Wired Magazines reports that Microsoft executive Kevin Johnson, the man responsible for the failed Yahoo! buyout is leaving the behemoth corporation for good. Johnson has been with Microsoft since 2005, where he oversaw projects in the vein of the Windows Live brand. Reaction to the brand by consumers is mixed, as some services under the mark are now invaluable to customers and others are sorely underused and seem like pale imitations of services offered by competitors.

It was Johnson that set the goal of Microsoft to control 30% of the US search engine market. When it became painfully obvious that they could not do it with their own branding and marketing, He decided they would do what Microsoft does best, buy someone out. Hell, when they found out someone else was using the name “Internet Explorer”, they bought the entire company.

Johnson has Yahoo in his sight and was moving in for the kill. An offer was made, and Yahoo took it as quite a surprise, seeing as how they never offered their company up for sale. In an unexpected turn of events, Yahoo rejected the multi-billion dollar offer, calling it “too low” and continued providing an independent web service.

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It would seem that the ethics and morals of those working at the top of LA Times are akin to those condemned to fire and brimstone. Ok, maybe its not that extreme, but it seems someone is seriously warped. In the century where the dollar is mightier than the pen, purists like me and many others are striving for a free and open media, pushing against the torrent of multinational corporate propaganda like the a salmon against the current.

The revisions being made to the LA Times seem to be more for advertisers than journalists, as Richard Perez-Pena describes it, “[The LA Times] would become less a work of journalism than a lightweight vehicle for currying favor with advertisers,” But hey, every news program on television has already done the same, whats one magazine, right?

America as we knew it is dead. It is a shell of its former self descending into corporate oligarchical feudalism, and its your fault. Its your fault for ignoring the real issues, its your fault for not waking up and its your fault for not voting. But thats not to say it can’t be saved.

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As warned by the documentary, ZeitGeist, the verichip human tracking module has finally hit, and again, as in the movie its being marketed as something beneficial. They say its great for the ‘wandering elderly’ and those with medical conditions relevant to ER visits such as penicillin allergies.

I’ll admit its got its good points, but going so far as to implant a tracking tag in your hand is a bit much. If I were allergic to penicillin and really had an aversion for that bracelet, a less extreme alternative to me would be having it tattooed on the inside of my wrist, they cant insert an IV without noticing that.

So what does this have to do with us? The healthy, non-wandering people of America. Well, please note that something has already been put into law called the “Real ID Act.” It states that every American by early to mid 2009 must carry a national ID card complete with a storage medium that carries biometric and identity information. The storage medium is a toss-up between in-card RFID tagging or magnetic strip, giving anyone with a reader for it complete access to all the info on the card. The card is only a step until we are given the option to be chipped, until we are mandated to be chipped like farm animals.

I know it sounds crazy, after all, its not what you hear on the news. Thats exactly how youve been made to think. Im not saying someone is out to get you just to do it, thats not whats happening. The simple fact is that there is a very small group of people who value money over human life, and these people control our largest corporations, and by strategic, lucrative lobbying, they control the free world by making laws that keep them making money, keeping the money flowing back into the lobbying industry. Lobbyists have destroyed America, is it not a crime when someone commits bribery? Its not when the people being bribed make the laws.

Wake up America, its your last chance.

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Its that time of the decade again, and this time, there is no doubt that we’re getting a new president. On the left, we have John McCain, conservative, veteran, and CRAZY OLD COOT. The man wants to drag the war out for as long as possible. Putting all conspiracy theories aside, the was has killed more Americans that 9/11, isn’t that a good indicator of when you should just give it up?

The Democrats aren’t much better, either. Just look at the way Clinton and Obama tore each other to shreds before it was over. How can anyone look at either candidate with an air of respect after a race that was made into a damned circus?

So the stage is set for Obama vs McCain ‘08, or is it? Congressman Dennis Kucinich has put forth 35 articles of impeachment against our current mockery of a president. Sounds good, right? Well it looks good on paper, but it could throw a monkey wrench into the whole thing.

A successful impeachment proceeding and subsequent conviction would leave our president out of a job. And when that happens, guess who gets to be president? Thats right, Dick Cheyney. Now, since Cheney never served a term in his life, he gets to run for re-election, completely subverting the Republican choice of a McCain candidacy. Im a through and through skeptic, but if this happens, I truly believe that 2012 will be the end of the world.

So, down to the prediction. I think Obama and McCain square off in a Bush-Gore type election with a disputable outcome where, in the end Obama concedes to McCain (or possibly Cheyney)  in the midst of a heated battle over who the “real winner,” just like Al gore and John Kerry before him.

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Take a long hard look at the graph at left. Not so great looking, huh. Give it a click and you’ll get a bit more detail. The dark line is the actual price paid for a gallon of gas in texas. The light grey line that seemingly follows it is the US City average and the bottom light grey line is the price adjusted for inflation. With that, you may notice that the adjusted price doesn’t show as much of a spike in prices, actually shows a near doubling of prices between the beginning of the still young century and today. Hm, I wonder what major paradigm-shift happened around then.

Honestly, the oil companies should be telling Americans exactly why their gas costs so much. Its not supply and demand, its more like the crack dealer theory. You get someone hooked on something cheap for just long enough, then jack the price up insanely for no just reason. Whatever happened to laws against price fixing anyway?

Its underhanded tactics like this that had Exxon-Mobil earning thirteen hundred dollars per second last year. Thats not a typo, I said thirteen hundred dollars per second. Something must be done before the gas companies alone consume what little wealth the American public has accumulated. If that happens, we’re all screwed.

