p —bImagine shutters N-Revolution gaming mag/b : UK-based magazine publisher a href="http://www.imagine-publishing.co.uk/" title="Imagine"Imagine/a is pulling the plug on N-Revolution, its Nintendo-focused title. But don't blame this one on the economy—Imagine is folding the mag because its core gamer target doesn't seem to be Nintendo's focus anymore. "[It] has become increasingly obvious that Nintendo's strategy for Wii and DS ... has moved increasingly away from the hardcore gaming community that is our specialty," said Damian Butts, Imagine's managing director, in an a href="http://www.mcvuk.com/news/32563/Imagine-confirms-NRevolution-closure" title="interview with MCV"interview with MCV/a. /p p —bRed Bull sets up shop in PlayStation Home/b : Red Bull is developing an island inside iHome/i, Sony's long-awaited virtual world for the PS3. Gamers will be able to race planes on the island in competitions modeled after the real world a href="http://www.redbullairrace.com/" title="Red Bull Air Race World Series"Red Bull Air Race World Series/a. Red Bull is the first company to set up shop in Home. a href="http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/MostRead/866365/Red-Bull-becomes-first-brand-PlayStation-Home/" title="Brand Republic says"Brand Republic says/a Sony (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=SNE" class="ticker" title="SNE"NYSE: SNE/a) execs kept mum on additional brand partners, but said they'd announce them in the coming months. iHome/i's public beta is slated for the end of this year. /p p —bThe Army invades Second Life/b : Not content with using in-game ads to recruit gamers, the U.S. Army is going virtual, setting up operations in a href="http://www.secondlife.com/" title="Second Life"Second Life/a. The Army is building two islands in the world: one will serve as a welcome center with an info kiosk and the means to contact a recruiter, and the other will let residents test out various Army experiences, including jumping out of a plane and using a weapon. Residents that do well in the simulations can earn Lindens (virtual currency) that can be used to buy branded Army merchandise. It's a notable effort, though a href="http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/12/the-armys-new-f.html" title="Wired says"Wired says/a Army brass has realistic expectations for just how effective a recruitment tool Second Life will be. Still, no word on how they'll deal with the inevitable protesters ... or the escorts. /p p iMore after the jump./i /pp—bGiant Realm bows social media platform/b : Gamer-centric ad and media network Giant Realm has launched the Giant Realm Platform, a tool that gives online publishers (particularly in the gaming and young men's entertainment space) a way to add social media capabilities to their sites. Joining the Platform also nets publishers ad sales support, an advanced CMS and a unified portal at a href="http://www.gameriot.com/" title="GameRiot.com"GameRiot.com/a. Current participants include a href="http://guitarheronews.gameriot.com/" title="GuitarHeroNews"GuitarHeroNews/a and a href="http://starfeeder.gameriot.com/blogs/The-Starfeed" title="Starfeeder"Starfeeder/a, among others. a href="http://corp.giantrealm.com/press/" title="Release"Release/a. /p p —bKnowledge Adventure debuts kid-friendly virtual world/b : Educational game developer a href="http://knowledgeadventure.com/" title="Knowledge Adventure"Knowledge Adventure/a has launched a href="http://www.jumpstart.com/" title="JumpStart World"JumpStart World/a, a virtual world based on its JumpStart brand. Geared toward school-aged kids (and their parents) the world lets them create avatars, play learning games and socialize. JumpStart World runs on a $7.99 subscription, a href="http://www.worldsinmotion.biz/2008/12/knowledge_adventure.php" title="per Worlds In Motion"per Worlds In Motion/a.nbsp; /p p —bActivision (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=ATVI" class="ticker" title="ATVI"NSDQ: ATVI/a) working on iGuitar Hero 5/i/b : Activision Blizzard revealed plans for a host of new advertiser-friendly games during a href="Massive Installs New Leader, Seals Extended Ad Deals With Activision Blizzard" title="Massive's gaming upfront"Massive's gaming upfront/a in NYC, including iGuitar Hero 5 /i and a iTony Hawk/i game that will likely come with a skateboard-style controller. a href="http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/12/03/activision-announces-guitar-hero-5-new-tony-hawk-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2-more-at-in-game-ad-conference/"title="Via MTV Multiplayer"Via MTV Multiplayer/a. /p p!-- iMark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. a href="http://content.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=000010cb0000000000000000/SITE=PC_US/AAMSZ=PREMB_NEWS/relocate=http://marklogicdps.eventbrite.com/"Register now!/a/i --/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=H5QZSM"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=H5QZSM" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=oSYOO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=oSYOO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=TxOgO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=TxOgO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=ss3jo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=ss3jo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=Irr5O"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=Irr5O" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=7CBbO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=7CBbO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/475470084" height="1" width="1"/

This evening USA Today presented us with our first official still from Columbia Pictures' Season of the Witch, which I personally am extremely excited for. The image displays Nicolas Cage in some mediaeval gear riding a horse - and shockingly, it looks pretty good. "He has come back from the Crusades and has lost his faith in the church and in God," says producer Charles Roven. The story revolves around a group of knights in 14th century France who must transport a woman accused of witchcraft to a mountain abbey, where the monks will seek to understand and destroy her powers, believed to be the source of the Black Plague.

div style="margin-bottom: 10px; font-size: 10px;"posted by Neil/div So yesterday I flew down to Chicago to see the Amanda Palmer show. It was wonderful. I was going to sign for people with Amanda afterwards, but a deadline was growling at my heels so I nipped back onto the tour bus and wrote something for the span style="font-style:italic;"Independent on Sunday/span that was meant to be a Christmas Ghost story, but the ghost story I was writing was so damned depressing I decided to leave it for another time and wrote something about being being a little Jewish kid lobbying my parents for a Christmas Tree instead. The deadline was five in the morning (my time, 11.00 am London time)and it was done by one in the morning.br /br /I rode the tourbus home from Chicago. br /br /When I woke, there was an email from the editor in London saying she'd accepted it. I was thrilled and then I panicked -- what if my parents thought it was libellous? I sent it to my Dad, and got a message back saying he thought it was funny.br /br /Took Amanda, Zoe Keating and half the Danger Ensemble, and the dog to a trout farm. Ate too much trout, cooked wrapped in newspaper, later in the evening. All's good. I'm tired but well fed and happy...br /br /I'll try and do a catch up blog post soon, answering questions and such. In the meantime, I just want to say the best thing about being on a href="http://www.hbook.com/resources/books/fanfare/fanfare09.asp"the Horn Book's BEST OF THE YEAR list is the company I get to keep/a. It's good to be on a list with Margo Lanagan and Terry Pratchett...br /br /And Barnes and Noble has me talking about three of my favourite children's book up at a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/guestbooks/"http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bn-review/guestbooks//a... div class="label_list" style="margin-top: 20px; padding-left: 15px; text-indent: -15px; font-size: 78%/1.4em; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Trebuchet,Arial,Verdana,sans-serif; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: .1em;"strongLabels:/strongnbsp; a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/It%27s%20me%20that%27s%20trout-filled%20actually%20not%20the%20post" style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"It's me that's trout-filled actually not the post/a, a href="http://journal.neilgaiman.com/search/label/amanda%20palmer" style="color: #999; text-transform: uppercase;"amanda palmer/a/div

