why internet marketing

Over the last decade, a prolonged magnitude 9.1 technological earthquake completely altered the landscape of online marketing and public relations. The entire topography has shifted from one of cold, repetitive interruption to the gentle, authentic drip of attraction over time.

A large part of navigating this strange, new terrain is the building and care of real relationships. If you enjoy the frustration and futility of beating your head against the abandoned brick walls of how things were, this show is not for you…

In this episode Brian Clark and I discuss:

• The fundamental foundation of all good marketing


• Why the traditional “pitch” doesn’t work, and what to do about it


• The single most important factor in getting online attention


• How to become a world-class influencer


• A very popular piece of advice that might just keep you broke


• The simple truth about building lucrative business relationships

Hit the flash player below to listen now…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Or…

Click here to download the mp3 | 22.2 MB | 19:26

Or…

Click here to subscribe via iTunes

Want to discover the smartest ways to mix social media, content marketing, and SEO? We’ve got you covered with Internet Marketing for Smart People. It’s a FREE 20-part course and email newsletter that delivers the techniques and strategies you need to know as an online marketer.

Links from the Show:

• Free Internet Marketing for Smart People Email Course


• The BlueGlass Conference


• The Mad Men Guide to Changing the World with Words


• PubCon Social Media and Search Marketing Conference

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s resident raconteur and copywriter. During lunch hours, late nights and dental exams, he works up short stories and essays…

Mobile texting paradoxically sounds like “old news” as far as new technologies are concerned. After all, we were able to send each other texts before our mobile phones even had color screens. While the Western world has focused on smartphones and flashy apps that let you pull up RSS feeds, find information, or fling exploding birds at structures, SMS marketing is still a hugely important part of our mobile lives.

Consider that while smartphone adoption has been slower than anticipated, nearly every mobile phone user in the U.S. is capable of sending and receiving text messages. Additionally, SMS has become increasingly important in developing countries where the penetration of feature phones far outnumber smartphones.

Companies or small business that can nail down their SMS marketing strategy, especially when the space is still ripe for innovation, can open up a number of opportunities. We spoke with four mobile experts for some tips, advice and insights on how to include SMS in a global business strategy.

Small Businesses Can Reach a Broader Consumer Base/>

There’s a huge population of consumers in the U.S. who do not own smartphones, notes Tom Cotney, CEO of mobile marketing firm Air2Web. “And if you’re going to provide some kind of customer service capability on mobile phones, you really need to reach as much of the population as possible.” That isn’t to say that mobile apps are useless, but having a way for text to complement or introduce those services can help you reach a larger base of people. This is especially true in developing countries where the percentage of smartphone users is even smaller.

Even though it may seem like global mobile marketing is just the purview of large, international companies, small businesses can also jump in. “We are a small business with no outside funding,” said John Pelphrey, CEO of One-Txt, an SMS broadcast service. “The trick is to find the right niche, something that you’re knowledgeable about and have some connections in and work it from there.” Pelphrey saw opportunities on continents like South America and Africa where cell phone access is more common than landlines or even open class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet access. “Their first access to the outside world is their cell phone,” Pelphrey added.

The Mobile Phone is an Intimate Technology/>

It’s one thing to say there are opportunities in global mobile texting. It is another thing to come up with a plan and put it into action. For Pelphrey, a successful strategy is about intimacy and immediacy: “To have the right information for the right person and at the right time.”

Most expert advice focuses on capitalizing on the intimacy of a cell phone. “The mobile phone is the most personal form of technology there is, barring hearing aids and other medical technologies,” Cotney said. Rather than sending out a text blast, treat your messages like a conversation with the customer while offering them value: “You really need to offer consumers a foundational benefit as the primary reason for having a mobile relationship with you.”

Limitations/>

Of course, mobile texting isn’t all just sunshine and rainbows. There are some key limitations to consider before jumping in. First, SMS is necessarily limited by its character limit. In the U.S., text messages are limited to 160 characters — which is fine if you’re checking in with friends but more difficult when you’re trying to connect with or sell to consumers. That limit further varies by country. While Asian countries are closer to 70 characters, their individual characters usually have more meaning than Western letters.

There’s also the problem of getting your message to its destination. “There’s no single international body that goes and hands out short codes,” said Andrew Kenney, Chief Operating Officer at ONEsite. “You have to get one for a specific region. Carriers won’t deal with the particular brands.” After that middleman, it’s important to think of how your audience receives your messages. Not everyone has premium messaging or unlimited texts, Kenney warned. Texts can be expensive for your consumers, so make sure there’s value to make it worthwhile.

Ideally you could set up regional offices to best understand the communities you’re contacting. If that’s out of the budget, try to set up a contact already living in that community or do your research to make sure you know what times of day people are most social or what kind of information or language will be most effective. “Every country, every tribe, they’re all going to be different,” Pelphrey said. “You can’t take the lessons you learned in South America and take it to Africa. Those cultures are so distinct even within a few miles of each other.”

Is SMS Marketing Here to Stay?/>

One hesitation businesses have when it comes to SMS is determining if it is a dying breed of marketing, especially when faced with smartphones or the increasing emphasis on mobile apps. While SMS has greater reach, it also has less interactivity. “It’s certainly possible to set your DVR using text, but it’s not a great user experience,” said Griswold.

Anyone worried about text disappearing as a marketing tool should consider that 2008 was the first year that text messages outnumbered cell phone calls. Cotney cited a study that showed users get mobile text alerts seven times more than they used to with feature phones. “Text is not just a technology, it’s an actual type of interface,” Cotney said. “Usually the older a technology, the less frequently it will be used, but text will be around for a long time.”

Tips and Tricks/>

There are a lot of ways to approach SMS marketing, whether you’re a big company or a small startup looking to branch abroad. There are basic tips like offering your consumers real value, emphasizing intimacy, and being conscientious of cultural norms and traditions. Part and parcel, Kenney advised that “people should go do their research and they should pick partners that they can trust to build long-term relationships.”

Cotney emphasized reach, namely, how many people is your mobile strategy going to touch? While mobile apps may look nice, they can sometimes be a case of prioritizing new technology over a real strategy. “Have a strategy and incorporate how many people you’re going to be able to reach when the product actually gets out there.”

Still, it seems that the most pervasive advice was just to get started. “If businesses think they may want to do text, it’s never too early to collect numbers for the opt-in lists. There are lots of ways to do it…” Paul said. “You don’t have to have everything in place. By the time you do start, you’ll have a head start.”

The cell phone is really the first piece of technology that people started carrying with them all the time, Kenney said. We use it to find our friends or find information on a daily basis. That personal proximity and it’s social capability allow us to have an intimate relationship with our phones and what they can do. SMS is an immediate way to capitalize on those qualities without having to worry about downloading an app or compatibility issues. SMS, if done properly, is an effective way to reach customers both domestically and globally.

