Living in the City

The following news release by Chad Currie speaks about the apparent role of the New Media in the U.S Presidential elections. "The Race for the New-Media Nomination As they grapple for votes, Clinton and Obama are also locked in a battle of the brands" Feb 28, 2008 "We are watching the first presidential election of the new-media age. Call it election 2.0, if you like. The Obama campaign's ability to delay -- and possibly derail -- Clinton 's coronation isn't just a political headline; it's a marketing story. Regardless of their political leanings, advertising pros must take notice of new media's influence on the outcome of this race. In 2006, blogging and online donations were the game changers. In 2008, we add YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, Digg and the like. Obama's team has benefited more from new-media tactics than Clinton 's team. Naturally, we will wonder if the Obama campaign's fortune should be attributed to a superior new-me...

There’s a strong possibility that a lot of retirees will die of starvation, and/or be homeless within the next 10 years. At the rate their grown-up children are sapping their intended retirement funds through loans, a lot of aging bag ladies will be visible in the streets in the near future. This phenomenon currently has a collective value of 67 billion pounds, roughly averaging at 12,610 pounds per grown up child - and growing even larger. Debt payments account for 42% of these loans and 29% for homeowner loans or property acquisition. These adults enjoy a lifestyle beyond their means, and they apparently have no compunction about driving their tired parents to mendicancy to support their whims. After caring for them through adulthood in back breaking grinds at work, they would be denied a well deserved restful retirement because of the immaturity and irresponsible nature of their children. And the loans may not even have a repayment clause, or at least a binding document. I...

From MATHEW INGRAM's February 28, 2008's mingram@globeandmail.com Free plug for: Mathew Ingram Read his Bio If it wasn't already obvious that the stock market has a bad case of nerves, it became abundantly so this week when a Web-traffic report from comScore was released with some unflattering numbers, and investors obliterated more than $15-billion (U.S.) worth of Google's stock market value. The report suggested that the click-through rate on Google's text ads - the ones that show up when you type in a keyword at the Google site, and the ones that show up on other websites as well - was virtually unchanged in January compared with a year earlier, and was about 12-per-cent lower than the click-through rate in the immediately preceding quarter. For a company that has been growing at double-digit rates for the better part of four years, and has been assigned a premium stock market multiple as a result, that kind of news is enough to...

I always say this wherever I go, whoever I am with, I am proud to be part of Marikina City. I like its "rural" like ambiance and yet I know I am in the city. It is a community where discipline is almost always apparent in the way its citizens conduct their daily life. Back in the old days, Marikina manufactured the best shoes. I remember back when I was about 10 years old, my aunts used to come to Marikina to have a made to order shoes. Sturdy almost to a fault, Marikina used to be THE shoeplace. The arrival of Made in China shoes however, extinguished the marketability of the Marikina made shoe. It could no longer compete with the cheaper and the mass marketed shoes from the Chinese. Sigh! Wonder how the early Marikina shoe industry made its mark? "Marikina is not the shoe capital of the Philippines for nothing. For the greater part of the 20th century, Marikina was the biggest manufacturer of quality shoes. There was a time, between 1978 and 1982, when Marikina’s women...

Some Horse Things I Picked Up from the Net 1. The French, Italians, Swiss, Japanese and Canadian are horse meat gourmets. 2. Around 65,000 to 100,000 horses are slaughtered in the United States for export. Where? Naturally to Europe, Japan Quebec . 3. Horsemeat is tuoted to be of superiour, both lean and fine textured as well as protein-rich. But at the same time it is tough that needs tenderizing by way of marinades. 4. It is said that horses are immune to Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (afflicting cows). Precisely, a good substitute for beef whenever there is mad cow scare. 5. Horse meat is sold as minced meat, steaks, sausages, and brochettes. 6. Horse meat is healthy: 175 calories, 29 grams of protein, 68 milligrams cholesterol per 3-ounce portion. The same cut of sirloin weighs in at 210 calories, 24 grams of protein, 75 milligrams of cholesterol. The horse’s meat possess glycogen content that is four times that of milk. It is popular with people suffering from...

For the New Year, I have decided to upgrade my look. Aside from a new hairstyle and hair color, I found the best thing from Zenni Optical -- a pair of stylish prescription glasses to complement my new aura. Without having to go to an optometrist, I bought this Zenni Optical $8 Rx Glasses through the web. Each Rx glass sold online is guaranteed to be of high quality frames. Each pair is designed in outstanding thin and light plastic material with anti-scratch coated lens to provide full UV protection. My new Zenni Optical Rx glasses are truly of value for money, having been factory lens edge polished and beveled. What more could I ask for? Every pair of Zenni Optical Rx glasses sold is encased in best quality hard eyeglass case with micro fiber lens cleaning cloth. It was truly a great discovery from Zenni Optical! With their wide array of stylish selections, look what I got, a two tone plastic full rim frame (#3390) -- in burgundy. And ...

