Another 11.. Embracing Change

Tomorrow marks the last time we’ll encounter 11-11-11 for a while. What’s incredible is we had TWO in one year, let alone one month (the previous was a few weeks ago on November 11th)! For those of you who aren’t as familiar with 11-11, I’d google it – someone else can fill ya in. Try Steve Pavlina, he does a great job at being straight to the point. Or you can check out my post 11-11-11.

So since 11-11-11 is wrapping around again, tomorrow, I revamped my blog. It was more ’subconscious’ than anything, then I realized the perfect timing. Since 11 is a great number for manifesting it makes perfect sense that I would reconfigure things.

Over the past month, I’ve been wanting to manifest a dotcom for my baby, but just haven’t felt right about doing it without extensive research — I mean, it’s a serious investment.

I have another small business where I produce and sell my own artwork but never could I imagine doing a site for it, besides myspace. It’s not something that I would find fulfillment engaging in hourly, or even daily!  

Consciously Birthing is a completely different: Although it’s in its infancy, I provide for its well-being and growth daily (if not hourly). CB provides me an outlet in which I can teach. Continuously, I’m put to the test of employing my intuitive, empathic nature (Higher Self) which provides me with a sense of personal success. Not to mention, networking is incredibly fun and informative instead of painstakingly dreadful. And most importantly, I’m growing.

Realizing how motivated I am to keep Consciously Birthing a successful entity in my cypher pushes me to further create just what it is I truly desire!

And what is it that I desire?

I desire for Consciously Birthing to be a place of diverse, educational tools for the everyday person; Spiritual, Physical, Emotional, Mental, Psychological, Financial, Vibrational healing. I desire for my Healing Arts services to consist purely of Intuitive Wellbeing Counseling — Psychic Divination, One on One Coaching, Akashic Readings & Thought Vibration HealingTM.

Well, what about the ‘Birthing’?

Consciously Birthing is absolutely more than pregnancy and birth. I first originated the idea based on my passion for the misunderstood beauty but as the concept of Consciously Birthing itself grew, I realized my interests span much further than just conceiving and birthing naturally. I realized I wasn’t sent here to be only a labouring servant — there’s entirely too much available to us to limit ourselves.  

However, upon completing my certification for Birth Doula (early 2011) things could appear different. My bigger vision is to incorporate Conscious Conception, Pregnancy, Birth and Parenting into the whole; because it just wouldn’t be “Consciously Birthing” without starting at the beginning – so to speak, but I feel the need to solidify a jump-off point in order to soar.

With hopes of  providing ALL who wish to participate in the “J11 Experience”  the certainty they’re receiving adequate, professional insight, developing and honing my Intuitive skills will allow me to provide all my clients with expansive, thorough healings. And I just don’t want to take away from that right now.

We’re here to change our minds, tweak our goals and fine tune our plans. Or else things would get stale and grow mold LOL. Be sure to stay tuned.  The dotcom will offer a shoppe which can be previewed at ELEmentals with lots of great music, links and referrals, like my guys Jana Groscost Matthews and Jason Matthews.

Enjoy round 2 of 11’s… Make it Manifest!

Truly Gracious for Your Support,
Jessica Eleven

Consciously Birthing

 

I am an Intuitive Wellbeing Counselor. If you wish to discuss your personal situation and gain insight towards your brighter future I’d love to assist you - from a completely unbiased, non-judgemental perspective!

Light the path on your journey – Healing begins with you!

[Via http://consciouslybirthing.wordpress.com]

Afghans Offer Jobs to Taliban Rank and File if They Defect

Why not appoint murderers as Homicide Chief? Skewered logic ,which will screw up Afghanistan further.
Story:
JALALABAD, Afghanistan — The American-backed campaign to persuade legions of Taliban gunmen to stop fighting got under way here recently, in an ornate palace filled with Afghan tribal leaders and one very large former warlord leading the way.

Enlarge This Image

Majid/Getty Images
Guns laid down by former Taliban fighters lined a wall at a reconciliation meeting. Many were promised paid work.

The New York Times
“O.K., I want you guys to go out there and persuade the Taliban to sit down and talk,” Gul Agha Shirzai, the governor of Nangarhar Province, told a group of 25 tribal leaders from four eastern provinces. In a previous incarnation, Mr. Shirzai was the American-picked governor of Kandahar Province after the Taliban fell in 2001.

“Do whatever you have to do,” the rotund Mr. Shirzai told the assembled elders. “I’ll back you up.”

After about two hours of talking, Mr. Shirzai and the tribal elders rose, left for their respective provinces and promised to start turning the enemy.

The meeting is part of a battlefield push to lure local fighters and commanders away from the Taliban by offering them jobs in development projects that Afghan tribal leaders help select, paid by the American military and the Afghan government.

By enlisting the tribal leaders to help choose the development projects, the Americans also hope to help strengthen both the Afghan government and the Pashtun tribal networks.

These efforts are focusing on rank-and-file Taliban; while there are some efforts under way to negotiate with the leaders of the main insurgent groups, neither American nor Afghan officials have much faith that those talks will succeed soon.

Afghanistan has a long history of fighters switching sides — sometimes more than once. Still, efforts so far to persuade large numbers of Taliban fighters to give up have been less than a complete success. To date, about 9,000 insurgents have turned in their weapons and agreed to abide by the Afghan Constitution, said Muhammad Akram Khapalwak, the chief administrator for the Peace and Reconciliation Commission in Kabul.

But in an impoverished country ruined by 30 years of war, tribal leaders said that many more insurgents would happily put down their guns if there was something more worthwhile to do.

“Most of the Taliban in my area are young men who need jobs,” said Hajji Fazul Rahim, a leader of the Abdulrahimzai tribe, which spans three eastern provinces. “We just need to make them busy. If we give them work, we can weaken the Taliban.”

In the Jalalabad program, tribal elders would reach out to Taliban commanders to press them to change sides. The commanders and their fighters then would be offered jobs created by local development programs.

The Pashtuns, who form the core of the Taliban, make up a largely tribal society, with families connected to one another by kinship and led by groups of elders. Over the years, the Pashtun tribes have been substantially weakened, with elders singled out by three groups: Taliban fighters, the rebels who fought the former Soviet Union and the soldiers of the former Soviet Union itself. The decimation of the tribes has left Afghan society largely atomized.

Afghan and American officials hope that the plan to make peace with groups of Taliban fighters will complement an American-led effort to set up anti-Taliban militias in many parts of the country: the Pashtun tribes will help fight the Taliban, and they will make deals with the Taliban. And, by so doing, Afghan tribal society can be reinvigorated.

“We’re trying to put pressure on the leaders, and at the same time peel away their young fighters,” said an American military official in Kabul involved in the reconciliation effort. “This is not about handing bags of money to an insurgent.”

The Afghan reconciliation plan is intended to duplicate the Awakening movement in Iraq, where Sunni tribal leaders, many of them insurgents, agreed to stop fighting and in many cases were paid to do so. The Awakening contributed to the remarkable decline in violence in Iraq.

In the autumn of 2001, during the opening phase of the American-led war in Afghanistan, dozens of warlords fighting for the Taliban agreed to defect to the American-backed rebels. As in Iraq, the defectors were often enticed by cash, sometimes handed out by American Army Special Forces officers.

At a ceremony earlier this month in Kabul, about 70 insurgents laid down their guns before the commissioners and agreed to accept the Afghan Constitution. Some of the men had fought for the Taliban, some for Hezb-i-Islami, another insurgent group. The fighters’ motives ranged from disillusion to exhaustion.

“How long should we fight the government? How many more years?” said Molawi Fazullah, a Taliban lieutenant who surrendered with nine others. “Our leaders misled us, and we destroyed our country.”

