The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")

" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.... "

" ... I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy. For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history?... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…5 - Integrity That May Surprise…

Have you seen innovation and invention in the past decade that required thinking out of the box of an old reality? Indeed, you have. I can't tell you what's coming, because you haven't thought of it yet! But the potentials of it are looming large. Let me give you an example, Let us say that 20 years ago, you predicted that there would be something called the Internet on a device you don't really have yet using technology that you can't imagine. You will have full libraries, buildings filled with books, in your hand - a worldwide encyclopedia of everything knowable, with the ability to look it up instantly! Not only that, but that look-up service isn't going to cost a penny! You can call friends and see them on a video screen, and it won't cost a penny! No matter how long you use this service and to what depth you use it, the service itself will be free.

Now, anyone listening to you back then would perhaps have said, "Even if we can believe the technological part, which we think is impossible, everything costs something. There has to be a charge for it! Otherwise, how would they stay in business?" The answer is this: With new invention comes new paradigms of business. You don't know what you don't know, so don't decide in advance what you think is coming based on an old energy world. ..."
(Subjects: Who/What is Kryon ?, Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" Managed Business, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)


German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls

German anti-hate speech group counters Facebook trolls
Logo No Hate Speech Movement

Bundestag passes law to fine social media companies for not deleting hate speech

Honouring computing’s 1843 visionary, Lady Ada Lovelace. (Design of doodle by Kevin Laughlin)

Friday, February 27, 2015

Net neutrality activists score landmark victory in fight to govern the internet

FCC says ‘we listened and we learned’, and passes strict broadband rules that represent ‘a red-letter day for internet freedom’

The Guardian, Dominic Rushe in Washington, 26 February 2015

Protesters hold a rally at the FCC headquarters in Washington to
support net neutrality. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

Internet activists scored a landmark victory on Thursday as the top US telecommunications regulator approved a plan to govern broadband internet like a public utility.

Following one of the most intense – and bizarre – lobbying battles in the history of modern Washington politics, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed strict new rules that give the body its greatest power over the cable industry since the internet went mainstream.

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler – a former telecom lobbyist turned surprise hero of net neutrality supporters – thanked the 4 million people who submitted comments on the new rules. “Your participation has made this the most open process in FCC history,” he said. “We listened and we learned.”

Wheeler said that while other countries were trying to control the internet, the sweeping new US protections on net neutrality – the concept that all information and services should have equal access online – represented “a red-letter day for internet freedom”.

“The internet is simply too important to be left without rules and without a referee on the field,” said Wheeler. “Today’s order is more powerful and more expansive than any previously suggested.”

Barack Obama – who had pushed for the regulations – praised the decision and thanked the people who had protested for tighter rules. “I ran for office because I believed that nothing can stand in the way of millions of voices calling for change. That’s the backbone of our democracy–and you’ve proven that this timeless principle is alive and well in our digital age.So to all the people who participated in this conversation, I have a simple message: thank you,” the president wrote.

But Republicans and cable companies were quick to attack the move. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association said the rules would hurt “everyday broadband users” by raising costs and reducing investment.

Broadband providers will be banned from creating so-called “fast lanes” blocking or slowing traffic online, and the regulator will oversee mobile broadband as well as cable. The FCC would also have the authority to challenge unforeseen barriers broadband providers might create as the internet develops.

Activists and tech companies argue the new rules are vital to protect net neutrality – the concept that all information and services should have equal access to the internet. The FCC’s two Republican commissioners, Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly, voted against the plan but were overruled at a much anticipated meeting by three Democratic members on the panel.

Republicans have long fought the FCC’s net neutrality protections, arguing the rules will create an unnecessary burden on business. They have accused Obama of bullying the regulator into the move in order to score political points, with conservative lawmakers and potential 2016 presidential candidates expected to keep the fight going well into that election campaign.

Pai said the FCC was flip-flopping for “one reason and one reason only: president Obama told us to do so”.

Wheeler dismissed accusations of a “secret” plan as “nonsense”. “This is no more a plan to regulate the internet than the first amendment is a plan to regulate free speech,” Wheeler said.

“This is the FCC using all the tools in our toolbox to protect innovators and consumers.”

