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Hulu is now the new Hollywood King

Hulu the web-video aggregator is still number three in America for online video.  This company is growing fast, and soon the number two destination for online aggregator of video content and streaming video. 

For good content providers and to watch full episodes of movie or TV show, Hulu is now the number one in Hollywood empire.

Hulu is making good revenues since its launch in early 2007.  YouTube, the number one online video aggregator which is solely own by Google, is reportedly loss about $500 million every year.

Hulu just got a major buy-in from Disney today.  Hollywood experts believe Disney now owns close to 27% of Hulu.  Disney is joining News Corp and NBC Universal, and plus a private equity firm Providence Equity Partners.  Each of the three top media companies now own about 30% stakes in Hulu.

Hulu is now the number one online aggregator of video content and the new King of Hollywood

Windows 7 is on target for back-to-school

In order to catch high volume of new computer buyers for this year’s back-to-school at around August 2009, as promised by Microsoft few weeks ago, they released Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 (RC1).  Most MSDN and TechNet subscribers have received access to the new version of Windows 7.  While general public users will be able to download on May 5th. 

The new version is clean, colorful, and it includes several wallpapers with more animated themes looking version.

Windows 7 is equipped with Windows XP Mode.   According to Microsoft, it is  “…Utilizing Windows Virtual PC, Windows XP Mode allows Windows 7 users to run many Windows XP productivity applications, launched right from the Windows 7 desktop…”

System Requirements for Windows 7
1GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
1 GB of RAM (32-bit)/2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
16 GB of available disk space (32-bit)/20 GB (64-bit)
DirectX 9 graphics device with Windows Display Driver Model 1.0 or higher driver

Back-to-school computer shoppers cannot wait for Windows 7

Rocky Mountains comfy sofa for global warming era

American households have been placing many nature-theme items in their living room during this global warming era.  Here is a cool and comfy sofa designed by Gaetano Pesce, with panorama view of Rocky Mountains and waterfalls.

Sofa for mountain climber at Milan Design Week 2009

Tiger Woods is the richest athletes in the world

Not even one single athlete in the world comes close to pro golfer Tiger Woods’ earning as the richest athletes in the world with earning near $128 million. He earns over than $100 million endorsements from sponsors like sport clothing Nike and Gatorade where each sponsor was reported to be worth $100 million for five-year deal.

As a comparison to other sports, 2007 Formula One World Drivers’ Champion, Kimi Räikkönen makes only $46 million while NBA player LeBron James $40 million. Another pro golfer Phil Mickelson comes in the second place with $62 million while England’s most famous footballer, David Beckham is on the third place with $48 million.

The Fortunate 50

Single Mel and his brand new girlfriend Oksana

Almost one month after his estranged wife officially filed paper to separate from the famous Aussy actor, Mel Gibson attended the opening night of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, with a brand new girlfriend, Oksana Grigorieva.  She is a 39-year-old singer from Russia who currently has a contract with Gibson’s company, Icon Records.

Hollywood gossipers believe that Mel and his estranged wife have over $1 billion in assets.  Each of them may potentially receive 50% of those assets. 

Photo by: Gary Lewis / Retna (PEOPLE)

Single Mel and a brand new girlfriend

60-60-60: American politics is now fulfilling passage Revelation 13:18

Democratic Party gains 60 seats in America’s senate which mean this party has a full majority in American politics.  This was helped by Arlen Specter who switched party from Republican.  Interesting to note that Arlen Specter is from Pennsylvania where America’s independent was declared in 1776.  According to several American conservative news outlets, this is also to fulfill Bible passage of Revelation 13:18 “…That number is 666…” or translate as “…That number is 60-60-60…”

American politics

Don’t go to America

EU health experts warned Europeans to delay any travel to America because of the spread of swine flu virus.  Several countries, including Russia, Hong Kong and Taiwan have started to take extra precaution and quarantine their airports, especially for visitors showing symptoms of the deadly virus.

Wall Street and world markets dropped sharply as investors worried that the virus outbreak could go out of control.  The possible pandemic may also impacted on global economic recovery.

EU warning its citizens to delay travel to America

Just rub it in! Get hard quick! A new treatment to solve erectile dysfunction problems

American scientists recently tested a new type of drug for men who suffer from erectile problems.  The new technique is using nanoparticles which release anti-erectile chemical nitric oxide, and can be rubbed directly into the man’s part skin.  Get hard quick!  Researchers believe this new technique is more effective than the blue pill.

