illegal Immigrants?" [Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, 4/10/06]
Smerconish: "[L]aw enforcement ought to step in" at immigration demonstrations and
consider "gathering ... up" undocumented immigrants. Guest-hosting MSNBC's
Scarborough Country, Philadelphia-based radio host Michael Smerconish suggested that
"maybe law enforcement ought to step in" at pro-immigration demonstrations and consider
"gathering ... up" undocumented immigrants. Smerconish wondered why there was "zero discussion"
of "gathering them up" at the demonstrations, when "[a]ll I keep hearing is how would we ever
find them?" [MSNBC's Scarborough Country, 4/10/06]
Doocy suggested "round[ing] them up right then, when they're saying, 'Hey, I'm right
here.' " On Fox & Friends, syndicated radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller
announced that he was "having a big rally here in Chicago" for a "group" that he said was
"pro-illegal murder and illegal car thieves." Muller added: "We're just getting together, and
we're going to be out on the street. We're for illegal murder and illegal car thievery. So, we
just like illegal stuff." Muller added: "I just like illegal murder and illegal car thieves. So,
you know, it's illegal, but -- and, in fact, all the people who have done it are going to be out
there on the street, and hopefully, none of the cops will come arrest us." Co-host Steve Doocy
then said: "Yeah, you wouldn't want to round them up right then, when they're saying, 'Hey, I'm
right here.' " [Fox News' Fox & Friends, 4/3/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Stoking fears over displays of the Mexican flag
Media figures attacked Mexican-flag wavers, but not those waving Irish, Italian, or
Israeli flags. Following immigration rallies, media figures criticized demonstrators for carrying Mexican
flags, but the same media figures had not complained about people waving other nations' flags,
such as Irish flags at St. Patrick's Day events, Italian flags at Columbus Day events, or Israeli
flags at Israel Day events. Some commentators even dismissed the comparison. For instance,
National Review editor Rich Lowry
called the Mexican-flag waving "more ominous" than the St. Patrick's Day or Columbus Day
displays.
Savage: "[B]urn the Mexican flag!" On his radio show, Savage urged his listeners
to "burn the Mexican flag" in opposition to undocumented immigrants, telling them to "[b]urn a
Mexican flag for America, burn a Mexican flag for those who died that you should have a
nationality and a sovereignty, go out in the street and show you're a man, burn 10 Mexican flags,
if I could recommend it. Put one in the window upside down and tell them to go back where they
came from! And if that's a little to xenophobic for you, ask yourself why the xenophobes from
Mexico wave their flag in your country." [The Savage Nation, 3/27/06]
Fox News: Waving Mexican flag shows "antagonistic edge," waving U.S. flag "just a cover"
and "a ploy to win America's support." Asman cited demonstrators' use of Mexican flags
as evidence of "an antagonistic edge" and suggested that the use of U.S. flags and signs written
in English at pro-immigration demonstrations was "just a cover" by the demonstrators to conceal
their "real intention, which is to keep things as normal among illegal immigrants in the
country." Similarly, Neil Cavuto suggested that the pro-immigration demonstrators' U.S. flags
were "just a prop" and "just a ploy to win America's support." [Your World with Neil
Cavuto, 4/10/06; 4/11/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigration is an "invasion"
Buchanan: Illegal immigration is "an invasion of the United States of America" and "[t]he
whole world is coming." On MSNBC's Hardball, Buchanan claimed that the influx
of undocumented immigrants into the United States is "not immigration" but "an invasion of the
United States of America" that is "coming not only from Mexico," but "from the whole world." He
reiterated: "The whole world is coming." [MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, 5/15/06]
Savage: "This is an invasion by any other name." Savage said, "We, the people,
are being displaced by the people of Mexico. This is an invasion by any other name. Everybody
with a brain understands that. Everybody who understands reality understands we are being pushed
out of our own country." [The Savage Nation, 3/27/06]
Buchanan: "This is an invasion, the greatest invasion in history." In State
of Emergency, Buchanan wrote of immigration: "This is an invasion, the greatest invasion in
history." He also wrote: "We are witnessing how nations perish. We are entered upon the final act
of our civilization. The last scene is the deconstruction of the nations. The penultimate scene,
