LAS VEGAS — Miss America's three year run on TLC is over after the cable network chose not to renew its television contract with the beauty pageant.

TLC declined on Monday to say why it was cutting ties with the 89-year-old competition after the pageant's broadcast attracted 4.5 million viewers in January – the best showing ever for the pageant on cable.

Sam Haskell, chairman of the Miss America Organization, told The Associated Press that TLC executives indicated one week after the Jan. 30 pageant that they did not want to pick up a three-year option that was part of their previous deal.

Instead, Haskell said TLC wanted a new two-year deal for less money, which he was unwilling to do.

“They're not dumping Miss America,” Haskell said. “They wanted Miss America – they just didn't want to pay the same numbers for it that they'd been paying.”

Haskell said four networks, ranging from broadcast to cable channels, have expressed strong interest in airing the pageant and are willing to pay what the TLC option would have paid or higher.

“I'm a big boy, I've got broad shoulders – I'll find us another network,” Haskell said. “I look at this as an opportunity. It doesn't depress me in the least. We have a great franchise, we have a great audience, we have a great organization.”

The television audience for this year's pageant was 1 million viewers more than those for the 2009 pageant, but far below the 33 million who watched the pageant on broadcast TV in 1988.

The 2010 pageant – won by Miss Virginia Caressa Cameron – was No. 1 on cable the night it aired, excluding movies. It was held at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

LAS VEGAS — Miss America's three year run on TLC is over after the cable network chose not to renew its television contract with the beauty pageant.

TLC declined on Monday to say why it was cutting ties with the 89-year-old competition after the pageant's broadcast attracted 4.5 million viewers in January – the best showing ever for the pageant on cable.

Sam Haskell, chairman of the Miss America Organization, told The Associated Press that TLC executives indicated one week after the Jan. 30 pageant that they did not want to pick up a three-year option that was part of their previous deal.

Instead, Haskell said TLC wanted a new two-year deal for less money, which he was unwilling to do.

“They're not dumping Miss America,” Haskell said. “They wanted Miss America – they just didn't want to pay the same numbers for it that they'd been paying.”

Haskell said four networks, ranging from broadcast to cable channels, have expressed strong interest in airing the pageant and are willing to pay what the TLC option would have paid or higher.

“I'm a big boy, I've got broad shoulders – I'll find us another network,” Haskell said. “I look at this as an opportunity. It doesn't depress me in the least. We have a great franchise, we have a great audience, we have a great organization.”

The television audience for this year's pageant was 1 million viewers more than those for the 2009 pageant, but far below the 33 million who watched the pageant on broadcast TV in 1988.

The 2010 pageant – won by Miss Virginia Caressa Cameron – was No. 1 on cable the night it aired, excluding movies. It was held at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

LAS VEGAS — Miss America's three year run on TLC is over after the cable network chose not to renew its television contract with the beauty pageant.

TLC declined on Monday to say why it was cutting ties with the 89-year-old competition after the pageant's broadcast attracted 4.5 million viewers in January – the best showing ever for the pageant on cable.

Sam Haskell, chairman of the Miss America Organization, told The Associated Press that TLC executives indicated one week after the Jan. 30 pageant that they did not want to pick up a three-year option that was part of their previous deal.

Instead, Haskell said TLC wanted a new two-year deal for less money, which he was unwilling to do.

“They're not dumping Miss America,” Haskell said. “They wanted Miss America – they just didn't want to pay the same numbers for it that they'd been paying.”

Haskell said four networks, ranging from broadcast to cable channels, have expressed strong interest in airing the pageant and are willing to pay what the TLC option would have paid or higher.

“I'm a big boy, I've got broad shoulders – I'll find us another network,” Haskell said. “I look at this as an opportunity. It doesn't depress me in the least. We have a great franchise, we have a great audience, we have a great organization.”

The television audience for this year's pageant was 1 million viewers more than those for the 2009 pageant, but far below the 33 million who watched the pageant on broadcast TV in 1988.

The 2010 pageant – won by Miss Virginia Caressa Cameron – was No. 1 on cable the night it aired, excluding movies. It was held at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

LAS VEGAS — Miss America's three year run on TLC is over after the cable network chose not to renew its television contract with the beauty pageant.

TLC declined on Monday to say why it was cutting ties with the 89-year-old competition after the pageant's broadcast attracted 4.5 million viewers in January – the best showing ever for the pageant on cable.

Sam Haskell, chairman of the Miss America Organization, told The Associated Press that TLC executives indicated one week after the Jan. 30 pageant that they did not want to pick up a three-year option that was part of their previous deal.

Instead, Haskell said TLC wanted a new two-year deal for less money, which he was unwilling to do.

“They're not dumping Miss America,” Haskell said. “They wanted Miss America – they just didn't want to pay the same numbers for it that they'd been paying.”

Haskell said four networks, ranging from broadcast to cable channels, have expressed strong interest in airing the pageant and are willing to pay what the TLC option would have paid or higher.

“I'm a big boy, I've got broad shoulders – I'll find us another network,” Haskell said. “I look at this as an opportunity. It doesn't depress me in the least. We have a great franchise, we have a great audience, we have a great organization.”

The television audience for this year's pageant was 1 million viewers more than those for the 2009 pageant, but far below the 33 million who watched the pageant on broadcast TV in 1988.

The 2010 pageant – won by Miss Virginia Caressa Cameron – was No. 1 on cable the night it aired, excluding movies. It was held at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

existing franchises for sale , franchises for sale

Blizzard of bad jobs <b>news</b> to hit Friday - TheHill.com

The White House is bracing for an ugly unemployment report on Friday made worse by winter storms. hit the East Coast last month.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution spotted <b>News</b> | Eurogamer

Read our Deus Ex: Human Revolution spotted <b>News</b> for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Steve Proffitt: New World <b>News</b> Tonight

An exclusive sneak peak at what ABC's World <b>News</b> Tonight will look like after the <b>News</b> Division completes its transition to a leaner and meaner "digital journalist-based" operation.

Remember the epic divorce settlement Heather Mills got from Paul McCartney? It was around $50 million dollars in cash, property and assets, plus an extremely generous monthly child support check. And remember how Heather made such a big deal about how she was giving so much money to charity and how she could support herself, et cetera? Yeah… not so much. The Daily Mail has an exhaustive report that starts out as a sort of editorial about why people hate Heather (she won’t shut up, she’s a narcissist, she’s a liar, she’s a famewh-re), and then it turned into some kind of hard-hitting expose on how Heather has run through more than half of her divorce settlement already, and how the charities Heather works with are in ruins. Here’s the whole article, and here are the highlights (it’s still pretty long, I apologize):

Heather’s divorce settlement gave her two homes and other assets worth £7.8million, a lump sum of £14 million and a further £35,000 a year to help bring up Bea, her daughter with Sir Paul. Surely this huge sum would be enough for the Tyneside-born former underwear model who was once so poor she stole food just to have enough to eat? Apparently not.

According to friends, Heather, 42, is already complaining that she is running out of money. And when it comes to her charities, astonishingly, she is also pleading poverty.

The charity Heather has always been most associated with is No More Landmines. It was her work with it which first led to her introduction to Sir Paul McCartney at a charity event, and he donated £1 million to it soon after they married.

But, I can reveal, No More Landmines folded eight months ago. The charity, which in 2007 held more than £200,000, reported an income of just £285 last year.

In interviews to publicize herself, Heather says many of her charities have suffered because of her poor public image and the best she can do for them is dissociate herself. However, despite the fact No More Landmines has been wound down, it is still heavily plugged on her website as the charity she is most involved with.

Blaming negative media coverage on GMTV earlier this month, Heather - who bizarrely refers to herself in the plural - said: ‘Well, we were in a situation where our charity was virtually destroyed by all of that. We were the largest landmine-clearing prosthetic charity in the world and it got completely destroyed. I can only fund it so far with all of our other charity commitments. So I had to get out and say: “OK, let’s see how this goes.”‘ Not very well for No More Landmines, it seems.

She offered to provide $1million of vegan food to the charity which works in America’s most poverty stricken urban ghetto. Mills became involved with the New York community group when she befriended its founder Maryann Hedaa at a charity function. When she announced the donation, she was given an honorary congressional award. But the charity is still waiting for much of its money. ‘So far, I would say we have been given about $150,000 in cash and another $200,000 of food products,’ says Maryann. ‘I would say we have been given about a fifth of the money so far.’

But Maryann holds faith in Heather: ‘When she offered to help, everyone warned me not to get involved. They said she does not follow through. But I have to say that so far she has really rolled her sleeves up and got involved. She has been pretty amazing.’

But, by her own account, Heather has struggled to pay for what she has promised. Writing on Twitter in August, she said she was renting out her plush £2.5million New York apartment - where Nicole Kidman and Calvin Klein were neighbours -’to fund free café in the Bronx for kids’, adding ’sad to see it go’.

Heather’s divorce from Sir Paul also showed she had a history for not giving as much to charity as she claimed. During the bitter divorce proceedings, Heather claims she was a millionaire before she met Paul and had always donated 80 to 90 per cent of her earnings to charity. But Mr Justice Bennett, who accused her of being ‘less than candid’ in her evidence, said this appeared to be unlikely.

Heather had been unable to produce records of money sent by her to any charity between 1997 and 2000. He added: ‘Moreover, her tax returns disclose no charitable giving at all.’

His judgment revealed that, although she had promised that her £110,000 Dancing With The Stars fee would go to the animal rights charity Viva!, she actually gave them only £50,000. The reality is that Heather has found more interesting things to spend her money on than charity.