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/69467?ns=guardianpageName=Education%3A+Betraying+the+student+body%3Fch=Educationc3=The+Guardianc4=Students%2CGender+%28News%29%2CWomen+and+women%27s+interests%2CEducation%2CLife+and+style%2CWorld+newsc5=Not+commercially+useful%2CEducation+Weekly+Education%2CWomen%2CStudents+Educationc6=Emine+Sanerc7=2008_12_05c8=1129229c9=articlec10=GUc11=Educationc12=Studentsc13=c14=h2=GU%2FEducation%2FStudents" width="1" height="1" //divpOver the past few months, a series of beauty contests has been held in London. So far, so sexist. But what distinguishes this particular competition is that all the women taking part are students at some of London's best universities. Last week, for instance, Lile He, a politics and economics student, was named Miss School of Oriental and African Studies (Soas), at a pageant staged at a nightclub. And at the final in February she will compete against female students from five other universities - including the London School of Economics, King's College and University College London. /ppAround 400 students have entered the competition; some were "spotted" at nightclubs and encouraged to apply, while others filled out an online application form, giving information about their age and height, and answering searching questions such as "Which Sex and the City character would you most relate to?" The winner will receive prizes from the event's sponsors, which include the cosmetics company Clinique and a jewellery firm. /ppWhile some women have clearly embraced the pageant concept with open arms, the contest is a source of consternation and protest for others. At the "Miss Soas" event there was a rally, with around 40 students carrying banners and signs, and shouting slogans such as "Soas is for education, not for your ejaculation!" Eleanor James, women's officer at the Soas Student Union, helped to organise the protest and says that she sees the beauty contest "as part of the backlash against the fragile gains that feminism has won. I think it's really sad this is happening, but it doesn't surprise me because, at the moment in universities, you find pole dancing societies; because of top-up fees, there are students who work in lap-dancing clubs. So having a beauty pageant is a natural progression."/ppThe Miss University London contest was started in 2006 by Christian Emile. A former student at LSE, Emile was organising student events for nightclubs when a friend from Italy - where beauty pageants are relatively common - suggested they try to launch one here. Emile's company, 121 Entertainment, br /organises other events for nightclubs, including the supply of belly dancers. He describes the university beauty pageant as "a bit of fun" and says that, contrary to some reports, the women involved have not been asked to give waist and breast measurements. "I can understand the apprehension, but it's due largely to a misconception of the event," he says. "We don't have a bikini contest, the girls wear evening dresses of their own choosing and there are a series of questions to demonstrate their personality and charisma." But the competition is, basically, about their physical appearance? "Yes, I'm not denying that. But I want to emphasise that a lot of it has to do with personality." Fair enough, although it's arguable how much you can deduce by asking questions such as "What three items would you take to a desert island?"./pp"I don't think it objectifies women," he says. "If you talk to any of the contestants, they will tell you it is actually empowering. They get their moment in the spotlight, it's a bit of fun." Keelin Gavaghan, an accountancy undergraduate who was named as Miss London School of Economics at that university's heat last month, has said that she fails "to see what is wrong with feeling glamorous for one night. We hardly sold our souls. Nowadays I believe that we are post-feminism." /ppLooking into the set-up of the event - the venues where it is held, the audiences it attracts - I started to wonder just who it is aimed at. Most of the preliminary rounds are being held at the Crystal Club in London, which markets itself as an exclusive venue that has "hosted some of the world's most celebrated elite society". There is a pound;15 fee to get in, with tables then costing up to pound;1,000. To have a bottle of vodka or champagne delivered to your table costs at least pound;150, while drinks at the bar average around pound;8. It seems very expensive for students. "You do get students who can afford that," says Emile. "If you want to come and have a drink at the bar, that's fine. But if you want a pound;1,000 table, that's also fine." The tickets are available by guestlist and Emile admits that the contest isn't only open to a student audience. According to some reports, around a third of the 300 people at one event were not students, but older men. Emile disagrees, saying about "five non-students go to the events", including, he says, a professional footballer or two, "though I can't say who". At last year's pageant, the London Student newspaper approached the Arsenal striker Nicklas Bendtner, who told a reporter, "I came here for the pretty girls." Much has been made of the idea that the contest benefits the charity Cancer Research, but Emile says that while his company "tries" to give 20% of the event's profits to them, "it depends on how much we make"./ppMiss University London isn't the only beauty pageant for students. Earlier this year, a beauty contest called Miss Student Body was launched in Edinburgh, with contestants from five colleges in the city. It was forced to close when the organisers ran out of money. /ppEmile plans to launch his beauty contests in university cities around the country over the next few years, and there is already a popular national competition, Miss Student UK, which advertises at freshers' fairs and in nightclubs popular among students: the first prize is pound;10,000. The website for Miss Student UK includes pictures and videos uploaded by women, in which they are often wearing nothing more than a bikini or underwear, or are dressed as Playboy bunnies. In 2006, Loughborough University student union hosted the FHM "High Street Honeys Tour", where female students were "spotted" to appear in shoots for the men's magazine. Loughborough has also held a "Playboy mansion party" with performances from pole dancers. York University has a pole dancing club, and other universities, including Warwick and Bath, have sold calendars of female students posing in their underwear./ppAll of this may be indicative of a new sexism in student life. But many women are fighting back. Katie Curtis, the National Union of Students' women's officer, says that "it is unacceptable for events which objectify women to take place in our educational institutions. Universities should be about expanding people's minds, not judging them on their appearance." /ppRuby Buckley, women's officer at LSE, and part of the group that has been protesting against these events, agrees. I ask her why she thinks educated young women are choosing to get involved in a contest that seems, at best, like a sad throwback to a more sexist age. She says some of the contestants are finding ways to justify taking part "but it's an illusion, a con from society telling women that this is emancipation. I think what summed it up for me was when one contestant was asked, 'Would you rather have brains or beauty?' and she said beauty, because if she wasn't beautiful, nobody would want to listen to her anyway. This isn't fulfilling, to be ogled at and judged and it's such a shame that these are educated women, who could be the future leaders of the world, who are not standing up and questioning what they are doing. They are worth more than this competition and they need to realise that."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/students"Students/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gender"Gender/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/women"Women/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/v4-bKfr1w2w2jsWlE7yx_lJG5Ac/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/v4-bKfr1w2w2jsWlE7yx_lJG5Ac/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Inspired by this excellent post, I propose that Thalaivar be appointed India’s prime minister for life. I demand the appointment must be made with immediate effect. Here are the advantages of making Thalaivar our next PM:

1. They won’t be any need for a cabinet. Thalaivar can function as PM in the morning, defense minister in the afternoon, finance minister in the evening and can entertain the humanity by dancing on national television in the night.