Like many fighters who gave up at the ceremony, he shrouded his face with a scarf and sunglasses, for fear of being identified by his erstwhile comrades.

The Americans say they have no plans to give cash to local Taliban commanders. They say they would rather give them jobs.

In a defense appropriations bill recently approved by Congress, lawmakers set aside $1.3 billion for a program known by its acronym, CERP, a discretionary fund for American officers. Ordinarily, CERP money is used for development projects, but the language in the bill says officers can use the money to support the “reintegration into Afghan society” of those who have given up fighting.

For all the efforts under way to entice Taliban fighters to change sides, there will always be the old-fashioned approach: deadly force. American commanders also want to squeeze them; such is the rationale behind Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s request for tens of thousands of additional American troops.

Indeed, sometimes force alone does the trick. On Oct. 9, American Special Forces soldiers killed Ghulam Yahia, an insurgent commander believed responsible for, among other things, sending several suicide bombers into the western city of Herat. Mr. Yahia had changed sides himself in the past: earlier in the decade, he was Herat’s mayor.

When the Americans killed Mr. Yahia, in a mountain village called Bedak, 120 of his fighters defected to the Afghan government. Others went into hiding. Abdul Wahab, a former lieutenant of Mr. Yahia’s who led the defectors, said that the Afghan government had so far done nothing to protect them or offer them jobs. But he said he was glad he had made the jump anyway.

“We are tired of war,” he said. “We don’t want it anymore.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/28/world/asia/28militias.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

Vita Chambers

As far as I’m concerned, the best thing about yesterday’s Lions-Packers game was the halftime show.

Motown Records celebrated its 5oth anniversary with a tribute show at Ford Field.  Up-and-coming artists signed to the modern incarnation of the label, Universal-Motown, performed a medley of classic hits released in the brand’s heyday (the 1960s).

The first performer on stage captivated me so much that I literally tuned out the rest of the show.  Performing the 1963 Martha Reeves and the Vandellas hit “Heat Wave,” 15 year-old Vita Chambers made my jaw drop with her beauty and her voice.  A native of Barbados, Chambers seems to be virtually unknown at this point (she doesn’t even have her own Wikipedia entry yet); in my quest to learn more about her, all I could find were links to MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter.

I’ve definitely got to check Chambers’ music out.  Being signed to Motown, I would expect it to be of some quality, rather than in the vein of Rihanna and a few other contemporary bubblegum pop artists whose songs have little (if any) substance.

[Via http://truefunksoldier.wordpress.com]

A warning shot in the bathroom mirror

Self-portrait.

Also posted on: AltDiva, deviantART, Flickr, LiveJournal and MySpace
Buy prints from: deviantART and Fotki

and you, you bitch
with your prison guard keys
you followed me home
and you spat demands
in my face

stop! fall! lie! (lie)
silent. still. (still)
breaktheunfuckingbreakable

so i shot myself
in the head
in the heart
in the mirror

lips worn pale
drinking your poison
the taste of us both
on a sliver of ice

in the head
in the heart
in the mirror

and all i can think is
i am so out of focus
i am so out of focus

[Via http://rockstarvanity.wordpress.com]

genius = penis

Izz a troo evidence of male's wurld domination: penis rulez!

gambar: Epic Fails

Ini merupakan salah satu bukti nyata dominasi kaum pria: setiap lelaki dan banci adalah seorang jenius. Wahai para gadis, cewek, perempuan, wanita, ahwat, makcik, tante, nyonya…maaf…enggak peduli berapapun skor IQ yang kalian miliki tetap saja kalian tidak kompeten untuk dibilang sebagai jenius. BWAHAHAHAA….

[Via http://lolkontol.wordpress.com]

How the Brain Filters out Distracting Thoughts to Focus on a Single Bit of Information

Difference between Mind and Matter is one of degree ,not of kind.While mind vibrates at a higher rate, matter vibrates at a lower frequency.
Lower frequencies are associated with past experiences, higher frequencies are linked to present and Ultra high frequencies with the future.
Consciousness is a stream that is Universal.Individual variations are due to limitations of Space and Time.Mind can relate to and transcend Time and Space with proper discipline.
The exposition of this thought will take too much space;separate blog follows.
What the current studies attempt to prove and proved partially have already been practiced in Hinduism.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 23, 2009) — The human brain is bombarded with all kinds of information, from the memory of last night’s delicious dinner to the instructions from your boss at your morning meeting. But how do you “tune in” to just one thought or idea and ignore all the rest of what is going on around you, until it comes time to think of something else?

Researchers at the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for the Biology of Memory at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have discovered a mechanism that the brain uses to filter out distracting thoughts to focus on a single bit of information. Their results are reported in 19 November issue of Nature.
Think of your brain like a radio: You’re turning the knob to find your favourite station, but the knob jams, and you’re stuck listening to something that’s in between stations. It’s a frustrating combination that makes it quite hard to get an update on swine flu while a Michael Jackson song wavers in and out. Staying on the right frequency is the only way to really hear what you’re after. In much the same way, the brain’s nerve cells are able to “tune in” to the right station to get exactly the information they need, says researcher Laura Colgin, who was the paper’s first author. “Just like radio stations play songs and news on different frequencies, the brain uses different frequencies of waves to send different kinds of information,” she says.
Gamma waves as information carriers
Colgin and her colleagues measured brain waves in rats, in three different parts of the hippocampus, which is a key memory center in the brain. While listening in on the rat brain wave transmissions, the researchers started to realize that there might be something more to a specific sub-set of brain waves, called gamma waves. Researchers have thought these waves are linked to the formation of consciousness, but no one really knew why their frequency differed so much from one region to another and from one moment to the next.
Information is carried on top of gamma waves, just like songs are carried by radio waves. These “carrier waves” transmit information from one brain region to another. “We found that there are slow gamma waves and fast gamma waves coming from different brain areas, just like radio stations transmit on different frequencies,” she says.
You really can “be on the same wavelength”
“You know how when you feel like you really connect with someone, you say you are on the same wavelength? When brain cells want to connect with each other, they synchronize their activity,” Colgin explains. “The cells literally tune into each other’s wavelength. We investigated how gamma waves in particular were involved in communication across cell groups in the hippocampus. What we found could be described as a radio-like system inside the brain. The lower frequencies are used to transmit memories of past experiences, and the higher frequencies are used to convey what is happening where you are right now.”
If you think of the example of the jammed radio, the way to hear what you want out of the messy signals would be to listen really hard for the latest news while trying to filter out the unwanted music. The hippocampus does this more efficiently. It simply tunes in to the right frequency to get the station it wants. As the cells tune into the station they’re after, they are actually able to filter out the other station at the same time, because its signal is being transmitted on a different frequency.
The switch
“The cells can rapidly switch their activity to tune in to the slow waves or the fast waves,” Colgin says, “but it seems as though they cannot listen to both at the exact same time. This is like when you are listening to your radio and you tune in to a frequency that is midway between two stations- you can’t understand anything- it’s just noise.” In this way, the brain cells can distinguish between an internal world of memories and a person’s current experiences. If the messages were carried on the same frequency, our perceptions of the world might be completely confused. “Your current perceptions of a place would get mixed up with your memories of how the place used to be,” Colgin says.
The cells that tune into different wavelengths work like a switch, or rather, like zapping between radio stations that are already programmed into your radio. The cells can switch back and forth between different channels several times per second. The switch allows the cells to attend to one piece at a time, sorting out what’s on your mind from what’s happening and where you are at any point in time. The researchers believe this is an underlying principle for how information is handled throughout the brain.
“This switch mechanism points to superfast routing as a general mode of information handling in the brain,” says Edvard Moser, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience director. “The classical view has been that signaling inside the brain is hardwired, subject to changes caused by modification of connections between neurons. Our results suggest that the brain is a lot more flexible. Among the thousands of inputs to a given brain cell, the cell can choose to listen to some and ignore the rest and the selection of inputs is changing all the time. We believe that the gamma switch is a general principle of the brain, employed throughout the brain to enhance interregional communication.”
Can a switch malfunction explain schizophrenia?
People who are schizophrenic have problems keeping these brain signals straight. They cannot tell, for example, if they are listening to voices from people who are present or if the voices are from the memory of a movie they have seen. “We cannot tell for sure if it is this switch that is malfunctioning, but we do know that gamma waves are abnormal in schizophrenic patients,” Colgin says. “Schizophrenics’ perceptions of the world around them are mixed up, like a radio stuck between stations.”
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091120000140.htm

