Coffe Cup

How to explain .... (16+)

2010-03-16T19:31:00.000-07:00

How to explain sex to kids?

Good reasons not to mess with nature

2010-03-16T10:33:00.000-07:00

Look Again... Dirty Mind (16+) !!!!!

2010-03-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

It does not matter Who you are........

2010-03-15T22:04:00.000-07:00

May be you are King of World...

May be you are most dangerous in world...

Either you are a Gentleman...

Or most Dangerous Killer of the world...

May be you are most lovable by others...

May be you can rule other or rule the World...

May be you are an independent one...

But The fact is this...
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When you are at home...
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...Wife is Wife...

...Does not matter Who the Hell are you...

How to Deal with Babies???????

2010-03-12T05:13:00.000-08:00

Try Making Such Wonderful Creations With Towel

2010-03-12T04:42:00.000-08:00

Running Out of Ideas? 50 Ideas For Your Next 50 Posts

2010-02-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

Written by Liane. Get more blogging tips. Subscribe to this blog today! See here, it's hard thinking "new" things everytime. Ideas, ideas, ideas. The usual question would be, "where do you find them?". Of course a lot of bloggers have posted tons of tips on how and where to get brilliant ideas for your next post. But I just figured out, what if I directly give them to you?

I'm just letting my mind free for this. If there's anything you'd like to suggest (the more ideas the better!) then please do leave something in the comments. Thanks!

Blog about personal stuffs today
What are you thinking?
What's the matter with you right now?
Best thing that has happened so far?
Worst thing that has happened so far?
Seen or captured any interesting stuff?
There's this news you've been wanting to tell everyone!
You just learned a lesson today, share it!
Ask how everyone is doing
You have a problem, tell people about it, ask for help.
You're just feeling happy. Why?
What's keeping you busy?
You have had a problem, how did you overcome it?

Blog about something that will make you look really pro
There's this guy whom you really look up to.
Fire up an interview with your guru
Tell people how NOT to give up
There's an inspirational story somewhere that you remembered
It's you're 1,000th post! Celebrate!
You're feeling successful, how big is your blog now?
Teach me a new trick today.
Tell me something I have absolutely no idea about
You're just going to launch a special report/book
You're doing a partnership/joint venture with someone right now
Tell me about your expertise without sounding boastful

Blog something that can make you money
Find that newest product being launched right now
Get a discount coupon and share it with everyone
You're offering a really good service
Someone just asked for a review!
Offer to review someone while getting something in return
You really liked this certain theme and will make a review of it
You're making some money out of this new ad network, refer people to it
Give a very special offer that nobody would dare miss

Blog something about your niche
There's a question someone left at your comments section
You've been reading today and found something interesting
There's this handy trick you want to share
There's a big event happening in your niche
You feel like doing a round-up post right now
There's a good post in your archive that you want to resurrect
You're thinking of a Part II for a previous article
Teach very basic, newbie-ish stuff today
How about firing up questions at everyone?

Blog something that can boost up your network
You've read a funny/stupid/hilarious/amazing tweet, comment on it
Ask questions at Twitter and make a post out of it
You like the idea of doing round-up posts
There's this new social network that you're excited about
Who are your best online buddies?
There's an important update/change in a certain social network

Blog about random stuffs today
(things that people will enjoy reading)
What did you pet do again this time?
Traffic today is crazy isn't it?
Hey, (young blogger) have you finished your homework?
That restaurant serves good food! (pictures are important)
Anything about the weather?
Seen anything interesting on tv lately?
Where do you want to head out for vacation?
Tell me that gadget that you've been eying for in months
Let's see, are you bored?

Lastly,

No idea? Start reading this post all over again :)

FROM: here

DANICA PATRICK BIOGRAPHY

2010-02-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

Danica Patrick Career Highlights:

2008

Won the Japan IndyCar 300 - becoming the first woman to win an Indy race.

2007

Four top 5 finishes, including placing second at The Raceway at Belle Isle Park

2006

Finished in eighth place Indianapolis 500.

2005

Finished Fourth in the IRL IndyCar Series Championship (with 325 points).
Made her IRL IndyCar Series debut on March 6^th in the Toyota Indy 300 (at Homestead-Miami Speedway). She did not finish the race due to an eight-car accident.
Fourth woman in history to race in the Indianapolis 500 on May 29^th – she finished in fourth place (during the race, she also lead a few laps -- the first woman to do so).

2004

Finished Third in the Toyota Atlantic Championship (with 269 points)
Ten top-five results in twelve races (1 2^nd, 2 3^rd, 5 4^th, and 2 5^th)
Only driver to finish all 417 laps
First female driver to win a pole position at for Toyota Atlantic races

2003

Finished sixth in Toyota Atlantic Championship with 109 pointes
Had five top-five finishes in Toyota Atlantic races (1 2^nd,3^rd, 3 5^th) and placed in the top ten - ten times in twelve races.
First woman to finish in top three in Toyota Atlantic Championship races

2002

Signed with Team Rahal (Rahal-Letterman Racing) for multi-year contract
Debuted on July 7^th at Toronto.
Finished 13^th with 35 points in five races in the Barber-Dodge series. Her best finish was fourth.

2001

Won Gorsline Scholarship Award for top upcoming road racing driver
Competed in both the US and Great Britain

2000

Competed in Formula Ford Festival in England – came in second, the highest ever by an American

1999

Finished ninth in Formula Vauxhall Championship (England)

1998

Made debut in England (Formula Vauxhall Championship) after attending the Formula Ford racing school
Competed in a few Karting racing

1997

Won the World Karting Association’s Grand National Championship in the HPV class
Won the World Karting Association’s Grand National Championship and the Summer National Championship in the Yamaha Lite class
Tenth place finish in Formula A Elk Constructors Championship

1996

Won 39 of the 49 Karting races she competed in
Won the World Karting Association’s Manufactuireres Cup National Points title for Yamaha Junior and Restricted Junior classes

1995

Won the World Karting Association Great Lakes Sprint Series title for Yamaha Restricted Junior and US 820 Junior classes

1994

Won the World Karting Association Manufacturer’s Cup title in Yamaha Sportsman class
Won the World Karting Association Grand National Championship in the Yamaha class

1993

Finished second in World Karting Association Midwest Sprint Series in Yamaha and US820 clases.

1992

Began racing at the age of 10. Finished her first season in second place in points for her class.

Biography by Ian Ripley, PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer

Toyota's loss: Ford's and Hyundai's gain

2010-02-04T20:59:00.000-08:00

Toyota's strong market share gains of the last decade had already leveled off before its recall problem.By Chris Isidore, senior writerFebruary 2, 2010: 10:28 AM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Who will benefit from Toyota's woes?

At a press conference Monday to announce the fix for more than 5 million recalled vehicles, Jim Lentz, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., promised the company would return to its commitment to quality.

Still, many believe that despite the gas pedal fix, Toyota (TM) may lose market share in the U.S. this year for the first time in 16 years. Simply put, Toyota can no longer claim to be the highest quality automaker.

"If you look at the quality gap today compared to ten years ago, it isn't there any more. It's more of a perception gap," said Jesse Toprak, vice president of industry trends for car pricing site TrueCar.com.

Art Spinella, head of CNW Market Research, said Toyota's gold-plated reputation had already been punctured by less serious recalls even before this problem. He said it will take a lot of time for Toyota to get back the reputation and loyalty it had until recently.

"The fall was quicker than the rebound will be. That's for sure," he said, adding that he thinks Ford (F, Fortune 500) and Hyundai are well positioned to gain from Toyota's stumbles.

Michelle Krebs, senior analyst with car sales site Edmunds.com, senior analyst with car sales site Edmunds.com, agreed that these two should benefit the most from Toyota's problems.

"Ford and Hyundai were already gaining on [Toyota]," Krebs said. "If you look at what Ford did in '09, they slashed the [market share] gap between Toyota and themselves by half. They may well pass them this year."

Spokespeople at Ford and Hyundai had little or no comment Monday when asked about whether they expected to gain market share at Toyota's expense.

Honda and GM could benefit too. Japanese rival Honda Motor (HMC) is also well positioned to profit from any Toyota mishaps. It traditionally is the brand that auto buyers look at most often when also considering whether to buy a Toyota.

But Honda spokesman Chris Naughton said the company has not seen any unexpected surge in customer traffic in its showrooms since the Toyota recall was announced.

What to do if your car is on the list

Other experts said that GM, in addition to Ford, could gain ground at Toyota's expense. Some suggested that GM, which has lost market share to Toyota every year since 1989, could even see its ever-narrowing lead in U.S. auto sales grow once again this year.

"People are more likely to expand their search. They might have not considered an American car before," said William Baker, professor of marketing at San Diego State University. "This is potentially a very good thing for GM."

But experts said a "buy American" move may not help the other member of Detroit's Big Three. Chrysler Group does not have the competitive product to benefit from Toyota's troubles. Similarly, European automakers and Japanese rival Nissan are not expected to report any significant improvement in sales.

Cnn Money

The book of Jobs

2010-02-03T04:16:00.000-08:00

It has revolutionised one industry after another. Now Apple hopes to transform three at once

Jan 28th 2010 | From The Economist print edition

Illustration by Jon Berkeley

APPLE is regularly voted the most innovative company in the world, but its inventiveness takes a particular form. Rather than developing entirely new product categories, it excels at taking existing, half-baked ideas and showing the rest of the world how to do them properly. Under its mercurial and visionary boss, Steve Jobs, it has already done this three times. In 1984 Apple launched the Macintosh. It was not the first graphical, mouse-driven computer, but it employed these concepts in a useful product. Then, in 2001, came the iPod. It was not the first digital-music player, but it was simple and elegant, and carried digital music into the mainstream. In 2007 Apple went on to launch the iPhone. It was not the first smart-phone, but Apple succeeded where other handset-makers had failed, making mobile internet access and software downloads a mass-market phenomenon.
As rivals rushed to copy Apple’s approach, the computer, music and telecoms industries were transformed. Now Mr Jobs hopes to pull off the same trick for a fourth time. On January 27th he unveiled his company’s latest product, the iPad—a thin, tablet-shaped device with a ten-inch touch-screen which will go on sale in late March for $499-829 (see article). Years in the making, it has been the subject of hysterical online speculation in recent months, verging at times on religious hysteria: sceptics in the blogosphere jokingly call it the Jesus Tablet.
The enthusiasm of the Apple faithful may be overdone, but Mr Jobs’s record suggests that when he blesses a market, it takes off. And tablet computing promises to transform not just one industry, but three—computing, telecoms and media.
Companies in the first two businesses view the iPad’s arrival with trepidation, for Apple’s history makes it a fearsome competitor. The media industry, by contrast, welcomes it wholeheartedly. Piracy, free content and the dispersal of advertising around the web have made the internet a difficult environment for media companies. They are not much keener on the Kindle, an e-reader made by Amazon, which has driven down book prices and cannot carry advertising. They hope this new device will give them a new lease of life, by encouraging people to read digital versions of books, newspapers and magazines while on the move. True, there are worries that Apple could end up wielding a lot of power in these new markets, as it already does in digital music. But a new market opened up and dominated by Apple is better than a shrinking market, or no market at all.

Keep taking the tablets

Tablet computers aimed at business people have not worked. Microsoft has been pushing them for years, with little success. Apple itself launched a pen-based tablet computer, the Newton, in 1993, but it was a flop. The Kindle has done reasonably well, and has spawned a host of similar devices with equally silly names, including the Nook, the Skiff and the Que. Meanwhile, Apple’s pocket-sized touch-screen devices, the iPhone and iPod Touch, have taken off as music and video players and hand-held games consoles.
The iPad is, in essence, a giant iPhone on steroids. Its large screen will make it an attractive e-reader and video player, but it will also inherit a vast array of games and other software from the iPhone. Apple hopes that many people will also use it instead of a laptop. If the company is right, it could open up a new market for devices that are larger than phones, smaller than laptops, and also double as e-readers, music and video players and games consoles. Different industries are already converging on this market: mobile-phone makers are launching small laptops, known as netbooks, and computer-makers are moving into smart-phones. Newcomers such as Google, which is moving into mobile phones and laptops, and Amazon, with the Kindle, are also entering the fray: Amazon has just announced plans for an iPhone-style “app store” for the Kindle, which will enable it to be more than just an e-reader.
If the past is any guide, Apple’s entry into the field will not just unleash fierce competition among device-makers, but also prompt consumers and publishers who had previously been wary of e-books to take the plunge, accelerating the adoption of this nascent technology. Sales of e-readers are expected to reach 12m this year, up from 5m in 2009 and 1m in 2008, according to iSuppli, a market-research firm.

Hold the front pixels

Will the spread of tablets save struggling media companies? Sadly not. Some outfits—metropolitan newspapers, for instance—are probably doomed by their reliance on classified advertising, which is migrating to dedicated websites. Others are too far gone already. Tablets are expensive, and it will be some years before they are widespread enough to fulfil their promise. In theory a newspaper could ask its readers to sign up for a two-year electronic subscription, say, and subsidise the cost of a tablet. But such a subsidy would be hugely pricey, and expensive printing presses will have to be kept running for readers who want to stick with paper.
Still, even though tablets will not save weak media companies, they are likely to give strong ones a boost. Charging for content, which has proved difficult on the web, may get easier. Already, people are prepared to pay to receive newspapers and magazines (including The Economist) on the Kindle. The iPad, with its colour screen and integration with Apple’s online stores, could make downloading books, newspapers and magazines as easy and popular as downloading music. Most important, it will allow for advertising, on which American magazines, in particular, depend. Tablets could eventually lead to a wholesale switch to digital delivery, which would allow newspapers and book publishers to cut costs by closing down printing presses.
If Mr Jobs manages to pull off another amazing trick with another brilliant device, then the benefits of the digital revolution to media companies with genuinely popular products may soon start to outweigh the costs. But some media companies are dying, and a new gadget will not resurrect them. Even the Jesus Tablet cannot perform miracles.

Source

HOW TO: Boost Your Blog Traffic

2010-02-02T17:36:00.000-08:00

Many first time bloggers automatically assume that once their blog is setup and they put a few posts on it, they will get some hits and regular readers. This is quite untrue. You won’t get any traffic if no one knows about your website. In this article I hope to tackle these problems and discuss some of the common ways bloggers and webmasters drive more traffic to their site by understanding the user. I have received many emails from aspiring bloggers asking me what they can do to get more traffic, so hopefully this will help out at least those people. Don’t forget to checkout the prequel, How To: Start Blogging, that covers the technical side of setting up a blog.

Blog Usability

Before I get into getting your name out there, your blog has to have some style. Most web users are instantly turned off by tacky site designs or extreme neon colors. I know I won’t stay at a website too long if the layout or navigation annoys me. The goal is to have a unique blog, different than all the other weblogs on the net. The one thing I really stress to others is making it easy for your readers to contact you. It shouldn’t take a reader more than a click, if any, to find your email address or a contact form. This makes the reader feel like someone actually runs and cares about the website. An about page is also a great asset to have on a personal site or blog. The more a reader knows about you, the more they trust your content. I highly recommend reading this weblog usability article by usability guru Jakob Nielsen.

Content

Your blog’s usability goes hand in hand with its content. You can specialize in a niche subject as long as you have an idea of how many people might be interested in that subject. If you do well with your niche subject matter, you could get some crazy traffic for being the only decent blog online with that type of content. On the other hand you could have widely used content, such as some aspect of technology, but add your own twist with your opinion or comparing/contrasting from other tech analysts. People won’t go to your site to read something they could have read on CNet or Tom’s Hardware, they want a unique take on it. If you learn anything from this article, I hope its that reblogging is a very bad thing. The one thing to kill your traffic is having identical content to another several hundred blogs. I suggest taking a glance at Mr. Veloso’s Evils of Constant Reblogging to get a better idea. Finding out what your content should be is a key element of your blog’s identity and the type of image your blog will ultimately emit.

Technorati is Your Best Friend

Technorati is one of the best traffic providers for bloggers. It makes your blog much easier to find when people search by technorati tags. Technorati is also a large blog ranking engine. Based on the number of links to your blog from various websites, your blog is given a rank. The higher your rank the easier your blog is to find when people search for things. A higher rank gives your blog greater credibility in technorati. If you don’t already have a technorati account, get one. After you have setup the main settings, such as your profile, you need to claim your blog. Go to Account and then down the page to Your Blogs. Enter the URL of your blog in the URL field and then hit “Claim this weblog.” Once you’ve done that go to “Configure this Blog” and fill in what you can. Click the checkbox to select “Include this blog in Technorati’s Blog Finder” and fill out as many tags or keywords that accurately represent the content in your blog. When you’ve done that, click “Save Changes” and then grab your claim code. There are two types of codes that you may put somewhere in your blog for technorati to verify that your blog exists and keep track of it. If you have a blog that is Blogger powered or some other blog host that does not give you direct control of your blog files you will want to use the “Link Code” and post it somewhere on your blog. If you are using a more versatile blog publishing system, such as a custom WordPress or Movable Type installation you should copy the “Embed Code.” You can edit your sidebar, header, or footer file and put it wherever you like. You also have the option of posting a Technorati search box or various links on your blog without altering the code you just pasted. Select the options you like and click “Save Changes.” Everything is done by automatically by Technorati. One last thing you might consider is adding the Technorati ping link to your weblog. Doing this will let Technorati know when you have updated your blog. Find out how to do that on Technorati’s Ping Configuration page.