2. Similarly, there won’t be any need for IB, RAW, Army–the works. The next time dushman nations attack India, Thalaivar will magically reach the location and kill all the terrorists with a swipe of his hand. Alternatively, he can attempt to seduce them by showing his movies ala Rakhi Sawant. If any additional help is required, Sunny Deol, who once threatened to flood Pakistan by pissing in that direction, would be enlisted.

3. Imagine the savings on defense budget. And police. And everything else.

4. There will no longer be any religious riots–only one religion will be permitted–Thalavism. Babri Masjid-Ram Temple would be replaced by 1600 feet tall cutout of the Thalaivar.

5. No more Bollywood vs Tollywood vs Mollywood debates. The entire film industry would be shut down–why would we need them?

6. Number 5 will mean no more of Amitabh Bachhan. Yes!

7. Our prime minister will never age. He will always be just ”fresh out of college”.

8. Naturally, he will never die too.

9. Instead of boring blue turbans, we will see hairstyles of dazzaling hues.

10. Bal Thackeray will be too busy claiming Thalaivar as Marathi Manoos to bother the rest of us.

What else?

And remember, you first heard it here.

Posted in Media/Blog watch      

pimg src="http://paidcontent.org/images/uploads/McAndrewsB_web.jpg" alt="image" align="right" width="140" height="148" /Buried in the release that a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-microsoft-digital-head-exists-or-will-by-next-week-qi-lu-likely-to-be-n/" title="Yahoo's Qi Lu is joining Microsoft "Yahoo's Qi Lu is joining Microsoft /a as president of its Online Services Group was the news that Brian McAndrews is resigning his post as SVP, Microsoft's Advertiser Publisher Solutions Group. McAndrews, the former CEO of aQuantive, relinquished his title when Microsoft (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=MSFT" class="ticker" title="MSFT"NSDQ: MSFT/a) bought his company for $6 billion in August 2007. /p p -- bA losing battle/b: McAndrews was often mentioned for the role that Qi Lu is taking on, which became open when Kevin Johnson a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-industry-moves-microsofts-kevin-johnson-out-unit-reorg-coming/" title="exited the post"exited the post/a at Microsoft and joined Juniper in July. He had been given high marks for the making aQuantive fit fairly nicely into Microsoft's different culture and structure. Clearly, the choice of Qi Lu over McAndrews means he lost the battle to replace Johnson. Despite his good work, in many ways, McAndrews was considered a longshot. The Microsoft purchase made him very rich, and therefore unlikely to want to work for someone else—especially someone like the hard-to-please Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. McAndrews isn't going anywhere at the moment and will take the next few months to "transition out" of his job. So while he ponders his next move, he would be an interesting—and ironic—candidate for Yahoo's open CEO role. a href="http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2008/dec08/12-04CorpDec4PR.mspx" title="Release"Release/a /p pstrongRelated/strong/p ul class="related" lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-microsoft-digital-head-exists-or-will-by-next-week-qi-lu-likely-to-be-n" title="Updated: Microsoft Has Decided On A New Head Of Digital; Names Qi Lu"Updated: Microsoft Has Decided On A New Head Of Digital; Names Qi Lu/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-msft-exec-yusuf-mehdi-upped-to-lead-online-services-but-not-as-presiden"Industry Moves: MSFT's Mehdi Upped To Lead Much Of Online Services—But Not As President: Report/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-microsofts-help-wanted-head-of-advertising-needed-possibly-a-palin"Microsoft's Help Wanted: Head Of Advertising Needed, Possibly A 'Palin'/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-microsoft-shakes-up-online-team-mcandrews-upped-will-he-be-heading-yaho"Microsoft Shakes up Online Team; McAndrews Upped; Will He Be Heading Yahoo?/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-more-changes-coming-at-microsoft-steve-berkowitz-brian-mcandrews-kevin-"More Changes Coming At Microsoft: Steve Berkowitz, Brian McAndrews, Kevin Johnson/a/li /ul p!-- iMark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. a href="http://content.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=000010cb0000000000000000/SITE=PC_US/AAMSZ=PREMB_NEWS/relocate=http://marklogicdps.eventbrite.com/"Register now!/a/i --/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=BXQCTX"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=BXQCTX" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=MJZnO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=MJZnO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=2pcWO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=2pcWO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=nXO8o"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=nXO8o" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=UeBpO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=UeBpO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=2I7dO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=2I7dO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/475145288" height="1" width="1"/

Numerous media outlets have recently reported that MSNBC's Chris Matthews has "met" with party officials in Pennsylvania to discuss a potential run for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Arlen Specter. In a December 4 article, Politico reported Matthews "is dead serious about running for the Senate in Pennsylvania -- and is shopping for a house in the state and privately discussing quitting MSNBC as proof of his intense interest, according to NBC colleagues, political operatives and friends." Blogger and Democratic strategist Phil Singer asserted in a December 1 blog post, "If Chris Matthews is seriously considering a run ... he shouldn't be on the air right now." Singer, who was communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2006 and deputy communications director for Sen. Hillary Clinton during her presidential campaign, went on to ask: "How could he do an interview with [Democratic Pennsylvania Gov.] Ed Rendell?" Noting the interview question raised by Singer, Huffington Post political reporter Jason Linkins wrote the same day that "Singer should take a peek at some of Matthews' interviews with Rendell from over the past year! They are highlighted by a lot of gooey ass-kissing."

