Free Republic

Someone really has it in for Sumner Redstone, the 85-year-old media tycoon who is restructuring his debt-plagued empire. An extraordinary piece appears on TheFirstPost.co.uk and is picked up elsewhere. “His demons have come home to roost. He lives alone in his mansion, famously miserly, shaving naked in the hot tub and obsessively feeding his tropical fish, his only constant companions since the collapse this year of his five-year marriage . . .” All very Citizen Kane. And yet . Redstone is not universally loved, and is, indeed, known for his interest in tropical fish and credited with starting a fashion...

It looks like the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is heading for a strike. Talks have broken down, attempts at mediation are being rejected, and the mogul's group, the AMPTP has been crowing about how their last offer was their last, best offer, and that nothing will get SAG a better deal. SAG doesn't think it has much choice, even if they wanted to accept the AMPTP's last offer, they just have to look at the Writers Guild of America and how the AMPTP has failed to live up to the contract that ended the Writer's Strike. Now this can end...

By all accounts, except maybe his own, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt has been a failure. I mean, the stock is down at 16, down from 40 just two years ago. But things might be looking up for the I-man, thanks to Uncle Sam. As first reported in The Wall Street Journal, as as noted here at TCG two weeks ago--and now all over--GE is now lining up to receive the benefit of a $139 billion federal loan guarantee for its subsidiary, GE Capital--which is to say, GE is getting a subsidy. And of course, if GE gets a subsidy,...

If the people running it think this is a good idea, then no wonder GE Capital is in such a mess that it has to tap into the $700 billion government bailout of financials: NEW YORK (20 November 2008) -- The Peacock Equity Fund, the joint venture between GE Capital’s Media, Communications & Entertainment finance business and NBC Universal, today announced that Ben Silverman has joined the fund’s Board of Directors. Silverman, the Co-Chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio, brings his experience in media, production, and advertising to help identify media investment opportunities for the $250 million...

Paul Rodriguez :: November 17th, 2008 For some time, I’ve been noting on my Twitter account the rising tide of people who have decided to cut the cord that ties them to servicing their television needs through cable, satellite or other wired means, instead turning to the Internet to be informed and entertained. The topic is blowing up now, with Washington Post tech columnist Mike Musgrove now examining the issue in his column this past weekend (”TV Breaks Out of the Box“). And I don’t even really need to respond, because Adam Thierer has given it the one-two punch at...

Online video chips away at TV (Cable Networks DeathWatch™) IBM: New media may be affecting 'couch-potato behavior' Nov 17, 2008, 03:01 AM ET More evidence that online video is cannibalizing television consumption is due Monday, courtesy of an IBM study. Plus, online viewers don't mind the commercials too much. After polling 2,800 people in six countries, IBM says 76% have viewed video online and 45% do so regularly. Of those who have watched online video, 15% say that as a result they watch "slightly less" TV, while 36% said they watch "significantly less" TV. "Place-shifting alternatives may be changing consumer...

Conventional wisdom dictates that Hollywood could always shrug off economic downturns because worried consumers spend more on entertainment when times are tough. Not this time. Everywhere one looks, the entertainment business is in a world of hurt. The downturn is slamming the balance sheets and stocks of major media companies. Banks and hedge funds are cutting or eliminating movie financing, putting projects at studios and independents in peril. TV networks, reeling from an advertising decline, are slashing costs and trimming staffs. "Every single source of capital has suffered a seismic shock that we haven't seen in our lifetimes," said Nigel...

Will Shari and Sumner Redstone Split? (Cable Networks DeathWatch™) By Ronald Grover BW Exclusives Redstone's 80% stake gives him clout in any deal Shari offers Sean Gallup/Getty Images Shari may seek an equity infusion from private investors Phelan M. Ebenhack/National Amusements/AP Photo Story Tools As family feuds go, few have been more intractable than the one that has simmered between media mogul Sumner M. Redstone and his daughter, Shari. For two years the pair has battled over the direction of National Amusements, the family company that owns a national chain of movie theaters and controls the media giants CBS (CBS)...

By Heidi Dawley Nov 13, 2008 As in the U.S., so in Britain. As the weather turns cold, the economy here turns even colder, with yet more news of sinking revenues and cutbacks, and the cost is being felt directly by UK media. Just yesterday, it was reported that unemployment has reached an 11-year high, that Virgin Media, a major cable operator, was axing 2,200 jobs, that Yell, a yellow pages company, was chopping jobs as well, and that a string of regional newspapers was reporting a 15.5 percent falloff in ad revenue through the first 10 months of the...

A Hulu for Cable Networks? Not Any Time Soon How Free Online Video Threatens Pay-TV Model By Andrew Hampp BOSTON (AdAge.com) -- Now that Hulu is an out-of-the-box success story for broadcast TV, when will cable get its one-stop online video site? If two panels at the Cable Telecommunications Association of Marketing Summit in Boston on Tuesday are any indication, not any time soon. he prospect of major cable groups such as Viacom, Discovery and NBC Universal following the likes of NBC, Fox, ABC and CBS to streaming full-length episodes of current shows online has always seemed like a long...

