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 Global poll shows wide distrust of United States
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Posted on 06-28-07 8:57 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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By Meg Bortin

Wednesday, June 27, 2007
PARIS: Distrust of the United States has intensified across the world, but overall views of America remain very or somewhat favorable among majorities in 25 of 47 countries surveyed in a major international opinion poll, the Pew Research Center reported Wednesday.

"Anti-Americanism since 2002 has deepened, but it hasn't really widened," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Global Attitudes Project. "It has worsened among America's European allies and is very, very bad in the Muslim world. But there is still a favorable view of the United States in many African countries, as well as in 'New Europe' and the Far East."

Nonetheless, majorities in many countries reject the main planks of current U.S. foreign policy and express distaste for American-style democracy, the survey found.

Respondents worldwide not only want Washington to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq "as soon as possible," but also seek a rapid end to the American and NATO military intervention in Afghanistan, now in its sixth year.

The poll found growing wariness toward other major powers as well. Concerns over China's economic and military might have tarnished its image in many nations, Pew found, and confidence in President Vladimir Puten of Russia has dropped sharply.

The survey, conducted in April and May, is by far the largest Pew has carried out since 2002, covering 47 countries in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, and assessing the opinions of more than 45,000 people. It found that concern about global warming has increased dramatically in the last five years.

"Most of the citizens in the global survey agree the environment is in trouble and most blame the United States and, to a much more limited degree, China," Pew said.

Negative views of Iran have intensified, including in some Muslim countries, Pew found, and respondents in almost all countries surveyed expressed overwhelming opposition to Tehran's acquiring nuclear weapons.

While the survey covered a broad range of issues, it focused intensively on the world's image of the United States, which was largely positive in 2002 - reflecting global sympathy for Americans after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington - but has declined steeply since 2003, when the Bush administration decided to invade Iraq.

Over the last five years, favorable ratings of the United States have decreased "in 26 of the 33 countries for which trends are available," Pew said.

Confidence in President George W. Bush, which was already sagging, has dropped further in most countries over the past year, as the Iraqi quagmire has deepened and the world's reprobation has increased.

"Global distrust of American leadership is reflected in increasing disapproval of the cornerstones of U.S. foreign policy," Pew said in its report on the findings.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, co-chair of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, linked this development directly to the Iraq war. "I think Iraq will go down in history as the greatest disaster in American foreign policy," she said.

The poll found that:

Majorities in 43 of the 47 countries surveyed want a quick U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. In the United States, 56 percent express this opinion. The exceptions are Ghana, Israel, Kenya and Nigeria.

Majorities or pluralities in 40 countries also want U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization troops out of Afghanistan as soon as possible. This view, strongest in the Muslim world, was also held in many NATO member countries, notably Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Turkey.

Support for America's so-called war on terrorism has plummeted since 2002, especially in Europe, where U.S. practices against inmates at the Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons have been harshly condemned.

There is a widespread perception that the United States acts unilaterally in making international policy decisions. This view is especially powerful in Europe, shared by 90 percent in Sweden, 89 percent in France, and 70 percent or more in Britain, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Slovakia and Spain. A full 83 percent of Canadians believe that their neighbor to the south ignores their interests. Middle Easterners overwhelmingly share this view, as do many Asians, including South Koreans and Japanese.

Majorities in most every country believe that the United States promotes democracy mostly where it serves American interests. Only in Nigeria did many say they believe that the United States "promotes democracy wherever it can."

This, according to Pew, helps explain why American ideas about democracy are rejected by vast numbers around the globe. The exception is sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority approves of American-style democracy in all countries polled except Tanzania.

But elsewhere, majorities or pluralities in all but four survey countries excluding the United States itself - China, Israel, South Korea and Japan - say they dislike American ideas about democracy.

The country where America's image is worst is Turkey, a NATO ally, where only 9 percent now have a favorable view, down from 52 percent before the United States went into Afghanistan in late 2001.

In Germany, traditionally one of the closest U.S. allies, only 30 percent now have a positive view, down from 78 percent before Bush took office in January 2001.

There has been serious slippage as well in Britain, America's most reliable ally and its chief partner in the war in Iraq. A slim majority of Britons - 51 percent - now hold favorable views of the United States, down from 75 percent in 2002, before the Iraq invasion.