Obama offered his support to the rules late last year, following an online activism campaign that pitched internet organisers and companies from Netflix and Reddit to the online craft market Etsy and I Can Has Cheezburger? – web blog home of the Lolcats meme – against Republican leaders and the cable and telecom lobbies.

Broadband will now be regulated under Title II of the Communications Act – the strongest legal authority the FCC has available. Obama called on the independent regulator to implement Title II last year, leading to charges that he unduly influenced Wheeler’s decision that are now being investigated in Congress.

Broadband providers hit back immediately. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association said the rules would hurt “everyday broadband users” by raising costs and reducing investment.

“Today’s decision by the FCC to encumber broadband Internet services
with badly antiquated regulations is a radical step that presages a time
of uncertainty for consumers, innovators and investors,” said Michael Glover, Verizon’s senior vice-president for public policy and government affairs.

To illustrate what Verizon saw as the FCC’s old-fashioned thinking, the company put out its news release in typewriter font and dated it 1934. The release also went out in Morse code.


Before the meeting on Thursday, a small band of protesters gathered in the snow outside the FCC’s Washington headquarters, in celebration of their success in lobbying for a dramatic U-turn in regulation. Wheeler and his Democratic colleagues, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, were cheered as they sat down for the meeting.

Joining the activists outside was Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who said the FCC also needed more power to prevent future attacks on the open internet.

“We have won on net neutrality,” Wozniak told the Guardian. “This is important because they don’t want the FCC to have oversight over other bad stuff.”


Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, addressed the meeting via video, saying he applauded the FCC’s decision to protect net neutrality: “More than anything else, the action you take today will preserve the reality of a permission-less innovation that is the heart of the internet.”

“It’s about consumer rights, it’s about free speech, it’s about democracy,” Berners-Lee said.

Clyburn compared the new rules to the Bill of Rights. “We are here to ensure that there is only one internet,” she said. “We want to ensure that those with deep pockets have the same opportunity as those with empty pockets too succeed.”

The fight for net neutrality has been largely fought online. The millions of messages were sent to the FCC during its comment period on the rules before Thursday’s landmark series of votes.

Last year the FCC looked set to approve rules that would have allowed internet service providers to create “fast lanes” on the internet. Critics charged such a move would create a two-tiered internet and stifle competition.

Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of internet advocacy group Fight for the Future, said: “This is our free speech struggle in the digital age. Institutions of power should know by now: internet users will not stand idly by while anyone tries to take their freedom away.”

The FCC passed two new orders on Thursday. The first, equally controversial but eclipsed by the net neutrality debate, overturned bans on municipal broadband companies competing with private cable firms.

Municipal broadband companies in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Wilson, North Carolina, pushed for the expansion plans, against which private cable and telecom rivals have been lobbied intensely. Twenty US states currently have limits or bans on local governments building, owning or partnering with others to give local businesses and residents a choice in high-speed internet access. That vote, too, fell along party lines, potentially opening many US cities to wider competition.

Voting for the municipality change, Clyburn said millions of people had been left in “digital darkness” because cable companies did not want to expand in their areas. The Republican commissioners, O’Rielly and Pai, called the change “appalling” and “un-constitutional”.

“Unfortunately for the Commission, all the lipstick in the world cannot disguise this pig,” said Pai.

Christopher Mitchell, director of community broadband networks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said Thursday’s vote could set “an historic precedent” that could “profoundly impact the lives of three-quarters of Americans who are without broadband or a choice in their service because of big cable underinvestment in their towns”.

The FCC was forced to rewrite its broadband rules after Verizon successfully challenged its authority to stop it creating fast lanes or to more broadly regulate the industry under its last set of regulations, the Open Internet Order of 2010. Legal challenges for the new rules are also inevitable.

“When internet users come together to fight for something they believe in,” said Fight for the Future’s Cheng, “nothing can stop them.”

Obama: ‘We cannot allow ISPs to restrict the best
access.’ Photograph: Reuters

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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Lippo Jumps to E-Commerce, Sees $1 Billion in Sales in 2 Years


Lippo Group representative John Riady, center, with MatahariMall.com managers,
 from left, product and technology head Goh Yiping, online marketing head Timothius
Martin, marketing and partnership head Regan Dwinandadan and sales head Denis
 Raf. (B1 Photo/Ruht Semiono)

Jakarta. Lippo Group announced on Wednesday the launch of an Indonesian e-commerce venture, MatahariMall.com, solidifying its position as the largest multi-format Indonesian retail group.