now well underway, is the invasion unresisted." [State of Emergency]
Right-wing rhetoric: U.S., Mexico are in a state of "war"
Tancredo: [W]e are at war with
Mexico, in a way." On Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, WorldNetDaily.com
columnist Tom Tancredo -- then a Republican congressman from Colorado -- said, "[I]n a way, we
are at war with Mexico, in a way. I'll say it in this way: Mexico is aiding and abetting an
invasion of this country. They are part of the problem. They are doing what they are -- in fact,
they are creating situations along that border using their own military to protect drug
trafficking into the United States, pushing their own people into the United States for a variety
of reasons. It is an invasion. It is an act of aggression." [Fox News' Hannity &
Colmes, 6/26/06, transcript from the Nexis database]
Beck sidekick Gray: "[W]e are in a war with Mexico right now." Pat Gray, who is
now a co-host of Glenn Beck's radio show, appeared on Beck's then-CNN Headline News show and
claimed that "we are in a war with Mexico right now." After Beck agreed that "we better wake up
soon," Gray responded: "[O]r we're going to wake up dead." [CNN Headline News' Glenn
Beck, 9/25/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigrants are fundamentally altering American culture or
way of life
O'Reilly claimed to have exposed the "hidden agenda" behind the immigrant rights
movement: "the browning of America." O'Reilly claimed that during his Fox News show,
guest Charles Barron, a New York City councilman, had revealed the "hidden agenda" behind the
current immigration debate. O'Reilly told his radio listeners: "[T]he bottom line is Charles
Barron said last night is there is a movement in this country to wipe out 'white privilege' and
to have the browning of America." But in the interview, Barron at no point claimed that he and
other advocates for immigrant rights are motivated by a desire to force white Americans into the
minority -- despite O'Reilly's repeated efforts to provoke such an acknowledgment. [The Radio
Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 4/12/06]
Beck: "[I]llegal immigrants are attacking our culture, and our way of life." On
his then-CNN Headline News show, Beck said, "[A]t the very least, illegal immigrants are
attacking our culture, and our way of life. They are not melting into our melting pot -- they're
here for the cash." He later said, "I mean, we've got all these threats coming in from overseas,
but the simplest way is for us to lose the culture of the West is just to do nothing and let
illegal immigrants not melt in and take the culture away from us." [Glenn Beck, 8/24/06]
Buchanan: "They're not welcome to come here and insult the symbols of our country, and
that's what these outsiders have done." On Scarborough Country, Buchanan said
that a Spanish-language version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" is "a provocation and an insult"
and that immigrants are "not welcome to come here and insult the symbols of our country, and
that's what these outsiders have done." Buchanan then said that the Spanish recording is "a good
thing in this sense: The American people are awakening to the character of these people."
[Scarborough Country, 5/1/06]
Matthews: Republicans "have a right to fear" a "cultural change" that would result in
their hometowns "becom[ing] overwhelmingly Mexican." On Hardball, Matthews
claimed that House Republicans who had passed a bill that would apparently have criminalized
undocumented immigrants, their employers, and those who provide aid to them "have a right to
fear" a "cultural change" that would result in their home states and towns "becom[ing]
overwhelmingly Mexican." Matthews was responding to a suggestion by guest Amy Goodman, host of
Democracy Now, that "the Republicans who passed the House bill" are "afraid" that the
United States will soon have "a majority Latino population." Matthews later said, "It's not my
point view necessarily," before suggesting that "90 percent of this country" agrees with the
"viewpoint" that "I didn't move to Mexico; Mexico moved to me, and I'm complaining about it."
[Hardball with Chris Matthews, 3/30/06]
O'Reilly: "[Y]ou're on a nice block ... and then the house next to you is turned into an
illegal alien Club Med." On his radio show, O'Reilly said:
You've got the folks who don't have emotion invested in it, other than the farmers down and the
ranchers down on the border are going -- as the lady just called up, [caller] -- say, look, I got
garbage in my -- on my ranch every day. I mean, I'm under siege. They have emotion invested in
it. But those of us up here don't.