Series supported by UPS

The International Business Series is brought to you by UPS. Discover the new logistics. It levels playing fields and lets you act locally or globally. It’s for the individual entrepreneur, the small business, or the large company. Put the new logistics to work for you.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Tips for Marketing Online to an International Audience/> - HOW TO: Build Your International Business Network Online/> - 5 Tips for Developing a Global-Friendly Website/> - HOW TO: Optimize Your Mobile Site Across Multiple Platforms/> - 15 Mobile Translation Apps for the International Businessperson

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto: fotosipsak & spxChrome

For more Business coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Businessclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Business channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

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Sun <b>News</b> Gets Green Light: &#39;Fox <b>News</b> North&#39; Secures Broadcast <b>...</b>

Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide. The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to ...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

No Batmobile in Arkham City <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of No Batmobile in Arkham City. ... Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser 14 December, 2009. Latest News. Batman: Arkham City details emerge . Batman: Arkham City revealed, dated . Batman domains name Arkham sequel? ...

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Sun <b>News</b> Gets Green Light: &#39;Fox <b>News</b> North&#39; Secures Broadcast <b>...</b>

Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide. The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to ...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

No Batmobile in Arkham City <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of No Batmobile in Arkham City. ... Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser 14 December, 2009. Latest News. Batman: Arkham City details emerge . Batman: Arkham City revealed, dated . Batman domains name Arkham sequel? ...

bench craft company spread covers

Over the last decade, a prolonged magnitude 9.1 technological earthquake completely altered the landscape of online marketing and public relations. The entire topography has shifted from one of cold, repetitive interruption to the gentle, authentic drip of attraction over time.

A large part of navigating this strange, new terrain is the building and care of real relationships. If you enjoy the frustration and futility of beating your head against the abandoned brick walls of how things were, this show is not for you…

In this episode Brian Clark and I discuss:

• The fundamental foundation of all good marketing


• Why the traditional “pitch” doesn’t work, and what to do about it


• The single most important factor in getting online attention


• How to become a world-class influencer


• A very popular piece of advice that might just keep you broke


• The simple truth about building lucrative business relationships

Hit the flash player below to listen now…

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Or…

Click here to download the mp3 | 22.2 MB | 19:26

Or…

Click here to subscribe via iTunes

Want to discover the smartest ways to mix social media, content marketing, and SEO? We’ve got you covered with Internet Marketing for Smart People. It’s a FREE 20-part course and email newsletter that delivers the techniques and strategies you need to know as an online marketer.

Links from the Show:

• Free Internet Marketing for Smart People Email Course


• The BlueGlass Conference


• The Mad Men Guide to Changing the World with Words


• PubCon Social Media and Search Marketing Conference

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s resident raconteur and copywriter. During lunch hours, late nights and dental exams, he works up short stories and essays…

Mobile texting paradoxically sounds like “old news” as far as new technologies are concerned. After all, we were able to send each other texts before our mobile phones even had color screens. While the Western world has focused on smartphones and flashy apps that let you pull up RSS feeds, find information, or fling exploding birds at structures, SMS marketing is still a hugely important part of our mobile lives.

Consider that while smartphone adoption has been slower than anticipated, nearly every mobile phone user in the U.S. is capable of sending and receiving text messages. Additionally, SMS has become increasingly important in developing countries where the penetration of feature phones far outnumber smartphones.

Companies or small business that can nail down their SMS marketing strategy, especially when the space is still ripe for innovation, can open up a number of opportunities. We spoke with four mobile experts for some tips, advice and insights on how to include SMS in a global business strategy.

Small Businesses Can Reach a Broader Consumer Base/>

There’s a huge population of consumers in the U.S. who do not own smartphones, notes Tom Cotney, CEO of mobile marketing firm Air2Web. “And if you’re going to provide some kind of customer service capability on mobile phones, you really need to reach as much of the population as possible.” That isn’t to say that mobile apps are useless, but having a way for text to complement or introduce those services can help you reach a larger base of people. This is especially true in developing countries where the percentage of smartphone users is even smaller.

Even though it may seem like global mobile marketing is just the purview of large, international companies, small businesses can also jump in. “We are a small business with no outside funding,” said John Pelphrey, CEO of One-Txt, an SMS broadcast service. “The trick is to find the right niche, something that you’re knowledgeable about and have some connections in and work it from there.” Pelphrey saw opportunities on continents like South America and Africa where cell phone access is more common than landlines or even open class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet access. “Their first access to the outside world is their cell phone,” Pelphrey added.

The Mobile Phone is an Intimate Technology/>

It’s one thing to say there are opportunities in global mobile texting. It is another thing to come up with a plan and put it into action. For Pelphrey, a successful strategy is about intimacy and immediacy: “To have the right information for the right person and at the right time.”

Most expert advice focuses on capitalizing on the intimacy of a cell phone. “The mobile phone is the most personal form of technology there is, barring hearing aids and other medical technologies,” Cotney said. Rather than sending out a text blast, treat your messages like a conversation with the customer while offering them value: “You really need to offer consumers a foundational benefit as the primary reason for having a mobile relationship with you.”

Limitations/>

Of course, mobile texting isn’t all just sunshine and rainbows. There are some key limitations to consider before jumping in. First, SMS is necessarily limited by its character limit. In the U.S., text messages are limited to 160 characters — which is fine if you’re checking in with friends but more difficult when you’re trying to connect with or sell to consumers. That limit further varies by country. While Asian countries are closer to 70 characters, their individual characters usually have more meaning than Western letters.

There’s also the problem of getting your message to its destination. “There’s no single international body that goes and hands out short codes,” said Andrew Kenney, Chief Operating Officer at ONEsite. “You have to get one for a specific region. Carriers won’t deal with the particular brands.” After that middleman, it’s important to think of how your audience receives your messages. Not everyone has premium messaging or unlimited texts, Kenney warned. Texts can be expensive for your consumers, so make sure there’s value to make it worthwhile.

Ideally you could set up regional offices to best understand the communities you’re contacting. If that’s out of the budget, try to set up a contact already living in that community or do your research to make sure you know what times of day people are most social or what kind of information or language will be most effective. “Every country, every tribe, they’re all going to be different,” Pelphrey said. “You can’t take the lessons you learned in South America and take it to Africa. Those cultures are so distinct even within a few miles of each other.”

Is SMS Marketing Here to Stay?/>

One hesitation businesses have when it comes to SMS is determining if it is a dying breed of marketing, especially when faced with smartphones or the increasing emphasis on mobile apps. While SMS has greater reach, it also has less interactivity. “It’s certainly possible to set your DVR using text, but it’s not a great user experience,” said Griswold.

Anyone worried about text disappearing as a marketing tool should consider that 2008 was the first year that text messages outnumbered cell phone calls. Cotney cited a study that showed users get mobile text alerts seven times more than they used to with feature phones. “Text is not just a technology, it’s an actual type of interface,” Cotney said. “Usually the older a technology, the less frequently it will be used, but text will be around for a long time.”

Tips and Tricks/>

There are a lot of ways to approach SMS marketing, whether you’re a big company or a small startup looking to branch abroad. There are basic tips like offering your consumers real value, emphasizing intimacy, and being conscientious of cultural norms and traditions. Part and parcel, Kenney advised that “people should go do their research and they should pick partners that they can trust to build long-term relationships.”

Cotney emphasized reach, namely, how many people is your mobile strategy going to touch? While mobile apps may look nice, they can sometimes be a case of prioritizing new technology over a real strategy. “Have a strategy and incorporate how many people you’re going to be able to reach when the product actually gets out there.”