Lippo has allocated $500 million in investment over the next two to three years to create an e-commerce company with an expected $1 billion in sales within one-and-a-half to two years that will become the “Alibaba of Indonesia.”

MatahariMall.com will bring Lippo’s consumer retail division to more than $25 billion in five years, 20 percent of which will come from online retail.

MatahariMall.com will offer the best deals, biggest giveaways and largest selection of goods covering fashion, beauty, electronics, home, groceries, books, entertainment and more, Lippo Group said in a statement.

In addition to offering the largest selection of goods, MatahariMall has been appointed as the exclusive online retailer for some of the most popular brands in Indonesia.

It is also the first and only online-to-offline, or O2O, e-commerce company in Southeast Asia, allowing customers to pay, collect and return their goods in all 131 Matahari Department Stores across Indonesia, when it begins operations in March.

“Online commerce is a $100 billion opportunity,” said John Riady, a representative of Lippo Group.

“MatahariMall will be the number one in e-commerce. There is nothing like it in Southeast Asia. Our vision is to build the most powerful ecosystem that brings together buyers and sellers to do business anytime and anywhere.”

The $500 million war chest will be used to assemble “a strong e-commerce management team, build a market place with the most number of items and build the best supporting infrastructure to support the online service.”

“Most importantly, this retail online service is created by a business group from Indonesia. … We understand what Indonesian consumers want,” John said.

Additional Lippo affiliates — including Hypermart, the country’s largest chain of hypermarkets operated by Matahari Putra Prima, and Books & Beyond — will also support the e-commerce site.

Long-time suppliers of Matahari Department Stores will be given their own digital space at MatahariMall.com to offer their range of products online, John said.

“Indonesian online retail will grow 10 times over the next five years,” said Matahari Department Stores chief executive Michael Remsen.

“Together with MatahariMall, we are committed to the future of e-commerce. All of our suppliers and partners are 100 percent behind this.”

Matahari Department Store, a Lippo company, is Indonesia’s largest operator of department stores.

“E-commerce is the future of retail,” said Communications and Information Technology Minister Rudiantara.

“We are thrilled and fully supportive to see Lippo take this bold step into e-commerce. May this venture be a great success and benefit the country.”

Lippo said in a statement that it had an unparalleled track record in executing and building winning and innovative companies: Matahari in department stores, Hypermart in food retailing, First Media in cable and multimedia, Siloam Hospitals in health care, Bolt in 4G telecommunications, BigTV in pay television, and 60 Lippo Malls throughout Indonesia.

Lippo has the scale, the reach, the know-how, and innovation DNA to dominate e-commerce, it said, and MatahariMall is led by a proven team of experienced e-commerce industry experts.

“The digital revolution will transform the world,” said Ihlam Habibie, chairman of the National Information Technology and Communications Council.

“Look at Amazon in the US and Alibaba in China. I am excited to see Lippo enter in such a big way. They are very committed to technology and innovation, which is the most exciting opportunity in Indonesia today.”

Jan Metzger, the managing director and head of technology, media and telecommunications at Credit Suisse, was equally optimistic about the future of Indonesia’s e-commerce industry and Lippo’s ability to position itself as the leading player.

Credit Suisse calls Matahari Department Store “the number one department store” and “our top pick in the retail space.”

As the largest retailer in Indonesia, the Lippo Group is well positioned to be number one in e-commerce. Its consumer businesses have a combined annualized revenue of more than Rp 60 trillion ($4.7 billion) and growing consistently at more than 20 percent.

Hypermart, meanwhile, is one of the fastest-growing hypermarket chains in Asia, with market share increasing to 40 percent in 2014 from 24 percent in 2007.

Lippo’s entry into e-commerce next month seems to be well timed. While online retail accounts for just 0.7 percent of total retail sales in Indonesia, it is projected to grow 10 times over the next five years. Online retail is growing fastest outside of Jakarta, where Lippo has substantial businesses.

“Indonesia is the last remaining, large, underpenetrated e-commerce market in Asia. MatahariMall is the single-largest e-commerce opportunity today,” John said.