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Whats the word at Fortune Magazine as of late? Downsizing. At least four high ranking employees of the publication have been given the pink slip in an effort to keep things afloat. At least 2 senior employees top the list: Mathew Boyle and John Simmons.

Also on the list is Cait Murphy, the assistant managing editor who has given over 10 years of service to the company. Paul Sloan, one of nine plucked from the doomed Business 2.0 Magazine is also being discharged. Several others are also included in this group. As of yet only four big names have leaked, but if you keep an eye out, it is certain you will notice the credit listing of the magazine getting shorter and shorter.

Isn’t it ironic that amid all of this economic uncertainty that a financial magazine begins to have trouble. Aren’t these the people that dispense monetary advice like its going out of style? (or, is it?). All in all, expect to see a few more magazines falter before the recession is over. Keep an eye on the magazine death pool a good view of the big picture.

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The media has been clamoring [not so] recently about how HD-DVD has been trumped by Blu-Ray. When we look at the sales figures, its obvious that the consumers just seemed to like Blu-Ray more. In the high definition world, the Blu-Ray is king, but what about in the real world?

Lets start off by dissecting the term “high definition,” two words that mean so much. The basal meaning can be interpreted as meaning “one can see more detail here.” As per this definition, the term is inherently subjective. “More detail than what?” one might ask. The obvious answer being standard definition, but rather than using a conceptual term to describe our media, why not use a quantitative one.

This is where the word “resolution”
comes in. The term actually indicates the amount of dots comprising a screen. The top number for Blu-Ray is 2073600, but since this is hard to visualize, the number is represented by width times height. In Blu-Ray’s case this is 1920×1080. A standard DVD has a resolution of only 720×480. While much lower than a Blu-Ray’s resolution, still comes through in amazing clarity on a screen capable of that resolution (most “HD”TVs.) This is rooted in the fact that Blu-Rays can fit as much data as up to 5 DVD’s.

In my opinion this space is wasted. Why add more detail to a film that is nigh invisible when you can sell 5 movies in still amazing quality on the same discs? This would be a much more environmentally friendly option as well, seeing as 1/5th the plastic would go to the same movie. So where are we going with this all? The fact that DVD is still king, that where.

The above graph may look impressive, but as you can see below it pales in comparison to standard DVD. The thing here is that there is no innovation on this step. People are being asked to pay more for the same technology with more detail. Detail is nice when you have an HD set but the majority of Americans are not equipped to handle this yet. Here the Blu-Ray meets no needs and costs more.

In the format war of yesteryear, there was a novel concept. The ability to watch movies at any time and the ability to rewind were paramount in driving sales in the Betamax vs VHS war. At the turn of the century we saw DVD emerge, and with it came chapter selection, deleted scenes, multilanguage discs and much more. DVDs were like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Blu-Ray is exactly like something we’ve seen before, only shinier, bluer and more expensive.

Until something new and innovative comes around, I really cant see

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In recent months (or, in some opinions, years) the country has hit somewhat of an economic slump. Prices are soaring, people are stashing cash and everyone is nervous. Something has got to start the money moving around again, and while magazine sales can’t do it alone, they sure as hell can help

Magazines are the number one impulse purchase item out there right now, because they are cheap sources of lasting entertainment. When someone buys a magazine, they usually wont have to spend more than 5 dollars, and they’ll have something they can leave on the coffee table for a quick read every once in a while.

Magazines also encourage repeat purchases. If someone buys a magazine they’re interested and absolutely loves it, they are much more likely to buy it again, or even subscribe. Note that buying magazines in the store is a great way to try them, but it is much cheaper to buy them online. If you would like to compare the cover price to the online price, just check out http://magazinediscountcenter.com/. On every product page we display the cover price of the magazine, and you will be able to see where the savings makes a difference.

So, if you would like to help the economy, relieve some boredom and get some info, head over to your local convenience store and give some magazines a try. If you find one you like, drop by our site and grab yourself a subscription. We’ve got every magazine on the rack and more.

Special thanks to http://www.contactomagazine.com/ for the facts in this article.

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Star Magazine is the perfect gossip friendly/news worthy magazine subscription. The magazine is packed with amazing images of all your favorite celebrities/information to all the gossip hungry people out there!

Founded by Rupert Murdoch in 1975 as competition to the tabloid National Enquirer with its headquarters in New York City. In the late 1980’s, it moved its offices right when Murdoch sold the magazine to American Media Inc.

Although hugely successfully, Star Magazine was a dingy, inexpensive supermarket tabloid printed on newsprint and battled to break out of the shadow of its longer-established stablemate. Circulation was declining because of the celebrity-driven television shows, such as, Entertainment Tonight and Hard Copy.

In 1999, AMI was purchased by investors fronted by David Pecker, who personally guaranteed that Star would never relocate to Florida, the home state of all the country’s other tabloids. That was soon forgotten and Star Magazine moved into the same building as Globe, National Enquirer and Sun.
Four years later, Bonnie Fuller was appointed to oversee the paper and the company moved back to New York City in the summer of 2003.

The amusing articles and higher grade paper does not appear to be working. Star Magazine has been losing money and is reported to be in talks with its rival US Weekly to merge.

More About Star: Star covers all the news from Hollywood with a strong emphasis on celebrity gossip. From the best fashions and most trendy styles to the fights, hook-ups and love triangles throughout Hollywood, Star exposes it all! Between the gossipy articles to the snapshots with detailed captions, Star gives it to you straight without getting too bogged down. You’ll be able to follow the stars from work to dinner, out with the family, on vacation and even at home! Included in each issue are horoscopes, crossword puzzles, “Couples News”, and the fashion “Worst of the Week.” Star magazine is published by American Media Corporation. They also publish Shape, Men’s Fitness and National Enquirer among others.

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