“…The new treatment would likely have fewer side effects than Viagra, which is taken orally and been shown to cause headaches and facial flushing…”

Men will soon say bye to blue pill

PhD degree = Greencard "permanent residency" in America

America is losing most of its foreign nationals holding a PhD.  Over 60% of graduate students studying for a PhD degree are foreign born (India, China, South Korea, etc.) and most of those students will return home after graduation.

Today, many PhD holders are still suffering with America’s immigration system which required a PhD holder to obtain a working visa which usually only lasted 6 years with a ton of lawyer fees.

Although in economy crisis, an Arizona’s Congressman from Republican Party (the party that lost presidency to Obama last November) has introduced a new bill to help retaining PhD holders to remain working in America after graduation.  The PhD bill will require student to study in the following fields, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

PhD Greencard

Food crisis in third world and poor countries

According to Scientific American magazine, the planet earth is encountering food crises, especially in third world and poor countries.  Due to the food crises, many governments will turn into chaos and finally will be extinct in the next few years. 

Global warming and dry lands have caused food shortage which made foods too pricey to be produced in poor nations.  Given such unaffordable foods for those poor countries, this will increase potential of outbreak, disease, riots, terrorism, border-closing, and refugees.

“…Water shortages, soil losses and rising temperatures from global warming are placing severe limits on food production…”

World food crisis

Overweight Americans with excess body fat are damaging the planet

According to the International Journal of Epidemiology data, the planet of earth has over 300 million people who are obese or people with excess body fat.  Today, over 40 percent of America's population is categorized as overweight.  Scientists cautioned that people with excess body fat are causing environmental damage due to increasing of CO2 gas emissions.

“…“This is about over-consumption by the wealthy countries. And the world demand for meat is increasing to match that of Britain and America…”

“…The study by Dr Edwards and colleague Ian Roberts is published in the International Journal of Epidemiology.  Dr Edwards went on: “We are not just pointing the finger at fat people. All populations are getting fatter and it has an impact on the environment”…”

“…Anyone with a BMI above 25 is overweight, while more than 30 is obese…”

Overweight people and global warming

Google founders will spend more time to change diapers

Billionaire Google founder, Larry Page, 37, and his wife, Lucy, 29, are expecting their first baby before Christmas 2009.  Google other founder, Sergey Brin, and his wife, Anne, had their first son, Benji, in December 2008.

Google next generation, time for fatherhood

Over 1.5 million Americans have bone fractures each year

Osteoporosis makes bones become thin and fragile, and increasing the chance of getting fracture bones.    As a person grows older, they will have higher risk to have osteoporosis .  Osteoporosis has threatened more than 44 million Americans, especially for women past menopause have greater risk having osteoporosis than older men. 

Approximately 1.5 million Americans that have bone fractures each year are related to osteoporosis. Since it has no cure, the best way is to prevent osteoporosis. Older persons should take vitamin D supplements and 15 minutes of sunlight daily.

Osteoporosis research

America’s flu virus outbreak

America’s health experts anticipate finding more cases of a new type of “swine flu” virus that has caused sickness to several people live in California and Texas, including kids.

According to the America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new flu like symptom is a challenging medical mystery because no one knows how people in California and Texas had caught the virus. None of those who got sick were in contact with pigs, which usually is the origin of the virus.  None of the sick people are relatives or neighbors.

Swine flu outbreak

British billionaire and a naked supermodel

While vacationing with his family at his private Caribbean island, Necker, British’s billionaire, Sir Richard Branson, was photographed with a naked supermodel, Denni Parkinson.  The good news was that the billionaire’s second wife and two children watched the photo shoot from a white sand beach.

“…What can you say if you are asked to pose with a naked lady? I only wish I had eyes in the back of my head…”

58-year-old British billionaire and a naked supermodel

50 percent young Americans drop out of high school in big cities

American high school students are more likely to drop out of in big cities, such as Cleveland (OH), Baltimore (MD), etc. 

High schools in America’s 50 largest cities have an average graduation rate at 53 percent, compared to 71 percent in smaller cities (a gap of 18 percent).

"...In Cleveland, for instance, where the gap was largest, only 38 percent of high school freshmen graduated within four years, compared with 80 percent in the Cleveland suburbs, the report said. In Baltimore, which has the nation’s second-largest gap, 41 percent of students graduate from city schools, compared with 81 percent in the suburbs..."