Indonesia’s Internet penetration last year stood at 80 million, or about 32 percent of the total population, and a significant leap from 2011’s figure of 47 million.

In a report released in September last year, global research company Nielsen confirmed the massive prospects of e-commerce in Indonesia.

A record number of consumers went online for their purchases last year, the report said. The most sought-after products include airfare and hotel bookings, e-books, clothing, accessories and shoes.

In a statement attached to the report, Nielsen Indonesia’s executive director of consumer insights, Anil Antony, said that “e-commerce retailers’ product and service offerings have evolved significantly [in Indonesia] in recent years as the popularity of online shopping has increased.”

“Consumers are [...] increasingly searching out online channels to research and purchase the products and services they need and want,” he said.

GlobeAsia is affiliated with Lippo.
Related Article:


Wednesday, February 25, 2015

How digital is Europe? New EU Commission index ranks countries based on ‘digital performance’ (spoiler: Denmark wins)

As it prepares to present its strategy for a EU-wide ‘Digital Single Market’, the European Commission today released (a new index), ranking all 28 EU member states based on their digital performance.

Tech.eu, RobinWauters, 24 February 2015


Today at the well-attended #Digital4EU stakeholder forum in Brussels, the European Commission has announced a new Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI). The index aims to highlight how digital Europe’s 28 member states really are, and to demonstrate that borders – and I quote – “remain an obstacle to a fully-fledged Digital Single Market – one of the top priorities of the Juncker Commission”.

The new tool, presented today at the event, provides per-country snapshots of connectivity (how widespread, fast and affordable broadband is), Internet skills, the use of online activities from news to shopping, and how key digital technologies (e-invoices, cloud services, e-commerce, etc) and digital public services such as e-government and e-health are developed across Europe.

The data is mostly from 2013 and 2014 and essentially aims to provide an overview of how digital Europe is. You can argue that the best you can do for this is glorified guesswork, but FYI the DESI combines more than 30 indicators and uses a weighting system to rank each country based on its digital performance.

To calculate a member state’s overall score, each set and subset of indicators were given a specific weighting by European Commission experts. Connectivity and digital skills each contribute 25% to the total score. Integration of digital technology accounts for 20%, while online activities (‘use of Internet’) and digital public services each contribute 15%.


As you can see above, right at the top is Denmark, with a 0.68 digital performance score out of 1, but really Nordic countries are – perhaps unsurprisingly – scoring well across the board; Sweden and Finland are also in the top 5 alongside Belgium and The Netherlands.

Not so high on the European ‘digital performance’ leaderboard are countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia and Italy.

Some other findings from the Index, which overall combines more than 30 indicators:

– A majority of Europeans use the Internet on a regular basis: 75% in 2014 (compared to 72% in 2013), ranging from 93% in Luxembourg to a meager 48% in Romania

– Europeans are apparently very eager to access audiovisual content online: 49% of Europeans who go online have played or downloaded games, images, films or music. 39% of households that have a TV watch video on demand

– Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) face barriers with e-commerce: only 15% of SMEs sell online – and of that 15%, fewer than half do so across borders

– Digital public services are an everyday reality in some countries but almost non-existent in others: 33% of European Internet users have used online forms to send information to public authorities, ranging from 69% in Denmark to only 6% in Romania

– 26% of general practitioners in Europe use e-prescriptions to transfer prescriptions to pharmacists over the Internet, but this varies from 100% in Estonia to 0% in Malta

The European Commission is currently preparing its Digital Single Market strategy, which will be presented in May. (By the way, to make sure startups’ voices are heard as the plans take shape, check out this survey we’ve put together in collaboration with Nesta and the European Digital Forum).

If you’re interested in digging in: the DESI dataset is available here.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

African nations face dilemma over digital switch

The UN has set June as the deadline for moving from analog to digital transmission. Only a few African countries seem prepared for the change. Even the largest television markets on the continent are lagging behind.

Deutsche Welle, 23 Feb 2015

A group of people stands near three large satellite dishes in a rural area.
Photo: John Hrusa epa dpa

Staring at a blank TV screen has become a reality for most Kenyans, and many other African TV viewers could face the same fate come June 17. That is the deadline set by the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for television programs to be transmitted only digitally.

