RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP55

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 55 - download now - subscribe now - review us on iTunes!

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Due to a real big screw up on my part, yesterday's show notes are irretrievably lost. Here, however, are today's show notes:

George Bush has flip-flopped on the environment, and has decided to create a bumbling government effort to stop global warming, the same day that NASA proclaims it's a stupid idea:

Bush's 'new climate strategy'
Today's headlines are full of the news that President Bush is &; quot;unveiling a new climate strategy.&; quot; If your immediate reaction is cynicism, well ... looks like you learned something over the last seven years. Let's look a little closer....
NASA's Top Official Questions Global Warming

NASA administrator Michael Griffin continues to draw the ire of preeminent climate scientists inside and outside of NASA, as well as members of Congress, after apparently downplaying the need to combat global warming.

In an interview broadcast yesterday on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" program, Griffin was asked by NPR's Steve Inskeep whether he is concerned about global warming.

"I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists," Griffin told Inskeep. "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."

"To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change," Griffin said. "I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take."

Griffin's comments immediately drew stunned reaction from James Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

In other interesting political news, we nominated another guy to the World Bank chief slot:

US nominates new World Bank chief
US President George W Bush has nominated Robert Zoellick, former deputy secretary of state, to be president of the World Bank. — His nomination will be considered by the World Bank's 24-member board of governors, although the US nomination has always been accepted in the past.

Turning to tech news, are we seeing a repeat of the Digg revolt, or is this just a bunch of whiny kids posting their angst-ridden comments?:

Mass Deletion Leads To LiveJournal Revolt
Green Monkey writes "LiveJournal has been suspending accounts suspected of promoting incest — except that many of them were communities for survivors of abuse and people discussing Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Even after being informed of the problem, LiveJournal apparently refuses to reinstate the banned accounts. LiveJournal's official news blog has filled up with hundreds of complaints protesting the decision, so we could have another Digg-style user rebellion brewing." Update: 05/31 11:50 GMT by KD : strredwolf writes to let us know that in their offical blog LiveJournal admits to botching the suspension, saying "We made a mistake and now we are going to try to fix it."

And in breaking news, technology gets better!:

Computers Outperform Humans at Recognizing Faces
seven of five writes "According to the recent Face Recognition Grand Challenge, The match up of face-recognition algorithms showed that machine recognition of human individuals has improved tenfold since 2002 and a hundredfold since 1995. 'Among other advantages, 3-D facial recognition identifies individuals by exploiting distinctive features of a human face's surface--for instance, the curves of the eye sockets, nose, and chin, which are where tissue and bone are most apparent and which don't change over time. Furthermore, Phillips says, "changes in illumination have adversely affected face-recognition performance from still images. But the shape of a face isn't affected by changes in illumination." Hence, 3-D face recognition might even be used in near-dark conditions.'"

Oh, and follow this link for a marketing tool to help you promote your YouTube video content: http://mashable.com/2007/05/31/tellyadder/

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Jacob Li Hopkins - Day 0

The largest baby picture collection yet - over 100 pictures ( I thinkl... if it all uploaded right). Check it out though.



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RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP53

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 53 - download link coming soon: check the feed for details: subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

A bunch of new startup acquisition news. We talk a bit about the acquisitions specifically, and then a bit in general about the prevalence in the news lately of all the startups getting bought:

Look For Confirmation of eBay/StumbleUpon Today
I’m hearing that the eBay/StumbleUpon acquisition will be officially announced sometime today. Keep an eye our for the press release. We originally broke this rumor in April when a term sheet was reportedly signed. The Wall Street Journal picked up the story earlier this month.

I don’t know if the price will be disclosed, or if the rumors of $75 million are roughly correct.

An Old Media company actually gets it right with a new media acquisition:

CBS Acquires Europe’s Last.fm for $280 million
The quickly growing music social network Last.fm has been acquired by CBS for $280 million in an all-cash deal.

UK based Last.fm launched five years ago and has become a social networking favorite with 15 million active users. It has become a massive repository for music information (artist and song wikis, listening data from users, etc.). In the U.S., companies like Pandora, MOG and iLike all compete with some of Last.fm’s features, although none of those startups has built the basic social network/community of last.fm.