You will also want to search for a plugin for your publishing platform that supports Technorati tags. For WordPress users, I recommend Ultimate Tag Warrior. Installation can get a bit complex, so moving to a WordPress theme that has support for UTW, such as K2, is a good idea. Basically, when you post an entry you can supply it with Technorati tags. Update: WordPress 2.3 has built-in support for tags.

Blog Rings/Networks

Submitting your website to a blog network or blog ring is another excellent way to get more readers. There are many of these networks but the one that I use is BlogTopSites.com. BlogTopSites is a blog ranking website that makes your blog easier to find and search for as well. After you sign up for an account on their website, you just need to copy a bit of code and paste it somewhere on your site just like we did with Technorati. Make sure you select an appropriate category to post your blog in. If you are not careful, you’ll find yourself in the same pool with some heavy hitting blogs and your ranking will be fairly puny. For WordPress users, you can join Blogs Of The Day by simply installing their plugin, which uploads your blog stats directly to them.

Burn that Feed!

By now you may have a few extra readers, but how can you help them come back? Many blog users will immediately scan the page for an RSS feed if they like your content. Most blogs, such as WordPress, already have RSS feeds integrated for entries and comments. Using the default feeds may suffice, but you won’t have any idea about how many people you will be catering to. The FeedBurner service will take your feed and reproduce it on their fast servers while tracking reader statistics. I highly recommend signing up for the service and letting them burn your feed. I won’t through the steps of signing up for FeedBurner, but once you’re done with that find the “Publicize” tab. Click on “FeedCount” and activate the service. FeedCount lets you post a little icon on your blog that displays the current circulation of your feed as well as make it easier for people to subscribe to your feed. Select the colors you wish to use for the icon and post the code somewhere on your blog. Come back a few days later and you should see some detailed reader statistics under the “Analyze” tab on the FeedBurner website.

As long as you are going the FeedBurner route, replace the current RSS links on your blog with the FeedBurner link. This usually means digging through some code to find that link and replace it. I really can’t go into details as it varies greatly by publishing platform and theme.

So Now You’re a Serious Blogger

You have found your unique blog style, mastered the type of content you want to deliver, and gained some regular readers but you want even more. If you are still on a free blog, get rid of it! Even if it is a paid TypePad account, you still have a shared domain name (e.g., yourname.typepad.com). It is time for you to become independent and get your own domain and hosting.

Having a weblog address ending in blogspot.com, typepad.com, etc. will soon be the equivalent of having an @aol.com email address or a Geocities website: the mark of a naÃ¯ve beginner who shouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Jakob Nielsen

If you are open to hosting recommendations, a (gs) Grid Server plan from Media Temple is the perfect solution for the dedicated blogger. It is when you start receiving over 150k hits a month that you might consider upgrading your plan.

Getting To Know Your Readers

The next step is tracking your visitors, seeing where they came from, what they saw, and how they left. You will be able to easily assess what content your readers appreciate the most and concentrate on that aspect of your blog. Most webhosts include some type of stats monitoring applications such as the Urchin suite. However, I use Mr. Inman’s Mint religiously. The best part of Mint is an open API that lets developers create plugins called Peppers that dramatically extend functionality. I had previously posted an article about the top Peppers I use. It is definitely worth a look if you want to get a better idea of how great Mint can make your life. There is also a Mint Pepper for tracking your FeedBurner stats.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully my suggestions have helped out at least a few people. If you post guides or reviews on your blog that you think many people can benefit or learn from, I suggest posting a link on del.icio.us or Digg. If your page gets on the frontpage of Digg or on del.icio.us popular, you’re set. Many tech websites have an email address for tips. If you think your content is worthy, I would try sending them an email with your article. You never know, they might post it. Even if they do not have a tips line, a polite email to the editor-in-chief or webmaster could do the trick. As a blogger, you really should not have any trouble talking to strangers… you practically preach to them everyday. While looking for companies to send me review products for my other website, I must have sent out over 150 emails. It is amazing what a nice email can get you. I gained a contact with at Akasa, who was kind enough to trust me and send some computer products for review after a few emails. Even at the lowest level you will establish some rapport between that company or person, which may help you out in the future.
Also, holding a contest can greatly boost traffic. Even if it is for a small thing such as a WordPress golden ticket, you will be amazed at how many people find out about it. You can establish a relationship with some of your readers, and they might link to your blog on theirs. Commenting on other blogs can also earn you a few hits if you put down your URL. Oh and how could I forget a de-lurking post to talk to those hidden readers of yours.

Tagged as: How To's, Internet

PaulStamatiou.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.
With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like PaulStamatiou.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

Take the Thesis Video Tour

source:from

How to write a heart touching love letter?

2010-02-02T02:56:00.000-08:00

Writing effective and heart touching Valentine's Day Love Letters is quite an art in itself. To perfect this art one needs a will to express and lots of love for the recipient of the letter. An added touch of imagination and creativity makes the letter a masterpiece. In case you are new in the field here are some tips to help you write a perfect Valentine's Day Love Letter:

Tips for Writing a Perfect Valentine's Day Love Letter

Get a beautiful and romantic letter pad with good paper quality.
Write the letter when you are in a good mood.
Clear your mind of any distractions and focus on your beloved. You may keep his/her photograph in front of you to set the mood.
Play your favorite music if it inspires you.
On a rough sheet of paper jot down the unique qualities in your beloved and your plans for the future with him/her.
It is good to plan the letter in advance and right in rough first.
Always hand write the letter to give it a more personal touch.
Write with a fountain pen instead of ball pen, as it appears more elegant. Your beloved may preserve this letter for years so make sure it looks as beautiful years after.
Pay special attention to the opening and closing of the letter to leave a greater impact.
Personalize the love letter depending on the stage of relationship you are at present.
Write from your heart in simple sentences and in an easy to understand language.
Avoid underlining the words and do not use all caps as it looks like you are yelling.
In the body of the love letter you may write the special qualities of your beloved. Ideally emotional, physical and spiritual qualities in a person should be highlighted to make the recipient feel loved.
In the following paragraphs you may share your hopes and dreams for the future along with your partner.
Be truthful in your letter and avoid making promises you will not be able to keep and cause a feeling of distrust in your beloved.
One page is an ideal length for a love letter. You may write more if you are comfortable with your partner but don't make it too long.
Avoid mentioning anyone else in your love letter. Just talk about your beloved and yourself.
Give a high-impact closing to your love letter in a way that it sums up your feelings in a beautiful way. For instance, "I will love you always," "Loving you forever," "My heart is yours," are considered to be a romantic closing for a letter.
Always sign the love letter.
Go through the letter one or two times to check if you have conveyed your feelings effectively.
Use thesaurus to choose perfect words for your feelings.
Check for spelling and grammatical errors as this kind of errors convey carelessness.
To add more style, you may stick a small photograph of yours to the top of the love letter. This will make your beloved view the photograph and reflect on you with fondness as he/she admires the content of the letter.
Spray a fragrant perfume on the letter.
Select a special stamp from the post office.
Drop the letter in the mailbox and wait for the response.

Source

Dating Tips – Do’s and don’t

2010-02-02T02:33:00.000-08:00

Do’s…

* Do communicate with him.

* Do be honest with him.

* Do give him space if he needs it. You don’t want to be too clingy.

* Do remind him of how much you care for him, and how much he means to you, because believe it or not they love to be admired just as much as we do.

* Do let him hang out with his buddies. Also let him pick his/her friends not you. If there is trust in this relationship. You shouldn't have to worry because you know in your heart that it is you that he wants.

* Do encourage him and motivate him to be better. This will show you’re that who really care about him and his/her future. He/she will love that you'll support him in just about anything he does.

* Do tell him you love him. When the time is right.

Don’t…

* Never let him fall silent. Get him to talk.

* Never hide anything from him. Let him know how you really think and feel.

* Never give him too much were he/she feels he/she can do anything and it won’t affect you. Let him know there are limits.

* Never let him get away with treating you bad in a way that either made you upset or uncomfortable. I don’t care how much you like him or how hard it took you to get him!! It will only get worst in a matter of time if you don’t speak up about it.

* Never try to change him. You fell in love with him the way he/she looks, why try to change that? It will only make him confused and out of place. It'll make trying to be with you a challenge and it shouldn’t have to be that way. Love him for him, not his shirt or his amazing body.

Source: From here

Apple's tablet computer appearances at the Grammys

2010-02-02T01:30:00.001-08:00

Apple's tablet computer makes cameo appearances at the Grammys and on Funny or Die.
David Pogue and Walt Mossberg, eat your hearts out.
America's premier tech columnists — at the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, respectively — are dying to spend some quality time with Steve Jobs' latest creation.
But they're going to have to wait their turn.
First Pee Wee Herman brought what looked like a non-functioning iPad to his Playhouse in a 2-minute FunnyOrDie.com skit.
And then, in a triumph of product placement, Stephen Colbert capped his Grammy monologue Sunday night by pulling a live one out from under his belt to read the nominees for Song of the Year.
Both cameos were clever and self-deprecating. Both seemed designed, in part, to defuse the unfortunate association with feminine hygene products.

"The consensus on the Internet," Magic Screen tells Pee Wee's Puppetland pals, "is that its name closely resembles a popular brand of sanitary napkins.
Colbert had also poked fun at the moniker the guys at Apple (AAPL) chose for their new device — a name, he deadpanned last week on the Colbert Report, "that just barely beat out the TamPod."
The audience laughed and clapped when he whipped out his iPad at the Grammys. The camera cut first to a celebrity couple (Nichole Kidman and Keith Urban), then to Jay-Z ("Did you not get one of these in your gift bag?"), and finally to Colbert's daughter Madeline, who indicated, with a slight shake of her head, that no, this did not make her dad look cool.
Let's go to the video tapes:

source: cnnmoney

Toyota is ready for replacement

2010-02-02T01:07:00.000-08:00

Toyota said Monday it has developed a fix for gas pedals in millions of recalled vehicles and is already shipping the new parts to dealers.

The fix involves reinforcing the pedal assembly in a way that eliminates the excess friction that has caused the pedals to stick, the company said in a press release. Toyota recalled 2.3 million vehicles in the United States for this problem.

Toyota said replacement parts are already being shipped and that dealers will work extended hours to fix the recalled vehicles.

"We know what's causing the sticking accelerator pedals, and we know what we have to do to fix it," said Jim Lentz, Toyota's president and chief operating officer, in a statement.

Toyota will begin contacting customers as early as this week to let them know when to bring in their vehicles for the fix. The automaker said it will cover all costs related to the fix, which will take about 30 minutes.

It's not clear how long it will take to fix all 2.3 million cars, Lentz told CNNMoney.com. Much will depend on how quickly customers bring their cars into dealers for repairs.

Customers will begin receiving notices late this week and dealers will start doing repairs this weekend, Lentz said in a conference call.

Dealers will be open extended hours, he said.

"My guess is that the stock of Krispy Kreme will probably go up," Lentz said "because we'll be handing out a lot of donuts."
The fix involves installing a precision-cut steel reinforcement bar into the accelerator pedal assembly, which will reduce surface tension and prevent the friction that has caused the pedals to stick, Toyota said.

Toyota recall: What to do if your car's on the list

The company said it has confirmed the effectiveness of the newly reinforced pedals through "rigorous testing" on pedal assemblies that had previously shown a tendency to stick.

"We are very confident that the installation of a reinforcing bar is as successful a repair as it would be replacing the pedal," Lentz said.

Toyota announced plans last week to suspend sales of the models, including its best-selling Camry, subject to the recall. It also took the unusual step of halting production of those models.

Production lines for these vehicles will re-start on Feb. 8, the automaker said.

The recall has taken a severe toll on Toyota's once-stellar reputation, which Lentz acknowledged in a video statement posted on Toyota's Web site.

"I know that we've let you down," Lentz said "[Toyota] will work hard to fix your vehicle properly and regain your trust."

The recall affects Toyota's 2009-2010 RAV4, Corolla and Matrix; 2005-2010 Avalon; certain 2007-2010 Camrys; 2010 Highlander; 2007-2010 Tundra and the 2008-2010 Sequoia. The Camry Hybrid is not included in the recall.

The Japanese automaker also recalled cars in Europe. That recall involves eight different models, several of which are not sold in the United States. The precise number of vehicles involved in that recall is still being determined, but it could be as many as 1.8 million.

The gas pedal recall is separate from an earlier one, begun in November to fix a problem in which the gas pedal can become caught on the edge of a removable floor mat.

The floor mat recall was recently expanded so that it now covers a total of 5.3 million vehicles.

In cases where vehicles are subject to both recalls, Toyota (TM) said it intends to remedy both at the same time.

Toyota has been under scrutiny for suspected unintended acceleration for approximately 10 years. A total of 19 deaths have been connected to unintended acceleration in Toyotas over the decade, according to some analysts, a figure the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called "plausible," based on its own research.

All major automakers experience some complaints of unintended acceleration. It is unclear how the rate of complaints and crashes in Toyota vehicle compares to that of other major automakers.

Lentz said he is confident that resolving this issue and the floor mat entrapment problem will solve the problem for Toyota. The automaker has also said it is making "brake override" -- a system that cuts engine power to the wheels as soon as the brake pedal is pressed -- standard equipment on all of its cars.

The "brake override" software will also be added to the internal computers on some cars as they are brought in for recall repairs, a Toyota spokesman said.

Lentz promised, however, that Toyota will continue to be alert for issues with unintended acceleration.

"We will still be vigilant and keep our eyes and ears open down the road," he said.

-- CNNMoney.com's senior writer Peter Valdes-Dapena contributed to this report.

2009's Top 5 Data Disasters Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld

2010-01-20T21:56:00.000-08:00

If there was anything even vaguely comforting about the data breaches that were announced this year, it was that many of them stemmed fsecurity
Artwork: Chip Taylor
rom familiar and downright mundane security failures.

Companies continued to be felled more by usual issues such as lost laptops, unpatched or poorly coded software, inadvertent disclosures and rogue insiders, rather than by sneaky new attack techniques or devastating new hacker tools.

Here's a look back at five of the more notable breaches of the year:
TSA: Lessons in Redaction

In what must arguably rank as one of the biggest security gaffes of this year, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) accidentally posted on a public Web site a manual that contained complete details on its airport screening procedures.

The TSA manual included details for screening passengers, checking for explosives devices, special rules for handling the CIA, diplomats and law enforcement officials, and the technical settings and tolerances used by metal and explosive detectors used at airports.

The leak occurred when an improperly redacted TSA Standard Operations Procedures manual was posted on a federal Web site as part of a a contract bid solicitation process. Lawmakers called the gaffe "shocking" and "reckless," as wells as a threat to national security.
Heartland Payment Systems: Breach Poster Child

Heartland makes the list simply by virtue of the spectacular size and scope of the data breach it disclosed in January.

The compromise stemmed from SQL injection errors that allowed hackers to break into the payment processor's networks and steal data on approximately 130 million credit and debit cards over several months.

That number easily eclipsed the 94 million or so cards that were believed to have been compromised in the hack at TJX Companies Inc in 2007. It gave Heartland the dubious distinction of having announced the largest ever data breach in history.
Health Net: Delayed Disclosure

It was bad enough that Health Net of the Northeast Inc. lost a hard drive containing seven years worth of unencrypted personal, financial and medical information on about 1.5 million customers. What made the loss worse was that the company did not disclose it for nearly six months after the drive went missing.

Along with medical records, the hard drive contained names, addresses and Social Security numbers of Health Net customers from Arizona, Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York.

A new healthcare breach notification law that went into effect in November is designed to force companies to disclose such breaches sooner. But few are likely to do so because of a controversial "harm threshold" clause entered into the bill at the last moment.
U.S. GPO: Sharing Nuclear Secrets

In an incident highlighting some of the dangers of the push to open government, a document containing sensitive details on U.S. civilian nuclear sitesmarked as "Highly Confidential Safeguards Sensitive," by the President ended up being publicly posted on the Government Printing Office's Web site.

The document contained detailed information on hundreds of civilian nuclear sites in the country, including those storing enriched uranium. It listed details on programs at nuclear weapons research labs at Los Alamos, Livermore and Sandia and may have been posted because of differences in the way government agencies classify and handle official documents.
RockYou: Storing 32 Million Passwords in Plain Text

Social networking application vendor RockYou Inc. became a virtual shoo-in to this list earlier this week after a data breach exposed usernames and passwords for over 32 million registered members.

