So far 2010 has been a doozy for politics and with the midterm elections still months away things will no doubt get crazier.
It’s only late February and already so much has happened. The promise of health care reform seems to have sputtered – although President Obama is attempting some last minute CPR. A little-known Republican named Scott Brown defied conventional wisdom and was elected Senator from Massachusetts, taking over the seat of the Liberal Lion, Ted Kennedy. Several notable members of Congress including Christopher Dodd, Byron Dorgan and Evan Bayh have announced their retirement leaving even fewer moderates amid the august body. Finally, there is a rising tide of populism stemming from the Tea Party Movement.
Midterm elections have historically battered the party in the White House and according to many anaslyses this year will not be kind to incumbents in Congress. But politics is a fast-moving game, and a lot can change between now and November. There are bound to be more exciting twists and turns.
The Super Bowl is over and the Winter Olympics start Friday. It should be a quiet week in sports, right? Well, not so fast.
This week, off the coast of Valencia, Spain the 33rd America’s Cup is set to begin. The America’s Cup is the oldest active trophy in international sports, dating from 1851 when the schooner America, from the New York Yacht Club, defeated Aurora, of the Royal Yacht Squadron in a regatta around the Isle of Wight.
In 1983, the 132-year American winning streak ended when Australia II took the Cup home to Australia. Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes won the Cup back four years later, but American control over the trophy had ended. In the past decade New Zealand and Swiss yachts have dominated the event.
The run up to this year’s race has been full of legal hullabaloo over the size of the yachts and who is the rightful challenger. That all got settled in January and the regatta is set to begin this week. The current Cup holder Alinghi (financed by Pharma heir Ernesto Bertarelli) will face off against BMW Oracle Racing (bankrolled by Larry Ellison) in two massive and expensive 90-foot multihull yachts. May the richest man win.
Sometimes ice does strange things to people – It makes them want to fish.
It may be Greek to folks in the Sun belt, but in the icier regions of the world, some people like to get outside, bore a hole in the thick ice, sit on their bucket, and fish. Last weekend on Brainerd, Minnesota’s Gull Lake 21,000 holes were drilled as fishing fanatics froze their buns for $150,000 in prize money at the annual Brainerd Jaycees Ice-Fishing Extravaganza.
Of course, ice fishing is not limited to Minnesota – anywhere there are fish under thick ice, some wily fisherman will be lurking above trying to catch them. While some ice fishing fiends are old school and fish outside on their bucket, some fisherman like fancier digs. Some ice fishing houses are even decked out with a TV and stove. Just because you’re devoted to ice fishing, doesn’t mean you need to a miss the Super Bowl.
With all the talk of the future of the book, it’s a wonder that regular books – the ones made of paper – are still made. But even with the book industry facing dire straits, thousands of new books are published each year. In certain countries, like the United Kingdom or the United States, over a 100,000 new books are published each year. That’s a lot of books.
With such a vast number of books out there, it’s important to pick your books wisely. One way to do this is to simply follow a best seller list. Another, more interesting way, is to follow what other folks are reading. Oprah may have the biggest, most popular book club, but there are scores of smaller clubs run by book stores and some cities even have there own reading groups. And, of course, you can start your own book club. We’ve created a few channels that we hope will help you narrow down your reading choices.
Have I told you I love reading my iCurrent.com newspaper?
- Len Charnoff
Since our October launch we’ve been talking with people using iCurrent pretty much daily. There’s a lot of exciting work ahead based on what you’ve told us you like and what can be improved—and we’re updating the site at least weekly in response.
Thank you for all the feedback. It’s what guides us forward. And thanks for the enthusiasm for what we’re doing—it’s inspiring to say the least.
One user wowed us with his effort in creating helpful video tutorials about iCurrent: Len Charnoff and his “Time Saving Tutorials.” Apparently many of his readers like them too, as he announced that his iCurrent videos had the most views in December as well as November! We’re thrilled and hope that you are as excited as Len.