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

As muitas sonoridades do Paraná

O Paraná tem tudo para ser uma grande fonte de boas bandas. Está entre a desejada São Paulo e o Rio Grande do Sul, formador de grandes bandas. O Paraná abriga vários estilos musicais, como vamos mostrar a seguir:

• Bonde do Rolê

Criada em 2005, na cidade de Curitiba, capital do estado, a banda Bonde do Rolê surgiu após colocar várias músicas no site MySpace, com músicas fortemente relacionadas com o funk carioca. Logo, a banda fez muito sucesso no Brasil e em outros países com as músicas “Solta o Frango” e “Melô do Tabaco”.

O grande reconhecimento da banda formado por Ana Bernardino, Rodrigo Gorky, Pedro D’Eyrot e Laura Taylor, foi quando a banda foi citada pelo jornal americano “New York Times”. Além disso, foi eleita pela revista especializada em música “Rolling Stones”, como um das Dez bandas para se ligar no mundo inteiro.

A banda tem apenas um álbum lançado. “With Lasers”, de 2006, e quatro singles.

MySpace da banda

• Hevo 84

Criada em 2005, na cidade de Paranguá, litoral do estado, a banda Hevo 84, é considerada Emocore, com batidas eletrônicas.

Assim como a maioria das bandas nacionais desta década, usou o MySpace e o YouTube para poder promover as músicas.

Em busca de maior espaço no cenário musical, a banda se instalou em São Paulo, para o lançamento do disco “Dias de Fuga”, que mesmo independente, já vendo milhares de cópias. Um das músicas do álbum, “Passos Escuros”, faz parte da trilha sonora na novela Malhação.

A banda é composta por: Renne Fernandes (Vocal), Fernando Cunha (Guitarra), Rodrigo Suspiro (Baixo) e Victor Hugo (Bateria).

Mais informações sobre a Hevo84, você encontra no Site Oficial e no MySpace do banda.

• No Milk Today

Criada em dezembro de 1993, a banda de punk rock de Curitiba, tem influências de bandas estrangeiras do cenário punk, como Sex Pistols, The Misfits e Ramones.

A banda é muito conhecida, tanto que já dividiu o palco com Ratos de Porão, The Misfits, Inocentes, Marky Ramone, entre outros.

A banda é composta por Maurício Singer, Rodrigo Meister, Jahyr Neto e Maurício Cabelo.

Mais informações, no MySpace da banda.

• Copacabana Club

Criada em 2007, na cidade de Curitiba, e mistura vários estilos musicais, como o indie rock, com punk, bossa nova e sons eletrônicos, seguindo uma tendência criada pelo Cansei de Ser Sexy e também muito atuante na banda The Ting Tings. Detalhe: todas as músicas são em inglês.

A banda foi idealizada por Alec Ventura após cinco anos em Londres. Ele se juntou com Lulli Frank(ex-integrante), Tile Douglas, Caca V e Claudinha Bukowski. Após um show em São Paulo, a banda virou sucesso no MySpace e foi convidada para entrar no projeto Levi’s Music, que apoia novas bandas. O Copacabana Club tem músicas como vinhetas de canais como a MTV e a FOX.

A banda atualmente é formada por Alec Ventura (guitarra e vocal), Caca V (vocal), Claudinha Burowski (bateria), Tile Douglas (baixo) e Rafael Martins (guitarra). A banda tem um EP lançado, em 2008, entitulado King Of The Night.

• Anmod

Formada em 2005, a banda é discidente do Fornication, nada de death metal conhecida no Sul do país. Desde 1996, ano de formação, o Fornication lançou dois discos “Descendants of Degenerated Race” e “Regurgitated Guts”.

Em 2004, a banda chegou a fazer uma turnê de 3 meses pela Europa. Nove países (Alemanha, França, Holanda, Austria, Italia, Belgica, Eslovenia, Hungria e República Tcheca) foram visitados pela turnê que teve o nome de “Unleashing Wrath Over Europe Tour 2004″.

Em 2005, três integrantes do Fornication (Hernan Oliveira, Johnny R.R. e Gerson Watanabe) saíram da banda para formar o Anmod, que tem um disco, o “Monstrosity Per Defectum“ lançado, em 2008. Por serem os mesmos integrantes, a sonoridade pesada do Fornication se manteve no Anmod.

Conheça um pouco mais, no Site Oficial da banda.

[Via http://rondasonora.wordpress.com]

Noise Zone en Myspace

Os informo que he creado un Myspace para dar a conocer a Noise Zone en la red y para que los grupos puedan promocionarse tanto aquí como en Myspace. Todos aquellos que tengáis un grupo y queráis daros a conocer podéis agregarnos y enviarnos un tema vuestro para que lo pongamos aquí. Sólo aceptamos temas cuyos derechos sean de los propios grupos (por ejemplo, Licencia Creative Commons. No queremos rollos con SGAE y compañía). Además de poner un tema de vuestro grupo, también podéis enviarnos vuestras noticias (historia, conciertos, cds, etc…).

Esperamos poder ayudar a todos los grupos que se esfuerzan en hacer lo que les gusta y no tienen medios para darse a conocer.

Podéis verlo en http://www.myspace.com/noisezonerock

[Via http://noisezone.wordpress.com]

As Afghans Resist Taliban, U.S. Spurs Rise of Militias-NYT.

Sounds encouraging.But national feelings being what they are,if US continues to meddle in Afghanisthan’s affairs,the same militia that is taking up arms against Taliban,shall take it up against US as well and that would be far more dangerous as this group will be fighting for National Soveignity.Better US leaves the place and provide military hard ware and advice if the people requested for it.
Story:
ACHIN, Afghanistan — American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against the Taliban.

Leaders of anti-Taliban militias in Kunduz Province met with the Afghan government’s intelligence chief in Kunduz this month.

Members of the Afghan National Police, above, passed an abandoned Russian Army vehicle on a patrol near a village in Kunduz Province.
The emergence of the militias, which took some leaders in Kabul by surprise, has so encouraged the American and Afghan officials that they are planning to spur the growth of similar armed groups across the Taliban heartland in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

The American and Afghan officials say they are hoping the plan, called the Community Defense Initiative, will bring together thousands of gunmen to protect their neighborhoods from Taliban insurgents. Already there are hundreds of Afghans who are acting on their own against the Taliban, officials say.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/world/asia/22militias.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a1

The endeavor represents one of the most ambitious — and one of the riskiest — plans for regaining the initiative against the Taliban, who are fighting more vigorously than at any time since 2001.

[Via http://ramanan50.wordpress.com]

How Would You Improve The Internet?

