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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Within 24-hours of posting a web advertisement for an upcoming hackathon in Boston, Massachusetts, web startup Sqoot has lost four sponsors for the event, in what has been described as the “worst startup PR crisis in recent history.” This caused them to postpone the event and apologize in response to thousands of tweets that opposed the advert and found its content sexist.

On March 20, Sqoot, an API provider that delivers daily deals like Groupon and Gilt City, posted an online advert for their upcoming Boston API Jam. The advert promoted various perks for the event, including an in-house DJ, cocktails, food trucks and access to women: women specifically there to serve beer to attendees. As soon as the ad was posted to Eventbrite, many on Twitter expressed concern. Over 3,000 tweets later, the advert was deemed sexist by many and Twitter users both condemned Sqoot and contacted the sponsors of the event. The ad, which Alex Williams of SiliconANGLE described as “bizarre” and “misogynist,” was quietly changed on Eventbrite by Sqoot, removing the mention of women as beer peddlers.

In a matter of hours, four sponsors had pulled out from the Boston event: CloudMine, Apigee, Heroku, and MongoHQ. Shortly thereafter, Sqoot offered two apologies: a brief apology which was then followed by a more detailed apology stating that they desired to have a “good party” that was not a standard hackathon experience of pizza and keynote speakers. Sqoot stated that they “aimed to call attention to the male-dominated tech world through humor and intended to be inclusive, the gravity of our wording was just the opposite. Our words completely undermined our intentions and went further to harm the world we’re trying to have a positive impact on.” Other sponsors such as Constant Contact and Simple Relevance remained as sponsors.

Shanley Kane, director of product management at Basho Technologies, supported the sponsor withdrawal and didn’t just consider the advertisement sexist, but also homophobic by ostracizing gay men by promoting a seemingly “straight” agenda for the event. Kane also believed that Sqoot had the “false assumption that women would not attend the event at all,” by promoting it with a male targeted spin. In an industry that is dominated by men, it can be assumed that more men would attend the hackathon than women, but, the advertisement ostracized women even more from attending. And this wasn’t Sqoot’s first foray into straight male targeted marketing. Blog posts like “Sqoot Makes You Yelp!” featuring the Yelp logo on a woman’s backside and “Sqoot Goes Topless” featuring an image of a topless woman, are meant to promote the opening of Yelp’s API and company transparency.

Alex Williams believes that the Sqoot situation shows that sexism within the tech industry is broad and growing. “Women are marginalized and treated more as objects than as colleagues. The trend is a disturbing one and poses a serious threat to the health and diversity of the tech sector.” Techli’s Kathryn Hough chocked it up to immaturity, “Someone needs to tell young founders that frat house behavior is not acceptable in the business world. If Sqoot’s business collapses for a few sentences of sexist copy, I hope that other young founders get to see the wreckage before following them off the plank.”

Lukas Blakk, a release engineer and advisory board member for The Ada Initiative, a non-profit that tries to increase female participation in technology and open source, believes that having a code of conduct in place is a necessity for businesses, and for those businesses who don’t “you’ve got a ticking time bomb in your organization’s future.” Social media is giving businesses a new challenge when it comes to marketing. When it comes to the criticism fielded by the public towards businesses regarding sexist content, fellow Ada Initiative board member and database analyst Selena Deckelmann agrees that businesses need to step up to the challenge and respond appropriately. “…companies need to develop the skills necessary to respond with grace and understanding, even when under intense, negative scrutiny. Silencing, gas-lighting and ignoring the messenger tactics no longer work when a social network quickly spreads information, and occasionally, outrage.”

Is there a future for Sqoot? Mike Maney believes Sqoot can recover. Maney, head of influencer management for Alcatel-Lucent, acknowledges that Sqoot will have a long way to go to regain their credibility amongst the tech industry and the clientele they serve, “But, the work they’ll have to do to undo the self-inflicted damage […] is going to require a massive effort.”

Monday, March 2, 2009

According to officials, João Bernardo Vieira, the president of Guinea-Bissau, was shot to death on Monday in his palace by renegade soldiers.

“President Vieira was killed by the army as he tried to flee his house which was being attacked by a group of soldiers close to the chief of staff Tagme Na Waie, early this morning,” Zamora Induta, a military spokesman, said to Agence France-Presse, insisting that “this was not a coup d’etat.”

“We reaffirmed our intention to respect the democratically elected power and the constitution of the republic,” he said. “The people who killed President Vieira have not been arrested, but we are pursuing them. They are an isolated group. The situation is under control.”