Unless you live in a town, like Farmingville, Long Island -- we went over this before
-- where you bought a house, you spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars, you're on a nice
block, your kids are happy, and then the house next to you is turned into an illegal alien Club
Med. And this happens all over the country. [The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly,
3/27/06]
Buchanan: "I think what's coming is the complete balkanization of America." On
Hardball, Buchanan said, "I think what's coming is the complete balkanization of
America, and I'm afraid it's going to be by ethnicity and culture, and language, and every other
way. ... And so, then, it's not like the country you and I grew up in, Chris, whereby we were
monocultural. We were monocultural." [Hardball, 6/5/06]
O'Reilly wondered whether children of Mexican immigrants in U.S. "have any kind of
traditional value system" or are "setting up Acapulco North." On his radio show,
O'Reilly wondered whether children of legal and undocumented immigrants from Mexico who are
attending school in the United States "have any kind of traditional value system at all,
vis-à-vis what America used to be," or whether they are "taking their Mexican values,
because most of them are Mexicans, and, you know, basically setting up Acapulco North." [The
Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 8/15/06]
Buchanan: "You're going to have a giant Kosovo in the Southwest, which de facto is going
to secede." On Scarborough Country, Buchanan said: "[Y]ou cannot absorb 40 to
60 million more people. You're going to have a giant Kosovo in the Southwest, which de facto is
going to secede from this country." [Scarborough Country, 6/5/06]
Buchanan: Immigration will turn U.S. into "a polyglot boarding house for the world, a
tangle of squabbling minorities." On CNN's The Situation Room, Buchanan warned
that "[w]e'll become a polyglot boarding house for the world, a tangle of squabbling minorities."
He continued: "The problem with the immigration, basically -- let's take Mexico -- is these folks
are breaking the law, first. Secondly, they're coming in huge numbers, like no other group
before. Third, they're from a contiguous nation. Fourth, 58 percent of Mexicans believe the
Southwest belongs to them. Fifth, the Mexican government is pushing them in here, and it's got a
political and ideological agenda." [CNN's The Situation Room, 8/28/06]
Right-wing rhetoric: Immigration reform is part of plot to institute "North
American Union"
"North American Union" is an absurd conspiracy theory. Right-wing media,
including Dobbs, have obsessively warned that elements in the U.S. government are secretly
plotting to merge the United States with Mexico and Canada in a "North American Union" similar to
the European Union. During the June 21, 2006, edition of his CNN show, Dobbs stated that "the
Bush administration is pushing ahead with a plan to create a North American union with Canada and
Mexico" and later asked: "Do you think, our question is, maybe somebody should take a vote if
we're going to merge Canada, Mexico and the United States as the leaders of the three countries
are attempting to do with the security and prosperity partnership? Yes or no. Cast your vote at
LouDobbs.com." Dobbs' CNN colleague Suzanne Malveaux later described the North American Union rhetoric as
"conspiracy theor[y]." [Lou Dobbs Tonight,
6/21/06]
Corsi: "North American Union ... was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration's
true open borders policy." Jerome Corsi, co-author of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat
Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, wrote in a column that "President Bush is pursuing a
globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with both
Mexico and Canada. This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration's true open borders
policy. Secretly, the Bush administration is pursuing a policy to expand NAFTA politically,
setting the stage for a North American Union designed to encompass the U.S., Canada, and Mexico."
[HumanEvents.com, 5/19/06]
WND's Farah linked Bush guest-worker proposal to plan by "one-worlders" to merge U.S.,
Mexico, Canada. Appearing on a radio show, WorldNetDaily founder and editor Joseph Farah
claimed that the "one-worlders" of the Council on Foreign Relations have a plan to merge the
United States, Mexico, and Canada by 2010 and suggested that Bush's proposed guest-worker program
is part of this plan. Farah said, "Sometimes, the conspiracies are right." [American Family
Radio's Today's Issues, 4/4/06]
Buchanan: Vicente Fox's "ultimate goal" is making Mexico and U.S. "basically part of the
North American Union." On Lou Dobbs
Tonight, Buchanan said, "The government of Mexico is pushing its poor and unemployed into
the United States to ease social pressure on itself. Secondly, they get $16 billion in
remittances back to Mexico. Third, it is awoken to the idea that it can reannex the American
southwest, which it used to hold, linguistically, culturally, ethnically and socially, not
militarily by pushing all these people in there and creating a gigantic fifth column in America."