After the deadline, satellite dishes and antennas will receive their signals via a different technology. Theoretically, it will be possible to receive many more channels and enjoy improved image quality.

There is a story behind Kenya's black screens. President Uhuru Kenyatta's government ordered a consortium of four major television networks to be blocked from broadcasting in analog. This happened after they refused to change their signals to digital. The media houses argued that they were not ready yet, and now they are in court trying to push for one hundred more days to prepare for the digital transition.

Apart from Nigeria and South Africa, Kenya is one of the largest television markets in Africa.

The Standard Group,one of Kenya's leading media house, says
it needs more time for the switchover

All three countries are not ready for the switchover, says Mike Jensen, an IT specialist with the Association for Progressive Communications (APC) based in South Africa. "The Kenyan situation is probably the worst-case scenario on the continent; South Africa is pretty close," Jensen said. "In Nigeria, only one state has made the switch," Jensen told DW.

Nationwide coverage after the switchover to digital broadcasting is by no means ensured in African countries. As in Kenya, it is often about money. The change is costly for governments and citizens alike, the APC states on its website, which seeks to create an awareness of the issue.

Television viewers will usually need a decoder, which costs about $50 (44 euros), to decode the digital signal. Moreover, television companies will have to dig deep into their pockets to be able to broadcast their programs using the new technology.

Tanzania a digital model

Vera Moses, a Tanzanian viewer, says she is happy with the digital reception. "The quality of the pictures is good," she told DW in an interview.

Tanzania is one of three countries that has already largely switched to wide-band Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB). "In Dar es Salaam we already switched off analog transmission at the end of 2012," John Nkoma, the director of Tanzania's Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), told DW. Most cities are now receiving programs via DVB-T, which is terrestrial digital broadcasting via antenna. The remote parts of Tanzania receive broadcasts via satellite.

Dar es Salaam has already gone digital
It took some persuasion to convince citizens and businesses of the merits of the new system, Nkoma said, as he revealed two secrets to Tanzania's success: Firstly, decoders were taxed less. "The price for the decoders is artificially low," Nkoma said, "so they have become affordable." Tanzanians can get a decoder for $30.

Secondly, user habits were taken into consideration. "The public was used to free-to-air channels, so we required that in the digital broadcasting platform there would be the five popular channels of this country and those would be available as free channels." Viewers whose subscriptions expire would have these five channels to fall back on.

Market interests

But according to APC's Mike Jensen, that is not the whole story. Tanzania and neighboring Rwanda had forced the switchover on the public by shutting off the analog signal. Of course, there were citizens in both countries who simply could not afford the necessary equipment, Jensen said.

He thinks governments should guarantee a realistic compensation for the costs. The price of a decoder, Jensen said, was also a big issue in Mauritius. The government ordered large amounts of cheap decoders from China. Many of which had defects.

Satellite transmission is also to be digitalized

Jensen also does not understand the date the ITU has chosen. He estimates that by then only six countries may succeed in formally completing the switchover.

Germany has already changed to digital broadcasting, and so have most of the other industrialized nations. But Latin America has planned the switchover for as late as 2020.

Jensen says African telecommunications companies pushed for the early date for Africa. These companies, he said, were the only ones to profit from such a date, because they wanted to monopolize television broadcasting.

Apple to invest 1.7bn euros in Ireland, Denmark data centres

Yahoo – AFP, 23 Feb 2015

Apple's two data centres, set to begin operations in 2017, will run entirely on
renewable energy. They will support such online services iTunes, App Store,
iMessage, Maps and Siri for European customers (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi Chiba)

New York (AFP) - US tech giant Apple said Monday it would invest 1.7 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in two data centres located in Ireland and Denmark, to boost online services in the European market.

“This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date," said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement.

The two data centres, set to begin operations in 2017, will run entirely on renewable energy. They will support such online services iTunes, App Store, iMessage, Maps and Siri for European customers.

Apple currently employs 18,300 people across 19 European countries and has added over 2,000 jobs in the last 12 months alone, the company said.

"We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet," said Cook.

The facility in Ireland will be built in Athenry, County Galway, and the other in Viborg in Denmark's central Jutland.

This month Apple became the first company to be valued at over $700 billion after recently posting an unprecedented $18 billion in quarterly profits, thanks in large part to record sales of its iPhone.

