Monday, November 29, 2010

Being Right or Making Money




Progressives have suspected for years that working- and middle-class Americans vote for the GOP because they have a deeply unrealistic idea about their real chances of becoming wealthy. We've joked that working stiffs vote for tax cuts and other goodies for the rich because they seriously believe that they're going to be rich themselves someday, and want to make sure those advantages will be there for them, come the day.


To date, this has been just a guess on our part -- but a recent study now proves that this guess was right on the money. The Myth of the Self-Made American is being bolstered by a delusionally optimistic view of just how many people actually make it to the top 3% income level. It's a delusion that affects almost everyone, but particularly those who vote Republican.


Ryan Enos at yougov.com explains the results of a YouGov/Polimetrix poll conducted a few weeks before the recent election. As he explains their findings:


The hot button issue with the tax cuts is whether to renew the cuts for families earning more than $250,000 a year. The wrangling among politicians over this issue seems to mostly involve whether or not earning that amount of money qualifies somebody as wealthy.


What's amazing about the magic number of $250,000 is that, based on responses to a recent YouGov/Polimetrix poll, by and large, Americans have a very distorted view of how many people make that much money.


Any idea what proportion of American families make more than $250,000 a year? Or, to potentially make it easier, any idea what proportion of families in your state make more than $250,000 a year?


Don't feel bad if you don't know—most people don't. The actual number, nationwide is somewhere less than 3% of families earn more than $250,000 a year. What did the survey respondents say when asked this question? The average response was close to 17%!—meaning your typical survey respondent thinks that almost 1 in 5 families in America earn that kind of money, when the answer is closer to 1 in 50!


Enos goes on to point out that there are only a few states where the actual number of $250K earners even cracks 8% -- Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia. But when the question was put to people in those states, they weren't even half right, because their answers tilted upward, to about 21%.


Furthermore: the more money you make, and the more education you have, the more accurate your guess becomes. People making over $150K guessed an average of about 11%; those making under $30K thought it was more like 21%. College graduates guessed 12%; people with graduate degrees were closer, but not by much.


And only 15% of the survey participants answered 3% or under --though one-third of those answered "zero," meaning they thought nobody in the country makes more than $250K a year. Deduct this disconnected 5%, and you're left with just 10% of Americans who have a realistic sense of just how rare a $250K income is in this country.


While Republicans and Democrats gave about the same answers, the study also found that the more distorted peoples' views were, the lower their opinion of President Obama was, and the more likely they were to vote Republican last November 2. The bottom line, says Enos is this: "A person that says 20% of people make $250,000 is more likely to vote Republican than a person that says 5% of people make $250,000."


The irony, writes Enos, is that "people making less money actually believe that there are more wealthy people out there than wealthy people do."


This distortion explains a good deal about why middle- and working-class people vote for the GOP. A quarter of a million dollars sounds like an attainable income to most people -- they know at least a few people around town whom they imagine have already made it -- and they honestly think that with the right break or a little work, they might get there someday, too. It could happen.


Combine this with the common misunderstanding about how marginal tax rates work (hint: it's only the income over $250K that's taxed at the higher rate, not the whole year's take), and it's not hard to see why so many people making the average household income of $53K are incensed by the idea of increasing the marginal tax rate on the top 3% -- and why they think Obama is attacking them personally by suggesting such a horrible thing. They've bought into a myth about their chances of moving up the economic ladder that's at vast odds with the actual facts.


Some critics think Obama picked the wrong number, and that proposing at top tax rate that kicks in at $500K or a cool million would have avoided this problem. The average voter might have had a harder time imagining these numbers as being attainable. Maybe so. But maybe not: given how strong the myth of the self-made American is, and how many falsehoods you have to take on faith to believe it, we may be dealing with a level of delusion that's impervious to even really huge numbers, the kind that define only the top 0.5% of Americans.


We are living in a fact-free world now. Stories are all that matter. And in hard times, people tend to cling harder to their dreams -- especially the dream that no matter how bad things are now, someday they're going to rise above all this and triumph. Telling them the truth under these conditions is hard, and perhaps even cruel.


But one of the hallmarks of countries that are falling into chaos is that people come to believe more and more absurd things. Truth gives way to truthiness; facts aren't given the same weight as feelings. The huge disconnect between people's perceived prospects and their actual prospects shows just what a masterful job conservatives have done. They've convinced people to believe that their potential for mobility is as good or better than it ever was -- even as they've stolen the usual routes to a better life (education, home ownership, public investment, and so on) right out from under them.



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  • You don't really mean to say
    by over9grand




  • I don't know if we should be opening up to gays
    by over9grand




  • Not really
    by aesthete




  • Indeed, Savage. However...
    by acat




  • Wait
    by over9grand




  • The DREAM Act is blatant amnesty
    by over9grand




  • The post that I am referencing is "What's Next for the Prolife Movement?"
    by penguin2




  • Good post, goood idea
    by onehutu




  • lexington_concord, you stated it plainly, and profoundly....
    by penguin2




  • If your right at least
    by jerry39




  • I'm a big Palin Fan,
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  • I just want to hear one accomplishment
    by gop2010




  • Did not know being gov
    by powertothepeople




  • There's plenty that can be done to this guy.
    by anotherindyfilmguy




  • While the guy is a joke
    by powertothepeople




  • That was actually sort of funny
    by powertothepeople




  • What is so hot about Herman Cain?
    by gop2010




  • Isn't it illegal.....
    by jiminga




  • Palin left a smaller budget than when she started
    by gop2010




  • I agree there are some humor in this.
    by DefeatObama.com




  • Oh please.
    by DefeatObama.com




  • "Pray for BHO's safety!" in "The Total Victory of American Exceptional-ism in 2011 – A Realistic Strategy for that time frame"
    by russellpdavis




  • Let's take a vote on whether we should abort
    by throwback59




  • Who better to teach us a lesson on the evils of socialism...
    by chbroussard




  • I don't see it happening.
    by DefeatObama.com




  • Then cite the proof of your assertion, Savage.
    by acat




  • Recent case in point
    by Jack_Savage




  • If you want to make a lasting impression
    by DefeatObama.com




  • Funny thing, Tbone.
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  • I'll let you in on a little secret, JSobieski
    by Jack_Savage




  • No, it is not
    by Jack_Savage




  • Yep, and there needs to be some serious jail time. nt
    by chbroussard




  • Wouldn't even take 'em a month.
    by acat




  • I, for one, refuse to participate.
    by eastbaylarry




  • We cannot pick and choose.
    by momofthecastle




  • Roland Burris can mark one more thing off his bucket list.
    by acat




  • Stop The Food Safety Modernization Act!!
    by BigGator5




  • Bond Holders Desire To Kill The Euro Now
    by IJB




  • Kirk Finally Gets Seated, At Least 2 Weeks Later Than He Should Have Been (nt)
    by IJB




  • Just a reference comment
    by Death_of_the_Donkey





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James Gunn's 'Super' is set for an April 1st, 2011 release in NY and LA, followed quickly by a VOD expansion. In honor of.

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Saturday, November 27, 2010

Making Money Web

As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Must-Follow Non-Profit.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

When it comes to social good, the name of the game is creating or inspiring change, and often with limited resources. That’s why social media is so important for non-profit organizations. By allowing organizations to reach more people with less money, social media has become an integral part of the non-profit toolbox.

Groups are using social media a variety of ways, from raising money to engaging with constituents on personal and meaningful levels. The most important thing social media offers for non-profits, though, is a highly effective channel to spread awareness about their cause. “Having 10 million people is more important than $10 million,” Change.org founder and CEO Ben Rattray told Mashable recently. “For advocacy you need to mobilize people, and the web helps you mobilize people like never before.”

There are any number of worthy non-profit organizations utilizing social media in new and interesting ways; below are five that caught our eye this year as must-follow groups. Please share in the comments any other non-profits you think deserve a follow and nominate them for a Mashable Award.