Buchanan added: "The ultimate goal of Vicente Fox is the erasure of the border between the United
States and Mexico. He has said as much and to make the two basically part of the North American
Union in which Mexico will get ... a constant flow of cash from the wealthy USA and La
Reconquista is the objective." [Lou Dobbs Tonight, 9/5/06, Nexis transcript]
Open source has made huge strides in enterprise adoption since the dot-com crash, said author,
consultant and Java Champion, Jeff Genender. He said it seems like whenever the economy takes a
nose dive and IT budgets stagnate, companies start thinking a...
As we’ve seen in the past, a
music video can launch a band into the indie
stratosphere when shared in the online space — YouTube even got hip to the trend with its
Musician’s Wanted
program. This state of affairs got us wondering: How do some of today’s up-and-coming indie
acts use online music videos in their quest for stardom?
To answer said query, Mashable reached out to an array of SXSW’s finest — bands both
on the the brink and over. Some gave us serious answers about how music videos fit into their
artistic scheme, others — not so much (ahem, Das Racist).
Check out their answers below. We hope to add more as the musicians we contacted find their way
to computers. Note: Some of these vids are slightly NSFW.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
What’s your favorite music video?:[Kip Berman, lead singer] I
like the “Everything With You” video because it feels really natural and good.
[Keyboard player and Buzzfeed editor]
Peggy and her BFF Carlen are hanging out and doing fun stuff together. It fits nicely with the
song, which is about hanging out with your BFF and doing fun stuff together. It doesn’t
seem phony, yet it’s not careless or entirely haphazard, either.
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?: It’s easy to say videos don’t matter as much as the
song itself or the live performance, and I’ll say that, too. A lot of bands I really like
have sort of not-so-awesome music videos or videos that seem at odds with their actual aesthetic.
Still, when a band has a really embarrassing video, it’s hard to shake that image from the
song itself — so we try not to have overtly terrible videos.
But I don’t like when a really cool video becomes more important than the song —
though some over-the-top stuff is great when paired with the right kind of band. I really love
the new Yeasayer video for “O.N.E.,” MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” and
Lady Gaga gets more and more fantastically epic with each release.
I guess from a “press” point of view it’s good to have the most sensational
video possible (Buckcherry, “Crazy B*tch” — but again, that makes sense [for]
Buckcherry). But we’ve never wanted to just gain views for views’ sake —
we’d rather (a lot) less people see it, but actually appreciate it as a visual complement
to the song, not in a pure spectacle way. We’re not all that “spectacular.”
We recently shot a video with a lot of “furries” (or more politely, “fur
suiters”) in it… it’s pretty funny, I think. Maybe not as exciting as female
prisons or post-apocalyptic lord of the green screen fantasies, but for us — it’s a
start.
French Horn Rebellion
What’s your favorite music video?:[Robert Perlick-Molinari, lead
singer] Definitely the “Broken Heart” video. That was our first collaboration
with Dax and Barry from the Sniper Twins. It’s so simple — we’re
dancing and Barry’s in the corner being weird. That doesn’t sound a lot different
than most of the dance parties we throw, actually. But the entire video is one shot. And our
dancing is actually choreographed. Felt like we were a boy band a little bit. Thankfully Barry
was there with his ketchup and mustard bottles so no one would confuse us with The Backstreet
Boys.
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?: Our music videos have been great for us. We have more views on
YouTube of our songs than anywhere else our music is posted. They came from a really fun and
creative place, so we’re really proud about the videos, and feel they are a good
representation of how we wanted to start out a group.
The Happy Hollows
What’s your favorite music video?:[Chris Hernandez, drummer] Our
newest video is just amazing and our friend Ben Hoste put so much work into it (he had to animate
it by hand!); it’s called “Death to Vivek Kemp.”