In recent news, the country of Sweden crashed: Apparently it is possible to cause every single address in a domain to go down (in this case, .se), by making a simple script error during routine maintenance…whodathunk? I shudder to think what may happen when routine maintenance on the .com domain takes place…

In another bit of “wish I’d never done that” news, Tim Berners-Lee just admitted that the forward slashes in the Web’s URL design protocol were both unnecessary and – in his words – a mistake. With this in mind, I thought it might be fun to wander around the Web, and the Internet as a whole, just to see what we could find, by way of unfortunate stories we may have forgotten, or never even known about…things that “seemed like a good idea at the time”. We’re getting closer to the end of the year, when all those retrospectives come out, and I thought this would be as good a time as any to think back, only not just over the past year, but further. After all, it’s the history we forget that we so often tend to repeat…

Do you remember GeoCities? If you thought they died a long time ago, you might be surprised to hear that Yahoo, who acquired them back when people thought dot-coms would never bomb, recently (as in October 26th, 2009) announced GeoCities was closing its doors. Talk about limping along…

Then there are the ISPs. I was a Mindspringer for the longest time, one of the first evangelists for the brand (until Earthlink purchased them). Along with the likes of Prodigy (still shuffling along, believe it or not, as owner AT&T tries to find someone stupid enough to buy something worth nothing), AOL (reinventing itself every day, yet still deriving the largest measure of its revenue from good old (and I mean old!) dial-up subscriptions), and Netzero (reduced to net zero, as they try to find new ways to also rejigger the fact that they are still a dial-up ISP), Mindspring was a pioneer doomed to be eclipsed by telcos who learned from their mistakes.

When we think back to the search engines, the list is long: Webcrawler, AltaVista (technically still around), Lycos…heck, I’m just scraping the tip of the iceberg, and have already lost interest. Did you know that AltaVista had a chance to buy Google’s search technology way back when, and passed? Whoops. Google, contrary to its current well-deserved reputation, was not innovative at all when it first opened for business. It was efficient and analytical. Its algorithms reinvented web search, based on the ideas of its predecessors, good and bad alike. Some people call that reinventing the wheel, but they at least have not rested on their laurels.

Many websites that burned brightly for only a short while were decried as unsustainable business models (remember Pets.com, Webvan, eToys, Kibu, and Kozmo?), and yet their model has since been adapted and proven successful (Petedge, Upco, Fosters &Smith, Amazon, Barbie.com, Tesco, to name but a few comparable online ventures that seem to have “made it”). Timing is all, it would indeed seem, or at least kinda crucial.

For some, it was all about effective marketing and brand awareness…or the lack thereof: Akimbo.com failed because they could not manage to communicate their value proposition to their target market, among other “challenges”; Hulu succeeded (where Joost, Veoh, Vimeo, and others have not – to varying degrees) because they realized their brand strength was tied to the apron strings of their partners. OK, it certainly didn’t hurt that the networks who own the content it distributes also own Hulu!..

In other cases, interactive success came as a result of reinvention: the transition (or should I say ‘desertion”?) from Microsoft Live Search to today’s “Bing” *might* finally establish MSFT as a competitor to Google, in much the same way as Firefox is to the Redmond giant’s own browser…well, without the Open Source stuff!

Now,who uses RSS? I’m sure it some value, but not yet for me. I subscribe to several feeds, and all I do is trash the avalanche of junk in my inbox each morning. Until people learn to self police their content (be it RSS feeds, Tweets, or Facebook Mafia War activities), the internet is going to continue to burn through ideas like flames across the Verdugo mountains.  There is too much information online, and we want tools that will filter and control the flood of data, not simply fractionalize it. After all, half of infinity is still infinity.

Some companies have good ideas, easily replicable by larger or later-in-the-game interests. Kiko developed a web based calendar, which seems like a great idea, unless you factor that it was not sufficiently proprietary of a business model to prevent Google from developing its own Google Calendar app.; and  HotorNot.com and Friendster were arguably ripped off by what is known today as Facebook (originally Facemash). Several companies are in the process of trying to beat TVguide.com at its own game (something that seems – at first glance – to be a good idea, given that the TVGuide.com site is not so great). However, couchville.com was there first, and since departed. Branding is worth a lot these days, in a very cluttered marketplace and, unless you are a captive subscriber (using ATT/Yahoo TV portal, for instance), or an early adopter (of which there are far fewer than those of us on the East and West Coasts might believe).

Some ideas are not so much failures as temporary successes, taking advantage of loopholes in the law or in best practices. P2P is one prime example, with different offerings coming and going (or continuing to exist despite obviously supporting illegal practices), but there are others, such as Yak4ever, the site that allows you to make free international calls, albeit through a slightly cumbersome process. Google Voice is another offering that seems destined to either succumb to the counterattacks of the powerful telco lobbies, or force a reinvention of telco laws.

Where such ongoing “could go either way” projects as MySpace.com,  Friendster (it’s still trying to make a go of it, my friends, and doing quite well in the Asia Pacific regions!), Kiva (currently under attack by folks who’d like to see it go the way of govWorks.com. Did you read the recent NYT article?), Project Natal, and James Cameron’s “Avatar” (had to throw that one in there!) end up is anybody’s guess. That’s where you come in: What failures and unforeseen successes do you recall? What is coming down the pike that you feel may completely reinvent interactive content production, storage, distribution, and/or consumption? Are you working on something that will make the Internet an even more robust tool and platform for communications, community and content? What does the Internet mean to you, beyond the conventional Web and email? What internet ventures do you feel will still be with us by the end of 2010?

History shows that much of what we praise today will be gone tomorrow.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Ozymandias, by Percy Shelley (1818)

Climate Change: A Really, Really Big Thing That’s Really, Really Hard That Makes Everybody Mad

• Noted with interest: Mashable item on MySpace Music Charts.

• Unrelated to music, via Bloomberg:

Lawmakers are growing weary of tackling a procession of sweeping measures, said Senator Claire McCaskill. The Obama administration is pushing to overhaul the U.S. health-care system, revamp regulation of the banking system and develop new proposals to replace jobs lost during the worst recession since the Great Depression.

“I don’t think anyone’s excited about doing another really, really, big thing that’s really, really hard that makes everybody mad,” McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, told reporters yesterday. “Climate fits that category.”

I let out an “Oh my God!” when I read that one. Lady next to me in the cafeteria turned around to see if I was alright.

Generally, I try not to get too worked up when I read quotes from politicians in the media. Maybe the remark got twisted around in the writing/editing process, and everybody says dumb things now and then.

But that one is pretty disappointing. I’m sure it’s tough being a Senator, but “really, really hard” doesn’t seem to me reason enough to avoid confronting serious problems.

Imeem Buyout Could Push MySpace Closer to "Freemium"

Consolidation appears imminent in the free streaming music sector, as MySpace is on the verge of acquiring social music site Imeem. A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed that negotiations are in process, but no deal is set. If it happens, the buy would be MySpace’s second fire-sale acquisition this year, following its mid-summer deal for iLike at a bargain-basement price. Imeem’s valuation, once reportedly above $200 million, was said to have fallen below $10 million at the time of a recapitalization round earlier this year.

The proposed deal would unite two companies that share the same problem: Rights holders demand royalties for song streams at rates higher than advertising alone can offset. Imeem has been a money drain to its stakeholders, but it does have several assets that could prove valuable to MySpace, which may be mulling a move toward a “freemium” model. Its sales, engineering and leadership teams hold significant value. Imeem acquired Snocap, the music-selling widget provider founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning and seen on many MySpace artist pages, in early 2008, and launched an iPhone app in May 2009.

Although no company has reached profitability providing free ad-supported music streams, Imeem was optimistic about reaching that point next year. The company had renegotiated its royalty rates with at least some of the major labels, reduced its headcount and other expenses, and accepted a round of funding worth about $6 million in spring 2009. But key investor Sequoia Capital bailed out of the recap round, and was largely washed out along with other stakeholders.