Failing American high schools

America’s president wrote back to an average Joe on smoking cigarette

America’s president daily agenda includes reading letters from an average Joe.  One of the president’s recently pick was a letter about smoking cigarette.  The letter was sent by an American who lost his father due to lung cancer about 30 years ago.  President Obama wrote back and thanks the man’s advice on smoking.

Obama's letter about smoking

Cyber spies hack into America’s F35 Joint Strike Fighter project

Cyber spies continue to dominate the latest news in America.  It’s now confirmed that cyber spies have intruded into the Pentagon's $300 billion F35 Joint Strike Fighter project.  Many experts believe the intruders were able to hack into the networks and duplicate most of the jet’s design and electronics systems.  According to America’s government officials, similar cyber attacks have also broken into the Air Force's air-traffic-control system.

“…The latest intrusions provide new evidence that a battle is heating up between the U.S. and potential adversaries over the data networks that tie the world together…”

Cyber spies break into F35 fighter jet project

13 million Facebook users in Asia and it grows over 70 percent during the past 3 months

According to O’Reilly, of the 200 million Facebook users in April 2009, 38% are residing in North America, about 32% in Europe, while Asia contributes 7%.

Facebook has over 13 million users in Asia. Rate of change for Asia during the past 12-weeks was about 74%.

According to Alexa, after Google.co.id as the number one, Facebook is now the second most popular site in Indonesia with over 1 million users.

Facebook in Asia

America's largest technology corporations: HP #9, Dell #33, Microsoft #35, Apple #71, Google #117, Amazon #130

According to Fortune magazine, Exxon Mobil (XOM) is now America's largest corporation, replacing Wal-Mart (WMT) as the number one ranking.  Exxon Mobil generated a total of $443 billions in 2008.

Among other largest U.S. technology corporations include Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) at number nine, Dell (DELL) ranks at early 30s, and Microsoft (MSFT) at number 35.

One big surprise of this year’s list is Apple (AAPL).  The iPhone, iPod, iTunes, and iMac makers jumped ahead of 32 spots to stay at number 71, from 2008’s rank at number 103.  Apple revenues grow 35.3% to over $32 billion in 2008.

At above top-100 corporations, include Google at number 117, Amazon.com at number 130.

The top-10 rangkings (revenue $ millions):

1. Exxon Mobil 442,851.0
2. Wal-Mart Stores 405,607.0
3. Chevron 263,159.0
4. ConocoPhillips 230,764.0
5. General Electric 183,207.0
6. General Motors 148,979.0
7. Ford Motor 146,277.0
8. AT&T 124,028.0
9. Hewlett-Packard 118,364.0
10. Valero Energy 118,298.0

The rest of top-100 rankings:

33. Dell 61,101.0
35. Microsoft 60,420.0
57. Cisco Systems 39,540.0
61. Intel 37,586.0
71. Apple 32,479.0
78. Motorola 30,146.0

Rankings after the top-100:

117. Google 21,795.6
130. Amazon.com 19,166.0

Full list of Fortune 500 companies in year 2009:

Microsoft new operating system Windows 7 will cost less but only allow to running three applications at a time

As many computer experts and industry analysts have predicted in the past six months that majority of new buyers will purchase a cheap and small laptop for their next hardware.  Sales for netbook, a small screen laptop that cost around $300 each is expected to hit the sky in the next few years.  Industry analysts, such as Gartner, projected that sales of netbooks will grow to over 20 millions units by end of this year.  While Microsoft is not making much money of those netbooks sales due to a cheap operating system which some experts believe it costs only $15 per license for Windows XP, almost the same cost of a box of pizza.

Microsoft will launch a new operating system, which is called Windows 7, sometime this summer or before Christmas 2009.  As of April 20 '09, Windows 7 Release Candidate is available to some select partners of Microsoft. The new OS will include a “low basic” or "starter" level of operating system which will only allow to running three applications at a time.  To get all the cool features users must pay for an upgrade.

Windows 7 “Low Basic” or "Starter" level

12 famous America's brands that will not survive by Christmas 2009

In large part due to America economy meltdown since early 2008, many popular brands vanished during last year, including Circuit City, Aloha Airlines, and Gateway Computers.

247wallst.com has recently listed additional 12 American brands that have a very high chance to disappear sometime before Christmas 2009.   247wallst.com provided reasons for those 12 American brands to vanish by analyzing their stock market performance, information from industry experts, and brand histories.

