Yahoo's Movieland Game

     In order to promote films, users will be able to watch movie trailers, answer trivia questions, buy tickets, and win prizes.  Movieland is an interactive online game that promotes 35 upcoming big budget films.  Movieland was developed with the participation of all the major movie studios.  Movieland, "game-ifies moviegoing in an interesting way.  It sucks people into an experience," says Ken Fuchs, vice-president and head of sports, entertainment and games at Yahoo Media Network.  The game debuted Tuesday, May 15 2012, on Yahoo movies.  Movieland will head Yahoo's efforts this summer to promote its Yahoo Movies site.  See also, www.http://www.www.hollywoodreporter.com/.

Tax Credits Less Popular When Production is Down

      Hollywood's feature film production is much smaller today than it was at its peak in 1996.  Some lawmakers balked at setting aside $500 million, for movie production tax credits, at a time when the state of California is confronted with having to cut social services and lay off teachers in the face of large budget demands.   See also, www.hollywoodreporter.com.

Online Retailers to Begin Collecting Sales Tax

   California's desire to tax online retailers will mean millions of dollars to companies like Amazon.com Inc.  As part of a pact reached last year with state lawmakers, some online retailers have agreed to begin collecting a sales tax this fall.  See full story, http://www.wired.com/.

Former News International Executive Charged in Hacking Case

   Rebekah Brooks 43, who oversaw News of The World and the Sun tabloids has been charged with three counts of trying to obstruct justice. The ongoing telephone hacking and media corruption scandal, has been under investigation in Britain.  The long-running saga has produced dozens of arrests and somewhat shaken up Rupert Murdoch's global media empire.  The charges are the most serious allegations of wrong-doing to emerge so far from the police investigation of news gathering practices at the News of The World and the Sun tabloids; charges that have so far included , illegally accessing private voice-mail and paying public officials for information.  Rebekah Brooks' husband, Charlie Brooks 49, along with four of her former colleagues, was also charged with two counts each of "conspiracy to pervert the course of justice."  See also, http://www.nytimes.com/.

Commercial Skipping Device

   Satellite broadcaster Dish Network has developed a new 'Auto Hop' feature.  The device makes it easier for viewers to avoid watching commercials.  Customers can avoid commercials on recorded shows that aired the day before on broadcast networks ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX.  If the show aired the previous day, the 'Auto Hop' feature hops, or skips over commercials.  It does not work on live programming, or, on shows that have been broadcast the same day.  See also,http://www.wired.com/.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation Sets Sight on Beijing's Bona Film Group

   "What we are seeing is a new willingness by the big Hollywood studios to come into China with a minority stake, hoping to gain a foothold and leverage over time," says David Wolf, an independent media analyst in Beijing, China.  The investment by News Corp. is seen by industry observers as an attempt by CEO Rupert Murdoch to crack China's strictly regulated media and entertainment market.  However, the acquistion of 19.9% of Bona Film Group by the parent of 20th Century Fox is also an attempt by Bona Film Group to use "News Corps. extensive global reach, investment, and distribution," says Yu Dong, Bona Film Group's chief executive.  "This will help accelerate our strategy to expand our global footprint."  See full story, http://www.nytimes.com/.

Britney Spears joins X Factor USA judges on stage

Yahoo CEO Attempts to Energize The Perennial Giant

   Ross Levinsohn, the new CEO of Yahoo, Inc., is attempting to blend the technology of Yahoo with the presence of other media to help boost Yahoo's adverstisement profits.  Levinsohn, who has been with Yahoo since 2010, has long partnered with ABC News to provide content to Yahoo's websites, including a series starring news personality Katie Couric.  Former head of content and advertising sales, Levinsohn plans dedicated coverage to major news events such as the Olympics, the Oscars, and the 2012 presidential election.  "He is the perfect meld of both media and high-tech experience," said Peter Chernin, News Corps. former chief operating officer.  See also, http://www.nytimes.com/.

