BENTON'S COMMUNICATIONS-RELATED HEADLINES for MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23 2009
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ELECTIONS & MEDIA
Glenn Beck Stakes Out Activist Role in Politics
RESEARCH
White House Pushes Science and Math Education
Shared Supercomputing and Everyday Research
OWNERSHIP
GE, Vivendi make progress on NBC Universal
Microsoft and News Corp eye web pact
CONTENT
Volunteers Log Off as Wikipedia Ages
WIRELESS
High-Tech Devices Help Drivers Put Down Phone
Suits Over Ads Demand Proof
Cellphone Entertainment Takes Off in Rural India
ELECTIONS & MEDIA
GLENN BECK STAKES OUT ACTIVIST ROLE IN POLITICS
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Brian Stelter]
Glenn Beck, the popular and outspoken Fox News host, says he wants to go beyond broadcasting his opinions and start rallying his political base — formerly known as his audience — to take action. To do so, Beck is styling himself as a political organizer. He said he would promote voter registration drives and sponsor a series of seven conventions across the country featuring what he described as libertarian speakers. Beck did say the conventions would resemble educational seminars, and he emphasized that while candidates may align themselves with the values and principles that he espouses, he would not take the next step to endorse them. Beck, having used his television and radio pulpit to lay out his list of the country's impending problems — deficit spending, health care legislation that will "destroy" the economy, a dearth of "personal responsibility" — says he now wants to also provide solutions.
benton.org/node/29976 | New York Times
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RESEARCH
WHITE HOUSE PUSHES SCIENCE AND MATH EDUCATION
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Kenneth Chang]
To improve science and mathematics education for American children, the White House is recruiting Elmo and Big Bird, video game programmers and thousands of scientists. President Obama will announce a campaign Monday to enlist companies and nonprofit groups to spend money, time and volunteer effort to encourage students, especially in middle and high school, to pursue science, technology, engineering and math, officials say. The campaign, called Educate to Innovate, will focus mainly on activities outside the classroom. For example, Discovery Communications has promised to use two hours of the afternoon schedule on its Science Channel cable network for commercial-free programming geared toward middle school students. Science and engineering societies are promising to provide volunteers to work with students in the classroom, culminating in a National Lab Day in May.
benton.org/node/29975 | New York Times
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SHARED SUPERCOMPUTING
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Ashlee Vance]
For decades, the world's supercomputers have been the tightly guarded property of universities and governments. But what would happen if regular folks could get their hands on one? The price of supercomputers is dropping quickly, in part because they are often built with the same off-the-shelf parts found in PCs, as a supercomputing conference here last week made clear. Just about any organization with a few million dollars can now buy or assemble a top-flight machine. Meanwhile, research groups and companies like IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Intel are finding ways to make vast stores of information available online through so-called cloud computing. These advances are pulling down the high walls around computing-intensive research. A result could be a democratization that gives ordinary people with a novel idea a chance to explore their curiosity with heavy computing firepower — and maybe find something unexpected. The trend has spurred some of the world's top computing experts and scientists to work toward freeing valuable stores of information. The goal is to fill big computers with scientific data and then let anyone in the world with a PC, including amateur scientists, tap into these systems.
benton.org/node/29974 | New York Times
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OWNERSHIP
GE, VIVENDI MAKE PROGRESS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Jui Chakravorty, Anupreeta Das]
Apparently, General Electric and Vivendi are moving closer to a deal on NBC Universal, with Vivendi agreeing to accept payment for just one-third of its stake until a related deal with Comcast closes. While Vivendi and GE have not agreed on a price yet, the French media company's acceptance of a staggered payment schedule shows it is willing to compromise to pave the way for Comcast. Vivendi had previously asked to be paid fully upfront to avoid regulatory risk -- U.S. antitrust enforcers are expected to take at least a year to scrutinize the Comcast-NBCU deal. Vivendi values its stake in NBCU, acquired in 2004, at $6.1 billion; GE's latest offer may be about $500 million lower.
