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16:00:56 12/29/11
Mitt Romney's Big Promises - and Bigger Lies
[LESS INFO] 6 VIEWS | ADDED 16:00:56 12/29/11
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In the election of 1928, the Republican Party of Herbert Hoover promised voters "a chicken in every pot and a car in every backyard." (We all know how that turned out.) Now, Mitt Romney is pledging that "If I'm President" every college graduate will be guaranteed a job, Iran will have no nuclear weapons and the United States will dominate the 21st century. And when Romney isn't making fantastic promises about what he'll do when he gets to the White House, he's slandering the current occupant , Barack Obama.
"I Won't Let Iran Get Nukes"
Governor Romney's guarantees start with Iran and its nuclear program . In a November 10, 2011 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Romney pledged, " I won't let Iran get nukes ." Or as he put it 10 days earlier during a GOP national security debate : >
"If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. If you elect me as president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon."
As to how he'll ensure that outcome, Romney explained that "If you want peace, prepare for war." And despite occasionally acknowledging the complexity of a strike against Iran and even the questionable possibility of success, Romney told the Wall Street Journal this weekend how he would get it done: >
So what would he do about it? "I do not have a top secret security clearance at this stage to be able to define precisely what kinds of actions we could take." But he adds that "the range includes something of a blockade nature, to something of a surgical strike nature, to something of a decapitate the regime nature, to eliminate the military threat of Iran altogether."
No U.S. Decline in Romney's "American Century"
Romney's promise to "eliminate the military threat of Iran altogether" is just part of his larger assurance that the 21st century will be another " American Century ." Pretending that the rise of India, China and Brazil doesn't inevitably entail the relative loss of U.S. power and influence, Romney announced in his October address at The Citadel : >
"This century must be an American Century. In an American Century, America has the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world. In an American Century, America leads the free world and the free world leads the entire world...As President of the United States, I will devote myself to an American Century. And I will never, ever apologize for America."
Not content to rest there, Romney accused President Obama of "waving the white flag of surrender": >
"An eloquently justified surrender of world leadership is still surrender. >
I will not surrender America's role in the world. This is very simple: If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your President. >
You have that President today."
Two months later, Mitt Romney repackaged his promise and his slander at the December 15 Republican debate in Sioux City, Iowa: >
"Our president thinks America is in decline. It is if he's president. It's not if I'm president. This is going to be an American century."
As for Romney's charge that President Obama "went around the world and apologized for America," the Washington Post Fact Checker deemed it a Four-Pinocchio lie .
A Job for Every College Graduate
At an event in New Hampshire last week, Governor Romney's pandering went from the sublime to the ridiculous. There, Mitt pledged President Romney would deliver full-employment for all American college graduates: >
"What I can promise you is this -- when you get out of college, if I'm president you'll have a job. If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job. That's the reason I will hopefully get young people who are in college is to say, You know what, I understand what it takes to get jobs in America."
As the record shows , not so much. After all, as the Los Angeles Times recently documented, Romney's "Bain Capital often maximized profits in part by firing workers." That's why FactCheck.org , the Washington Post Fact Checker and Fortune all refused to vouch for Romney's claim that "In those hundreds of businesses we invested in, tens of thousands of jobs net-net were created."
Obama "Has Not Created Any New Jobs"
If Mitt Romney can't prove his boasts about his own job creation record, neither can he justify his blatant lie about President Obama's : >
"25 million people are out of work because of Barack Obama. And so I'll compare my experience in the private sector where, net-net, we created over 100,000 jobs." >
"I'll compare that record with his record, where he has not created any new jobs."
Sadly for Mitt Romney, the Bush recession began in December 2007. As ThinkProgress rightly noted, "The private sector has added 2.3 million new jobs since March 2010, and it took the Obama economy one year to create more jobs than the economy under President Bush did in eight." As The Economist explained earlier, the recession was not at its deepest just as Barack Obama was entering office, but far worse than official statistics revealed at the time. Romney might also want to check with former McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi as well as the non-partisan CBO , who concluded that the Obama stimulus program "added up to 0.9 million jobs in 2009, 3.3 million jobs in 2010 and 2.6 million jobs in 2011."
Obama's Debt Exceeds All Previous Presidents Combined
Mitt Romney didn't just lie about Barack Obama's jobs record. At the Sioux City debate, he got President Obama's contribution to the federal debt all wrong as well: >
"We all understand that the spending crisis is extraordinary, with $15 trillion now in debt, with a president that's racked up as much debt as almost all of the other presidents combined."
Of course, we don't all understand that, because it's not true . After Ronald Reagan tripled the gross national debt and George W. Bush doubled it again, Uncle Sam's red ink totaled almost $11 trillion when Barack Obama took the oath of office.