First, there are her homes. Heather got two houses in the divorce settlement. Her main home is a stunning six-bedroom house on Brighton’s millionaire’s row. It was bought for £750,000 in 2001, courtesy of a loan from Sir Paul. It is now worth more than twice as much. She also owns a £3.2 million seven-bedroom house near Paul’s home in Peasmarsh, East Sussex, which was, again, included in the settlement.

From her £14million lump sum, she bought her two-bedroom New York apartment and a £2.4million flat on one of London’s most exclusive roads, The Bishops Avenue, in North London. She recently put the three-bedroom flat back on the market for £3.75million.

Then there is her entourage. Many of Heather’s closest friends have fallen away over the years. All tell the same story - one Sir Paul may recognise. Invariably, Heather is utterly charming at first and her determination in the face of adversity is something to be admired. She is a pro at portraying herself as a do-gooder. But Heather is, undoubtedly, also a fantasist. She is seemingly unable to stop lying - and believing the lies that she tells.

[Meanwhile Heather’s] former hairdresser David Paul is . He started working with her in 2005 and, after she told him she was waiting for Sir Paul to give her a bigger income, David did her hair for free on the understanding that she would pay him when she could. But during the divorce proceedings it emerged she received £350,000 a year from Sir Paul. Plus, he paid all her bills.

David was shocked, as he tells me: ‘I was seduced by her charm. But she was lying to me. I was shocked when I discovered how much money she had coming in when she met me. She hardly paid me anything. What was disturbing to me was that she was pleading poverty at a time when my brother was dying of Aids - and she still lied to my face about not having any money. She has no conscience.’

Many of the friends Heather has left are on her payroll. After winning her divorce settlement, she took 20 of them on a £250,000 holiday to Richard Branson’s Necker Island. Heather’s sister Fiona is the director of many of her companies. Heather’s boyfriend, Jamie Walker, who was a holiday representative, appears to have no other source of income and works as her odd-job man.

She has got rid of her £3,000-a-week security guard, but sports trainer Ben Amigoni is still an almost daily visitor to her house and she has a personal assistant. Beauty therapists and hairdressers are constantly on hand.

Says one acquaintance: ‘Since the trip to Necker, Heather has not made any grand gestures. But there is a drip, drip frittering away of money. A lot goes on flights - she doesn’t get upgraded any more. Hotels are always five star, her houses are always filled with fresh flowers and she has a team of people to support her. I know it sounds ludicrous, but she has started complaining that she doesn’t have enough money - that it is running out. I think Heather thought she would make millions after the split - that she would be the new Larry King with her own chat show. But she is living in a dream world. Heather is a nobody. And that is why she is back in the UK.’

Heather’s biggest expenditure has been her purchase of the successful vegan food company Redwood. Although details of the sale were never released, Redwood’s net worth was £3.1million at the time she bought into it last year. And she already has big expansion plans. At present, although Redwood has a £3million turnover, its profits are pretty modest - in the last accounts they stood at £309,000. Not really a yearly sum that can keep Heather at the rate she is spending.

[From The Daily Mail]

Heather is currently a contestant on Dancing on Ice in the UK, and apparently she’s already promised her winnings to various charities too. She’s also given multiple interviews claiming that she is not, in fact, a gold digging fantasist, but at this point, who believes her? I tend to think that there’s a lot of truth in this report, and I had been wondering who long it would take for Heather to run through her divorce settlement. I’ll tell you something else - money is wasted on Heather. Do you know what I would do with that kind of insane settlement? The mind boggles, for sure, but I would also think it’s really, really tough to spend that much money so fast. You really have to try to spend that money every damn day.

Heather outside the RTE studios in Dublin on January 29, 2010. Credit: WENN.

We're trying something a little different today, and we hope you'll join us.

As Republican and Democratic leaders have started debating health care in a televised forum today, the Sunlight Foundation is providing an alternative to the mainstream media's coverage with something we're calling Sunlight Live

The idea is to put together a real-time one-stop shop for information on the debate and on the attendees. It's a bit of an experiment, so we're actually going to need lots of help and feedback.

Policy and transparency experts have been live blogging throughout the Summit, with input and conversation from all over the country. Additionally, Twitter conversations and relevant facts on congressional members in attendance at the Summit are all displayed together in one page right next to the video stream of the Summit provided by the new media team at the White House. Some of the things that are being displayed as the politicians debate are campaign contributions that the person speaking has received, their connections to lobbyists and industry, personal finances, and key votes that the leaders have made on health care in the past.

The idea behind this is that we want to provide a greater understanding of why the elected officials have staked out their positions on health care, and let the data do the talking rather than just the pundits.

We're going to keep going til whenever this thing ends (perhaps as late as 6:00 p.m.), so come join the conversation and suggest ideas of things to visualize or look at like these TweetGraphs

http://SunlightFoundation.com/live

It'd mean a lot to us if you participate in the conversation, help us research, or simply tune in and spread the word about what we're doing during the day.

This is a great opportunity to demonstrate why transparency in government and open government data is so important.

Ultimately we want to be able to provide this model to people all over the country who can cover politics at every level.

http://removeripoffreports.net

“I heard something about that, but I haven't talked to about it,” Cameron said. “But that's cool.”

Considering that the franchise is technically his baby, Cameron has a pretty carefree attitude about what's happened since his last work on it and how far it has come. “I have stepped so far away from the 'Terminator' universe,” he said. “I know what you know at this point. I'm happy with that. I made a decision a way's back to just let it have its life, you know?”

If reading those words leaves you with the impression that Cameron is about as likely to return to “Terminator” as he is to go ahead with a “Titanic” sequel, you're right. “From my perspective, it's run its course and I don't know what else to say that hasn't been said. Plus, frankly… the soup's kind of been pissed in a little bit by other filmmakers, so I don't have any personal desire to go back to it. So I certainly wouldn't want to be a dog in the manger and disallow my friends from making a little money off it. Why would I do that?”

Would you prefer to see Cameron re-take the reins on the “Terminator” franchise? Do you agree that Cameron's time with the series has “run its course”? Is that true of the franchise as a whole?

We all hate the New York Yankees. And it's not only because they're killing competitive balance in baseball (that's a joke, people) but because they always, always have money to spend on the best free agents.

As the most storied franchise in professional sports, they have instant name recognition. Their logo brings to mind the Death Star from Star Wars (cue the ominous music.) Everyone knows about them, but this article is not about them. This article is about the teams that can't compete with the Yankees or the Patriots.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are currently the most hapless franchise in sports. For EIGHTEEN YEARS, except for the 1997 season, they've never been in contention. (I'm counting this year, by the way.)

They've been trimmed by ownership that won't spend money, players that are traded as soon as they're any good (hi there, Jason Bay, Craig Wilson, Brian Giles, etc, etc) and fans that hated Three Rivers Stadium (which I completely understand, baseball has been about 3,000 percent better since they got rid of the cookie-cutter stadiums.)

The Pirates opened PNC Park, a beautiful but often-empty stadium, in 2001. Why is it often empty? Because baseball is a cyclical sport: What you do this year will affect what you can or will do next year. For years, Cam Bonifay, and then Dave Littlefield, were under orders to sign veterans who were way over the hill and were grateful to take what they could get, and didn't pay much attention to developing young players.

Littlefield committed one of the most grievous sins, which I do appreciate because it benefited my team, when he dealt Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez to the Cubs for Bobby Hill. Littlefield also drafted badly throughout his tenure, with the 2002 draft standing out as the most egregious example, taking Bryan Bullington with the first overall pick despite having the ability to choose from a talent pool that featured Prince Fielder, Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, and Nick Swisher. Yes, THAT Nick Swisher.

Fans have stopped attending many Pirate games because the constant losses and overall culture defeat the purpose. When you attend a game, you want to see your team win. If your team has no chance to win, why go see them?

Pirate fans are actually used to this: Long before the “We Are Family” Pirates, and even before the Mazeroski Pirates defeated the mighty Yankee machine in the 1960 World Series, the only reason to go see the Branch Rickey Pirates at beautiful Forbes Field was Ralph Kiner. There are numerous references to fans leaving after Kiner's final at-bat, even if Kiner's final at-bat was in the bottom of the eighth. But should they be used to it?

Since Walter O'Malley and Horace Stoneham moved the Dodgers and Giants, respectively, owners are the most blamed people in the history of sports, and baseball in particular, for anything that goes wrong. Even the omnipresent George Steinbrenner, for my money if not the best owner in the history of professional sports, then at least the most committed, has been booed repeatedly, blamed for things such as Reggie Jackson's departure to California and never winning a thing in the 80's. (Late 80's, anyway.)

The way owners are viewed by fans is symbolized by a quote during contract talks between hall of famer Joe Medwick and Cardinal owner Sam Breadon. Breadon said, “Why should I pay you $2,000? I'd rather throw my money out a window.” Medwick replied, “Mr.Breadon, if you threw $2,000 out the window, you'd still be holding on to it when it hit the sidewalk.”

Al Davis was once the savior of the AFL, as the owner of the Oakland Raiders, who symbolized AFL football, and as it's commissioner, who believed he could defeat the NFL if given the opportunity. Since he took over the ownership of the NFL's version of the Raiders, the Silver-and-Black have seen the highest highs such as their nice run during the seventies and eighties to the current incarnation: a horrendously bad team run by a senile, egotistical old man. 

Now, on the one hand you could say this team has had success. So instead of completing my entry with the Raiders, I turn to the “new” Cleveland Browns.

The “return” of the Cleveland Browns was greeted by hosannas and expectations. They had an owner who was willing to spend money, and both a natural rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and a blood feud with the Baltimore Ravens, the original Cleveland Browns. Fans should pack the stadium, right?

Their first season, they went 2-14. To make matters worse, they were clubbed repeatedly at home, not winning a single game .