1. Brooklyn Museum

More than just a great art museum, the Brooklyn Museum is one of the most social media-savvy organizations on the planet. From a mobile website that lets visitors tag items in the gallery (which, in turn, helps to organize the museum’s vast, 94,000-record online collection) to a Foursquare account that offers tips for things to do in the neighborhood and rewards mayors with special parties and other offers, the Brooklyn Museum is hip to the latest social media trends.

What’s really great about the museum, which can also be found on Tumblr, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, is that the staff is not afraid to innovate and try new things. They’re constantly testing out new social platforms and innovating new ways to use their current social media accounts. They even share the code behind some of their best ideas on GitHub!

2. Sesame Street Workshop

Sesame Street Workshop is the non-profit organization behind the beloved children’s classic television series Sesame Street, among others. And despite being 41 years old, these cats — er, Muppets — really know social media.

You can find your favorite Sesame Street residents on Twitter and Facebook (characters like Elmo, Big Bird and Oscar have their own Pages). Where the Workshop really excels, however, is YouTube. Sesame Street Workshop has made its biggest social media splash on YouTube, with exclusive content that often features celebrity guests and frequent parodies of other digital media memes, such as the Google search stories or the Old Spice Guy, that prove the people behind Sesame Street know their stuff.

3. WildlifeDirect

Founded in 2006 by noted African conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey, WildlifeDirect aims to save endangered animals in Africa. The organization helps local conservation groups around Africa raise funds, awareness and support for their conservation projects.

WildlifeDirect can be found on many of the usual social media networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, but where it really shines is blogging. The organization has set up an active blog network of more than 100 field blogs penned by conservation groups across Africa. The blogs are one of the main drivers of donations to the conservation work that the organization supports, but they also offer a fascinating look into the struggle to save endangered species in some of the most diverse and threatened areas on Earth.

4. Kids Are Heroes

Founded in 2008 by Gabe O’Neill and his then 9-year-old daughter, MaryMargaret, Kids Are Heroes is a non-profit group that has the admirable goal of inspiring children to get involved in the act of giving back. The website offers profiles of more than 100 kids who have at a young age (some as young as 5-years-old!) had a meaningful impact on their communities and the world — whether by training diabetic service dogs, donating books to low-income families, or raising millions of dollars for out-of-work war veterans. The organization’s message is loud and clear: Kids can make a difference.

Along with the inspiring stories, the Kids Are Heroes website allows children to send “shout outs” to one another, and the group maintains active and engaging Twitter and Facebook accounts.

5. Darius Goes West

Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project is a force to be reckoned with. Afflicted with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) — a genetic degenerative muscular disease that killed his older brother — Darius and 11 of his friends set out six years ago to travel across America with the ultimate goal of getting Darius’ wheelchair customized on MTV’s Pimp My Ride. The group filmed that trip and turned it into the much-celebrated documentary film, Darius Goes West.

Six years later, Darius Goes West has become a movement — non-profit vehicle to raise money and awareness for the search for a DMD cure that now seems so tantalizingly close. Darius, who continues to defy the odds, recently turned 21 years old and the Darius Goes West crew continue to come up with innovative ways to spread their message and raise money using social media. From raising money through Facebook widgets to inspiring people to do crazy things in the name of charity, Darius Goes West is a must-follow cause for their innovation and unflappable humor.

What’s Your Take?

Which non-profits should we absolutely follow? Let us know your picks and recommendations in the comments below or nominate them for the Mashable Awards.

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Andy Sjarif has an almost weird, man-crush on Google. No matter what crazy things Eric Schmidt may promise shareholders, Sjarif is in no doubt that the great and mighty Google can achieve them. Self-driving cars? Trips to the moon? Wind farms? All in a day’s work at the Googleplex. Google with its execution, its Ph.Ds and its algorithms is Sjarif’s mahaguru.


But – all that said – he still wants to slaughter them in the Indonesian market.


To that end, his company Sitti has indexed more than 20 terabytes of data; comprising 12 million articles, 12 million Twitter accounts, 800 million pages of websites and blogs, 10 million Facebook conversations, 20 thousand words of slang and 2.7 billion Google search terms– all in Bahasa Indonesia and all to make mathematical sense of Bahasa language context, so that it can match ads to content better than Google.


Google has been supporting an Indonesian language version of Chrome for a few months, but it only launched Adwords and announced it was ready to serve the market October 8… about a week after Sitti just launched a trial of its contextual ad engine consisting of that consisted of 2,700 individual ads for 529 brands. It must be doing something right; not only did Google come into the market almost immediately but, the day after the campaign launched, Google bought the keyword in Bahasa for “Sitti.” See the screenshot, grabbed by Sjarif below.



A few weeks later, Google sent a team to Indonesia and held dozens of job interviews. Sjarif claims a few candidates were told that Google was going to crush the small upstart. They are said to be hiring a local team of about a dozen employees in 2011.


Of course, the timing could all be coincidence. Indonesia is a hot market that, as I’ve argued before, only a fool would completely ignore. But, if nothing else, it certainly makes Sitti look good to the locals. There’s that nationalistic pride issue of Google making more than anyone else when it comes to Indonesian Web advertising, but not employing many locals and not paying much in local taxes. Sitti is undoubtably a gnat in the Google universe. But every once in a while, a gnat gets your attention and you swat at it, right?


Whether he helped provoke it or not, Sjarif is thrilled Google is coming into the market, because he thinks it’ll drive more professionalism, attention and revenues for the ecosystem as a whole. Google Adsense tailored for Indonesia means local Web companies can better bootstrap companies with Google ads, the way the early Web 2.0 wave of companies in the United States did. The two could co-exist the same way mass players like Google and more tailored ad networks like Federated Media did for US startups.


Google brings heft to the market, but it will never get as deep into the nuances Bahasa indexing as Sitti is. Sitti cites the example of ZAO Begun in Russia, which Google tried to buy for $140 million before it was blocked by the Russian government, as evidence that language can be a powerful differentiator on the Web.


More than a year ago, Sjarif tried to raise funding from Valley VCs and one very well-heeled one he asked me not to name said, “It’s not that your technology isn’t hot, it’s the fact that you’re here. In the Valley, people would be fighting over you.” So Sitti raised money from a handful of local angels instead. They were offline moguls who didn’t know a thing about the Web, but backed him anyway. This is a running theme among Jakarta Web companies I met this past trip. Knowing the big families is important as entrepreneurs shape a new industry in a country with infrastructure issues and little local venture capital. One of these angels called him the day after he committed the money and said, “Andy, do two things for me. The first is don’t die, because this is going to be big. Now, explain to me what you do.”


Indonesians complain about a lack of sophisticated Web expertise and mentorship, but it’s one of the only emerging markets where I don’t hear complaints about a dearth of angel money. Sitti’s angels have given the company a long leash, deep pockets and helped open doors to the country’s old media elite. Sjarif now turns down traditional venture firm money, bootstrapping the company’s growth by giving big brands local media consulting advice for digital campaigns. “I want to talk to VCs when I don’t need their money,” he says. Smart plan. Venture money can come and go quickly in markets that don’t have a track record of returns.


But back to the product. Sjarif is so deep into how, when, where and what Indonesians say on the Web that he can tell you a lot about this phenomenon. He says three things drive the Indonesians love affair with Tweeting and Foursquare for instance: They’re narcassists; they love to gossip about one another (more than celebrities, unlike the US) and they get bored during urban traffic jams. He says he can map the traffic flows in Jakarta based on the volume of Tweets he indexes at any given time.


Here’s a visualization Sitti did of part of my Bahasan Twitter connections, created in part to embarrass me at an event. In true polite Indonesian style there was little embarrassing on it, except for the fact that ARRINGTON is the biggest hub on this map. And, what the hell is Mashable even doing on there? I might get fired for that if the big yellow dot ARRINGTON sees it. Interesting that @katharnavas in India is the same size dot as @arrington. Thanks for the links, whoever you are. The yellow dots are my connections; the red dots are connections to them or connections with smaller networks that have mentioned me; and the size of the dot indicates how frequently.



And this is a relation of most common words associated with “Sarah Lacy” into Google.co.id’s engine:



It’s certainly different than the words most related to me in an English-language search. It seems in Indonesia, haters don’t gotta hate quite as much. Good to know. The company also did a visualization of topics on my personal blog and conversations over Twitter they’ve indexed that relate to me.