Still, it seems that the most pervasive advice was just to get started. “If businesses think they may want to do text, it’s never too early to collect numbers for the opt-in lists. There are lots of ways to do it…” Paul said. “You don’t have to have everything in place. By the time you do start, you’ll have a head start.”

The cell phone is really the first piece of technology that people started carrying with them all the time, Kenney said. We use it to find our friends or find information on a daily basis. That personal proximity and it’s social capability allow us to have an intimate relationship with our phones and what they can do. SMS is an immediate way to capitalize on those qualities without having to worry about downloading an app or compatibility issues. SMS, if done properly, is an effective way to reach customers both domestically and globally.

Series supported by UPS

The International Business Series is brought to you by UPS. Discover the new logistics. It levels playing fields and lets you act locally or globally. It’s for the individual entrepreneur, the small business, or the large company. Put the new logistics to work for you.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Tips for Marketing Online to an International Audience/> - HOW TO: Build Your International Business Network Online/> - 5 Tips for Developing a Global-Friendly Website/> - HOW TO: Optimize Your Mobile Site Across Multiple Platforms/> - 15 Mobile Translation Apps for the International Businessperson

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto: fotosipsak & spxChrome

For more Business coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Businessclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Business channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

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Sun <b>News</b> Gets Green Light: &#39;Fox <b>News</b> North&#39; Secures Broadcast <b>...</b>

Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide. The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to ...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

No Batmobile in Arkham City <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of No Batmobile in Arkham City. ... Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser 14 December, 2009. Latest News. Batman: Arkham City details emerge . Batman: Arkham City revealed, dated . Batman domains name Arkham sequel? ...

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Sun <b>News</b> Gets Green Light: &#39;Fox <b>News</b> North&#39; Secures Broadcast <b>...</b>

Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide. The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to ...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

No Batmobile in Arkham City <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of No Batmobile in Arkham City. ... Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser 14 December, 2009. Latest News. Batman: Arkham City details emerge . Batman: Arkham City revealed, dated . Batman domains name Arkham sequel? ...

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Sun <b>News</b> Gets Green Light: &#39;Fox <b>News</b> North&#39; Secures Broadcast <b>...</b>

Canada is to get a conservative all-news TV channel after the CRTC on Friday granted Quebecor Media a license to launch Sun TV News nationwide. The upstart cable channel, dubbed Fox News North by liberal critics, has the go-ahead to ...

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Onion <b>News</b> Network!

Angry Black Lady, in her recent post, pointed out how many of Fox's readers (not to mention employees) are humor-impaired. In response, commentor Trollhattan alerts us to the upcoming Onion News Network: ...

No Batmobile in Arkham City <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of No Batmobile in Arkham City. ... Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 teaser 14 December, 2009. Latest News. Batman: Arkham City details emerge . Batman: Arkham City revealed, dated . Batman domains name Arkham sequel? ...

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GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

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.

Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3? PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3?.

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GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

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.

Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3? PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3?.

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GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

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.

Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3? PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3?.

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GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

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.

Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3? PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3?.

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GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

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.

Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3? PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3?.

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GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

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.

Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3? PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3?.

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GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

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.

Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3? PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3?.

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GT5 installs while played - Sony PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of GT5 installs while played - Sony.

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.

Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3? PlayStation 3 <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our PlayStation 3 news of Sony Russia confirms Mass Effect 3?.

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More on Fox <b>News</b>, David Henderson | EconLog | Library of Economics <b>...</b>

I had had hopes for the Fox News Channel as an advocate of smaller government, hopes somewhat justified by evidence. But their treatment of Ron Paul has been off the charts. Chris Wallace has been absolutely vicious - at one point, ...

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 ...

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

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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 ...

Small Business <b>News</b>: SMB Blogging and Social Media Basics

Far from a fad, a new blogging and social media infrastructure has emerged and is still being built and becoming a part of the new hierarchy can be important to.

More on Fox <b>News</b>, David Henderson | EconLog | Library of Economics <b>...</b>

I had had hopes for the Fox News Channel as an advocate of smaller government, hopes somewhat justified by evidence. But their treatment of Ron Paul has been off the charts. Chris Wallace has been absolutely vicious - at one point, ...

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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.

Photos Implant &#39;Memories&#39; of Fictional <b>News</b> Events | Smart <b>...</b>

Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

Middle East violence increases « Liveshots

Another cycle of violence in the Middle East as Israel strikes targets in Gaza in retaliation.

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Forum Making Money

Qualcomm, the firm most commonly associated with the Snapdragon platform that powers many Google Android devices and literally every Windows Phone 7 device, is rumored to have spent $55 billion acquiring New York based Sandbridge Technologies. They specialize in what’s known as “software defined radios”, or in plain English: they make processors that can connect to a cellular network that uses one type of technology, say GSM, then when it wants to support something totally different, like CDMA, it can just by shifting a few bits around. It’s been the Holy Grail for mobile phone manufacturers, to be able to shove one of these into a handset, but problems such as power consumption and heat have prevented the technology from taking off. Qualcomm is no stranger to software defined radios. They sell a product dubbed “Gobi” that goes inside many high end enterprise laptops as it supports literally every networking standard on the planet.

Will Strauss, President and Principal Analyst with Forward Concepts, the guy who tipped off the world to this unannounced purchase, says Qualcomm just wants the patents Sandbridge has amassed since being founded in 2001. Some talented engineers may also get a job, but don’t expect Sandbridge’s product line to be continued going forward. Of note is that in 2006 Samsung invested over $15 million into this firm, so they’re not just a bunch of dunces patenting things for the sake of making money off royalties. They were also given the title of “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum in 2004.

Why exactly would Qualcomm keep this a secret? It’s unknown, but Sandbridge’s website is down so something is definitely up. After Intel purchased Infineon’s wireless unit earlier this year, things became heated in the semiconductor business. If Intel starts using their fabs to build chips that support LTE then we’re going to see the pace of wireless innovation ramp up so fast that none of us, especially our wallets, are going to be able to keep up with.

[Photo via IEEE]

End ED — From the Left!

Posted by Neal McCluskey

It’s no secret that expelling the U.S. Department of Education is something that a lot of libertarians, and conservatives who haven’t lost their way, would love to do. What’s not nearly so well known is that there are also people on the left who dislike ED. Now, they don’t dislike it because it and the programs it administers clearly exist in contravention of the Constitution, or because its massive dollar-redistribution programs have done no discernable good. They dislike it because, especially since the advent of No Child Left Behind, it strong-arms schools into doing things left-wing educators often disagree with or resent, like pushing phonics over whole language, or imposing standardized testing. Many also truly believe in local control of schools, though often with power consolidated in the hands of teachers.

Case in point is a guest blog post over at the webpage of the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss. The entry is by George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in Ohio and executive director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. He writes:

Everybody dislikes bureaucracies, but for different reasons. The “right” complains they are unresponsive, full of “feather-bedders,” and a waste of taxpayer money. The “left” complains they are unresponsive, full of people who are too busy pushing paper to see the real work, and too intrusive into local, democratic decision-making. Maybe we should unite all this new energy for making government more responsive and efficient around the idea of eliminating a bureaucracy that was probably a bad idea in the first place.