While the number alone make the breach noteworthy, what makes it even more so was the fact that RockYou kept all of the passwords in plain text.

Since RockYou requires users to register with their Webmail addresses, the hacker behind the breach now has data that allows access to millions of Webmail accounts (unless the users change them).

With a growing number of crooks trying to steal legitimate credentials to break into all sorts of online accounts, RockYou's failure to take even a basic precaution such as hashing passwords was notable to say the least.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/185176/2009s_top_5_data_disasters.html

My Childhood-Michael Jackson

2009-06-27T17:55:00.000-07:00

I’m sad, but not that sad, about Michael Jackson’s death. To me, it seemed like he’d passed from us a long time ago. The Kane of Pop had long since retreated into his isolated Xanadu, a bubble that not even massive debt, legal ordeals, and endless tabloid scandal could penetrate. His chart-topping years as the world’s favorite entertainer had long since segued into self-inflicted freakishness and cultural irrelevance. When he announced in March a long-running comeback engagement in London scheduled to start in July, his reappearance seemed that of a vampire or a ghost, hovering on the fringes of fame, hoping to drain one last bit of energy from a pop world that he had helped create but which had long since abandoned him to the wax museum.

But, oh, to think of him back then, back when he was remaking both music and television in his image, via the singles and videos from Thriller. The man’s ubiquity was rivaled only by that of the Beatles and his one-time father-in-law Elvis in their day. Lots of mourners have referred to Jackson’s music as the soundtrack of their youth, but in his case, it’s not a metaphor. For about two years in the early ’80s, you couldn’t turn on a radio anywhere in the world without hearing a snippet of a single from Thriller. (How cruel that Farrah Fawcett should die on the same day; if Jackson’s music was the soundtrack to our youth, Fawcett’s poster was the wallpaper.) It was a rare moment of cultural unity, one of the last ones before cable TV, the Internet, and the culture wars fragmented us into a billion different niche audiences. As Lester Bangs noted when Elvis died, what we’re mourning is not really the loss of the man or the artist (like the King of Pop, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll had long since become a reclusive travesty of his former self by the time of his early death), but rather, the loss of our childhood, and the loss of our connection to each other.

With regard to Jackson, that loss is one I felt more profoundly about four years ago, when I was covering his 2005 molestation trial for Entertainment Weekly. The whole experience was thoroughly depressing, and I knew, even as the acquittal came down, that his career was all but over. I didn’t know whether what he’d done was monstrous and criminal or just horribly inappropriate, only that a boy’s life was ruined, but so was Jackson’s. For a long time after that, I couldn’t help but be moved to tears whenever I heard once innocuous-sounding Jackson 5 songs like “I Want You Back” or “ABC.” What had become of the brilliant child (pictured, in 1974), his voice full of joy and uncanny maturity, who had sung those songs? How had he managed to squander lifetimes of talent to become the wreck he was now, a fall so epic it had taken untold innocent bystanders along with him? What a waste of artistry and good will.

Today, everyone seems to feel that way about the horror of Jackson’s final years, tempered with admiration for the sheer elation he once provided. Soon, we’ll have the autopsy and toxicology reports, and soon the legal battles will begin over what’s left of his fortune, and soon his children will be thrust unwillingly into the spotlight as forces beyond their control decide their futures. And the arguments will begin again over what kind of man he really was and what his legacy really is. But for now, we’re all awestruck fans again, marveling once more at his unearthly gifts. In our grief over his lost youth, his lost potential (and over our own), Jackson has united us once again, perhaps for the last time. So, to paraphrase Bangs, I will not say goodbye to Michael Jackson (especially since, like Elvis, he’s never really going to relinquish the stage). Instead, I will say goodbye to you.

Michael Jackson

2009-06-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

Life and career

1958–1975: Early life and The Jackson 5

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana (an industrial suburb of Chicago, Illinois) to a working-class family on August 29, 1958.[6] The son of African-American parents Joseph Walter "Joe" Jackson and Katherine Esther (née Scruse),[6] he was the seventh of nine children. His siblings are Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Randy and Janet.[6] Joseph Jackson was a steel mill employee who often performed in an R&B band called The Falcons with his brother Luther. Jackson was raised as a Jehovah's Witness by his devout mother.[6]

Jackson claimed that he was physically and emotionally abused by his father from a young age, enduring incessant rehearsals, whippings and name-calling, but also contends that his father was a strict disciplinarian that played a large part in his success. [7][8] In one altercation—later recalled by Marlon Jackson—Joseph held Michael upside down by one leg and "pummeled him over and over again with his hand, hitting him on his back and buttocks".[9] Joseph would also trip up, or push his male children into walls. One night while Jackson was asleep, Joseph climbed into his room through the bedroom window. Wearing a fright mask, he entered the room screaming and shouting. Joseph said he wanted to teach his children not to leave the window open when they went to sleep. For years afterwards, Jackson suffered nightmares about being kidnapped from his bedroom.[9]

Jackson first spoke openly about his childhood abuse in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey. He said that during his childhood he often cried from loneliness and would sometimes get sick or start to vomit upon seeing his father.[10][11][12][13] In Jackson's other high profile interview, Living with Michael Jackson (2003), the singer covered his face with his hand and began crying when talking about his childhood abuse.[9] Jackson recalled that Joseph sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed and that "if you didn't do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you".[14]

Jackson showed musical talent early in his life, performing in front of classmates and others during a Christmas recital at the age of five.[6] In 1964, Jackson and Marlon joined the Jackson Brothers—a band formed by brothers Jackie, Tito and Jermaine—as backup musicians playing congas and tambourine, respectively. Jackson later began performing backup vocals and dancing; at the age of eight, he and Jermaine assumed lead vocals, and the group's name was changed to The Jackson 5.[6] The band toured the Midwest extensively from 1966 to 1968. The band frequently performed at a string of black clubs and venues collectively known as the "chitlin' circuit", where they often opened for stripteases and other adult acts. In 1966, they won a major local talent show with renditions of Motown hits and James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)", led by Michael.[15]

The Jackson 5 recorded several songs, including "Big Boy", for the local record label Steeltown in 1967 and signed with Motown Records in 1968.[6] Rolling Stone magazine later described the young Michael as "a prodigy" with "overwhelming musical gifts", noting that Michael "quickly emerged as the main draw and lead singer" after he began to dance and sing with his brothers.[16] Though Michael sang with a "child's piping voice, he danced like a grown-up hoofer and sang with the R&B/gospel inflections of Sam Cooke, James Brown, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder".[16] The group set a chart record when its first four singles ("I Want You Back", "ABC", "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There") peaked at number one on the Billboard Hot 100.[6] During The Jackson 5's early years, Motown's public relations team claimed that Jackson was nine years old—two years younger than he actually was—to make him appear cuter and more accessible to the mainstream audience.[17] Starting in 1972, Jackson released a total of four solo studio albums with Motown, among them Got to Be There and Ben. These were released as part of the Jackson 5 franchise, and produced successful singles such as "Got to Be There", "Ben" and a remake of Bobby Day's "Rockin' Robin". The group's sales began declining in 1973, and the band members chafed under Motown's strict refusal to allow them creative control or input.[18] Although the group scored several top 40 hits, including the top 5 disco single "Dancing Machine" and the top 20 hit "I Am Love", the Jackson 5 left Motown in 1975.[18]

1975–1981: Move to Epic and Off the Wall

The Jackson 5 signed a new contract with CBS Records in June 1975, joining the Philadelphia International Records division, later Epic Records.[18] As a result of legal proceedings, the group was renamed The Jacksons.[19] After the name change, the band continued to tour internationally, releasing six more albums between 1976 and 1984. From 1976 to 1984, Michael Jackson was the lead songwriter of the group, writing hits such as "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", "This Place Hotel" and "Can You Feel It".[15]

In 1978, Jackson starred as Scarecrow in the musical The Wiz.[20] The musical scores were arranged by Quincy Jones, who formed a partnership with Jackson during the film's production and agreed to produce the singer's next solo album, Off the Wall.[21] In 1979, Jackson broke his nose during a complex dance routine. His subsequent rhinoplasty surgery was not a complete success; he complained of breathing difficulties that would affect his career. He was referred to Dr. Steven Hoefflin, who performed Jackson's second rhinoplasty and other subsequent operations.[22]

Jones and Jackson jointly produced Off the Wall. Songwriters included Jackson, Heatwave's Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney. Released in 1979, it was the first album to generate four US top 10 hits, including the chart-topping singles "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You".[23] Off the Wall reached number three on the Billboard 200 and has since been certified for 7 million shipments in the US and eventually sold over 20 million copies worldwide.[24][25] In 1980, Jackson won three awards at the American Music Awards for his solo efforts: Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist and Favorite Soul/R&B Single for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".[23] That year, he also won Billboard Music Awards for Top Black Artist and Top Black Album and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough").[23] Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt Off the Wall should have made a much bigger impact, and was determined to exceed expectations with his next release.[26] In 1980, Jackson secured the highest royalty rate in the music industry: 37% of wholesale album profit.[27]

1982–85: Thriller, Motown 25, We Are the World and business career

After Jackson's early 1982 contribution, "Someone In the Dark", to the blockbuster film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which nabbed him a Grammy for Best Album for Children,[28] Epic issued his second album, Thriller. In what would turn out to be the apex of his career, the album remained in the top 10 of the Billboard 200 for 80 consecutive weeks, 37 at the peak. Seven singles from Thriller concurrently hit the Billboard Hot 100 top 10, including "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".[29] Thriller went on to sell upwards of 109 million copies, making it the best-selling album of all time,[30][31][3][32] causing Jackson biographer J. Randy Taraborrelli to muse that "at some point, Thriller stopped selling like a leisure item—like a magazine, a toy, tickets to a hit movie—and started selling like a household staple."[33]

The period of Thriller was an extraordinarily lucrative one for Jackson, whose lawyer John Branca had negotiated what he boasted then as the highest royalty rate ever in the music industry, approximately $2 per album. Meanwhile, Jackson raked in profits from The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller, a documentary by Jackson and John Landis which quickly sold over 350,000 copies. In addition, he began profiting from his image in earnest, as Michael Jackson dolls and other novelties hit the market.[34]
MichaelJacksonMoonwalk.ogg
Play video
Jackson moonwalks during his performance on Motown 25

Beyond its record-breaking success among fans, Thriller instituted multiple changes within the music industry. One, it raised the importance of albums, while challenging notions about how many prospective hits an album should contain.[35] Two, it restored to the industry a sense of confidence in its ability to release high-level artistry during a time when profits had been sinking due to what one industry analyst called "the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop".[34] Three, it helped bring MTV into its heyday, even as MTV helped fuel Thriller's success. Four, Thriller paved the way for other well-profitable acts such as Prince.[36] In the end, in many ways, Jackson had become a one-man rescue team for the music business.[37] At its 25th anniversary, Thriller retained important influence over the music industry, artists, and American culture.[33]

On March 25, 1983, he performed live on the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special, both with The Jackson 5 and on his own singing "Billie Jean". Debuting his signature dance move—the moonwalk—his performances during the event were seen by 47 million viewers during its initial airing, and drew comparisons to Elvis Presley's and the The Beatles' appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.[38] The New York Times said, "The moonwalk that he made famous is an apt metaphor for his dance style. How does he do it? As a technician, he is a great illusionist, a genuine mime. His ability to keep one leg straight as he glides while the other bends and seems to walk requires perfect timing".[39]

Jackson suffered a setback on January 27, 1984. While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, he suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire. Happening in front of a full house of fans during a simulated concert, the incident was the subject of heavy media scrutiny and elicited an outpouring of sympathy.[40] PepsiCo settled a lawsuit out of court, and Jackson gave his $1.5 million settlement to the Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, California, where he had been treated, allowing the hospital to acquire the best available technology for treating severe burns; Brotman subsequently renamed its burn ward "Michael Jackson Burn Center" in his honor.[40] Jackson had his third rhinoplasty shortly afterwards and grew self conscious about his appearance.[22]
Jackson at the White House South Portico with President Ronald Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan, 1984

On May 14, 1984, Jackson was invited to the White House to receive an award presented by U.S. President Ronald Reagan. The award was given for his support of charities that helped people overcome alcohol and drug abuse.[41] He won eight awards during the 1984 Grammys. Unlike later albums, Thriller did not have an official tour to promote it, but the 1984 Victory Tour, headlined by The Jacksons, showcased much of his new solo material to more than two million Americans.[42] He donated his $5 million share from the Victory Tour to charity.[43]

Jackson co-wrote the charity single "We Are the World" with Lionel Richie, which was released worldwide to aid the poor in Africa and the US. He was one of 39 music celebrities who performed on the record. The single became one of the best-selling singles of all time, with nearly 20 million copies sold and millions of dollars donated to famine relief.[44]

While working with Paul McCartney on the two hit singles "The Girl Is Mine" and "Say Say Say", the pair became friendly, occasionally visiting one another. In one discussion, McCartney told Jackson about the millions of dollars he had made from music catalogs; he was earning approximately $40 million a year from other people's songs. Jackson then began a business career buying, selling and distributing publishing rights to music from numerous artists. Shortly afterwards, ATV Songs—a music catalogue holding thousands of songs, including most of the songs written by Lennon-McCartney between 1963-1973—was put up for sale.[45][46]

Jackson took immediate interest in the catalog but was warned that he would face strong competition. Excited, he skipped around saying, "I don't care. I want those songs. Get me those songs Branca [his attorney]". Branca then contacted the attorney of McCartney, who clarified that his client was not interested in bidding; "It's too pricey". After Jackson had started negotiations, McCartney changed his mind and tried to persuade Yoko Ono to join him in a joint bid, she declined, so he pulled out. Jackson eventually beat the rest of the competition in negotiations that lasted 10 months, purchasing the catalog for $47.5 million. When McCartney found out he said, "I think it's dodgy to do things like that. To be someone's friend and then buy the rug they're standing on". [45][47]

1986–1990: Tabloids, appearance, Bad, autobiography and films
See also: Michael Jackson's health and appearance

In 1986, the tabloid press ran a story claiming that Jackson slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to slow the aging process; he was pictured lying down in a glass box. Although the claim was untrue, Jackson disseminated the fabricated story himself. The singer was promoting his upcoming movie Captain EO and wanted to promote a science fiction image of himself.[48][49] Jackson had a fourth rhinoplasty and, wanting masculine features, had a cleft put in his chin.[22] Then he starred in the Francis Ford Coppola-directed 3-D film Captain EO. It was the most expensive film produced on a per-minute basis at the time, and was later hosted in Disney theme parks. Disneyland featured the film in its Tomorrowland area for nearly 11 years, while Walt Disney World screened the film in its Epcot theme park from 1986 to 1994.[50]
Jackson two years after he was diagnosed with vitiligo, here in the early stages of the disease

Jackson bought and befriended a pet chimpanzee called Bubbles, an act which extended his eccentric persona. In 2003, the singer claimed that Bubbles shared his toilet and cleaned his bedroom.[49] Later it was reported that Jackson bought the bones of The Elephant Man. Although untrue, it was a story that Jackson again disseminated to the tabloid press.[48][49] These stories inspired the pejorative nickname "Wacko Jacko", which Jackson acquired the following year. He would eventually come to despise the nickname. Realizing his mistake, he stopped leaking untruths to the press. However due to the profit being made, the media began making up their own stories.[49][51]

Jackson's skin was a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, but starting in the early 1980s, his skin gradually grew paler. This change gained widespread media coverage, including rumors that Jackson was bleaching his skin.[10] In the mid-1980s, Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo and lupus; the latter was in remission in Jackson's case, and both illnesses made him sensitive to sunlight. The treatments he used for his condition further lightened his skin tone, and, with the application of pancake makeup to even out blotches, he could appear very pale.[52] The structure of his face changed as well; several surgeons have speculated that Jackson had undergone multiple nasal surgeries, a forehead lift, thinned lips and a cheekbone surgery.[53] Changes to his face were, in part, due to periods of significant weight loss.[19] Jackson lost weight in the early 1980s because of a change in diet and a desire for "a dancer's body".[54] Witnesses reported that Jackson was often dizzy and speculated that he was suffering from anorexia nervosa; periods of weight loss would become a recurring problem for the singer later in life.[55] Some medical professionals have publicly stated their belief that the singer had body dysmorphic disorder, a psychological condition whereby the sufferer has no concept of how he is perceived by others.[52]

"Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, 'I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight,' people would say, 'Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth.'"[56]
—Michael Jackson

With the industry expecting another major hit, Jackson's first album in five years, Bad (1987), was highly anticipated.[57] Bad had lower sales than Thriller, but was still a substantial commercial success. In the US, it spawned seven hit singles, five of which ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror" and "Dirty Diana") reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, more than any other album.[58] As of 2008, the album sold 30 million copies worldwide, including eight million shipments in the US.[25][59]
Jackson wore a gold-plated military style jacket with belt in the Bad era.

