| Web Playgrounds of the Very Young
Forget Second Life. The real virtual world gold rush centers on the grammar-school set. Trying to duplicate the success of blockbuster Web sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz, children's entertainment companies are greatly accelerating efforts to build virtual worlds for children. Media conglomerates in particular think these sites — part online role-playing game and part social scene — can deliver quick growth, help keep movie franchises alive and instill brand loyalty in a generation of new customers. .
Buck & New Dawg: Did the Cowboys choke it all away?
Can players now levy fines on the coaching staff? Can players now reduce fines involving teammates they like? Where does it stop? I say this one time is cute ... but leave the reprimands to the experts. Is the Baseball Writers Association of Americas voting requirement (75 percent) too strict for Hall of Fame entry into Cooperstown? NEW DAWG: No. It means the best get in. I like that. BUCK: Yes. The deserving ARENt getting in. I say lower the voting requirement to two-thirds (as nearly 550 writers cast a ballot and some apparently get Bert Blyleven and Bert from Sesame Street confused). If two-thirds would get a player in, this year wed have Goose Gossage and Jim Rice ... with Andre Dawson barely missing by four votes. Whats wrong with that? Jan.
Gordon Brown's Black Wednesday
There can be no more doubt. Northern Rock is Gordon Brown's Black Wednesday. The Prime Minister, like John Major before him, remains in office, but he is no longer in power. The mini-Budget in October, with its misconceived plagiarism of Tory tax policies, marked the beginning of the end, when Mr Brown handed over his hard-won economic credibility to David Cameron and George Osborne. But yesterday's statement on Northern Rock represented an even more astonishing - and shocking - derogation of power: Mr Brown handed over the keys to the Treasury to Sir Richard Branson and Goldman Sachs, destroying in the process the entire economic and political framework that he created as Chancellor in 1997. With Britain's foreign policy still firmly in the hands of the White House and European policy managed from Brussels, it is hard to see why Mr Brown bothers to turn up to work.
Local golf: Cook, Sluman commit to ACE Group Classic
Cook said in a conference call last week that he would be coming to Naples' Champions Tour event, from Feb. 11-17 at Quail West Golf & Country Club. Sluman had indicated at last month's Merrill Lynch Shootout in Naples that he would be playing. Both are technically rookies on the tour, even though they both played a handful of tournaments last year. “It is exciting to see these seasoned veterans making the transition from the PGA Tour to the Champions Tour,'' tournament director Jason Camp said in a press release. “John has already won in his brief time as a 50-year-old, and Jeff is not far behind with several top-25 finishes. I know they want to make a big splash in 2008, and we are happy to have them in Naples for what we hope is the first of many memorable efforts.'' Cook won in his second start at the AT&T Classic in San Antonio in mid-October.
Google's infinite loop of diversification
A year after Google chief executive Eric Schmidt vowed to rein in the "blizzard" of new product launches that was "confusing to almost everyone", the search giant continues its dizzying diversification into anything internet-related. In the past month alone, Google has expanded its reach into the mobile phone business, emerged as a competitor to Facebook and signalled it could become a de facto mobile network operator. Some say Google is losing focus but a fast-firming view is that, since the company dominates the internet advertising arena, as long as internet use keeps growing exponentially, so will Google's profits. About the same time Schmidt vowed to stem the flow of new product announcements, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said he was leading a company-wide initiative called "features, not products", as he was "getting lost in the sheer volume of the products that we were releasing".
New Mexico Gov. Richardson drops out of '08 race
The time has come to end my quest and come home to tackle the challenges before us in New Mexico," Richardson told cheering supporters in his state capital of Santa Fe. "Our legislature starts next week, and I intend to put my full efforts behind our No. 1 priority -- extending health insurance to every New Mexican by the end of my term." When making his announcement, Richardson declined to endorse any candidate but called the Democratic field "the most promising field in my lifetime." He predicted the party's eventual nominee would win the White House. While praising each of the remaining contenders, he also urged them to swear off personal attacks against one another. Watch Richardson bow out of the race » "To do otherwise could result in another four to eight years of more of the same, and that would be the biggest tragedy of all," Richardson said.
The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry
At press time, analysts were speculating that customers would snap up about 3 million units by the end of 2007, making it the fastest-selling smartphone of all time. It is also arguably Apple's most profitable device. The company nets an estimated $80 for every $399 iPhone it sells, and that's not counting the $240 it makes from every two-year AT&T contract an iPhone customer signs. Meanwhile, about 40 percent of iPhone buyers are new to AT&T's rolls, and the iPhone has tripled the carrier's volume of data traffic in cities like New York and San Francisco. But as important as the iPhone has been to the fortunes of Apple and AT&T, its real impact is on the structure of the $11 billion-a-year US mobile phone industry. For decades, wireless carriers have treated manufacturers like serfs, using access to their networks as leverage to dictate what phones will get made, how much they will cost, and what features will be available on them.
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