What’s more, its brand name is known as a music destination, in contrast with MySpace’s reputation as a broader social network. Imeem is also said to be developing a new user interface, the better to compete with Spotify, and if MySpace is planning to launch a paid service, it could incorporate parts of Imeem’s existing but little-used VIP service. Imeem has put those pieces in place already; for MySpace it’s a chance to buy rather than build them.

Imeem began exploring a sale more than a year ago, retaining Montgomery & Co. to evaluate strategic options, but no buyer emerged. Since that time, the free streaming model has fallen on hard times, and may soon be a thing of the past. If the current deal produces an exit disappointing to Imeem’s stakeholders, at least it will have produced something better than bankruptcy — which would be a small victory.

Myspace = Mesquite, TX

A funny thing happened on the way to Facebook… we killed Myspace. I went there the other day and it was bleak. I mean, really bleak. The first thing I thought was, “Wow, this reminds me of Mesquite, TX (my hometown).” I even tweeted it, which isn’t shocking because I tweet everything.

Oh, you don’t know Mesquite, TX? Here are some highlights – Town East Mall, Mesquite Rodeo (the audience sums it up well), Galloway Street (where we used to cruise on Saturday’s) and, of course, Hooters on Restaurant Row (wait… what the fuck is happening here?!?!).

All of these things have something in common, I lived in them for a long period of time. Myspace started for me, actually, while living at Bea and Guav’s in Jersey. Ray basically forced me to join. Mesquite started for me around the second grade when we moved from Pleasant Grove (A grove less pleasant than Mesquite, by the by).

Since moving to San Francisco, I hadn’t been back to Mesquite in about 3 years. My parents moved when I came to SF, as did everyone else. When I did return it was different. Seriously, everyone had moved on (well, except a few people who were only there for a free place to stay, or because they worked at their parents house). Sure, the C Store was still was there, there was still construction on LBJ and Poteet was still elite and the pride of Mesquite, but, it wasn’t the same. Honestly, it won’t ever be the same again.

The same goes for Myspace. It still has the most music, the most whores and movie trailers, but, it’s missing something. Unlike Mesquite, though. there is a chance to rejuvenate the site.

Here are my 5 ways to fix Myspace.

5) Authorization – It’s time to finally weed out the pervs, or at least weed them down. The best thing Facebook did was make you put in a phone number. You’d think that eliminates 90% of the future rapists, right?

4) Myspace Adult – Everyone (dudes) liked Myspace because it was a basically a free hookup site. Take advantage of that. Allow nude photos and shit with age verification for a small cost. You’re telling me chicks wouldn’t post that shit? Basically, start a new Adult Friend Finder.

3) Eliminate html for dummies. Why does Twitter work so well? It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s nice. I can get on Twitter 10 times during a work day and spend less than 3 minutes total. Bosses like that. It makes me feel like I can be more productive. When you log into Myspace it takes 40 minutes to load all the damn glitter auto-comments.

2) Fix the app immediately. The Myspace iPhone app is shit. Complete shit. You can’t stay on it for more than 2 minutes before it crashes. Try viewing a photo? Forget it… crash.

1) Weekly videos of Tom and Tila banging. Who’s not watching that??

Weekly Rewind / November 9-13

• Houston moves from 16th to 5th on Milken’s best performing city list.
• China is very close to restricting debt on property purchases.
• Houston’s commercial real estate sales down 84% from this time last year.  Is this a buying signal or is there more room to run?
• Two Japanese banks are merging to create the country’s fifth largest bank.
• Recession’s impact on the Houston office market.
• The NAIC has approved a plan to develop a new credit rating model.
• Green Building projects expected to skyrocket.  8 million jobs within 4 years-per projections.
• According to the Fed, banks are continuing the practice of extending and pretending.
• Bargain buys are reducing rental rates on the east and west coast.
• Is Singapore about to make the same mistakes the rest of the world made in regards to a real estate bubble?
• Net investment chart of commercial real estate (2001-Current).  This shoe has already dropped.
• On a separate note, REITs helped surge the stock market to its 52 week highs earlier in the week.
• Alvin TX’s north side is to get a $50 million Christus Health Hospital.
• Believe it or not: Commercial mortgage restructuring guidelines are getting results.
• HBJ reports Houston consumer spending slowing.  But optimism abounds.
• Of the 386 housing permits (projected new homes) in Sugar Land, 369 are from the Telfair Development.
• Chase is hiring 1200 mortgage loan officers to increase its capacity by 60% by the end of 2010.
• Tough couple weeks for the small business lender.
• Peak Demand or Peak Consumption?  Read the Oil Drum’s take.
• This just in: Banks are actually having success selling their toxic assets.
• Houston home sales up 10% from last quarter.  Median remains $160,000.
• Retail might be hurting, but its getting a big boost from institutional investors.
• Marq*E Center on I-10 & Silber to undergo a renovation to make it more retail friendly.  Interesting note: the Fed Reserve was involved.
• The Tenants Rights Act is adding liabilities from landlords.
• Texas’ electricity rates: Largest increase in prices over last 8 years…anywhere in the US.
• Sam Zell: Pending doom for CRE is a myth.
• Texas Employers can expect a tax hit for the jobless.
• No CRE to buy? Try looking north of the border, eh?
• Commercial Real Estate lending still tight.  Demand up, Supply Down since July.
• Britan’s Lloyd’s is scrambling to recover $1.1 billion after the collapse of Kenmore Property Group.
• Houston Downtown Tower purchased.  Aaaahh, some good news.
• Myspace.com losing $1 million a month due to office vacancy.

~Llenrock & Lowery Blogs

Would Anyone Pay for MySpace Music?

Speculation arose this past week that News Corp.-owned (s NWS) MySpace Music is considering moving to a paid model, as the cost of free streaming is making its current model unsustainable. News Corp. digital chief Jon Miller expressed some interest in such a move in an onstage interview conducted by paidContent’s Rafat Ali in Monaco on Thursday, noting that he believes in the “freemium” music model conceptually, even if a practical and sustainable version hasn’t appeared yet. (The audio and video are out of sync, but the segment concerning MySpace begins around the 7:15-minute mark, with deeper discussion of MySpace Music after 12 minutes.)

But even if the freemium model does work for music — and I’m far from convinced that it does — MySpace is so far behind in terms of user interface and experience that it’s hard to imagine the company launching a compelling paid product. A primary reason Spotify has garnered attention is its user interface, and the emerging battle for the music subscription marketplace will likely hinge on a compelling user experience. Consumers already know plenty of places to find free music, and historically they’re only liable to open their wallets for a superior experience. MySpace, however, isn’t seen as a premium provider of anything — and MySpace Music is viewed as a place where clutter and advertising are tolerated in order to get something for free.

What could MySpace deliver that people would pay for? Neither charging to hear music that used to be free nor crippling the free service by taking away music from people’s playlists are very good options, and violate the 10 commandments of freemium. Building a premium ad-free desktop, browser-based or mobile service would merely put MySpace in more direct competition with Spotify — which is having its own troubles satisfying content owners — and other music subscription services that are still seeing more experimentation than customer traction. And for a company that’s already admitted it’s long stopped innovating, MySpace would have to overtake more nimble competitors to draw users to a paid music service while overcoming the perception that it’s a messy-but-free one.