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Sunday, February 22, 2015

American TV Outlets Want Original, As Costs Skyrocket

Jakarta Globe – AFP, Feb 22, 2015

Cast members (left - right), British actor Liam Cunningham, British actress Maisie
 Williams and Dutch actress Carice van Houten attend the opening of an exhibition
 about the US fantasy television series 'Game of Thrones' at the Posthoornkerk in
 Amsterdam, Netherlands, 18 May 2013. The exhibition showing weapons, costumes
 and props from the TV series will be open to the public on 19 and 20 May as well as
from 25 to 27 May. (EPA Photp/Robert Vos)

New York. In the new age of American television, it pays to be original. But it also costs a bundle.

From Time Warner and its HBO unit to streaming video group Netflix and online giant Amazon, money is pouring in to produce new shows like “Game of Thrones,” “Transparent” and “Marco Polo.”

With TV viewing habits becoming fragmented as more people go online for new outlets, the pressure is on to attract audiences with fresh, original programs.

Netflix is planning to spend $3 billion on content this year as it pushes to grow globally, expanding its offerings after successes with the political drama “House of Cards” and comedy-drama “Orange is The New Black.”

Not to be outdone, Amazon has stepped up its original production efforts with the transgender series “Transparent,” winner of a Golden Globe, and others, with famed director Woody Allen hired by the online giant.

Amazon invested some $1.3 billion in television programming last year, according to founder Jeff Bezos.

”Working with Woody Allen is not cheap,” said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research who follows disruptive technologies.

McQuivey said more studios and outlets are bidding for these programs, pushing up costs.

”Suddenly, instead of only having four or five studios to sell your TV shows to, you now have 12 or 16, and some of them are very motivated because they’re looking for the next big hit,” he said.

According to Nielsen data compiled by the FX cable channel, there are 352 original scripted dramas and comedies produced for US cable, broadcast and online television this year.

The number of original cable programs has doubled in the past five years. For online, the sector has grown from non-existent to 24 original programs, the research showed. That includes new efforts from Internet players such as Yahoo, AOL and Hulu.

Traditional cable and broadcast operators are not sitting still. Time Warner spent $14.5 billion on HBO programming, production and marketing in 2014, and chief executive Jeff Bewkes sees that figure growing to $19 billion in the next few years.

Viacom — which owns Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central — said programming costs were up 15 percent in the past quarter.

At 21st Century Fox, controlled by mogul Rupert Murdoch, investment is a priority as well, with the broadcast Fox network having rolled out new blockbusters like “Gotham” and “Empire.”

”The next year will be a period of investments with priority focused on building hit shows, not maximizing profits. The profits will follow,” said president and chief operating officer Chase Carey.

”Our competitors have already shown what difference a couple of hits can make.”

These TV operators are looking for the next hit in the manner of HBO’s “Sopranos,” or the AMC programs “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad.”

James Murdoch, the co-chief operating officer at 21st Century Fox, said finding the next big success is not easy.

”There’s just an absolutely enormous amount of original production going on right now,” he said.

”The total volume isn’t really the question. The right question is what are you making? How do you make it great? How do you stand out? And can you be a place that can attract the great show runners, the great writers, the great talent to come and do incredible work?”

It’s not clear if the television companies can maintain the pace of investment, or whether consumers will turn away when faced with higher subscription costs.

McQuivey said there is now “an oversupply of funding” because the old model companies are still flush with cash from their more profitable years.

”That’s a very temporary phase,” he said, noting that companies will have to tighten up as profits are squeezed.

”You can no longer start 20 new series knowing that each of these series is going generate half as many viewers as they used to,” McQuivey added.

”For now, people are making their last bets because they know the time is coming when some of them are going to be gone. They don’t want to be the ones that don’t make it across that transition.”

Agence France-Presse
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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) SoulsMidpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) (Text version)

“…6 - The News

Number six. I'll be brief. Watch for your news to change. It has to. When the media realizes that Human Beings are changing their watching habits, they're going to start changing what they produce for you to watch. Eventually, there's going to be something called "The Good News Channel," and it will be very attractive indeed. For it will be real and offset the drama of what is today's attraction. This is what families at night, sitting around the table, will wish to watch. They'll have something where the whole picture of a situation is shown and not just the dramatic parts. You will hear about what's happening on the planet that no one is telling you now, and when that occurs [we have no clock, dear one], it's going to compete strongly with the drama. I keep telling you this. Human nature itself is starting to be in color instead of black and white. Watch for it. And that was number six ….”