Here is the list:

1. Avis/Budget
2. Borders
3. Crocs
4. Saturn
5. Esquire Magazine
6. Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic
7. Architectural Digest Magazine
8. The Chrysler
9. Eddie Bauer
10. Palm
11. AIG
12. The travel industry

12 famous American brands that will disappear before Christmas 2009

America's 10 most offensive posters during tax day demonstrations

Many parts of the world governing bodies would not allowed any kind of offensive words, languages, signs, or posters toward their authorities, especially for a sitting president.  The consequence of such acts would be a long jail time or would be killed by military personnel.  On the other hand, Americans are benefiting from their freedom of speech during Tax Day demonstrations on April 15, 2009.  HuffPost.com recently published 10 most offensive signs during this year tax day demos from around America.

HuffPost 10 most offensive signs

Jackie Chan political view: Democratic system is not a good thing for Chinese people

In a panel at the annual Boao Forum, international kung-fu star Jackie Chan said that a free society is not a good thing for Chinese people.  He would like to see Chinese people to be “controlled” by authority and he thought freedom will make people disordered.

"...I'm not sure if it's good to have freedom or not..."

“…If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic...”

“…If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want…”

Jackie Chan political view: Chinese people need to be controlled

Poor YouTube: Google will lose half a billion dollars a year to maintain the site

As more Internet users are using online video providers to store and play videos.   Most of those services are free, incl. YouTube.  However, the costs of storing and streaming “user-generated contents” are very expensive.  According to Wall Street analysts, the cost of running YouTube for one year surpasses $700 million, while YouTube only generates about $240 million in revenue from banners ads and per-per-click ads.  YouTube is losing about half a billion dollars a year.

“...According a recent report by analysts at the financial-services company Credit Suisse, Google will lose $470 million on the video-sharing site this year alone…”

“…Advertisers don't like paying very much to support homemade photos and videos…”

“…Credit Suisse says YouTube spends about $250 million a year to acquire licenses to broadcast professionally produced videos…”

“…Add in all other expenses, and the cost of running YouTube for one year exceeds $700 million…”

“…the company makes only a fraction of that back in advertising—about $240 million in revenues for 2009…”

Poor YouTube

Not So Golden State

The once Golden State is not so golden anymore.  Unemployment rate in the world number six largest economy jumped to its highest level since 1976.  Unemployment rate climbed to 11.2% with 62,100 jobs lost in March 2009, compared to February rate at 10.6%.  About 640 thousands jobs have lost in California during the past 12 months.  Today, more than 2 million Californians have no jobs.

According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, California is currently on top of jobless rate in America, and it follows by Michigan, Oregon and South Carolina.

“…About half the job decline is related to reduced consumer spending in areas such as leisure, hospitality, retail, transportation and housing…”

Not so golden anymore

Four men connected to file-sharing company were fined $3.6 million and plus one year in prison

Swedish court sentenced four men connected to the Pirate Bay, which were due to copyright infringement, with one year in prison and totaled $3.6 million in penalty to several entertainment companies.

The three Pirate Bay administrators were found guilty in the case include Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde.   Also found guilty includes the company financial officer, Carl Lundström, who has funded the five-year-old company.

File-sharing company guilty

Facebook is on track to knock down MySpace’s dominant in America sometime in July 2009

Experts believe Facebook will jump over MySpace in America in summer 2009.  According to comScore’s data, 61.2 million American visitors visited Facebook in March, compared to 70.2 million to MySpace site.  Facebook needs only additional 8 million visitors to knock off MySpace.  Compared to February 2009, Facebook added 3.8 million American visitors in March (an increase of 6.7%). 

MySpace continued to lose visitors in America.  Compared to February, MySpace lost 160,000 American visitors in March.  If comparing March visitors to January 2009, MySpace lost over 5.8 million visitors, when it accumulated 76 million American visitors.

MySpace dominant in America is soon over

Over 6 million Americans are receiving jobless benefits

For the first time in American history, over 6 million people are getting jobless benefits.  The chart shows that recession in America is not over yet.

“…Analysts expect the labor market to remain weak for the most of this year with companies reluctant to hire new workers until an economic recovery is well under way…”

“…The total number of people remaining on the jobless benefit rolls rose 172,000, topping 6 million for the first time. That’s the highest on records dating from 1967…”

6.1 million Americans have no jobs

American online auction company expands to Asian market

eBay.com, the American online auction giant, has bought South Korean online retailer, Gmarket.co.kr, for about $1.2 billion.  South Korea is considered as number six e-commerce market in the world.

"...eBay said it would combine Gmarket, which is focused on fashion, with Internet Auction, whose strengths are in electronics and sports goods..."

Asian online market