Archive: May 19th, 2003
‘Star Wars Kid’ Gets Bucks From Blogs
A couple of webloggers are raising money for an unfortunate teenager humiliated worldwide after a private video of his energetic lightsaber moves was leaked to the Net. Webloggers Andy Baio and Jish Mukerji launched a fundraiser Friday for the young man they call the “Star Wars Kid,” whose home video has been downloaded millions of times and watched by people all over the world.
The video shows a lone, overweight teenager fighting a mock battle with a broomstick lightsaber. In the two-minute video, the teenager twirls the broomstick ever more energetically while generating his own lightsaber sound effects. The video, which is obviously not for public consumption, is amusing and excruciating.
Baio and Mukerji, who linked to their video from their weblogs, identify the Star Wars Kid as a 15-year-old French Canadian named Ghyslain. Because Ghyslain is a minor, the pair is protecting his identity. Ghyslain couldn’t be reached for comment. By Friday afternoon, the webloggers’ fund had received more than 100 individual donations totaling nearly $1,000. The pair also has received donations of software and a T-shirt. They plan to buy Ghyslain an Apple iPod and some accessories.
“He’s given us a lot of amusement, so we thought we should do something for him,” explained Mukerji. “There’s been a lot of sympathy donations. A lot of people see a little bit of themselves in him. We’ve all done the same thing. Maybe it was the Saturday Night Fever thing. We’ve all done it.” (Wired.com)
Download the original and the remix.
SANTA CLARA, California — Software maker Roxio said Monday it has acquired for about $40 million the online music service pressplay, a venture jointly owned by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Roxio, best known for its CD-burning software, owns the Napster brand and is expected to relaunch pressplay under the name that set Internet music file-swapping in motion.
The Santa Clara-based Roxio purchased pressplay for $12.5 million in cash and approximately 3.9 million shares of Roxio common stock, according to a statement from both companies. Based on Roxio’s closing stock price on Friday, the purchase price would be approximately $39.5 million, the companies said. Roxio shares were trading at $7.49 each, up 59 cents, on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Monday. Roxio bought the Napster brand on the cheap after the company, sued into submission by the music labels, dissolved. (Wired.com)
Pentagon Loses ALOT of Money - $1 Trillion Missing
The Department of Defense, already infamous for spending $640 for a toilet seat, once again finds itself under intense scrutiny, only this time because it couldn’t account for more than a trillion dollars in financial transactions, not to mention dozens of tanks, missiles and planes. The Pentagon’s unenviable reputation for waste will top the congressional agenda this week, when the House and Senate are expected to begin floor debate on a Bush administration proposal to make sweeping changes in how the Pentagon spends money, manages contracts and treats civilian employees.
The Bush proposal, called the Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act, arrives at a time when the nonpartisan General Accounting Office has raised the volume of its perennial complaints about the financial woes at Defense, which recently failed its seventh audit in as many years. “Overhauling DOD’s financial management operations represent a challenge that goes far beyond financial accounting to the very fiber of (its) . . . business operations and culture,” GAO chief David Walker told lawmakers in March. (SFGate.com)
Washington - Well-informed court observers say that there could be two Supreme Court resignations next month, Chief Justice William H. Rehn- quist and Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, bringing the greatest upheaval on the court in 32 years.
Rehnquist’s resignation is considered likely, though not certain, while O’Connor’s is considered likely by some court insiders and less so by others.
The White House, however, is preparing for the possibility of two or three vacancies, because if Rehnquist is replaced by a sitting justice and O’Connor also goes, two seats but three positions will be open. Yet another seat could open up if Justice John Paul Stevens, who is 83, retires, but that is considered unlikely. While the speculation in Washington is that Justice Antonin Scalia would be elevated to chief justice, objections are being raised within the administration because of his age. Though Scalia is a very youthful 67, some feel a younger person should become chief justice to ensure long-term impact. (NewsDay.com)
Free Trade is a Bad Thing - IMF and World Bank Orthodoxy is Increasing Global Poverty
In November 1999, during the World Trade Organisation ministerial conference in Seattle, I watched from my hotel room as thousands demonstrated against the evils of globalisation.
Anarchists clad in black marched alongside grandmothers dressed as turtles and steelworkers from Philadelphia. They saw international trade as a threat - to their jobs, the environment or simply as part of a capitalist conspiracy.
As leader of the delegation from the United Kingdom, I was convinced that the expansion of world trade had the potential to bring major benefits to developing countries and would be one of the key means by which world poverty would be tackled.
In order to achieve this, I believed that developing countries would need to embrace trade liberalisation. This would mean opening up their own domestic markets to international competition. The thinking behind this approach being that the discipline of the market would resolve problems of underperformance, a strong economy would emerge and that, as a result, the poor would benefit. This still remains the position of major international bodies like the IMF and World Bank and is reflected in the system of incentives and penalties which they incorporate in their loan agreements with developing countries. But my mind has changed.
I now believe that this approach is wrong and misguided. Since leaving the cabinet a year ago, I’ve had the opportunity to see at first hand the consequences of trade policy. No longer sitting in the air-conditioned offices of fellow government ministers I have, instead, been meeting farmers and communities at the sharp end. (The Guardian)