Their following seasons haven't been much better, with the exception of the 2002 season and the possible exception of the 2007 season. Cleveland also has a notoriously bad training staff that has cost players precious playing time because of their inability to fix staph infections.

What do you do, Browns and Pirates fans? You can stop going to the games, and I support fully your right to, but what do you do? Do you stop watching or even caring about the team?

I'd ask the same question of the NBA fans, but the NBA is an entirely different culture. One player can change everything. (Larry Bird and Magic Johnson being prime examples.) Also, the NBA has more playoff teams, and every team except the Bobcats put in a playoff appearance in the previous decade. (I'm counting the Thunder as the Supersonics, by the way.)

That can't be said for anyone in baseball: last decade the Rays were the only team not named the Yankees or the Red Sox to win the AL East. That's TEN seasons with five teams.

I realize that MLB 2K5 wasn't exactly a great baseball game, but one of their revolutionary options in the endless franchise mode was the ability to give everyone the same $150 million team salary. So, everyone gets an equal opportunity to win, unlike the reality, where not only does everyone NOT get the opportunity to win, but population density and income limits influence the decisions made. Such as wasting the top draft pick on a “No. 3 starter” because you can afford him, not because he's any good.

What do you do when ownership cares more about saving money and lining their own pockets than putting a decent product on the field? (Which I'm not saying is always the case, sometimes it's just overall bad luck and inability.) Can you make your voice heard simply by not buying tickets and going to see a product you know isn't going to improve anytime soon?

Again, we all despise the Yankees. But maybe, just maybe, they have the right idea.

A home based franchise is a business venture that allows you to run and operate the business at the comfort of your home. You don't have to look for a prime commercial location or an office space for the business. For you as a potential franchisee, the safety of your investment is a priority. There are a lot of scams around which you have to be aware of. To avoid these scams, you have to watch out for unbelievable investment returns or profit at a short span of time. Moreover, if the franchise company doesn't give out clear contact information, you have to be careful because this is probably a scam.

What exactly is a home based franchise and does it fit you? How do you assess its suitability to your personality, skills and financial readiness considering its advantages and disadvantages? To venture into home based franchising brings positive and negative points that the potential franchisees have to consider. As a prospective franchisee, a home based franchise opportunity could give you time flexibility, less start-up and operational costs, and close business relationship with your clients. You would have time flexibility in the sense that you can adjust your time of work based on your business transactions and schedule. You can also do it on a part-time or on a full-time basis. Besides, you don't need to invest a large amount of money in this business and it is cost effective since you don't have to look for a prime commercial site or an office space to put up the business. Aside from being cost effective, a home based franchise also provides you with the opportunity to establish closer ties with your customers since you have the chance to know them well and be a part of them by providing them what they need and even what they want depending on your franchise offering. On the other hand, a home based franchise may also affect your personal life, make you assume multiple roles in the course of its business operation, and demand long hours of work at times. Since you are operating this kind of business from your home, there is a possibility of it interfering in your personal affairs. You must have the self-discipline to control and to establish a line separating your business life from being intertwined with your personal life. Moreover, a home based business makes you assume multiple roles in the business. You are the boss and at the same time you can be an employee who has to perform and monitor all business transactions including the financial and marketing aspects. You must render long working hours if there is a need for you to work all business hours. You may even extend your working hours if there is a need to do so.

A home based business is great but you have to be very careful in choosing the exact home based franchise opportunity that suits you best. It is imperative that you research and find out the current status and performance of your target franchise in the market. Talking to previous and current franchisees would help a lot to provide you with an overview of the franchise performance in the economy. This would make you aware of the current franchise issues that could affect you entrepreneurial life as you start. Hence, the need to conduct due diligence and interviews to acquire better understanding about the franchise opportunity is vital to ensure profitability and sustainable success once you venture into home based franchising.

“I heard something about that, but I haven't talked to about it,” Cameron said. “But that's cool.”

Considering that the franchise is technically his baby, Cameron has a pretty carefree attitude about what's happened since his last work on it and how far it has come. “I have stepped so far away from the 'Terminator' universe,” he said. “I know what you know at this point. I'm happy with that. I made a decision a way's back to just let it have its life, you know?”

If reading those words leaves you with the impression that Cameron is about as likely to return to “Terminator” as he is to go ahead with a “Titanic” sequel, you're right. “From my perspective, it's run its course and I don't know what else to say that hasn't been said. Plus, frankly… the soup's kind of been pissed in a little bit by other filmmakers, so I don't have any personal desire to go back to it. So I certainly wouldn't want to be a dog in the manger and disallow my friends from making a little money off it. Why would I do that?”

Would you prefer to see Cameron re-take the reins on the “Terminator” franchise? Do you agree that Cameron's time with the series has “run its course”? Is that true of the franchise as a whole?

We all hate the New York Yankees. And it's not only because they're killing competitive balance in baseball (that's a joke, people) but because they always, always have money to spend on the best free agents.

As the most storied franchise in professional sports, they have instant name recognition. Their logo brings to mind the Death Star from Star Wars (cue the ominous music.) Everyone knows about them, but this article is not about them. This article is about the teams that can't compete with the Yankees or the Patriots.

The Pittsburgh Pirates are currently the most hapless franchise in sports. For EIGHTEEN YEARS, except for the 1997 season, they've never been in contention. (I'm counting this year, by the way.)

They've been trimmed by ownership that won't spend money, players that are traded as soon as they're any good (hi there, Jason Bay, Craig Wilson, Brian Giles, etc, etc) and fans that hated Three Rivers Stadium (which I completely understand, baseball has been about 3,000 percent better since they got rid of the cookie-cutter stadiums.)

The Pirates opened PNC Park, a beautiful but often-empty stadium, in 2001. Why is it often empty? Because baseball is a cyclical sport: What you do this year will affect what you can or will do next year. For years, Cam Bonifay, and then Dave Littlefield, were under orders to sign veterans who were way over the hill and were grateful to take what they could get, and didn't pay much attention to developing young players.

Littlefield committed one of the most grievous sins, which I do appreciate because it benefited my team, when he dealt Kenny Lofton and Aramis Ramirez to the Cubs for Bobby Hill. Littlefield also drafted badly throughout his tenure, with the 2002 draft standing out as the most egregious example, taking Bryan Bullington with the first overall pick despite having the ability to choose from a talent pool that featured Prince Fielder, Matt Cain, Cole Hamels, and Nick Swisher. Yes, THAT Nick Swisher.

Fans have stopped attending many Pirate games because the constant losses and overall culture defeat the purpose. When you attend a game, you want to see your team win. If your team has no chance to win, why go see them?

Pirate fans are actually used to this: Long before the “We Are Family” Pirates, and even before the Mazeroski Pirates defeated the mighty Yankee machine in the 1960 World Series, the only reason to go see the Branch Rickey Pirates at beautiful Forbes Field was Ralph Kiner. There are numerous references to fans leaving after Kiner's final at-bat, even if Kiner's final at-bat was in the bottom of the eighth. But should they be used to it?

Since Walter O'Malley and Horace Stoneham moved the Dodgers and Giants, respectively, owners are the most blamed people in the history of sports, and baseball in particular, for anything that goes wrong. Even the omnipresent George Steinbrenner, for my money if not the best owner in the history of professional sports, then at least the most committed, has been booed repeatedly, blamed for things such as Reggie Jackson's departure to California and never winning a thing in the 80's. (Late 80's, anyway.)

The way owners are viewed by fans is symbolized by a quote during contract talks between hall of famer Joe Medwick and Cardinal owner Sam Breadon. Breadon said, “Why should I pay you $2,000? I'd rather throw my money out a window.” Medwick replied, “Mr.Breadon, if you threw $2,000 out the window, you'd still be holding on to it when it hit the sidewalk.”

Al Davis was once the savior of the AFL, as the owner of the Oakland Raiders, who symbolized AFL football, and as it's commissioner, who believed he could defeat the NFL if given the opportunity. Since he took over the ownership of the NFL's version of the Raiders, the Silver-and-Black have seen the highest highs such as their nice run during the seventies and eighties to the current incarnation: a horrendously bad team run by a senile, egotistical old man. 

Now, on the one hand you could say this team has had success. So instead of completing my entry with the Raiders, I turn to the “new” Cleveland Browns.

The “return” of the Cleveland Browns was greeted by hosannas and expectations. They had an owner who was willing to spend money, and both a natural rivalry with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and a blood feud with the Baltimore Ravens, the original Cleveland Browns. Fans should pack the stadium, right?

Their first season, they went 2-14. To make matters worse, they were clubbed repeatedly at home, not winning a single game .

Their following seasons haven't been much better, with the exception of the 2002 season and the possible exception of the 2007 season. Cleveland also has a notoriously bad training staff that has cost players precious playing time because of their inability to fix staph infections.

What do you do, Browns and Pirates fans? You can stop going to the games, and I support fully your right to, but what do you do? Do you stop watching or even caring about the team?

I'd ask the same question of the NBA fans, but the NBA is an entirely different culture. One player can change everything. (Larry Bird and Magic Johnson being prime examples.) Also, the NBA has more playoff teams, and every team except the Bobcats put in a playoff appearance in the previous decade. (I'm counting the Thunder as the Supersonics, by the way.)

That can't be said for anyone in baseball: last decade the Rays were the only team not named the Yankees or the Red Sox to win the AL East. That's TEN seasons with five teams.

I realize that MLB 2K5 wasn't exactly a great baseball game, but one of their revolutionary options in the endless franchise mode was the ability to give everyone the same $150 million team salary. So, everyone gets an equal opportunity to win, unlike the reality, where not only does everyone NOT get the opportunity to win, but population density and income limits influence the decisions made. Such as wasting the top draft pick on a “No. 3 starter” because you can afford him, not because he's any good.