Sitti wasn’t the only company I met trying to build a business out of social media sentiment in markets that were ignored by companies like Google up until recently. There are several companies in Asia generally seeking to make sense out of the wave of pages being created on the Web in Asian languages in order to turn all that traffic into actual cash. Since, most of those pages are being created over social media, it takes a company that can understand slang, context, and meaning in just 140 characters. And a lot of these companies put the Valley’s self-proclaimed “social media consultants” to shame with highly scientific and proprietary approaches.


Two very different examples are Brandtology in Singapore and Scraplr in Indonesia. Brandtology promises to  make better sense of what social media is saying about a brand by hiring an army of smart college grads to sit and parse queries so the machines don’t mis-read things like sarcasm and local slang. While, I’m sympathetic to the idea that there are certain things an algorithm doesn’t get, the economics of this company didn’t quite sense, and didn’t quite hold up the more questions I asked. How do you hire enough college-educated locals to filter all those keywords and still have a cost-effective solution? The answer is it’s not a free product. It costs between $1,000 and $10,000 a month depending on what percentage of keywords you want examined. Without paying extra, you don’t really get better relevance. I’m not sure that scales as the cost of talent rises.


Scraplr takes a totally algorithmic approach, that is specifically tailored to Bahasa, not emerging market languages broadly. Because it takes a machine-only approach it has a freemium model. That means more people can see how good the site is, but making money will be a bigger challenge. There is probably room for all three, as long as they perform as advertised. Indonesia and social media are both black boxes the West is struggling to understand.



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Read our news of Jade Raymond making Splinter Cell 6.

Portland terrorist bomb plot: <b>News</b>, opinion from The Oregonian and <b>...</b>

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Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Bonanza

On this day after Thanksgiving, we thought we'd create a feast of small business resources ourselves. Please dig in and enjoy every tasty morsel. This bonanza.


bench craft company scam

Jade Raymond making Splinter Cell 6 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Jade Raymond making Splinter Cell 6.

Portland terrorist bomb plot: <b>News</b>, opinion from The Oregonian and <b>...</b>

Return to OregonLive later today for more from The Oregonian on the terrorist arrest.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Bonanza

On this day after Thanksgiving, we thought we'd create a feast of small business resources ourselves. Please dig in and enjoy every tasty morsel. This bonanza.


bench craft company scam

As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Must-Follow Non-Profit.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

When it comes to social good, the name of the game is creating or inspiring change, and often with limited resources. That’s why social media is so important for non-profit organizations. By allowing organizations to reach more people with less money, social media has become an integral part of the non-profit toolbox.

Groups are using social media a variety of ways, from raising money to engaging with constituents on personal and meaningful levels. The most important thing social media offers for non-profits, though, is a highly effective channel to spread awareness about their cause. “Having 10 million people is more important than $10 million,” Change.org founder and CEO Ben Rattray told Mashable recently. “For advocacy you need to mobilize people, and the web helps you mobilize people like never before.”

There are any number of worthy non-profit organizations utilizing social media in new and interesting ways; below are five that caught our eye this year as must-follow groups. Please share in the comments any other non-profits you think deserve a follow and nominate them for a Mashable Award.

1. Brooklyn Museum

More than just a great art museum, the Brooklyn Museum is one of the most social media-savvy organizations on the planet. From a mobile website that lets visitors tag items in the gallery (which, in turn, helps to organize the museum’s vast, 94,000-record online collection) to a Foursquare account that offers tips for things to do in the neighborhood and rewards mayors with special parties and other offers, the Brooklyn Museum is hip to the latest social media trends.

What’s really great about the museum, which can also be found on Tumblr, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, is that the staff is not afraid to innovate and try new things. They’re constantly testing out new social platforms and innovating new ways to use their current social media accounts. They even share the code behind some of their best ideas on GitHub!

2. Sesame Street Workshop

Sesame Street Workshop is the non-profit organization behind the beloved children’s classic television series Sesame Street, among others. And despite being 41 years old, these cats — er, Muppets — really know social media.

You can find your favorite Sesame Street residents on Twitter and Facebook (characters like Elmo, Big Bird and Oscar have their own Pages). Where the Workshop really excels, however, is YouTube. Sesame Street Workshop has made its biggest social media splash on YouTube, with exclusive content that often features celebrity guests and frequent parodies of other digital media memes, such as the Google search stories or the Old Spice Guy, that prove the people behind Sesame Street know their stuff.

3. WildlifeDirect

Founded in 2006 by noted African conservationist Dr. Richard Leakey, WildlifeDirect aims to save endangered animals in Africa. The organization helps local conservation groups around Africa raise funds, awareness and support for their conservation projects.

WildlifeDirect can be found on many of the usual social media networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, but where it really shines is blogging. The organization has set up an active blog network of more than 100 field blogs penned by conservation groups across Africa. The blogs are one of the main drivers of donations to the conservation work that the organization supports, but they also offer a fascinating look into the struggle to save endangered species in some of the most diverse and threatened areas on Earth.

4. Kids Are Heroes

Founded in 2008 by Gabe O’Neill and his then 9-year-old daughter, MaryMargaret, Kids Are Heroes is a non-profit group that has the admirable goal of inspiring children to get involved in the act of giving back. The website offers profiles of more than 100 kids who have at a young age (some as young as 5-years-old!) had a meaningful impact on their communities and the world — whether by training diabetic service dogs, donating books to low-income families, or raising millions of dollars for out-of-work war veterans. The organization’s message is loud and clear: Kids can make a difference.

Along with the inspiring stories, the Kids Are Heroes website allows children to send “shout outs” to one another, and the group maintains active and engaging Twitter and Facebook accounts.

5. Darius Goes West

Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project is a force to be reckoned with. Afflicted with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) — a genetic degenerative muscular disease that killed his older brother — Darius and 11 of his friends set out six years ago to travel across America with the ultimate goal of getting Darius’ wheelchair customized on MTV’s Pimp My Ride. The group filmed that trip and turned it into the much-celebrated documentary film, Darius Goes West.

Six years later, Darius Goes West has become a movement — non-profit vehicle to raise money and awareness for the search for a DMD cure that now seems so tantalizingly close. Darius, who continues to defy the odds, recently turned 21 years old and the Darius Goes West crew continue to come up with innovative ways to spread their message and raise money using social media. From raising money through Facebook widgets to inspiring people to do crazy things in the name of charity, Darius Goes West is a must-follow cause for their innovation and unflappable humor.

What’s Your Take?

Which non-profits should we absolutely follow? Let us know your picks and recommendations in the comments below or nominate them for the Mashable Awards.

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)/> Time: 7:00 – 10:00 pm PT/> Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas/> Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations/> Socialize: Facebook, Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Mashable Awards Gala Partner:

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Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to nearly 100 million spectators in 300 cities on five continents. In 2010 Cirque du Soleil, will present 21 shows simultaneously throughout the world, including seven in Las Vegas.

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Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

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Our “Mobile Year in Review 2010” animation proves a glimpse into the most notable breakthroughs in the wireless industry this year.

Yahoo! is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

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Andy Sjarif has an almost weird, man-crush on Google. No matter what crazy things Eric Schmidt may promise shareholders, Sjarif is in no doubt that the great and mighty Google can achieve them. Self-driving cars? Trips to the moon? Wind farms? All in a day’s work at the Googleplex. Google with its execution, its Ph.Ds and its algorithms is Sjarif’s mahaguru.


But – all that said – he still wants to slaughter them in the Indonesian market.


To that end, his company Sitti has indexed more than 20 terabytes of data; comprising 12 million articles, 12 million Twitter accounts, 800 million pages of websites and blogs, 10 million Facebook conversations, 20 thousand words of slang and 2.7 billion Google search terms– all in Bahasa Indonesia and all to make mathematical sense of Bahasa language context, so that it can match ads to content better than Google.