The Bad World Tour began on September 12, 1987, and finished on January 14, 1989.[60] In Japan alone, the tour had 14 sellouts and drew 570,000 people, nearly tripling the previous record of 200,000 in a single tour.[61] Jackson broke a Guinness World Record when 504,000 people attended seven sold-out shows at Wembley Stadium. He performed a total of 123 concerts to a total audience of 4.4 million people, and gained a further Guinness World Record when the tour grossed him $125 million. During the trip he invited underprivileged children to watch for free and gave donations to hospitals, orphanages and other charities.[60]

In 1988, Jackson released his first autobiography, Moon Walk, which took four years to complete. Jackson told of his childhood, his experience in The Jackson 5 and the abuse he suffered as a child.[62] He also spoke of his plastic surgery, saying he had two rhinoplastic surgeries and the surgical creation of a cleft in his chin.[54] In the book, he attributed the change in the structure of his face to puberty, weight loss, a strict vegetarian diet, a change in hair style and stage lighting.[54] Moonwalk reached the top position on The New York Times best sellers' list.[63] The musician then released a film called Moonwalker, which featured live footage, music videos, and a feature film that starred Jackson and Joe Pesci. Moonwalker debuted atop the Billboard Top Music Video Cassette chart, staying there for 22 weeks. It was eventually knocked off the top spot by Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues.[64]

In March 1988, Jackson purchased land near Santa Ynez, California to build Neverland Ranch at a cost of $17 million. The 2,700-acre (11 km2) property had Ferris wheels, a menagerie, and a movie theater. A security staff of 40 patrolled the grounds. In 2003, the property was valued at approximately $100 million.[16][65] In 1989, his annual earnings from album sales, endorsements, and concerts was estimated at $125 million for that year alone.[66] Shortly afterwards, Jackson became the first Westerner to appear in a television ad for Russia.[64]

Jackson's success resulted in his being dubbed the "King of Pop", a nickname conceived by actress and friend Elizabeth Taylor when she presented Jackson with an "Artist of the Decade" award in 1989, proclaiming him "the true king of pop, rock and soul".[67][68] President George H. W. Bush presented the singer with The White House's special "Artist of the Decade" award in recognition of Jackson's musical influence in the 1980s; Bush commended Jackson for acquiring a "tremendous following" among other achievements.[69] From 1985 to 1990, Jackson donated $500,000 to the United Negro College Fund, and all of the profits from his single "Man in the Mirror" went to charity.[70][71]

Jackson's live rendition of "You Were There" at Sammy Davis Jr.'s 60th birthday celebration received an Emmy nomination.[64]

1991–93: Dangerous and Super Bowl XXVII

In March 1991, Jackson renewed his contract with Sony for $65 million; a record breaking deal at the time, displacing Neil Diamond's renewal contract with Columbia Records.[65] Jackson released his eighth album Dangerous in 1991. As of 2008, Dangerous has shipped 7 million copies in the US and has sold 32 million copies worldwide; it is the most successful New Jack Swing album of all time.[25][72][73] In the US, the album's first single "Black or White" was the album's biggest hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and remaining there for seven weeks, with similar chart performances worldwide.[74] The album's second single "Remember the Time" spent eight weeks in the top five in the US, peaking at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.[75] In 1993, Jackson performed the song at the Soul Train Awards in a wheelchair, saying he had suffered an injury in rehearsals.[76] In the UK and other parts of Europe, "Heal the World" was the biggest hit from the album; it sold 450,000 copies in the UK and spent five weeks at number two in 1992.[75]

Jackson founded the "Heal the World Foundation" in 1992. The charity organization brought underprivileged children to Jackson's ranch, to go on theme park rides that Jackson had built on the property after he purchased it. The foundation also sent millions of dollars around the globe to help children threatened by war and disease. The Dangerous World Tour began on June 27, 1992, and finished on November 11, 1993. Jackson performed to 3.5 million people in 67 concerts. All profits from the concerts went to the "Heal the World Foundation", raising millions of dollars in relief.[75][77] He sold the broadcast rights to his Dangerous world tour to HBO for $20 million, a record-breaking deal that still stands.[78] Following the illness and death of Ryan White, Jackson helped draw public attention to HIV/AIDS, something that was still controversial at the time. He publicly pleaded with the Clinton Administration at Bill Clinton's Inaugural Gala to give more money to HIV/AIDS charities and research.[79][80]

In a high-profile visit to Africa, Jackson visited several countries, among them Gabon and Egypt.[81] His first stop to Gabon was greeted with a sizable reception of more than 100,000 people in "spiritual bedlam", some of them carrying signs that read, "Welcome Home Michael".[81] In his trip to the Ivory Coast, Jackson was crowned "King Sani" by a tribal chief.[81] He then thanked the dignitaries in French and English, signed official documents formalizing his kingship and sat on a golden throne while presiding over ceremonial dances.[81]

One of Jackson's most acclaimed performances came during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII. As the performances began, Jackson was catapulted onto the stage as fireworks went off behind him. As he landed on the canvass, he maintained a motionless "clenched fist, standing statue stance", dressed in a gold and black military outfit and sunglasses; he remained completely motionless for several minutes while the crowd cheered. He then slowly removed his sunglasses, threw them away and began to sing and dance. His routine included four songs: "Jam", "Billie Jean", "Black or White" and "Heal the World". It was the first Super Bowl where the audience figures increased during the half-time show, and was viewed by 135 million Americans alone; Jackson's Dangerous album rose 90 places up the album chart.[10]

Jackson was given the "Living Legend Award" at the 35th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. "Black or White" was Grammy nominated for best vocal performance. "Jam" gained two nominations: Best R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song.[75]

1993–94: Sexual abuse accusations and marriage
Main article: 1993 child sexual abuse accusations against Michael Jackson

Jackson gave a 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey in February 1993, his first television interview since 1979. He grimaced when speaking of his childhood abuse at the hands of his father; he believed he had missed out on much of his childhood years, admitting that he often cried from loneliness. He denied previous tabloid rumors that he bought the bones of the Elephant Man or slept in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. The entertainer went on to dispel suggestions that he bleached his skin, stating for the first time that he had vitiligo. The interview was watched by 90 million Americans, becoming the fourth most-viewed non-sport program in US history. It also started a public debate on the topic of vitiligo, a relatively unknown condition before then. Dangerous re-entered the album chart top 10, more than a year after its original release.[10][11][75]

Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by a 13-year-old child named Jordan Chandler and his father Evan Chandler.[82] The friendship between Jackson and Evan Chandler broke down. Sometime afterwards, Evan Chandler was tape-recorded saying amongst other things, "If I go through with this, I win big-time. There's no way I lose. I will get everything I want and they will be destroyed forever...Michael's career will be over".[83] A year after they had met, under the influence of sodium amytal, a controversial sedative, Jordan Chandler told his father that Jackson had touched his penis.[84] Evan Chandler and Jackson, represented by their legal teams, then engaged in unsuccessful negotiations to resolve the issue in a financial settlement; the negotiations were initiated by Chandler but Jackson did make several counter offers. Jordan Chandler then told a psychiatrist and later police that he and Jackson had engaged in acts of kissing, masturbation and oral sex, as well as giving a detailed description of what he alleged were the singer's genitals.[85]

An official investigation began, with Jordan Chandler's mother adamant that there was no wrongdoing on Jackson's part. Neverland Ranch was searched; multiple children and family members denied that he was a pedophile.[85] Jackson's image took a further turn for the worse when his older sister La Toya Jackson accused him of being a pedophile, a statement she later retracted.[86] Jackson agreed to a 25-minute strip search, conducted at his ranch. The search was required to see if a description provided by Jordan Chandler was accurate. Doctors concluded that there were some strong similarities, but it was not a definitive match.[86] Jackson made an emotional public statement on the events; he proclaimed his innocence, criticized what he perceived as biased media coverage and told of his strip search.[82]

Jackson began taking painkillers, Valium, Xanax and Ativan to deal with the stress of the allegations made against him. By the fall of 1993, Jackson was addicted to the drugs.[87] His health deteriorated to the extent that he canceled the remainder of the Dangerous World Tour and went into drug rehabilitation for a few months.[88] The stress of the allegations also caused Jackson to stop eating, and he lost a significant amount of weight.[89] With his health in decline, Jackson's friends and legal advisers took over his defense and finances; they called on him to settle the allegations out of court, believing that he could not endure a lengthy trial.[88][89]

Tabloid reaction to the allegations put Jackson in an unfavorable light.[90] Complaints about the coverage and media included everything from bias against Jackson, accepting stories of alleged criminal activity for money to accepting confidential leaked material from the police investigation in return for money paid.[91] On January 1, 1994, Jackson settled with the Chandler family and their legal team out of court, in a civil lawsuit for $22 million. After the settlement Jordan Chandler refused to continue with police regarding criminal proceedings. Jackson was never charged, and the state closed its criminal investigation, citing lack of evidence.[92]

In May 1994, Jackson married singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley. They had first met in 1975 during one of Jackson's family engagements at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, and were reconnected through a mutual friend in early 1993.[90] They stayed in contact every day over the telephone. As child molestation accusations became public, Jackson became dependent on Lisa Marie for emotional support; she was concerned about his faltering health and addiction to drugs.[87] Lisa Marie explained, "I believed he didn't do anything wrong and that he was wrongly accused and yes I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it."[93] In a phone call he made to her, she described him as high, incoherent and delusional.[87] Shortly afterwards, she tried to persuade Jackson to settle the allegations out of court and go into rehabilitation to recover—he subsequently did both.[87] Jackson proposed to Lisa Marie over the telephone towards the fall of 1993, saying, "If I asked you to marry me, would you do it?".[87] Presley and Jackson married in the Dominican Republic in secrecy; the parties denied they had been married for nearly two months.[94] The marriage was, in her words, "a married couple's life ... that was sexually active".[95] At the time, the tabloid media speculated that the wedding was a ploy to prop up Jackson's public image in light of prior sexual abuse allegations.[94] Jackson and Presley divorced less than two years later, remaining friendly.[96]

1995–99: HIStory, second marriage and fatherhood
One of many identical statues, positioned throughout Europe to promote HIStory. The statue illustrates the singer's flamboyant clothing and hair style, influenced by military imagery.

In 1995, Jackson merged his Northern Songs catalog with Sony's publishing division creating Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Jackson retained half-ownership of the company, earned $95 million upfront as well as the rights to even more songs.[46][97] He then released the double album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. The first disc, HIStory Begins, was a 15-track greatest hits album, and was later reissued as Greatest Hits – HIStory Vol. I in 2001, the second disc, HIStory Continues, contained 15 new songs. The album debuted at number one on the charts and has been certified for seven million shipments in the US.[98] It is the best-selling multiple-disc album of all-time, with 20 million copies (40 million units) sold worldwide.[74][99] HIStory received a Grammy nomination for best album.[100]

The first single released from the album was the double A-side "Scream/Childhood". "Scream" was a duet, sung and performed with Jackson's youngest sister Janet. The single had the highest debut on the Billboard Hot 100 at number five, and received a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals".[100] "You Are Not Alone" was the second single released from HIStory; it holds the Guinness World Record for the first song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[66] It was seen as a major artistic and commercial success, receiving a Grammy nomination for "Best Pop Vocal Performance".[100] In late 1995, Jackson was rushed to a hospital after collapsing during rehearsals for a televised performance; the incident was caused by a stress related panic attack.[101] "Earth Song" was the third single released from HIStory, and topped the UK singles chart for six weeks over Christmas 1995; it sold a million copies, making it Jackson's most successful single in the UK.[100]

In early 1996, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a press release charging Jackson with antisemitism regarding lyrics in the song "They Don't Care About Us", the fourth single from HIStory.[102] The song had originally been recorded with lyrics that included the phrase "Jew me, sue me", and "Kick me, kike me". The ADL complained and Jackson responded by saying he would re-record the lyrics before the album went into production. However the ADL's press release charged that Jackson had performed the song live and included the lyrics in question during the live performance.[102] The dispute over the lyrics upset long-time Jackson friend Steven Spielberg, who considered the song anti-semitic [103]

The HIStory World Tour began on September 7, 1996, and finished on October 15, 1997. Jackson performed 82 concerts in 58 cities to over 4.5 million fans. The show, which visited 5 continents and 35 countries, became Jackson's most successful in terms of audience figures.[60] During the Australian leg of the HIStory World Tour, Jackson married dermatologist nurse Deborah Jeanne Rowe, with whom he fathered a son, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. (also known as "Prince"), and a daughter, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson.[96][104] The pair first met in the mid-1980s, when Jackson was diagnosed with vitiligo. She spent many years treating his illness as well as providing emotional support. They built a strong friendship, then became romantically involved.[105] Originally there were no plans to marry, but following Rowe's first pregnancy, Jackson's mother intervened and persuaded them to do so.[106] After the couple divorced in 1999, with Rowe giving full custody rights of the children to Jackson, they remained friends.[107]

In 1997, Jackson released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, which contained remixes of hit singles from HIStory and five new songs. Worldwide sales stand at 6 million copies as of 2007, making it one of the best selling remix albums ever released. It reached number one in the UK, as did the title track.[108][109] In the US, the album was certified platinum, but only reached number 24.[25][100] Forbes placed his annual income at $35 million in 1996 and $20 million in 1997.[65]

Throughout June 1999, Jackson was involved in a number of charitable events. He joined Luciano Pavarotti for a benefit concert in Modena, Italy. The show was in support of the non-profit organization Warchild, and raised a million dollars for the refugees of Kosovo, as well as additional funds for the children of Guatemala.[110] Later that month, Jackson organized a set of "Michael Jackson & Friends" benefit concerts in Germany and Korea. Other artists involved included Slash, The Scorpions, Boyz II Men, Luther Vandross, Mariah Carey, A. R. Rahman, Prabhu Deva Sundaram, Shobana Chandrakumar, Andrea Bocelli and Luciano Pavarotti. The proceeds went to the "Nelson Mandela Children's Fund", the Red Cross and UNESCO.[111]

2000–02: Label dispute, Invincible and third child

In 2000, Jackson was listed in the book of Guinness World Records for his support of 39 charities, more than any other entertainer or personality.[112] At the time, Jackson was waiting for the licenses to the masters of his albums to revert to him; this allowed him to promote his old material how he liked and prevented Sony from getting a cut of the profit. Jackson expected this to occur early in the new millennium, however, due to the fine print and various clauses in the contract, this revert date is still many years away. Jackson began an investigation, and it emerged that the attorney who represented the singer in the deal was also representing Sony, creating a conflict of interest.[109] Jackson was also concerned about another conflict of interest. For a number of years, Sony had been pushing to buy all of Jackson's share in their music catalog venture. If Jackson's career or financial situation were to deteriorate, he would have to sell his catalog. Thus, Sony had something to gain from Jackson's career failing.[113] Jackson was able to use these conflicts as leverage to exit his contract early.[109] Just before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed the head of Sony Music Entertainment, Tommy Mottola, that he was leaving Sony.[109] As a result, all singles releases, video shootings and promotions concerning the Invincible album were canceled. Jackson made allegations in July 2002 that Mottola was a "devil" and a "racist" who did not support his African-American artists, using them merely for his own personal gain.[109] He charged that Mottola had called his colleague Irv Gotti a "fat nigger".[114] Sony disputed claims that they had failed to promote Invincible with sufficient energy, maintaining that Jackson refused to tour in the US.[115]

Six years after his last studio album and after spending much of the late 1990s out of the public eye, Jackson released Invincible in October 2001 to much anticipation. To help promote the album, a special 30th Anniversary celebration at Madison Square Garden occurred in September 2001 to mark the singer's 30th year as a solo artist. Jackson appeared onstage alongside his brothers for the first time since 1984.[116] The show also featured performances by Mýa, Usher, Whitney Houston, 'N Sync, and Slash, among other artists.[30] In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Jackson helped organize the United We Stand: What More Can I Give benefit concert at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The concert was aired on October 21, 2001, and included performances from dozens of major artists, including Jackson, who performed his song "What More Can I Give" as the finale.[113] Invincible was a commercial success, debuting atop the charts in 13 countries and going on to sell approximately 10 million copies worldwide. It received double-platinum certification in the US.[25][74][113] However, the sales for Invincible were notably low compared to his previous releases, due in part to a diminishing pop music industry, the lack of promotion, no supporting world tour and the label dispute.[113] The album spawned three singles, "You Rock My World", "Cry" and "Butterflies", the latter without a music video.

