Filed under: Feature | Tags: Azores, Bernie Krause, Big Sur, California, Emergency service, Goleta, Health, Los Padres National Forest, Nature, Wild Sanctuary, Wildfire
ONLINE SITE OF THE WEEK: WILD SANCTUARY
When I think of natural sounds, I think of being at some less-than-satisfying massage place somewhere in the city, where my masseuse of the day has hit play on sounds meant to ‘calm’ and/ or ‘quieten’ my senses. In these circumstances, being at the ocean’s edge in Big Sur, CA seems comically irrelevant as I lay down for my massage in a small thread-bare room in NYC. Perhaps, that’s because the music is usually mixed with some god awful wind instrument which probably requires smoking hash to truly appreciate.
On the flip side of awful, wildsanctuary.com delivers 3,500 hours of natural soundscapes including 15,000 species as recorded by Dr. Bernie Krause. Krause’s mission is to record sound environments from all over the world before they disappear, overburdened by the sounds of man and machinery. To date, Krause claims that over 40% of the sound environments he has recorded have been destroyed.
Check out the Google XML overlayer (above) to hear sounds from all over the world. Check out the Azores in Portugal for something particularly hilarious. Perfect prank? Set this soundscape off in the living room while a loved one is napping. And then, send me the photos. . .
One more thing:
For anyone who has visited Big Sur, CA, you are aware of the truly majestic beauty of the area. I was just in Big Sur in May and cringe when I think of the thousands of acres burned in such a pristine natural preserve.
As of this posting, the wildfires have been raging in Big Sur for about a week and a mandatory evacuation order has been issued. The above site, Surfire2008.org offers a community for those displaced by the fire. If you’re in the CA area, there are areas on the site where you can offer housing or volunteer. For those not in the area, information on donating to the Big Sur Fire Relief Fund is included in the bottom right corner. Click here or on the image above for the homepage. Full unofficial reports from those on the ground are available on the blog.
Filed under: BROADCAST/CABLE | Tags: Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, HBO, Landmark Communications, NBC, NBC Universal, NBC Weather Plus, Weather Channel
HBO on Sunday will premiere “Generation Kill,” a seven-part miniseries about the Iraq war. At $55 million, the miniseries is being described as the most expensive production to date on the conflict, and it comes from David Simon, the man behind HBO’s “The Wire.” (The Sun (Baltimore) 7/6)
Click the image below for the site and a trailer of the new series. Love David Simon. The Wire still stands as my most favorite TV series of all time. Marauder love on this one even though the Iraq war conflict plot seems a bit over-aired at this point in time.
NBC Universal — along with partners Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group — have announced a deal to acquire The Weather Channel, which is said to reach 96 million basic cable households, from Landmark Communications. NBCU intends to keep The Weather Channel running as a separate operation, having no plans to merge it with its NBC Weather Plus. (The New York Times 7/7, The Wall Street Journal 7/7)
NBC Universal is developing a new audience measurement system that can chart viewership of an event over several different media vehicles. The company, for instance, will issue its new Total Audience Measurement Index on a daily basis during this summer’s Olympics, for channels including NBC, Oxygen and CNBC and their corresponding Web sites. (Mediaweek 7/7, The Wall Street Journal 7/7)
Michael Phelps competes in the 100-meter butterfly final at Saturday’s U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha, Neb.
Filed under: ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA | Tags: AOL, Carl Icahn, Google, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, Yahoo, YouTube
ONLINE SERVICES/INTERACTIVE MEDIA
Dissident Yahoo shareholder Carl Icahn and Microsoft have been talking to each other (as has everyone else involved in a possible Yahoo deal, including Yahoo and AOL over the weekend). In a letter to shareholders, reproduced below, Icahn notes that he and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer have been discussing possible transactions over the past week, and that Ballmer ” made it clear to me that if a new board were elected, he would be interested in discussing a major transaction with Yahoo! . . . immediately.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/07/microsoft-signals-it-would-rather-talk-to-an-icahn-controlled-yahoo 7/7)
I told someone over the weekend that I’d love to put a moratorium on the Yahoo/Microsoft conversation. It’s like chatting with a friend who is experiencing a noxious break-up. One side wants out. Then the other side. Then some nosy friend [cough] Icahn [cough cough] comes in thinking they know best about the relationship. Can someone either break-up without make-up s-x or get back together? I’m getting tired already.