Universal Music's New Venture

   Universal Studios music company, Universal Music Group has announced plans to start a new global distribution company dubbed, Global Creative Investment Program.  The multi-million-dollar effort is intended to form ventures with promising tech savvy entrepreneurs in the music business.  Universal's 30% of global music sales makes it the world's largest record company.  With the Global Creative Investment Program it is looking to tap into hot young talent to remain relevant and connect to a new generation of consumers.  "There's a new social contract emerging between music companies, artists, and entrepreneurs.  The challenge comes in creating a structure that is open to opportunity in the midst of a discombobulation of everything we've ever known", says Lucian Grainge, Chairman of Universal Music Group.  See full story, http://www.latimes.com/.

Internet Poker Plans

   Casino operators are pushing a legalization bill that could raise hundreds millions of dollars for some states.  Federal law does not prevent states from allowing some forms of Internet gambiling.  Bills to legalize online poker have been introuduced in Iowa, New Jersey, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Florida.  Nevada  can get specific federal permission.  A separate small group of Indian tribes is lobbying to stop the legislation in California, saying it would violate their excissive right to operate certain electronic games and take customers away from casinos.  See also, http://www.wired.com/.

Requests for Rides Routine Refills and Other Non-Urgent Calls Increases Response Time for 911

   Increasingly uninsured patients are relying on 911 as their only way into the healthcare system, e.g. to get routine refills, and as a means of transportation to doctor appointments.  In order to save money, improve care, and reduce ER overcrowding officials across the nation are considering changes to cope with the growing number of non-emergency calls to the 911 system.  Paramedics in Maine, Minnesota, and Colorado are beginning to treat patients in their homes doing preventive and follow up care, and helping manage chronic illness.  "The emergency room is expensive and not always a pleasant experience for patients," said Maine's community para-medicine co-ordinator, Kevin McGinnis.  It is much better to treat them where they are."

President Obama Switches From Reconaissance to Attack Mode

   A two minute TV advertisement  done in quasi-documentary style to garner viewer attention by imposing a veneer of seriousness on a political snipe at the opposing candidate, is directed at states like Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa, and Pennsylvania.  The TV ad is part of a wider effort by the incumbent candidate to disqualify Mitt Romney among members of the swing-voter group, working-class white men.  The TV ad attempts to cast Romney as a 'job destroyer'.  Romney once said, "he enjoyed firing people".  See also http://www.nytimes.com/.

Yahoo Not Thrilled Over Former CEO

   Scott Thompson, CEO of Yahoo Inc., resigned after it was found he misrepresented his college credentials.  Daniel Loeb, an activist shareholder of the hedge fund Third Point, questioned Thompson's representation of his academic degrees.  Loeb, who had been unhappy with the direction of Yahoo, found Stonehill College in Massachusetts, a private Catholic school near Boston, didn't begin offering computer scienence degrees until four years after Thompson graduated.  See also, http://www.wired.com/.

Men In Black Three (MIB 3)... Difficult Task

   The challenge of making a sequel fresh and original, while delivering on the core values of the franchise is "actually more difficult than the original", says Walter Parkes (producer of all three MIB's).  "To come back to a franchise after 10 years and try to recapture the spirit of the originial from 15 years ago is very unusual and requires you to be bold creatively", said former top Sony executive Jeff Sagansky whose from Hemisphere Media Capital covered about 25% of the movie's budget.  Combined with multiple script rewrites, a discontented star (Will Smith wanted several changes), and the length of time between movies made MIB 3 a complicated picture to produce.  See also, http://www.billboard.com/.

Communicating via SpaceX

   If it fails, it could trigger doubts about NASA's decision to hand some of its responsibilities to a new generation of private space industry.  If it succeeds, NASA, could begin outsourcing some of its space missions to private companies, at a lower cost than what it now pays for a Russian Soyuz rocket to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).  Saturday, May 19, 2012 engineers, while sitting at the controls in Hawthorne, California, will launch a rocket that is sitting on a launch pad 2,600 miles away in Cape Canaveral, Fla.  The rocket known as Falcon 9 will carry a payload called the Dragon, a space capsule, into orbit.  Three days later the Dragon will rendevous with the ISS.  See also, http://www.nytimes.com/.