Google has been supporting an Indonesian language version of Chrome for a few months, but it only launched Adwords and announced it was ready to serve the market October 8… about a week after Sitti just launched a trial of its contextual ad engine consisting of that consisted of 2,700 individual ads for 529 brands. It must be doing something right; not only did Google come into the market almost immediately but, the day after the campaign launched, Google bought the keyword in Bahasa for “Sitti.” See the screenshot, grabbed by Sjarif below.



A few weeks later, Google sent a team to Indonesia and held dozens of job interviews. Sjarif claims a few candidates were told that Google was going to crush the small upstart. They are said to be hiring a local team of about a dozen employees in 2011.


Of course, the timing could all be coincidence. Indonesia is a hot market that, as I’ve argued before, only a fool would completely ignore. But, if nothing else, it certainly makes Sitti look good to the locals. There’s that nationalistic pride issue of Google making more than anyone else when it comes to Indonesian Web advertising, but not employing many locals and not paying much in local taxes. Sitti is undoubtably a gnat in the Google universe. But every once in a while, a gnat gets your attention and you swat at it, right?


Whether he helped provoke it or not, Sjarif is thrilled Google is coming into the market, because he thinks it’ll drive more professionalism, attention and revenues for the ecosystem as a whole. Google Adsense tailored for Indonesia means local Web companies can better bootstrap companies with Google ads, the way the early Web 2.0 wave of companies in the United States did. The two could co-exist the same way mass players like Google and more tailored ad networks like Federated Media did for US startups.


Google brings heft to the market, but it will never get as deep into the nuances Bahasa indexing as Sitti is. Sitti cites the example of ZAO Begun in Russia, which Google tried to buy for $140 million before it was blocked by the Russian government, as evidence that language can be a powerful differentiator on the Web.


More than a year ago, Sjarif tried to raise funding from Valley VCs and one very well-heeled one he asked me not to name said, “It’s not that your technology isn’t hot, it’s the fact that you’re here. In the Valley, people would be fighting over you.” So Sitti raised money from a handful of local angels instead. They were offline moguls who didn’t know a thing about the Web, but backed him anyway. This is a running theme among Jakarta Web companies I met this past trip. Knowing the big families is important as entrepreneurs shape a new industry in a country with infrastructure issues and little local venture capital. One of these angels called him the day after he committed the money and said, “Andy, do two things for me. The first is don’t die, because this is going to be big. Now, explain to me what you do.”


Indonesians complain about a lack of sophisticated Web expertise and mentorship, but it’s one of the only emerging markets where I don’t hear complaints about a dearth of angel money. Sitti’s angels have given the company a long leash, deep pockets and helped open doors to the country’s old media elite. Sjarif now turns down traditional venture firm money, bootstrapping the company’s growth by giving big brands local media consulting advice for digital campaigns. “I want to talk to VCs when I don’t need their money,” he says. Smart plan. Venture money can come and go quickly in markets that don’t have a track record of returns.


But back to the product. Sjarif is so deep into how, when, where and what Indonesians say on the Web that he can tell you a lot about this phenomenon. He says three things drive the Indonesians love affair with Tweeting and Foursquare for instance: They’re narcassists; they love to gossip about one another (more than celebrities, unlike the US) and they get bored during urban traffic jams. He says he can map the traffic flows in Jakarta based on the volume of Tweets he indexes at any given time.


Here’s a visualization Sitti did of part of my Bahasan Twitter connections, created in part to embarrass me at an event. In true polite Indonesian style there was little embarrassing on it, except for the fact that ARRINGTON is the biggest hub on this map. And, what the hell is Mashable even doing on there? I might get fired for that if the big yellow dot ARRINGTON sees it. Interesting that @katharnavas in India is the same size dot as @arrington. Thanks for the links, whoever you are. The yellow dots are my connections; the red dots are connections to them or connections with smaller networks that have mentioned me; and the size of the dot indicates how frequently.



And this is a relation of most common words associated with “Sarah Lacy” into Google.co.id’s engine:



It’s certainly different than the words most related to me in an English-language search. It seems in Indonesia, haters don’t gotta hate quite as much. Good to know. The company also did a visualization of topics on my personal blog and conversations over Twitter they’ve indexed that relate to me.


Sitti wasn’t the only company I met trying to build a business out of social media sentiment in markets that were ignored by companies like Google up until recently. There are several companies in Asia generally seeking to make sense out of the wave of pages being created on the Web in Asian languages in order to turn all that traffic into actual cash. Since, most of those pages are being created over social media, it takes a company that can understand slang, context, and meaning in just 140 characters. And a lot of these companies put the Valley’s self-proclaimed “social media consultants” to shame with highly scientific and proprietary approaches.


Two very different examples are Brandtology in Singapore and Scraplr in Indonesia. Brandtology promises to  make better sense of what social media is saying about a brand by hiring an army of smart college grads to sit and parse queries so the machines don’t mis-read things like sarcasm and local slang. While, I’m sympathetic to the idea that there are certain things an algorithm doesn’t get, the economics of this company didn’t quite sense, and didn’t quite hold up the more questions I asked. How do you hire enough college-educated locals to filter all those keywords and still have a cost-effective solution? The answer is it’s not a free product. It costs between $1,000 and $10,000 a month depending on what percentage of keywords you want examined. Without paying extra, you don’t really get better relevance. I’m not sure that scales as the cost of talent rises.


Scraplr takes a totally algorithmic approach, that is specifically tailored to Bahasa, not emerging market languages broadly. Because it takes a machine-only approach it has a freemium model. That means more people can see how good the site is, but making money will be a bigger challenge. There is probably room for all three, as long as they perform as advertised. Indonesia and social media are both black boxes the West is struggling to understand.



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Jade Raymond making Splinter Cell 6 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Jade Raymond making Splinter Cell 6.

Portland terrorist bomb plot: <b>News</b>, opinion from The Oregonian and <b>...</b>

Return to OregonLive later today for more from The Oregonian on the terrorist arrest.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Bonanza

On this day after Thanksgiving, we thought we'd create a feast of small business resources ourselves. Please dig in and enjoy every tasty morsel. This bonanza.


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Jade Raymond making Splinter Cell 6 <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Jade Raymond making Splinter Cell 6.

Portland terrorist bomb plot: <b>News</b>, opinion from The Oregonian and <b>...</b>

Return to OregonLive later today for more from The Oregonian on the terrorist arrest.

Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Bonanza

On this day after Thanksgiving, we thought we'd create a feast of small business resources ourselves. Please dig in and enjoy every tasty morsel. This bonanza.


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Friday, November 19, 2010

managing your personal finance

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IRS Tax Preparations For You by IRS EIN


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Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in New JFK <b>...</b>

Do you find Wall-E and Eve so adorable you just want to eat them? Now you can thanks to Charm City Cakes. - Warner Bros.

EA launching Facebook golf game PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our PC news of EA launching Facebook golf game.

<b>News</b> Corp developing a tablet-exclusive publication

News Corp Logo Reuters is reporting that News Corp, the world's third-largest media conglomerate, has confirmed they will be releasing a news publication developed specifically for tablet computers like the iPad. "It's a tablet-only ...


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IRS Tax Preparations For You by IRS EIN


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Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in New JFK <b>...</b>

Do you find Wall-E and Eve so adorable you just want to eat them? Now you can thanks to Charm City Cakes. - Warner Bros.

EA launching Facebook golf game PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our PC news of EA launching Facebook golf game.

<b>News</b> Corp developing a tablet-exclusive publication

News Corp Logo Reuters is reporting that News Corp, the world's third-largest media conglomerate, has confirmed they will be releasing a news publication developed specifically for tablet computers like the iPad. "It's a tablet-only ...


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Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in New JFK <b>...</b>

Do you find Wall-E and Eve so adorable you just want to eat them? Now you can thanks to Charm City Cakes. - Warner Bros.

EA launching Facebook golf game PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our PC news of EA launching Facebook golf game.

<b>News</b> Corp developing a tablet-exclusive publication

News Corp Logo Reuters is reporting that News Corp, the world's third-largest media conglomerate, has confirmed they will be releasing a news publication developed specifically for tablet computers like the iPad. "It's a tablet-only ...