The picture is more complex with China, which is viewed favorably in more than half of the survey countries, particularly in Africa - where the Chinese have been investing heavily - and in Asia, excluding Japan.

At the same time, the Pew report said, "China's expanding economic and military power is triggering considerable anxiety."

Russia wins mixed reviews, with West Europeans largely unfavorable while opinions are split in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, and generally positive in Africa, Canada and the United States.

With Puten's grip tightening over pipelines to the West, dependence on Russia for energy supplies is worrying many Europeans, Pew found, with majorities expressing concern in Britain, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.

Confidence in Puten's leadership has plummeted in Europe since 2003, as has confidence in Bush. In contrast, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany enjoys high levels of confidence in Europe, although Middle Easterners - including Israelis and Palestinians - do not trust her on foreign affairs.

Asked about the crisis in the Middle East, Western publics were generally optimistic that a solution can be found that accommodates the needs of both Israelis and Palestinians, and Israelis also took that view. But Arabs in the region were pessimistic, with more than 70 percent in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait and the Palestinian territories believing that "the rights and needs of the Palestinian people cannot be taken care of as long as the state of Israel exists."
 
Posted on 06-28-07 9:04 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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MySpace TV to challenge YouTube's lead
By Brad Stone

Wednesday, June 27, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO: Two years ago, millions of MySpace users began adding video clips to their profile pages, helping to give rise to YouTube, which Google bought last October for $1.65 billion.

This week, MySpace, a division of News Corp., will show that it is serious about challenging YouTube in the booming world of online video.

On Thursday, MySpace plans to rename and refurbish the video-sharing service on its popular social network. The new service, called MySpace TV, will be set up as an independent Web site at www.myspacetv.com that people can visit to share and watch video, even if they have not signed up for MySpace.

The site will also offer some new ways for members of MySpace, which attracts 110 million users a month, to more easily integrate the videos they create and watch into their personal profiles.

The company's plan underscores its particular emphasis on professional video, as opposed to user-generated content that is more prominent on most video sites.

For example, last week MySpace became the exclusive site for Sony's "minisodes"- 5-minute versions of 1980s sitcoms like "Diff'rent Strokes" and "Silver Spoons." Tens of thousands of users have watched the clips.

With MySpace TV, that professional material would be front and center, said Chris DeWolfe, MySpace's co-founder and chief executive.

"We haven't really freshened up our video offering since we launched it," DeWolfe said. "We wanted to highlight the fact that we have a video destination on the Web with all this great content that we've acquired."

MySpace also wants to strengthen its hand against YouTube. The company says it is cutting into YouTube's lead. According to the research firm ComScore, MySpace had 50.2 million U.S. viewers of its videos in April, the last month for which ComScore published data.

YouTube had 57.9 million, only slightly higher, and MySpace grew at a faster rate.

However, YouTube has said that more than half of its audience was outside the United States, and ComScore also publishes data that shows YouTube served up nearly twice as many videos as MySpace in April.

DeWolfe said he believed that "no one had really pointed out that MySpace has been focused on video and has quietly come within striking distance of YouTube."

MySpace has another reason for taking on YouTube more directly.

Just as MySpace TV is being fashioned to compete with YouTube, engineers at YouTube are busy developing social-networking features.

On YouTube's "Test Tube" page, where the company tests products in development, new tools allow YouTube users to chat while they watch the same clip and share their favorite videos.

"I'm not surprised MySpace is promoting video heavily," said Timothy Tuttle, a vice president at America Online who is responsible for its video search technology efforts. "YouTube is becoming a social network that is maybe even more powerful than MySpace. So they are rightly focusing on that."

Asked to comment on MySpace's plans, a YouTube spokesman, Ricardo Reyes, said: "We are focused on continuing to provide a global platform for our community to express themselves, share experiences and inspire one another."

MySpace entered the Web video market in January 2006, after it noticed its members adding videos from YouTube to their pages. The original service still appears rudimentary.

Though MySpace has became the second-most-popular video-sharing site on the Web, even its own executives agree that the site is lacking.

"When you go to MySpace video now, what you see is far less appealing to the eye than what you get from other video sites," said Jeff Berman, a MySpace executive who took over the video effort in March.