The deal sees Last.fm’s management team staying in place and the site maintaining a separate identity.

Last.fm has been an attractive takeover target for some time. CBS as a buyer though is surprising and is a sure sign that the media giant is getting serious about Web 2.0. CBS acquired video blog WallStrip for $5 million earlier this month, and has been on a bit of a buying spree lately after filling out the management team on the interactive side of the business last year.

Previous TechCrunch coverage here.

This certainly explains why Last.fm was a little slow to jump on the Facebook Applications bandwagon last week - they were understandably distracted.

An interesting perspective on the same story:

Don't Look Now, But Old Media May Be Figuring This New Media Thing Out
It's not much, but there are a few signs that some "old media" companies are starting to figure out what makes new media tick. This morning's announcement that CBS is buying last.fm for $280 million isn't all that interesting on its own -- but it's one of a pattern of recent deals by so-called "old media" companies that have them looking to build or buy into communities, rather than just content. The mistake that many media companies have made over the last few years is the belief that the content was king -- and as long as they had the content, the community would form naturally. What people are noticing is that the community is important and it's hard work to build one. Of course, recognizing that is only the first step. The real question is what these companies will do to cultivate these communities. In most cases (MySpace being the one exception so far), these types of purchases tend to wither and die once they become part of a larger company (and the entrepreneurial souls of the community move on).

And other startup news:

Google buys anti-malware browser virtualization startup (Ryan Naraine/Zero Day)
Google has quietly made its first anti-malware acquisition, snapping up GreenBorder Technologies, a venture-backed company that sells browser virtualization security software.

And in political news, both Art and I are surprised we didn't hear about this earlier:

Cyber-Spies Tracking Terror on Web
Dana Rosenblatt writes on CNN.com:

There is an unconventional war being waged on the Internet. The battles here know no boundaries; and are fought from homes and offices from small Midwestern towns to Europe and the Middle East.

For the fighters in these battles weapons usually consist of no more than collected intelligence and computer programming skills.

It's no secret anymore that active terrorist cells are currently operating freely and openly on the Internet, using propaganda tactics to illicit prospective recruits.

The emergence of these terrorist groups has spawned their nemesis: groups of researchers, hackers, and maverick computer geeks who cyber-stalk terrorist networks online and take them down.

More here.

Resembling a modern-day Clark Kent, Weisburd is a boyish 40-something former computer programmer who decided to use his background and skills to track terrorists following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

He's proved himself a force to be reckoned with, fighting -- and winning -- a war waged against the "dark side" of the Internet.

Weisburd's reputation has earned him the nickname "the vigilante" in cyber space, a legacy he's eager to shrug off.

"If I was a vigilante running a Web site, I would hurt you," says Weisburd.

"If I find that you're running a Web site for al Qaeda, I'm not going to hurt you. I'll report you to people that will ask you to come quietly, and if you don't go quietly, they may hurt you," he says.

Art jumps for joy:

Fred Thompson to Form Presidential Committee

"Law and Order" star Fred Thompson — will make his flirtation with a White — House bid official this week, forming — a presidential committee and launching — a fundraising effort

His advisers say they do not expect to match the amount of money the others are raising, but profess to be unconcerned.

"He doesn't need as much money as the others have raised," said one supporter, noting that his Hollywood fame has already given him a boost in the polls. "He hasn't raised nor has he spent a single dime so far. People should not expect that he will outraise anyone."

We find a Democrat we like:

Lieberman in Iraq sees "progress,"
What a coincidence. Two years after Cheney said the insurgency was in its last throes, Joe Lieberman made essentially the same prediction.

CNN reports that Lieberman is on an unannounced "surprise" visit to Baghdad. Paula Hancocks followed Lieberman around. She talked to Lieberman and reported, "He said he was happy with the progress. He was devastated by the fact that May was turning in to the deadliest month since November 2004. But he said he did believe that this surge eventually would pay off and it would start to break the insurgency."