Indeed, examples over the past year of Matthews' gushing over Rendell during interviews with the governor or when talking about him are numerous, and include the following:

• During the 6 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC's November 4 presidential election coverage, during an interview with Rendell in which Rendell said, "We're doing especially well in the Philadelphia suburbs, which you know have always been a swing area," Matthews replied: "Well, that's the Rendell strength you've just described. That's where you've always done incredibly well: the suburbs of Philly, the city itself, of course, where you were mayor." Matthews later said, "Well, you're the best political analyst in Pennsylvania, Governor."
• During the 8 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC's November 4 presidential election coverage, after MSNBC called Pennsylvania for President-elect Barack Obama, Matthews said, "I think it's a big victory for the young people who ran the Pennsylvania campaign -- Craig Schirmer, Sean Smith, Leslie -- no, I feel like the Academy Award giving out the awards here. Of course, the Philadelphia organization led by Bob Brady and Michael Nutter, of course, the mayor. And, of course, the big winner here, besides the candidate: Ed Rendell, who delivered. This was not his favorite candidate, Barack Obama."
• During the 9 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC's November 4 presidential election coverage, Matthews said, "You know, you're going to see, perhaps, the emergence of Cabinet material already tonight. Of course, [New Mexico Gov.] Bill Richardson could fill almost any role in the new government, and [Gov. Ted] Strickland of Ohio and, of course, Rendell of Pennsylvania. These are big governors, big wins, essential wins, but big wins. They're going to play a part in this next administration."
• During an interview with Rendell on the October 23 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Matthews prefaced a question by saying, "I want to run this by you because you're the best pol in the state."
• During the April 2 edition of MSNBC's Race for the White House with David Gregory, Matthews said of the Pennsylvania governor: "I think Eddie Rendell is the smartest politician in this state, as we know."
• During an interview with Rendell on the March 31 edition of Hardball, Matthews asked Rendell: "Would you be available ... to be a running mate with [then-Democratic primary rivals Sens.] Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?" Matthews later went on to say, "I think you'd be a great running -- I understand the situation at home and your responsibilities to the commonwealth. Anyway, I'm here to build you up because I do think you're the best pol around." He added: "[Y]ou're running a hell of a campaign for Hillary Clinton."
• During the opening of the February 13 edition of Hardball, during which he teased an upcoming interview with Rendell, Matthews said: "We'll ask one of the smartest people in politics, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who's on Senator Clinton's side in this fight."
• During the 8 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC's January 8 presidential primary election coverage and during an interview with Rendell in which Rendell and Matthews discussed potential vice-presidential choices for the Democratic ticket, Rendell said: "[T]here are a wealth of good candidates. I mean, if Barack Obama was our candidate for president, I think Joe Biden with his foreign policy and terrorism experience would be perfect. I mean, we've got a whole host of good candidates." Matthews replied: "No, you'd be actually better, because you're very good at slicing up the opposition." He went on to say, "You'd be a great VP running mate."

Media coverage of Matthews' potential Senate run dates back at least to April of 2008. On the April 14 edition of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, host Stephen Colbert said, "There's a lot of talk that you might be running for Arlen Specter's seat." Matthews responded, in part, "I want to be a senator." Around that time, other reported rumors of Matthews' possible run for U.S. Senate emerged. In the May 2 edition of the Politically Uncorrected Column, titled, "Chris Matthews: Ready to Play Hardball in PA," Dr. G. Terry Madonna, professor of public affairs at Franklin & Marshall College, and Dr. Michael Young, managing partner of Michael Young Strategic Research wrote:

Now no longer the center ring for the traveling Democratic presidential nomination circus, Pennsylvania's inventive political community has discovered a new favorite political parlor game to while away the brisk springtime evenings: will Chris Matthews, the irrepressible host of MSNBC's Hardball, step down from his pundits perch to run for the US Senate against Arlen Specter in 2010? To a remarkable degree, speculation abounds over this possibility in the Keystone State.

In a May 6 post to the Pennsylvania Avenue blog titled "The Chris Matthews rumor gets legs," Josh Drobnyk reported that "two of the state's [Pennsylvania's] top political scientists, G. Terry Madonna and Mike Young, have now weighed in. They think the 'Hardball' host is likely to do it." The post continued:

A Matthews candidacy has been the stuff of rumors so far -- and it is likely to stay that way for the next several months -- but the 62-year-old Pennsylvania native fueled talk when he told Stephen Colbert last month that he wants "to be a senator."

"The indications that Matthews will run are abundant," Madonna and Young wrote. "His MSNBC contract runs out next summer, and both he and the network show signs they might be ready for a break from each other. In addition, journalists are reporting that Matthews has been seeking advice privately from key Democrats across the state about his chances against Specter. Reportedly these contacts have included discussion with Governor Rendell concerning campaign resources."

Then, in a May 9 post to the Chicago Tribune's blog The Swamp, Drobnyk reported that Matthews' brother, "Republican Jim Matthews, a Montgomery County Commissioner," said of Chris Matthews' potential run for Senate: "It is kind of neat to see a guy at the top of his game contemplating a complete change in direction." Drobnyk wrote:

"His intrigue with the idea is certainly on his mind," Jim Matthews said of a Senate run. "That is real."

But Jim said his older brother isn't yet taking any formal steps towards a run.

"Of course he has had dialogue with friends," he said. "He has friends he has dialogue with about the Phillies too. ... You talk with friends and it comes up now and then."

In an April 13 article, Mark Leibovich suggested in The New York Times Magazine that Matthews has been talking with Rendell about a possible Senate run. From the article:

The more intriguing notion is that Matthews could challenge Senator Arlen Specter, who is up for re-election in Pennsylvania in 2010. This has been rumored before, but Matthews has been particularly obsessed with Pennsylvania of late, devoting hours on and off the air to the state's upcoming Democratic primary, staying in close contact with the state's party apparatus. "I talked to Eddie Rendell today," Matthew [sic] told me on the phone a few weeks ago, urging me again to call the Pennsylvania governor.

[...]

I asked him about the Senate rumors. He thinks Specter has hung on way too long, he said, but running would require Matthews to give up a career he loves. Still, "I get a great feeling when I go home," he told me. "Is Thomas Wolfe right? Can you go home again?

"Really, you should talk to Eddie Rendell."

Additionally, a July 27 Patriot-News article quoted Matthews' wife as saying, " 'I think the idea of being a U.S. senator is one of the most romantic things he can think about, so he's got to make a tough decision.' " Moreover, the article quoted Rendell saying that he had given "advice" to Matthews about his potential bid. From the article:

"I told Chris that I think it's going to be tough," said Gov. Ed Rendell, a Matthews favorite on "Hardball."