Remember that the Department of Education was a payoff by President Jimmy Carter to teacher unions for their support. Before that, education was part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

That’s where I propose returning it. Here are several reasons why:

First, the current structure of the national Department of Education gives it inordinate control over local schools. The federal government provides only about 8% of education funding. But through through NCLB, Race to the Top, and innovation grants, they are driving about 100% of the agenda. Clearly this is a case of a tail wagging a very big dog.

Second, by separating education from health and welfare, we have separated departments that should be working very closely together. We all know, even if some folks are loath to admit it, that in order for a child to take full advantage of educational opportunities he or she needs to come to school healthy, with a full stomach, and from a safe place to live.

But the federal initiatives around education seldom take such a holistic approach; instead, competing departments engage in bureaucratic turf wars that, while fun within the Beltway, are tragic for children in our neighborhoods.

Third, whenever you create a large bureaucracy, it will find something to do, even if that something is less than helpful. After years of an “activist” DOE, we do not see student achievement improving or school innovation taking hold widely. We have lived through Reading First, What Works, and an alphabet soup of changing programs with little to show for it.

In fact, DOE has often been one of the more ideological departments, engaging in the battles such as phonics vs. whole language. Who needs it?

Who needs it, indeed!

As I have touched upon repeatedly since last week’s election, now is the time to launch a serious offensive against the U.S. Department of Education. I have largely concluded that because of the wave of generally conservative and libertarian legislators heading toward Washington, as well as the powerful tea-party spirit powering the tide. But this is a battle I have always thought could be fought with a temporary alliance of the libertarian right and educators of the progressive left who truly despise top-down, one-size-fits-all, dictates from Washington. There are big sticking points, of course — for instance, many progressives love federal money “for the poor” — but this morning, I have a little greater hope that an alliance can be forged.

bench craft company

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: November 18, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Tea Party: Smart development is really a global conspiracy; EPA: Major US cities violate lead standards; UN, World Bank say act now on climate change or pay much more later; Illinois Spending $2M ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

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

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

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Qualcomm, the firm most commonly associated with the Snapdragon platform that powers many Google Android devices and literally every Windows Phone 7 device, is rumored to have spent $55 billion acquiring New York based Sandbridge Technologies. They specialize in what’s known as “software defined radios”, or in plain English: they make processors that can connect to a cellular network that uses one type of technology, say GSM, then when it wants to support something totally different, like CDMA, it can just by shifting a few bits around. It’s been the Holy Grail for mobile phone manufacturers, to be able to shove one of these into a handset, but problems such as power consumption and heat have prevented the technology from taking off. Qualcomm is no stranger to software defined radios. They sell a product dubbed “Gobi” that goes inside many high end enterprise laptops as it supports literally every networking standard on the planet.

Will Strauss, President and Principal Analyst with Forward Concepts, the guy who tipped off the world to this unannounced purchase, says Qualcomm just wants the patents Sandbridge has amassed since being founded in 2001. Some talented engineers may also get a job, but don’t expect Sandbridge’s product line to be continued going forward. Of note is that in 2006 Samsung invested over $15 million into this firm, so they’re not just a bunch of dunces patenting things for the sake of making money off royalties. They were also given the title of “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum in 2004.

Why exactly would Qualcomm keep this a secret? It’s unknown, but Sandbridge’s website is down so something is definitely up. After Intel purchased Infineon’s wireless unit earlier this year, things became heated in the semiconductor business. If Intel starts using their fabs to build chips that support LTE then we’re going to see the pace of wireless innovation ramp up so fast that none of us, especially our wallets, are going to be able to keep up with.

[Photo via IEEE]

End ED — From the Left!

Posted by Neal McCluskey

It’s no secret that expelling the U.S. Department of Education is something that a lot of libertarians, and conservatives who haven’t lost their way, would love to do. What’s not nearly so well known is that there are also people on the left who dislike ED. Now, they don’t dislike it because it and the programs it administers clearly exist in contravention of the Constitution, or because its massive dollar-redistribution programs have done no discernable good. They dislike it because, especially since the advent of No Child Left Behind, it strong-arms schools into doing things left-wing educators often disagree with or resent, like pushing phonics over whole language, or imposing standardized testing. Many also truly believe in local control of schools, though often with power consolidated in the hands of teachers.

Case in point is a guest blog post over at the webpage of the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss. The entry is by George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in Ohio and executive director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. He writes:

Everybody dislikes bureaucracies, but for different reasons. The “right” complains they are unresponsive, full of “feather-bedders,” and a waste of taxpayer money. The “left” complains they are unresponsive, full of people who are too busy pushing paper to see the real work, and too intrusive into local, democratic decision-making. Maybe we should unite all this new energy for making government more responsive and efficient around the idea of eliminating a bureaucracy that was probably a bad idea in the first place.

Remember that the Department of Education was a payoff by President Jimmy Carter to teacher unions for their support. Before that, education was part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

That’s where I propose returning it. Here are several reasons why:

First, the current structure of the national Department of Education gives it inordinate control over local schools. The federal government provides only about 8% of education funding. But through through NCLB, Race to the Top, and innovation grants, they are driving about 100% of the agenda. Clearly this is a case of a tail wagging a very big dog.

Second, by separating education from health and welfare, we have separated departments that should be working very closely together. We all know, even if some folks are loath to admit it, that in order for a child to take full advantage of educational opportunities he or she needs to come to school healthy, with a full stomach, and from a safe place to live.

But the federal initiatives around education seldom take such a holistic approach; instead, competing departments engage in bureaucratic turf wars that, while fun within the Beltway, are tragic for children in our neighborhoods.

Third, whenever you create a large bureaucracy, it will find something to do, even if that something is less than helpful. After years of an “activist” DOE, we do not see student achievement improving or school innovation taking hold widely. We have lived through Reading First, What Works, and an alphabet soup of changing programs with little to show for it.

In fact, DOE has often been one of the more ideological departments, engaging in the battles such as phonics vs. whole language. Who needs it?

Who needs it, indeed!

As I have touched upon repeatedly since last week’s election, now is the time to launch a serious offensive against the U.S. Department of Education. I have largely concluded that because of the wave of generally conservative and libertarian legislators heading toward Washington, as well as the powerful tea-party spirit powering the tide. But this is a battle I have always thought could be fought with a temporary alliance of the libertarian right and educators of the progressive left who truly despise top-down, one-size-fits-all, dictates from Washington. There are big sticking points, of course — for instance, many progressives love federal money “for the poor” — but this morning, I have a little greater hope that an alliance can be forged.

bench craft company>

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: November 18, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Tea Party: Smart development is really a global conspiracy; EPA: Major US cities violate lead standards; UN, World Bank say act now on climate change or pay much more later; Illinois Spending $2M ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

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

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

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Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: November 18, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Tea Party: Smart development is really a global conspiracy; EPA: Major US cities violate lead standards; UN, World Bank say act now on climate change or pay much more later; Illinois Spending $2M ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

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

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

bench craft company

Qualcomm, the firm most commonly associated with the Snapdragon platform that powers many Google Android devices and literally every Windows Phone 7 device, is rumored to have spent $55 billion acquiring New York based Sandbridge Technologies. They specialize in what’s known as “software defined radios”, or in plain English: they make processors that can connect to a cellular network that uses one type of technology, say GSM, then when it wants to support something totally different, like CDMA, it can just by shifting a few bits around. It’s been the Holy Grail for mobile phone manufacturers, to be able to shove one of these into a handset, but problems such as power consumption and heat have prevented the technology from taking off. Qualcomm is no stranger to software defined radios. They sell a product dubbed “Gobi” that goes inside many high end enterprise laptops as it supports literally every networking standard on the planet.