Asked if MySpace Music is nearing profitability, Miller told Ali, “On an operating basis, it’s getting there, but no, because of the payments to the music companies,” adding that he considers a paid model “something to look at.” Fourteen months after MySpace Music’s launch, with the four major labels on board as equity partners, time appears to be running out for its free ad-supported model. It’s worth revisiting Om’s remarks from back then:

If this works, then that is a good statement for the future of the music business. And if it doesn’t, then it tells where the industry is going. In other words, this is a must-win move for the record labels, who are increasingly looking hapless and, well, unable to deal with change.

ViSalus Vi-Net Integrates Directly With Social Media For Relationship Marketing

Originally posted at www.DirectSellingNews.com

For ViSalus Sciences, in an industry built on relationship marketing, the advent and proliferation of social media raises a lot of questions—and opportunities. The relationship between a direct seller and its prospects is a long way from the ones found on Match.com or eHarmony. But they do have things in common.

On every social media site or blog, everybody hopes they find people with mutual interests, and in the best of all possible worlds, you strike up long-term relationships.

But it’s a delicate balance in our industry. We’re learning that there’s no payoff in a “Join my company!” or “Buy my product!” approach. Instead, relationships in the virtual world are built in much the same way as they are face to face. They evolve slowly and intentionally. But whether the relationship develops over a cup of coffee or a keyboard, the relationship itself is the key to having people know, like and trust you.

Best of Both Worlds

For 4-year-old ViSalus, the decision to encourage distributors to build relationships through social media was a no-brainer. It was a matter of efficiency, as well as vision.

“Network marketing is about creating relationships and communication and working together,” Chief Marketing Officer Blake Mallen says. “The new social media tools are the most effective platform to communicate.”

The wellness company so strongly believes that social media marketing is the future of the industry that it has coined the term fusion marketing, which takes the tried-and-true traits of traditional direct selling and unites them with today’s technology.

The cornerstone is Vi-Net, an invitation-only online community of distributors—and customers—on ViSalus’s Web site. Vi-Net is the company’s go-to place for online training, sales tips and business-management tools. It’s home to blogs, pictures and chats among the ViSalus community. But here’s the differentiator: Vi-Net also provides instant connections with key social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Anytime a member updates Vi-Net, the system automatically updates their sites on Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and others.

The effect of Vi-Net on ViSalus’s growth has been amazing, Mallen says. “We’ve seen retention go up and new enrollments increase. But the biggest thing is that it’s just fun. It brings out people’s personalities and creates an awesome culture that helps bring people together and make them feel like they’re part of something. It’s all about fostering relationships.”

Originally Posted at:  Visalus vi-net

 

Facebookåret 2007

Mediene har vært fulle av oppslag i løpet av 2007 om nettstedet facebook. Innfallsvinklene er mange.

Hvem er på Facebook, hva brukes det til, og hvordan kan det eventuelt misbrukes? Mobbehistorier er en gjenganger. Da Benazir Bhutto ble drept i jula, og hennes 19-år gamle sønn overtok, var hans facebook-aktiviteter noe av det første journalistene kastet seg over.

Oppmerksomheten i mediene har sine gode grunner. I september 2007 hadde facebook over 720 000 norske brukere. Men facebook er langt fra det eneste nettsamfunnet som er populært. Nettby, Biip, Blink, HamarUngdom, Deiligst og World of Warcraft har alle over 100 000 norske brukere. YouTube, MySpace, Me, Fettnerd, MSN, og Backstage er noen andre populære steder. De fleste bruker to eller flere. Forskning fra tidlig på nyåret 2007 viste at omtrent 1 million nordmenn var innom et nettsamfunn en eller flere ganger i uken. Og dette var før facebook fikk sitt gjennombrudd i Norge! 2007 har nemlig sett en norsk eksplosjon i nettstedets popularitet. Norge er i dag nummer 4 (etter Australia, Tyrkia og Sverige) i antall facebook-brukere, dersom en ser bort fra USA, Storbritannia og Canada.

Fra sin spede begynnelse i 2004, vokste nettstedet til 5 millioner i 2005. 11. september 2006 ble det åpnet opp for alle. I løpet av 2006 fikk den over 10 millioner brukere og i februar 2008 regner man med over 61 millioner brukere verden over, med over 250 000 nye brukere daglig. Den var i 2007 den sjette meste besøkte siden, og den aller viktigste i forhold til å dele bilder med andre.

Hva er det så som er så spesielt med facebook? Brukervennlighet er et stikkord, samt at det inngir tillit ved at de fleste fremstår med fullt navn, og som oftest bilde. Det er lett å spore opp gamle venner, bygge nettverket sitt på reelle venner fra forskjellige sammenhenger. Kikkerbehovet er nok også en vesentlig grunn for suksessen ved at man kan se bilder og videoer fra vennene, lese andres kommentarer på “veggen” og så videre.

Dette har gjort sitt til at facebook ikke bare er et nettsamfunn for de unge, men også de eldre tar det i bruk. I Norge er det de over 24 år som er den raskest voksende brukergruppen. Noen har facebook som sitt eneste sted på nettet. Der har man alt man behøver, også mulighet for å sende elektroniske meldinger til sine kjente. Nettsamfunn er rett og slett blitt et sentralt ledd i den nye medievirkeligheten vår. En undersøkelse foretatt i 16 land, inkludert USA, viser at aldersgruppen fra 8 til 24 år har i gjennomsnitt 94 kontakter på mobilen, 78 IM-kontakter og 86 venner i nettsamfunn. Trenden går fra massemedier til personlige medier, fra å være passive konsumenter til å være aktive deltagere, fra å være tekst-orientert til å bli multimediale, fra å bruke mediene innimellom, til alltid å “være på nett”. Nettsamfunnene binder sammen nettavisen, nettbutikken, e-posten, videoer, tv’en, blogger, chatting og “instant messaging” (IM), fotoalbumet vårt, mobilen vår og så videre.

Næringslivet har for lengst sett mulighetene. Hennes & Mauritz og Ernst og Young har etablert seg på facebook. Det 3D-animerte nettsamfunnet SecondLife har store multinasjonale selskap som Toyota, Nissan, IBM, BBC, Adidas, Reebok og Intel som deltakere, og Sverige fikk stor oppmerksomhet da de etablerte en virtuell ambassade på dette nettstedet. Trenden er å gå bort fra enveiskommunikasjon til kundene, og over til brukervennlige og interaktive nettsamfunn.

Men hvordan kan facebook og andre nettsamfunn være farlige? En stor bekymring er for eksempel frykten for at private opplysninger, og bilder, blir solgt videre eller brukt av andre uten samtykke fra den enkelte. Det har også forekommet flere tilfeller av sikkerhetsglipper, der uvedkommende har fått tilgang til sensitive privatopplysninger.

Det er viktig å være oppmerksom på slike farer. Ikke minst for foreldre som bør følge med på hva barna legger ut om seg selv. Foreldrene tror ofte at de har god kontroll med hva barna deres gjør på nettet. I realiteten har de ikke det. 8 av 10 barn mellom 9 og 16 år ønsker ikke å snakke med voksne om ubehageligheter de opplever mens de er på nettet. Forskning fra England viser at nesten 60 prosent av denne aldersgruppen har sett porno på nettet, 30 prosent har blitt mobbet, mottatt seksuelle kommentarer og sett voldelig innhold eller blitt tilsendt seksuelt materiale.

2007 var året da facebook ble et viktig tema. “Jeg så bildene på facebook” og lignende kunne man ofte høre. Jeg mener at facebook og andre nettsamfunn er en suksess, og vil fortsette å være det. Dette nettstedet har truffet en nerve, et behov for å bli sett, for å se, og for å knytte nærmere bånd til hverandre på nettet, i en hverdag der tette og nære ansikt-til-ansikts relasjoner blir sjeldnere og sjeldnere. Dessuten har tunge markedskrefter sett denne suksessen, på godt og vondt, og er villig til å spytte inn penger slik at det blir muligheter til videreutvikling. Det er flest unge som blir hektet på dette, men også middelaldrende og eldre.