Induta also said that the president was “taken down by bullets fired by these soldiers,” and that afterwards they looted his home. “They were taking everything they could carry, his personal belongings, the furniture, everything,” Induta said.

The assassination is believed to be a revenge for a bomb blast that killed one of Vieira’s rivals, the army chief of staff General Batista Tagme Na Waie, just a few hours earlier.

The constitution says that the nation’s parliament chief, Raimundo Pereira, is to succeed Vieira in the case of his death.

Jean Ping, the chief executive of the African Union, said that the assassination of the president was a “criminal act”.

Guinea-Bissau, located on the western coast of Africa, has had a history of coups, and is one of the world’s poorest countries. It is notorious as being a transit point for the cocaine trade between Europe and South America.

João Bernardo Vieira, born in 1939, came to power in Guinea-Bissau during a coup in 1980, but was forced out in 1999 when a civil war started. In 2005, he returned from his exile in Portugal to participate in the nation’s elections, and won the vote.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Newspaper The Guardian reports today that the sale of the BBC subsidiary BBC Resources Ltd., has cost £3.4m in consultancy fees — over £1m more than the £2.3m trading profit the commercial division is estimated to have made for the last financial year. Details of the failed privatisation were released by the BBC following a freedom of information request, and prior to publication of its annual report on July 8.

Fourteen months after advisers were appointed to try to sell BBC Resources Ltd., only one of the three main business units has been sold — its Outside Broadcast division to Satellite Information Services Limited (SIS), for an estimated £20m. On March 7, 2008 it was also announced that the studios operation would remain in BBC ownership and in early June, the fate of the third business was put on hold with the BBC stating that “like Studios, Post Production will remain within BBC Resources, which will continue to operate as a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC.”

BBC Resources Ltd. made an operating profit of £6.1m for 2005-06, down from £7.4m the year before, with the BBC accounting for 83.3% of its turnover, down from 87.4% for 2004-05. Last year’s published figure for 2006-07 was £5.2 million — with BBC business at 80% of turnover.

BECTU Assistant General Secretary Luke Crawley is quoted as saying: “It’s fairly outrageous that around half the profit of the company [announced last year] has been spent trying to sell it. It’s an inordinate amount of money. The BBC was promised big returns if it sold BBC Resources but it’s only managed to sell outside broadcasts and we do not know how much it made out of that. We think the £3.4m is a poor investment.”

1 Background to the Resources sale
- 1.1 BBC Costume and Wigs
2 Related news
3 Sources
4 External links

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Every September, the Apple iPod is redesigned. Last year saw the release of the iPod Nano 5th generation, bringing a video camera and a large range of colours to the Nano for the first time. But as Apple again prepares to unveil a redesigned product, the company has released their quarterly sales figures—and revealed that they have sold only 9m iPods for the quarter to June—the lowest number of sales since 2006, leading industry anylists to ponder whether the world’s most successful music device is in decline.

Such a drop in sales is not a problem for Apple, since the iPhone 4 and the iPad are selling in high numbers. But the number of people buying digital music players are concerning the music industry. Charles Arthur, technology editor of The Guardian, wrote that the decline in sales of MP3 players was a “problem” for record companies, saying that “digital music sales are only growing as fast as those of Apple’s devices – and as the stand-alone digital music player starts to die off, people may lose interest in buying songs from digital stores. The music industry had looked to the iPod to drive people to buy music in download form, whether from Apple’s iTunes music store, eMusic, Napster or from newer competitors such as Amazon.”

Mark Mulligan, a music and digital media analyst at Forrester Research, said in an interview that “at a time where we’re asking if digital is a replacement for the CD, as the CD was for vinyl, we should be starting to see a hockey-stick growth in download sales. Instead, we’re seeing a curve resembling that of a niche technology.” Alex Jacob, a spokesperson for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the worldwide music industry, agreed that there had been a fall in digital sales of music. “The digital download market is still growing,” they said. “But the percentage is less than a few years ago, though it’s now coming from a higher base.” Figures released earlier this year, Arthur wrote, “show that while CD sales fell by 12.7%, losing $1.6bn (£1bn)in value, digital downloads only grew by 9.2%, gaining less than $400m in value.”