What do you do when ownership cares more about saving money and lining their own pockets than putting a decent product on the field? (Which I'm not saying is always the case, sometimes it's just overall bad luck and inability.) Can you make your voice heard simply by not buying tickets and going to see a product you know isn't going to improve anytime soon?

Again, we all despise the Yankees. But maybe, just maybe, they have the right idea.

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The famously private investor David Gelbaum, founder of The Quercus Trust, and who by his own estimates has between 40 and 50 cleantech investments, as a rule hasn’t done interviews for years. According to the last comprehensive story on him, published in the LA Times in 2004, the former math whiz, hedge fund manager and philanthropist, is so anonymous he’s sometimes mistaken for his gardener. But this afternoon, on the heels of Gelbaum accepting the role of CEO of one of his portfolio companies Entech Solar (the first time he’s taken over as CEO), Gelbaum got on the phone with us to chat about the potential of solar, how he’s lost money in greentech so far, and his focus on making some returns.

1). Why did you take the job as CEO of Entech Solar?

David Gelbaum: I have always been active with our portfolio companies, but this is the first time I’ve been CEO. But I’m passionate about the company, I’ve got an understanding of it and it turned out the board agreed with me. This is a company which I’ve been the most closely involved with — I’ve been working with the team and I know a lot of the people and I’ve been functioning basically as an executive already.

2). Can you tell me a bit more about the process of starting the Quercus Trust? What inspired you?

DG: The Quercus Trust is just an estate planning fund, and I picked the name Quercus Trust because I like oak trees (quercus stands for oak). In 2006 I decided to get into cleanech investing. I was looking around to start making some money and I had some understanding of solar, so I looked at that. It looked really promising, particularly when I realized we were close to solar being at economic parity with fossils.

3). So your cleantech investing through Quercus Trust is meant to make money, in contrast the your philanthropy work?

DG: Yes, I don’t need to make money on this in order to live, but yes, the goal is to make money off the investments.

4). Have the returns in greentech been what you expected — do you have exits yet and if so what?

DG: I havent had any exits and I’ve lost money in this business. It’s just part of the general shortage of credit.

5). Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr said a couple months ago that if he’d foreseen the credit crunch and the recession, he’s not sure if his firm would have gotten into cleantech back when it did. Have you had similar thoughts?

DG: No, I’m glad I’m in this. I’m very optimistic.

6). What are the sectors you’re most bullish on?

DG: I think most of my investments have huge promise, and many of them are intertwined. Solar can’t go forward without the smart grid, because of the intermittency measures of solar. They all have huge upsides.

7). Are there any areas that you’ll be making more investments in going forward in 2010?

DG: Mainly follow-on investments and focus on getting the current ones to make money.

8). How many cleantech investments have you made to date?

DG: Somewhere between 40 to 50.

9). How have the stimulus funds affected the industry and your investments?

DG: Well, for the companies that got government funding, it’s been good. But for the ones that haven’t it’s been negative. I’m glad that they’ve continued to extend the tax credits for years.

10). You’re just starting to open up and do interviews now that you’ve take on the CEO role. What was the reason for being so quiet and do you expect you’ll be talking to the media more going forward?

DG: It’s just been about being a private person. I expect I’ll be doing more interviews — I’ve done more interviews today than I have done over the past five years.

A month after the earthquake, Haiti is a testament to human tenacity. In Port-au-Prince the other day, I saw people making bricks, cooking food on the street, retrieving usable planks from the rubble and using newly restored cell phone service to place calls to the outside world.

Haitians have begun to rebuild, using whatever they can find. All of us who care about this proud country's people must rally around them and turn this tragedy into an opportunity to help Haiti rethink and reconfigure.

Many have questioned whether the government in Port au Prince is up to the task of building a new nation that lifts people out of poverty and ends the negative cycle that has made Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

I do not share that view. The international community must do a better job this time in supporting the people of Haiti build a better tomorrow. First, we must first recognize that Haiti is a sovereign, democratic country that must take ownership of plans to construct a stronger, more resilient land. Experience has repeatedly demonstrated that solutions developed from the outside do not work.

In my talks with Haitian President René Préval, he has welcomed the international community's efforts to strengthen the government's ability to plan and lead the enormous task ahead. We can provide technical assistance and help Haiti harness the world's best talent in areas such as job creation, green energy and sustainable agriculture.

Some prominent voices have also called for the establishment of a multi-donor trust fund for Haiti. I support such a mechanism. But we need to be much more ambitious and go beyond just providing money; we need to partner with Haitians on new ideas of how to build the new Haiti. Reconstructing what was there before the earthquake is neither desirable nor sustainable. As President Preval told me, we need to help reconfigure Haiti for the 21st Century.

The Inter-American Development Bank is working with the World Bank, the United Nations, the European Union and bilateral donors on a post-disaster needs assessment for Haiti, which we expect to complete by mid-March. This assessment must be complemented by government leaders' strategic vision of what kind of country they want Haiti to be.

As donors prepare for our next conference, we are considering how best to organize a trust fund for Haiti and divide responsibilities. With 50 years of experience in Haiti and nearly $800 million in active development projects in the country at the time of the earthquake, the IDB stands ready to play a leading role in Haiti's reconfiguration.

Any multi-donor trust fund will require unquestioned transparency, a clear delegation of responsibilities and accountability. Such a fund must facilitate internal coordination within the Haitian government and external coordination among donors. The key is to minimize duplication and maximize the impact of aid dollars.

A trust fund for Haiti must publicly track the money flowing into the country and where it is going, ensuring that we streamline disbursements for projects, establish a uniform set of procurement standards and management practices and execute all reconstruction operations effectively and in the open.

The goal must be to place rebuilding efforts within a comprehensive development strategy. One need already identified by the Haitian government is decentralization, the establishment of housing and sustainable economic activity outside the capital. This is a chance for Haiti and its partners to build a reforested, rethought and renewed Haiti.

At the IDB, we are reviewing our undisbursed portfolio of $340 million in grants and loans to Haiti in the wake of the earthquake. Many of our projects for roads, water, sanitation and sustainable economic development are outside Port au Prince, in areas where tens of thousands have fled. With the government's agreement, we want to accelerate and expand these operations, working to attract new private investment that will be key to Haiti's future.

We are also working with the U.S. government and our other member nations to explore ways to bring further debt relief to Haiti. The IDB, as part of an international agreement, granted $511 million in debt relief to Haiti last year. A U.S.-sponsored fund is paying the country's debt service for Haiti's outstanding $447 million in IDB loans over the next two years, so no funds are leaving the country. But as several South American presidents agreed this week in their Haiti aid summit in Quito, Ecuador, we need to do more on debt relief, and we will.

But for any rebuilding strategy to work over the long term, donors must commit to follow through on their pledges. Already the TV cameras are starting to avert their gaze from Haiti. But the world must be ready to stay there for however long it takes.

The list of Haiti's needs is long and the time to move from the planning phase to execution is growing short. Let's listen to Haiti's leaders, coordinate our responsibilities and get to work rethinking and reconfiguring the new Haiti that its resilient people deserve.

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If you have a lot of trouble managing your personal finances, then you most certainly need help. Finding this help can often be difficult because everyone has got their own opinion on such things. Luckily there are great deals of websites out there that provide free financial advice. These websites can help you with everything from the stock market, to finding good deals on normally expensive products.

www.econothrift.com is the first website I'll be reviewing today. This website has sections to encompass almost everything that you need in order to get your lifestyle headed in the right direction. It has a section about health, and is one of the only websites that I have reviewed to mention the famous phrase, “being healthy” is the first stage of being wealthy.

www.fivecentnickel.com is the second website that I will be reviewing. It has been around for quite some time and provides a lot of information on credit card offers that could end up saving you money. Unlike Econothrift.com, this website only provides articles about articles that are directly related to the financial world. This means bank failures, credit card tricks, and even mortgage information.

www.getrichslowly.org is a great resource for learning about how to become financial responsible as well. This website is unique because it details one person's journey down the road to financial independence. This website consistently has anecdotes about how the story at hand relates to the author's lifestyle.

Although not a personal finance website per se, freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com offers a great deal of sound financial advice. This is the blog that the author of renowned book, Freakonomics maintains regularly. I think it makes a great deal of sense how almost everything can be thought of economically, and thinking of things economically has led me to a more financially sound lifestyle.

www.lifehacker.com, like the first website mentioned, goes into a great amount of detail in describing a lot of different aspects about living a healthy lifestyle. Lifehacker tells its readers about how they can become more efficient, and save money as an end result of the efficiency.

All of these websites are great tools as sources of personal finance information, but no single website is a definitive outlet of financial information. I have found the best strategy to be to read each of these websites on a weekly basis in order to be able to form better opinions myself about a variety of financial matters.

<b>News</b> from ebrary: New Med Tech Dbase, Expanded Business <b>…</b>

<b>News</b> from ebrary: New Med Tech Dbase, Expanded Business & Engineering e-Book Collections. Some <b>news</b> from Palo Alto, CA today: ebrary has announced the availability of its new subscription database in Medical Technology. …

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The good <b>news</b> first: Adobe's promising Flash 10.1 is going to hit smartphones—Android, WebOS, Windows Mobile—and desktops in the "first half" of this year, a slightly less squishy date. And it'll come over the air. The bad part?

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Some Good <b>News</b>, and Some Bad <b>News</b>, About Adobe Flash 10.1 - Adobe <b>…</b>

The good <b>news</b> first: Adobe's promising Flash 10.1 is going to hit smartphones—Android, WebOS, Windows Mobile—and desktops in the "first half" of this year, a slightly less squishy date. And it'll come over the air. The bad part?