In Len’s words:
I love this application. Let me say it one more time. I love this application. I love reading the news this way. I love the way the page changes. iCurrent really has all the news I need to keep current with my professional and personal interests.
New Year’s resolutions are tough to follow. Many people start with grand intentions, only to fall off the resolution wagon before Twelfth Night.
The top New Year’s resolutions are a familiar lot. According to USA.gov, the number one resolution is to lose weight, followed by managing debt and saving money. Other popular resolutions are to quit smoking, relax more, and start a new hobby.
For us, hobbies seem like a more pleasant way to tackle the resolution beast. They’re more fun than work, and if you stick with it, maybe you can conquer some of the other goals on your list. Here are some of the new hobbies we’ll be trying out in 2010.
People ring in the New Year in a variety of ways. The Scots have Hogmanay, where neighbors pay “first-footing ” visits to one another to express New Year’s wishes. The Greeks celebrate the Festival of St. Basil on New Years day and bake silver or gold coins inside the traditional Vassilopitta, or St. Basil Cake.
Latin American countries have a host of fabulous traditions like eating 12 grapes at the 12 strokes of midnight, burning an effigy that represents the past year, and walking around with a full suitcase to hope for safe travels during the new year.
In the United States, no sooner has the ball dropped in Times Square, than football fans kick off their New Year tradition – watching football.
There are over 30 college football bowl games this year. Many of the more colorfully sponsored games like the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl and the S.D. County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl have already taken place. But thanks to the NCAA who thought up the Bowl Championship Series, or BCS, the college football season stretches until January 7. So don’t over do it on New Year’s Eve. If you’re a football fan, it’s going to be a long week.
Lists are really in right now. They run the gamut from the best books and music to the best animal stories or the top 10 James Cameron moments. But many lists are not only looking back on 2009, they are also looking back on the entire past decade.
Instead of looking back, we thought we’d take a look forward to 2010 and some of the things we’ll be following on iCurrent:
Winter Olympics – In February Vancouver will host the Winter Olympics. The big questions are whether Bode will melt down, whether the home team get the gold in Hockey, and will Curling become more popular than American Idol.
FIFA World Cup – In June all eyes turn to South Africa for the World Cup. Soccer is the world’s most popular game and this years final will bring together the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, and Kaka to battle it out for the right to lift the trophy.
Midterm Elections – There is already plenty in the news about the 2010 midterm elections. The entire House of Representatives and 1/3 of the U.S. Senate seats are up for grabs. Many view the election as a referendum on President Obama’s first two years in office and if history is a guide, the Democrats are going to have a tough time.
Our lead investor Peter Rip, and our Co-Founder Ramana Rao have contributed pieces on the future of media to major publications this month:
In the New York Times DealBook, Peter reflects upon the success of Pandora and other companies with self-curation as a model for getting what you want.
In Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech, Ramana advances that the larger shift enabled by the Internet will be about truly serving the long tail of interests.
Here at iCurrent, we are applying these ideas to personalized information delivery for everybody. Enabling people to keep up across diverse interests requires a delicate balance of self-curation, algorithms and editors. It’s people and technology!
The world is gathered in Denmark hoping to hash out an agreement that will stem the tide against global warming and reign in the emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. While the developed countries who pollute the most and have the most money, are critical to finding a compromise, it’s the developing nations that are most immediately vulnerable to the effects of climate change such as sea level rise and drought.
Buoyed by PR events — like the Maldives staging an underwater cabinet meeting or the Nepalese cabinet holding their cabinet meeting at the base of Mt. Everest – to show the vulnerability of their countries to the effects of global warming. Coalitions of smaller countries are flexing their muscles in Copenhagen. Since it is the big polluters that got them into this mess, they’re asking them for help in the form of money. The smaller nations even threatened to walk out of the talks if their concerns are not heard.
The UN Climate Chief Yvo de Boer, hopes the industrialized world will cough up at least $30 billion over the next few years. To date, the European Union has pledged about $10 billion and the United States is offering $1.2 billion in financing of special projects in addition to implementing a cap and trade system to limit emissions from American industries.
