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p"This record should have been released sooner," admits a press release for a
href="http://www.theboyleastlikelyto.co.uk/"strongthe Boy Least Likely To/strong/a's forthcoming
sophomore album, emThe Law of the Playground/em. Unfortunately, the album got tangled up in label
drama, but it will finally see release March 3 via the English duo's own a
href="http://www.tooyoungtodierecords.com/"strongToo Young to Die/strong/a label in the UK and in
North America via a href="http://www.plusonemusic.net/"strong+1/strong/a.br /br /Contrary to a a
href="/article/download/147727-new-music-the-boy-least-likely-to-the-first-snowflake-stream"strongprevious
report/strong/a, the follow-up to 2005's a
href="/article/record_review/15881-the-boy-least-likely-to-the-best-party-ever"strongemThe Best
Party Ever/em/strong/a will not include a
href="/article/download/147727-new-music-the-boy-least-likely-to-the-first-snowflake-stream"strongrecently
Forkcasted/strong/a holiday single "The First Snowflake". It will, however, include not-so-recently
Forkcasted ditties a
href="/article/download/48900-premiere-the-boy-least-likely-to-i-box-up-all-the-butterflies-stream"strong"I
Box Up All the Butterflies"/strong/a and a
href="/article/download/48799-the-boy-least-likely-to-a-balloon-on-a-broken-string-stream"strong"Balloon
on a Broken String"/strong/a./p p"The First Snowflake" will be released as a download-only single
on December 15, and that will be the only way to get it until the Boy Least Likely To release a
greatest hits/B-sides and rarities/holiday album, of course./p pThe Boy Least Likely To's only show
scheduled right now is an appearance at a Christmas party at London's Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen
on December 15, the same day as the single's release./ppa
href="http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/node/147861" target="_blank"read more/a/p pa
href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/78vEZRhGGdp4Bm5u0E1c6gc_iPQ/a"img
src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/78vEZRhGGdp4Bm5u0E1c6gc_iPQ/i" border="0"
ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pitchfork/today/~4/7Evxgl8piqI"
height="1" width="1"/
Dodonpachi Daioujou Black Label Extra won’t be coming home for Christmas. 5bp announced a
last minute delay changing the Japanese release date from December 25 to a vague ”this
winter”.
Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Taichi Extra is sort of being delayed too. Ketsui, like Dodonpachi Daioujou
Black Label Extra, is slated for ”this winter” instead of January
29. I said ”sort of” being delayed above since 5bp never sent out
a formal press release marking January 29 as the day Ketsui: Kizuna Jigoku Taichi Extra would be in
stores. However, they sent out marketing materials to retailers which ran with the date. Not all is
lost for Japan’s shmup crowd they have other games like Raiden IV, Otomedius Gorgeous, and
soon in the future Shooting Love 200X to play. Meanwhile, the only Xbox 360 shooter we’re
100% sure that’s coming to North America in the future is R-Type Dimensions.
pimg alt="opera_logo_dec08.png" src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/opera_logo_dec08.png"
/Opera today a href="http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2008/12/04/"released/a a sneak peek of the
newest version of its desktop browser, a href="http://www.opera.com/browser/next/"Opera 10/a. At
the center of this new release is Presto 2.2, Opera's new rendering engine, which, according to the
company, offers a considerably faster browsing experience when compared to Presto 2.1./p pOpera has
had to face stiff competition in the desktop browser market from a
href="http://www.google.com/chrome"Google's Chrome/a, and the company is clearly looking to gain
back some ground by emphasizing the speed of the rendering engine over new features in this
release./p p align="right"emSponsor/embr /a href='http://d.openx.org/ck.php?n=12816amp;cb=12816'
target='_blank'img src='http://d.openx.org/avw.php?zoneid=861amp;cb=12816amp;n=12816' border='0'
alt='' align="right" //a/p h2Features/h2 pIn terms of its user interface, the changes between
version 9.6 and this alpha of Opera 10 are minimal and mostly cosmetic. /p pimg
alt="opera_10_acid_100.png" align="right"
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/opera_10_acid_100.png" /As for new features, Opera finally
supports inline spell-checking. This feature had been sorely missing from Opera until now. Opera 10
can now also auto-update without giving notification to the user, similar to Google's Chrome. /p
pOpera 10 also still includes all the major new a
href="http://www.opera.com/browser/features/"features/a of Opera 9, including Feed Preview, Opera
Link for bookmark synchronization, and the updated version of Opera Mail./p h2Presto 2.2/h2 pThe
rendering engine easily scored 100 out of 100 on the a href="http://acid3.acidtests.org/"Acid 3
test/a (and easily passed the Acid 2 test as well). We benchmarked this alpha version against Opera
9.62 using the a href="http://www2.webkit.org/perf/sunspider-0.9/sunspider.html"Sunspider/a and a
href="http://dromaeo.com/"Dromaeo/a benchmarks. In both cases, Opera 10 was clearly faster, but the
performance gains were typically around 10-15% and nowhere near the 30% claimed by Opera (though in
their defense, Opera's PR material talks about the faster 'browsing experience,' not about