Will Strauss, President and Principal Analyst with Forward Concepts, the guy who tipped off the world to this unannounced purchase, says Qualcomm just wants the patents Sandbridge has amassed since being founded in 2001. Some talented engineers may also get a job, but don’t expect Sandbridge’s product line to be continued going forward. Of note is that in 2006 Samsung invested over $15 million into this firm, so they’re not just a bunch of dunces patenting things for the sake of making money off royalties. They were also given the title of “Technology Pioneer” by the World Economic Forum in 2004.

Why exactly would Qualcomm keep this a secret? It’s unknown, but Sandbridge’s website is down so something is definitely up. After Intel purchased Infineon’s wireless unit earlier this year, things became heated in the semiconductor business. If Intel starts using their fabs to build chips that support LTE then we’re going to see the pace of wireless innovation ramp up so fast that none of us, especially our wallets, are going to be able to keep up with.

[Photo via IEEE]

End ED — From the Left!

Posted by Neal McCluskey

It’s no secret that expelling the U.S. Department of Education is something that a lot of libertarians, and conservatives who haven’t lost their way, would love to do. What’s not nearly so well known is that there are also people on the left who dislike ED. Now, they don’t dislike it because it and the programs it administers clearly exist in contravention of the Constitution, or because its massive dollar-redistribution programs have done no discernable good. They dislike it because, especially since the advent of No Child Left Behind, it strong-arms schools into doing things left-wing educators often disagree with or resent, like pushing phonics over whole language, or imposing standardized testing. Many also truly believe in local control of schools, though often with power consolidated in the hands of teachers.

Case in point is a guest blog post over at the webpage of the Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss. The entry is by George Wood, principal of Federal Hocking High School in Ohio and executive director of the Forum for Education and Democracy. He writes:

Everybody dislikes bureaucracies, but for different reasons. The “right” complains they are unresponsive, full of “feather-bedders,” and a waste of taxpayer money. The “left” complains they are unresponsive, full of people who are too busy pushing paper to see the real work, and too intrusive into local, democratic decision-making. Maybe we should unite all this new energy for making government more responsive and efficient around the idea of eliminating a bureaucracy that was probably a bad idea in the first place.

Remember that the Department of Education was a payoff by President Jimmy Carter to teacher unions for their support. Before that, education was part of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

That’s where I propose returning it. Here are several reasons why:

First, the current structure of the national Department of Education gives it inordinate control over local schools. The federal government provides only about 8% of education funding. But through through NCLB, Race to the Top, and innovation grants, they are driving about 100% of the agenda. Clearly this is a case of a tail wagging a very big dog.

Second, by separating education from health and welfare, we have separated departments that should be working very closely together. We all know, even if some folks are loath to admit it, that in order for a child to take full advantage of educational opportunities he or she needs to come to school healthy, with a full stomach, and from a safe place to live.

But the federal initiatives around education seldom take such a holistic approach; instead, competing departments engage in bureaucratic turf wars that, while fun within the Beltway, are tragic for children in our neighborhoods.

Third, whenever you create a large bureaucracy, it will find something to do, even if that something is less than helpful. After years of an “activist” DOE, we do not see student achievement improving or school innovation taking hold widely. We have lived through Reading First, What Works, and an alphabet soup of changing programs with little to show for it.

In fact, DOE has often been one of the more ideological departments, engaging in the battles such as phonics vs. whole language. Who needs it?

Who needs it, indeed!

As I have touched upon repeatedly since last week’s election, now is the time to launch a serious offensive against the U.S. Department of Education. I have largely concluded that because of the wave of generally conservative and libertarian legislators heading toward Washington, as well as the powerful tea-party spirit powering the tide. But this is a battle I have always thought could be fought with a temporary alliance of the libertarian right and educators of the progressive left who truly despise top-down, one-size-fits-all, dictates from Washington. There are big sticking points, of course — for instance, many progressives love federal money “for the poor” — but this morning, I have a little greater hope that an alliance can be forged.

bench craft company

bench craft company

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: November 18, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Tea Party: Smart development is really a global conspiracy; EPA: Major US cities violate lead standards; UN, World Bank say act now on climate change or pay much more later; Illinois Spending $2M ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

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

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

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bench craft company

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: November 18, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Tea Party: Smart development is really a global conspiracy; EPA: Major US cities violate lead standards; UN, World Bank say act now on climate change or pay much more later; Illinois Spending $2M ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

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

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

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Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: November 18, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Tea Party: Smart development is really a global conspiracy; EPA: Major US cities violate lead standards; UN, World Bank say act now on climate change or pay much more later; Illinois Spending $2M ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

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

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

bench craft company

Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: November 18, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Tea Party: Smart development is really a global conspiracy; EPA: Major US cities violate lead standards; UN, World Bank say act now on climate change or pay much more later; Illinois Spending $2M ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

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

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

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Brad Friedman and Desi Doyen: Green <b>News</b> Report: November 18, 2010 <b>...</b>

IN 'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (see links below): Tea Party: Smart development is really a global conspiracy; EPA: Major US cities violate lead standards; UN, World Bank say act now on climate change or pay much more later; Illinois Spending $2M ...

Movie <b>News</b> Quick Hits: &#39;Spider-Man&#39; Casting, 3D &#39;Hovercars&#39; and <b>...</b>

Forget watching 'Dawn of the Dead' for tips on how to survive the inevitable zombiepocalypse, it's all about LEGO zombie-killing vehicles. - Less.

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

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

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Being Right or Making Money

Twitter just announced that starting today, “Twitter are making it even easier for people to share music discoveries with their friends by putting Ping activity, song previews and links to purchase and download music from the iTunes Store right in their Tweets on Twitter.com.”

Ping of course is Apple’s iTunes music social network that has not yet taken off, but this announcement could make a big difference in its adoption.

Apparently you can now easily link your Twitter account on Ping and after which, whenever you Post, Like, Review or share a purchase, not only will it tweet out but it will actually come with a playable song preview and link to purchase info.

So according to the Twitter Blog, when you click on a link that is sent by Ping, you’ll “see the song or album in Twitter’s details pane, with the ability to listen to song previews from iTunes.” All of which is pretty darn cool.

How well Ping is doing overall is a bit unclear, though it did have over a million signups in under 48 hours when it launched. Apple also included a sidebar a few weeks after launch for suggesting friends, but this is going to go leaps and bounds further to making the service more social. Of course, the largest social network out there – Facebook – is still missing, and it is extremely curious to us to see Twitter coming before Facebook, especially as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are thought to be close. Could it be that Facebook isn’t interesting in a music social network because it is thinking of doing one itself? Could be.

The question is, will this make Ping more interesting or will it just be a lot of Ping spam clogging up the Twitter stream? If that does end up being the case, will there be some backlash against both Twitter and Apple (it would be harder for Twitter, we suspect), or is this integration going to be the thing that really jump starts Ping? Also, as iTunes is such a major money maker, is Twitter getting a cut from referrals? We’re guessing that they are, as links go right to the purchase/download screen on iTunes – we’ll email Twitter for comment on that, though we suspect they won’t answer.