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Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in New JFK <b>...</b>

Do you find Wall-E and Eve so adorable you just want to eat them? Now you can thanks to Charm City Cakes. - Warner Bros.

EA launching Facebook golf game PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our PC news of EA launching Facebook golf game.

<b>News</b> Corp developing a tablet-exclusive publication

News Corp Logo Reuters is reporting that News Corp, the world's third-largest media conglomerate, has confirmed they will be releasing a news publication developed specifically for tablet computers like the iPad. "It's a tablet-only ...


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Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in New JFK <b>...</b>

Do you find Wall-E and Eve so adorable you just want to eat them? Now you can thanks to Charm City Cakes. - Warner Bros.

EA launching Facebook golf game PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our PC news of EA launching Facebook golf game.

<b>News</b> Corp developing a tablet-exclusive publication

News Corp Logo Reuters is reporting that News Corp, the world's third-largest media conglomerate, has confirmed they will be releasing a news publication developed specifically for tablet computers like the iPad. "It's a tablet-only ...


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IRS Tax Preparations For You by IRS EIN


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Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in New JFK <b>...</b>

Do you find Wall-E and Eve so adorable you just want to eat them? Now you can thanks to Charm City Cakes. - Warner Bros.

EA launching Facebook golf game PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our PC news of EA launching Facebook golf game.

<b>News</b> Corp developing a tablet-exclusive publication

News Corp Logo Reuters is reporting that News Corp, the world's third-largest media conglomerate, has confirmed they will be releasing a news publication developed specifically for tablet computers like the iPad. "It's a tablet-only ...


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Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in New JFK <b>...</b>

Do you find Wall-E and Eve so adorable you just want to eat them? Now you can thanks to Charm City Cakes. - Warner Bros.

EA launching Facebook golf game PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our PC news of EA launching Facebook golf game.

<b>News</b> Corp developing a tablet-exclusive publication

News Corp Logo Reuters is reporting that News Corp, the world's third-largest media conglomerate, has confirmed they will be releasing a news publication developed specifically for tablet computers like the iPad. "It's a tablet-only ...


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Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: Leonardo DiCaprio to Star in New JFK <b>...</b>

Do you find Wall-E and Eve so adorable you just want to eat them? Now you can thanks to Charm City Cakes. - Warner Bros.

EA launching Facebook golf game PC <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our PC news of EA launching Facebook golf game.

<b>News</b> Corp developing a tablet-exclusive publication

News Corp Logo Reuters is reporting that News Corp, the world's third-largest media conglomerate, has confirmed they will be releasing a news publication developed specifically for tablet computers like the iPad. "It's a tablet-only ...


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The Tools of Ignorance: Friday <b>News</b> - Pinstripe Alley

A big offer, the big man's snub, a little trade, and a call for a dose of sanity.

Taiwanese <b>News</b> Channel Animates Royal Engagement! | PerezHilton.com

Royal Wedding Fever has hit Taiwan! Check out their animated (because we wouldn´t want it any other way!) interpretation of Prince William´s engagement to Kate Middleton (above)! Sooo...

Small Business <b>News</b>: Questions For Your Business

Everybody has questions when going into or running a business...everybody. If you have some burning inqueries you'd like to get answered, read our small.


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One and a Half Cheers for Fox <b>News</b>, David Henderson | EconLog <b>...</b>

Senator Jay Rockefeller made a splash Wednesday by suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission shut down the Fox News Channel and MSNBC. My guess is that he mentioned MSNBC because he wanted to sound equally oppressive of both ...

Fox <b>News</b> Commentators Caught On Camera Mocking Sarah Palin&#39;s Show <b>...</b>

WASHINGTON -- The Fox News channel has been something of a safe haven for Sarah Palin, the type of outlet that provided the former Alaska Governor not only with a friendly audience but similarly kind questions.

Police <b>News</b> at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the <b>...</b>

1 Tweets that mention Police News at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics -- Topsy.com. Pingback on Nov 19th, 2010 at 3:23 am. 2 Police News at ...


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Taiwanese <b>News</b> Channel Animates Royal Engagement! | PerezHilton.com

Royal Wedding Fever has hit Taiwan! Check out their animated (because we wouldn´t want it any other way!) interpretation of Prince William´s engagement to Kate Middleton (above)! Sooo...

One and a Half Cheers for Fox <b>News</b>, David Henderson | EconLog <b>...</b>

Senator Jay Rockefeller made a splash Wednesday by suggesting that the Federal Communications Commission shut down the Fox News Channel and MSNBC. My guess is that he mentioned MSNBC because he wanted to sound equally oppressive of both ...

Good <b>news</b>: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens <b>...</b>

Good news: James Bond and Indiana Jones hooking up to fight aliens.


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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Money Making Secrets

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Cash Money Deposit by Tomitheos


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LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy! <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy!.

<b>News</b> Corp&#39;s Two Newspaper Tablet Projects are Back on Track

After stories that Rupert Murdoch had binned his adventurous newspaper app project, his son James has said Project Alesia is going ahead, whether other newspapers want their content aggregated or not.

Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Roger Ailes Apologizes for Calling NPR Execs Nazis <b>...</b>

Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, publicly apologized on Thursday for comparing NPR executives to Nazis.


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LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy! <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy!.

<b>News</b> Corp&#39;s Two Newspaper Tablet Projects are Back on Track

After stories that Rupert Murdoch had binned his adventurous newspaper app project, his son James has said Project Alesia is going ahead, whether other newspapers want their content aggregated or not.

Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Roger Ailes Apologizes for Calling NPR Execs Nazis <b>...</b>

Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, publicly apologized on Thursday for comparing NPR executives to Nazis.


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LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy! <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy!.

<b>News</b> Corp&#39;s Two Newspaper Tablet Projects are Back on Track

After stories that Rupert Murdoch had binned his adventurous newspaper app project, his son James has said Project Alesia is going ahead, whether other newspapers want their content aggregated or not.

Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Roger Ailes Apologizes for Calling NPR Execs Nazis <b>...</b>

Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, publicly apologized on Thursday for comparing NPR executives to Nazis.


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LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy! <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy!.

<b>News</b> Corp&#39;s Two Newspaper Tablet Projects are Back on Track

After stories that Rupert Murdoch had binned his adventurous newspaper app project, his son James has said Project Alesia is going ahead, whether other newspapers want their content aggregated or not.

Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Roger Ailes Apologizes for Calling NPR Execs Nazis <b>...</b>

Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, publicly apologized on Thursday for comparing NPR executives to Nazis.


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LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy! <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean ahoy!.

<b>News</b> Corp&#39;s Two Newspaper Tablet Projects are Back on Track

After stories that Rupert Murdoch had binned his adventurous newspaper app project, his son James has said Project Alesia is going ahead, whether other newspapers want their content aggregated or not.

Fox <b>News</b>&#39; Roger Ailes Apologizes for Calling NPR Execs Nazis <b>...</b>

Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox News, publicly apologized on Thursday for comparing NPR executives to Nazis.


Wednesday, November 17, 2010

personal finance and budgeting




Conduct a Financial Fire Drill to Assess Financial Health





We conduct fire drills to ensure fire warning systems are functional and that building occupants know what to do in the event of a fire-related emergency. Apply that same type of stress test to your money with a financial fire drill.

Photo by Steve Snodgrass.


Finance and frugality blog Frugal Dad urges us to take stock of our financial health by conducting a financial fire drill. Just like a real fire drill helps you run through a dangerous scenario without risk—"Who put the file cabinets in front of the fire exit?"—a financial fire drill shows you how effective your escape routes are and how big your safety net is.


You'll need to gather up all your bills, take stock of your savings and emergency fund, and head over the Frugal Dad to run through their financial fire drill checklist—which includes great tips like making a slash-and-burn list of non-essential services you can cancel the minute you get laid off or in other financial trouble.






If you die owing money, that means you won the game of life. But some folks harbor a silly fantasy of actually clawing their way out of the imploded Chilean mines of debt they've created for themselves. They put themselves on a budget, hope for job security and the eventual reinstatement of raises and map out exactly when they might taste the financial freedom all too few get to taste.