benchmarks). Presto also wasn't able to come close to our benchmarks for Chrome./p pimg
alt="opera_10_alpha_screenshot.jpg"
src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/opera_10_alpha_screenshot.jpg" //p h2A Capable Browser/h2
pOverall, Opera 10, at least in its current state, looks like an evolutionary update to previous
versions. This preview version, however, was mostly meant to showcase the new rendering engine, so
chances are that Opera will roll out additional new features and changes to the user interface in
upcoming alpha and beta releases./p pWe have always had a soft spot for Opera, but somehow, the
browser never quite found the sweet spot between speed and functionality that Firefox (in large
part due to its extensions) and Chrome have. /p pOpera 10 is a capable browser with a number of
very interesting features. However, when compared to Google's Chrome, with its unified address and
search bar, as well as its speedy rendering engine, Opera 10 still has a bit of ground to cover
before it will be able to challenge Chrome and Firefox./p stronga
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/opera_10_sneak_peak.php#comments-open"Discuss/a/strong
pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/J2iYOtmsbvONk7qbGYfNyvfMT0g/a"img
src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/J2iYOtmsbvONk7qbGYfNyvfMT0g/i" border="0"
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href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=QEaOjgOM"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=QEaOjgOM" border="0"/img/a a
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=QnGt8MtT" border="0"/img/a a
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=QlNcgCaK" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=1JKsGxSo"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=52" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=WBQ6vk5n"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1034" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~4/OV9c8LEPrDU" height="1" width="1"/
div align="center"a href="http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Iz3D-Llc-926684.html"img
vspace="4" hspace="4" border="1" alt=""
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2008/12/12-4-08-iz3d_livegaming1.jpg" //abr
//div iZ3D's been doing the whole "3D monitor" thing for years now, with its first baby -- a
href="http://www.engadget.com/2005/11/03/the-iz3d-lcd-monitor-helps-you-get-your-game-on-in-3d/"a
17-incher/a -- ringing up at $1,499 back in 2005. In the latter part of last year, you may recall
that a 22-inch version a
href="http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/28/22-inch-iz3d-lcds-are-now-available-just-under-a-grand/"emerged
for $999/a, and now that 3D is a href="http://www.engadgethd.com/tag/3d/"all the rage/a, it's
making a second push to clear out all that dusty inventory by lowering the price in dramatic
fashion. As of this month, the MSRP on the switchable 3D / 2D display is just $399, and that
includes three pairs of passive linear polarized glasses, all the power and video cables you need
and gratis membership in the firm's "upcoming 3D gaming league." Oh, and if you're feeling fancy,
you can snag a custom-painted model from Smooth Creations at $549 apiece. So, any takers yet? Or
are we holding out for free-after-rebate?br /br /[Image courtesy of a
href="http://www.iceav.co.nz/images/content/articles/iz3D_LiveGaming1.jpg"ICEAV/a]pFiled under: a
href="http://www.engadget.com/category/displays/" rel="tag"Displays/a/pp
style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a
href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/04/iz3ds-22-inch-3d-monitor-stoops-to-399/"iZ3D's 22-inch 3D
monitor stoops to $399/a originally appeared on a href="http://www.engadget.com"Engadget/a on Thu,
04 Dec 2008 10:33:00 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.marketwire.com/press-release/Iz3D-Llc-926684.htmlRead/anbsp;|nbsp;a
href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/04/iz3ds-22-inch-3d-monitor-stoops-to-399/" rel="bookmark"
title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a
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this/anbsp;|nbsp;a
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title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa
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pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=47b1b1554b5437ce0078c79bmaxX=200maxY=125" border="0"
alt="old-nokias.jpg" title="old-nokias.jpg" width="200" height="125" /A harsh greeting for Nokia
investors attending its capital markets roadshow in Brooklyn today: Nokia sent out a press release
early this morning to the effect of: "Remember how bad a
href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/nokia-sharp-pull-back-in-consumer-spending-mobile-market-to-shrink-nok-"we
told you it was going to get/a a month ago? It's getting worse, fast."/p p style="padding-left:
30px;"Nokia: "The mobile device market slowdown has continued more rapidly than previously expected
since a
href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/nokia-sharp-pull-back-in-consumer-spending-mobile-market-to-shrink-nok-"Nokia
issued an update on November 14, 2008/a. The industry continues to be impacted by the effects of a
global consumer pull-back in spending, currency volatility, and decreased availability of credit.