And in people turning on the Democrats news:

Cindy Sheehan Quits as 'Face' of Anti-War Movement
Cindy Sheehan, the "peace mom" who made headlines in 2005 by staging a marathon protest outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, said Monday that she no longer wants to be seen as a leader of the anti-war movement.

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RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP52

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 52 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

Solo show today... I talked a bit about this:

Bill calls for better tracking of faster broadband
How fast is U.S. "broadband" service, anyway? The FCC says 200 kbps is good enough to count, which sets the bar kind of low. Then again, it lets the government claim that broadband service is available in 99 percent of all ZIP codes (another fairly useless measure). A bill introduced in the Senate last week requires broadband providers to use smaller geographic areas than ZIP codes to report statistics, and force the FCC to think again about whether a 200 kbps pipe is all that broad. The Broadband Data Improvement Act was introduced by Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, chair of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.

For more about S.1492:
- read this article from InfoWorld
- see the legislation from the Library of Congress

Related Articles:
FCC head says broadband is top priority. Report
VoIP lets hotels charge extra for true broadband. Report

And everyone seems to be jumping on this story... my analysis... Google probably has little to worry about:

FTC to Investigate Google-DoubleClick Acquisition
Steve Lohr writes in The New York Times:

The Federal Trade Commission has opened a preliminary antitrust investigation into Google’s planned $3.1 billion purchase of the online advertising company DoubleClick, an industry executive briefed on the agency’s plans said yesterday.

The inquiry began at the end of last week, after it was decided that the Federal Trade Commission instead of the Justice Department would conduct the review, said the executive, who asked not to be identified because he had not been authorized to speak. The two agencies split the duties of antitrust enforcement.

An F.T.C. spokesman said yesterday that the agency did not comment on pending inquiries.

More here.

And in other Google news, something else Google might not need to worry about:

Look Out Google - Here Come the Aussies
The only word that describes what happened to our inbox tonight was “spammed” - no less than eleven links were sent to this Australian article which talks about new stealth startup MyLiveSearch.

Dubbing itself the “world’s first live search engine” it promises to show us the 4/5 of the web that Google doesn’t index - this includes the grey web of dynamically created web pages as well as real time indexing of more traditional pages.

The article says “Google is keeping a close eye on a small, suburban Melbourne start-up that claims to be developing a search engine that improves on the world leader” and goes on to quote founder Rob Gabriel as saying his startup “gives better, more relevant results” than Google and “this technology could be snapped onto any of the major search engines and improve them.”

Those are big words for a startup that is yet to launch into private beta. We’ll be taking a look at MyLiveSearch at the end of June when they launch, and looking for a little backup to their website claim of “searching the internet will never be the same…” It’s certainly true that Google isn’t perfect, but it will take more than words to take them down. These guys are feisty, though, and I like that.

In dumb engineering news:

Nissan Warns Drivers: Don't Put Mobile Phones Near Our Keys

Nissan is going around warning a bunch of US drivers of either the Nissan Altima or the Infiniti G35 to be careful with their mobile phones. However, it's not, as you might expect, about driving while using those mobile phones. Nope. It's about keeping those mobile phones away from the car keys that open and start the cars. Like many newer cars, these cars use a wireless key system. Unfortunately, they're discovering that mobile phones receiving calls while in contact with the keys can scramble the electronic code on the keys... making them into useless paperweights. This would seem like a pretty big problem -- and simply telling drivers to keep their phones away from their keys isn't likely to work very well, considering phones and keys very often end up together in people's pockets or purses.

A good alternative to Joost, for those without invites:

Joox: Another Illegal Video Site?

Joox.net is an online repository for videos–mostly television shows and movies that seemingly elude copyright agreements.

You can find quite a few episodes of The Simpsons, or Grey’s Anatomy, and the second half of Pirates of the Carribean 3: At World’s End. Content is added by Joox users, in what looks to be a somewhat complicated process. You’ll have to first play your video in the provided player, and add it to Joox directly from the player. The clip will need to be confirmed before becoming part of the Joox library, but you can still watch these upcoming videos. As Joox is probably not based in the U.S. (the domain is reportedly registered in Sweden), Joox may manage to avoid a few copyright infringement suits for a while. Also to keep in mind, you’ll need to download a divx file as Joox does not operate in flash, and doesn’t have the best quality either.