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<b>News</b> from ebrary: New Med Tech Dbase, Expanded Business & Engineering e-Book Collections. Some <b>news</b> from Palo Alto, CA today: ebrary has announced the availability of its new subscription database in Medical Technology. …

Some Good <b>News</b>, and Some Bad <b>News</b>, About Adobe Flash 10.1 - Adobe <b>…</b>

The good <b>news</b> first: Adobe's promising Flash 10.1 is going to hit smartphones—Android, WebOS, Windows Mobile—and desktops in the "first half" of this year, a slightly less squishy date. And it'll come over the air. The bad part?

Environmental Economics: Comforting <b>news</b> for John…

This is why I love science… "We hope that one day we can demonstrate that xanthohumol prevents prostate cancer development…" Xanthohumol is derived from hops…

Personal finance blogger Girl with the Red Balloon put together a list of 11 ways she saves money at grocery stores.

The key to many of her tips is to restrict your exposure to impulse-buy opportunities. An excerpt:

5) Learn where your food is in the store and only visit those aisles. In my formative years of living on my own, I dated a man who walked down each and every aisle while grocery shopping. It would drive me crazy, mostly because it wasted so much time. I've learned now that I buy a lot more when I go down every aisle. Now, I look at the signs at the end of each aisle and only walk down the ones that have something I need.

6) Get over your loyalty to big brands. Before I met D, I was the world's worst for paying for the most expensive brand of milk in the store. “It's what my parents used when I was growing up! It's just better,” I'd pathetically try to rationalize. I've since accepted that store brand milk tastes just the same. And guess what? I spend 50% less buying the store brand of milk instead of the name brand. The savings aren't quite as much on other products, like shredded cheese, but it's still there. The only thing I've not bought store brand yet is cheese squares for my grilled cheese sandwiches, but I've also not needed to buy cheese singles for two months because I didn't use them all the last two trips.

Question your loyalty to these name brands. Why do we think they're better? Is it because you've tasted both brands and know the store bought brand tastes considerably worse? Then, fine. Buy the name brand. But if it's just because it's what you're used to, give it up for one trip to the store. Try the generic store brand one time and see how you feel.

What do you do to cut your grocery store expenditures?

Take that, grocery store! 11 tips to help you save [Girl with the Red Balloon]

I did it!

I finally finished the manuscript for Your Money: The Missing Manual; I e-mailed the last chapter to my editor at 9:10 this morning.

This book was a lot of work. I started writing it on 23 September 2009 at 12:27 p.m. Over the next 115 days, I gained fifteen pounds. (I actually gained eighteen, but I’ve lost three since the start of the year.) The final manuscript contains 125,244 words and 269 pages in Microsoft Word, which would be about 400 printed pages. That’s too long, so we’ll spend the next month whittling it down to something more manageable.

During the past few months, I’ve been a virtual hermit, cloistered in my office (”deep in the word mines”, as I like to say), working 8-10 hours every day — and sometimes many more. Now that the book is nearly finished (aside from editing and printing), I calculate that my hourly wage for this project is…drumroll please…less than minimum wage!

Still, I’m not doing this for the money. I’m doing it because I want to help people turn their financial lives around. I’m doing it because I wish I’d had a book like this twenty years ago. If Your Money: The Missing Manual sells enough copies to earn back its advance, that’s great. But if it helps even a handful of people get out of debt and start saving for the future, I’ve done my job.

Chock full of goodness
What’s in the book? Plenty of the stuff you see at Get Rich Slowly — but also lots of new topics, too. Here’s a chapter-by-chapter breakdown:

• Introduction — I give a brief summary of my background and share the fourteen tenets of Get Rich Slowly. (2304 words, 5 pages, completed 09 January 2010)
• Chapter 1: Happiness — I survey current happiness research. I explain how money is important but it isn’t everything. I also discuss the notion of lifestyle inflation (though we’re calling it “the hedonic treadmill” for the book). (6800 words, 15 pages, completed 05 October 2009)
• Chapter 2: Goals — I discuss the importance of setting goals. Without goals, you have no reason to save. (6090 words, 13 pages, completed 12 October 2009)
• Chapter 3: Budgeting — If goals are your destination, then a budget’s your map. But as most of you know, I’m not a fan of detailed budgets. Instead, I focus on looking at the Big Picture (including my favorite, the balanced money formula), suggesting readers can add detail as needed. (6975 words, 15 pages, completed 19 October 2009)
• Chapter 4: Debt — I lived with debt for fifteen years. This chapter shares a bit about how I overcame my own debt, and then shares some of my favorite resources. My goal is to give readers the tools they need to kick debt to the curb. (7163 words, 16 pages, completed 16 October 2009)
• Chapter 5: Frugality — This chapter got out of control! How can you compress this topic into just 25 pages? You can’t. I know some folks think frugality is pointless, but I’m not one of them. I sing its praises here. (11676 words, 26 pages, completed 04 November 2009)
• Chapter 6: Income — The most overlooked topic in personal finance: how to make more money. You guys know I’m a passionate believer in boosting your income in whatever way you can. This chapter suggests some ways to do it. (11081 words, 24 pages, 10 November 2009)
• Chapter 7: Banking — Banking’s not a very sexy topic, but there’s still some important stuff to cover, like how to find the best checking and savings accounts. (7836 words, 18 pages, completed 17 November 2009)
• Chapter 8: Credit — Credit can be dangerous…but it doesn’t have to be. Here I go over credit scores and credit reports and offer some tips for using credit cards responsibly. (6350 words, 14 pages, completed 25 November 2009)
• Chapter 9: Big Stuff — As great as it is to save money through frugality, it’s even more important to save on big things, such as cars, furniture, and vacations. This chapter tells you how. (13085 words, 26 pages, completed 03 December 2009)
• Chapter 10: Housing — Yikes, this chapter was tough to write. I’m not sure why, but it got away from me. I had so much I wanted to say! In the end, I had to cut the info on “cost of living”, and I may have even had to cut the stuff on selling a house. There’s still plenty of meat here, though. (9906 words, 20 pages, completed 22 December 2009)
• Chapter 11: Death and Taxes — When I started writing, I told my editor this chapter would suck. I didn’t feel confident about the subject. In the end, it was fun to write — and it turned out well. It’s tough to make taxes, insurance, and estate planning interesting, but I did my best. (10000 words, 21 pages, completed 16 December 2009)
• Chapter 12: Investing — I outline the basics of investing, including some of the psychological pitfalls investors face. I encourage readers to look at index funds, but point them to good resources for other strategies if they simply must try to beat the market. (10684 words, 24 pages, 05 January 2010)
• Chapter 13: Retirement — The chapter I completed this morning! I talk about the power of compounding and the importance of saving early. I also go on a rant about how much I hate retirement planning based around “replacement income”. (It’s so stupid!) (7872 words, 17 pages, completed 15 January 2010)
• Chapter 14: Relationships — I close the book with a look at how money affects our relationships with family and friends. (The book is dedicated to my friend Sparky, who died a year ago today.) I also spend a little time exploring the notion of social capital, which is something I haven’t written about much here, but that I think is very very important. (7422 words, 15 pages, completed 11 January 2010)

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PostSecret: PostSecret <b>News</b>

PostSecret <b>News</b>. The German version of PostSecret - PostSecretDeutsch - opened an exhibit of cards yesterday at the Tübingen City Museum, in Germany. The KSU PostSecret Exhibit opened last week in the Sturgis Gallery. …

Another week of GW <b>News</b>, February 7, 2010 : A Few Things Ill <b>…</b>

Another week of Climate Disruption <b>News</b>. Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years. February 7, 2010. Chuckles, COP15, Copenhagen Accord, Scorecard, COP16 & Beyond, DSDS, G77 & BASIC, Mann; FOI as a Weapon, Greenpeace UK, CRU Slugfest …

MetsBlog.com – <b>News</b>: Fernando Martinez MVP of Carribbean Series

Yes very happy for F Mart and its good to see positive <b>news</b> about something having to do with the Mets, these days as we know its been far and few between. However I too think he still needs more time in the minors, just because he did …

Focus on Spending More Time, Not Money, on Things You Enjoy

As we prioritize the things that are important to us, you'd think the things we spend the most money on would get the bulk of our attention. That's often not the case, and recognizing this is a step toward serious savings.

Photo by gerlos.

Trent, the personal finance blogger over at The Simple Dollar, says one way to figure out how to budget your time is keep a log of how much time you spend doing things you want and need to do. At the same time, track how you spend your money. Compare the lists at the end of one month and see if there are any areas where you're spending a lot of money, but not a lot of time. That's probably an area where you need to trim your spending.

For instance, if you're dropping $75 a month on a health club that you only visit once in a blue moon, that's some wasted cash right there. Instead consider channeling that money into the areas of your life where you spend the bulk of your time and, presumably, bring you the most satisfaction. Love to cook? Invest in a good set of pots and pans. Enjoy reading into the wee hours of the night? Get a comfy chair and a great book light. Over time, you may discover your spending habits are dwindling.

Quite often, areas of your life where you spend a lot of time without spending a lot of money are the areas that truly bring you the most enjoyment because you don't require a constant influx of new things to be able to enjoy yourself. I argue that those are the areas of your life that you should accentuate, while learning to let go of the areas that offer much less bang for the buck.

What brings you the most enjoyment? Trying out new gadgets, learning a new skill, or something else? And does your spending reflect it? Share in the comments.

Focus on Spending More Time, Not Money, on Things You Enjoy

As we prioritize the things that are important to us, you'd think the things we spend the most money on would get the bulk of our attention. That's often not the case, and recognizing this is a step toward serious savings.