MySpace TV is meant to change that. The service will be immediately available in 15 countries and seven languages, much like YouTube's own foray into nine countries announced this month. It adds features like categories - groupings like animals or politics where similar topics can be collected for easier navigating - which YouTube has had nearly since its inception.

MySpace TV is also meant to more closely tie video into the social network. Each MySpace member page would link to a separate MySpace TV channel, which would display the videos the user has uploaded.

Later this year, MySpace also plans to let users edit and combine videos on MySpace TV into new clips. MySpace acquired the technology for this in May when it bought a start-up called Flektor.

But MySpace also wants MySpace TV to show off content like the Minisodes or television shows and movies from NBC Universal and Fox, which is part of News Corp. The two studios are working on a joint Internet video effort, and will distribute their programs on the video sites of MySpace, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL.

Short ads will appear before clips on the site. Josh Felser, chief executive of the video-sharing site Grouper, which was bought last fall by Sony, said advertisers clearly preferred such professional content over less predictable user-submitted material.

"Most of the video content today is unsellable," Felser said. "We are all in this industry looking at generating inventory that is higher quality."
 
Posted on 06-28-07 9:08 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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Why I'm Not Getting an iPhone
Tue Jun 26, 2007

The iPhone hype is so intense right now, I think people will be buying this phone based on hype alone. I mean, is the phone really that great? Our duty is to keep you informed regarding details we come across, so the more I read about the iPhone, the less I want it.

At a glance, the device looks fantastic, features sound fun, and there's no doubt this phone is the "it" phone this year. But realistically, would you pay $500-$600 for any other phone? Like many of you, I'm still debating whether to buy an iPhone or not, so I've compiled a list of cons (since the pros are obvious) just to give myself a reality-check come Friday night.


Price/Storage: Probably the biggest reason to wait is the price.The iPhone will retail in stores for $500 (4GB) and $600 (8GB) — AND you still have to sign a new two-year agreement. Don't expect this phone to replace your iPod either. The top-of-the-line $600, 8GB iPhone only holds 2,000 songs, and only a handful of videos and full-length movies. I also don't understand why you have to buy the iPhone at full price, and still sign a two-year contract. You could easily get a comparable phone actually running on a 3G network like a Treo 750 for $199 with a two-year contract, or an 80GB video iPod for almost half the price.


Plans: What's really bothering me about this is AT&T is playing into all this hype too, forgetting about its customers. I called AT&T today to find out more details about switching carriers, and the rep was clueless. Come on guys, we needed pricing details about a month before the phone went on sale so we could estimate costs. Why is the company being so secretive? We know the phone is launching on Friday, and we know what it does. So why did it wait so long to reveal service plans? At least now we know getting an iPhone isn't going to be cheap. Chris Null outlined the cost of each service plan, the cheapest plan being $60/mo for 450 minutes. He says that in two years, you'll end up paying close to $2,000 for service alone. Plus there is that $36 activation fee, and a two-year contract on top of that. Those who already have an AT&T account can expect to pay an additional $20-$30 for the "iPhone plan" which includes Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, and unlimited data since there is no voice-only plan. And if you think you can get the iPhone to use without service, think again. Apple's web site says a two-year agreement is required for iPhone activation including iPod features.


Network: Surprisingly, the iPhone does not run on a third-generation (3G) network, instead it runs on the slower EDGE network. Forbes thinks Apple opted for the slower network because AT&T's EDGE coverage spans across 13,000 cities and towns nationwide, compared with only 165 major U.S metro areas that have 3G coverage. It also brings up another excellent point. Since 3G devices are interchangeable between faster and slower networks, why did Apple still choose EDGE? Other AT&T smartphones like Samsung's BlackJack and Treo 750 run on 3G, and for what I understand AT&T is slowing moving away from EDGE. So perhaps a second- or third-generation iPhone will have 3G capability. And while the iPhone may have Wi-Fi capabilities, realistically, looking for a hotspot when you're out can be a challenge, unless you pay an extra $10 for T-Mobile access at Starbucks.


First Generation: A geek's rule of thumb is to never get a first generation gadget. Apple is one of the few companies that revamps its products at such a quick pace, that in this case, they actually make it quite bearable to wait for the second revision. Look at all the improvements they've made on iPods and MacBooks. It may seem like waiting for a new iPhone will be an eternity, but I bet it'll be a matter of months before we see a better, faster version.