I større og større grad ordner man sine liv, og lever sine liv på nettet. Dette behøver ikke å være negativt. Man kan da også få større muligheter til å delta aktivt i livet utenfor nettet. Tankekorset blir jo da at dette kan føre til et stort digitalt skille mellom de som behersker teknikken og de som ikke gjør det, for ikke å snakke om de som av økonomiske eller andre årsaker blir holdt utenfor. Nettsamfunn er kommet for å bli. I likhet med andre nye medier som har sett dagens lys opp igjennom historien, blir de ofte møtt med en viss skepsis. En sunn skepsis er alltid god å ha, så sant man ikke skyller babyen ut med badevannet. Dersom en også har mulighet til å tilpasse seg, kan en få øynene opp for de uante mulighetene som ofte ligger slike nyvinninger.

Også publisert i Fædrelandsvennen og fvn.no 13. februar: (http://www.fvn.no/meninger/kronikk/article556482.ece).

New drug target for cancer

Hope for cancer patients.
Story:
Scientists have developed a new drug that blocks a transcription factor — previously thought to be un-blockable — that has been causally linked to leukemia and several other cancers of the lungs, ovaries, pancreas, and gastrointestinal tract, they report in Nature this this week.
The Notch transcription factor regulates cell-cell communication in the Notch signaling pathway, a system governing cell growth and development. Mutations in the transcription factor can result in uncontrolled cell growth, often causing cells to turn cancerous. But transcription factors are notoriously hard for medicinal chemists to target because they work by forming complexes with multiple proteins, leaving no open binding sites for small molecules to fit into.
http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/56143/

“It’s exciting research,” said Andrew Weng, a molecular biologist at the British Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada, who was not involved in the study. “A lot of people have been asking for a way to inhibit transcription factors, but efforts have been unsuccessful for so long. This new study holds a lot of therapeutic potential.”

Crescent and Cross -Can they co exist?BBC Whys.

Though all religions are different paths that lead to GOD(for believers),looking at the History of Cross and Crescent ,right now it seems it might not be possible for them to coexist,however cynical this may sound.
So long as Christianity believes and practices proslytisation and Islam in intolerance and violence co existence seems to be a mirage.
Unless people of both Religions understand the percepts of their religions in its true meaning with out being mislead by Clerics and Clergy,and practise what is taught rather than what is fed to them – it is far removed from what they have been led to believe by these jokers,who thrive on Religion as a business.All sacred books are avaoilable now;read and learn what these great souls have to say;discard what has been said for the society of their times and follow what is applicable to present society and we shall see a changed society.And Remember,Religion is intensely personal;if I may so, as personal as sex is.
Story:
LISTEN TO OWEN’S PROGRAMME HERE.

The BBC is running a major documentary series called “The Crescent and the Cross”.

Here, the presenter, Owen Bennett Jones, (who will co-host WHYS tonight) starts a conversation about some of the things he discovered while making the programmes.

“ Perhaps Samuel Huntington was right. 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan all suggest a clash between two great civilisations.
http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/the-crescent-and-the-cross/#comment-177497

Mainstream Social Networking

What are the first things that come to mind when you think of social networking sites? The most likely things are MySpace, facebook or Twitter. And, let’s be honest. There’s probably about 80% of the Internet-literate teenage population that has at least one of them – some might have two or even all three. I must be honest; I have none of them, with the exception of MySpace, which I tried for about one hour before shrugging and leaving out of boredom.

While I cannot speak accurately about the contents of these sites as a result, what I do know is that none of them actually have a point other than to connect with people. In other words, there’s no centralised topic. Personally, I prefer social networking sites that do have at least some sort of topic outline, but allow off-topic chattering as well. You’d be surprised that topic-restrictive sites (like forums and fandom sites) can actually provoke a whole range of different and very interesting conversations, and will actually give you a topic starter to go with as well.

I wonder what percentage of the teenage population would prefer this “restrictive” social networking over the mainstream?

Picture Perfect

Straßenmusik ist nicht gleich Straßenmusik!

Im Sommer sind wir durch Münsters Straßen geschlendert und hörten plötzlich von weitem ne geile akustic Version von Dance with Somebody- Mando Diao. Als wir der Musik folgten, sahen wir schon von weitem ne große Menschenmenge, die sich klatschent und mit dem Arsch wackelnd um 4 Jungs versammelte, die einfach mal ein geiles Cover nach dem andern auf die Pflastersteine warfen. Auch wir mußten irgendwie anhalten und waren für ne ganze Weile gefesselt. Die  4 waren unglaublich, jeder würde wohl behaupten an diesem Tag Gänsehaut bekommen zu haben. Kleine Mädels zückten Ihre Kameras und wollten nach der Session doch gleich n Autogramm. Omas und Opas der Stadt, Eltern, Kinder, Arbeitslose, Manager, Goldkeetchenträger,  irgendwie waren alle Schichten der Stadt in diesem Moment zusammen. Die Jungs hatten Charme und Stil und ohne Frage, wäre ich jünger gewesen hätte mein Herz sicherlich für einen von denen Luftsprünge gemacht, für wen, das verrat ich hier aber nicht! Doch wer waren die Jungs? Wir wollten es wissen! Also vereinbarten wir einen Interview- Termin:

http://www.stadtgefluester-muenster.de/?q=interviews/int/718

Als ich mich vor kurzem mal wieder über die Jungs informiert hab, staunte ich nicht schlecht. Ich las, das sie sich für den TheDome Bandwettbewerb beworben haben und in den ersten Votings schon bemerkenswert abgeschnitten hatten. Also gabs ein neues Interview von und mit Claus!

http://www.nanu.ms/?q=stories/details/35

Nun haben die 4 es tatsächlich zu TheDome am 20.11. in Graz geschafft und können zwischen Queensberry, Nena, DjÖtzi  oder Culcha Cundela Ihre Songs dem Publikum vor trällern. Ich bin gespannt was danach alles passiert, wieviele Mädchenherzen gebrochen werden und wie weit der Erfolg dann tatsächlich geht.

Jungs, falls das jemand mal von Euch liest, mein kleiner Vierbeiner freut sich sicherlich riesig über das ein oder andere Kuscheltier, wenns zuviel wird, immer her damit!!! Ihr wisst ja wo Ihr uns findet- auf der anderen Uferseite.

Für Alle die die Jungs noch nicht kennen:

http://www.myspace.com/bandpictureperfect

* introduction

* introduction

BUSINESS PLAN for “Brain Freeze Records d.b.a. Kavan Lyles” abrieviated as “BFR”.

http://www.brainfreezerecords.com

This plan for a record label is quite detailed. The label plans to produce artists on four separate record labels. These labels cover a broad spectrum of the music industry, from hip-hop, to rap, to R & B, to alternative, to a new genre of music. The label already has established ties to various artists in the industry, and plans to search for new artists to market and produce.
Brain Freeze Records is a multimedia entertainment label which will supply profitable, positive, audio and visual entertainment to a diverse, international consumer group. BFR is committed to wholesome entertainment across the board and firmly believes that quality, palatable entertainment can be realized without compromising commercial appeal.
BFR distinguishes itself through the commitment it undertakes with each of its artists. Contrasting the typical scenario in which a record label spends more money producing the music than they do in its marketing and promotion, BFR will utilize a stable of experienced and resourceful producers to ensure the highest quality product within established production budgets. This, in conjunction with the financing and expertise necessary to stage intense, relentless marketing campaigns will guarantee the impetus necessary to create “winning” products in the marketplace.
BFR is composed of three internal divisions: Brain Freeze Records, Brain Freeze Productions, and EcLipsaL Productions including 18 networked sites owned by BFR. The label will compete and earn revenue immediately through the creation of several lucrative profit centers, beginning with pre-recorded music [compact discs (CDs), Viral Videos (sound & picture combination), DVD, vinyl albums, itunes, amazon, cdbaby, MySpace, BFR Network, twitter, blogs, youtube and ton's of other various retailers and websites.] Additional income will be produced from distribution, video, merchandising, clothing lines and concert promotion.
Each of the albums that BFR produces and owns will create valuable short-term streams of revenue. Owning and controlling the rights to each of its albums will enable BFR to grow its music catalog into a valuable asset, one of several-hundred revenue producing titles.