Photo by gerlos.

Trent, the personal finance blogger over at The Simple Dollar, says one way to figure out how to budget your time is keep a log of how much time you spend doing things you want and need to do. At the same time, track how you spend your money. Compare the lists at the end of one month and see if there are any areas where you're spending a lot of money, but not a lot of time. That's probably an area where you need to trim your spending.

For instance, if you're dropping $75 a month on a health club that you only visit once in a blue moon, that's some wasted cash right there. Instead consider channeling that money into the areas of your life where you spend the bulk of your time and, presumably, bring you the most satisfaction. Love to cook? Invest in a good set of pots and pans. Enjoy reading into the wee hours of the night? Get a comfy chair and a great book light. Over time, you may discover your spending habits are dwindling.

Quite often, areas of your life where you spend a lot of time without spending a lot of money are the areas that truly bring you the most enjoyment because you don't require a constant influx of new things to be able to enjoy yourself. I argue that those are the areas of your life that you should accentuate, while learning to let go of the areas that offer much less bang for the buck.

What brings you the most enjoyment? Trying out new gadgets, learning a new skill, or something else? And does your spending reflect it? Share in the comments.

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MetsBlog.com – <b>News</b>: Mookie and Melvin join Mets

<b>News</b>: Mookie and Melvin join Mets. February 8, 2010 at 15:40 pm · 24 comments. by Matthew Cerrone. The Mets have named Mookie Wilson as the team's minor league outfield and base running coordinator. Wilson had been the team's first base …

Another week of GW <b>News</b>, February 7, 2010 : A Few Things Ill <b>…</b>

Another week of Climate Disruption <b>News</b>. Logging the Onset of The Bottleneck Years. February 7, 2010. Chuckles, COP15, Copenhagen Accord, Scorecard, COP16 & Beyond, DSDS, G77 & BASIC, Mann; FOI as a Weapon, Greenpeace UK, CRU Slugfest …

Red Eye Celebrates Third Year By Topping CNN Prime Time Last Week <b>…</b>

MSNBC's David Shuster became a fan of Fox <b>News</b>' late-night comedy/<b>news</b> hybrid Red Eye just in time for its three-year anniversary. And it's coming at a time when the 3amET show is seeing big ratings in the A25-54 demographic - even …

In the wake of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling on money in politics, corporations looking to affect the process already are strategizing with lawyers, consultants, and PR pros on how to capitalize on the changed landscape.

“There clearly are clients who are asking questions about what it means for them,” Larry Noble, a former general counsel for the FEC who's now a lawyer at Skadden Arps, told TPMmuckraker. “They're asking: 'what is it that I wasn't allowed to do before that I can now do?'”

In a nutshell, of course, last week's ruling allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts from their general treasuries on independent expenditure campaigns that explicitly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate. Indeed, Noble said that many of the clients looking to take advantage of the ruling are those who had previously run issue-based political ads, as the law had allowed. Now, though, they're exploring the idea of running ads that directly tell voters to elect, or defeat, a candidate. “They're starting to incorporate this into what they're doing,” he said.

Tom Walls, a partner at the Washington law firm McGuireWoods LLP* said his clients were “still digesting” the ruling, but he added that he's already advising some of them on the potential implications. “We're assessing what this means in practical terms ,” Walls said. The immediate upshot? “It perhaps provides them an opportunity to be heard more directly.”

Rich Masterson, a Republican political consultant whose firm, CampaignGrid, develops internet ad campaigns, said his phone had been ringing off the hook with potential clients whose eagerness to develop campaigns for the 2010 election was given a major boost by Thursday's ruling. Many of these corporate players can now “accelerate their planning,” he said, describing the mood as “cautiously optimistic.” That's especially true of corporations in heavily regulated industries — the financial sector, for instance — who have a lot to gain or lose from what happens in Washington.

Masterson also suggested that impact of the ruling could be as significant for campaign fundraising as for communication with voters. In recent days, most predictions about the the effect of the court's decision have focused on corporations' new ability to run — or threaten to run — negative TV ads against candidates they oppose. But in a white paper being prepared by CampaignGrid — a draft of which was provided to TPMmuckraker — the firm notes that the ruling may have “profound implications for online advertising,” in part by making it easier for corporations to use the internet to help candidates raise money.

The paper gives an example of how that would work:

Using a combination of display and search advertising, FSC Bank could advertise online and link to Congressman Goodfellow's campaign website to drive traffic and volunteers and donations to the website - however FSC Bank could not report back the results of these efforts to the Goodfellow Campaign.

To be sure, most lobbyists and lawyers aren't counseling their clients to go full steam ahead into the new frontier just yet. The powerhouse Washington law and lobbying firm K&L Gates put out a “Public Policy and Law Alert” Thursday, advising that “a corporation looking to act with the freedom granted by this decision should proceed cautiously,” since the FEC may still issuing regulations that alter the effect of the court's ruling. And Congress could act to mitigate some of its effects.

Still, the general effect of the ruling is already starting to become clear. “I think you're gonna see more money entering the process, in the form of these ads” said Noble of Skadden Arps. “I think we will notice the difference.”

* The name of Walls's employer has been corrected from an earlier version.

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Tom’s Planner

Quick Pitch: Tom’s Planner allows you to create and share Gantt Charts online with drag-and-drop simplicity.

Genius Idea: Project management software is useful for everyone — from the giant software development company trying to make a launch date to a bride planning her wedding. Still, it’s often expensive and complicated. Desktop software Microsoft Project is deep and feature-rich, but it’s mired in abstraction and user-unfriendliness. That’s what Tom of Tom’s Planner would argue, anyway, and that’s why he put together an easy-to-use web app for making Gantt charts.

Tom’s Planner is attractive because it actually makes a multi-colored, horizontal time chart the primary interface for project management rather than an extra something you can print or look at on the side. You can make modifications on the fly; right-click to create a new period in your project plan, then select a color, and you’ve already gotten started. You can drag and drop periods around the chart easily — impressive for a web app. Compare that to Microsoft Project’s daunting vertical tree view and you can see the appeal.

You don’t have to forsake Project completely, though; Tom’s Planner can export Project files. You can also share your chart with other people by publishing it to www.tomsplanner.com/shared/name-of-your-schedule. If your project is of the sensitive variety, you can password-lock it.

Tom claims that the app has grown from 240 users to just shy of 14,000 in two months. It’s used by businesses managing their teams and resources, but it’s also used by “individuals planning their weddings, thanksgiving dinners, vegetable gardens or home construction projects,” Tom says. These users are enjoying a free beta testing period, but the product will cost money after the beta period ends.

Tom’s Planner has had a promising start thanks to its user-friendliness, and we’re eager to see how it does in the future, especially once it begins to monetize.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHPPHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”

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In the wake of Thursday's Supreme Court ruling on money in politics, corporations looking to affect the process already are strategizing with lawyers, consultants, and PR pros on how to capitalize on the changed landscape.

“There clearly are clients who are asking questions about what it means for them,” Larry Noble, a former general counsel for the FEC who's now a lawyer at Skadden Arps, told TPMmuckraker. “They're asking: 'what is it that I wasn't allowed to do before that I can now do?'”

In a nutshell, of course, last week's ruling allows corporations to spend unlimited amounts from their general treasuries on independent expenditure campaigns that explicitly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate. Indeed, Noble said that many of the clients looking to take advantage of the ruling are those who had previously run issue-based political ads, as the law had allowed. Now, though, they're exploring the idea of running ads that directly tell voters to elect, or defeat, a candidate. “They're starting to incorporate this into what they're doing,” he said.

Tom Walls, a partner at the Washington law firm McGuireWoods LLP* said his clients were “still digesting” the ruling, but he added that he's already advising some of them on the potential implications. “We're assessing what this means in practical terms ,” Walls said. The immediate upshot? “It perhaps provides them an opportunity to be heard more directly.”

Rich Masterson, a Republican political consultant whose firm, CampaignGrid, develops internet ad campaigns, said his phone had been ringing off the hook with potential clients whose eagerness to develop campaigns for the 2010 election was given a major boost by Thursday's ruling. Many of these corporate players can now “accelerate their planning,” he said, describing the mood as “cautiously optimistic.” That's especially true of corporations in heavily regulated industries — the financial sector, for instance — who have a lot to gain or lose from what happens in Washington.

Masterson also suggested that impact of the ruling could be as significant for campaign fundraising as for communication with voters. In recent days, most predictions about the the effect of the court's decision have focused on corporations' new ability to run — or threaten to run — negative TV ads against candidates they oppose. But in a white paper being prepared by CampaignGrid — a draft of which was provided to TPMmuckraker — the firm notes that the ruling may have “profound implications for online advertising,” in part by making it easier for corporations to use the internet to help candidates raise money.

The paper gives an example of how that would work:

Using a combination of display and search advertising, FSC Bank could advertise online and link to Congressman Goodfellow's campaign website to drive traffic and volunteers and donations to the website - however FSC Bank could not report back the results of these efforts to the Goodfellow Campaign.

To be sure, most lobbyists and lawyers aren't counseling their clients to go full steam ahead into the new frontier just yet. The powerhouse Washington law and lobbying firm K&L Gates put out a “Public Policy and Law Alert” Thursday, advising that “a corporation looking to act with the freedom granted by this decision should proceed cautiously,” since the FEC may still issuing regulations that alter the effect of the court's ruling. And Congress could act to mitigate some of its effects.

Still, the general effect of the ruling is already starting to become clear. “I think you're gonna see more money entering the process, in the form of these ads” said Noble of Skadden Arps. “I think we will notice the difference.”