Jackson's third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (also known as Blanket) was born in 2002.[117] The mother's identity was never released by Jackson, but he has said the child was the result of artificial insemination from a surrogate mother and his own sperm cells.[107] In November of that year, Jackson brought his new born son onto the balcony of his hotel room in Berlin, as fans stood below. Holding him in his right arm, with a cloth loosely draped over the baby's face, Jackson briefly extended the baby over the railing of the balcony, four stories above ground level, causing widespread criticism in the media. Jackson later apologized for the incident, calling it "a terrible mistake".[118]

2003–07: Documentary, trial and business ventures

In 2003, Sony put out a compilation of Jackson's hits on CD and DVD. In the US, the album peaked at number 13 and was certified platinum by the RIAA; in the UK it was certified for shipments of at least 1.2 million units.[25][119] In a Granada Television documentary titled Living with Michael Jackson, the singer was seen holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with Gavin Arvizo, who would later accuse him of child sexual abuse.[120] In the same documentary Jackson was observed spending large amounts of money in an apparently frivolous manner, when he spent $6 million in a single store.[65] Shortly after the documentary aired, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child sexual abuse and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent in order to commit that felony; all charges regarded the same boy, Gavin Arvizo, who was under 14 at the time of the alleged crime.[120]
Fans showing their support for Jackson after the entertainer is accused of child molestation in 2003

Jackson denied the sexual abuse allegations, saying that the sleepovers were in no way sexual in nature. Jackson's friend Elizabeth Taylor defended him on Larry King Live, saying that she had been there when they "were in the bed, watching television. There was nothing abnormal about it. There was no touchy-feely going on. We laughed like children and we watched a lot of Walt Disney. There was nothing odd about it."[121] During the investigation, Jackson's profile was examined by mental health professional Dr. Stan Katz; the doctor spent several hours with the accuser too. The assessment made by Katz was that Jackson had become a regressed 10-year-old and did not fit the profile of a pedophile.[122]

The People v. Jackson trial began in Santa Maria, California, two years after Jackson was originally charged. During this period the singer became dependent on morphine and Demerol, a dependency which he subsequently overcame. He also suffered from stress-related illnesses and severe weight loss, that would alter his appearance. The trial lasted five months, until the end of May 2005, he was acquitted on all counts.[123][124][125] Jackson then relocated to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain as a guest of Sheikh Abdullah.[126]

Sony BMG released Visionary: The Video Singles to the European market: a series of 20 of his biggest hit singles of the 1980s and 1990s. Each single was issued weekly over a five-month period in DualDisc format (DVD video on one side, CD audio on the other), and the whole group of discs was made available as a boxed set afterwards.[127] The box set was released in the US on November 14, 2006.[128]

Reports of financial problems for Jackson became frequent in 2006 after the closure of the main house on the Neverland Ranch as a cost-cutting measure.[129] One prominent financial issue for him concerned a $270 million loan secured against his music publishing holdings. After delayed repayments on the loan, a refinancing package shifted the loans from Bank of America to debt specialists Fortress Investments. A new package proposed by Sony would have had Jackson borrow an additional $300 million and reduce the interest rate payable on the loan, while giving Sony the future option to buy half of Jackson's stake in their jointly owned publishing company (leaving Jackson with a 25% stake).[97] Jackson agreed to a Sony-backed refinancing deal, although details were not made public.[130] Despite these loans, according to Forbes, Jackson was still making as much as $75 million a year from his publishing partnership with Sony alone.[131]

One of Jackson's first documented public appearances since his trial was in November 2006, when he visited the London office of the Guinness World Records. He received eight records, among them "First Entertainer to Earn More Than 100 Million Dollars in a Year" and "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time".[66] Jackson was awarded the Diamond Award on November 15, 2006, for selling over 100 million albums, at the World Music Awards.[74] Following the death of James Brown, Jackson returned to the US to pay his respects. He, along with more than 8,000 people, paid tribute during Brown's public funeral on December 30, 2006.[132] In late 2006, Jackson agreed to share joint custody of his first two children with ex-wife Debbie Rowe.[133] Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from Viacom in 2007. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira and Beck, among others.[134]

I've been in the entertainment industry since I was six-years-old... As Charles Dickens says, "It's been the best of times, the worst of times." But I would not change my career... While some have made deliberate attempts to hurt me, I take it in stride because I have a loving family, a strong faith and wonderful friends and fans who have, and continue, to support me.[135]
—Michael Jackson

2008–09: Milestones, real estate, planned return to live performance
Neverland Ranch was Jackson's permanent residence from 1988 to 2005. Pictured is an aerial shot of the theme park area of the property.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Thriller, Jackson issued Thriller 25, comprising original material from the album, re-mixes, the previously unreleased song "For All Time" and a DVD. Two singles were released to moderate success: "The Girl Is Mine 2008" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 2008". Thriller 25 was a commercial success, having done particularly well as a re-issue, peaking at number one in eight countries and Europe. It reached number three in the UK and top 10 on over 30 national charts.[136][137][138] It was ineligible for the Billboard 200 chart as a re-release, but entered atop the Pop Catalog chart, where it stayed for 11 non-consecutive weeks and had the best sales on that chart since December 1996.[139][140][141] In 12 weeks Thriller 25 sold over three million copies worldwide.[142] As of November 2008, US sales of Thriller 25 stood at 688,000 copies, making it the best-selling catalog album of 2008.[141]

On November 21, 2008, newspapers and news tabloids published that Jackson had converted to Islam at the Los Angeles home of Steve Porcaro, and in the presence of British musician Yusuf Islam (formerly known as Cat Stevens); however Jackson never confirmed these reports.[143][144][145][146][147][148][149][150] Other sources have suggested that he had converted earlier in 2007 when his brother Jermaine said he would convert to Islam, after Jackson became interested in the religion by requesting and reading books.[151][152]

To celebrate Jackson's 50th birthday, Sony BMG released a compilation album called King of Pop in various countries. These albums included tracks from Jackson's group and solo career, all voted for by fans. The albums had different tracklists, according to how the fans of each nation voted.[153][154] Although it was not released in the US, King of Pop did reach the top 10 in the vast majority of countries where it was issued. It also charted in other countries, albeit lower, from imported sales.[155][156]

Fortress Investments considered a foreclosure sale of Neverland Ranch to service a loan Jackson owed on the property, but ultimately sold the loan to Colony Capital LLC. In November, Jackson transferred the title of Neverland Ranch to Sycamore Valley Ranch Company LLC. At the time of his death, Jackson still owned an unknown stake in the property—Sycamore Valley Ranch was a joint venture between Jackson and Colony Capital LLC—the loan Jackson owed was cleared, he acquired $35 million in the venture.[157][158][159]

Jackson had been scheduled to perform 50 sold-out concerts to over one million people, at London's O2 arena, from July 13, 2009, to March 6, 2010. During a publicity press conference, he had made suggestions of possible retirement.[160] Randy Phillips, president and chief executive of AEG Live, had stated that the first 10 dates alone would have earned the singer approximately £50 million.[161] Phillips said that the promotion company had a three-and-a-half year plan to work with Jackson, including a possible world tour, the release of new music and a 3D film based on Jackson's groundbreaking album, song and music video, Thriller.[162]

In early 2009 it was reported that Michael Jackson arranged to give Paul McCartney the rights to the Beatles catalog through his will. A Jackson insider was quoted as saying, "Michael told his lawyers he was sad he no longer talks to Sir Paul and said he wanted to make things right." [163]

Death
Main article: Death of Michael Jackson

On June 25, 2009, Jackson collapsed at his rented mansion on North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles. Attempts at resuscitating him by his personal physician were unsuccessful.[164] Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics received a 911 call at 12:21 pm (PDT), and arrived three minutes and seventeen seconds later at Jackson's location.[165][166] He was reportedly not breathing and CPR was performed.[167] Resuscitation efforts continued both en route to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, and for an hour further after arriving at approximately 1:14 pm (20:14 UTC).[164] He was noted to have already been in cardiac arrest by the paramedics who attended his house.[167] Jackson was pronounced dead at approximately 2:26 pm local time (21:26 UTC).[168][169]

After four reported suicides over Jackson's death, the Jackson family issued the following statement:

In one of the darkest moments of our lives we find it hard to find the words appropriate to this sudden tragedy we all had to encounter. Our beloved son, brother and father of three children has gone so unexpectedly, in such a tragic way and much too soon. It leaves us, his family, speechless and devastated to a point, where communication with the outside world seems almost impossible at times.

We miss Michael endlessly, our pain cannot be described in words. But Michael would not want us to give up now. So we want to thank all of his faithful supporters and loyal fans worldwide, you – who Michael loved so much. Please do not despair, because Michael will continue to live on in each and every one of you. Continue to spread his message, because that is what he would want you to do. Carry on, so his legacy will live forever.[170]

Musical style and performance

Themes and genres

Steve Huey of Allmusic asserts that throughout his solo career, Jackson's versatility allowed him to experiment with various themes and genres.[171] As a musician, he ranged from Motown's dance fare and ballads to techno-edged new jack swing to work that incorporates both funk rhythms and hard rock guitar.[16] Unlike many artists, Jackson did not write his songs on paper. Instead he would dictate into a sound recorder; when recording he would sing from memory.[22][172] Several critics observed Off the Wall was crafted from funk, disco-pop, soul, soft rock, jazz and pop ballads.[171][173][174] Prominent examples include the ballad "She's out of My Life", and the two disco tunes "Workin' Day and Night" and "Get on the Floor".[173]

According to Huey, Thriller refined the strengths of Off the Wall; the dance and rock tracks were more aggressive, while the pop tunes and ballads were softer and more soulful.[171] Notable tracks included the ballads "The Lady in My Life", "Human Nature" and "The Girl Is Mine"; the funk pieces "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"; and the disco set "Baby Be Mine" and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)".[171][175][176][177] With Thriller, Christopher Connelly of Rolling Stone commented that Jackson developed his long association with the subliminal theme of paranoia and darker imagery.[177] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted this is evident on the songs "Billie Jean" and "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'".[176] In "Billie Jean", Jackson sings about an obsessive fan who alleges he has fathered a child of hers.[171] In "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" he argues against gossip and the media.[177] The anti-gang violence rock song "Beat It" became a homage to West Side Story, and was Jackson's first successful rock cross-over piece, according to Huey.[16][171] He also observed that the title track "Thriller" began Jackson's interest with the theme of the supernatural, a topic he revisited in subsequent years.[171] In 1985, Jackson wrote the charity anthem "We Are the World"; humanitarian themes later became a central component of his life and music.[171]

"Thriller"
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One of Jackson's signature pieces, "Thriller", released as a single in 1984, utilizes cinematic sound effects, horror film motifs and vocal trickery to convey a sense of danger in his work.[21]
"Smooth Criminal"
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One of Bad's signature pieces, released as a single in 1988, features digital drum sounds, keyboard-created bass lines and other percussion elements to give the impression of a pulsing heart.[178]
Problems listening to these files? See media help.

In Bad, Jackson's concept of the predatory lover can be seen on the rock song "Dirty Diana".[179] The lead single "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" was a traditional love ballad, while "Man in the Mirror", an anthemic ballad of confession and resolution, improved on his earlier "We Are the World".[57] "Smooth Criminal" was an evocation of bloody assault, rape and likely murder.[57] Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine states that Dangerous presents Jackson as a stark paradoxical individual.[180] He comments the album is more diverse than his previous Bad, as it appeals to an urban audience while also attracting the middle class with anthems like "Heal the World".[180] The first half of the record is dedicated to new jack swing, including songs like "Jam" and "Remember the Time".[181] The album is Jackson's first where social ills become a primary theme; "Why You Wanna Trip on Me", for example, protests against world hunger, AIDS, homelessness and drugs.[181] Dangerous contains sexually charged efforts like "In the Closet", a love song about desire and denial, risk and repression, solitude and connection, privacy and revelation.[181] The title track continues the theme of the predatory lover and compulsive desire.[181] The second half includes introspective, pop-gospel anthems such as "Will You Be There", "Heal the World" and "Keep the Faith"; these songs show Jackson finally opening up about various personal struggles and worries.[181] In the ballad "Gone Too Soon", Jackson gives tribute to his friend Ryan White and the plight of those with AIDS.[182]

HIStory creates an atmosphere of paranoia.[183] Its content focuses on the hardships and public struggles Jackson went through just prior to its production. In the new jack swing-funk-rock efforts "Scream" and "Tabloid Junkie", along with the R&B ballad "You Are Not Alone", Jackson retaliates against the injustice and isolation he feels, and directs much of his anger at the media.[184] In the introspective ballad "Stranger in Moscow", Jackson laments over his "fall from grace", while songs like "Earth Song", "Childhood", "Little Susie" and "Smile" are all operatic pop pieces.[183][184] In the track "D.S.", Jackson launched a verbal attack against Tom Sneddon. He describes Sneddon as an antisocial, white supremacist who wanted to "get my ass, dead or alive". Of the song, Sneddon said, "I have not — shall we say — done him the honor of listening to it, but I’ve been told that it ends with the sound of a gunshot".[185] Invincible found Jackson working heavily with producer Rodney Jerkins.[171] It is a record made up of urban soul like "Cry" and "The Lost Children", ballads such as "Speechless", "Break of Dawn" and "Butterflies" and mixes hip hop, pop and rap in "2000 Watts", "Heartbreaker" and "Invincible".[186][187]

Vocal style

Jackson sang from childhood, and over time his voice and vocal style changed noticeably, either through puberty or a personal preference to align his vocal interpretation to the themes and genres he chose to express. Between 1971 and 1975, Jackson's voice "descended ever so slightly from boy soprano to his current androgynous high tenor".[16] In the mid-1970s, the singer adopted a "vocal hiccup" as seen in "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)". The purpose of the hiccup—somewhat like a gulping for air or gasping—was to help promote a certain emotion, be it excitement, sadness or fear.[18] With the arrival of Off the Wall in the late 1970s, Jackson's abilities as a vocalist were well regarded; Allmusic described him as a "blindingly gifted vocalist".[173] At the time, Rolling Stone compared his vocals to the "breathless, dreamy stutter" of Stevie Wonder. Their analysis was also that "Jackson's feathery-timbered tenor is extraordinarily beautiful. It slides smoothly into a startling falsetto that's used very daringly".[174] 1982 saw the release of Thriller, and Rolling Stone were of the opinion that Jackson was then singing in a "fully adult voice" that was "tinged by sadness".[177]

Michael Jackson - "Black or White"
Play sound
The lead single from Dangerous, it remains one of his most successful songs to date. The single is described by Sony Music as a hard rock song.[188] The track contains many features of Jackson's vocal style, including the vocal hiccup he is known for.

The release of "Bad" in 1987 displayed gritty lead vocals on the verse and lighter tones employed on the chorus.[21] A distinctive deliberate mispronunciation of "come on", used frequently by Jackson, occasionally spelt "cha'mone" or "shamone", is also a staple in impressions and caricatures of him.[189] The turn of the 1990s saw the release of the introspective album Dangerous; here Jackson used his vocals to intensify the split themes and genres described earlier. The New York Times noted that on some tracks, "he gulps for breath, his voice quivers with anxiety or drops to a desperate whisper, hissing through clenched teeth" and he had a "wretched tone".[181] When singing of brotherhood or self-esteem the musician would return to "smooth" vocals.[181] "In the Closet" contained heavy breathing and a loop of five scat-sung syllables, whereas in the album's title track, Jackson performs a spoken rap.[178][181] When commenting on Invincible, Rolling Stone were of the opinion that—at the age of 43—Jackson still performed, "exquisitely voiced rhythm tracks and vibrating vocal harmonies".[190] Nelson George summed up Jackson's vocals by stating "The grace, the aggression, the growling, the natural boyishness, the falsetto, the smoothness — that combination of elements mark him as a major vocalist".[178]

Music videos and choreography
US patent 5255452, filed by Jackson, described the anti-gravity lean used in the music video for Smooth Criminal

Steve Huey of Allmusic observed how Jackson transformed the music video into an art form and a promotional tool through complex story lines, dance routines, special effects and famous cameo appearances; simultaneously breaking down racial barriers.[171] According to director Vincent Paterson, who collaborated with the singer on several music videos, Jackson conceptualized many of the darker, bleak themes in his filmography.[191]

Before Thriller, Jackson struggled to receive coverage on MTV because he was African American.[192] Pressure from CBS Records persuaded MTV to start showing "Billie Jean" and later "Beat It", leading to a lengthy partnership with Jackson, also helping other black music artists gain recognition.[193] The popularity of his videos on MTV helped to put the relatively young channel "on the map"; MTV's focus shifted in favor of pop and R&B.[193][194] Short films like Thriller largely remained unique to Jackson, while the group dance sequence in "Beat It" has frequently been imitated.[195] The choreography in Thriller has become a part of global pop culture, replicated everywhere from Bollywood to prisons in the Philippines.[196] The Thriller short film marked an increase in scale for music videos, and has been named the most successful music video ever by the Guinness World Records.[66]

In the 18-minute music video for "Bad"—directed by Martin Scorsese—Jackson began using sexual imagery and choreography not previously seen in his work. He occasionally grabbed or touched his chest, torso and crotch. While he has described this as "choreography," it garnered a mixed reception from both fans and critics; Time magazine described it as "infamous". The video also featured Wesley Snipes; Jackson's videos would often feature famous cameo roles in the future.[51][197] For "Smooth Criminal", Jackson experimented with an innovative "anti-gravity lean" in his performances, for which he was granted US Patent No. 5,255,452.[198] Although the music video for "Leave Me Alone" was not officially released in the US, in 1989, it was nominated for four Billboard Music Video Awards, winning three; the same year it won a Golden Lion Award for the quality of the special effects used in its production. In 1990, "Leave Me Alone" won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form.[64]

The MTV Video Vanguard Artist of the Decade Award was given to Jackson to celebrate his accomplishments in the art form in the 1980s; the following year the award was renamed in his honor.[75] "Black or White" was accompanied by a controversial music video, which, on November 14, 1991, simultaneously premiered in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people, the largest viewing ever for a music video.[74] It featured scenes construed as having a sexual nature as well as depictions of violence. The offending scenes in the final half of the 14-minute version were edited out to prevent the video from being banned, and Jackson apologized.[199] Along with Jackson, it featured Macaulay Culkin, Peggy Lipton and George Wendt. It helped usher in morphing as an important technology in music videos.[200]

"Remember the Time" was an elaborate production, and became one of his longest videos at over nine minutes. Set in ancient Egypt, it featured groundbreaking visual effects and appearances by Eddie Murphy, Iman and Magic Johnson, along with a distinct complex dance routine.[201] The video for "In the Closet" was Jackson's most sexually provocative piece to date. It featured supermodel Naomi Campbell in a courtship dance with Jackson. The video was banned in South Africa because of its imagery.[75]
Jackson and sister Janet angrily retaliate against the media for misrepresenting them to the public. The acclaimed video for "Scream" was shot primarily in black and white, and at a cost of $7 million.

