| Revered, reviled: a nation divided
SOEHARTO, the military strongman who dominated Indonesia for 32 years, has died in a Jakarta hospital, leaving a nation torn between revering and reviling its former president. One of the region's most influential and controversial figures, he died after his organs failed at 1.10pm yesterday after 21 days on life support in
Pertamina Hospital. His body will be flown to Solo for burial today in a family mausoleum. During his three weeks in hospital, debate raged over whether Soeharto and his family should be pursued for decades of human rights abuses and graft that reaped billions of dollars. Soon after the former president's death, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, with Vice-President Jusuf Kalla alongside both close to tears expressed their condolences "on behalf of this country and Government" in a live television broadcast from the Presidential Palace.
Webcastr Names Videos of the Year
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Webcastr.com, a video website featuring professional video content from over 200 channel providers, today announced the winners of it's Videos of the Year awards. Webcastr's viewers, along with it's editors voted amongst over 2,500 professionally produced videos on the website to pick the best video clips of the year for 2007. Thirty finalists were chosen by the staff of the webbery with the final clips being voted on during the last two weeks of December. Unlike the majority of video sharing sites, Webcastr features clips that come from licensed sources of professional and semi-pro content. "With so much of the user generated content out there being of questionable quality, we are happy to present these awards in recognition of the efforts of pro content creators who increasingly understand the value of the short form online video medium," said Webcastr CEO, Tim Devine.
siren call from Canada writes: Dion's actual statement, as reported by ...
'Dion hinted NATO could take action in Pakistan, which has a porous border with Afghanistan, if the Pakistani government doesn't move to track terrorists.
'We are going to have to discuss that very actively if they (the Pakistanis) are not able to deal with it on their own. We could consider that option with the NATO forces in order to help Pakistan help us pacify Afghanistan,' said Dion in Quebec City, commenting after his two-day trip to Afghanistan last weekend. 'As long as we don't solve the problem in Pakistan, I don't see how we can solve it in Afghanistan.'
Officials from Dion's office later stressed the Liberal leader meant diplomatic, not military intervention, was needed in Pakistan.' Posted 26/01/08 at 1:25 AM EST | Link to Comment .
The Sears Wish Book Catalog Inspires its Holiday Marketing Campaign
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Millions of Americans remember the Sears Wish Book catalog with excitement -- and the hours they spent poring over each page, circling the gifts they wanted both to give and to receive during the holidays. Now, this year's return of the historic catalog has inspired Sears' new holiday marketing campaign, which launched November 4. Led by the tagline "Don't just give a gift, grant a wish," the integrated marketing campaign features an expanded, more diversified, multicultural media mix, including national television and radio spots, magazine insertions for jewelry and tools, and increased online media, plus new sears.com functionality, Wishing Hours sales promotions and sweepstakes, direct mail, circular, public relations and, of course, catalogs.
Stop Chasing High-Tech Cheaters
Opening up The New York Times last week, I stumbled across an article that outraged me. "Colleges Chase as Cheats Shift to Higher Tech" detailed the struggle of some academics against new, high-tech forms of "cheating" that are based in Internet use, iPods, cellphones, and PocketPCs. The tone of the article was one of dismay at the collapse of morality in education. As I watched the article climb the "most e-mailed list" on the Times Web site through the day, my outrage increased. .
Restless retiree
Retirement for Gerry Phelps means reading through her Bible for the 45th time. From her 15th-floor apartment in the RBJ Towers, a low-income senior citizen complex founded by Lyndon Baines Johnson in honor of his mother Rebekah, Phelps can read and enjoy a panoramic view of downtown Austin: capitol dome, corporate towers, the University of Texas campus. The LBJ connection is a nice touch. Phelps despised him and Richard Nixon, and in 1969 went to prison for her role in the botched armed robbery of a liquor store meant to raise funds for a radical, anti-war newspaper. At the time she committed the crime, Phelps was a leftist, working on her Ph.D. and teaching economics at the University of Houston. In prison she became a Christian. In 1976, after serving seven years of a 35-year sentence, she gained parole to San Francisco.
Wines becoming liquid asset
Not long ago, Stephen Bachmann, a private-equity investor turned online wine store owner, posted a chart on his widely read blog about wine collecting. The dots on the graphic charted an investment starting at around $1,000 in 2003. They continued on a sustained northerly path -- up 100 percent, up 200 percent -- peaking above $4,000 in 2007.
If the average investor's E-Trade account looked like that chart, he would be popping bottles of Champagne. But the chart's subject did not concern the latest hot tech stock. It certainly was not charting the performance of a 401(k) retirement fund. The liquid asset in question was literally liquid: a single bottle of 1990 Petrus, a Bordeaux blend.
"If you didn't know what that was, most people would look at that chart and say that looks like a pretty good investment," said Bachmann, the founder of Vinfolio, based in San Francisco.
Number of homeowners who can’t afford payments escalates
The slowing national economy is also a wild card. Still, the Valley hasnt seen a change in its underlying fundamentals, Rounds said. Population growth is projected at 2.5 percent to 3 percent, he said. The future is still bright, but we have to work through the pains, he said. STRICTER STANDARDS During the boom, anyone with a pulse could get a loan, said Warren Potter, senior loan officer with Indymac Bank. Obviously, that was a recipe for disaster, Potter said. People were taking out second mortgages on their homes like they were ATMs, he said. Today, a once-aggressive lending industry is tightening guidelines on a near-daily basis. Borrowers need proof of income, a higher credit score and a larger down payment. Subprime loans, designed for higher-risk borrowers, are now virtually gone, he said.
|