Others in this space include Pirate Bay, which has confirmed its upcoming streaming service, and front runner Joost, the Internet television provider that has landed copyright agreements with nearly every major network, studio and brand in creation, BitTorrent, which has recently launched a video store, and Jalipo, which could be considered a paid version of Joost.

Google's slow pace contributes to this more than anything else, in my opinion:

Google's Slow Shift to Social Unification?

One of the aspects largely overlooked in Google's recently unveiled Hot Trends is the prominent link on a topic's page to 'Discuss with others'. While the feature is currently flawed, and as such is basically useless, it could signal a move by Google towards unifying their services with a more social approach.

Clicking on the 'Discuss with others' link (found immediately below the Hot Trends 'Peak' information), takes you to a Google Group entitled 'Google Trends Hot Trends'. Despite being prominently displayed, this link garners little in the way of actual discussion on the Google Groups page - a total of 34 messages, 20 total members, and an activity rating of 'Low' for a group that is linked to on every single Hot Trend item.

Instead of this rather pointless broad group, Google should create a Google Group for each individual topic found in the Hot Trends. Furthermore they should make it so that at least some of the discussions will load right within the Hot Trends Topic page itself rather than redirecting you to the Google Groups page. This would show that there are others who are actively participating in discussions and entice more readers to contribute as well.

If Google could get this very basic social feature working in the Hot Trends area, they could expand the idea to their other services as well. This could particularly be interesting in Google News, where a single discussion thread on an article might be preferable to some over multiple discussion threads on sites like Digg, Netscape, Reddit, and the like.

Google Groups already keeps track of users posts and gives the option to have an avatar and profile just like the social news sites. Why Google isn't making any moves to utilize these tools already in place is a bit baffling to me. It reminds me a bit of the Google Toolbar/Dice situation with StumbleUpon. In that situation, Google had the elements in place to create a service that would have been very much like StumbleUpon before it was popular, yet they lacked the foresight to do so. Here again, they have just about everything in place to unify some of their services into a more social network, but they still have yet to act upon it.

A really neat link (pay attention to this, could be a possible ARG (alternate reality game) alert):
Batman Dark Knight viral campaign.

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New

This new business called Martin Worldwide in Westlake Village, CA, came up with a new program that is said to be off the wall amazing. ResponseCom™ is the newest thing for businesses and other people to get their call volume up. For the most part businesses need it for Sales Leads and to pump up the response rate. I would even like to get involved in this.

Martin Worldwide is one of the largest and most successful mailing list providers. It offers customized mailing lists, and fax lists to any one that needs it. I think its even more interesting that they guarantee its data integrity in writing. I guess we will have to see about that.

[This post contains a paid placement.]

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech - EP51

RizWords - Daily Politics and Tech
Episode 51 - download now - subscribe now

• A member of the TechPodcast Network @ techpodcast.com. If it's Tech, it's here.
  
• Remember, if you're listening on the podcast recording, you can call into the show live if you tune in through TalkShoe.com at 2:30 PM EST every weekday.
• If you like the podcast (and you haven't already given us a rating), head over and do so, and don't forget to sign up for the discussion list.
• Other Podcast Plugs:
  
• TalkGirls comes on Tuesday nights. Check out the TalkGirls Podcast ... it's good times!
• Cotolo Chronicles: Frank is a good friend of the show, and an associate of the late great Wolfman Jack. Check out his podcast.
• NewsReal: Good friend to Art and I - has one of the best hours of news podcast each week.
• You Are the Guest: Bill Grady turns the microphone on the internet's most interesting people.
  
• Sponsors:
  
• Try GoToMeeting for 45 days! Visit www.GoToMeeting.com/podcast to start your free trial today.
  