* The name of Walls's employer has been corrected from an earlier version.

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Tom’s Planner

Quick Pitch: Tom’s Planner allows you to create and share Gantt Charts online with drag-and-drop simplicity.

Genius Idea: Project management software is useful for everyone — from the giant software development company trying to make a launch date to a bride planning her wedding. Still, it’s often expensive and complicated. Desktop software Microsoft Project is deep and feature-rich, but it’s mired in abstraction and user-unfriendliness. That’s what Tom of Tom’s Planner would argue, anyway, and that’s why he put together an easy-to-use web app for making Gantt charts.

Tom’s Planner is attractive because it actually makes a multi-colored, horizontal time chart the primary interface for project management rather than an extra something you can print or look at on the side. You can make modifications on the fly; right-click to create a new period in your project plan, then select a color, and you’ve already gotten started. You can drag and drop periods around the chart easily — impressive for a web app. Compare that to Microsoft Project’s daunting vertical tree view and you can see the appeal.

You don’t have to forsake Project completely, though; Tom’s Planner can export Project files. You can also share your chart with other people by publishing it to www.tomsplanner.com/shared/name-of-your-schedule. If your project is of the sensitive variety, you can password-lock it.

Tom claims that the app has grown from 240 users to just shy of 14,000 in two months. It’s used by businesses managing their teams and resources, but it’s also used by “individuals planning their weddings, thanksgiving dinners, vegetable gardens or home construction projects,” Tom says. These users are enjoying a free beta testing period, but the product will cost money after the beta period ends.

Tom’s Planner has had a promising start thanks to its user-friendliness, and we’re eager to see how it does in the future, especially once it begins to monetize.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHPPHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”

Facebook Is Already The World's Largest <b>News</b> Reader

When Marshall Kirkpatrick posted the other day that Facebook could become the largest <b>news</b> reader I had an inkling that it already was. Today, new data released from Hitwise confirms my suspicions: Facebook is indeed the largest <b>news</b> …

SEOmoz | Getting Started Publishing on Google <b>News</b>

How do you get articles indexed and ranking in Google <b>News</b>? This blog post, which builds off the information provided in the Google <b>News</b> publisher help center and in Maile Ohye's awesome video on Google <b>News</b>, provides publishers with a …

JXD V3: Foldable MP4 Player-Game Console Hybrid PMP with 5.0MP <b>…</b>

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Internet, Leadership, trends

From Social Media to the 3-D Internet: Companies Need to Change Up, Says Former RealNetworks Exec Kelly Jo MacArthur

Gregory T. Huang 2/2/10

Every once in a while, I sit down with a businessperson who brings a unique perspective to a huge global trend—and helps me see things in a profound new light. In this case, that person is Kelly Jo MacArthur, and the global trend is the explosion of social media and its broader impact on corporations.

MacArthur was the former general counsel, senior vice president, and chief of staff at Seattle-based RealNetworks—and she also did a stint at Linden Lab, creators of the virtual world Second Life—so she has her digital media and Internet technologies down cold. A 10-year veteran of Real, she left the company in 2007 and has been focusing on consulting work with startups, big companies, and other organizations across the fields of social media, networking technologies, cleantech and sustainability, traditional media, and arts.

We were talking recently about the future of companies like Twitter and Facebook, and what struck me was the way MacArthur thinks of social media as an inevitable—and inherently predictable—evolution of communication technologies on the Internet. That means smart entrepreneurs and executives should be able to anticipate how all of this is affecting societal behavior, and what the new opportunities will be. What’s more, she’s finding that these technologies are forcing big companies and organizations to completely rethink their core strategy and value proposition—indeed, their very existence.

Here’s an edited transcript of our conversation:

Xconomy: So what are you hearing from companies out in the field?

Kelly Jo MacArthur: In my own work as a strategic advisor to CEOs, various boards, and executives on their corporate strategy, the inevitable conversation is, “What should we be doing with social media?” I’m not a marketing person—they work with their advertising and marketing agencies—but it leads you to the conversation that each business, especially in more traditional, entrenched industries, should be thinking about how they’re relevant in the future. And how we as citizens and consumers are demanding more, and also participating more, in the offerings and opportunities that these businesses have.

There’s a huge opportunity, no matter what business you’re in, if you’re constantly thinking ahead about how we as societies are shifting. Versus focusing on, “Should I be using this tool, or should I have a Facebook page?” You should be using these tools for your …Next Page »

Gregory T. Huang is the Editor of Xconomy Seattle. You can e-mail him at gthuang@xconomy.com or call 206-624-2249.

The Super Bowl is sold out.

At close to $3 million per thirty-second commercial, or approximately $100,000 a second, CBS announced they've sold every available commercial spot for this Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV in Miami, Florida. Industry analysts believe CBS will reap over $200 million in advertising sales for the game, including both the pre and post game shows.

Super Bowl viewers will be treated to a new E*Trade baby, Don Rickles's voice for Teleflora, five minutes of Anheuser-Busch commercials, a humorous ad from the U.S. Census Bureau and GoDaddy.com, and although CBS accepted a controversial pro-life commercial from the evangelical Christian group, Focus on the Family, they've rejected a commercial from mancrunch.com, a gay man's dating site, showing two male football fans passionately kissing.

Several automotive companies will feature ads in the Super Bowl, including Kia, Chrysler, Hyundai, Honda, Audi and Volkswagen, although Ford has chosen to advertise in the pre-game, and GM opted out. American banks are not advertising this year, Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper are in, but wait, Pepsi is out?

After 23 years of advertising in the Super Bowl, Pepsi stepped away from the game, instead pledging $20 million in grants to a social media campaign, called Pepsi Refresh Project, aimed at supporting health, arts and culture, education, and environmental programs in local American communities and organizations.

So, with Pepsi's changing their advertising spend and strategy, this got me to thinking:
Imagine if Super Bowl advertisers allowed shareholders and customers a voice in their marketing and branding decisions. Would Super Bowl advertiser's stakeholders agree to spend $3 million for one thirty-second commercial, hoping to reach a potential 100 million viewers once, or, take the same money to do good and possibly reach the same number of people more frequently over the course of an entire year?

My cousin, Mike Vorhaus, an expert in new media, and president of Magid Advisors, tells me that if a company has a minimum $30 to $40 million multi-media advertising budget, and plans to launch a product or reinforce a brand, then advertising in the Super Bowl is a good idea. “Super Bowl ads are iconic,” Mike told me, “but to work, they should be followed with some kind of buzz campaign, and that means the internet.”

Chris Brogan, author of the best-seller, Trust Agents, and social media guru, says for only $300,000, one tenth of a Super Bowl ad, his award-winning social media company, New Marketing Labs, could execute an incredibly extensive six-month marketing program, including blogs, video, audio, and webinars, generating consistent new creative ideas. Brogan, who advises major companies like, Citrix Online, Sony Electronics USA, Pearson Education, Microsoft, Cisco, MolsonCoors, and Pepsico, said a $300,000 engagement would also go to community building along many social platforms, focusing on lead generation, sales, and customer loyalty. Certainly not as sexy as a Super Bowl commercial, but effective.

Here's another idea: What if one Super Bowl advertiser chose not to promote their own product, but instead promoted charitable giving to aid earthquake relief in Haiti, driving traffic to on-line charity evaluator, Charity Navigator, or The American Red Cross.

Sandra Miniutti, Charity Navigator's CFO, told me they evaluate over 5,400 of America's largest charities, and that nearly $2.5 million in charitable giving flowed through their site last year, with the average donation about $120. Consider, if a Super Bowl advertiser wanted to forgo one ad this year, and run that $3 million through Charity Navigator, then those 5,400 charities, would each receive $555, almost five times as much as today's average donation.

Another $3 million option for a Super Bowl advertiser would be to fund Erik Proulx's new movie, Lemonade, Detroit. Proulx's first documentary, Lemonade, the Movie, follows 16 professionals who after losing their advertising jobs, create lemonade from lemons, as they move on in life to do great things. Proulx, whose mission is inspiring struggling and underemployed people to reinvent themselves, will shoot Lemonade, Detroit to show “disarming resilience that belies the statistics and headlines.” Proulx told me, “Lemonade, Detroit will profile not just the people who are reinventing themselves, but the psyche of an entire city that realizes it can no longer depend on a single industry for its livelihood. There is an amazing insurgence of the entrepreneurial spirit there. And those stories need to be told.”

Super Bowl Sunday is the top day for pizza delivery in the U.S. I asked Tim McIntyre, Domino's Pizza's, vice president, communications, if they planned on participating in the $3 million Super Bowl advertising fray.

“While it's many an advertiser's dream to appear on the Super Bowl, we don't necessarily need to be,” said McIntyre. “America knows that pizza is the delivered food of choice on Super Bowl Sunday. We also benefit when other pizza companies advertise, because when it comes to delivery, Domino's is top of mind - we benefit from the halo effect. That being said, $3 million is roughly twice our annual PR budget. You've got to get quite a bang for your buck if you're going to make that kind of investment for 30 seconds.”

And I thought, what could $3 million buy me at behemoth, Microsoft? Apparently, quite a bit.

According to Robin Domeniconi, vice president, US Advertising Sales, Publishing and Marketing, the Microsoft Media Network is the fastest growing large advertising network, with 165.5 million total unique visitors, and 62.2 million average daily visitors, as reported by comScore Media Metrix 2010.

“$3 million could buy an advertiser a search campaign that could stretch far longer than a four or five-hour Super Bowl telecast,” Domeniconi said, “and oddly enough, Bing itself has seen a brand lift from SEM (search engine marketing) activities.”