benton.org/node/29973 | Reuters
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MICROSOFT AND NEWS CORP EYE WEB PACT
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Matthew Garrahan, Richard Waters, Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson]
Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company being paid to "de-index" its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry. The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK. Microsoft has also approached other big online publishers to persuade them to remove their sites from Google's search engine.
benton.org/node/29972 | Financial Times | Wall Street Journal
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CONTENT
VOLUNTEERS LOG OFF WIKIPEDIA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Julia Angwin, Geoffrey Fowler]
Wikipedia is the fifth-most-popular Web site in the world, with roughly 325 million monthly visitors. But unprecedented numbers of the millions of online volunteers who write, edit and police it are quitting. That could have significant implications for the brand of democratization that Wikipedia helped to unleash over the Internet -- the empowerment of the amateur. Executives at the Wikimedia Foundation, which finances and oversees the nonprofit venture, acknowledge the declines, but believe they can continue to build a useful encyclopedia with a smaller pool of contributors. Wikipedia contributors have been debating widely what is behind the declines in volunteers. One factor is that many topics already have been written about. Another is the plethora of rules Wikipedia has adopted to bring order to its unruly universe -- particularly to reduce infighting among contributors about write-ups of controversial subjects and polarizing figures.
benton.org/node/29971 | Wall Street Journal
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WIRELESS
HIGH-TECH DEVICES HELP DRIVERS PUT DOWN CELL PHONES
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Sam Grobart]
ZoomSafer is a free service that uses a phone's GPS sensors to determine whether it is at driving speeds, and then disables the cellphone until the car stops. Of course, there is a simpler, no-cost solution to limiting phone use while driving: the off button. But going cold turkey is hard for many Americans who have become addicted to their gadgets. And so technology companies are trying to solve a problem caused by technology with more technology. But the solutions reflect markedly different answers to a simple question: How much can drivers be trusted? One group of companies assume that some people know they can't help themselves, and therefore want a service to automatically disable their cellphone when it is in a moving car. But other companies say the habit can be made safer with hands-free technology. Ford and Microsoft, for example, are selling systems that rely on voice commands to dial phones. Hands-free devices are far more popular. But it is cellphone-muzzling technology that has caught the eye of large auto insurers. That's because some studies show that talking on phones while driving is dangerous, even if the driver is using a headset and has both hands on the wheel. One insurer has even said it will offer discounts to customers who use a call-blocking service.
benton.org/node/29970 | New York Times
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SUITS OVER ADS DEMAND PROOF
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Stephanie Clifford]
Companies that were once content to fight in grocery-store aisles and on television commercials are now choosing a different route — filing lawsuits and other formal grievances challenging their competitors' claims. Longtime foes like Pantene and Dove, Science Diet and Iams, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, and Campbell Soup and Progresso have all wrestled over ads recently. The goal is usually not money but market share. Companies file complaints to get competitors' ads withdrawn or amended. The cases themselves might seem a little absurd. Dueling advertisers, however, argue that these claims can mislead consumers and cause a pronounced drop in sales. Since advertisers are required by law to have a reasonable factual basis for their commercials, their competitors are essentially demanding that they show their hand. The increase in these actions may be a reflection of the dismal economy: in recessions, when overall spending lags, advertisers must fight harder for customers.
benton.org/node/29969 | New York Times
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CELLPHONE ENTERTAINMENT IN RURAL INDIA
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Eric Bellman]
In the furthest reaches of India's rural heartland, the cellphone is bringing something that television, radio and even newspapers couldn't deliver: instant access to music, information, entertainment, news and even worship. Despite its rapid modernization, many of India's 750,000 villages remain isolated except for the cellphone reception that now blankets almost the entire country after a decade of rapid expansion by operators. So in villages that don't receive any FM radio stations, people have begun calling a number that has a recording of Bollywood tunes and listening to it on their headsets. This primitive cellular "radio" service was used by close to 20 million Indians last year, phone company executives estimate.
benton.org/node/29968 | Wall Street Journal
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