• J. Douglas Barker - Voice-overs for you! www.romancingthetone.com

We opened the show with something Mark thought would be good news for conservatives wishing to stay sane in the mornings... of course Art found the dark cloud around the good news rather quickly:

Rosie O'Donnell has fought her last fight at The View.

ABC said on Friday she will not be back on the television talk show following her angry confrontation with co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Wednesday.

It ended a colourful eight-month tenure for O'Donnell that lifted the show's ratings but no doubt caused heartburn for show creator Barbara Walters.

O'Donnell feuded with Donald Trump and frequently had tense exchanges with the more conservative Hasselbeck.

O'Donnell said last month she would be leaving because she could not agree to a new contract with ABC executives.

"Rosie contributed to one of our most exciting and successful years at The View," Walters said.

"I am most appreciative. Our close and affectionate relationship will not change."

In a statement, O'Donnell said that "it's been an amazing year and I love all three women."

'US troops terrorists'

No one was feeling the love on Wednesday, when the argument with Hasselbeck began over O'Donnell's statement last week about the war: "655 000 Iraqi civilians have died. Who are the terrorists?"

Talk show critics accused O'Donnell of calling US troops terrorists.

She called Hasselbeck "cowardly" for not saying anything in response to the critics.

"Do not call me a coward, because No 1, I sit here every single day, open my heart and tell people what I believe," Hasselbeck retorted, and their riveting exchange continued despite failed attempts by their co-hosts to cut to a commercial.

According to a New York Post report, O'Donnell's chief writer, Janette Barber, was allegedly led out of the building on Wednesday after she was caught drawing moustaches on photographs of Hasselbeck in The View studios.

ABC executives did not return repeated calls for questions on the incident on Friday.

Scrapbook-like video

On Thursday, O'Donnell had asked for a day off to celebrate her partner's birthday. The View aired a taped show on Friday.

On her website, O'Donnell posted a scrapbook-like video on Friday with pictures and news clippings of her tenure at The View.

Cyndi Lauper's Sisters of Babylon played in the background.

A day earlier, she had posted messages on her website indicating she might not be back.

"When painting there is a point u must step away from the canvas as the work is done," she wrote. "Any more would take away.

The Nose on your Face finds a conspiracy uncovered in all this:

Despite claims that a monster pig shot in Alabama bears a striking resemblance to “The View” host Rosie O’Donnell, both ABC and O’Donnell representatives deny that the enormous swine is the controversial star. ABC’s abrupt announcement on Friday, however, that O’Donnell would be immediately leaving “The View” only lent strength to the rumors that she may indeed have been bagged by 11 year-old Jamison Stone while on a hastily scheduled “foraging retreat” in Alabama.

“Rosie does like foraging as a stress-reliever,” said her spokesperson, Amelda Johnson, “but she stopped going to Alabama several years ago after she discovered it was a favorite foraging haven of Starr Jones.”

In Newsguy Jon news:

Sheen Re-Thinks Loose Change Alliance

May 27, 2007 -- SUPPORT for the loopy 9/11 documentary "Loose Change" - which argues that the World Trade Center terror attack was part of a secret U.S. government conspiracy - is quickly losing steam.

A source tells us Charlie Sheen "is having second thoughts" about being involved in an updated version of the flick, which has a huge following on YouTube. As Page Six reported in March, Sheen had agreed to narrate the ridiculous flick, presumably to give it some needed Hollywood sizzle.

The conspiracy documentary got a further boost earlier this month when Virgin Atlantic announced it would offer the current, narration-free version as an in-flight movie choice. But just days later, it scrapped the idea. "After Virgin announced it, bloggers went nuts and there was so much negative feedback that [the airline] a few days later nixed it," the source said.

After we revealed Sheen's participation, the "Two and a Half Men" star told Extra: "It's a story that needs to be told. It's a story about the truth, and the truth needs to be exposed. It's not just me, not just the Hollywood community [that] is standing up saying what you have given us doesn't make sense. We just want better answers." As for Sheen now pulling his support, the star's flack, Stan Rosenfield, did not return calls over two days.

Another proponent of the "Loose Change" theory is Rosie O'Donnell, who trumpeted her feelings about it on "The View" and her blog, making ABC brass nervous and infuriating some viewers.

