California's gloomy future

According to a report by the Public Policy Institute of California, the state soon will face serious challenges in providing sufficient resources for education and transportation, and those needs are compounded by a lack of public awareness and a paucity of political leadership, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. 8 million to 10 million more people will live here by 2025. And the state doesn't produce enough college graduates to fuel its own economy, nor is it preparing its roads, water resources or once-celebrated school system for the future. The toughest challenge will be in transportation, where spending has not kept pace and - if current trends continue - commute times could increase by almost 50 percent by 2025. "The voters, who will have a major say in what type of future we have, are very disengaged and very distrustful," said Mark Baldassare, director of research. "The public is not particularly aware and not impressed with the ability of state and local government to plan for the future."
Indeed, only 5 percent of Californians know the size of the state's current population (36 million), and only 13 percent put the 2025 population in the 40 million to 49 million range, according to the report, "California 2025: Taking on the Future".

Coming up: A "blogumentary"

John Hart, a former Hollywood executive, is trying to produce a "blogumentary" film about 59 bloggers who, in his view, represent the blogosphere. He has posted a list of bloggers who have already agreed to appear.

Where are they now?

Moving on to his new job "blog daddy" Jeff Darvis is cleaning out his office and finds tons of business cards of companies that were to determined to take over the world - and apparently acted like it in meetings. He asks: Where are they now. Among others: @Home, MCI, Netmarket, Netscape, CompuServe, Infinet, Go Network and CueCat. BTW: I can't mention enough the excellent story in the Washington Post about Jarvis.

$100.000 for a blogging job

CNN Money reports that Country Music Television has signed Chris Nelson to a one-year $100,000 deal to watch reruns of "The Dukes of Hazzard" on the cable channel and write blog postings for the network's Web site. Nelson applied for the job along with almost 2,000 others in late February, shortly after an ad for the position was placed in several industry publications. You can find the job application on Country Music Television's website. (via Micro Persuasion)

Launch of the Weblog Empire

Australian blogger Duncan Riley, author of the excellent blogblog Blog Herald, launched his weblog network Weblog Empire today, including weblogs weblogempire.com about gadgets, mortgage refinancing, PVR and search engine news. Congratulations!

Majority of U.S. households have highspeed in 2010

Increasing competition among the telcom companies makes the web surfer wanna cher. This is what MediaPost had to report:

In an effort to forestall the proliferation of rival Internet providers, SBC Communications Wednesday said it would cut the rate of its already cut-rate broadband service by 25 percent. As the second-largest U.S. telecommunications company, SBC's decision to provide monthly broadband service for $14.95 - down from $19.95 - will accelerate nationwide high-speed adoption, according to industry observers.
For customers who want faster Internet service, the SBC Yahoo! DSL Pro service is also available for $24.99 per month for 12 months if ordered online.
If the cost of broadband continues to slide, up to 69 million households - 78 percent of U.S. online homes - will have high-speed access by 2010, a recent Jupiter Research reported estimated. The report, "Broadband Forecast, 2005 to 2010," found that 8.2 million new households subscribed to broadband last year, bringing to 31.9 million the total number of U.S. households with broadband - a 35 percent increase from 2003. Joe Laszlo, Jupiter Research analyst and lead author of the report, estimated that while cable companies still hold about 59 percent of the U.S. broadband market--thanks to an early start in launching high-speed Internet services--telecoms like SBC are aggressively closing in.

And, as reported, fiber is also coming to the U.S. households....

Nipples - the latest taboo

The Ottawa Citizen reports about a(nother) strange thing about the Americans:

Sixteen months after the Super Bowl's tempest in a C-cup, war has been declared on women's breasts. From Desperate Housewives' deployment of digital nipple-erasers to Victoria's Secret's nipple-negating bras, a campaign is under way to conceal one of the natural features of the female breast. The producers of TV's Desperate Housewives have reportedly spent thousands of dollars digitally removing the nipples from on-screen images of actresses Teri Hatcher and Nicolette Sheridan. In discussing the show's "nipple problem," series creator Marc Cherry tells the Philadelphia Daily News: "Certain actresses really don't like to wear bras. And we try to accommodate them as much as humanly possible. ... So we've done a lot of blurring."

Great! Is this going to be an emerging job market? I want to apply immediately..

Trust via chemistry? Study says it's possible

USA today report some exiting scientific news from my home country:

Better deception through chemistry may be making its way to a nose near you, reports a team of neurochemists. Oxytocin, a hormone used to stimulate contractions during labor, also appears to be a trust-builder when inhaled, says the team led by Michael Kosfeld of Switzerland's University of Zurich. "It seems to reduce anxiety about interacting with strangers," says study co-author Paul Zak, director of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies at Claremont Graduate University in California. "But it's not some sort of evil mind-control drug — spraying it in the environment won't affect anybody."

Wow! Imagine what would happen if we all would inhale it in a public place and we actually really would start to trust each other!! Armaggedon, armaggedon! (But seriously, we're can I get this stuff?..I'll pay cash..)

Bush & Blair love duet

Are you tired of hearing politicians talk? Well, hear them sing instead. Listen to Saddam Hussein singing Imagine. Or to the love duet featuring Bush and Blair. Check it out on the website of the independent film- and TV production Atmo.

A hamburger today in L.A.

A Hamburger Today reviews a couple of fast food joints in Los Angeles. Yummmie!