A federal judge ordered Google to turn over the personal viewing records of YouTube users to Viacom right before the holiday, kicking off a wave of concerns among users and privacy advocates that private information could be leaked and misused in the process. In its Broadcasting Ourselves blog YouTube says its lawyers have asked for permission to omit individual IP addresses and user names from the disclosure to protect the identity of its users. Viacom also released a statement claiming it “has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user.” The company goes on to claim any information obtained will be used exclusively for proving its $1 billion case against YouTube and Google. (Cynopsis 7/7)
IAC‘s search engine Ask.com completed its acquisition of the Lexico Publishing Group‘s reference sites Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. (Cynopsis 7/7)
Orbitz.com and ebookers.com will replace Expedia.com as the internet travel services of record on MSN in the U.S. and UK, respectively. (Cynopsis 7/7)
ABC.com online audience skews extremely female with 85% of the overall audience comprised of women, according to research conducted by Magid Associates quoted in Silicon Alley Insider. Meanwhile ABC’s single sponsor model, divided into 4 15-second commercial breaks, is leading to higher ad recall, which in turn is helping to justify higher CPM rates. ABC asks between $45-$65 per 1,000 impressions compared to a $20 CPM rate for TV. (Cynopsis 7/7)
Other findings include:
- 54% of online viewers recall the brand name of a sponsor, vs 22% for network TV
- Online audiences peak on Friday night, the day after Lost and Grey’s Anatomy air
- Online audiences peak at 10 pm on a nightly basis, in the middle of primetime
- Over 29% of ABC.com’s viewers are under 24 and nearly 50% are under 29. ABC’s on air audiences averages 50 years of age
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Websites (Week ending June 28, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 ABC www.abc.com 26.94%
2 CBS www.cbs.com 23.63%
3 FOX* www.fox.com 22.37%
4 NBC www.nbc.com 21.04%
5 The CW www.cwtv.com 5.69%
6 MNTV www.mynetworktv.com .32%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise, *includes traffic aggregated from stand alone websites americanidol.com, amw.com, familyguy.com, thelot.com and thesimpsons.com
Top Visited US Broadcast Network TV Show Sites (Week ending June 28, 2008)
Rank Network Website Market Share of Visits
1 FOX American Idol 9.29%
2 ABC The Bachelorette 8.60%
3 FOX American’s Most Wanted 7.36%
4 NBC Deal or No Deal 6.62%
5 FOX So You Think You Can Dance? 5.87%
6 FOX Hell’s Kitchen 5.27%
7 The CW Farmer Wants a Wife 4.68%
8 NBC Last Comic Standing 2.72%
9 FOX Family Guy 2.21%
10 ABC The Mole 1.89%
Source: Custom report from Hitwise
Filed under: WIRELESS | Tags: 3G iPhone, App Store, Apple, Apple Stores, Handhelds, iPhone, iPhone App Store, IPhone OS
It looks like green lights all the way for the launch of the iPhone App Store this week. Most developers have been told they must submit their applications by 12 PM PDT today (Monday) to be considered for inclusion in the launch: “Have your application be among the first available when the App Store goes live. To ensure your application can be considered for the exciting launch of the App Store, submit your application by 12 PM PDT, on July 7, 2008. We will continue to accept applications after this time, however your application may not be available until after the launch of the App Store. Conduct final testing of your application with iPhone OS beta eight and submit your app today.” (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/07/here-comes-the-iphone-app-store 7/7)
Seeing how Apple and AT&T are refusing to sell the 3G iPhone online, folks are already camping out at neighborhood Apple Stores to get their hands on one. If you happened to walk by the flagship Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York over the weekend, you may have seen the crowds. Among them are TheWhoFarm, an environmental collective Waiting For Apples as a way t raise awareness for its sustainability agenda. (Cynopsis 7/7)
Filed under: GAMING
Activision’s Guitar Hero: On Tour became the biggest first-week launch ever for the handheld Nintendo DS, selling over 300,000 units in its first 7 days. (Cynopsis 7/7)
“Hasbro Family Game Night” heads the list of products that Electronic Arts plans to preview at an upcoming industry event. The game, for Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 2, includes a package of classic board-game titles and is the fruit of a 2007 partnership between the companies. (CNET 7/3)
Sony‘s PlayStation 3 closed the gap on Nintendo’s Wii console in June, according to Enterbrain, a publisher of gaming magazines. While Wii marked its seventh straight month at the top of the charts, it outsold Sony by only a 1.7-to-1 ratio, compared with a 6-to-1 ratio in May. (Reuters 7/3)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY
LG Electronics has announced the creation of two home-cinema systems, specially tuned by Mark Levinson, the “world-renowned guru of high-end audio.” LG has also unveiled its first series of digital Freeview Playback DVD recorders that feature built-in hard disk drives and enable viewers to receive 40 digital channels as well as pause and rewind live TV. (Pocket-lint.co.uk 7/4, Pocket-lint.co.uk 7/4)
Pioneer has created a Blu-ray disc that can store up to 400GB of information. The 12-centimeter optical disc incorporates 16 layers, each with a capacity of 25GB. Pioneer is searching
for manufacturing partners to bring the disc to market. (Techradar.com 7/7, PCWorld 7/7)
Fueled by surging demand for TVs and tight supplies of PC panels, South Korea’s LG Display and two smaller Taiwanese companies will report strong profits for the second quarter that will also carry warnings for a slowdown to follow because of the global economic slump and price cuts for LCD panels. “Demand to replace TVs with flat-screen models is still there, but fewer consumers are buying large-size TVs because of the weak economy,” said Lehman Brothers analyst James Kim. (The New York Times/Reuters 7/4)
