media bloggers association helps bloggers over hurdles

ever wonder why matt drudge primarily only writes headlines and links directly to a news story? it’s probably neither because he’s busy nor lazy. but so he won’t get sued. media bloggers association, which helped wisconsin blog navigate itself out of a sticky oprah winfrey defamation lawsuit, helps bloggers navigate their way through the media biz and sort out legal insurance.

this organization is needed now more than ever as they’ve started offering online courses to help journalists sort out stuff like what the word ‘copyright’ really means. which is information that artist fairly whats-his-name could’ve used when he allegedly took an associated press photo and basically painted over it –i mean, transformed it into that so-callled iconic barack obama image. you know the one where ‘o’ looks pensive and is outlined with multiple colors from the u.s. flag. any way, if fairly had been a blogger and had actually signed up for this media bloggers association courses, he might not be in the hot water he’s in at the moment you know, standing on the precipice of handing over loads of money to the associated press.

due to the assistance of media bloggers association, ‘a blog about whatever’ was able to gain accreditation to the capital conference( NAA/ASNE)’s annual newspaper conference. over the course of a few days, ‘a blog about whatever’ covered the associated press’ annual meeting featuring john mccain as well as their luncheon, which feature barack obama as well as a separate event in which hillary clinton (who was a presidential candidate at that time) spoke.

chicago indie touch and go stays on in name only

corey rusk, like daniel miller of mute records, were only 2 of label bosses who reportedly gave their bands 50 – 50 royalty splits because they thought it was the fair thing to do. now, according to time out new york, touch and go will exist in name only and quit putting out new releases like under indie outfits like new red archives and lookout records.

david beckham wants out of his l.a. galaxy contract

this morning, cnn reported that david beckham (aka, becks) wants to stay in milan with AC milan. perhaps because since being loaned out to a real football team, he’s concluded that 1.) he can still play with the big boys and 2.) his game has suffered since he moved to l.a. yes, these two points contradict each other. but basically, in regards to the later, if he’s playing girlie ball with the americans, it’s quite obvious that he’s not really getting much of a workout. and so footballers would conclude that while he’s in l.a., he’s not fit. having had a bit of time to roll around in the mud with the italians in their league, he’s concluded that it is quite possible to raise his game back to world cup (or near) world cup level. and becks being becks and not his wife, posh spice, would obviously rather spent the last couple of years he’s got left as a footballer rolling around with the euro-fags as opposed to the girlie americans. you can read more details on the bbc news website.

so it seems that a few years back becks was anxious to boldly go where no footballer has gone and succeded. –the u.s. scoccer league (see pele, and franz ‘the kaiser’ beckenbauer). and now he wants to head back to europe. maybe the l.a. scientologitst have got him down. perhaps he needs to spend more time squeezing tom cruise’s e-machine.

turkish embassy party at berlin film festival

last night, the turkish embassy hosted a swank party at the ritz carlton during the berlinale. the country has two films at the festival, ‘hayat var’ (my only sunshine) and ‘momma’ (the bogeyman).

turkey embassy hosts party at berlin film festival

third roommate of meredith kercher and amanda knox testifies

the third roommate of meredith kercher and amanda knox testified in an italian court on sunday. according to this article on the guardian website, filomena romanelli’s testimony won’t help amanda knox, who her former facebook and myspace pals know as ‘foxy knoxy.’ foxy knoxy’s italian boyfriend, raffaele sollecito, who once had a web blog where he famously posed with a meat cleaver, is also on trial for kercher’s murder.

chelsea fires luiz felipe scolari

can you make a coach redundant? chelsea has just let go luiz felipe scolari, the brazilian who did wonders for portugal in the 2004 european championships and helped them place 4th in the world cup. more information on the firing is on the guardian website.

why the music industry sucks and google too

in 2000 when the music industry sued napster and thought it had its day in court, it was already clear that the RIAA and the labels were merely rearranging chairs on the titanic. but the majors spent the next 8 years screaming about music thieves and hauling kids and single mothers to court and/or threatening them with lawsuits. in normal industries, this would never have happened (see the film industry) since you know, public relations and public perception is everything. and now the music industry is perceived as a bunch of cops. hence, people like george michael and domino records hiring a company to snuff out mp3 posts of their music online. and isn’t it telling that this company is called ‘web sheriff.’ and now apparently google is in on the whole thing. randomly deleting blog posts on blogger.com that have mp3s (see link to l.a. weekly article below).

is it any wonder that record sales are down. and one is hardpressed to find a teen who is remotely cool who dreams of working in the music industry?

you can click here for more details.

dr. doom and the essence of behavior economics

this washington post article by david ignatius, who was famously walked out on at davos last month by the prime minister of turkey, profiles nouriel roubini, the israeli-american economist who some believe predicted the current financial crisis.

still time for google killers

the world of online technology is riddled with bodies. remember netscape and alta vista? remember when every marketer’s wet dream was to appear on the AOL welcome screen? so, it’s completely plausable, and highly likely that once everyone discovers that google is merely a marketing company and not a technology company, it will slowly go the way of yahoo and then ultimately end up like toys.com. here’s a fairly insightful artilce from adweek.

christian bale freak out techno remix