"I said that if Arlen Specter is the candidate -- and I have every reason to believe he will be -- it's going to be a tough battle for anybody," Rendell said. He said that the only advice he has given Matthews is: "Go into it with your eyes wide open. This isn't going to be a slam dunk."

Matthews has previously denied that he intends to run. In an April 22 Philadelphia Inquirer piece (accessed via Nexis) by columnist Jonathan Storm, titled "10 questions to Chris Matthews, and the uninterrupted answers," Matthews was asked if he was "really going to run for the Senate against Arlen Specter in 2010?" He responded, "I am still honoring the commitment I made in 1987 to cover politics, not engage in it."

Media outlets, including Politico and Roll Call, have reported that several other Democrats are considering running in the primary. According to a November 29 report on The Patriot-News' website, "If Matthews decides to run, he could face a fight for the Democratic nomination." The Patriot-News added: "Three other Democrats are believed to be interested in the Senate seat: two-term U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak of Delaware County, state Rep. Josh Shapiro of Montgomery County, and three-term U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz, who represents parts of Montgomery County and Philadelphia."

In his December 1 blog post, Singer wrote that "when one of the network's most visible anchors is reported to be exploring a run for elected office, the network has an obligation to remove that person from its airwaves." Singer continued, providing "a few reasons why":

If Matthews is going to run as a Democrat in what will likely be a contested primary, will he be willing to play hardball when his fellow Democrats are in the news? How could he do an interview with Ed Rendell? How could he be trusted to cover the Obama transition and other political issues without fear or favor? More to the point, will viewers think he is covering politics without fear or favor? [emphasis in original]

From the November 4 edition of MSNBC's presidential election coverage:

MATTHEWS: You know, you're going to see, perhaps, the emergence of cabinet material already tonight. Of course, [New Mexico Gov.] Bill Richardson could fill almost any role in the new government, and [Gov. Ted] Strickland of Ohio and, of course, Rendell of Pennsylvania. These are big governors, big wins, essential wins, but big wins. They're gonna play a part in this next administration.

From the November 4 edition of MSNBC's presidential election coverage:

DAVID GREGORY (NBC chief White House correspondent): And so, here we are. This is a look at the national vote. You see it's Obama with the lead, 103 electoral votes, McCain now with 34. He needs 270 to win. Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Chris Matthews.

MATTHEWS: I thought it might happen tonight. And I have to say right now that the McCain campaign strategy for victory has crashed. Their plan to win was to go through Pennsylvania, to get to the White House through that state. The second battle of Gettysburg has gone the same as the first one, a failure for the Republicans.

I think it's a big victory for the young people who ran the Pennsylvania campaign -- Craig Schirmer, Sean Smith, Leslie -- I feel like the Academy Award giving out the awards here. Of course, the Philadelphia organization led by Bob Brady and Michael Nutter, of course, the mayor. And, of course, the big winner here, besides the candidate: Ed Rendell, who delivered. This was not his favorite candidate, Barack Obama.

GREGORY: Right.

From the November 4 edition of MSNBC's presidential election coverage:

MATTHEWS: Let's go to the action now. Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania joins us now. Governor Rendell, you've playing -- you've been playing defense in those blue states. The number one target, it seems to me, of the Republicans has been to take Pennsylvania away from the Democrats. How does it look tonight?

RENDELL: Well, Senator McCain and Governor Palin spent so much time here the last five weeks, Chris, I was thinking of charging them state income tax. But -- but they really made a terrific effort here, and I congratulate them for trying to convert retail campaigning into a victory. They did a good job, and I think they energized their base. But I think we're gonna win.

The turnouts are exceptional statewide. I think we're gonna break the record that -- for modern-day voting that we had in the Kennedy-Nixon election. We're doing especially well in the Philadelphia suburbs, which you know have always been a swing area. I think Barack Obama may come out of the Philadelphia suburbs 200,000 votes up, out of the city at least 400,000 votes up, out of the Lehigh Valley 25,000 votes up. And if he puts together that string, and he's 625 to 650 up, he can't be caught in any other part of the state, regardless of what happens.

MATTHEWS: Well, that's the Rendell strength you've just described. That's where you've always done incredibly well: the suburbs of Philly, the city itself, of course, where you were mayor. How does it look out west? I know that has been a troubling area, Westmoreland County. It's culturally conservative, Jack Murtha's area. What's it look like out there?

RENDELL: Well, my guess is it's gonna be a lot closer out there, and we'll know pretty fast. I'm gonna try to get some divisions reported to me in the first 10 or 15 minutes. Take Beaver County, 51-49 for Kerry. That's right north of Pittsburgh. It's white working class predominantly. If Barack Obama can stay close to the Kerry total -- 50, 51, 49 percent -- he's going to win the state and win it handily. If he gets down into the 40s -- 43, 44, 42 -- then there could be -- it could be a long night here in Pennsylvania. That's Beaver and Washington, Westmoreland, as you said, those counties.

It's gonna be interesting to watch. I think Barack's gonna do better in central Pennsylvania than a lot of people give him credit for. The northeast, he's helped mightily by Joe Biden. So it's a tough road to hoe for the McCain forces. But again, give them credit, the retail campaign, they did it well. They fired up the base. There was so much red meat going around, it was unbelievable.

MATTHEWS: How was Hillary -- Senator Clinton was up there a lot with you. You're very close to her and, of course, the former President Bill Clinton. He has been campaigning, I saw the other day, for Murtha and for [Rep. Paul] Kanjorski [D-PA]. How powerful were they in delivering their vote today?

RENDELL: I think you'll get -- of the women supporters for Hillary Clinton, I think close to 95 percent will vote for Barack Obama. Hillary did an extraordinary job with her presence throughout the state. She was in Pittsburgh yesterday. Bill Clinton was in Wilkes-Barre, Johnstown, and Erie yesterday. So, I think the Clinton feminist voters are all for Barack.

The working-class, blue-collar white voters who Hillary did so well with and, really, became the champion of, they're gonna split. I think Barack's gonna maintain a significant hunk of them, a good enough hunk to win. Obviously not going to do as well as Hillary did among that group, but I think he's gonna surprise some people.

MATTHEWS: Well, you're the best political analyst in Pennsylvania, Governor. Thank you. You really split it there. I think you're -- that was very interesting, what he just said. The fact that the women who care about women's issues -- of choice, of minimum wage, the concerns women want for equal employment, equal pay -- Hillary delivered the vote. It is very hard to deliver some of the vote, however, it's very culturally conservative, that liked Hillary because she was a traditional Democrat, and to bring them all over was a hard job for her.