Nokia believes the slowdown is apparent in varying degrees across all markets, while the most
recent incremental impact in the emerging markets has been more pronounced than in other
markets."/p pAs a result, Nokia think that Q4 cellphone industry shipments will be lower than its
previous estimate of 330 million units. Nokia also doesn't have enough "visibility" into the market
to confirm its market share estimate, "which was expected to be at the same level or slightly up
from an estimated 38% in the third quarter 2008." Also:/p ul liNokia expects 2009 industry
shipments to decline 5% or more from this year./li liNokia thinks it will increase its market share
next year, "including increased share in smartphones."/li liBut it expects margins in the teens. As
AmTech notes today, "This is below our expected 15-20% outlook and well below NOK's normal 20%
+/-."/li /ul pstrongSee Also:/strongbr /a
href="../../2008/12/analysts-pan-nokia-s-iphone-killer-nok-"Analysts Pan Nokia's iPhone Killer/abr
/a href="../../2008/11/nokia-pulls-out-of-japan"Nokia Pulls Out Of Japan/abr /a
href="../../2008/11/nokia-sharp-pull-back-in-consumer-spending-mobile-market-to-shrink-nok-"Nokia:
Global Consumer Spending Crash, Cutting Estimates/a/p pa
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src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Ymqv12txhOxi8kvGj-SV0JZD3Sw/i" border="0"
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50"
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height="1" width="1"/
h4Sub-orbital jaunt for $95k/h4 pBrave souls looking for "emThe Right Stuff/em experience" can now
buy tickets for a sub-orbital jaunt aboard the a
href="http://www.xcor.com/press-releases/2008/08-03-26_Lynx_suborbital_vehicle.html"
target="_blank"XCOR Lynx/a for a modest $95,000..../p
pDespite not being in working condition, stronga href="http://www.brokenspindles.com/"
target="_blank"Broken Spindles/a/strong somehow keep cranking out records at a fairly steady clip.
Indeed, stronga href="http://www.thefaint.com/" target="_blank"Faint/a/strong bassist Joel
Petersen's electronica-ish side thing has another one just about ready for us: emKiss/Kick/em will
descend on the masses February 17 thanks to the Faint's own stronga
href="/article/news/50592-the-faint-start-their-own-label-to-release-new-album"
target="_blank"recently birthed/a/strong stronga href="http://www.blankwav.com/"
target="_blank"blank.wav/a/strong imprint.br /br /Petersen was just getting started on his latest
opus when we stronga href="/article/news/41620-joel-petersen-talks-new-faint-album-broken-spindles"
target="_blank"talked to him/a/strong way back in the pre-stronga
href="/article/record_review/142810-the-faint-fasciinatiion"
target="_blank"emFasciinatiion/em/a/strong days of March 2007. At the time he spoke of using "live
drums" and making something that sounds "a bit more like a band than an electronic record," and the
press release suggests these goals were met. And yes, as expected, emKiss/Kick/em does feature
another little dude made out of three-dimensional shapes on the cover (see below). There are few
things you can really count on in this life, but little shape dudes on Broken Spindles album covers
is one of them.br /br /Joel and the Faint are off in Europe at present, and they'll rock a week's
worth of U.S. shows later this month.br /br /img src="/sites/default/files/kisskick.jpg" border="0"
/br //ppa href="http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/node/147907" target="_blank"read more/a/p pa
href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/QT9aXiZJVqm4aIOElB4fev-xdvw/a"img
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height="1" width="1"/
We mentioned the availability of early versions of this a few weeks ago, but Handy Safe
Professional Edition has now been formally released for all S60 3rd Edition phones, with a slicker
desktop companion application. Features, changelog and links below the break.