The music video for "Scream", directed by Mark Romanek and production designer Tom Foden, is one of Jackson's most critically acclaimed. In 1995, it gained 11 MTV Video Music Award Nominations—more than any other music video—and won "Best Dance Video", "Best Choreography", and "Best Art Direction".[202] The song and its accompanying video are a response to the backlash Jackson received from the media after being accused of child molestation in 1993.[203] A year later, it won a Grammy for Best Music Video, Short Form; shortly afterwards Guinness World Records listed it as the most expensive music video ever made at a cost of $7 million.[100][204]

"Earth Song" was accompanied by an expensive and well-received music video that gained a Grammy nomination for Best Music Video, Short Form in 1997. The video had an environmental theme, showing images of animal cruelty, deforestation, pollution and war. Using special effects, time is reversed so that life returns, war ends and the forests re-grow.[100][205] Released in 1997 and premiering at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, Ghosts was a short film written by Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston. The video for Ghosts is over 38 minutes long and holds the Guinness World Record as the world's longest music video.[100][109][206][207]

Legacy and influence
See also: Records and achievements of Michael Jackson and List of awards received by Michael Jackson
Jackson's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, set in 1984

Michael Jackson was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1984. There are actually two stars bearing the name Michael Jackson in the walk, the other being that of the Los Angeles talk radio show host of the same name; while Jackson's name is marked with a record icon, the radio Jackson is denoted with a microphone icon. Jackson had a notable impact on music and culture throughout the world. He broke down racial barriers, transformed the art of the music video and paved the way for modern pop music in his own country. Jackson's work, distinctive musical sound and vocal style have influenced hip hop, pop and R&B artists, including Mariah Carey,[16] Usher,[208] Britney Spears,[16] Justin Timberlake[113] and R. Kelly.[178] For much of his career, he had an "unparalleled" level of worldwide influence over the younger generation through his musical and humanitarian contributions.[209]

Throughout his career he received numerous honors and awards, including the World Music Awards' Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, the American Music Award's Artist of the Century Award and the Bambi Pop Artist of the Millennium Award.[30][210] He was a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997 and later as a solo artist in 2001. Jackson was also an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002.[30] His awards include multiple Guinness World Records (eight in 2006 alone), 13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and the sale of over 750 million albums worldwide, making him the world's best selling male solo pop artist.[28][66][74][211][4][212]
Queues for a Michael Jackson concert in West Berlin in June 1988

He was characterized as "an unstoppable juggernaut, possessed of all the tools to dominate the charts seemingly at will: an instantly identifiable voice, eye-popping dance moves, stunning musical versatility and loads of sheer star power".[171] In the mid-1980s, Time described Jackson as "the hottest single phenomenon since Elvis Presley".[34] By 1990, Vanity Fair had already cited Jackson as the most popular artist in the history of show business.[64] Daily Telegraph writer Tom Utley called him an "extremely important figure in the history of popular culture" and a "genius".[213] In late 2007, Jackson said the following of his work and future influence, "Music has been my outlet, my gift to all of the lovers in this world. Through it, my music, I know I will live forever."[214]

His total lifetime earnings from royalties on his solo recordings and music videos, revenue from concerts and endorsements have been estimated at $500 million; some analysts have speculated that his music catalog holdings could be worth billions of dollars.[65][215] Cited as one of the world's most famous men, Jackson's highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.[74][216]

Discovery Blasted? (Last update) 16/3/2009

2009-03-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven rocketed into orbit Sunday evening, setting off on a space station construction mission cut short by launch delays that dragged on for more than a month.

Discovery rose from its seaside pad just as the sun was setting, a spectacular sight for a space agency anxious to get the flight going. As the shuttle sped away like a brilliant star, part of the launch plume glowed pink, peach and golden. The shuttle was visible for several minutes.

A hydrogen leak prevented Discovery from lifting off Wednesday and, before that, hydrogen valves kept the shuttle grounded for weeks in February. Launch pad repairs took care of the leak, and the astronauts were able to board their spaceship and lift off.

"Well, you had a little bit of a wait but that will just make the payoff that much sweeter," launch director Mike Leinbach told the astronauts.

Commander Lee Archambault and his crew, which includes two former schoolteachers, should reach the international space station Tuesday.

"Thanks for the work Mike, we'll see you in a couple weeks. Take care and let's go ahead and fire up the sound of freedom," Archambault said.

They're delivering one last set of solar wings for the space station and some critical equipment for a relatively new water-recycling system.

No one was more eager to see Discovery take off than the three space station astronauts. Commander Mike Fincke was ecstatic when informed nothing was leaking at the pad.

"That is most excellent news," Fincke told Mission Control. "That's exactly what's been on top of our minds."

During Wednesday's try, hydrogen gas spewed into the air from a vent line connected to Discovery's external fuel tank. NASA replaced the hookups, but could find nothing broken.

The system remained tight during the countdown, and the only problem was a pressure drop in a helium-purge system that workers quickly resolved.

The only other oddity was a bat on the back of Discovery's fuel tank Sunday afternoon. The small fruit bat posed no debris threat to the shuttle.

The four-day leak delay forced NASA to shorten Discovery's flight by a day and cut out a spacewalk. Because a Russian Soyuz rocket launch March 26, Discovery needs to be gone from the space station by the time that spacecraft flies. The Soyuz will carry up a fresh crew for the space station.

Discovery's mission will last 13 days and feature three spacewalks instead of four, the first of which will take place Thursday to install the new solar wings. The two wings will join six already in place and bring the orbiting outpost up to full power.

The canceled spacewalk chores will be tackled by the space station crew after Discovery leaves.

Discovery also will deliver a spare urine-into-drinking water converter to replace one that's broken, and a flusher and iodine solution to get rid of bacteria that's lurking in the water dispenser.

NASA wants to double the size of the space station crew to six people by the end of May, and need the recycled water to drink.

Discovery originally was supposed to lift off Feb. 12, but NASA ordered extra tests for the valves that control the flow of hydrogen gas into the fuel tank. The three valves in the shuttle's engine compartment kept being replaced to ensure they were the best available and safe to fly.

One of these valves — which maintain tank pressure during liftoff — broke during the last shuttle launch in November. No harm was done, but NASA did not want to take any chances with Discovery.

Two educator astronauts are aboard Discovery: Joseph Acaba and Richard Arnold II, chosen by NASA five years ago. There also is one Japanese astronaut, Koichi Wakata, who will move into the space station for at least three months, replacing one of the current crew.

___

Associated Press writer Mike Schneider contributed to this report from Cape Canaveral.

___

On the Net:

NASA: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov

Google Management.........

2009-01-28T09:49:00.000-08:00

Co-founders Larry Page, president of Products, and Sergey Brin, president of Technology, brought Google to life in September 1998. Since then, the company has grown to more than 10,000 employees worldwide, with a management team that represents some of the most experienced technology professionals in the industry. Eric Schmidt joined Google as chairman and chief executive officer in 2001.

Board of Directors

Eric Schmidt, Google Inc.

Sergey Brin, Google Inc.

Larry Page, Google Inc.

John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Ram Shriram, Sherpalo

John Hennessy, Stanford University

Arthur Levinson, Genentech

Paul Otellini, Intel

Shirley M. Tilghman, Princeton University

Ann Mather

Executive Management Group

Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Larry Page, Co-Founder & President, Products
Sergey Brin, Co-Founder & President, Technology
Laszlo Bock, Vice President, People Operations
Shona Brown, Senior Vice President, Business Operations
W. M. Coughran, Jr., Senior Vice President, Engineering
David C. Drummond, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
Alan Eustace, Senior Vice President, Engineering & Research
Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations & Google Fellow
Jeff Huber, Senior Vice President, Engineering
Omid Kordestani, Senior Vice President, Global Sales & Business Development
Patrick Pichette, Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Marketing
Rachel Whetstone, Vice President, Global Communications & Public Affairs
Key executives by function:
Engineering
Vinton G. Cerf, Vice President & Chief Internet Evangelist
Stuart Feldman, Vice President, Engineering
Ben Fried, Chief Information Officer
Vic Gundotra, Vice President, Engineering
Udi Manber, Vice President, Engineering
Nelson Mattos, Vice President, Engineering, EMEA
Shiva Shivakumar, Vice President and Distinguished Entrepreneur
Alfred Spector, VP of Research and Special Initiatives
Benjamin Sloss Treynor, Vice President, Engineering
Jeff Dean, Google Fellow
Sanjay Ghemawat, Google Fellow
Amit Singhal, Google Fellow
Products
Doug Garland, Vice President, Product Management
Bradley Horowitz, Vice President, Product Management
Salar Kamangar, Vice President, Product Management
Marissa Mayer, Vice President, Search Products & User Experience
Sundar Pichai, Vice President, Product Management
Mario Queiroz, Vice President, Product Management, EMEA & Latin America
Lorraine Twohill, Vice President, Marketing, EMEA
Susan Wojcicki, Vice President, Product Management
Sales
Daniel Alegre, Vice President, Asia Pacific Sales & Operations
Tim Armstrong, President, The Americas Operations & Senior Vice President, Google
Nikesh Arora, President, EMEA Operations & Senior Vice President, Google
Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, President, Asia Pacific and Latin America Operations
David Eun, Vice President, Content Partnerships
David Fischer, Vice President, Global Online Sales & Operations
Dave Girouard, President, Enterprise
John Herlihy, Vice President, Online Sales & Operations, EMEA
Kai-Fu Lee, Vice President, Google Inc.; President, Greater China
Dr John Liu, Vice President, Sales, Greater China
Norio Murakami, President & General Manager, Google Japan & Vice President, Google Inc.
Penry Price, VP, Advertising Sales, North America
David Rosenblatt, President, Global Display Advertising & Vice President, Google
Dennis Woodside, Vice President, UK, Benelux and Ireland
Legal
Kent Walker, Vice President & General Counsel
David Lawee, Vice President, Marketing
Megan Smith, Vice President, New Business Development
Finance
Brent Callinicos, Vice President & Treasurer
Francois Delepine, Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis
Mark Fuchs, Vice President of Finance and Chief Accountant
Julio Pekarovic, Vice President, Global Sales Finance
David Radcliffe, Vice President, Real Estate
Business Operations
Francoise Brougher, Vice President, Business Operations
Google.org
Dr. Larry Brilliant, Executive Director, Google.org

What's a Google? ......

2009-01-28T09:40:00.000-08:00

Company Overview

Google's mission is to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.

As a first step to fulfilling that mission, Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin developed a new approach to online search that took root in a Stanford University dorm room and quickly spread to information seekers around the globe. Google is now widely recognised as the world's largest search engine -- an easy-to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.

When you visit www.google.com or one of the dozens of other Google domains, you'll be able to find information in many different languages; check stock quotes, maps and news headlines; look up phonebook listings for every city in the United States; search billions of images and peruse the world's largest archive of Usenet messages -- more than 1 billion posts dating back to 1981.
We also provide ways to access all this information without making a special trip to the Google home page. The Google Toolbar enables you to conduct a Google search from anywhere on the web. And for those times when you're away from your PC altogether, Google can be used from a number of wireless platforms including WAP and i-mode phones.
Google's utility and ease of use have made it one of the world's best known brands almost entirely through word of mouth from satisfied users. As a business, Google generates revenue by providing advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable, cost-effective online advertising that is relevant to the information displayed on any given page. This makes the advertising useful to you as well as to the advertiser placing it. We believe you should know when someone has paid to put a message in front of you, so we always distinguish ads from the search results or other content on a page. We don't sell placement in the search results themselves or allow people to pay for a higher ranking there.

Thousands of advertisers use our Google AdWords program to promote their products and services on the web with targeted advertising, and we believe AdWords is the largest program of its kind. In addition, thousands of web site managers take advantage of our Google AdSense program to deliver ads relevant to the content on their sites, improving their ability to generate revenue and enhancing the experience for their users.
To learn more about Google, click the link at the left for the area that interests you most. Or type what you want to find into our search box and hit enter. Once you do, you'll be on your way to understanding why others say, "Google is the closest thing the Web has to an ultimate answer machine".

What's a Google?
"Googol" is the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The term was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularised in the book, "Mathematics and the Imagination", by Kasner and James Newman. Google's play on the term reflects the company's mission to organise the immense amount of information available on the web.

Tamils for Obama - 2008.

2009-01-27T08:50:00.000-08:00

We progressive Tamil Americans expect that Senator Obama will become the next president of the US. We hope that when he becomes president next January, he will be supportive of our concerns, especially of the continuing suffering of our friends and families in Sri Lanka. We are dismayed by the continuing genocide of Tamils there. We are sure that he is as concerned as we are about the destruction of the Tamil people and culture in Sri Lanka.
Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont is a very senior member of the Senate (first elected in 1974) and is a long-time supporter of Senator Obama. Senator Leahy, while formerly supportive of the Sri Lankan national government in Colombo, says “We have been increasingly concerned with reports of abuses by Sri Lankan government forces.” He emphasizes that these reports are not “misinformation” or “disinformation,” but “documented, consistent information indicating a steady increase in serious human rights violations by the Sri Lankan government forces.” Mr. Obama, who has spoken of the “vicious civil war in Sri Lanka,” will certainly be influenced by Senator Leahy’s opinions, which we think are shared by most of the Democratic Party.
Senator Leahy introduced a resolution that would end US military assistance to the Colombo government. The staff director for the Senate Foreign Aid Subcommittee chaired by Leahy, Tim Rieser, said that "Sri Lanka has been utterly unwilling to take responsibility for its actions." The resolution passed, and became law when President Bush signed it. Senator Leahy has refused to meet with the Sri Lankan foreign minister, and we surmise that his low regard for the Sri Lankan government is clear.
Rush Holt, a Democratic congressman from New Jersey, led a group of 38 legislators who wrote to President Bush and Secretary of State Rice urging them to appoint or delegate “a high-level official with access to Bush and the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and a ‘clear’ mandate to increase monitoring of human rights violations.” Rush Holt is a long-time Obama supporter, and we are confident that his concerns about Sri Lanka will be communicated to the 44th president, Mr. Obama.European diplomats have also spoken about the impossibility of getting Colombo’s help in reaching a peaceful solution.
Tamils are weary of waiting for a reasonable devolution from Sri Lanka. German Ambassador to Sri Lanka Jürgen Weerth in August 2008 said that he has also given up the hope of finding any solution for Tamils that involved the Colombo government. Germany, he said, did not believe in allowing the majority community to rule over minorities. “A country should have a give-and-take policy when ruling. Each community should be given preference, instead of supporting one community,” he said.
Weerth further said that Sri Lanka should establish the rule of law and eliminate human rights violations in the country. He says Sri Lanka has an admirable constitution, but the Colombo government does not follow its laws.
An outgoing British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka, Dominic Chilcott, gave a speech on the Sri Lankan national question, in which he referred to other matters like “the lack of good governance, transparency, law and order, and the presence of institutional racism, racist stereotyping, demonizing of the UN agencies, discrimination, sense of impunity,” etc. He also drove home the blatant truth about the deplorable condition of the veritable jungle of corruption, nepotism, dire human rights violations, conflicts of interest, and hypocrisy that Sri Lanka is.
We support Senator Obama in his pursuit of the presidency because we agree with him that the Sri Lankan civil war should be resolved. We are confident that President Obama will use the influence of the US to achieve a political settlement that will end the civil war and allow all Sri Lankans to live in peace.
We urge the 44th president of the Unite States, Mr. Obama, to take a strong hand in resolving this civil war. Perhaps he could bring the Tamils and Singhalese to Canton, Ohio, like President Bill Clinton did with the former Yugoslavians, and force a solution to the Sri Lankan war. The Colombo government has not taken any action to resolve this vicious civil war for the last six decades, and we believe they will take no action unless they are forced to do so.
The solution to the Sri Lankan problem could be based on the Bosnian model or on one of the many others like Montenegro, East Timor, Quebec, Slovakia, or Kosovo. We might be able to utilize Ambassador Richard Holbrooke’s expertise to bring peace to Sri Lanka.
There are many more potential peace envoys or mediators we can find in the U.S., including Bill Clinton, George Mitchell, James Baker, Jim Leach, Colin Powell, and doubtless many others.
When Mr. Obama is president, of course he will use his own judgment as to how this goal can best be reached.
There are many problems in the world that will demand President Obama’s attention. We progressive Tamils are looking forward to the day when he turns his hand to solving them. We trust that Sri Lanka’s civil war will be among them. We offer him our wholehearted support and look forward to seeing his foreign policy develop when he is president.
We emphasize that peace in Sri Lanka would give both ethnic groups (Singhalese and Tamils) a better chance to improve their lives in a stable environment.
We feel that this is one important change that we can believe in.
Tamils for Obama - 2008.