O'Donnell reportedly had booked the film's producers, Korey Rowe and Dylan Avery, on Thursday's show. But after getting into a fight with Elisabeth Hasselbeck Wednesday, and after her chief writer was caught defacing Hasselbeck's photos with mustaches, O'Donnell left the show.

"Loose Change" pushes the widely debunked "controlled demolition" theory, which claims the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center were blown up from within. It alleges the jet-fuel fires inside the towers weren't hot enough to melt the buildings' steel beams.

Those claims were soundly refuted by Popular Mechanics magazine, which meticulously shot down every single one.

In other Venezualian news, there is major political change afoot... the pictures tell the story better than the links do, but pay close attention to both:

CHAVEZ FORCES CLASH WITH DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS!

Venezuala continues its descent into hell.
** The Jungle Hut is following the clashes from Venezuala.
** Globovision has photos from the crackdown by the regime.
** Venezuela News and Views- Even in San Felipe we are hearing sirens and pot banging!
** Devil's Excrement- "Chavista thugs are attacking another private station!" -Photos
** Xeni Jardin has video links of the regime blasting the protesters with water cannons.
** Citizen Feathers has video of the "pot-banging" against the regime.

(ElPais)

Chavez warned (via BBC): "Venezuelan armed forces are ready. Anyone generating violence will regret it."

He even sent in the tanks for the first time on the opposition.

A supporter of Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) uses the Venezuelan flag to cover herself from tear gas during a protest outside the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) in Caracas May 27, 2007. (Reuters)

Venezuelan troops earlier today seized the broadcast equipment of the opposition television station.
Reuters reported:

Venezuelan troops have seized an anti-government television channel's broadcast equipment, the station said on Sunday, ahead of a controversial midnight EDT/0400 GMT takeover by President Hugo Chavez that will take the broadcaster off the air.

Supporters of Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) lie on the floor after being hit by tear gas during a protest outside the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) in Caracas May 27, 2007. RCTV is being forced off the air after President Hugo Chavez's administration refused to renew its broadcasting license which ends on Sunday. (REUTERS/Yuri Ferrioli)

Publius Pundit has several pictures from the protest earlier before the clashes.
Fausta has a podcast posted discussing the closure of the popular opposition news station.
FREERCTV.com has more on the shutdown.
This is very sad.

Actress Cynthia Lander cries during a live broadcast at RCTV station in Caracas May 27, 2007. The government is not renewing RCTV's license after 53 years on the air because of accusations that the broadcaster participated in a bungled 2002 coup against Chavez, incited violent demonstrations and aired immoral programming. (REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins)


Supporters of Radio Caracas TV (RCTV) clash with police during a protest outside the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL) in Caracas May 27, 2007. RCTV is being forced off the air after President Hugo Chavez's administration refused to renew its broadcasting license which ends on Sunday. (REUTERS/Francesco Spotorno)

Previously:
Hugo Chavez Silences the Opposition- Sends Tanks In!

We had a huge discussion on the devolution of democracy in the UK, much to the chagrin of some of our British listeners:

UK: Police to Get Tough New Terror Powers
David Cracknell writes in The Sunday Times:

New anti-terrorism laws are to be pushed through before Tony Blair leaves office giving “wartime” powers to the police to stop and question people.

John Reid, the home secretary, who is also quitting next month, intends to extend Northern Ireland’s draconian police powers to interrogate individuals about who they are, where they have been and where they are going.

Under the new laws, police will not need to suspect that a crime has taken place and can use the power to gain information about “matters relevant” to terror investigations.

If suspects fail to stop or refuse to answer questions, they could be charged with a criminal offence and fined up to £5,000. Police already have the power to stop and search people but they have no right to ask for their identity and movements.

More here.

Turning to tech news, the whole blogosphere is buzzing with the Facebook stuff. Here's our token coverage:

MySpace v. Facebook: “It’s Not A Decision. It’s an IQ Test”

Venture capitalist Josh Kopelman rips into MySpace today as he applauds Facebook’s new developer platform.