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?: With YouTube and Vimeo and all these other online video outlets,
it’s definitely been amazing to have such access to not only our fans, but to people
who’ve never even heard of us before! So it’s been a really amazing experience for us
to know and be involved with so many creative and supportive people who have helped us out with
videos in the past. It’s really become a great collaborative effort to help each other
stand out and make a name for ourselves!
Das Racist
What’s your favorite music video?:
[Victor]: Can’t pick a favorite, but our most recent one is Jordan Fish’s
“Rainbow in the Dark” video. [Video above.]
[Himanshu]: Bob Weisz’s “Shorty Said” video.
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?:
[Victor]: The act of making online music videos provides handfuls of people with
something to do with their leisure time (afforded to them by a system of global economic
domination by the wealthy few) that feels slightly more productive than other more passive forms
of entertainment like watching TV, going to the movies, purchasing a roller coaster ride, etc.
Somewhat ironically, the end product is a form of passive entertainment.
[Dap]: Music videos allow men and women to feel sexy and fancy-free. Transcend.
[Himanshu]: Tweens love YouTube.
Bear in Heaven
What’s your favorite music video?:[Jon Philpot, frontman]
We’ve made a few music videos and we like them, but it’s nice when a fan makes
something… especially if it’s strange. Here’s a favorite. [Video
above.]
How important are online music videos when it comes to publicizing a band? How have they
functioned for you?: They’re important us. We make them on the road to entertain
ourselves and our listeners. I guess we could just make songs… but videos are fun!
The culture clash between social games and core gamers was on full display at GDC. I have
been called a traitor to the cause of core gamers, even.
At the awards show, when a Zynga rep claimed the social games award for Farmville and did a
little bit of recruiting from the stage, he was not only booed, but someone shouted out,
“But you don’t make games!” This is a common sentiment out there in the usual
gamer haunts.
I have many many thoughts on all this — and I have been posting some of them in various
places when discussions arise.
Yes, Farmville is a game. It just requires fairly little skill compared to games
for “advanced” gamers. But by any reasonable definition of game, it fits perfectly.
You have to make choices (they are strategic choices rather than real-time, but so what? Games
have a long tradition of
slower play). The choices require knowledge and skill (the skill is what gets derisively
called “spreadsheet gaming” by the cognoscenti, but that’s a brush that EVE
Online and other MMOs have been tarred with too). You have to prepare for the challenge. You can
screw up. You get rewarded for doing well, etc.
It may seem elementary to those who can juggle complicated business sims, but think of it as the
training wheels version for novices to that genre, and you won’t be far off. I think people
who didn’t play games in the early days forget that the level of complexity they enjoy
today is a phenomenon of the last ten years, a symptom of typical genre development. Social
games are more advanced than most of the games made from 1970 to 1988.
Yes, social games truly are social. They just work on somewhat different modes
than real-time synchronous games do. Instead of rewarding real-time teamwork the way that group
combat in an MMO, playing on a soccer team, or being a member of a chorus line does, they reward
asynchronous behaviors.
Most specifically, there is a lot of exactly the sort of weak-tie social design that was
intrinsic to Star Wars Galaxies and Asheron’s Call: stuff around gifts,
networks of mutual benefit, etc. More, they are exploring some of these things in a deeper way
than MMOs do (because MMOs fall back on the synchronous crutch). Which is more indicative of
social ties, a user who logs in once a week for a raid, or a user who logs in every day to send
every friend a gift? The answer is not straightforward, if you dig into social networking data.
Yes, it is arguably even an MMO. The core activity is single-player, but the
features around gifting, fertilizing, helping build structures collaboratively, etc, are all
massively multiplayer techniques. Oh, they are not yet truly virtual worlds, though some of them
do feature real-time chat, and more will over time, because in many many cases it is a value-add
of a feature.
It’s surprising, in a way, how little collective action matters in most MMOs.
Here’s a medium that allows it better than any other game type, and yet we still see fairly
little collective action — and when we do, it’s raids
— arguably, exactly the wrong sort of collective action to really play to the
strengths of what virtual spaces can do, precisely because what MMOs offer is spaces with
thousands in them, not spaces with a few dozen.
Well, here we are. Collective action is starting to matter in the social games, and it’s
going to matter more, not less precisely because it is an assumed core premise of the genre.