So, could this be the first step to making Ping what it could be, or will it continue to flounder even with this integration? Let us know your thoughts below.

If you’re living in the United States right now, chances are you’re sick of hearing about elections and politics. That’s why I’m writing this today, instead of last week. I want to ride the coattails of that nausea and make a suggestion for the future of voting. The problem, I think, is that politicians do not care about you. They are ignoring you, and right they should. You don’t matter. Your issues don’t matter. Your concerns don’t matter. Politicians only care about one type of person, and it’s not you, because chances are, you didn’t vote.

[Image credit: Amelia E]

I haven’t seen official estimates on voter turnout this year, but I’m guessing it was embarrassingly low. I know it seems like there was more interest in a mid-term election this year than any year in the past, but that doesn’t mean much, because mid-term elections are very unpopular with voters. The last presidential election, in which record numbers of people voted, only drew 56.8% of the population to the polls, according to this page at infoplease.com. That was the highest percentage in 40 years, since 1968, when Nixon ran against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and segregationist George Wallace at the height of the civil rights movement and the protests against the Vietnam war. Before Nixon’s first election, voter turnout for the presidential election was just a bit more than 60%.

So, my guess is that voter turnout for this mid-term election will be less than 50%. When I make the assumption that you didn’t vote, I’ve got a better chance of being right than I do calling a coin toss.

It was the most expensive mid-term election in history, with candidates dumping millions of dollars into their campaigns. Some of the richest candidates lost, of course, but that doesn’t mean that money can’t help you win an election. Because of these expenditures, you might think that money is the most important thing to a politician. It seems like politicians follow the money interest, and that’s what controls their voting and behavior. But that’s not true.

There is one thing politicians want more than money. They want votes. Votes keep politicians in power, and power is the most addictive drug imaginable. Politicians can have all the money in the world, but that doesn’t guarantee they will win elections. To win an election, they need votes. That is why the only people who matter to politicians are people who vote.

The money is important, sure. But most of that money is spent on television commercials. It’s not used (hopefully) to buy fancy cars and big houses. The money isn’t a luxury, and political donations are not how politicians end up getting rich. The money from political spending pays for TV ads, and those ads exist to convince the voters.

I’m not making a campaign finance reform argument here, though I think the argument practically makes itself when you realize how much money it takes to run continual television ads during the long campaign season in this country. If we could take that incredible expense out of the mix . . . but I digress.

If we can’t fix the money problem in politics, maybe we can fix the voter turnout problem. One of the most annoying trends in this election was the constant bombardment of voting and political messages from all of my friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter. I’m not going to rehash them here, you can imagine the most partisan or the most tenacious of these, and I’m sure you had to deal with them yourself. Clearly, they didn’t work if voter turnout ends up as low as I predict.

One message did catch my eye, however. At first it annoyed me, but then it made me reconsider. Someone on my Twitter feed (I apologize to my readers and my source for not remembering who exactly) retweeted a messages saying something like: “If voting was as easy as signing up for Twitter, I would vote today.”

It makes you nauseous, right? You might argue that voting is as easy as signing up for Twitter, and more secure about privacy. But in fact, it’s not. Voting is an annoying process. It takes a lot of time. It’s a hassle, because too often there is a paperwork problem. I have been voting regularly for the past 16 years, and in the past two presidential elections, my voting eligibility was challenged at the polls by the workers there who could not find me on the voting rolls. I was registered, I had received confirmation, I had my driver’s license on me (once I even had my passport), but they still gave me trouble. In the last election, I had to submit a special ballot, and I was given the promise that if they ever found me on the voter registration logs, my vote would be counted.

Gee, I feel so . . . enfranchised?

Here’s my suggestion: we need to vote electronically over the Internet. Forget about voting booths, electronic voting machines and all the paperwork that accompanies them. We need to vote the same way we do everything else today. Why do we not trust the Internet for voting?

We trust the Internet for everything else. Voting seems like it demands the least privacy of all the private things we use the Internet to accomplish. I manage all of my finances over the Internet. I have never been to the actual bank where I have a credit card account, a car loan, or student loans. I manage all of those accounts electronically. I’ve received health records electronically. I send the most intimate and personal of correspondence over email without a second thought.

If we can manage our sex lives over the Internet, surely we can create a system for voting.

I don’t believe any of the obstacles to Internet voting are insurmountable. Security concerns about hacking and voter fraud, voter identification, all of the issues that would cause problems in a national election are problems we can tackle and defeat. It’s not like the paper balloting and electronic voting machines have been even close to flawless. How could we make things worse by moving voting online.

If we could vote online, we wouldn’t have to take time off of work to vote. We wouldn’t need to stand in line with our kids in tow, or stand in line behind someone with their screaming children. We wouldn’t have to explain to the stupid person handling the voter registration logs for the third time that our last name is spelled B-E-R-N-E, not B-U-R-N-S. Is that so hard to remember? It’s Berne, like the capital of Switzerland, not Burns. Do I look Scottish?

Again, I digress. I’ve tried to avoid taking partisan sides in this column, but if there is one theme we can all take away from the last election, it is that a great number of voters feel like their elected officials are not representing their interests. I don’t disagree, but it’s not because the politicians don’t care. It’s because you don’t vote.

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Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

Christina Aguilera: Take Two and Other <b>News</b> - The Superficial <b>...</b>

Tina Fey's Palin jokes censored by PBS. - Baby Benjamin Travolta is more screwed than we realized. - The Future Mrs. Prince William - Rihanna got.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/17 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning, AP. Another round of Kansas City Chiefs news on the house. Please read responsibly.

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Twitter just announced that starting today, “Twitter are making it even easier for people to share music discoveries with their friends by putting Ping activity, song previews and links to purchase and download music from the iTunes Store right in their Tweets on Twitter.com.”

Ping of course is Apple’s iTunes music social network that has not yet taken off, but this announcement could make a big difference in its adoption.

Apparently you can now easily link your Twitter account on Ping and after which, whenever you Post, Like, Review or share a purchase, not only will it tweet out but it will actually come with a playable song preview and link to purchase info.

So according to the Twitter Blog, when you click on a link that is sent by Ping, you’ll “see the song or album in Twitter’s details pane, with the ability to listen to song previews from iTunes.” All of which is pretty darn cool.

How well Ping is doing overall is a bit unclear, though it did have over a million signups in under 48 hours when it launched. Apple also included a sidebar a few weeks after launch for suggesting friends, but this is going to go leaps and bounds further to making the service more social. Of course, the largest social network out there – Facebook – is still missing, and it is extremely curious to us to see Twitter coming before Facebook, especially as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are thought to be close. Could it be that Facebook isn’t interesting in a music social network because it is thinking of doing one itself? Could be.

The question is, will this make Ping more interesting or will it just be a lot of Ping spam clogging up the Twitter stream? If that does end up being the case, will there be some backlash against both Twitter and Apple (it would be harder for Twitter, we suspect), or is this integration going to be the thing that really jump starts Ping? Also, as iTunes is such a major money maker, is Twitter getting a cut from referrals? We’re guessing that they are, as links go right to the purchase/download screen on iTunes – we’ll email Twitter for comment on that, though we suspect they won’t answer.