As reported by Raju Shanbhag of TMCnet Contributing Editor. Read all about it here .

Whether you are a believer or not, Happy Valentines just the same! And BTW, let me just say this... I will always remember Valentines with images of wine, roses, chocolates, braided hair, blue and white organza dress - - - happiness, and at the same time thoughts of fear and loneliness. Sigh :-( Even in remembrance there's still these mixed feelings of emotions. But hey, Cheers everyone!

I got this invitation from babymeemo to join this blog promotion activity (I think). I have taken the liberty of copying the full text of her broadcast so I don't lose anything in the process. I hope I got it right. So here goes, if you will, join in. Thanks. "You do not have to be tagged to play along. This game is simple and so are the rules. 1. Copy from *Start Copy Here* through *End Copy Here* 2. Add your site(s) to the list. Just be sure to post at each site you add. 3. Tag or don’t tag, your choice, however, the more tags you create the bigger the list will grow. 4. Let me know your blog’s name and url by leaving me a comment HERE . I will add you to the master list. (If you would like a scroll box code, leave me your email address and I will email it to you.) Scroll Box Example. (I decided not to use the box for the Big Bang for ease of copying.) 5. Come back and copy the master list back to your site, often. This process will allow late-comers to get as mu...

Before the year of the Rat ends and that's going to be sometime in February 2009, I would have done at least 1 photomosaic project. According to engadget a 'photo mosaic is one large image made out of hundreds and thousands of tiny images from your personal stash, from google images or even frames from a movie. There are a few applications that do this for free, on Macs / PCs. In the field of photographic imaging, a photographic mosaic (also known under the term Photomosaic, a portmanteau of photo and mosaic , trademarked by Runaway Technology, Inc.) is a picture (usually a photograph ) that has been divided into (usually equal sized) rectangular sections, each of which is replaced with another photograph of appropriate average color. When viewed at low magnifications, the individual pixels appear as the primary image, while close exa mination reveals that the image is in fact made up of many hundreds or thousands of smaller images. They are a computer created type of montag...

Are we supposed to be happy about this? Finally it is out. iPhone's competition is here. Read on. BARCELONA (Reuters) - Texas Instruments Inc said on Monday it would demonstrate a prototype cell phone based on Android, the highly anticipated mobile phone operating system being built by Web search leader Google Inc. The U.S. chip maker said the phone it will demonstrate at the Mobile World Congress trade show has "one button access" to key applications such as Web browsing, e-mail, messaging and video, making it easier for consumers to use such features. The device will also allow for the integration of different applications, a capability mostly limited to desktop computers. For example, a real estate agent could combine information from its database with mapping software to let customers easily locate properties on the go, TI said. The prototype handset will run on TI's OMAP850 phone processor, which includes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth short-range wireless conn...

I love intelligent or smart cars . I am sure you would too. 'The original idea behind the very short "smart car" was that the vehicle would be easy to park. It is short enough to allow it to be parked "nose-in" where a conventionally sized car would have to parallel park. Its length of 250 centimetres (98.4 in ) equals the width of a regular parking slot, allowing two or three smarts to park in the same space as one normal car if parked side-on to the usual parking direction'. Smart Car custom LCB (Lindt chocolate Bunny edition.) 'The project idea was originally started by Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch and was nicknamed the "Swatchmobile". The name SMART is an acronym for Swatch Mercedes ART . [1] [2] The car was supposed to use innovative features (such as a hybrid engine ) and to be an affordable car for young people. Similar to the objective for the Citroën 2CV in the 1940s , its purpose was to "transport two people and a...

From this site is the following news release: When Yahoo Inc.’s price tag is $44.6-billion (U.S.) – and that’s the starting bid – it is no wonder that few firms have been touted as potential white knights, able to rescue Yahoo from the clutches of cash-rich Microsoft. But what about News Corp.? Douglas A. McIntyre makes a nice pitch for the idea in his blog for 24/7 Wall St. Oh sure, even after sifting through the lint in its pockets, News Corp. would not be able to come up with a bigger, better bid for Yahoo, and selling off some of Yahoo’s overseas divisions would not ease the financial pain. But with Google Inc.’s help, maybe something could happen. Mr. McIntyre writes: “Google Inc. (GOOG) would almost certainly advance News Corp. a few years of money against having the exclusive search franchise for Yahoo. Google has already given News Corp. guarantees from search results sold on MySpace. What could News Corp. get for the rights? Probably $4-billion a year. A five-year advance ...