Obama adviser John Podesta's biggest regret: Keeping America in dark about UFOs

Yahoo News, Caitlin Dickson, February 13, 2015

In this Nov. 19, 2014 file photo, Counselor to the President John Podesta speaks in
 Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014. In the year that will pass before the 2016 
campaign for president formally kicks off with the votes in the Iowa Caucus, any
 number of candidates, donors, political operatives — and people who have nothing
 to do with American politics — will shape the race for the White House. (AP Photo/
Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

Outgoing senior Obama adviser John Podesta reflected on his latest White House stint Friday, listing his favorite moments and biggest regrets from the past year. Chief among them: depriving the American people of the truth about UFOs.


Podesta’s longtime fascination with UFOs is well-documented, as his brief political hiatus following four years as President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff freed him up to pursue his otherworldly passion.

At a 2002 press conference organized by the Coalition for Freedom of Information, Podesta spoke on the importance of disclosing government UFO investigations to the public.

“It’s time to find out what the truth really is that’s out there,”  he said. “We ought to do it, really, because it’s right. We ought to do it, quite frankly, because the American people can handle the truth. And we ought to do it because it’s the law.”


Following Podesta’s tweet, Friday, the Washington Post recalled an exchange one of its reporters had with Podesta in 2007. Karen Tumulty had asked Podesta about reports that the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas, had been bombarded with Freedom of Information Act Requests specifically seeking email correspondence to and from the former chief of staff including terms like “X-Files” and “Area 51.” Podesta’s response, through a spokesperson, was “The truth is out there,” the tagline for the TV show “The X-Files” of which Podesta was known to be a fan.

A 2010 editorial in Missouri’s Columbia Tribune disparaged reports that Podesta had asked an outspoken UFO photographer to stop discussing his knowledge of extraterrestrial activities in public.

“One wonders why Podesta would do such a radical reversal, given his former plea for UFO disclosure,” the editorial implored.

But contrary to the Columbia Tribune’s concerns, Podesta had clearly not abandoned the cause. He wrote an introduction to the 2010 book “UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record.”

Unfortunately, Podesta will likely have little time to fill out FOIA requests in his new job at Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Perhaps, as his tweet suggests, he’s passing the torch to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd.

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"... Question Three: Is there life on other planets?

Are you kidding? There's life everywhere. Everywhere! Right now, your scientists are searching for microbial life on all the planets and their moons in your solar system, and they will eventually find it. They expect to find it. They will eventually understand that the seeds of life are everywhere.

How much life might there be? How long has it been "out there"? When science starts to realize the scope of how long life has been in your galaxy, they will begin to see something counterintuitive to evolution - their own Human history. How old is your Universe? Ask your scientists and they will say about 13 billion years. That's OK. Let's use their numbers. How old is your own planet - 4 or 5 billion, perhaps? Correct. But how old is humanity? Why weren't you here with the dinosaurs? You think the earth wasn't ready? Do you think that perhaps that which controls evolution was a little too stupid to make a Human sooner, but the process could make a dinosaur? Have you ever thought about these things?

If you put the earth's entire history into a 24-hour clock, life itself only started in the last hour and humanity, all of civilization, happened the last few seconds. Isn't that odd to you? Therefore, in a Universe that may be 13 billion years old, you arrived in the last few seconds. Did you ever think maybe you're the newest ones on the block? Well, you'd be right.

If the Universe is really that old, do you think perhaps there are civilizations in your galaxy that might be a billion or more years older than you? If that's the case, do you think perhaps they have gone through anything you're going through? Do you think any of them might have had your DNA attributes? Perhaps they also went through what you are going through spiritually? Perhaps they even went into a quantum ascension status? The answer is dozens of them.