From the October 23 edition of MSNBC's Hardball (accessed via Nexis):

RENDELL: Well, I think their theory is that most of the undecided votes will break for them and that there are some people who are not answering the question when pollsters ask them, "Who are you voting for?" Some people refuse to answer, and they're finding solace in that.

But as you know, Chris, the polls have been almost exclusively double digits. Susquehanna had a poll beginning of the week that said it was 8 points, but the polls have -- other polls have consistently held it at double digits.

But look, I'm nervous, and I'm nervous for no other reason than they're making a great effort here. Senator McCain and Governor Palin are here a lot. Governor Palin back again today, Senator McCain in three spots yesterday. So they're pulling out all the stops here, and we've got to be ready to defend. And you know, we're doing a good job defending. The issues speak for themselves. And most Pennsylvanians are targeted on the economy and health care, and those issues break strongly for the Obama campaign.

MATTHEWS: I know you've been very supportive of Governor -- of Senator McCain, and you were very supportive, extremely supportive of Senator Clinton and Bill Clinton before that. I'm trying to figure out what's missing in this campaign that would bring it home for the Democrats in Pennsylvania. And I just wonder if there's something that hasn't been said by either candidate, including by Barack. I want to run this by you because you're the best pol in the state, and ask this question.

When you talk to the average guy out there, especially the guy -- and let's be blunt, the white guy because he's in play right now -- he takes pride in being a provider. My dad -- you know, my dad was like that. You take pride in bringing the food home, getting the kids something for Christmas, maybe a week vacation somewhere at the shore. You take pride in being able to take care of your family, and that's the crisis everybody faces right now, taking care of your family.

Do you think Barack Obama has done a good enough job of talking to that average guy out there about how he will be of some modest help and will not get in the guy's way by raising taxes on him?

RENDELL: Yes. I think in the last six, seven weeks, since the economy became in a crisis mode, I think he's done a terrific job speaking to what the average person is worried about -- their own pocketbook, their own budget. I think he's been enormously effective. He's driven home the fact that for working families that make less than $250,000, he's going to give them a tax cut bigger than McCain. He's not going to raise taxes. I think he's driven that home.

From the April 2 edition of MSNBC's Race for the White House with David Gregory:

MATTHEWS: That said, I think Eddie Rendell is the smartest politician in this state, as we know, and he said the lead is shrinking. I think Eddie would like us to think going into this that it's going to be about three points for Hillary Clinton, his candidate. It ends up being about eight. The confetti comes down, they say they beat the spread. I would say that's the game they're playing right now.

From the March 31 edition of MSNBC's Hardball:

MATTHEWS: Would you be available, Governor, to be a running mate with Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton?

RENDELL: No. No. I said, Chris, I'm going to finish my term here. And who in their right mind would want someone like me to be their running mate? You know, if they came up and said, "What do you think of the presidential candidates' environmental policy that he released today?"

MATTHEWS: Oh, yeah, I'll tell you -

RENDELL: I'd say, "Fair, you know, fair." You know, I have this problem of telling the truth all the time and --

MATTHEWS: Well, I think you'd carry Pennsylvania and save it for the Democrats 'cause it is a little bit precarious with John McCain running. And I think you'd bring back in -- you'd bring Ohio in. And I think you'd make Hillary competitive -- or Barack competitive in Florida. I think you'd be a great running -- I understand the situation at home and your responsibilities to the commonwealth. Anyway, I'm here to build you up because I do think you're the best pol around. Hey, thank you, Governor --

RENDELL: Thanks, Chris.

MATTHEWS: -- you're running a hell of a campaign for Hillary Clinton.

RENDELL: And we're gonna --

MATTHEWS: If she doesn't win by 10 points, it's not your fault.

RENDELL: There you go.

MATTHEWS: OK, thank you, sir.

RENDELL: See you.

MATTHEWS: Thank you, Governor Ed Rendell of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

From the February 13 edition of MSNBC's Hardball:

MATTHEWS: So how will the Clinton campaign stop Obama? Put another way, can the Clinton campaign stop Obama? We'll ask one of the smartest people in politics, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who's on Senator Clinton's side in this fight.

From MSNBC's January 8 primary election coverage:

MATTHEWS: You know, everybody would have said, maybe even a couple weeks ago, the idea of the first woman president and the first African-American vice-president serving together was unbelievable, incredible. But you know, when you look at the excitement for Barack Obama, as I and the other reporters have seen up there in New Hampshire, and you look at the results out of Iowa and the unclear results tonight, but yet the fact that the national polls now show Hillary and Obama very close, you begin to think maybe this could be a ticket. Why not? Why do we think so traditionally and say one has to win and one has to go home?

RENDELL: Well, you're absolutely right, Chris. Remember, when Bill Clinton picked Al Gore, that was political heresy. You don't pick two guys from neighboring states. Never done before. And yet it turned out to be a pretty dynamic ticket that energized Democrats and independents throughout the country. So, I'm not saying that's impractical, but my hope is -- and I've been listening to you guys for a couple days now -- my hope is if this is close tonight and if it has a long length, this primary battle, that it doesn't turn nasty. Because if it turns nasty, that would be hard to construct a ticket based on Obama and Clinton.

OLBERMANN: Governor--

RENDELL: You know, there's a -- there are a wealth of good candidates. I mean, if Barack Obama was our candidate for president, I think Joe Biden with his foreign policy and terrorism experience would be perfect. I mean, we've got a whole host of good candidates.

MATTHEWS: No, you'd be actually better, because you're very good at slicing up the opposition. You know, the Democrats have not been well-served by their last two vice-presidential nominees. Neither Al Gore -- or, rather, neither Joe Lieberman, certainly, who seemed to be wanting to join the club that Dick Cheney was the boss of, or John Edwards, who was running for his own campaign four years hence -- neither wanted to play that role of the VP nominee, which you know is to take apart the nominee for the presidency of the other party. And if you don't do that job, you really don't deserve to get the big one, do you?

RENDELL: Well, I think that's right, Chris. Politics is obviously a contact sport. But you've got to take them apart fairly and on substance. I think if you look at the poll, the Romney poll from tonight, that 30 percent of -- of the people who voted in the Republican primary were turned off by those ads. The ads have got to be substantial, they've got to point out real problems. I mean, you've got to be able to say, "Hey, guys, do we want to go back to the days when a woman who wanted an abortion was forced to have it in the back alley with a, you know, a hanger?" You don't want to do that. Do you want to have health care for all Americans and contain health care costs? Those are the type of things you've got to point out. And there are weaknesses in what I believe the approach has been of the Bush administration, and I haven't heard any difference among any of the candidates about a different approach. Tell me, has anybody said --

MATTHEWS: You're making my point, Governor. You're making my point. You'd be a great VP running mate.