Expectations that CDs would, in time, become extinct, replaced by digital downloads, have not come to light, Jacob confirmed. “Across the board, in terms of growth, digital isn’t making up for the fall in CD sales, though it is in certain countries, including the UK,” he said. Anylising the situation, Arthur suggested that “as iPod sales slow, digital music sales, which have been yoked to the device, are likely to slow too. The iPod has been the key driver: the IFPI’s figures show no appreciable digital download sales until 2004, the year Apple launched its iTunes music store internationally (it launched it in the US in April 2003). Since then, international digital music sales have climbed steadily, exactly in line with the total sales of iPods and iPhones.”

Nick Farrell, a TechEYE journalist, stated that the reason for the decline in music sales could be attributed to record companies’ continued reliance on Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, saying that they had considered him the “industry’s saviour”, and by having this mindset had forgotten “that the iPod is only for those who want their music on the run. What they should have been doing is working out how to get high quality music onto other formats, perhaps even HiFi before the iPlod fad died out.”

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When Jobs negotiated a deal with record labels to ensure every track was sold for 99 cents, they considered this unimportant—the iPod was not a major source of revenue for the company. However, near the end of 2004, there was a boom in sales of the iPod, and the iTunes store suddenly began raking in more and more money. The record companies were irritated, now wanting to charge different amounts for old and new songs, and popular and less popular songs. “But there was no alternative outlet with which to threaten Apple, which gained an effective monopoly over the digital music player market, achieving a share of more than 70%” wrote Arthur. Some did attempt to challenge the iTunes store, but still none have succeeded. “Apple is now the largest single retailer of music in the US by volume, with a 25% share.”

The iTunes store now sells television shows and films, and the company has recently launced iBooks, a new e-book store. The App Store is hugely successful, with Apple earning $410m in two years soley from Apps, sales of which they get 30%. In two years, 5bn apps have been downloaded—while in seven years, 10bn songs have been purchased. Mulligan thinks that there is a reason for this—the quality of apps simply does not match up to a piece of music. “You can download a song from iTunes to your iPhone or iPad, but at the moment music in that form doesn’t play to the strengths of the device. Just playing a track isn’t enough.”

Adam Liversage, a spokesperson of the British Phonographic Industry, which represents the major UK record labels, notes that the rise of streaming services such as Spotify may be a culprit in the fall in music sales. Revenues from such companies added up to $800m in 2009. Arthur feels that “again, it doesn’t make up for the fall in CD sales, but increasingly it looks like nothing ever will; that the record business’s richest years are behind it. Yet there are still rays of hope. If Apple – and every other mobile phone maker – are moving to an app-based economy, where you pay to download games or timetables, why shouldn’t recording artists do the same?”

Well, apparently they are. British singer Peter Gabriel has released a ‘Full Moon Club’ app, which is updated every month with a new song. Arthur also notes that “the Canadian rock band Rush has an app, and the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, led by Trent Reznor – who has been critical of the music industry for bureaucracy and inertia – released the band’s first app in April 2009.” It is thought that such a system will be an effective method to reduce online piracy—”apps tend to be tied to a particular handset or buyer, making them more difficult to pirate than a CD”, he says—and in the music industry, piracy is a very big problem. In 2008, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimated that 95% of downloads were illegitimate. If musicians can increase sales and decrease piracy, Robert says, it can only be a good thing.

“It’s early days for apps in the music business, but we are seeing labels and artists experimenting with it,” Jacob said. “You could see that apps could have a premium offering, or behind-the-scenes footage, or special offers on tickets. But I think it’s a bit premature to predict the death of the album.” Robert concluded by saying that it could be “premature to predict the death of the iPod just yet too – but it’s unlikely that even Steve Jobs will be able to produce anything that will revive it. And that means that little more than five years after the music industry thought it had found a saviour in the little device, it is having to look around again for a new stepping stone to growth – if, that is, one exists.”

Sunday, February 13, 2005

LONDON – The big-budget Hollywood movie The Aviator and the low-budget Brit flick Vera Drake have scooped the main prizes at the 2005 Orange BAFTA Film Awards. Four gongs went to The Aviator with the top ones being Best Film and Cate Blanchett for Best Supporting Actress. Vera Drake got three gongs with Best Director, Best Actress & Costume Design. Jamie Foxx got Best Actor with Ray and Clive Owen got Best Supporting Actor with Closer.

Criminal Law Drugs: The Pitfall Of Pills

March 6th, 2018 in Public Relations | No Comments

By Frank Egan – LAC Lawyers

Called; ecstasy, e, ecce, disco biscuits or 3, 4 methyledioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA), MDMA is an increasingly popular party drug. Putting aside any health issues with drug use, one frequently overlooked consideration is that it is illegal in New South Wales. The use sale and supply of MDMA are all criminal offences in New South Wales which could lead to imprisonment.