Obama is "Taking over 100 Percent" of Health Care
In his desperate quest to win over conservative Republican primary voters, Mitt Romney has turned his back on his signature achievement which he once boasted was a health care model for the nation. And to do it, Romney has been lying for months by telling voters "Obamacare is about taking over 100 percent of the people's insurance in this country."
In a September 15, 2011 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer , Romney made the same charge: >
"The Massachusetts plan was crafted for Massachusetts, for the needs of 8 percent of our population that didn't have insurance, not for the 92 percent that did. Obamacare is a plan that takes over 100 percent of the people in the country and their health care, and that's one of the reasons why people don't want it."
Sadly for Mitt Romney, repetition of a lie doesn't make it any more true.
The Affordable Care Act passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in the spring of 2010 targets the 17 percent of people (over 50 million people) who are uninsured . As Politifact explained in deeming Romney's fraud another "Pants on Fire" lie: >
According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans without health insurance nationally was slightly under 17 percent in 2009, the year Obama began pushing for the bill. According to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, the number was about the same in 2010, when the measure was signed into law. Other estimates have pegged the national number at about 15 percent.
As Henry Aaron, a senior fellow with the centrist-to-liberal Brookings Institution right noted, comparing 8 percent to 17 percent "would have been apples to apples" when it comes to the impact of the individual mandate at the center of both the Massachusetts and national plans. Sadly, Politifact concluded, Romney was guilty of "a felony case of comparing apples and oranges."
Romney "Will Reverse President Obama's Massive Defense Cuts"
During that same "American Century" speech in October, Governor Romney pledged: >
"I will reverse President Obama's massive defense cuts. Time and again, we have seen that attempts to balance the budget by weakening our military only lead to a far higher price, not only in treasure, but in blood."
Sadly for Romney, as Steve Benen pointed out, defense spending has not only gone up every year of the Obama presidency . It is higher than it ever was when George W. Bush sat in the Oval Office.
Of course, Romney's confusion over matters of war and peace are hardly new. In an April op-ed for the Manchester Union Leader, Mitt forgot about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as he denounced President Obama for "one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history."
Obama's "Equal Outcomes" and "Entitlement Society"
Last week, the Romney campaign rolled out what may well become the meta-theme and meta-lie for the 2012 general election race.
After President Obama declared in his Osawatomie, Kansas address that Republican trickle down economics "never worked," Romney struck back. Just not with the truth: >
"Just a couple of weeks ago in Kansas, President Obama lectured us about Teddy Roosevelt's philosophy of government. But he failed to mention the important difference between Teddy Roosevelt and Barack Obama. Roosevelt believed that government should level the playing field to create equal opportunities. President Obama believes that government should create equal outcomes. >
"In an entitlement society, everyone receives the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort, and willingness to take risk. That which is earned by some is redistributed to the others. And the only people who truly enjoy any real rewards are those who do the redistributing -- the government. >
"The truth is that everyone may get the same rewards, but virtually everyone will be worse off."
By raising the mythical red menace of communism and falsely attributing it to Barack Obama, Romney in the words of Paul Krugman had introduced " The Big Lie " into his " Post-Truth Campaign ." While Andrew Sullivan announced "Mitt Romney is a big, fat liar," Steve Benen lamented that "Romney, allegedly the responsible one in the Republican field, has been reduced to lying uncontrollably." And while Greg Sargent in the past had expressed amazement at "Mitt Romney's casual, effortless falsehoods," New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait explained that Romney's red scare rose to a whole new level of duplicity: >
"This isn't just a casual line. In eight sentences, Romney asserts over and over again that Obama wants to create "equal outcomes" and give everybody the "same rewards." This is nuts, Glenn Beck-level insane. Restoring Clinton-era taxes is not a plan to equalize outcomes, or even close. It's not even a plan to stop rising inequality. Obama's America will continue to be the most unequal society in the advanced world -- only slightly less so. The alternative proposals accelerate inequality even further."
Of course, as the proliferating profiles from the Wall Street Journal , the New York Times , the Washington Post and others show, Mitt Romney is no stranger to inequality. Legendarily cheap and analytical , as a Harvard Business School student Romney gave a presentation to his classmates that "proved the value of family time based not on emotion but on yield." Two Romney quotes - " I love business " and " I love data " - seem to sum up the man.
As for loving the truth, that for Mitt Romney is apparently another matter altogether.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives .)
0 Views
07:41:54 12/28/11
On "If I were a poor Black kid"...
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 07:41:54 12/28/11
[ VIDEO ] Joe Hicks discusses the controversy over Gene Marks' blog post at Forbes entitled " If I were a poor Black kid ". Basically he asks, "Why can't white people contribute to the national dialogue on race and racism?"