* mission statement

* executive statement

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA

Comscore worldwide data says Digg, Twitter and Facebook have 32 million, 58 million and 411 million unique monthly visitors (September 2009), respectively. Google Trends says much the same thing, but the growth over time is fascinating visually. (Techcrunch11/4)

MySpace, once the centerpiece of Rupert Murdoch’s digital strategy, has fallen “significantly” short of expectations and is jeopardising a critical $900m internet search agreement with Google. (Financial Times 11/4)

Google launched Google Commerce Search, a new search engine that online retailers can install on their websites to provide Google style speed and efficiency for customers when they search for products. (Mashable11/5)

HOW ONLINE FORUMS CAN BOOST BUSINESS by Megan Corwin

Did you know that by simply participating in various forums and posting your views, ideas and answering posted questions, even asking questions, can potentially bring new growth and life to your website and business?
What is an Online Forum?

It’s an online community with an open discussion that allows you to ‘Post’ questions and answers related to a specific topic (similar to what you’re looking at). You can find Forums online related to any topic under the sun. Use Forums to:
~ Post questions and get answers.
~ Establish yourself as a subject matter expert as you post answers and advice.
~ Drive traffic to your website.

Regardless of the subject matter, there is a Forum out there with hundreds or thousands of members ready to give you helpful Tips and Advice to answer your questions.

Using Forums to Promote Your Business
Using online forums, also called message boards, can be a fun way to promote your business in a low key way.

Benefits:
You cultivate relationships with others.
You learn about all kinds of topics.
Your marketing message is presented without screaming advertisement.
By answering questions related to your topic, you are positioned as an expert in your field.

Next, “lurk” or just watch the activity for a few days to get a feel for the tone of the forum. When you feel confident this is an appropriate place to represent your business, introduce yourself. Often message boards have a ‘New Members’ place to post your first, introductory message.

After you have been welcomed, scan through the topics and post answers to questions others may have about your area of expertise. Repeat daily or weekly.

Tips:
Of utmost importance is to have a signature line that is added to the end of each message you post. This is like your calling card, and is what makes this method of business “promotion” so subtle. You may be posting a famous recipe, but everyone who checks it out will see your business name. Most forums have an account setting or options area where you can set up an automatic signature

Don’t spam Forums by visiting once and posting a promotional message everywhere. It will give you a bad reputation.

Check the regulations of the board to be sure signature lines are allowed. Some forums strictly prohibit marketing of any type.

Revisit your posting frequently to address any replies. Also, add new postings of interest every few days to keep your business in the Forum participants’ eyes.

Message boards and forums can be a very valuable marketing tool. While you’re at it, be sure to check out the fun topics, too!

6 Marriage Myths Shattered: How Barack and Michelle Shun Fairy Tale Romance

Please read on.Really a good one.
Marriage is a social institution as well as an emotional necessity for individual.Feelings like love, though true ,are transitory and are related one’s mental make up at a given point of time and also the expectation level of the individual.This keeps on varying.
The feeling of love is a Natural urge impelled by the process of propagating the species.Instincts express them selves as desire,;desire mulled over and reimposed becomes emotion;This varies according to person’s age and cultural back ground.Hence the feeling of Love and expression of Love differs from age group to age group and from one cultural back ground to another.
Determinig factors in Love are age and cultural back ground.
Another factor is the acceptability level of one to another in terms being comfortable with another.Here the core issue is self comfort and not Altruism as glorified by Literarture the world over.There need be no guilt feeling about being selfish as it is the way nature has meant us to be, for only then species will grow.My father used to say’I show affection to you;but you will show affection to your child more than to me,for it is Natural’.I agree.
So feelings of Love are true in so far us they exist and give us satisfaction.That does not mean people need to go around all the time’I love you’-It is pure humbug and every one knows it, but still want hearing it for it makes them happy. and by making your spouse happy , you are also happy.
Essentially, as has been said in the article, living for other,total compatibilty etc are 100% unadulterated lies.
Fact is we get the feeling of love, get married, for the better or worse and should march on.Divorce is no solution for you can still grumble and again divorce and there is no end.Happiness is a state of mind.Do not analyse too much on Relationships;if you do , you shall know it is empty.May be cynical, but true.
Love for others with out any expectation also gives us joy which can not be expected of any other relationship.As far as I know this is a mystery.I have stopped analysing.
I am 60 , married for 32 years with grand children ,would not know whether I am happy or unhappy .All I can say I am comfortable,I do not know what my wife thinks of.
As a tail piece,I have also loved and lost ,even at this age it pains me and I can not understand why, knowing well it is not rational.
Story:
How much romance did early American farmers expect? After they’d milked the cows and tilled the fields and put the kids to bed, did they hope to exchange a few pleasant words from time to time, have sex once in a while, and occasionally stay up to watch the embers fade to black before falling asleep? Did they expect much more than a colleague with benefits?

Or did they believe, that “Love is a magical journey,” and that getting married meant they were “about to embark on a wonderful voyage,” as Disney promises on its wedding site.

Did they expect that love would fulfill their every need, that they would never again be lonely, that if they found someone who was compatible that their every dream would come true, effort-free?
http://www.alternet.org/story/143639/6_marriage_myths_shattered%3A_how_barack_and_michelle_shun_fairy_tale_romance?page=1

Google Launches Music Search

A year after launching Google music search for the China market, Google has now embarked on Google music search for the entire world. Launched on 28 Oct’09 in the U.S., Google’s music search integrates audio tracks into your searches, allowing you to listen to full audio tracks (if available) upon receiving your search results. Not available yet in Asia, this search promises to make Google’s giant search engine even more gargantuous and comprehensive.

In line with Google’s world domination quest, the music search is ambitious, and is part of a series of Google initiatives – to provide thorough search results like never seen before – that would be rolled out within the next year. After the music search engine, the world can prepare itself for an infinite number of e-books available online (having been digitized for Google’s e-book project) as well as a state-of-the-art social interaction portal called Google Wave.

But I digress.

I initially thought that Google’s global music search would be somewhat similar in interface to the one they launched in China just last year, but it’s decidedly different. While Google’s global music search integrates your live searches into its search engine interface, Google Music China is a separate search by itself, focusing only on music- and artist-related results. Regardless, both are certainly a bold step in the future of free audio streaming for all, receiving praises from music fans all over the world.

And there’s more. “The real “wow” in this new music feature,” states Google’s blog with much pride, “is that you can type in phrases of lyrics, we recognize the song – and bring you the song for full play.” Bring it into Asia soon, we can’t wait!

How are the labels dealing with the digital music revolution?

Apparently, very well. All 4 major labels have come onboard for Google’s global music search, and are listed alongside online music partners iMeem, LaLa, MySpace, Pandora and Rhapsody. It’s heartening to see Universal Music and Sony Music embracing both VEVO and Google’s music search, which could potentially become rivals in music offering. Bring it on, I say. The more (digital) competition the better!