Stratos Jet Charters, Inc. Announces Luxury Air Charter Destinations

2009-01-12T11:01:00.000-08:00

Orlando, Florida; May19, 2008: Stratos Jet Charters, Inc. has announced this morning, that as a result growing demand from air charter clients, Stratos Jet Charters, Inc. has developed relationships with luxury villa providers and boutique luxury hotels around the world. Stratos Jet Charters, Inc. will begin offering all inclusive luxury vacation packages starting May 19, 2008.
Stratos Jet Charters, Inc is excited about the opportunity to offer a wide range of luxury services for their air charter clients. Stratos Jets is recognized for providing excellent service and has teamed up with a select group of luxury resort, villa and boutique hotels throughout the world. Joel A. Thomas; President of Stratos Jets commented “Air charter clients choose Stratos Jets over alternatives because we provide excellent service; this goes beyond selecting the finest aircrafts and ensuring seamless ground transportation. It is our job to completely arrange client travels so that they are free to do as they please.” Mr. Thomas went on to say “having formed relationships with luxury hotels and villas allows us to take control of a wider range of services for our air charter clients.”
The air charter vacation packages that Stratos Jet Charters, now offers will be available through the website at www.stratosjets.com. Each month Stratos Jets plans to “feature” a hotel or villa. These “featured air charter vacations” will include complimentary catering, along with a special gift for their clients. Stratos Jet Charters, Inc. believes that by taking responsibility for their clients entire travel plans, they will experience the best service in the private jet charter industry

New Orleans Vacation Packages and Hotel Deals

2009-01-12T10:59:00.000-08:00

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Drury Inn & Suites New Orleans, New Orleans
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Le Richelieu In the French Quarter, New Orleans
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Who Leaked to The Guardian, and Why?

2009-01-12T10:45:00.000-08:00

Earlier today The Guardian reported that it had spoken to “three people with knowledge of the discussion in Obama’s camp” who said the incoming administration would “abandon George Bush’s doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the Islamist organisation.”
The President-elect’s transition team has denied the report, but bloggers of all stripes have been furiously parsing the story. At Newser, Michael Wolff deconstructs it from the media-game angle:

So why should the Brits know this before we do?
Part of message tradecraft has always been to take your message first to the media outlet that will treat you best. You get your story spun with your best foot forward; plus, you get points for when you want to use this particular outlet to positively leak a message again; and, because someone else has already reported it, you’ve dulled the appetite of the other, less hospitable, outlets.
What is novel here is the idea of including foreign media as part of your primary leaking options. This has to do with both the Internet—on the Internet you hardly know if the Guardian isn’t the New York Times—and it has to do with the fact that in the US media for at least a generation there has been no deviation from the conventional wisdom about Israel and the shocked-shocked reaction when anybody tries to say anything different.
Wolff also speculates about the source of the leak:
A further curious element here, however, is that it might not be the Obama approach. It might be the Hillary gambit. It was, after all, the Guardian that first broke the story, just at the moment the American media (especially the Times) was debunking it, that she had clinched the secretary of state job.
What’s the Guardian’s angle here?
Today’s Guardian story also suggests another element of how the media game might now be played. If you make the Guardian an outlet for leaks, it becomes, suddenly, a significant part of the media algebra. Fox after all became part of the Bush administration’s right-wing strategy and official voice. The Guardian, its roots no less foreign than Rupert Murdoch’s Fox, has been trying to build an American beachhead for years. It could become the new, energetic, left-wing voice breaking the code of media conduct on the subject of Israel.
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January 8, 2009, 10:57 am — Updated: 11:43 pm -->
Why It’s O.K. for Obama to be Mum On Gaza
By Eric Etheridge
At Contentions, Commentary’s group blog, Michael Totten offers props to Obama for more or less keeping quiet on Gaza for now:
I don’t know what Obama really thinks about Israel’s war in Gaza, but I can guess.
Read more…
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January 7, 2009, 4:38 pm — Updated: 11:52 pm -->
Missing the Forest for the Tweets
By Eric Etheridge
It’s a firmly established idea on the right that Obama and the Democrats have leapfrogged them in the use of the Internet, and that the Republicans must play catch-up. So on Monday, at the debate among the six candidates vying to lead the Republican National Committee, the contenders bragged about the number of their Facebook friends and Twitter followers just as quickly and easily as they did the number of guns they own.
Former Ohio state Attorney General Ken Blackwell (7 guns, 4,000 friends on Facebook, 2,000 followers on Twitter: read his tweets) appeared to be in the lead if all three categories are combined. Close behind was Michigan state party chair Saul Anuzis (2 guns, 3,000 followers on Twitter: read his tweets).
But in focusing on the more familiar social aspects of Obama’s online efforts, the Republicans may be misunderstanding the exact nature of the Democrats’ new prowess. Read more…
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January 5, 2009, 9:37 am — Updated: 11:36 pm -->
Richardson Withdrawal: Well-Timed, Or a Little Late?
By Tobin Harshaw
Barack Obama promised to be a uniter, and his handling of Bill Richardson’s now-aborted appointment as Commerce secretary seems to have had that effect on the blogosphere, in the form of universal displeasure.
“With an almost audible sigh of relief barely two weeks before his inauguration Obama, in a printed statement that won’t provide archival video footage, said he accepted the resignation-before-actually-taking-office ‘with deep regret,’” reports the Los Angeles Times’s Andrew Malcolm. Read more…
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December 24, 2008, 9:47 am — Updated: 11:29 pm -->
How They Handle Scandal
By Tobin Harshaw
While team Obama’s report on the Blagojevich affair was remarkably spare, Kenneth P. Vogel and Carrie Budoff Brown of the Politico think it provides a roadmap to how the next administration will handle scandals. Here are the “five rules” they have discerned: “Be transparent, to an extent”; “don’t let the news cycle dictate response”; “no freelancing”; “aides take hits to protect the boss”; and “shy away from even justified fights.” Read more…
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December 23, 2008, 5:43 pm — Updated: 5:43 pm -->
Timed-Release
By Tobin Harshaw
Well, the big report from Obama uber-lawyer Greg Craig on the transition team’s interactions with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevitch has landed, and you’ll be shocked to learn that it concludes that there are “no indication of inappropriate discussions with the Governor or anyone from his office about a ‘deal’ or a quid pro quo arrangement.”
NBC’s Mark Murray and Chuck Todd think they have an explanation for the timing of the release, late on the afternoon on a day many people have set about their holiday business: “Perhaps the most interesting news from the Blagojevich report just released by Obama’s transition office is that Obama — as well as Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett — had interviews in the past week with US attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office. We later learned that Obama was accompanied by his personal attorney, Bob Bauer.This seems to explain why the Obama team waited until this week to release its report, and why Fitzgerald wanted them to wait.”
Jennifer Rubin at Commentary, however, can only roll her eyes:
I’m not sure whether it’s the 4:30pm timing or the fact that Rahm Emanuel is in Africa that’s my favorite part of the Obama team’s Blago internal review “drop and run” scenario. Really, as others note, the MSM is so placid the Obama team probably could have gotten away with releasing it outside the holiday rush and even answering some questions. But this approach only adds to the “transparency in name only” phenomenon and will irritate a few of the more conscientious reporters. (We note that we already have gone from “no” contacts to “no inappropriate contacts with Blago” with many, many questions remaining.)
The reality is that Patrick Fitzgerald has the tapes. So they’ll get played one way or another unless Blago and all the culprits decide to plead to all the charges Fiztgerald can dream up (meaning everything gets swept under the rug). But that seems highly unlikely.
Meanwhile, this hide-the-ball from the media routine does suggest that, like so much of the Obama administration-to-be (e.g. foreign policy, tax cuts), there is much more continuity with the Bush team than many could have imagined. But in deference to the Bush administration officials, at least they had the nerve to go before the press day after day and take the pointed questions — even on non-holiday weeks.
“The whole scenario comes off a little shady, so why release the report this way if there’s nothing untoward in it?” asks Mary Katharine Ham at the Weekly Standard.
“It will necessarily get less coverage than it would otherwise get, but most of that coverage will question the Obama transition’s handling of the report and rehash Obama’s bumpy response to the breaking of the scandal, in addition to examining the actual contents of the report. Neither the national press nor the American people are much in the mood to find out that their new, fresh pres-elect was involved in any of this (and most evidence suggests he wasn’t, directly), so a fairly clean report would have been greeted with a fairly generous reception, no matter the timing of its release. Releasing it in this fashion casts doubt on the conclusions of the report, Team Obama’s competence, and his reputation as a transparent reformer. Why do that instead of letting Obama spend a couple minutes with the press corps last week, charming them into friendly write-ups about the report?”
Or perhaps he feels things are just a bit sunnier in Hawaii ….
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December 18, 2008, 9:55 am — Updated: 9:55 am -->
Invocation Frustration
By Chris Suellentrop
If you had “before the inauguration” in your blog betting pool for the date when Andrew Sullivan would turn on Barack Obama, well, you haven’t won yet, but your chances are looking pretty good. Sullivan is unhappy with Obama’s decision to let Rick Warren give the invocation at his inauguration.
“Warren is a man who believes my marriage removes his freedom of speech and cannot say that authorizing torture is a moral failing,” Sullivan writes on his blog for The Atlantic. “Shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now.”
At his new blog for The New Republic, Damon Linker – the author of “The Theocons” and a former editor of First Things – says he understands Sullivan’s disappointment but adds that the choice of Warren is “exceedingly shrewd.” Linker writes:
Warren is beloved by mainstream evangelicals, who have helped him to sell millions of books extolling a fairly anodyne form of American Protestantism. (Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell he is not.) It is in Obama’s interest (and the Democrats’) to peel as many moderate evangelicals away from the GOP as he can. Giving Warren such a prominent (but purely symbolic) place in the inauguration is a politically cost-free way of furthering this partisan agenda.
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December 17, 2008, 9:42 am — Updated: 9:42 am -->
Really High Hopes
By Chris Suellentrop
Are African Americans expecting too much of Barack Obama? Emanuel Cleaver, a Democratic representative from Missouri who was also the first black mayor of Kansas City, Mo., writes on the op-ed page of The Washington Post that “Obama will be the first black president, not the black president first.” But part of Obama’s challenge will be to manage “the extravagant expectations of African Americans and other minority groups,” Cleaver says. He writes:
I know something about what Obama faces. In 1991, I was elected Kansas City’s first black mayor. I and more than 400 other African American mayors who served during the most diverse period in the political history of America’s large cities experienced a similar, and understandable, unreasonableness from brothers and sisters who saw in our election an opportunity at last to get a slice of the American pie. Obama will fall short of fulfilling the considerable hopes and dreams of the minorities who supported him, just as we could not fulfill those of ours.
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December 12, 2008, 7:04 pm — Updated: 7:25 pm -->
Pragmatism, Viewed Pragmatically
By Tobin Harshaw
Any number of leftists have reflexively complained about the pragmatic approach Barack Obama has taken in his transition rhetoric and cabinet appointments. The Nation’s Christopher Hayes, on the other hand, has given the issue a great deal of thought. “Fair enough,” writes. “We get it. He’s a pragmatist. But just what does that mean?”
Hayes continues:
It can’t simply be that he’s comfortable with compromise, willing to maneuver in the world as it is. That goes without saying. The man was just elected president of the United States. Head-in-the-clouds idealists do not, as a rule, come to control the American nuclear arsenal …
In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, “pragmatists” of all stripes–Alan Dershowitz, Richard Posner–lined up to offer tips and strategies on how best to implement a practical and effective torture regime; but ideologues said no torture, no exceptions. Same goes for the Iraq War, which many “pragmatic” lawmakers–Hillary Clinton, Arlen Specter–voted for and which ideologues across the political spectrum, from Ron Paul to Bernie Sanders, opposed. Of course, by any reckoning, the war didn’t work. That is, it failed to be a practical, nonideological improvement to the nation’s security. This, despite the fact that so many willed themselves to believe that the benefits would clearly outweigh the costs. Principle is often pragmatism’s guardian. Particularly at times of crisis, when a polity succumbs to collective madness or delusion, it is only the obstinate ideologues who refuse to go along. Expediency may be a virtue in virtuous times, but it’s a vice in vicious ones.
There’s another problem with the fetishization of the pragmatic, which is the brute fact that, at some level, ideology is inescapable. Obama may have told Steve Kroft that he’s solely interested in “what works,” but what constitutes “working” is not self-evident and, indeed, is impossible to detach from some worldview and set of principles. Alan Greenspan, of all people, made this point deftly while testifying before Henry Waxman’s House Oversight Committee. Waxman asked Greenspan, “Do you feel that your ideology pushed you to make decisions that you wish you had not made?” To which Greenspan responded, “Well, remember that what an ideology is, is a conceptual framework with the way people deal with reality. Everyone has one. You have to–to exist, you need an ideology. The question is whether it is accurate or not.”
I apologize for the long excerpt, but I think the whole thing’s worth a read — in its own right and also to get a grasp on the flowering of intelligent thought it has initiated on the right. For example, here’s Daniel Larison at the American Conservative, taking issue with the contemporary definition of political pragmatism:
Think of it another way: a man of political principles is concerned with using both the right means for the right ends and is willing to let experience inform his assumptions, while the ideologue is indifferent to the means used and willfully ignorant of experience that challenges his assumptions. Any opposition between pragmatism and ideology also seems to me to be misleading from the beginning because what passes for “pragmatism” in government represents adherence to a particular reigning ideology. There might conceivably be some genuine empirically-oriented, sane pragmatism that does not fit this definition, but this is not the pragmatism the political class invokes and it is not the one we are discussing. When a given politician announces his interest in “what works,” we might reasonably interpret this as a statement that he does not intend to overturn established consensus and accepts the constraints and assumptions of the reigning ideology, which broadly speaking means state capitalism at home and hegemonism abroad.
The Atlantic’s Ross Douthat looks at how pragmatism can be used in party unification:
The big question for progressives, I tend to think, isn’t whether Barack Obama ends up draping the language of non-ideological “experimentation” around a succession of proposals that would shift American policy distinctly leftward and make John Dewey smile: He’s already done that. It’s whether the policy shifts he embraces will go far enough to reconcile progressives to the fact that a “non-ideological” liberalism, in our era as in the earlier liberal ascendancy, requires an ideological Left as its foil. In practice, this means that Obama will probably often end up defining himself against progressivism, rhetorically, even when he’s embracing progressive ideas. (See his campaign’s extremely effective health-care ads for an example of how this works in practice.) The President-elect’s ability to hold his coalition together, then, may depend in no small part on whether the Democratic Party’s left wing feels that it’s getting enough out of his Presidency in practice to justify playing the bad guy in the narrative Obama will be selling to the country as a whole, in which post-partisan “whatever works” pragmatism triumphs over ideologues of the left and right alike.
And Douthat’s “Grand New Party” co-author, Reihan Salaam, writing at the American Scene, appreciates Hayes’s point but isn’t sure we have enough evidence to judge the case.
Of course, Obama established his foreign policy bona fides in part by emphasizing that he does not oppose all ways — only “dumb” wars. Which is to say, Obama has no ideological objections to an aggressive foreign policy, one that would involve striking deep into Pakistan if the circumstances demanded it, or taking military action against an intransigent Iran. This could all be political posturing. If it’s not, I think it lends credence to Sunstein’s thesis.
We can all agree, however, that the answer to this question is basically unknowable. Even if Obama has a very long presidency full of consequential decisions, I’m pretty sure we’ll still be debating this question.
So, we’ve got that to look forward to …
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December 11, 2008, 9:23 am — Updated: 10:48 am -->
No Intelligence Re-Design?
By Tobin Harshaw
More stasis we can believe in? “The House Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat said Tuesday he has recommended that President-elect Barack Obama keep the country’s current national intelligence director and CIA chief in place for some time to ensure continuity in U.S. intelligence programs during the transition to a new administration,” reports Congress Daily’s Chris Strom (free link here).
“Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, said he also recommended to Obama’s transition team that some parts of the CIA’s controversial alternative interrogation program should be allowed to continue. He declined to say what he specifically recommended, however.”
Salon’s Glenn Greenwald has the predictable outrage:
Here’s what is most amazing about this. While virtually all of the Bush agenda over the last eight years ended up being deeply unpopular and profoundly discredited, it was his foreign policy and intelligence programs (torture, rendition, illegal surveillance, war) which caused the most intense opposition, at least among Democratic voters. That is a large part of why Democrats just won their second straight national election promising to oppose Bush’s policies and to implement “change.” It was the policies implemented and overseen by Bush’s Pentagon, CIA and “homeland security” apparatus that caused the most disgrace. “Continuity” in those areas would be nothing less than a patent betrayal of everything Democrats, over the last two years, told the citizenry they intended to do.
And yet, having watched Obama already announce that he is retaining Bush’s Defense Secretary, here we have the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee also urging that Obama keep, for “at least” six months, Bush’s handpicked Director of National Intelligence (whom Democrats excoriated during the FISA debates for manipulating and, as even Reyes himself noted, outright lying to them) and Bush’s handpicked CIA Director (who was, as Obama himself said, the “architect and chief defender” of Bush’s illegal NSA spying programs). Even worse, Reyes is publicly urging that Obama maintain, rather than overhaul, “some parts of the CIA’s controversial alternative interrogation program” — or else we’ll all be slaughtered by the Terrorists.
Town Hall’s Carol Platt Liebau has the predictable plaudits:
Obviously, what Reyes suggests would be good for US national security, and that should be President-elect Obama’s primary consideration. Even so, as the linked piece notes, retaining these men would be controversial with the left, where both are hated — McConnell, for his outspoken support for some kinds of wiretapping of suspected terrorists and Hayden both for having initiated that program and for having supported the CIA detainee interrogation program. (Needless to say, those policies may well have helped protect the US from another terrorist strike over the last seven and a half years).
It took some guts on Reyes’ part to make the suggestion. But it also suggests a certain duplicity on the part of at least some Democrats over the last seven years. They stood by and declined to defend Bush administration policies (presumably for political gain) even though now it sounds as though they are willing to have them continue for some time. In other words, it seems a lot like it wasn’t necessarily that anything was so wrong with the people or the policies — except that they came from a Republican president’s administration.
But Jack Balkin at Balkinization, citing Reyes’s comments and reports that Team Obama is having trouble finding anyone to take the C.I.A. job, focuses on human nature and global parallels:
Reading these two examples, it struck me that they have much in common with the problems of any number of countries transitioning to democracy from a long record of human rights abuses. These examples show how difficult it is for a country that has violated human rights in the past to stop.
On the one hand, many of the people who are qualified for government posts are complicit in the old regime. On the other hand, holdovers from the old regime are pretty comfortable with existing practices, and see no need to make many changes.
It is appalling to think that eight years of the Bush Administration have compromised a good chunk of its country’s intelligence and military experts, as well as politicians from both parties. The past Administration has addicted us to torture, and now we are behaving like a drug addict, denying we have a problem, fearful of a life without the drug, and desperate to avoid the pains of withdrawal.
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December 5, 2008, 9:00 am — Updated: 9:00 am -->
Pyramid Scheme?
By Tobin Harshaw
Yesterday The Times’s Helene Cooper had the scoop that Barack Obama is thinking of giving a speech from a major Muslim capital in his first 100 days in office.
Ben Smith of the Politico makes an educated guess:
Barack Obama told a group of donors in California early last year that his first international trip would be to Muslim Indonesia, a supporter who was present recalled today.
Obama promised during the campaign to convene a Muslim summit, and the New York Times speculated today on where he would deliver a major, early address to a Muslim audience, settling on Egypt as the likeliest.
The Obama donor, Los Angeles real estate executive Ted Leary, recalled that Obama spoke of his plan to donors at a February 20, 2007 breakfast fundraiser at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, soon after announcing his run for president.
“Obama told the 20 or so of us at breakfast that ‘his first trip as President would be to Indonesia - the world’s most populous Muslim country,’” Leary recalled.
Most the reaction has been from the right. Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard’s Blog feels there’s only one good candidate:
If one believes that there is some potential benefit to such a speech, and I’m skeptical but open to the possibility, is there a more compelling location for that speech to take place than in Baghdad? Who cares if it validates the war in Iraq? Obama is to be the President of the United States — and he’s already validated the war by packing his administration with those who supported it. In any event, doesn’t Obama now share President Bush’s objectives for Iraq, if not the same strategy for getting there. A speech in Baghdad would be a chance to make bipartisan this country’s commitment to a stable and democratic Iraq. It would be a chance for Obama to assure those Iraqis who were hostile to President Bush and those who fear a new approach. And most of all, if Obama believes that his words may win hearts and minds, a speech in Baghdad could have the effect of saving American lives by further reducing the strain in relations between U.S. forces and the Iraqi people.
Meanwhile, Abe Greenwald at Commentary thinks that no matter where it occurs, the speech is a bad idea:
The global problems generating from within the Muslim world today are so odious and so obviously self-inflicted that any honest speech on the matter would offend and enrage Muslims the world over. At the same time, because of these very problems, a softball speech about Islam’s current role in global affairs would look like cowardly capitulation. If Obama splits the difference and mixes lukewarm praise with lukewarm condemnation, the stunt will be seen rightly as meaningless.
Obama gives great speeches, and this has encouraged an unwarranted faith in the utility of the medium. No matter how dazzling, oratory is the least effective weapon in the counterterrorism arsenal. If anything, a foreign policy speech aimed at resolving the conflict between the West and radical Islam would give enemies hope that the U.S. is shifting to a less proactive stance, and returning to the more symbolic approach of the pre-Bush days.
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November 26, 2008, 9:08 am — Updated: 9:08 am -->
Meet the New Boss …
By Tobin Harshaw
Stasis we can believe in? “President-elect Barack Obama has decided to keep Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in his post, a show of bipartisan continuity in a time of war that will be the first time a Pentagon chief has been carried over from a president of a different party,” reports The Times. “Mr. Obama was expected to appoint Gen. James L. Jones, a retired Marine commandant and NATO supreme commander, as his national security adviser.”
The conservative pundit Max Boot, writing at Commentary, is pleased as punch at Obama’s foreign-policy team:
The only outright leftist in the bunch is Susan Rice, and she is being shunted aside to a post where the premium is on rhetoric, not action. She will presumably be called upon to explain and defend policies formulated by the senior national security team which includes two men who are not Democrats — Gates and Jones — and one woman who is on the rightward side of the Democratic Party when it comes to national security issues (and paid a price for it in the primaries).
As someone who was skeptical of Obama’s moderate posturing during the campaign, I have to admit that I am gobsmacked by these appointments, most of which could just as easily have come from a President McCain. (Jim Jones is an old friend of McCain’s, and McCain almost certainly would have asked Gates to stay on as well.) This all but puts an end to the 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, the unconditional summits with dictators, and other foolishness that once emanated from the Obama campaign. His appointments suggest that, if anything, his administration will have a Reapolitiker, rather than a liberal, bent, although Clinton and Steinberg at State should be powerful voices for “neo-liberalism” which is not so different in many respects from “neo-conservativism”. Both, for instance, support humanitarian interventions in places like Darfur and Bosnia.
Combined with the moderation of the economic team that Obama has just named, I would say his administration already far exceeds expectations, and he hasn’t even taken office yet.
At TalkLeft, Big Tent Democrat is a bit worried by the symbolism: ” My one problem with this is that it sends the message that Dems can’t do Defense. I would prefer General Wes Clark at Defense, but Congress would have to do a fix for that to happen (as a retired military officer, Clark is ineligible for the Defense post for 10 years after retirement. He retired in 2000.) I have no obvious eligible candidates for the job.”
While Chris Bowers at OpenLeft is plainly in distress:
If there was one message that Obama ran on loudly, clearly, and indisputably, it is that he was going to bring “change” to Washington, D.C. If Gates were kept on as Secretary of Defense, it apparently would also mean that all of his top advisors would also stay on, and that it all happened because long-time D.C. operatives said it should. Keeping the same guy and all of his advisors at the behest of old establishment types is about as far from change as possible.
Secretary of Defense is the big enchilada. Arguably, due to the vast percentage of federal spending it receives, it is more important than all other cabinet secretaries combined. The President may be Commander in Chief, but it is the Secretary of Defense who is decides how most federal revenue is spent. We need change in the Department of Defense, and keeping Gates along with his entire team of advisors and assistants doesn’t fit the bill.
Greg Sargent at TPM, however, thinks all this conciliation on Obama’s part is the laying of a clever trap:
This is probably too obvious to point out, but the game here is that Obama is working to frame G.O.P. obstructionism in advance. By simultaneously claiming a mandate while approaching Republicans with “humility” and a request for their help, Obama is boxing out Republican opponents in advance, laying the groundwork to cast them as partisan and hostile to the people’s will.
That’s why it’s still lost on yours truly why people are seeing Obama as “centrist” based on his bipartisan gestures and tone or his “pragmatic” staff pickes. This stuff is just about positioning in advance, and the real tell will lie in his actual policies.
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November 24, 2008, 2:16 pm — Updated: 2:17 pm -->
Trickle-Down Optimism
By Tobin Harshaw
“Excellent choice.”
The “choice” in question is Barack Obama’s tapping of the University of California, Berkeley professor Christina Romer to be head of the Council of Economic Advisors.
So who’s the quote from? Is it (A) Greg Mankiw, friend of free markets who held the job under president Bush or (b) Brad DeLong, former Clinton administration treasury official and hero of the left-wing-osphere? Answer: both. (See here and here.)
So, other than Obama apparently making good on his promise to span partisan divides, why are we all so happy? The Politico’s Mike Allen has the backgrounder:
Romer and her husband David Romer, also a Berkeley economist, were both campaign economics advisers to Obama.
In March, National Journal had this précis on the couple: “As professors at the University of California (Berkeley), they are well-known macroeconomists — experts on the workings of the U.S. economy — who jointly hold one of six spots on the academic committee of economists that decides when recessions begin and end. They are both steeped in the history of the country’s economy and have recently produced a series of papers looking at the causes and effects of most of the major changes in tax policy in the last 100 years.
“At the same time that Obama is calling for higher income taxes on people making $250,000 or more, the Romers have found that tax increases are generally bad for economic growth and that they primarily discourage investment — the supply-side argument that conservatives use to justify tax cuts for the rich. On the other hand, the Romers have shredded the conservative premise that tax cuts eventually force spending reductions (‘starving the beast’). Instead, they concluded that tax reductions lead only to one thing — offsetting tax increases to recover lost revenue.”
As does Real Time Economics (with more from Professor Mankiw):
One Obama adviser said Ms. Romer wasn’t known for being confrontational and might have a difficult time dealing with Larry Summers, who will be the president’s top economic adviser and can be intellectually intimidating. The Council of Economic Advisers, on its own, has little political power. Its influence in any administration depends greatly on the persuasive powers and personality of its chairman.
But others, like Harvard economics professor and longtime personal friend Gregory Mankiw, say that Ms. Romer is an excellent public speaker and would likely work well with Mr. Summers and Timothy Geithner, who will be Treasury secretary. “I would guess over many issues they would come together,” said Mr. Mankiw, who was chair of President Bush’s council of economic advisers from 2003-05. “I think the Obama administration has so far put together a very impressive economic team.”
So, everybody happy? Not Melissa McEwean at Shakesville, a blog traditionally known less for its economic incisiveness than for its epithet-laced feminism.
“The tonedeafness, it burns,” she writes about the choices of Summers and Romer and of Ellen Moran of Emily’s List as communications honcho. “I’m a little concerned by the appearance (if not an explicit strategy) of choosing Romer (as part of the economic team) and/or Moran (as a public feminist) to counterbalance choosing Summers. It doesn’t work that way. And, apart from anything else, as Shaker rrp has wisely pointed out, choosing Summers also ’signals a return to the fiscal policies that helped cause the credit meltdown.’ Not good. On multiple levels.”
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November 21, 2008, 12:21 pm — Updated: 12:21 pm -->
America’s Next Top Economist (Cont.)
By Chris Suellentrop
Arnold Kling of EconLog rises to the defense of Princeton’s Cecilia Rouse, whose name has been floated as a potential chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration — an idea that “flabbergasted” the Atlantic’s Megan McArdle, who prefers Austan Goolsbee of the University of Chicago. Kling writes:
Megan knows Prof. Goolsbee better than I do, but my instinct about him is that he may lack a talent for the lateral relationship-building that is necessary to be effective in non-academic organizations.
Ms. Rouse appears to have dedicated much of her scholarly work to studying the returns to schooling. Not surprisingly (were you expecting Obama to name a Charles Murray disciple?), her research supports the proposition that the apparent returns to schooling are not due to ability alone, and that schooling itself has a significant return across all ability levels.
I see no reason to doubt her qualifications for CEA chair.
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November 21, 2008, 9:50 am — Updated: 1:15 pm -->
America’s Next Top Economist
By Chris Suellentrop
The Atlantic’s Megan McArdle is discouraged by a National Journal report that Austan Goolsbee, the University of Chicago economist and adviser to Barack Obama, is not a slam dunk to be appointed the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administration. Here’s the report, by Alexis Simendinger for the Lost in Transition blog for National Journal and Government Executive magazines:
Chicago economist Austan Goolsbee — once the chief economic adviser to candidate Barack Obama — may be less of a shoo-in to chair Obama’s White House Council of Economic Advisers than his admirers once imagined.
The Obama transition team is interviewing to find a woman, perhaps a minority woman, to fill the CEA chair — a Senate-confirmed position. Informed sources suggest the candidates on the CEA list now include Princeton University economics and public affairs professor Cecilia Elena Rouse, whose specialty is labor economics. The hunt for a woman, explained several sources close to the transition deliberations, is aimed at broadening the white-male cast of the White House team assembled to date (the current tally of announced picks is 3 women, 9 men).
Goolsbee, a respected University of Chicago professor, remains in contention for other administration posts, the sources added.
McArdle, writing at her eponymous blog for The Atlantic, dubs herself “flabbergasted.” She writes, “Needless to say, given that Obama’s sterling choice of highest-caliber economic advisors was one of my main reason for supporting him, my regret is mounting faster than ever.” She also says:
More to the point, the worst financial crisis in seventy years is really not the time to see if you can brighten up the CEA offices with a nice, decorative matched set of X chromosomes. Goolsbee has been advising Obama since the beginning; presumably, this is some sort of testimony to the esteem in which Obama holds his competence. Throwing him overboard now makes this look like less of a “plus factor” and more like Obama is much less concerned with competence than painting a pretty picture for voters. Given the stakes, that’s more than a little irresponsible.
(The National Journal report, however, suggests that Goolsbee has been on the outs with Obama for some time: “Goolsbee became embroiled this year in a minor controversy about Obama’s views on trade. After notes from a meeting between Goolsbee and a Canadian government official became public in Canada — suggesting that Obama’s chief economic adviser had winked that his candidate’s trade-pact critiques were less about policy convictions than political maneuvering — the media had a field day. Obama denied the accounts and defended Goolsbee. But by early June, at the start of the general election, he added another policy adviser — centrist economist Jason Furman, from the Brookings Institution — to his team, and Furman assumed the task of communicating many of Obama’s policy views.”)
Tyler CowanCowen, the George Mason economist who blogs at Marginal Revolution, is considerably less worried by this development than McArdle is. “This could be either good or bad news; in any case the goal is to maximize his influence,” Cowan writes of Goolsbee.
And Brad DeLong, the Berkeley economist and former Treasury official under Bill Clinton, was blogging yesterday as if the job was still Goolsbee’s.