It does seem like a cop out to just tell someone that they have nothing to say because they're not a poor Black child so they can't relate in any way. I've had a white geography teacher in high school - GO FALCONS - who said that he could relate because he was poor. Of course the conclusion could be that he thinks all Blacks are poor, but that's only a thought and not necessarily based on reality.
All the same Marks bounces off of a recent speech by President Obama in Kansas where he discussed the gap between the rich and the poor:
> The President’s speech got me thinking. My kids are no smarter than similar kids their age from the inner city. My kids have it much easier than their counterparts from West Philadelphia . The world is not fair to those kids mainly because they had the misfortune of being born two miles away into a more difficult part of the world and with a skin color that makes realizing the opportunities that the President spoke about that much harder. This is a fact. In 2011.
I am not a poor black kid. I am a middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background. So life was easier for me. But that doesn’t mean that the prospects are impossible for those kids from the inner city. It doesn’t mean that there are no opportunities for them. Or that the 1% control the world and the rest of us have to fight over the scraps left behind. I don’t believe that. I believe that everyone in this country has a chance to succeed. Still. In 2011. Even a poor black kid in West Philadelphia.
It takes brains. It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. And a little help from others. It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available. Like technology. As a person who sells and has worked with technology all my life I also know this.
If I was a poor black kid I would first and most importantly work to make sure I got the best grades possible. I would make it my #1 priority to be able to read sufficiently. I wouldn’t care if I was a student at the worst public middle school in the worst inner city. Even the worst have their best. And the very best students, even at the worst schools, have more opportunities. Getting good grades is the key to having more options. With good grades you can choose different, better paths. If you do poorly in school, particularly in a lousy school, you’re severely limiting the limited opportunities you have.
And I would use the technology available to me as a student. I know a few school teachers and they tell me that many inner city parents usually have or can afford cheap computers and internet service nowadays. That because (and sadly) it’s oftentimes a necessary thing to keep their kids safe at home than on the streets. And libraries and schools have computers available too. Computers can be purchased cheaply at outlets like TigerDirect and Dell’s Outlet . Professional organizations like accountants and architects often offer used computers from their members, sometimes at no cost at all. You will see at the end of this posting links to several rebuts to Marks' comments. I will add my two cents just as Hicks and those other links have.
I didn't go to the very best schools in Chicago. I'd say my old elementary school was an average at best school and my old high school - when I attended - was one of the worst. My marks weren't that great in elementary school but for some reason my marks in high school were often in the honor roll range. With that in mind though I consider that a fluke today.
My time in high school wasn't a time to seek out options. I never thought of my grades as a ticket mainly because they were had too easy. It was never a challenge academically and who knows how that would've been weathered. The serious challenge was in college where I struggled to keep up.
If only I had the tools back then that the young people have today to help me study and understand the various subjects. I wouldn't just be ahead of my peers but it would be light years ahead of them. But when I was in public school most of those tools did not yet exist.
In spite of the nay sayers - and I will get to one in a moment - Marks isn't wrong. Make the best grades you can where you are take advantage of all the tools you can. Don't have a PC at home go somewhere to use one, especially the library. At that there are people at your school who if you establish a relationship with them will help you move forward.
This nay sayer, well is making more of this than he realizes:
> No believer in Bell Curv-ish nonsense about black intellectual inferiority, Marks makes clear that the children about whom he speaks are no less capable than his own kids. Of course, one wonders just how much of a compliment Marks really intends for this to be, given his strange habit of dissing his offspring, on more than one occasion, as rather unintelligent, unmotivated, promiscuous and even inclined to petty criminality. Not sure what kind of asshole says things like this about his children in print, but I suppose we can leave that discussion for another day.
No doubt Marks would say that he was simply encouraging poor African American kids to take personal responsibility for their success. He might even say that by acknowledging unfair and unjust structural inequity (and even, indirectly, white privilege), he was doing so in a politically ecumenical way. Certainly Marks would perceive his words and intentions as quite different from those of right-wingers whose hectoring of the poor so often involves blaming those at the bottom of the nation’s economic hierarchy for their station in life. To Marks, poor black kids are not to blame for the position in which they find themselves, but they nonetheless hold the keys to their own liberation, and if they would simply follow his sage counsel they could surely make it, like anyone else: even the cerebrally challenged and oversexed spawn who slumber each night just down the hall from he and his wife.