RENDELL: There you go. There you go.

OLBERMANN: All right, Governor Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania. Great thanks. We're going to cut away and go up to Romney headquarters, where the man who is going to finish second tonight in New Hampshire is about to address his supporters.

pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/motorsports/" rel="tag"Motorsports/a, a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/honda/" rel="tag"Honda/a/pimg vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/12/83234204_450op.jpg" /br /br /According to several reports, Honda has put its F1 team up for sale and if the automaker doesn't find a suitor before the start of the season in March, it won't be campaigning in 2009.br /br /An unnamed source told Reuters that Honda team bosses Ross Brawn and Nick Fry said, "They have a month to find a buyer, otherwise they are closing the team." Autocar reports that a media lunch was cancelled this week and that a staff meeting at Honda Team HQ in Brackley was called this evening and an official statement will follow tomorrow morning from Japan.br /br /The reason for the decision is due to the current economic climate and the cost of developing a competitive car that abides by the 2009 rules. Finding someone to back the team during these tumultuous times is going to prove difficult and there's already talk that Bernie Ecclestone may step in to attempt to work out a deal to keep Honda around.br /br /More information should follow tomorrow. Thanks to all who tipped in.br /br /[Sources: a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSTRE4B379P20081204"Reuters/a, a href="http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle/AllCars/236363/"Autocar/a, a href="http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?id=44707"ITV/a | Image: Clive Mason/Getty]p style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/04/honda-f1-team-for-sale-no-buyer-means-no-2009-season/"Honda F1 team for sale, no buyer means no 2009 season/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Thu, 04 Dec 2008 17:48:00 EST. Please see our a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/04/honda-f1-team-for-sale-no-buyer-means-no-2009-season/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/1391631/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email this/anbsp;|nbsp;a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/04/honda-f1-team-for-sale-no-buyer-means-no-2009-season/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/nvqhCFfdBWPW7grVFXJQh5-ny-c/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/nvqhCFfdBWPW7grVFXJQh5-ny-c/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=xTRSYyLz"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=xTRSYyLz" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?a=LtB1MMGP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/weblogsinc/autoblog?i=LtB1MMGP" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/weblogsinc/autoblog/~4/cu7mbiEljhQ" height="1" width="1"/

pimg src="http://paidcontent.org/images/uploads/rnwk_laptop.gif" alt="image" align="right" width="139" height="143" /RealNetworks (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=RNWK" class="ticker" title="RNWK"NSDQ: RNWK/a) is laying off roughly 7.5 percent of its staff, about 130 people across the company, and cutting 30 contract positions and consultants, the Seattle-based company announced in a href="http://investor.realnetworks.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1299933-08-5640" title="an SEC filing"an SEC filing/a this afternoon. From the brief filing (the legal mumbo jumbo is longer than the text):nbsp; "The Company eliminated the foregoing positions to reduce operating costs in light of slowing consumer and business spending due to the current economic downturn. Notwithstanding the reduction in force, the Company expects to achieve record revenue for full year 2008." The filing confirmed a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10113553-36.html" title="an earlier report"an earlier report/a by CNET News. /p p From a href="http://realnetworksblog.com/?p=175" title="the company blog"the company blog/a, a positive spin on layoffs: "To put this in context, we still expect to report record revenue for the year, and as our strong balance sheet would suggest, we are well positioned to take advantage of strategic growth and investment opportunities as they arise." Also, some compassion from the company: "Departing employees can conduct job searches for other positions at Real or elsewhere from their offices here, or, if they prefer, from home.nbsp; Everyone will remain on the payroll through the end of the year, plus each will be offered a cash severance package based on their length of service.nbsp; Because of the unusual and difficult economic times, these severance packages include outplacement services and six months of COBRA healthcare coverage." /p p Also, in related news, the RNWK-Viacom (a href="http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidcontent?Page=QUOTETicker=VIA" class="ticker" title="VIA"NYSE: VIA/a) online music JV Rhapsody America will not be shut down its NYC offices, contrary to a href="http://gawker.com/5101778/mtv-closing-rhapsody-office" title="earlier reports"earlier reports/a this morning. The company has denied it, but there have been layoffs at the music JV, and according a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10113553-36.html" title="to News.com"to News.com/a, they were cut from the JV's office space at Viacom headquarters. It did a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-in-other-news-realnetworks-to-lay-off-24-employees-in-music-division-re" title="do some layoffs"do some layoffs/a from this division earlier in January. For the complications in this JV, read our earlier posts a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-10-q-watch-realnetworks-lays-out-risks-of-rhapsody-america/" title="here"here/a and a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-10-k-watch-realnetworks-call-put-rights-with-rhapsody-amercia-jv-with-m/" title="here"here/a. br / /p pstrongRelated/strong/p ul class="related" lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-filings-watch-realnetworks-new-games-president-compensation-and-hopes/" class="entry_title"Filings Watch: RealNetworks' New Games President: Compensation and Hopes, Despite Delays/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-earnings-realnetworks-in-losses-for-q3-games-help-increase-revenues/" class="entry_title"Earnings: RealNetworks Reports Losses For Q3; Games Help Increase Revenues/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-realnetworks-earnings-call-glaser-most-turbulent-environment-since-we-s/" class="entry_title"RealNetworks Earnings Call: Glaser: Most Turbulent Environment Since We Started Our Business/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-10-q-watch-realnetworks-lays-out-risks-of-rhapsody-america/" title="10-Q Watch: RealNetworks Lays Out Risks Of Rhapsody America"10-Q Watch: RealNetworks Lays Out Risks Of Rhapsody America/a/li lia href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-realnetworks-does-a-reorg-new-operating-structure-and-exec-promotions/" title="RealNetworks Does a Reorg; New Operating Structure and Exec Promotions"RealNetworks Does a Reorg; New Operating Structure and Exec Promotions/a/li /ul p!-- iMark Logic Digital Publishing Summit, Thursday November 6, Westin Times Square. Insight and perspective from Outsell, Gilbane, Simon Schuster, BusinessWeek.com, more. Evening cocktail reception. Cost is complimentary. a href="http://content.adbureau.net/accipiter/adclick/CID=000010cb0000000000000000/SITE=PC_US/AAMSZ=PREMB_NEWS/relocate=http://marklogicdps.eventbrite.com/"Register now!/a/i --/p pa href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?a=km0FIg"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~a/pcorg?i=km0FIg" border="0"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=JIPdO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=JIPdO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=WrGVO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=WrGVO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=hXMlo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=hXMlo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=vKKnO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=vKKnO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?a=tGjWO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/pcorg?i=tGjWO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/pcorg/~4/475080104" height="1" width="1"/

I'm an American female living in Paris, and am interested in meeting some gentlemen for evenings out. I'm 26 years old, work in the arts and am doing post-graduate work here in Paris.