So, could this be the first step to making Ping what it could be, or will it continue to flounder even with this integration? Let us know your thoughts below.

If you’re living in the United States right now, chances are you’re sick of hearing about elections and politics. That’s why I’m writing this today, instead of last week. I want to ride the coattails of that nausea and make a suggestion for the future of voting. The problem, I think, is that politicians do not care about you. They are ignoring you, and right they should. You don’t matter. Your issues don’t matter. Your concerns don’t matter. Politicians only care about one type of person, and it’s not you, because chances are, you didn’t vote.

[Image credit: Amelia E]

I haven’t seen official estimates on voter turnout this year, but I’m guessing it was embarrassingly low. I know it seems like there was more interest in a mid-term election this year than any year in the past, but that doesn’t mean much, because mid-term elections are very unpopular with voters. The last presidential election, in which record numbers of people voted, only drew 56.8% of the population to the polls, according to this page at infoplease.com. That was the highest percentage in 40 years, since 1968, when Nixon ran against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and segregationist George Wallace at the height of the civil rights movement and the protests against the Vietnam war. Before Nixon’s first election, voter turnout for the presidential election was just a bit more than 60%.

So, my guess is that voter turnout for this mid-term election will be less than 50%. When I make the assumption that you didn’t vote, I’ve got a better chance of being right than I do calling a coin toss.

It was the most expensive mid-term election in history, with candidates dumping millions of dollars into their campaigns. Some of the richest candidates lost, of course, but that doesn’t mean that money can’t help you win an election. Because of these expenditures, you might think that money is the most important thing to a politician. It seems like politicians follow the money interest, and that’s what controls their voting and behavior. But that’s not true.

There is one thing politicians want more than money. They want votes. Votes keep politicians in power, and power is the most addictive drug imaginable. Politicians can have all the money in the world, but that doesn’t guarantee they will win elections. To win an election, they need votes. That is why the only people who matter to politicians are people who vote.

The money is important, sure. But most of that money is spent on television commercials. It’s not used (hopefully) to buy fancy cars and big houses. The money isn’t a luxury, and political donations are not how politicians end up getting rich. The money from political spending pays for TV ads, and those ads exist to convince the voters.

I’m not making a campaign finance reform argument here, though I think the argument practically makes itself when you realize how much money it takes to run continual television ads during the long campaign season in this country. If we could take that incredible expense out of the mix . . . but I digress.

If we can’t fix the money problem in politics, maybe we can fix the voter turnout problem. One of the most annoying trends in this election was the constant bombardment of voting and political messages from all of my friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter. I’m not going to rehash them here, you can imagine the most partisan or the most tenacious of these, and I’m sure you had to deal with them yourself. Clearly, they didn’t work if voter turnout ends up as low as I predict.

One message did catch my eye, however. At first it annoyed me, but then it made me reconsider. Someone on my Twitter feed (I apologize to my readers and my source for not remembering who exactly) retweeted a messages saying something like: “If voting was as easy as signing up for Twitter, I would vote today.”

It makes you nauseous, right? You might argue that voting is as easy as signing up for Twitter, and more secure about privacy. But in fact, it’s not. Voting is an annoying process. It takes a lot of time. It’s a hassle, because too often there is a paperwork problem. I have been voting regularly for the past 16 years, and in the past two presidential elections, my voting eligibility was challenged at the polls by the workers there who could not find me on the voting rolls. I was registered, I had received confirmation, I had my driver’s license on me (once I even had my passport), but they still gave me trouble. In the last election, I had to submit a special ballot, and I was given the promise that if they ever found me on the voter registration logs, my vote would be counted.

Gee, I feel so . . . enfranchised?

Here’s my suggestion: we need to vote electronically over the Internet. Forget about voting booths, electronic voting machines and all the paperwork that accompanies them. We need to vote the same way we do everything else today. Why do we not trust the Internet for voting?

We trust the Internet for everything else. Voting seems like it demands the least privacy of all the private things we use the Internet to accomplish. I manage all of my finances over the Internet. I have never been to the actual bank where I have a credit card account, a car loan, or student loans. I manage all of those accounts electronically. I’ve received health records electronically. I send the most intimate and personal of correspondence over email without a second thought.

If we can manage our sex lives over the Internet, surely we can create a system for voting.

I don’t believe any of the obstacles to Internet voting are insurmountable. Security concerns about hacking and voter fraud, voter identification, all of the issues that would cause problems in a national election are problems we can tackle and defeat. It’s not like the paper balloting and electronic voting machines have been even close to flawless. How could we make things worse by moving voting online.

If we could vote online, we wouldn’t have to take time off of work to vote. We wouldn’t need to stand in line with our kids in tow, or stand in line behind someone with their screaming children. We wouldn’t have to explain to the stupid person handling the voter registration logs for the third time that our last name is spelled B-E-R-N-E, not B-U-R-N-S. Is that so hard to remember? It’s Berne, like the capital of Switzerland, not Burns. Do I look Scottish?

Again, I digress. I’ve tried to avoid taking partisan sides in this column, but if there is one theme we can all take away from the last election, it is that a great number of voters feel like their elected officials are not representing their interests. I don’t disagree, but it’s not because the politicians don’t care. It’s because you don’t vote.

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Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

Christina Aguilera: Take Two and Other <b>News</b> - The Superficial <b>...</b>

Tina Fey's Palin jokes censored by PBS. - Baby Benjamin Travolta is more screwed than we realized. - The Future Mrs. Prince William - Rihanna got.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/17 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning, AP. Another round of Kansas City Chiefs news on the house. Please read responsibly.

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Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

Christina Aguilera: Take Two and Other <b>News</b> - The Superficial <b>...</b>

Tina Fey's Palin jokes censored by PBS. - Baby Benjamin Travolta is more screwed than we realized. - The Future Mrs. Prince William - Rihanna got.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/17 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning, AP. Another round of Kansas City Chiefs news on the house. Please read responsibly.

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Twitter just announced that starting today, “Twitter are making it even easier for people to share music discoveries with their friends by putting Ping activity, song previews and links to purchase and download music from the iTunes Store right in their Tweets on Twitter.com.”

Ping of course is Apple’s iTunes music social network that has not yet taken off, but this announcement could make a big difference in its adoption.

Apparently you can now easily link your Twitter account on Ping and after which, whenever you Post, Like, Review or share a purchase, not only will it tweet out but it will actually come with a playable song preview and link to purchase info.

So according to the Twitter Blog, when you click on a link that is sent by Ping, you’ll “see the song or album in Twitter’s details pane, with the ability to listen to song previews from iTunes.” All of which is pretty darn cool.

How well Ping is doing overall is a bit unclear, though it did have over a million signups in under 48 hours when it launched. Apple also included a sidebar a few weeks after launch for suggesting friends, but this is going to go leaps and bounds further to making the service more social. Of course, the largest social network out there – Facebook – is still missing, and it is extremely curious to us to see Twitter coming before Facebook, especially as Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are thought to be close. Could it be that Facebook isn’t interesting in a music social network because it is thinking of doing one itself? Could be.