There is much one could say about Marks’s advice — rather typical bootstrapping fare about studying hard, coupled with a more modern emphasis on becoming a techie like him, and thereby, presumably, an irresistible college or job applicant — and most of it has been said already. Like, for instance, this piece , or this one , or this one , or maybe this one , all of which eloquently critique the privileged and naive mindset displayed by Marks, and explain how even when poor kids of color do everything right, the structures of society are too often set up to help them fail anyway.
...
And it’s this last point that we might do well to explore further. Fact is, Gene Marks knows his readership at Forbes . He knows that it includes virtually none of the people to whom he is ostensibly offering advice, which means that he isn’t really giving them advice at all; rather, he is inviting his mostly white, mostly affluent audience to engage in a perverse moralistic voyeurism at the expense of impoverished African American youth, almost none of whom that readership will ever meet, and whom they will, in fact, go out of their way to avoid. He is offering a kind of secret white-male handshake to others in the club, assuring them that the problems of urban poverty are not theirs to fix, that they are off the hook as it were, and isn’t that a relief? That Marks may not be as vile in his desire to blame the poor for their status as some, hardly acquits him of the charge that by pandering to the biases of his readership, he has, with some 700-odd simple (and simplistic) words, managed to reinscribe all the worst of their prejudices, many of which one can see on grand display in the readers’ comments section of the original article. Make no mistake, Gene Marks’s column is contempt cloaked as compassion and bigotry dressed up as benevolence. And it can do nothing but contribute to the indifference and even antipathy towards the poor that those who rely on Forbes for insights already possess in ample supply. Starting with that last paragraph it's true, Forbes may not have a significant audience in poor inner city communities. Without having to purchase a subscription you can always go to a library to access past issues of magazines. Also with internet access you can access magazines as well and blog posts such as this one which surely don't require a subscription.
As for Mr. Tim Wise who wrote the above excerpts, how is he going to call that man out for what he refers to his kids. Yeah it may be wrong to say your kids are very bright, but somewhere out there some parent is doing it. I also recognize that Marks is merely a commentator who is definitely using his platform to say what he wants to say.
The main point surely Marks is making is that his children are not much different than poor inner city children. Just that they have different opportunities living in a different part of the Philadelphia area than the inner city children. Perhaps even different expectations from parents, perhaps different staff and different schools. He didn't write the "poor black kid" piece to denigrate his children.
I think what he wrote was real. It shouldn't be impeached merely for that reason. That alone is weak! Although to Mr. Wise's credit he is at least has some suggestions for Marks to put his money where his mouth is. Marks could always help get the information out aside from using his platform at Forbes.
21 Views
23:00:05 11/13/11
This Week: PA Gov. Tom Corbett Is His Usual Close-Mouthed Self On Penn State
[LESS INFO] 21 VIEWS | ADDED 23:00:05 11/13/11
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One of the reasons why voters haven't called for the head of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is that he rarely speaks to the press - he does what he does in the shadows, so he doesn't mouth off enough to get people riled up. I didn't expect him to add much to the Penn State story on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, and I wasn't surprised: >
AMANPOUR: So an eventful week on the campaign trail, but not enough to eclipse the story that continues to shock America, the unfolding scandal at Penn State, the outrage of a revered coach and esteemed university president looking the other way as an alleged pedophile preyed on children.
Yesterday, the Nittany Lions took to the field for the first time since the sordid story spilled into the open. Before kickoff, a moment of silence, as players dropped to their knees in recognition of the young victims. The Lions lost the game, their first without Coach Joe Paterno. And this morning, emotions on campus and around the state remain raw.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett was the attorney general who began investigating accused sexual predator Jerry Sandusky, and he joins me now from Harrisburg.
Governor, thank you for joining me.
CORBETT: Thank you for having me on, Christiane.
AMANPOUR: Let -- let me just ask you, why do you think it took this sort of public shaming for the university to finally act? Why do you think everyone, basically, hid this thing for so long, from the president to Coach Paterno?
CORBETT: Well, Christiane, first, I have to put on the record that it's hard for me to talk about a lot of the -- the past. We have to look to the future, because I was the attorney general involved in the investigation. I have certain ethical rules that I have to follow.
But I would note that the board of trustees has appointed Ken Frazier to lead the investigation, along with my secretary of education, to determine exactly the question that you're asking. What happened? Why did it happen? And most importantly, how does the university move on from here?
I think that you saw yesterday a very good outpouring of support for everyone. When those two teams came together and, really, that whole stadium came together with those two teams.
AMANPOUR: Well, let me -- let me ask you, because this is obviously massively serious. And I understand your ethical and legal obligations. However, don't you think that the mere risk that somebody who you've been investigating for more than two years, the mere risk that he could have continued to abuse during this investigation, demanded a call to the police? Should that not have been, at the very least, something that the coach, that the president should have done?