Personal Finance blogger Girl with the Red Balloon, who is chipping away at more than $16,000 of student loan debt on a $24,000 salary says she'll be out of debt June 1, 2013. She uses the far-off date as encouragement to stay focused on her frugality.



How much debt are you in, and if you plan on getting out of it one day, when do you hope that will be?



Debt Free Date [Girl with the Red Balloon]







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Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> And Views About China Stocks (Nov. 18 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: Shanghai's main stock index fell 1.9% yesterday amid concerns about the impact of government efforts to slow down ...

More Bad <b>News</b> for Obama 2012: Catholics Elect Dolan - Swampland <b>...</b>

Corrected Nov. 17: The Catholic bishops' surprise election yesterday of New York's Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan as their president is more bad news for Obama in 2012.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Design challenge: River of <b>News</b> in HTML

Design challenge: River of News in HTML. By Dave Winer on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 8:13 PM. I'm a big believer in designers, programmers, writers, artists, news people all working together. Permanent link to this item in the ...



Free Personal Finance Software, Online Money Management, Budget Planner and Financial Planning | Mint.com by courtneyBolton


Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> And Views About China Stocks (Nov. 18 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: Shanghai's main stock index fell 1.9% yesterday amid concerns about the impact of government efforts to slow down ...

More Bad <b>News</b> for Obama 2012: Catholics Elect Dolan - Swampland <b>...</b>

Corrected Nov. 17: The Catholic bishops' surprise election yesterday of New York's Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan as their president is more bad news for Obama in 2012.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Design challenge: River of <b>News</b> in HTML

Design challenge: River of News in HTML. By Dave Winer on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 8:13 PM. I'm a big believer in designers, programmers, writers, artists, news people all working together. Permanent link to this item in the ...


alpine payment systems scam

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> And Views About China Stocks (Nov. 18 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: Shanghai's main stock index fell 1.9% yesterday amid concerns about the impact of government efforts to slow down ...

More Bad <b>News</b> for Obama 2012: Catholics Elect Dolan - Swampland <b>...</b>

Corrected Nov. 17: The Catholic bishops' surprise election yesterday of New York's Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan as their president is more bad news for Obama in 2012.

Scripting <b>News</b>: Design challenge: River of <b>News</b> in HTML

Design challenge: River of News in HTML. By Dave Winer on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 8:13 PM. I'm a big believer in designers, programmers, writers, artists, news people all working together. Permanent link to this item in the ...


personal finances help

While
the financial crisis has forced Canadians to come to grips with the
idea that a pension may not be a promise, employee benefits are
similarly in peril.

 

"I find it almost incomprehensible that Nortel
LTD (long-term disability) claimants could lose their benefits, but
this is possible; let alone losing their health care and a portion of
their pensions," said Kevin Dougherty, president of Sun Life Financial
Canada, speaking at the Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute
conference.

 

"We saw how benefits and pensions can literally disappear in an instant."

 

Now people nearing retirement face a new twist.

 

"Millions
of people asked the questions, what if I have to leave the workforce
five or 10 years early, or what if I have to stay in the workforce five
or 10 years more."

 

The leading edge of baby boomers will hit age 65 next year, when each day a thousand people in Canada will retire.

 

"Today
with boomers age 50 to 65, with kids grown and many through school,
the question they're asking isn't 'what if I die,' it's 'what if I
live?' That saps my income and retirement savings. What if I have to
live through another financial crisis?"

 

Dougherty joins federal
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney
in worrying about the growing debt Canadians are piling up.

 

"How
can we be the only place in the developed world where real estate
prices continued to increase for the last two-and-a-half years? What
does that mean? - more and more debt for Canadians."

 

While
Canadians who can't resist a bargain stock up on moulding empty homes
in the United States, there is fear that the Home Equity Line Of Credit
or HELOC could do in Canada what subprime mortgages did in the U.S.

 

Of course, retirement won't affect all people the same.

 

"Women
who are widowed early in retirement actually live three years longer
(than those who aren't), and men widowed early in retirement live three
years less."

 

While more and more companies with underfunded
pension plans have been reducing benefits and commuted value payouts,
the malaise has spread to employment benefits. Many firms offer minimal
health-care coverage in retirement or have eliminated it, while more
and more current employees find themselves on the hook to find vision
and dental insurance.

 

Meanwhile, the average number of days lost annually to sickness per worker has risen from eight in 1989 to 13 in 2009.

 

Dougherty's
conclusion is that neither government nor lawyers will take care of an
aging workforce, "and the next generation of children is not going to
want to take care of us."

 

He said
there is more onus on people in the pension and benefits and human
resources areas to devise products and provide advice.

 

"Our
industry needs to be much more than just helping to attract and retain
employees. The financial security of millions of Canadians depends on
the work we do."

 

One such move is encouraging government to establish a new personal health- savings account.

 

"We've
been advocating something called the registered health savings plan,
where people can save money on a pre-tax basis to be used for their
health-care costs in retirement. There are other examples like critical
illness insurance. But we've got to step up to this. I think this is
going to be one of the big areas of the future."

 

Even
with defined contribution pension plans, where investment risk lies
with the individual, the employers can provide advice through plan
sponsors.

 

"Narrowing the field from 4,000 fund managers to 12 is
providing advice. Overseeing and switching out of managers is providing
advice. Setting a level of contribution and matching is providing
advice. Providing tools that ask questions and lead people to
recommendations is providing advice."

 

But there is need to help
educate people about financial literacy, abetting the federal
government's task force on the issue that has been touring Canadians for

submissions and will issue a report in December.

 

"The most
striking finding is the degree of the challenge that we have, the
surprising lack of financial literacy in the general population is
really, really striking," Dougherty said.

 

"There's a challenge in
literacy - reading and writing in English, because we have such large
immigration; a challenge in numeracy, lots of people don't like working
with numbers; and you layer on top of that the knowledge and skills of
financial consequences."

 

All this is set against a backdrop in
which the financial crisis produced severe stock market downturns that
scared individuals from investing personally, while corporations were
similarly spooked and didn't invest in technology to improve
productivity and grow their workforces.

 

"There
was a two-year period in which we didn't invest, and that's going to
hurt us for two to five years," said Glen Hodgson, chief economist of
the Conference Board of Canada. "Health care will soon emerge as a top
concern for Canadians. Aging is going to suck the life out of our
economy slowly."

 

But just as baby boomers were told 40 years ago
that the investment of the future would be "plastics," Hodgson has his
own tip: "India will be the next China, it will keep growing at eight
per cent for a number of years."

You can bet your hip replacement on it.

Finally, my favorite deflationist, Gary Shilling was interviewed on Yahoo's Teck Ticker on Monday warning us that the age of deleveraging is upon us:



The Asian Development Bank has roped in the European Investment Bank to invest in large-scale solar power plants in India. The ADB is committed to arrange finances for India’s ambitious National Solar Mission projects.


The Asian Development Bank has been working closely with many Asian countries to provide them financial, technical and policy-related support for expanding solar energy infrastructure. The ADB is playing an active role in India to make solar energy more popular. In addition to the European Investment Bank, the ADB has also attracted funding from the US Import-Export Bank and Germany’s KWF.


Under the National Solar Mission, India plans to install 20,000 MW solar-based power generation capacity by 2022. The current install capacity is a dismal 14 MW. The 20,000 MW capacity also includes the off-grid rural power plants. In order to rapidly increase the installed capacity the Indian government has announced two massive solar farm projects, one each in Rajasthan and Gujarat.


Both these states are blessed with substantially high solar radiation resource and also have large areas of unused lands due to lower agricultural land use. Rajasthan has the vast Thar desert while Gujarat has vast wastelands in the west. Gujarat has set aside 2,500 hectare for a 1,000 MW plant while Rajasthan has set aside 8,000 hectare for a 3,000 MW plant. Construction of these plants is expected to start after 2013, that is, during the second phase of the National Solar Mission.


The ADB is also supporting the project developers who intend to set up power plants during the first phase. The first phase aims at installing 1,1o0 MW by 2013; ADB will support 350 MW of these installations. The smaller power plants have been provided with 50 percent loan guarantees and project developers will also provided direct loans.