Use

The use of MDMA is an offence. Thanks partly to the rigors of our legal system and difficulties with proving such an offence, people are not routinely hauled off the dance floor and charged. In some jurisdictions, notably some of our near Asian neighbours, the local constabulary are more robust and have been known to detain persons exhibiting the signs of drug use and forcibly drug test ‘ecstatic’ punters.

If a person is going to be charged with a use offence it is more likely that the person has denounced him or herself. A right to silence exists and no person is obliged to make a statement or talk to police if he or she does not want to. If a person is not charged, then that person can leave the police station and is not obliged to remain and assist the police in their investigations. Things said to hospital staff could theoretically be used against an individual although there would be a string argument that such material should not be used to ground prosecution as it is against public policy for doctor/patient confidentiality to be breached in such a manner. Accordingly, talk to your doctor about your drug use if you have to.

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The offence of self administering a prohibited drug carries a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment.

Possession

Possessing a quantity of a prohibited drug is a criminal offence and the seriousness of the offence depends principally on the amount of the substance possessed. Possession is a legal concept and generally means exclusive possession. If it is in your pocket you possess it. If it is in the living room of a share house you probably do not. If your fingerprints are all over the container in which the drug is found, this is unhelpful.

Drug law in New South Wales places great emphasis on the amount of the drug possessed. Put simply, the more you have on you the more serious the offence. Buying in bulk is not such a great idea and even if you are just getting a few pills for a friend, in the eyes of the law you are a dealer and guilty of the offence of supply prohibited drug. Possession of 5 or so pills can result in a person being deemed a supplier and committing an offence that can result in a term of imprisonment. It is simply wrong to assume that the penalties for possession are slight and that it is only our neighbours to the north that have harsh drug laws.

Pills and Drug Weight

What the law calls admixtures count as the drug weight. for the purpose of State drug offences, the law looks at the total mass of the drug and not pure drug bulk. This means that even if the pill is very low in purity as long as it contains some MDMA, the total bulk of the pill is the amount that counts. From this author’s experience in reviewing police pharmacology reports most pills contain some MDMA. a significant proportion of pills contain no MDMA but some other substance such as caffeine, methylamphetamine (ice) or ketamine (K).

To give you some idea of relative seriousness, what the law calls a ‘small quantity’ of MDMA is up to 0.25 grams, this would be about 1 pill. A person who is found to possess a small quantity commits a criminal offence that is punishable by up to 2 years imprisonment. The tariff for this type of offence is generally a fine. For some reason, the deemed quantities for MDMA are significantly less than some other popular drugs. For example, a ‘small quantity’ of amphetamine or cocaine is 1gram. There is no distinction in sentencing law between soft, medium and hard drugs. Especially in relation to larger amounts, MDMA is considered a serious prohibited drug and harsh penalties apply.

The full force of the law kicks in when a person possesses a trafficable quantity’ of a prohibited drug. For MDMA a ‘trafficable quantity’ is 0.75 grams. This is not a great deal and 5 standard pills would constitute a ‘trafficable quantity’. Once again there is an apparent disparity with other drugs. The trafficable quantity of the arguably more noxious drug, methylamphetamine (Ice) is 3 grams. The possession of a trafficable quantity of a prohibited drug places a person in the situation where he or she can be charged with deemed supply. This is a serious offence that carries a maximum of up to 10 years imprisonment. A person charged with deemed supply has a real risk of going to gaol. Persons found guilty of deemed supplier in possession of say 10 to 15 pills are routinely sentenced to terms of imprisonment. There is a defence of personal use but you still have to admit to possession and if you admit to giving a few pills to another person in the eyes of the law you are a supplier.

The purpose of this article is to alert people to the fact that there are real risks in popping the odd pill. An individual needs to conduct his or her own risk/benefit analysis when considering a certain type of behaviour. There are also ways to minimise risk if behaviour is considered inevitable. Being aware of risk is an important part of minimising risk. Further in the case of drugs if you are caught buying them you are in trouble and the greater the drug weight the more serious the offence and hence the greater the chance of imprisonment. The problem is always was it possession or was it possession and supply. Penalties in the Local Court are constrained but should the police decide to refer the matter to the District Court penalties can rapidly escalate. No one intends to be caught but every now and then they do. The courts are littered with minor and major drug offences. For most it is an unpleasant experience and some a disaster. Unfortunately a criminal conviction for even a minor drug offence is a serious matter and can limit an individual choices well into the future.