The question is, will this make Ping more interesting or will it just be a lot of Ping spam clogging up the Twitter stream? If that does end up being the case, will there be some backlash against both Twitter and Apple (it would be harder for Twitter, we suspect), or is this integration going to be the thing that really jump starts Ping? Also, as iTunes is such a major money maker, is Twitter getting a cut from referrals? We’re guessing that they are, as links go right to the purchase/download screen on iTunes – we’ll email Twitter for comment on that, though we suspect they won’t answer.

So, could this be the first step to making Ping what it could be, or will it continue to flounder even with this integration? Let us know your thoughts below.

If you’re living in the United States right now, chances are you’re sick of hearing about elections and politics. That’s why I’m writing this today, instead of last week. I want to ride the coattails of that nausea and make a suggestion for the future of voting. The problem, I think, is that politicians do not care about you. They are ignoring you, and right they should. You don’t matter. Your issues don’t matter. Your concerns don’t matter. Politicians only care about one type of person, and it’s not you, because chances are, you didn’t vote.

[Image credit: Amelia E]

I haven’t seen official estimates on voter turnout this year, but I’m guessing it was embarrassingly low. I know it seems like there was more interest in a mid-term election this year than any year in the past, but that doesn’t mean much, because mid-term elections are very unpopular with voters. The last presidential election, in which record numbers of people voted, only drew 56.8% of the population to the polls, according to this page at infoplease.com. That was the highest percentage in 40 years, since 1968, when Nixon ran against Democrat Hubert Humphrey and segregationist George Wallace at the height of the civil rights movement and the protests against the Vietnam war. Before Nixon’s first election, voter turnout for the presidential election was just a bit more than 60%.

So, my guess is that voter turnout for this mid-term election will be less than 50%. When I make the assumption that you didn’t vote, I’ve got a better chance of being right than I do calling a coin toss.

It was the most expensive mid-term election in history, with candidates dumping millions of dollars into their campaigns. Some of the richest candidates lost, of course, but that doesn’t mean that money can’t help you win an election. Because of these expenditures, you might think that money is the most important thing to a politician. It seems like politicians follow the money interest, and that’s what controls their voting and behavior. But that’s not true.

There is one thing politicians want more than money. They want votes. Votes keep politicians in power, and power is the most addictive drug imaginable. Politicians can have all the money in the world, but that doesn’t guarantee they will win elections. To win an election, they need votes. That is why the only people who matter to politicians are people who vote.

The money is important, sure. But most of that money is spent on television commercials. It’s not used (hopefully) to buy fancy cars and big houses. The money isn’t a luxury, and political donations are not how politicians end up getting rich. The money from political spending pays for TV ads, and those ads exist to convince the voters.

I’m not making a campaign finance reform argument here, though I think the argument practically makes itself when you realize how much money it takes to run continual television ads during the long campaign season in this country. If we could take that incredible expense out of the mix . . . but I digress.

If we can’t fix the money problem in politics, maybe we can fix the voter turnout problem. One of the most annoying trends in this election was the constant bombardment of voting and political messages from all of my friends and colleagues on Facebook and Twitter. I’m not going to rehash them here, you can imagine the most partisan or the most tenacious of these, and I’m sure you had to deal with them yourself. Clearly, they didn’t work if voter turnout ends up as low as I predict.

One message did catch my eye, however. At first it annoyed me, but then it made me reconsider. Someone on my Twitter feed (I apologize to my readers and my source for not remembering who exactly) retweeted a messages saying something like: “If voting was as easy as signing up for Twitter, I would vote today.”

It makes you nauseous, right? You might argue that voting is as easy as signing up for Twitter, and more secure about privacy. But in fact, it’s not. Voting is an annoying process. It takes a lot of time. It’s a hassle, because too often there is a paperwork problem. I have been voting regularly for the past 16 years, and in the past two presidential elections, my voting eligibility was challenged at the polls by the workers there who could not find me on the voting rolls. I was registered, I had received confirmation, I had my driver’s license on me (once I even had my passport), but they still gave me trouble. In the last election, I had to submit a special ballot, and I was given the promise that if they ever found me on the voter registration logs, my vote would be counted.

Gee, I feel so . . . enfranchised?

Here’s my suggestion: we need to vote electronically over the Internet. Forget about voting booths, electronic voting machines and all the paperwork that accompanies them. We need to vote the same way we do everything else today. Why do we not trust the Internet for voting?

We trust the Internet for everything else. Voting seems like it demands the least privacy of all the private things we use the Internet to accomplish. I manage all of my finances over the Internet. I have never been to the actual bank where I have a credit card account, a car loan, or student loans. I manage all of those accounts electronically. I’ve received health records electronically. I send the most intimate and personal of correspondence over email without a second thought.

If we can manage our sex lives over the Internet, surely we can create a system for voting.

I don’t believe any of the obstacles to Internet voting are insurmountable. Security concerns about hacking and voter fraud, voter identification, all of the issues that would cause problems in a national election are problems we can tackle and defeat. It’s not like the paper balloting and electronic voting machines have been even close to flawless. How could we make things worse by moving voting online.

If we could vote online, we wouldn’t have to take time off of work to vote. We wouldn’t need to stand in line with our kids in tow, or stand in line behind someone with their screaming children. We wouldn’t have to explain to the stupid person handling the voter registration logs for the third time that our last name is spelled B-E-R-N-E, not B-U-R-N-S. Is that so hard to remember? It’s Berne, like the capital of Switzerland, not Burns. Do I look Scottish?

Again, I digress. I’ve tried to avoid taking partisan sides in this column, but if there is one theme we can all take away from the last election, it is that a great number of voters feel like their elected officials are not representing their interests. I don’t disagree, but it’s not because the politicians don’t care. It’s because you don’t vote.

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Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

Christina Aguilera: Take Two and Other <b>News</b> - The Superficial <b>...</b>

Tina Fey's Palin jokes censored by PBS. - Baby Benjamin Travolta is more screwed than we realized. - The Future Mrs. Prince William - Rihanna got.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/17 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning, AP. Another round of Kansas City Chiefs news on the house. Please read responsibly.

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bench craft company scam

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

Christina Aguilera: Take Two and Other <b>News</b> - The Superficial <b>...</b>

Tina Fey's Palin jokes censored by PBS. - Baby Benjamin Travolta is more screwed than we realized. - The Future Mrs. Prince William - Rihanna got.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/17 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning, AP. Another round of Kansas City Chiefs news on the house. Please read responsibly.

bench craft company scam

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

Christina Aguilera: Take Two and Other <b>News</b> - The Superficial <b>...</b>

Tina Fey's Palin jokes censored by PBS. - Baby Benjamin Travolta is more screwed than we realized. - The Future Mrs. Prince William - Rihanna got.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/17 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning, AP. Another round of Kansas City Chiefs news on the house. Please read responsibly.

bench craft company scam

Denver Broncos <b>News</b>: Horse Tracks - 11/17/10 - Mile High Report

Your Daily Cup of Orange and Blue Coffee .. Horse Tracks.

Christina Aguilera: Take Two and Other <b>News</b> - The Superficial <b>...</b>

Tina Fey's Palin jokes censored by PBS. - Baby Benjamin Travolta is more screwed than we realized. - The Future Mrs. Prince William - Rihanna got.

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 11/17 - Arrowhead Pride

Good morning, AP. Another round of Kansas City Chiefs news on the house. Please read responsibly.

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