The AAS team have sworn by Handy Safe for years because of its two-way sync from phone to desktop,
so this is a new release that you should definitely try.
From the press release:
"Handy Safe Pro – a new Professional edition of the best selling Handy Safe application
that guarantees secure storage and convenient private data control as well as two-way
synchronization with PC on S60 smartphones - uses password protection and a strong 448-bit data
encryption (Blowfish) that keeps your data private and secure."
"Handy Safe Pro special features:
Store passwords, user names, credit card information, codes, accounts (private and corporate
email, Internet, shopping, bank),
software keys, web pages, addresses and contact information, travel info, insurance policies,
and much more
35 unique information forms to store everything on your smartphone
Custom templates to store specific information according to your needs
Strong 448-bit data encryption (Blowfish) keeps your data private and secure.
URLs are treated as hyperlinks
Subfolders support
Possibility to restore items in case of accidental deleting
Autolock option when Handy Safe is in background or if you don’t use Handy Safe for
a certain period of time
"Handy Safe Desktop Professional, the PC companion includes:
Easy access to your smartphone information on PC
Specially designed synchronization mechanism
User defined database location
Better usability: improved toolbar, database wizard, search results, hide password function
and more
MovieX, a very large BitTorrent site which made the headlines last year for its controversial
tracker policy, has been shut down by Australian police. The site, thought to have as many as
400,000 users, is being blamed for the ‘transfer’ of 14 million movies and TV shows.
So far, two people have been arrested.
Last year, semi-private BitTorrent site MovieX
hit the
headlines after it was accused of diverting upload bandwidth from users of The Pirate Bay, to
its own tracker. Non-members of MovieX were allowed to upload to MovieX members but were not
allowed to download from them. This move wasn’t appreciated by a large proportion of the
BitTorrent community.
Today, the site has bigger things to worry about. A press release from AFACT, (Australian
Federation Against Copyright Theft) has proclaimed the death of a huge site, but stopped short of
naming it.
TorrentFreak can now exclusively reveal that the site in question was MovieX. The domain
currently displays this message:
We are temporarily offline.
Currently there is NO ETA AVAILABLE
@ADMINISTRATORS: PLEASE CONTACT DEV0 ASAP! ASK AROUND OTHER ADMINS IF YOU DON’T KNOW HOW TO
GET IN TOUCH WITH ME.
According to Australian Federal Police who shut down the site following an AFACT investigation,
two Brisbane men from the same family - a 21 year-old and a 27 year-old (thought to be brothers)
were arrested yesterday.
A bank account containing around AUS$54,000 (US $35,000) was frozen after the police alleged the
money was proceeds from the site. Investigators close to the inquiry claim the site generated
around AUS$10,000 (US $6,450) each month, with many users donating $10 a month for VIP access to
direct-download material, which was separate from the site’s BitTorrent tracker. Other bank
accounts connected to the site are currently under investigation. Computer equipment was also
seized with a storage capacity of 2 terabytes.
“BitTorrent is a legitimate and efficient software for sharing files but, like any tool, it
can be misused,”
noted Neil Gane, AFACT’s Director of Operations.
Andrew Traucki who directed the Aussie movie Black Water has been getting in on the action,
“applauding” the closure of the site. “Being a low budget film I didn’t
get paid much and hoped to make some money for all my effort from the films’ sales. The
fact that Black Water had been pirated and was online within days of being finished is upsetting.
How are Australian film producers like me meant to make a living from our films if people pirate
the film and watch it for free?”
However, although the movie was available for download via MovieX, things probably aren’t
as bad as Traucki is now making out. As recently as August this year, Traucki said that he was
delighted with the success of the movie, telling DVDindustry, “We wanted to
make a film with international appeal and obviously we’ve succeeded,” going on to
note that the movie had enjoyed “a remarkable sales ride”.
Penalties for commercial copyright crimes in Australia can amount to $60,000 and 5 years in jail
for each offense.
I guess Nokia isn’t wasting anytime in catching with the latest touchscreen craze of today.