CORBETT: We would have expected law enforcement to have been involved much sooner than it got involved. And as you know from newspaper reports, our office, as the attorney general became involved, not in a case related to the university, but in a case from a next-door county, Clinton County, and a school there, where Mr. Sandusky was helping out as a coach.
AMANPOUR: Do you think others are going to be held accountable? How far up do you think that this should go? Do you think Coach Paterno is going to face legal issues?
CORBETT: Well, as you know, again, Attorney General Linda Kelly has already said at this point that he's not a subject of the investigation. And she stopped at that point.
When you have investigations like this -- and I'm not going to talk about this one -- but the one thing you learn when you're conducting investigations is that, as people face charges, they may start to cooperate, they may start talking about different things. The investigation is an ongoing one. So, because of that, I can't make projections or speculation as to where this may go.
AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask you about the former graduate assistant coach, Mike McQueary, who allegedly witnessed Sandusky actually raping a child at Penn State in 2002, but did not intervene. You have said that if you -- if it had been you, you would have intervened. Why do you think that he didn't? And why do you think that that was not taken up the chain of command?
CORBETT: That's a good question for Coach McQueary, as to why something didn't happen. I'm sure it's going to be answered at some point in time during the course of the facts being revealed in this investigation over the course of a trial. Mr. McQueary is a witness in this trial. And I'm sure that the facts will be determined as to exactly how far up that knowledge was passed through the chain of command.
AMANPOUR: Do you think that Joe Paterno should have come out and actually talked to the students about what happened, instead of just allowing this rioting to go on, I mean, take some responsibility?
CORBETT: Well, it's not for me to figure out what's going through Joe Paterno's mind. Certainly, he was under a great deal of pressure, a shock that he'd just been told that he was no longer the coach of Penn State. And I think your question was one that you have to deliver to him.
AMANPOUR: What do you think? Do you think adults should take responsibility for so brazenly failing children?
CORBETT: Well, in my role as attorney general, my role as a U.S. attorney, and now as governor, I believe adults should always stand up for children.
AMANPOUR: Governor, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us.
CORBETT: Thank you.
AMANPOUR: And clearly, in this case, they didn't.
12 Views
23:00:05 11/13/11
This Week: PA Gov. Tom Corbett Is His Usual Close-Mouthed Self On Penn State
[LESS INFO] 12 VIEWS | ADDED 23:00:05 11/13/11
video platform video management video solutions video player
One of the reasons why voters haven't called for the head of Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is that he rarely speaks to the press - he does what he does in the shadows, so he doesn't mouth off enough to get people riled up. I didn't expect him to add much to the Penn State story on This Week with Christiane Amanpour, and I wasn't surprised: >
AMANPOUR: So an eventful week on the campaign trail, but not enough to eclipse the story that continues to shock America, the unfolding scandal at Penn State, the outrage of a revered coach and esteemed university president looking the other way as an alleged pedophile preyed on children.
Yesterday, the Nittany Lions took to the field for the first time since the sordid story spilled into the open. Before kickoff, a moment of silence, as players dropped to their knees in recognition of the young victims. The Lions lost the game, their first without Coach Joe Paterno. And this morning, emotions on campus and around the state remain raw.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett was the attorney general who began investigating accused sexual predator Jerry Sandusky, and he joins me now from Harrisburg.
Governor, thank you for joining me.
CORBETT: Thank you for having me on, Christiane.
AMANPOUR: Let -- let me just ask you, why do you think it took this sort of public shaming for the university to finally act? Why do you think everyone, basically, hid this thing for so long, from the president to Coach Paterno?
CORBETT: Well, Christiane, first, I have to put on the record that it's hard for me to talk about a lot of the -- the past. We have to look to the future, because I was the attorney general involved in the investigation. I have certain ethical rules that I have to follow.
But I would note that the board of trustees has appointed Ken Frazier to lead the investigation, along with my secretary of education, to determine exactly the question that you're asking. What happened? Why did it happen? And most importantly, how does the university move on from here?
I think that you saw yesterday a very good outpouring of support for everyone. When those two teams came together and, really, that whole stadium came together with those two teams.
AMANPOUR: Well, let me -- let me ask you, because this is obviously massively serious. And I understand your ethical and legal obligations. However, don't you think that the mere risk that somebody who you've been investigating for more than two years, the mere risk that he could have continued to abuse during this investigation, demanded a call to the police? Should that not have been, at the very least, something that the coach, that the president should have done?
CORBETT: We would have expected law enforcement to have been involved much sooner than it got involved. And as you know from newspaper reports, our office, as the attorney general became involved, not in a case related to the university, but in a case from a next-door county, Clinton County, and a school there, where Mr. Sandusky was helping out as a coach.