Carsoni, Carnac, and The Host of 'The Tonight Show'

   From his beginning as 'The Great Carsoni', to his trademark characters, such as Carnac 'The Magnificent', Crabby Aunt Blabby, and the lascivious "Tea Time Movie" huckster Art Fern, Johnny Carson forever changed the world of late-night talk.  Carson showed a variety of talents, that eventually made "The Tonight Show" directly responsible for producing a fifth of the television network NBC's profit during the length of the show, and helped make NBC the top television network during the mid-1970's to mid-1980's.  With his designer suites (he had his own clothing line) and quick wit, Carson's opening monologue, combined current news of the previous day, with light hearted commentary and jokes.  That put him at the top of television comedy.  As one of the greatest television comedians, Carson proved humor is truly derived from intellect, and set the mark that hosting late-night television is no easy gig (job).  Now, a new PBS doccumentary gives us an in-depth look at the former "Tonight Show" host.  "Johnny Carson: King of Late Night" will soon air on PBS.  See also, http://www.pbs.org/.

Video Game Sales Decline 42% in April on Fewer Releases

   Retailers rang up $292.1 million last month, that's down from $503.2 million a year earlier.  Companies churned out fewer releases in April 2011 than April 2012.  Sales of game consoles also took a hit, falling 32% to $189.7 million.  Sales of other accessories, such as extra game controllers, held steady at $148.6 million in April.  See full story, http://www.nytimes.com/.

2020 Will Show Less Weather Satellites

   Low budgets and several rocket accidents are the cause of the predicted decline.  These satellites would have been operating for up to ten years each.  For example, a global climate change satellite that launched from Vandenburg Air Force base in California ignited its first and second stage rockets, but somehow crashed into the south pacific ocean  near Chile, enroute to an antarctic rendevous.  Accidents like this, along with downsized budgets at NASA, is predicted to lower the number of United States satellites watching the Earth.  A study recently published by the nations top science advisers, estimated that the fleet of science satellites operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), would decline from a peak of 110 in 2011, to fewer than 30 in 2020.  See full story, http://www.nytimes.com/.

Silicon Valley Technology Companies Tout Healthy Websites and Healthy Bodies

   After twenty-something billionaires like Dustin Moskovitz and Mark Zuckerberg gained the Facebook 15 (15 pounds) a nutritionist was hired and health foods became the normal cuisine at its Silicon Valley headquarters.  Things like ergonomic treadmill workstations that allow you to work while exercising, a seven person bicycle that provides an alternative to piling into conference rooms  for meetings, food that implies healthiness, and tricky new gadgets that measure performance  are all helping to increase creativity and productivity in the digital fitness age at some Tech firms in Silicon Valley.  See also, http://www.latimes.com/.

K-Pop...Butt Kicking Import

   The sprawling genre commonly known as K-Pop has operated outside the American pop lime-light.  But now, A-list producers like Kanye West, are lining up to work with South Korean artists.  K-Pop comes alongside a tide of Korean filmmaking and culinary interest in Los Angeles and the United States.  The fan scene in America has been largely centered on major immigrant hubs like Los Angeles and New York. That some K-Pop stars are American born or raised influences their personalities and deepens their connection to United States audeiences.  2012 may be the year a K-Pop artist makes an American pop crossover.  See also, http://www.billboard.com/.

California's Top Lobbyist is AT&T

   When it comes to state government, AT&T spends more money, in more places, than any other company.  This year AT&T  is part of a coalition of telecom and high-tech companies seeking to strip state regulators of authority over some basic telephone services.  AT&T has shown the power to exercise political power on an unprecented scale.  Ken McNeely, president of AT&T California, said his company is active in Sacramento, California because of its large presence in California.  "We have about 40,000 employees, we have about 50,000 or so retirees, millions of customers, and millions of shareholders in the state," said McNeely.  Many of the company's victories have come at the California Public Utilities Commission, a five-member panel appointed by te governor that oversees the telecommunications industry.  See also, http://www.wired.com/.

President Barack Obama at the 2012 White House Correspondents' Dinner

Comedic President Barack Obama

   There were no punches held during this years White House Correspondents Association Dinner.  The president saved his most pointed jokes for the presumtive  Republican presidential nominee, rattling off a series of one-liners aimed at the former Massachusetts Governor, Mitt Romney.   See also, http://www.nytimes.com/.