Facebook’s timing is perfect. They just released an API that gives third party developers deep access to Facebook functionality and it’s 20 million users. Not only can these third party startups get a widget placed on people’s Facebook profiles, but they can also get viral distribution through users’ news feeds and access core Facebook features. Using the tools that Facebook made available, developers could build new versions of some of Facebook’s own applications, like Facebook Photos. Users can then remove those default applications and add the new ones. Like Microsoft with Windows, Facebook is now competing with application developers on its own platform.

This isn’t all just talk, either. The most popular third party application, iLike, has nearly 400,000 users just a couple of days after launching and 10x what they had just last Friday. That means nearly 5% of Facebook’s users have now included it on their profile.

Kopelman’s post looks at the new reality from the perspective of a startup. MySpace is a minefield - startups want access to their users but suffer from the very real possibility of being banned, either temporarily or permanently.

Facebook is viewing things from exactly the opposite position: they are giving startups access to Facebook’s core feature set, and allowing them to show advertising and conduct transactions with users without even asking for a cut. This is exactly why I called Facebook the Anti-MySpace last week. Kopelman goes on to say:

Think about it. If you ran a venture-backed company and had to decide whether you wanted to focus your effort on: (a) a property that welcomed you in and let you keep 100% of the revenue you generate or (b) a company with a vague policy that doesn’t let you generate any revenue, which would you choose? I don’t think it’s even a decision. It’s an IQ test.

Kopelman estimates that $250 million has been invested in widget companies in the last 18 months. When these startups think about where to spend their resources, they’ll be weighing MySpace’s relative size advantage (MySpace has 100 million users, growing by 300,000 or so per day. Facebook has 20 million users, growing by 100,000 per day) to the open and transparent nature of Facebook’s approach. On balance I agree with Kopelman. Startups can build a very large business on the back of Facebook. The MySpace path is much riskier.

And as a nod to a few of our listeners who have talked a bit about needing this kind of service, we present Gaboogie:

Conference calling is a $2 billion business in North America alone. But it’s not perceived to be a sexy space, and Gaboogie, which brings some next generation smarts to conference calls if making sexier. Gaboogie starts with a beautifully simple “why didn’t I think of that” solution to this problem: the service calls you. No password is needed because if you’re not supposed to be there, you don’t get called. Participants simply press ‘1′ to join, ‘2′ to decline, and ‘3′ for ‘later.’ The service makes the adjustments for time zones, too. And if you get disconnected, the number is on your caller ID to redial. Calls are setup through the website and it’s easy to check the schedule online. Moderators have a dashboard to monitor calls in progress. You can set participation in a call to “lecture” which lets you simply listen. Calls can be recorded and shared as RSS feeds or MP3 files, all with a single click. Attendees can be added on the fly by simply dragging them from the phonebook.

Want to be part of the Rizzn-ite army? Indoctrination instructions here.

Hilarious Presidential Politics Analysis from a Non-American

This was found on the comments thread for this discussion on SlashDot:

MY KINGDOM FOR MOD POINTS
(Score:5, Funny)
by Anomolous Cowturd (190524) on Friday May 25, @07:09PM ( #19277405)

The best thing a president could possibly do for nerds or just about anyone else is stop making more laws and start dismantling the stupid laws perpetrated by previous governments.

I am not in the US, so I can't do much about your choice of president, but at least I can have my say here. The way I see it from here, your options can be divided unambiguously into two groups:

1: Scumbags that will sell you out, nay, have already sold you out, to whichever corporate and special interests will finance their campaign.

2: Ron Paul.

I am a cynic. I hardly expect people to vote in their own best interests. There's a reason the scumbags sell their souls for campaign money - it gets them elected. So I expect another scumbag leading your country in 2009. But please, please, for the sake of all that is good, pure and true in this world, anyone but Giuliani.

I swear, if you guys elect Giuliani, I am going to go out every weekend, find drunk Americans, and beat the crap out of them. Maybe even daily. You've been warned.

/mark "rizzn" hopkins
For my blog, profile, and wikipedia entries, simply Google "rizzn"
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