AMANPOUR: Do you think others are going to be held accountable? How far up do you think that this should go? Do you think Coach Paterno is going to face legal issues?
CORBETT: Well, as you know, again, Attorney General Linda Kelly has already said at this point that he's not a subject of the investigation. And she stopped at that point.
When you have investigations like this -- and I'm not going to talk about this one -- but the one thing you learn when you're conducting investigations is that, as people face charges, they may start to cooperate, they may start talking about different things. The investigation is an ongoing one. So, because of that, I can't make projections or speculation as to where this may go.
AMANPOUR: Well, let me ask you about the former graduate assistant coach, Mike McQueary, who allegedly witnessed Sandusky actually raping a child at Penn State in 2002, but did not intervene. You have said that if you -- if it had been you, you would have intervened. Why do you think that he didn't? And why do you think that that was not taken up the chain of command?
CORBETT: That's a good question for Coach McQueary, as to why something didn't happen. I'm sure it's going to be answered at some point in time during the course of the facts being revealed in this investigation over the course of a trial. Mr. McQueary is a witness in this trial. And I'm sure that the facts will be determined as to exactly how far up that knowledge was passed through the chain of command.
AMANPOUR: Do you think that Joe Paterno should have come out and actually talked to the students about what happened, instead of just allowing this rioting to go on, I mean, take some responsibility?
CORBETT: Well, it's not for me to figure out what's going through Joe Paterno's mind. Certainly, he was under a great deal of pressure, a shock that he'd just been told that he was no longer the coach of Penn State. And I think your question was one that you have to deliver to him.
AMANPOUR: What do you think? Do you think adults should take responsibility for so brazenly failing children?
CORBETT: Well, in my role as attorney general, my role as a U.S. attorney, and now as governor, I believe adults should always stand up for children.
AMANPOUR: Governor, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us.
CORBETT: Thank you.
AMANPOUR: And clearly, in this case, they didn't.
9 Views
18:43:16 09/03/11
Kthread Brycedotvc When People Ask Me The Hardest Part Of
[LESS INFO] 9 VIEWS | ADDED 18:43:16 09/03/11
kthread : >
brycedotvc : >
When people ask me the hardest part of being a VC, I have a pretty canned answer. It’s one I’ve used a lot over the last 10 years that I’ve been doing this, tho it’s grown more nuanced over time.
The hardest part of my job is that we are one step removed from making the actual things we fund. We don’t actually build the products, we don’t actually close the big sales, we don’t actually make the decisions that drive the businesses we fund. We give input at varying degrees of forcefulness. We make introduction and dive into back channels for feedback. We play a roles as supporting cast in the companies we fund, never getting to play the lead.
And sometimes that’s hard.
It’s hard when people you fund, people you genuinely care about, ignore your advice. It’s hard to watch them step on landmines you told them were in their path. It’s hard when you see something broken they choose not to fix. It’s hard when the company you thought you were funding becomes something entirely different. It’s hard when the cash runs out.
In the early days of developing a response to this question I would often say that VCs don’t actually make anything, we just fund the makers that do. I’ve since changed my tune on that, and this video taps into why.
It’s a short clip of the slam poet, Taylor Mali, recounting an exchange with a lawyer who questioned him about how much money he made as a teacher by asking “what do you make?”. Taylor flips that question into a moving riff on what a teacher makes that might surprise you. It might inspires you too.
You see, there’s a lot of noise out there in startup land. Caterina touches on this in her excellent post from last night: >
I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs in their 20s who are knowledgeable about the valuations various Y Combinator startups have attained, know the names of all the angel investors in the Valley, have in-depth knowledge of the Facebook diaspora and their doings, have opinions on various Zynga acquisitions, and know exactly how to get Andrew Mason on the line…it boggles the mind. These are good things to have in your tool kit. But I want to hear about things out there that they love. About loving the thing they’re building.
So, to hell with all that noise. It’s just a big mass of envy, chatter and FOMO . Let’s get excited and make things .
So, no, as a VC I don’t actually make the products we fund. I don’t make the headlines our founders do. And I don’t make the companies that change the world.
But I do make things.
I make palms sweat when I step into a conference room to hear a first pitch. I make questions that cut through you like a ginsu cuts through a tin can. I make poseurs walk and founders walk the talk. I make hearts sink when my number appears on caller ID. I make entrepreneur’s hearts break when I say “no” and founders high five when I say “yes”. I make parents proud of kids they feared could never keep a job. I make it possible for moms and dads to put bread on the table when their ambition outstrips their savings. I make founders believe when they can’t and doubt when they shouldn’t. Sometimes I make a difference. Sometimes I just make a mess. And, sometimes I make a leader by being someone’s first follower.