About the Author: Frank Egan is the Chief Executive Officer of LAC Criminal Lawyers Sydney and has over 27 years of experience as a lawyer.

Source: isnare.com

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Tips For Getting An Engagement Ring She’ll Love}

March 6th, 2018 in Diamonds | No Comments

Submitted by: Johnn Smith

The best way to buy an engagement ring for your lady love is to let her pick it out herself. She’ll wear this ring daily. So it must feel good on her finger and it must suit her lifestyle. Sometimes it takes trying on lot many diamond shapes and setting styles to determine which ring is truly “best.”

But still you may want to get it alone. It may be because you want to surprise her with the engagement ring, or because you don’t want her to be involved with pricing and payment issues. That’s fine; if you put some thought into it you can buy an engagement ring that she’ll love almost as much as she loves you.

Number 1: Pay Attention! Paying attention to her jewelry likes and dislikes is the first huge step towards finding her the perfect engagement ring:

What metal color does she wear now? Most women have a distinct preference. If she loves platinum or white gold, don’t even look at a diamond or other stone mounted in a yellow gold ring setting.

What kind of jewelry does she wear now? Is it contemporary-looking, with bold styling or does she prefers vintage looking rings? Or would you say that the jewelry she wears is classic, similar to those timeless pieces that never go out of style?

The best indication of her tastes is the jewelry she wears all the time, not items that she wears only occasionally, because it’s the full-timers that she’s most comfortable with.

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Number 2: Has She Hinted at her Likes and Dislikes? Has she ever mentioned about her favorite jewelry styles or pointed out engagement rings when you’re shopping together? If not, take her for shopping. It isn’t difficult to steer yourselves towards the jewelry shops. If you want to be subtle, say you’re in look for a new watch, but be sure to pause at the engagement ring counters.

Maybe she is having a friend who recently became engaged. If she is having such a friend, find out whether she likes her friend’s engagement ring or not.

Some women don’t like diamonds. So make sure if she likes it or not. Rubies and sapphires are both durable gemstones that are often set into engagement rings for women who don’t like to wear diamonds.

Number 3: What Looks Best on Her Hands? An elongated diamond, such as a oval or marquise, can make short fingers look more sleek–but be careful not to overdo the look or it could have the opposite effect.

Wide bands usually make fingers appear even shorter than they are, so think relatively:

Women with long fingers can wear bold ring styles.

A setting that’s very delicate could get lost on large hands, over-emphasizing their size and making the ring look smaller.

Number 4: Choose the Right Shape & Setting Round diamonds are the number one shape preferred by brides, but maybe not your bride. She might prefer an elongated marquise, pear-shaped or oval stone, or a square or emerald cut diamond. Fancier shapes, such as hearts, are an additional option.

Do you think she’d like a solitaire diamond, set alone in a band, or would she wish for a cluster of stones? Her current jewelry can give you hints about her preferences.

Number 5: Consider her Lifestyle How will the ring fit in with her lifestyle? Does she work in a profession where fussy jewelry would appear out of place? Even if she doesn’t, keep in mind that a pointed gem with high prongs could snag clothing (and people) and is harder to keep clean. Save that sort of ring for gifts that will be worn on special occasions, not every day.

Number 6: What’s her Ring Size? Does she have rings which she wears on her engagement finger? Maybe a family member or friend could get hold of one of them long enough for you to have it sized. Of course, you’ll have to guarantee the messenger to secrecy.

Number 7: Consider a Loose Diamond If you feel you know which shape she loves, buy a loose diamond to show her when you ask the big question. The two of you can shop together later on for the perfect engagement ring setting.

Now that you have a better feel for the style of ring she might prefer, it’s time to think about the diamonds that will go into it. Start with the Four C’s and then take some time to browse other topics in Diamond Basics and Engagement Ring Resources. If she’s not into diamonds, start with the articles about Colored Gemstones.

Number 8: Consider Your Budget Your engagement ring budget is a top matter of consideration. Don’t stress if your budget is tight, because you can purchase an affordable engagement ring. There are many excellent options, from solitaires to rings with multiple diamonds or other gems. Engagement Rings on a Budget could help.

About the Author: Johnn Smith is an Expert author for engagement ring. He has written articles like engagement rings. For information visit our site

novori.com/

Source:

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