5'9", 130 lbs, slim but athletic build with medium auburn hair and blue eyes. I speak good conversational French but am not fluent. (Je parle assez bien français, mais je parle pas currement.) Nationality/language is not important but would prefer a taller gentleman.

Please reply with photo and I'll send mine. I look forward to hearing from you!

Phil Clandillon saw a recent post about sparebots, and was moved to show his own work.

Asked about his technique to make the animation, he responded with great detail and technical clarity:

It was a very DIY operation. I've been doing these interactive flyers for around 6 years in my spare time for Sancho Panza, who are a house music sound system / promoter (most famous for their annual stage at Notting Hill Carnival) over here in London, UK. I typically make the flyers over the course of one or two evenings so that quality can be a bit variable, but the dancing electronic parts man turned out well. In 2006 the theme for the year's flyers was that Matt and Jim from Sancho would send me a piece of music, and I would base the flyer on it. The February tune was "Over and Over" by Hot Chip which is a repetitive electro-pop number. I had the idea for the dancing man made from components based on this.

The process of realising it went something like this:

I dug around in the drawers at home for all the electronics bits I could find (also a work colleague at the time helped out by donating some more vintage bits, such as those used for the head and legs) and made up the character on a piece of bread board.

I then need to photograph him in the various "frames" in order to create the animation. The biggest challenge was mounting the camera so it pointed down at the breadboard and so it didn't move around between shots. Also lighting was a problem as the character need to be reasonably evenly lit so he wouldn't throw shadows.

I used a combination of an open frame from a filing rack (think a cube with no sides), and a plywood wine rack with a seven inch reggae record stuck over one of the holes. The type of seven inch with the middle taken out turned out to be exactly the right size to poke the camera lens through. I used two pillowcases and three desk lamps to make a rudimentary light tent. I then moved the character gradually through his dance moves, taking a photo at each step. One problem was that pressing the camera's shutter button caused the camera to move, putting the animation out of alignment, so I used the camera's self timer instead, resetting it for each shot.

I then made the final adjustments to the characters position by layering up the frames in Photoshop, before animating the result in Flash.

I have a website but it's a bit out of date at the mo (shoemaker's shoes and all that) - you can see more e-flyers in my archive. Interestingly the artwork for the website is also created from electronics. I had a friend who can solder better than me help me make up an LED logo of the tag I used to spray when doing graffitti as a kid. I then took it out on the street in London and photographed it in a variety of locations. These photos went on to form the backdrop for the website (my gf is standing out of shot holding a 9V battery on the end of two wires!).

Phil and colleague Steve Milbourne also recently did this Excel spreadsheet ASCII music video for AC/DC from a few weeks ago.

We're a digital creative team and we're very inspired by the maker scene, so a lot of our ideas involve getting our hands dirty with hardware and software. We're also daily readers of the Make: Blog!

Thanks Phil. Keep up the great work!

How are you changing the way you look at the things in your life? When you look at a pile of junk, what do you imagine? What do you make when nobody is looking? Pass along your ideas in the comments, and add photos to the Make Flickr pool!

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centerimg id="image1682" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2153/Hosfelt.jpg" alt="Hosfelt.jpg" //center centeriImage: Jim Campbell, Home Movies, 2008/i/centerbr / pa href="http://www.artfagcity.com/2008/12/04/a-quiet-year-for-art-basel/"According to Art Fag City/a, the pace this year at the Miami art fairs is a bit slower than usual. But there are still a few projects relevant to the art and technology field, see below. /p li piHome Movies/i by Jim Campbell at the a href="http://www.aquaartmiami.com"Aqua Art Miami/a /p p This piece, iHome Movies/i, was exhibited earlier this year at the Berkeley Art Museum, in honor of their acquisition of the work. For Aqua Art Miami, Hosfelt Gallery presents this floor-to-ceiling wall of LEDs, whose flickering lights derive from Campbell's own personal collection of home movies, processed to single bytes of information. /p /lilipa href="http://www.artbaselmiamibeach.com/global/show_document.asp?id=aaaaaaaaaaaqywc"ULTRA environment at Art Basel Miami Beach's Art Positions /a/p pFirst, there's beach. Then there's ULTRA beach. ULTRA environment, the lounge for Art Basel's annual project "Art Positions" on Miami Beach, will be transformed into "undulating waves, extrusions, and futuristic furniture all awash in a bed of soothing psychedelic sound, light, and video." This immersive environment, co-produced by Art Radio WPS1.org, contains video projections, live radio broadcasts, and a surround-sound audio system embedded into the architecture of the lounge itself (designed by Federico Diaz and E-Area). Sounds like a seriously next level lounge experience to me! /p pThe lounge will also host a series of performances, one of which will be Christian Jankowski's iAbove All I'm an Artlover/i. Scheduled for tomorrow evening at 8pm, it will expand upon his a href="http://blip.tv/file/999106/"iArt Market TV/i/a, which was essentially a QVC-style shopping network for selling art. Translating this format to stage, the performance promises to consider "both the art fair context and America's love of shopping to create a play on the spectacle of commerce." /p /lili pa href="http://www.cifo.org/""The Prisoner's Dilemma: How Artists Respond to the Exercise of Power in Contemporary Life at the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation/a/p pThis exhibition, which opens this week and runs until early March of next year, curated by Leanne Mella, is assembled from the private collection of Ella Fontanals-Cisneros and looks at how artists articulate the exercise of power, specifically in mediums responsive to the "corporatized film industry." In comparison to most shows curated from private collections, the point of entry here seems more persuasive than most. Artists include Alexander Apóstol, Judith Barry, Paolo Canevari, Stan Douglas, Jimmie Durham, Cao Fei, Regina Galindo, Carlos Garaicoa, Thomas Hirschhorn, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, Daniel Martinez, Carlos Motta, Shirin Neshat, Julian Rosefeldt, and Eve Sussman. /p pFor readers seeking a dose of glam and glitz, check out Rhizome-sponsor Pernod's blog a href="http://www.artandabsinthe.com/"Art Absinthe./a They'll be reporting from the fairs all this week. /p /liimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhizome-fp/~4/475136455" height="1" width="1"/