Truth test for online dater

The Washington Post reports about a interesting business idea:

One of the sites creating the biggest buzz is Truedater.com, which launched in January and claims, says co-founder Mark Geller, 'tens of thousands' of users so far. On Truedater, visitors can input online identities from four dating sites - market leaders Match.com, American Singles and Yahoo Personals, plus the more nichey Jewish site JDate - and search for reviews that'll tell them if, say, Lovinit62 isn't quite the six feet he claimed, or if Cutedoctor14 seems longer in the tooth than 32.

A dating sites factchecker?? Is that how far we came?

Blogging becomes a corporate job

Very interesting article in the free section of the Wall Street Journal about how blogging becomes a corporate job:

A small but growing number of businesses are hiring people to write blogs, or frequently updated online journals. Companies are looking for candidates who can write in a conversational style about timely topics that would appeal to customers, clients and potential recruits. Last year, Christine Halvorson was hired as chief blogger at Stonyfield Farm Inc., a Londonderry, N.H., organic yogurt company owned by Groupe Danone. She applied for the job after responding to an ad posted at Monster.com. A former freelance writer and Web content editor, Ms. Halvorson now writes four blogs for Stonyfield, including a blog about the company, the Daily Scoop, and http://www.stonyfield.com/weblog/CreatingHealthyKids/index.html, about healthy foods in schools. Her job entails researching, linking to news and providing personal insight. She earns an annual salary in the mid-$40,000s, she says.
Flycell Inc., New York, an 18-month-old provider of mobile-phone content such as games and ringtones, posted an ad on the technology-job site Dice.com in April for a "blogger/copywriter/editorial-content producer." The ad includes the following description: "Create, maintain and promote a blog that covers and reports about mobile-phone content and the marketplace ... Must have experience creating and updating blogs, including creating links to other topical blogs ... Blog savvy is a must." The annual salary ranges from $50,000 and $70,000. (...)
Blogging as a job has emerged as companies of all stripes increasingly see the Web as an important communications venue. Blogs allow firms to assume a natural tone rather than the public-relations speak typical of some static Web pages, and readers are often invited to post comments. While some companies are hiring full-time bloggers, others are adding blogging duties to existing marketing or Web-editing positions.
Currently only 4% of major U.S. corporations have blogs available to the public, according to a recent survey by eMarketer, a New York research company. But ads for blogging jobs are popping up on online job boards in recent months. "Blogging jobs are growing in popularity," says Jennifer Sullivan, spokeswoman for CareerBuilder.com.

Wow. The salaries are not too bad, considering the fact that is a new profession.

Book hits bestseller lists due to blogs

A new book has made the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Amazon.com bestseller lists without advertising, national bookstore distribution, a major publishing house, radio interviews, television interviews, or print interviews but through the power of blogs. The bestseller, “Call To Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results”, may be the first book to become a national bestseller without nationwide bookstore distribution. Amazing. Another proof: the (underestimated) power of blogs.

Jeff Jarvis, On the Inside Blogging Out

Great article in the Washington Post about one of my favorite writers in the blogosphere, "Blog Daddy" Jeff Darvis who just signed up for a new daytime job. An excerpt from the story:

He has denounced shoddy journalism, defended whipped-cream-covered strippers on television, discussed the pope on MSNBC, called in to Howard Stern, exchanged erudite letters with the editor of the New York Times, and championed the idea that any citizen can be "a Wolf Blitzer in sheep's clothing." In the process, he says, he has "rebranded" himself as Blog Boy. Jeff Jarvis, a former critic for People and TV Guide and a founding editor of Entertainment Weekly, has moved from writing for millions to blogging for thousands, slinging opinions on subjects ranging from the war on terror to car stereos. "God knows how many bits and bytes I've wasted on my blathering," he says.

Baby boomers: work after retirement

A report by the JWT Mature Market Group and ThirdAge finds that personal fulfillment across all demographic groups is a very important factor in the decision to work in retirement. The report says that Baby Boomers and Aging Mid-lifers are working for more than pay. 42% of these groups say that plan to fully retire, but of those, 70% plan to work. And I guess if social security become privatized, retired people will even have more reasons why the have to continue to work...

The fastest way to browse

Browster claims to offer the fastest way to search the Web. Here's how it works: By holding your cursor over an icon next to the search results, you can get an instant preview of the Web page the link is leading to. Actually quite helpful.

Ask God - from your cell phone

No joke. "Ask God" - that's the name of a new service due to launch this June and targeting cell phone users. You can simply call a toll-free number, and a live Angel (I am not making this up, this really is how the service calls its reps) will perform the Web search for you, then text-message the results to your cell phone or even e-mail them to you. The idea is for you to avoid squinting at your small mobile screen. On its website, the company promises that it "will you with every answer imaginable, twenty-four hours a day. Furthermore, our service does not rest on the Sabbath." Haha.

7.5 million millionaire households in the U.S.

O thanks god. Everything is fine in Bush country. The number of US households with a net worth of $1 million or more rose 21% in 2004, according to Spectrem Group. It is the largest increase since 1998. There now are 7.5 million millionaire households in the U.S., breaking the record set in 1999 of 7.1 million. The study excluded the value of primary residences, but included second homes and other real estate. - Let's also give them a huuge tax-break...

Fiber-to-the-home up 83% in 2005

According to Telecommunications Industry Association, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) installations have grown 83% since October 2004, now reaching 398 communities in 43 states. Wow, the super-fast internet is finally here...(and Verizon tries to get its customer hooked up)..