Yes, social games make money. Do some Googling, people! And no,
it’s not all from scams.Yes, there are shady practices. But not all games use
them, and if they do, it is less every day as the market gets cleaned up. And even when they do,
they are not the bulk of the money.
Social games are not just a fad. There have been a lot of comparisons to things
like motion control, 3d imaging, and so on. But back in 2008 there were Gamasutra articles about
whether retro-looking
gaming was a fad; before 3d graphics got good enough, there were questions about whether it
was a fad… the key thing to look at here is whether there are underlying technical and
social factors that are pushing development in a particular direction.
In the case of retro looks (which are now a firmly established aesthetic), the answer lay in the
somewhat complicated fact that a younger gamer sees all previous aesthetics side-by-side and does
not judge their quality based on technology, the way that older gamers do. A push towards
innovation and artistic intent in game design called forth the ghost of the 8-bit era, and the
pixelated look became an identity badge. Tech helped this along — the rise of Flash as a
common game development platform resulted in a “Flash aesthetic” driven by the
display limitations that today we see in console games such as PixelJunk Eden and
Patapon.
In the case of 3d, the march of technology simply made it work over time, and it evolved from
gimmick to tool. This may yet happen with 3d displays as well, or motion control.
In the case of social games, you have to look at the overall context too. As I have been saying
for quite some time, all games are becoming
connected experiences. And it turns out that social networks are becoming the glue. They are
sweeping away all the “gamer-only” networks that so many companies started.
The value in these networks lies in the connectivity to friends, the easy distribution of content
across the social graph, the web accessibility, and so on. These are things that we now take for
granted. The genie is not going to go back into the bottle.
Now, is the investment level going to change? Absolutely. The white-hot heat around the segment
will definitely subside as everyone gets used to the fact that the market is here to stay.
No, social games won’t turn into core games. This is one of the
misconceptions that AAA developers often have as they try to establish themselves in the market.
It is absolutely true that social games are going to grow more sophisticated over time. But they
will do so by growing further along the direction they have already been going.
If you look at the AAA game world today, you can trace just about everything in it to the early
core gamer market. Video games got going with sports, dragons, robots, guns, jumping &
climbing, and cars. Those were the first big ideas. And here we are now, decades in, and they are
still the big ideas. Many other ideas have come along since, but somehow they have always been
quirky, “outside the mainstream” — like, say, when Rollercoaster
Tycoon, or Guitar Hero, or The Sims came along. The only way
something like “playing house” can possibly be “outside the mainstream”
is if there’s a subculture in charge.
Well, social games are here and they managed to get themselves established largely without
reference to those tropes. As a result, they have a different set of starting premises. Many of
the things that were “quirky” are “normal” and vice versa. Central design
tropes include cooperation rather than competition; asynchronous rather than
synchronous play; social dynamics; and a very different set of core cultural references.
There’s more.
What will happen over time is that this new audience will grow in sophistication. They already
take for granted all of the elements of a farming game, for example. You can think of the farming
game as equivalent to any other genre, and replete with design tropes that are exactly equivalent
to conventions like WASD, hit points, skill point allocation, rocket jumping, and
tank-nuker-healer, if you like.
All that is going to happen is a recapitulation of design history, only with a new of new
assumptions embedded in the games:
a far broader set of cultural references.
a new and different set of core artistic choices driven by different rendering technology
a fresh and exciting set of design paradigms built around asynchronous sociability and
large-scale weak-tie “guild” structures — hoo, is there a design
essay lurking in the difference between a guild and a neighbor ring...!
a whole new set of business models and practices
What this boils down to is that social games will grow along those axes, and not
magically turn into what core gamers today consider to be core games. It’s a mistake to
think that the game development industry is going to manage to magically make this audience fall
in love with sports, dragons, robots, guns, jumping & climbing, and cars.
But there’s hope for core gamers nonetheless: These games are the new home
of “worldy” games, in some ways. And they are bringing neglected genres back to life.
Social games are going to push boundaries in design areas that are currently neglected. A
renaissance in simulation and strategy games is likely, and I don’t think it is an accident
that so many prominent AAA strategy game developers are in social games now.