Microsoft sells its three-screen display campaign, including the PC, phone and video games. In the U.S., the MSN homepage reports over 66 million total unique users, and Microsoft mobile reaches 36 million total unique viewers, and with Microsoft's Xbox alone, advertisers reach new, unique users through the 40 million Xbox units, and over 17 million Xbox LIVE subscribers.

“Spending $3 million with Microsoft gets a Super Bowl advertiser a campaign reaching people at multiple points during the day, regardless of the medium, and a campaign with staying power over weeks, possibly even months, and avoids the clutter of the Super Bowl, as well as guarding against the possibility consumers might tune out if the game is a blowout.”

$3 million to run one thirty-second commercial in the Super Bowl is a lot of money. Yet with CBS selling out the time, and nearly 100 million viewers projected to watch (my predication) the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts by seven points, and the Who perform at Halftime, maybe Super Bowl advertisers have the right idea. And then again, maybe there's a better way to spend $100,000 a second.

Bill bartmann, Bill bartmann, Bill bartmann robert shumake, robert shumake

'Sex Box' exposé might be the greatest <b>news</b> report of all time

Posted just after the jump is one of the most hard-hitting <b>news</b> reports on the dangers of online gaming we've seen in years. Oh, sorry — did we say "hard-hitting?" We meant "sensationalized, irrational, unresearched, and absolutely …

<b>News</b> Corp. Murdoch: Content Is Not Just King, It's The Emperor <b>…</b>

During <b>News</b> Corp.'s earnings call, a triumphant Rupert Murdoch asked listeners to pardon his lack of humility, but he boasted that the company's “content is not just king, it's the emperor of all things electronic. …

Joe Klein rips Fox <b>News</b> for airing Beck's 'hateful crap,' but O <b>…</b>

Bill O'Reilly has been irked at Joe Klein since last October, after Klein wrote a typical Villager piece for Time castigating President Obama for standing up to Fox <b>News</b>. That's not what upset O'Reilly, though.

A significant factor in putting Barack Obama in the White House was the brilliant social media marketing of the Obama for America campaign. The Obama campaign realized that social media was a primary importance, not an afterthought. The number of people the campaign reached on the Web was staggering: Millions friended Obama on Facebook and joined the MyBO social organizing site. By election day, Obama had nearly 4 times more Facebook supporters than McCain and twenty times more Twitter followers.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project April 2009 report The Internet's Role in Campaign 2008 says some 55 percent of all adults–and 74 percent of all Internet users–said they went online for news and information about the election or to communicate with others about the race.

So it's fascinating to watch Martha Coakley's campaign for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts basically ignore new media in favor of the old playbooks that elected Ted Kennedy to the seat.

Of course there is much more to the race: Politics and platforms and personal connections are important. But didn't Obama for America teach us that the Web has the power to push a candidate over the top? Obama also showed the importance of young people (whose communications of choice is digital).

Let's look at a few numbers. As I compare the morning before election day, @MarthaCoakley has 3,520 Twitter followers compared to @ScottBrownMA with 10,214 followers. Coakley counts 14,487 Facebook fans to Brown's 76,700 fans. Advantage Brown by more than three to one.

Living in safe, secure blue state Massachusetts, I always envied those from Iowa and New Hampshire who got so much candidate face time in Presidential elections. Now that I've lived through a tightening race, forget it. The robocalls are crazy! I get a half dozen a day! And the television commercials! Don't get me started.

At the same time, why is social media ignored?

The event section on the Coakley site shows a dozen or so rallies and nearly one hundred phone bank events in the three days leading up to election day. Yet there are zero Tweetups and zero virtual events listed.

Massachusetts is a hotbed of information technology. People here are plugged in. Most of my friends don't even use the phone anymore except to call the plumber. It is a college town with young people who don't have landlines.

On Saturday I learned that President Obama was to rally for Coakley in Boston and wanted to go. But there was no mention of the event on her Twitter feed at all prior to the event. Nothing. What about telling fans first? Recall that Obama announced Joe Biden as his running mate via social networking tools like SMS and Twitter before he sent a press release to the media. Coakley seems to be on Twitter and Facebook as an afterthought, an item on a checklist. The Brown social media efforts seem much more active.

I did make it to the rally yesterday. It was the first time I had seen a sitting president speak live and I enjoyed it. Hoopla was generated. Television soundbites were secured. It seemed to be a success.

But wait. Look closer.

The event was held at Northeastern University and sponsored by the Student Democrats. Quick. How do college students communicate? Facebook and SMS of course! Yet these two forms of communications played absolutely no formal part in the rally. The brochure that was handed out had no web addresses or social media sites. At the rally, Coakley fans were asked to vote. They were asked to volunteer at phone banks. They were asked to talk to neighbors and friends.

But were the many college students in the crowd told to talk up the Coakley campaign on Facebook, the college student communications tool of choice? No. Were people at the rally asked to tweet? No. Were they asked to join Coakley's fan page? No.

The Coakley campaign is underestimating the importance of social media and the new rules of marketing and PR.

John McCain relied on what worked to elect George W. Bush and he lost mainly because of social media. Now Martha Coakley is relying on the playbook that elected Ted Kennedy and she may lose because of social media too.

We believe that the movie industry has embraced social media in a big way. Not only do social networks and the Internet offer a direct connection to fans and potential consumers, but campaigns can be better targeted and better measured. Avatar, District 9, and Paranormal Activity are all good examples of what social media can do for a film.

MashableMashable had the opportunity to speak with some members of the marketing team at MGM Studios about the advertising campaign for the film Hot Tub Time Machine, the social-media component and the results so far.

The Film

Hot Tub Time Machine is a raucous comedy starring John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson and Clark Duke about four friends who live it up one night in a ski resort hot tub and wake up in the year 1986. Think The Hangover meets Back to the Future.

The film opens in March. In its promotional campaign, MGM is placing an emphasis on word-of-mouth because it is now viewed as a vital component to a film’s success these days, especially for R-rated comedies. (Hot Tub Time Machine is awaiting a final MPAA rating but I have no doubt this is going to be an R-rated picture.) The Hangover was such a huge success because of its strong word of mouth.

To that end, MGM decided to take a cue from Paranormal Activity and its Eventful collaboration. The studio is launching a bunch of free preview screenings for fans to help build word of mouth surrounding the film. Fans can go to this site and volunteer to host a screening of the film. Hosts can invite nine of their friends, and everyone gets free popcorn and soda, a free t-shirt, and reserved seating. In addition, the host gets a special introduction before the show. If you can’t host a screening in your area, you can also sign up to attend the show for free.

Preview screenings aren’t a new concept, but marketing the screenings directly to fans and creating the type of hosting incentive that Hot Tub Time Machine is doing is pretty unique.

The Execution

The preview screening campaign and engagement with social networks was born out of MGM’s marketing department. Michael Vollman, the Executive Vice President of Marketing, oversaw the campaign. Sara Bordo, who heads up Digital Marketing, was involved with the social media aspects of the project while Christine Batista, EVP of Marketing Partnerships and Promotions, has been overseeing the different screenings in cities across the country.

Yesterday, MGM launched the red band trailer for Hot Tub Time Machine via its website and to various movie blogs. Red band trailers contain profanity, sometimes brief nudity and more adult-content than a standard “green band” trailer. For films like Hot Tub Time Machine, these types of trailers are often popular online and can help build word of mouth. In addition to the trailer, MGM has also started spreading the word about the EventfulEventful free preview screenings.

In addition to blogs, FacebookFacebook and TwitterTwitter, a big component of MGM’s outreach campaign for Hot Tub Time Machine was via MTV’s hit reality-show Jersey Shore. During last night’s finale, spots like the commercial embedded below aired, tying together the “hot tub” connections. Justin Slobig, the VP of Theatrical Marketing, oversaw the trailer and the Jersey Shore spot.

The Results So Far

According to MGM’s marketing team, the responses on Twitter and Facebook have been through the roof. The red band trailer has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in less than 24 hours and as of 10 am this morning (18 hours or so after launch), screenings for the film — both host and non-host spots — were almost full, with many bigger cities already sold out.

The success of the preview screening campaign went above and beyond the studio’s expectations and they are currently in negotiations to add more screens to the program. Originally 300 screenings were planned but MGM hopes to double that number in the next few weeks.

Why This is the Future

The best campaigns are those that work on multiple levels and reach the targeted audience. By targeting potential moviegoers through both social media and through a show like Jersey Shore that shares similar demographics, word about the film and the free preview screenings was able to be spread faster and to more people.

The goal of this campaign is to raise awareness and word-of-mouth, the idea being that this will lead to friends recommending the film to other friends and thus generating more ticket revenue. As clever as the preview screening program is, using the online component to build anticipation and a viral marketing effort is something we think is even more impressive.

In August, Fox sponsored what was dubbed “Avatar Day” as a way for fans to see a free 30 minute preview of the film at IMAX or other 3D screens. Although Avatar has been an enormous success and is paying off in dividends for everyone involved, the “Avatar Day” campaign didn’t go as smoothly as plan, despite its online integration.

One difference between that campaign and the campaigns that MGM is doing with Hot Tub Time Machine and what Paramount did with Paranormal Activity is that the former is targeting the right users by engaging them on their turf and on their networks and not trying to bring the activity to their portals. Sure, you still have to go to the Eventful site to sign-up, but you can share trailers and other information via Twitter, Facebook and other services. Plus, an established platform like Eventful has the back-end to deal with scheduling issues that a homegrown solution might lack.

Social media is powerful because it can connect people directly to one another and that makes for more effective communication. It’s too soon to say how successful Hot Tub Time Machine will be, but the first stage of the media campaign has worked.

What do you think about how movie studios and other parts of the entertainment industry use social media to further their message and connect directly with fans? Let us know!

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