Long Lines: I love technology as much as the next guy, but no gadget is worth standing in line days in advance for, not even the iPhone. People have already started to line up, and some are even betting real money that someone will get trampled. I would add getting shot at, beaten, mugged, and possibly being hospitalized to the list.
On top of all the above reasons, there's still some doubts about about the lack of keyboard, inability to sync with corporate internal email systems, and battery life. So lets get this straight. We're expected to pay for an overpriced phone, an expensive service plan, sign a new two-year contract, and still wait in line hoping to get one? No thanks.
 
Posted on 06-28-07 9:09 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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Wimbledon sees red over underwear By Paul Majendie

Wimbledon is getting its knickers in a twist. Tatiana Golovin had the Wimbledon referee reaching for his rule book when she sought to appear on court wearing red underwear.

Was she violating the "predominantly white" dress code laid down by the tournament that is such a stickler for sartorial etiquette?

The fashion guardians of good taste at the world's most genteel tennis tournament gave the French player the go-ahead after much discussion about hemlines and where they stopped and started.

Explaining the decision, a Wimbledon spokesman said on Thursday: "They were cleared with the referee in advance by the player. On the basis that they are underwear, they do not have to conform to the predominantly white rule.

"If they are above the hemline they are deemed to be underwear and not shorts."

The 19-year-old Golovin, who beat Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei 5-7 6-3 8-6 on Wednesday, returned to the court on Thursday apparently unperturbed by the headlines her choice of underwear had prompted -- and wearing red knickers again.

Not many post-match news conferences at Wimbledon start with the question "Can I ask you about your knickers?"

Unabashed, the Russian-born player had replied "They say red is the colour that proves that you're strong and you're confident so I'm happy with my red knickers."

Strength and confidence were not enough on Thursday, however and Golovin lost 6-2 3-6 6-1 to Austrian Tamira Paszek.
 
Posted on 06-28-07 9:12 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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Beijing to ban cabbies with shaved heads during Olympics

Beijing's long-suffering taxi-drivers are in the cross-hairs once again -- with shaved heads to be banned from the driving seat ahead of next year's Beijing Olympics, a report said Thursday.

Just two months after the city's transport department banned women taxi drivers from wearing "too-fancy" hairstyles, new rules will outlaw beards and shaved heads for the men, according to Beijing's The First newspaper.

The regulations proposed by the Beijing city government's bureau on quality standards were aimed at "giving a good impression" to customers, the paper said. They go into effect in mid-July.

Beijing's 70,000 taxi drivers work long hours for low pay and often sleep and eat in their vehicles, leading to complaints about dirty and smelly cabs.

In April, cabbies were ordered not to eat, spit or smoke in their cars while female drivers were told to keep their hair neat, dress smartly and not wear earrings.
 
Posted on 06-28-07 9:13 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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Indonesian VP oks pot in cooking: report

Indonesia's vice president believes marijuana should remain an illegal drug, but those who sprinkle it in traditional dishes should escape the eyes of the police, a report said Monday.

Indonesians in the westernmost province of Aceh have long used fresh marijuana leaves and seeds in curries and even coffee as a flavouring.

Kalla told reporters that there was "no way" Indonesia would legalise the drug, according to the Jakarta Post. The world's most populous Muslim nation is notoriously tough on drug traffickers and users.

"It's alright to use it as a food seasoning but it should not be fully legalised," Kalla said according to the English-language daily.

Marijuana is categorised as a dangerous illegal substance in the same category as heroin and cocaine in Indonesia.

A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cannabis grown in the mountains of Aceh can be bought on the streets of the provincial capital Banda Aceh for about 50,000 rupiah, or around 5.50 dollars.
 
Posted on 06-28-07 10:52 AM     Reply [Subscribe]
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GReat Radio Station for work(mellow chill and realax under pressure).
- www.Radiozerogravity.net
 
Posted on 06-28-07 2:04 PM     Reply [Subscribe]
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Posted on 06-28-07 2:10 PM     Reply [Subscribe]
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My work has banned Internet radios.
I can only listen to stream line. I used to listen to that, - www.Live365.com, & - www.Shoutcast.com before that.
 


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