If what you have craved is greater user agency and impact on a persistent world, a greater sense
of community and economic interdependence — those are features that are intrinsic
to this new market. As an example, I would point out that there was a core MMO game that many of
the readers of this blog loved that had a farming game where you had to check in every few days
to collect your stuff and decide what to try to harvest next. And it’s wasn’t
Farmville. It was Star Wars Galaxies. In many ways, the features that were seen
as oddest or least “gamer-like” in the worldy MMOs are going to be among core
features in the social games: housebuilding, shopkeeping, farming, dancing, dress-up, even
hairdressing. Right now, these are one-to-a-game. But one possible direction of development is
that they not be.
I have thoughts on what all this means for the core games we know and love, but I’ll leave
those for another day.
Editor’s introduction: Scientists have proposed compelling steps to ease specific kinds of
environmental damage and slow consumption of certain resources [see “ Solutions to
Environmental Threats ,”]. But Bill McKibben, scholar in residence at Middlebury College
and co-founder of climate action group 350.org , maintains that to truly stop ruining the planet,
society must break its most debilitating habit: growth.
In his new book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet , McKibben argues that humankind,
because of its actions, now lives on a fundamentally different world, which he calls
“Eaarth.” This celestial body can no longer support the economic growth model that
has driven society for 200 years. To avoid our own collapse, we must instead seek to maintain
wealth and resources, in large part by shifting to more durable, localized economies.
As public outrage over ACTA mounts, there have been a series of official responses to questions
posed by legislators or raised through access to information requests. In addition to
yesterday's statement from
International Trade Minister Peter Van Loan's office confirming Canada's support of release of the
ACTA text, recent documents or statements include:
David Lammy, United Kingdom Minister for Intellectual Property, has confirmed
his support for ACTA transparency: “The UK has long been in favour of greater transparency
in the ACTA negotiations, so I am very pleased that EU has now agreed that the draft ACTA text
should be placed in the public domain as soon as possible. This would allow much more open and
informed engagement with citizens, society, and parliaments.”
Several NZ
documents have been released under Access to Information. They include documents
outlining which organizations have been consulted and disclose that the New Zealand government
was initially interested in using ACTA to cover traditional knowledge such as Maori culture.
A European
Commission response to MEP Alexander Alvaro's questions on ACTA that focuses on cross-border
copyright enforcement.
A
lengthy letter from the Dutch Ministers of Economic Affairs and of Justice to the Dutch
Parliament on ACTA, addressing transparency and the legal competence of the EU and its Member
States to enter into the agreement.
A website that sorts everyday the most relevant information to you.
Vote for the news and Matoumba will learn your tastes and the information that you like the most.
It is all FREE!
Find here the history of the stories you found interesting.
Show this to people who share the same interests as you,
and if they use Matoumba, their own votes will fine recommandations to you.
The shortest way to describe this is that Google is no longer a verb. It's becoming
a noun. Not just the few clicks to find information, but the information itself and the
experience surrounding it.
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with 
His comment, "when the Drizzle team was moved into Google, they
just kept working on the their open source project and things stayed nearly the same."
Google's destiny to become the hub of the worlds information is
intertwined with history. And this comes with artifacts of policy and posturing. To start with,
not everyone agrees that Google should achieve a dominant cloud position. As we're noticing,
stopping it is another matter.
We see both practical and strategic reasons that Google has a
deep connection with the open source movement. Strategically, being the new optimized layer,
removing all historic barriers to information give the company more leverage. Practically,
solutions can be built where information is free.
Conference organizer Leipziger Messe will no longer operate its GC Asia event,
originally scheduled for this September in Singapore, citing the "overall currently prevailing
economic situation." "It is a regrettable, but necessary decision", says Jorg Zeissig, managing
director of LMI Asia. "We will continue to keep an eye on the Asian games market so that we can
pick up again with new concepts if this becomes appropriate." The event and its associated
developer conference ran ...
At the awards show, when a Zynga rep claimed the social games award for Farmville and did a
little bit of recruiting from the stage, he was not only booed, but someone shouted out,
“But you don’t make games!” This is a common sentiment out there in the usual
gamer haunts.
Recommandations
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and reject those that you are not interested in
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