You already know them and you've listed them in your publications. The ones who directly seeded you are called Pleiadians. The ones who seeded them might be Octurian and the ones who seeded them may be even Orion. They're everywhere, and they're all here as well. They're looking at you, for you are the ones who are next, and you are passing this marker of the shift

Oh, dear ones, it's going to be a long time before you really know any of these things to be your reality. The first step is peace on Earth. The next is a new kind of Human evolution that is going to increase your DNA efficiency to 100% and you're going to live a long time. Every time I say that, there are Humans in their intellectual mind saying, "Well, there is a geometric birth rate going on. We're not going to make it. It's going to over-crowd and we are going to run out of food. So what you're saying, Kryon, can't be a good thing. We're all going to be suffering and killing each other for food."

Let me address this, for if that is your thought, Human, you are assuming Humans are stupid and haven't figured out what's going on and why there's so much birth. You assume they can't control it because they haven't figured it out? I want to tell you, you're going to see something you didn't expect. You're going to see a decline in birth rate because Humans are smart and they're getting smarter. They're going to see that quality of life is linked to the number of children they have, and they're going to figure out the solution. It won't be how many children their church says they should have. They are going to do it intuitively. You're going to see it sooner than not.

You are going to see wisdom on the planet in many areas that no sociologist would ever have predicted. You will surprise them all, and it's going to happen without a government program. It's going to happen because you decide you want it. It's going to happen collectively, and you may even see it soon. Look for negative birth rates in first-world countries. Where Humans are able to see a larger picture and have freedom of information, the situation will not be what you have predicted.

Is there life on other planets? The scientists are saying, "It's going to be a long time before we get to the stars, you know? We have to get in this little metal can and put air in it, and then travel in it for years and years before we ever get to the next star." Meanwhile, a Pleiadian can do it in the blink of an eye! What do you think is going on there? Do you even believe me?

Not long ago, if you wanted to communicate to someone far away, you sent a letter. It was carried by a horse. It took a month to get a response. Now you communicate instantly!  Why is this so unbelievable to you about travel?

I will tell you, as long as you stay in 3D, you'll still be getting in little metal cans and air suits and going to planets. As soon as you begin the quantum age, however, you will simply wish yourself there, because you will be entangled with everything and can go with intent. If you don't believe this now, you will later, for what I give you is true. It may be lifetimes and lifetimes from now, but the group that is before me is the group that is going to come back over and over and over. The difference is that you're done coming back in an old energy. This is a new energy. ..”

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Airlines looking to bank on in-flight WiFi in China

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-02-21

A user connects to the internet with a tablet on a China Southern Airlines
aircraft, June 2014. (Photo/CNS)

China Eastern Airline's in-flight WiFi package for passengers flying from Shanghai to Beijing has spread through China's other major airlines, including Air China, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines, reports online news portal Yicai.

China's civil airlines on average transport close to 400 million passengers a year, and together have clocked nearly one billion hours of flight time and 2.5 flight hours per person on average. The majority of China's passengers are now frequent flyers, and as such demand better services. Whichever airline can eliminate the problem of information isolation during flight stands to gain a host of these clients.

To offer in-flight WiFi services, airlines need to rewire their aircraft, which costs somewhere in the hundreds of thousands for just one plane, said Zhang Chi, deputy director of China Eastern Airlines transformation division.

According to market researcher In-Stat, in 2010, about 8% of international airlines had equipped WiFi services. In 2015, the service is expected to generate a total income of US$1.5 billion a year. It is no surprise that airlines are throwing their money at installing WiFi services, said one unnamed executive of China Southern Airlines.

As of 2014, more than 1,800 aircraft outside of China had installed WiFi services. Business models for the new service include charging passengers an access fee, charging advertisers or information providers, or sharing income.

Cooperating with e-commerce firms is another option to reel in bored passengers looking to blow some money on in-flight shopping, according to the report.

In the near-term, turning a profit will not be easy for domestic airlines because the service is still in the early stage of development in China and there are still policy restrictions as well as technological issues needing resolution, said several industry insiders.

China still forbids passengers to turn on their mobile phones in-flight, restricting electronics to personal computers when the aircraft is above 3,000 meters in altitude.

Nonetheless, China's in-flight WiFi service will be a gold mine, said experts.

China's internet industry is globally competitive, a fact that should help divert losses from lack of development. The country's civil aviation industry transported 350 million passengers in 2013 and traffic is rising more than 10% a year, according to a 2014 report by the Shanghai-based National Business Daily.

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