The Asian Development Bank has been working closely with several ministries of the Indian government to devise overall policies and logistical support mechanism in order to make the solar energy projects commercially viable. The bank would also provide capital grants to cover up the difference between the cost of solar power generation and the average cost of generation from conventional sources.


Such collaborations with international funding agencies help in bridging the financial gap that exists for any new renewable energy technologies. In the absence of a clear agreement on international funding as part of an international climate change treaty, such partnerships with European and American banks helps in the quick implementation of these clean technology projects in the developing countries.


Image: technicolorcavalry/Flickr/CC


The views presented in the above article are author’s personal views and do not represent those of TERI/TERI University where the author is currently pursuing a Master’s degree.


Follow Mridul Chadha on Twitter and Facebook

bench craft company scam

Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due

News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...

New Yorker&#39;s Music Critic Moves to <b>News</b> Corp.&#39;s Daily - NYTimes.com

Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker, will become the culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation's so-called iPad newspaper which is currently in development.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...


bench craft company scam
While
the financial crisis has forced Canadians to come to grips with the
idea that a pension may not be a promise, employee benefits are
similarly in peril.

 

"I find it almost incomprehensible that Nortel
LTD (long-term disability) claimants could lose their benefits, but
this is possible; let alone losing their health care and a portion of
their pensions," said Kevin Dougherty, president of Sun Life Financial
Canada, speaking at the Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute
conference.

 

"We saw how benefits and pensions can literally disappear in an instant."

 

Now people nearing retirement face a new twist.

 

"Millions
of people asked the questions, what if I have to leave the workforce
five or 10 years early, or what if I have to stay in the workforce five
or 10 years more."

 

The leading edge of baby boomers will hit age 65 next year, when each day a thousand people in Canada will retire.

 

"Today
with boomers age 50 to 65, with kids grown and many through school,
the question they're asking isn't 'what if I die,' it's 'what if I
live?' That saps my income and retirement savings. What if I have to
live through another financial crisis?"

 

Dougherty joins federal
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney
in worrying about the growing debt Canadians are piling up.

 

"How
can we be the only place in the developed world where real estate
prices continued to increase for the last two-and-a-half years? What
does that mean? - more and more debt for Canadians."

 

While
Canadians who can't resist a bargain stock up on moulding empty homes
in the United States, there is fear that the Home Equity Line Of Credit
or HELOC could do in Canada what subprime mortgages did in the U.S.

 

Of course, retirement won't affect all people the same.

 

"Women
who are widowed early in retirement actually live three years longer
(than those who aren't), and men widowed early in retirement live three
years less."

 

While more and more companies with underfunded
pension plans have been reducing benefits and commuted value payouts,
the malaise has spread to employment benefits. Many firms offer minimal
health-care coverage in retirement or have eliminated it, while more
and more current employees find themselves on the hook to find vision
and dental insurance.

 

Meanwhile, the average number of days lost annually to sickness per worker has risen from eight in 1989 to 13 in 2009.

 

Dougherty's
conclusion is that neither government nor lawyers will take care of an
aging workforce, "and the next generation of children is not going to
want to take care of us."

 

He said
there is more onus on people in the pension and benefits and human
resources areas to devise products and provide advice.

 

"Our
industry needs to be much more than just helping to attract and retain
employees. The financial security of millions of Canadians depends on
the work we do."

 

One such move is encouraging government to establish a new personal health- savings account.

 

"We've
been advocating something called the registered health savings plan,
where people can save money on a pre-tax basis to be used for their
health-care costs in retirement. There are other examples like critical
illness insurance. But we've got to step up to this. I think this is
going to be one of the big areas of the future."

 

Even
with defined contribution pension plans, where investment risk lies
with the individual, the employers can provide advice through plan
sponsors.

 

"Narrowing the field from 4,000 fund managers to 12 is
providing advice. Overseeing and switching out of managers is providing
advice. Setting a level of contribution and matching is providing
advice. Providing tools that ask questions and lead people to
recommendations is providing advice."

 

But there is need to help
educate people about financial literacy, abetting the federal
government's task force on the issue that has been touring Canadians for

submissions and will issue a report in December.

 

"The most
striking finding is the degree of the challenge that we have, the
surprising lack of financial literacy in the general population is
really, really striking," Dougherty said.

 

"There's a challenge in
literacy - reading and writing in English, because we have such large
immigration; a challenge in numeracy, lots of people don't like working
with numbers; and you layer on top of that the knowledge and skills of
financial consequences."

 

All this is set against a backdrop in
which the financial crisis produced severe stock market downturns that
scared individuals from investing personally, while corporations were
similarly spooked and didn't invest in technology to improve
productivity and grow their workforces.

 

"There
was a two-year period in which we didn't invest, and that's going to
hurt us for two to five years," said Glen Hodgson, chief economist of
the Conference Board of Canada. "Health care will soon emerge as a top
concern for Canadians. Aging is going to suck the life out of our
economy slowly."

 

But just as baby boomers were told 40 years ago
that the investment of the future would be "plastics," Hodgson has his
own tip: "India will be the next China, it will keep growing at eight
per cent for a number of years."

You can bet your hip replacement on it.

Finally, my favorite deflationist, Gary Shilling was interviewed on Yahoo's Teck Ticker on Monday warning us that the age of deleveraging is upon us:



The Asian Development Bank has roped in the European Investment Bank to invest in large-scale solar power plants in India. The ADB is committed to arrange finances for India’s ambitious National Solar Mission projects.


The Asian Development Bank has been working closely with many Asian countries to provide them financial, technical and policy-related support for expanding solar energy infrastructure. The ADB is playing an active role in India to make solar energy more popular. In addition to the European Investment Bank, the ADB has also attracted funding from the US Import-Export Bank and Germany’s KWF.


Under the National Solar Mission, India plans to install 20,000 MW solar-based power generation capacity by 2022. The current install capacity is a dismal 14 MW. The 20,000 MW capacity also includes the off-grid rural power plants. In order to rapidly increase the installed capacity the Indian government has announced two massive solar farm projects, one each in Rajasthan and Gujarat.


Both these states are blessed with substantially high solar radiation resource and also have large areas of unused lands due to lower agricultural land use. Rajasthan has the vast Thar desert while Gujarat has vast wastelands in the west. Gujarat has set aside 2,500 hectare for a 1,000 MW plant while Rajasthan has set aside 8,000 hectare for a 3,000 MW plant. Construction of these plants is expected to start after 2013, that is, during the second phase of the National Solar Mission.


The ADB is also supporting the project developers who intend to set up power plants during the first phase. The first phase aims at installing 1,1o0 MW by 2013; ADB will support 350 MW of these installations. The smaller power plants have been provided with 50 percent loan guarantees and project developers will also provided direct loans.


The Asian Development Bank has been working closely with several ministries of the Indian government to devise overall policies and logistical support mechanism in order to make the solar energy projects commercially viable. The bank would also provide capital grants to cover up the difference between the cost of solar power generation and the average cost of generation from conventional sources.


Such collaborations with international funding agencies help in bridging the financial gap that exists for any new renewable energy technologies. In the absence of a clear agreement on international funding as part of an international climate change treaty, such partnerships with European and American banks helps in the quick implementation of these clean technology projects in the developing countries.


Image: technicolorcavalry/Flickr/CC


The views presented in the above article are author’s personal views and do not represent those of TERI/TERI University where the author is currently pursuing a Master’s degree.


Follow Mridul Chadha on Twitter and Facebook

bench craft company scam

Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due

News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...

New Yorker&#39;s Music Critic Moves to <b>News</b> Corp.&#39;s Daily - NYTimes.com

Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker, will become the culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation's so-called iPad newspaper which is currently in development.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...


benchcraft company scam

bench craft company scam

Facing Codependence by kateraidt


benchcraft company scam

Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due

News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...

New Yorker&#39;s Music Critic Moves to <b>News</b> Corp.&#39;s Daily - NYTimes.com

Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker, will become the culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation's so-called iPad newspaper which is currently in development.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...


benchcraft company scam
While
the financial crisis has forced Canadians to come to grips with the
idea that a pension may not be a promise, employee benefits are
similarly in peril.