Now, what do you make?
It’s labor day weekend. Some will relax and unplug. Some will hunker down and work. But I hope all of you who watch this video will take time to think about what you are really making which is why it’s required weekend viewing here on BRYCE DOT VC.
There is a lot about being an entrepreneur that is gross. Not just hard beyond measure, but gross, and one of those is the way twentysomethings talk about exactly what Caterina points up in the passage Bryce quotes here.
I don’t know all the names of all the VCs and angels; I never will. I don’t want to try on ideas until a one fits a market and attempt to quickly exit and make everyone a pile. I may very likely never make it into a mentor program (I’ve been rejected from Techstars twice); I don’t look like three young guys with a kinda boring but investable enterprise idea, like most of those in the classes of grads I didn’t make it into.
I wear loudass vintage dresses. I make things that people love. For the past decade, I have helped international brands create content that proves them credible and interesting.
Give me a little more time to tell you about what happened with Galvanize , and know that I am making something very different, but similarly with love, and it’s going to take a while. It’s a big idea, it’s going to save a few people’s lives (not kidding), and I am going to finally be able to explain to my mom what it is that I do.
And while I am making this thing, I am going to keep teaching graduate students about how communities work, because they will create the tools we use next. If they don’t know how the Web started and what it looks like when things are made for love and the pleasure of creation before product/market fit and all the rest of that, then all of us in tech are really in trouble.
20 Views
22:30:00 08/16/11
Studio guest of the week: Hans-Peter Burghof.
[LESS INFO] 20 VIEWS | ADDED 22:30:00 08/16/11
Burghof is banking expert at the University of Hohenheim.DW-TV: Hans-Peter Burghof is a professor of banking at the University of Hohenheim. Let's see what he thinks. Is the worst behind us.. or is it still to come? Hans-Peter Burghof: I'm afraid we are not really across the hill now. We push the problem on and on to higher level. The highest would be eurobonds. And we don't solve the problem so we are still deep in trouble. DW-TV: Investors have been shoveling their money out of equities and into more secure currencies or GOLD. The precious metal had already been gaining in popularity PRIOR to this crisis. But have a look at it now. It's surged over the past year, hitting new records almost every other day over the past couple of weeks. If you haven't invested in gold already, have you missed the boat? Hans-Peter Burghof: I'd say you are too late now, but the point is gold is a very risky investment because you see the gold price is very volatile. Obviously it reacts to the crisis, on the other hand there are large stocks of gold in the earth so some people can manipulate the price. So there is no secure investment. Especially not in gold. DW-TV: The German business has been booming. Is it going to stay that way? Hans-Peter Burghof: Obviously not. The eurozone will throw a shadow on the German business soon and so I am afraid we won't have this growth anymore. I mean we have been free riding on the weak euro and this will come to an end. DW-TV: Economists say the chances of the real economy emerging unscathed are remote. Is it just a matter of time? Hans-Peter Burghof: I think it is just a question of time obviously. In the end we must come to an austerity course which helps us out of the crisis in the long run. But we are still far from that. DW-TV: You mentioned eurobonds. Is that the answer? Hans-Peter Burghof: It's a very wrong answer because it makes irresponsibility an organizing principle of Europe and I think that's a big disaster. It will give merit to the people who made very bad budget policy and let's people pay who made a good budget policy. DW-TV: But why? Hans-Peter Burghof: Why is very easy. Everybody pays the same interest rate independent of what they did in the past. And the only thing that can control European governments is the markets. We see bilateral contracts between the countries they simply do not work. There is nothing like a European state which can enforce contracts on these countries, but if for example the Greeks decide to make a different thing than what they agreed on before they simply do it. There is no force in Europe to bring them to heel. DW-TV: Just briefly, what do you think about politicians attempts to CALM the markets? Are they in vain? Hans-Peter Burghof: I think so. I mean they have got a very strange idea about the market. They don't understand it they mystify what it does. They point is what they have to do is present solid budgets and the markets will calm down by themselves. DW-TV: And how SERIOUS are those concerns? Could France really be downgraded? Hans-Peter Burghof: In the short term I don't think so but in the medium term any European country is in danger of being downgraded because we are just constructing solutions which don't work in the long run. On the other hand, well, France is a great country with great industries, great products but with a real back log of reforms. They have a rather baroque social system and they should really do something about that. DW-TV: What would the consequences be? Hans-Peter Burghof: Obviously this European safety net won't work anymore the very moment France starts to stumble, we see that all these programs we did for Greece and Portugal all these things, they simply don't work. DW-TV: So what have the French done wrong? Hans-Peter Burghof: I think they should have made more reforms and they should have done it more