Even if the
5800 XPressMusic phone hasn’t even reached the global market yet, the company has just
announced their new flagship model, the N97. Ironically, it replaces the just recently released
N96. The N97 comes
with a 3.5-inch 640×360 resistive touchscreen with tactile feedback, a slide-out QWERTY
keypad, 5-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens and flash, DVD-quality recording at 30fps, HSDPA,
WiFi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, 32GB internal memory and support for additional storage of up to 16GB via
microSD card.
With its combination of a touchscreen display and QWERTY keypad, this proves that the early
speculation that a Nokia
Communicator phone is next in line after the 5800 is indeed true. Likewise, the N97 also
looks to be directly competing with Sony
Ericsson’s XPERIA X1 due to their similarities.
The N97 is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2009 with a €550 (roughly
$693) price tag attached to it (excluding taxes and subsidies). So, still aching to get a 5800
XpressMusic phone? I know I’m not.
When a company called EMG Technology filed a patent
lawsuit against Apple last week over “the way the iPhone navigates the Internet,”
it had the stench of a patent troll. The suit was filed a month after the patent was issued in
the Eastern District of Texas, known as troll country among patent attorneys because the courts
there tend to rule favorably for patent owners.
EMG Technology is based in Los Angeles, and appears to have been formed solely for the purpose of
filing this lawsuit. One of the inventors named on the patent and EMG “managing
member” Elliot Gottfurcht is a Los Angeles real estate developer. Apple, of course, is also
based in California.
Then there are the actual claims of patent No. 7,441,196.
With the help of M-CAM, an underwriter of
patent insurance, I uncovered some patents (listed below) that pre-date EMG’s and that
might be considered prior art. Apple’s lawyers should take a look at them. Some of them are
even owned by Apple. Others are owned by IBM, Microsoft, Sony, and Sun Microsystems.
Before we get to those, what about EMG’s patent? The claims in that patent describe the
ability to manipulate, zoom, scroll, and view Web content on devices other than a laptop. But the
central and primary claim has to do with a way to convert HTML Web pages into XML data that can
then be displayed partially on different devices, including mobile phones.
I’m no lawyer or patent expert, but my initial reaction was that these seem like overly
broad claims (they cover everything from TVs to Web appliances to cell phones) with lots of
precedents. It is very difficult to display an entire Webpage on a small screen, so engineers
have figured out various ways to display parts of those pages.
EMG does not specify in its suit which of the patent’s 76 claims it thinks Apple is
infringing on. But in the press release announcing the lawsuit, EMG’s lawyer highlights the
claims covering “the display of Internet content reformatted from HTML to XML on mobile
devices” and “technology for manipulating a region of the screen for zooming and
scrolling.”
I asked M-CAM to run EMG’s patent through its Patently Obvious
database, which compares claims across millions of patents. And they came up with 250 instances
of possible prior art not mentioned in the EMG patent. When an inventor files a patent, he is
required to list all other patents you are aware of that could have an impact on your claims. One
way to get a patent application past an overworked patent examiner is to list a ton of related
prior art, but omit the critical ones that could invalidate the patent.
One key patent omitted by EMG is No 6,535,896:
“Systems, methods and computer program products for tailoring web page content in hypertext
markup language format for display within pervasive computing devices using extensible markup
language tools.” It is owned by IBM and was filed on January 29, 1999, which is prior to
the November 15, 1999 date that is applicable for the EMG patent. The abstract for the IBM patent
describes what it does this way:
Content portions of a requested Web page are converted to an XML format and then modified
using an XML content-tailoring tool. Other content portions of the Web page are masked so as to
be “hidden” and are, thus, not converted to XML format. The masked portions of the
Web page are then unmasked, combined with the modified content portions, and transmitted to a
client device for display therewithin.
That sounds very similar to parts of the first claim of the EMG patent:
1. A method of navigating the Internet, comprising: displaying on-line content accessed via
the Internet, the on-line content reformatted from a webpage in a hypertext markup language
(HTML) format into an extensible markup language (XML) format to generate a sister site, . . .
navigation options to change between layers of the simplified navigation interface from general
to more specific in each deeper layer; receiving a user selection of one of the navigation
options; forwarding the selected navigation option across the internet to a server providing the
simplified navigation interface; receiving a next deeper navigation layer of the simplified
navigation interface corresponding to the selected navigation option
How did EMG’s patent get approved by the U.S. Patent Office? This just illustrates a bigger
problem with the patent system. Since the budget of the Patent Office, which is derived from
filing and maintenance fees, is tied directly to how many patents it approves, it has an economic
incentive to approve as many as possible. This system needs to be changed. (Anyone in on
Obama’s team reading this?).