 

"I find it almost incomprehensible that Nortel
LTD (long-term disability) claimants could lose their benefits, but
this is possible; let alone losing their health care and a portion of
their pensions," said Kevin Dougherty, president of Sun Life Financial
Canada, speaking at the Canadian Pension and Benefits Institute
conference.

 

"We saw how benefits and pensions can literally disappear in an instant."

 

Now people nearing retirement face a new twist.

 

"Millions
of people asked the questions, what if I have to leave the workforce
five or 10 years early, or what if I have to stay in the workforce five
or 10 years more."

 

The leading edge of baby boomers will hit age 65 next year, when each day a thousand people in Canada will retire.

 

"Today
with boomers age 50 to 65, with kids grown and many through school,
the question they're asking isn't 'what if I die,' it's 'what if I
live?' That saps my income and retirement savings. What if I have to
live through another financial crisis?"

 

Dougherty joins federal
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney
in worrying about the growing debt Canadians are piling up.

 

"How
can we be the only place in the developed world where real estate
prices continued to increase for the last two-and-a-half years? What
does that mean? - more and more debt for Canadians."

 

While
Canadians who can't resist a bargain stock up on moulding empty homes
in the United States, there is fear that the Home Equity Line Of Credit
or HELOC could do in Canada what subprime mortgages did in the U.S.

 

Of course, retirement won't affect all people the same.

 

"Women
who are widowed early in retirement actually live three years longer
(than those who aren't), and men widowed early in retirement live three
years less."

 

While more and more companies with underfunded
pension plans have been reducing benefits and commuted value payouts,
the malaise has spread to employment benefits. Many firms offer minimal
health-care coverage in retirement or have eliminated it, while more
and more current employees find themselves on the hook to find vision
and dental insurance.

 

Meanwhile, the average number of days lost annually to sickness per worker has risen from eight in 1989 to 13 in 2009.

 

Dougherty's
conclusion is that neither government nor lawyers will take care of an
aging workforce, "and the next generation of children is not going to
want to take care of us."

 

He said
there is more onus on people in the pension and benefits and human
resources areas to devise products and provide advice.

 

"Our
industry needs to be much more than just helping to attract and retain
employees. The financial security of millions of Canadians depends on
the work we do."

 

One such move is encouraging government to establish a new personal health- savings account.

 

"We've
been advocating something called the registered health savings plan,
where people can save money on a pre-tax basis to be used for their
health-care costs in retirement. There are other examples like critical
illness insurance. But we've got to step up to this. I think this is
going to be one of the big areas of the future."

 

Even
with defined contribution pension plans, where investment risk lies
with the individual, the employers can provide advice through plan
sponsors.

 

"Narrowing the field from 4,000 fund managers to 12 is
providing advice. Overseeing and switching out of managers is providing
advice. Setting a level of contribution and matching is providing
advice. Providing tools that ask questions and lead people to
recommendations is providing advice."

 

But there is need to help
educate people about financial literacy, abetting the federal
government's task force on the issue that has been touring Canadians for

submissions and will issue a report in December.

 

"The most
striking finding is the degree of the challenge that we have, the
surprising lack of financial literacy in the general population is
really, really striking," Dougherty said.

 

"There's a challenge in
literacy - reading and writing in English, because we have such large
immigration; a challenge in numeracy, lots of people don't like working
with numbers; and you layer on top of that the knowledge and skills of
financial consequences."

 

All this is set against a backdrop in
which the financial crisis produced severe stock market downturns that
scared individuals from investing personally, while corporations were
similarly spooked and didn't invest in technology to improve
productivity and grow their workforces.

 

"There
was a two-year period in which we didn't invest, and that's going to
hurt us for two to five years," said Glen Hodgson, chief economist of
the Conference Board of Canada. "Health care will soon emerge as a top
concern for Canadians. Aging is going to suck the life out of our
economy slowly."

 

But just as baby boomers were told 40 years ago
that the investment of the future would be "plastics," Hodgson has his
own tip: "India will be the next China, it will keep growing at eight
per cent for a number of years."

You can bet your hip replacement on it.

Finally, my favorite deflationist, Gary Shilling was interviewed on Yahoo's Teck Ticker on Monday warning us that the age of deleveraging is upon us:



The Asian Development Bank has roped in the European Investment Bank to invest in large-scale solar power plants in India. The ADB is committed to arrange finances for India’s ambitious National Solar Mission projects.


The Asian Development Bank has been working closely with many Asian countries to provide them financial, technical and policy-related support for expanding solar energy infrastructure. The ADB is playing an active role in India to make solar energy more popular. In addition to the European Investment Bank, the ADB has also attracted funding from the US Import-Export Bank and Germany’s KWF.


Under the National Solar Mission, India plans to install 20,000 MW solar-based power generation capacity by 2022. The current install capacity is a dismal 14 MW. The 20,000 MW capacity also includes the off-grid rural power plants. In order to rapidly increase the installed capacity the Indian government has announced two massive solar farm projects, one each in Rajasthan and Gujarat.


Both these states are blessed with substantially high solar radiation resource and also have large areas of unused lands due to lower agricultural land use. Rajasthan has the vast Thar desert while Gujarat has vast wastelands in the west. Gujarat has set aside 2,500 hectare for a 1,000 MW plant while Rajasthan has set aside 8,000 hectare for a 3,000 MW plant. Construction of these plants is expected to start after 2013, that is, during the second phase of the National Solar Mission.


The ADB is also supporting the project developers who intend to set up power plants during the first phase. The first phase aims at installing 1,1o0 MW by 2013; ADB will support 350 MW of these installations. The smaller power plants have been provided with 50 percent loan guarantees and project developers will also provided direct loans.


The Asian Development Bank has been working closely with several ministries of the Indian government to devise overall policies and logistical support mechanism in order to make the solar energy projects commercially viable. The bank would also provide capital grants to cover up the difference between the cost of solar power generation and the average cost of generation from conventional sources.


Such collaborations with international funding agencies help in bridging the financial gap that exists for any new renewable energy technologies. In the absence of a clear agreement on international funding as part of an international climate change treaty, such partnerships with European and American banks helps in the quick implementation of these clean technology projects in the developing countries.


Image: technicolorcavalry/Flickr/CC


The views presented in the above article are author’s personal views and do not represent those of TERI/TERI University where the author is currently pursuing a Master’s degree.


Follow Mridul Chadha on Twitter and Facebook

bench craft company scam

Facing Codependence by kateraidt


bench craft company scam

Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due

News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...

New Yorker&#39;s Music Critic Moves to <b>News</b> Corp.&#39;s Daily - NYTimes.com

Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker, will become the culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation's so-called iPad newspaper which is currently in development.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...


bench craft company scam

Facing Codependence by kateraidt


benchcraft company scam

Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due

News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...

New Yorker&#39;s Music Critic Moves to <b>News</b> Corp.&#39;s Daily - NYTimes.com

Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker, will become the culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation's so-called iPad newspaper which is currently in development.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...


bench craft company scam

Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due

News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...

New Yorker&#39;s Music Critic Moves to <b>News</b> Corp.&#39;s Daily - NYTimes.com

Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker, will become the culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation's so-called iPad newspaper which is currently in development.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...


benchcraft company scam

Google <b>News</b> Blog: Credit where credit is due

News publishers and readers both benefit when journalists get proper credit for their work. That can be difficult, with news spreading so quickly and many websites syndicating articles to others. That's why we're experimenting with two ...

New Yorker&#39;s Music Critic Moves to <b>News</b> Corp.&#39;s Daily - NYTimes.com

Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker, will become the culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation's so-called iPad newspaper which is currently in development.

First Solar <b>News</b>, Rumors: CIGS, Mercury, Tellurium : Greentech Media

First the news... Apollo Solar Energy (OTC: ASOE), a vertically integrated miner, refiner and producer of high purity tellurium (Te), announced a five-year purchase contract between Apollo Solar Energy and a major worldwide solar panel ...


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