Here are the results of a poll of RWN's readers that I ran on Friday. There were 1,355 responses to the following question, If you had to pick today, which of the following candidates would you like to see the GOP run in 2012? Here are the results. 11) Charlie Crist: 1% 10) Tim Pawlenty: 1% 9) Mark Sanford: 1% 8) Jeb Bush: 2% 7) Rudy Giuliani: 2% 6) Mike Huckabee: 4% 5) Ron Paul: 5% 4) Mitt Romney: 6% 3) Duncan Hunter: 6% 2) Bobby Jindal: 23% 1) Sarah Palin: 48%

China 5th Generation Fighter XXJ J-16 PIc???? The Google translation <3>: f-16 -medium-sized fourth-generation supersonic fighter planes take off and land vertically short-range: from f-16 -611 research and development. Development of the plane from Russia's Jacques -141 aircraft. Use of stealth aircraft design, with transonic, supersonic cruise capacity. Can be on multiple targets simultaneously over-the-horizon attacks, the enforceability of the sea and空等a variety of tasks, the main cruise engine aircraft for a WS-17, the plane will be mainly naval air force equipment, used equipment Navy amphibious Gong Jijian in the plan or at Nansha, Xisha Islands airport, I support Marine...

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three steps: Common Sense Plan. I. INSURANCE A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity. B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things: 1....

Was the Stephenville UFO a National Security Threat? american chronicle Franklin D. Fields, Jr. Esq. Stephenville, Texas attracted worldwide attention earlier this year (Jan, 08) after residents sighted an unidentified flying object (UFO) that some say was a mile long. By news accounts, there were more than 30 residents to specifically report the sighting. It was front-page headlines in a large number of news forums. Many of the witnesses were interviewed on national television programs such as CNN´s Larry King Live. All of the witnesses were credible and none were shown to be perpetrating a hoax. They might have been...

There is of course no ONE way and no ONE solution to using less energy. I invite you to send me your stories about what you are doing. Here is Tom’s. What is new here is Tom’s choice of a Pellet Boiler. Something like this will be used as an experiment in the French School on PEI. So keeping up with Tom is a good foretaste of how our schools might be heated. It’s also not a system seen here on PEI yet for residential and it will be great to follow Tom and Gail over the winter and see...

NATIONAL MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT OFFICE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION Washington 25, D. C. MEMORANDUM TO THE PRESS NO. M 26 - 49 IMMEDIATE RELEASE APRIL 27, 1949 RE 6700 Ext. 3201 The following report is a digest of preliminary studies made by the Air Material Command, Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, on "Flying Saucers." PROJECT "SAUCER" On Tuesday, June 24, 1947, a Boise, Idaho businessman named Kenneth Arnold looked from his private plane and spotted a chain of nine saucer-like objects playing tag with the jagged peaks of Washington's Mt. Ranier at what he described as a "fantastic speed." Arnold's report set off...

Russia says Ukraine helping Georgia MOSCOW, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Russia accused Ukraine on Saturday of encouraging Georgia to carry out "ethnic cleansing" in the separatist region of South Ossetia by providing arms, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "The Ukrainian government, which has been enthusiastically arming Georgian troops from top to bottom, was in fact encouraging Georgia to attack and carry out ethnic cleansing in South Ossetia," the ministry said in a statement on its website www.mid.ru.

The biomass gasifier at Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co. is fuel-flexible by design. Thisrequires a handling system engineered to move feedstocks of varying volumes and densities. Biomass Magazine speaks with Rapat Corp., the engineer of the bulk conveyance system, and equipment vendor Robert White Industries Inc., about the project. The idea was fairly simple. Use the organic material left over from processing an agricultural product, such as potatoes or sugar beets, to produce methane. The methane can then be used as a heat source for the processing facility, or turned into electricity and sold back to the power grid. A team...

The idea was fairly simple. Use the organic material left over from processing an agricultural product, such as potatoes or sugar beets, to produce methane. The methane can then be used as a heat source for the processing facility, or turned into electricity and sold back to the power grid. A team of researchers in the University of Florida’s biological engineering department thought it would be an environmentally friendly way for processors to use waste material and to add another source of revenue. The researchers contacted American Crystal Sugar Co., a sugar beet processing cooperative headquartered in Moorhead, Minn., to...

WEST SPRINGFIELD - Pellet stoves didn't use to be hot sellers in July when the temperatures were pushing 90 degrees and homeowners thoughts ran more to pools and air conditioners. "You never sold a stove this time of year," said Russell I. Pomeroy, owner of Pomeroy Lumber Co. in North Hatfield. "But, now, you can't afford not to have one." With the price of home heating oil up to $4.71 per gallon compared with $2.54 a gallon a year ago and the price of propane is at $3.12 a gallon compared with $2.31 a gallon a year ago, homeowners are...