Below are some other prior art that Apple’s lawyers might want to take a look at (and some
quaint patent art that accompanied EMG’s filing).
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard
because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
On the December 2 broadcast of his Cincinnati-based radio show, Bill Cunningham compared the
Cincinnati Zoo
& Botanical Garden to
Eugene "Bull" Connor, the Birmingham Public Safety commissioner infamous for using dogs and
fire hoses against civil rights demonstrators in the 1960s. Cunningham made the comparison while
discussing the zoo's decision to pull out of a promotional partnership with the Creation Museum,
which, according to its website, seeks to
"affirm the truth of the biblical record of the real origin and history of the world and
mankind." The Louisville Courier Journalreported on December
1 that the zoo ended the partnership after receiving complaints that the Creation Museum -- which
contains a display featuring "a triceratops with a saddle on its back" -- "promotes a religious
point of view that conflicts with the zoo's scientific mission."
Cunningham stated of the zoo's decision: "[I]nstead of the zoo standing up against intolerance of
Christianity and the bigots, they buckled under, and they did what every Bull Connor type have
done since the days of Birmingham, Alabama: They allowed the passions of the mob and the opinions
of the few to take the nation, or in this case the zoo, on a religiously bigoted course from
which they had better get out of quickly." Cunningham also proclaimed, "We cannot put up with a
religiously based discriminatory organization and the bigots at the Cincinnati Zoo who would do
this to the Creation Museum. It's not necessarily about the museum; it's about publicly practiced
bigoted racial discrimination against individuals who have a different faith set. Whether it's
race discrimination or religious discrimination, it cannot stand."
Earlier in the broadcast, Cunningham said: "So I would imagine if the zoo would do a marketing
deal with the NAACP, if there would be a lot of white racists that send emails to the zoo
complaining about associating with colored people, would the zoo back down because of these
emails?"
According to a December 1
press release by the Creation Museum's publicist, the marketing partnership between the zoo
and the Creation Museum would have allowed visitors to pay a reduced price if they purchased
tickets for both the zoo's
Festival of Lights and the Creation Museum's Christmas event,
Bethlehem's Blessings.
From the December 2 edition of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:
CUNNINGHAM: The zoo said, quote, "When we partner with the Reds, we don't get these kinds of
emails," unquote. "It's pretty clear this is more of a distraction." So I would imagine if the
zoo would do a marketing deal with the NAACP, if there would be a lot of white racists that send
emails to the zoo complaining about associating with colored people, would the zoo back down
because of these emails? And how about the bigots who exhibit discrimination against
Christianity? They're in the same category of the Ku Klux Klan and white racist bigots who would
complain if the zoo would partner with the NAACP. So I guess the standard is if five or 10 people
send emails to the Cincinnati Zoo complaining about a partnership deal, that means the zoo pulls
it, right? So if they partner with a black organization and white racists complain, do you think
the zoo would pull the promotion?
[...]
CUNNINGHAM: Why is there no outcry from the Christian community, which is 85 percent of us? We
cannot put up with a religiously based discriminatory organization and the bigots at the
Cincinnati Zoo who would do this to the Creation Museum. It's not necessarily about the museum;
it's about publicly practiced bigoted racial discrimination against individuals who have a
different faith set. Whether it's race discrimination or religious discrimination, it cannot
stand. This would not happen against any other religion in the Tri-State. It would be an outrage
if Islam or Muslims were targeted in such a fashion.
So the next time the zoo comes up for a levy, they're gonna have one forceful advocate right here
educating and informing you once again. At a moment in history when the zoo had an occasion to
stand up against intolerance and against the bigots, and instead of the zoo standing up against
intolerance of Christianity and the bigots, they buckled under, and they did what every Bull
Connor type have done since the days of Birmingham, Alabama: They allowed the passions of the mob
and the opinions of the few to take the nation, or in this case the zoo, on a religiously bigoted
course from which they had better get out of quickly.
The zoo had better reconsider what they've done because they're gonna have forceful advocates
throughout the Tri-State working hard to make sure that a zoo levy never passes again as long as
the leaders of the zoo are bigots, and that's exactly what they are.
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
Last year, semi-private BitTorrent site MovieX