recently. I mean Germany was leading in that even in the time of old chancellor Schröder and now we profit from those reforms. They didn't do that. DW-TV: Is there anything other countries can learn from this? Hans-Peter Burghof: Obviously they can. They can learn to do reforms in time because you really profit in crises from them. And the other point is we need market pressure on these countries because obviously they simply don't move: it's a problem with the electorate. You don't do bad things to the electorate because you want to win elections. That's a problem of politicians still. DW-TV: The head of the World Bank says boosting liquidity and hoping for global growth won't resolve America's and Europe's debt issues. He says they have to get back to the fundamentals. What does that mean? Hans-Peter Burghof: Instead of fussing around with capital markets they should just come back to solid budgetting and state budgets that really work in the long run. DW-TV: How come that hasn't happened? Hans-Peter Burghof: Very easy. Because capital markets allowed countries to debt finance to a degree that was really not healthy, because they believed in all this bailout story. And now we must make them believe there is no bailout story instead, there's solid budgeting. DW-TV: Is that going to happen though? Hans-Peter Burghof: It must happen in the long run, the question is how big will the damage be before it happens. DW-TV: Are we going to have to change out lives because of this? Hans-Peter Burghof: It depends again on the damage. We don't know how politicians will decide. I am afraid it will change our lives to some degree. Europe with this problem of eurobonds is going the wrong way and the damage will be tremendous. DW-TV: Hans-Peter Burghof. Thank you very much for coming in.
34 Views
22:30:00 08/16/11
Studio guest of the week: Hans-Peter Burghof.
[LESS INFO] 34 VIEWS | ADDED 22:30:00 08/16/11
Burghof is banking expert at the University of Hohenheim.DW-TV: Hans-Peter Burghof is a professor of banking at the University of Hohenheim. Let's see what he thinks. Is the worst behind us.. or is it still to come? Hans-Peter Burghof: I'm afraid we are not really across the hill now. We push the problem on and on to higher level. The highest would be eurobonds. And we don't solve the problem so we are still deep in trouble. DW-TV: Investors have been shoveling their money out of equities and into more secure currencies or GOLD. The precious metal had already been gaining in popularity PRIOR to this crisis. But have a look at it now. It's surged over the past year, hitting new records almost every other day over the past couple of weeks. If you haven't invested in gold already, have you missed the boat? Hans-Peter Burghof: I'd say you are too late now, but the point is gold is a very risky investment because you see the gold price is very volatile. Obviously it reacts to the crisis, on the other hand there are large stocks of gold in the earth so some people can manipulate the price. So there is no secure investment. Especially not in gold. DW-TV: The German business has been booming. Is it going to stay that way? Hans-Peter Burghof: Obviously not. The eurozone will throw a shadow on the German business soon and so I am afraid we won't have this growth anymore. I mean we have been free riding on the weak euro and this will come to an end. DW-TV: Economists say the chances of the real economy emerging unscathed are remote. Is it just a matter of time? Hans-Peter Burghof: I think it is just a question of time obviously. In the end we must come to an austerity course which helps us out of the crisis in the long run. But we are still far from that. DW-TV: You mentioned eurobonds. Is that the answer? Hans-Peter Burghof: It's a very wrong answer because it makes irresponsibility an organizing principle of Europe and I think that's a big disaster. It will give merit to the people who made very bad budget policy and let's people pay who made a good budget policy. DW-TV: But why? Hans-Peter Burghof: Why is very easy. Everybody pays the same interest rate independent of what they did in the past. And the only thing that can control European governments is the markets. We see bilateral contracts between the countries they simply do not work. There is nothing like a European state which can enforce contracts on these countries, but if for example the Greeks decide to make a different thing than what they agreed on before they simply do it. There is no force in Europe to bring them to heel. DW-TV: Just briefly, what do you think about politicians attempts to CALM the markets? Are they in vain? Hans-Peter Burghof: I think so. I mean they have got a very strange idea about the market. They don't understand it they mystify what it does. They point is what they have to do is present solid budgets and the markets will calm down by themselves. DW-TV: And how SERIOUS are those concerns? Could France really be downgraded? Hans-Peter Burghof: In the short term I don't think so but in the medium term any European country is in danger of being downgraded because we are just constructing solutions which don't work in the long run. On the other hand, well, France is a great country with great industries, great products but with a real back log of reforms. They have a rather baroque social system and they should really do something about that. DW-TV: What would the consequences be? Hans-Peter Burghof: Obviously this European safety net won't work anymore the very moment France starts to stumble, we see that all these programs we did for Greece and Portugal all these things, they simply don't work. DW-TV: So what have the French done wrong? Hans-Peter Burghof: I think they should have made more reforms and they should have done it more recently. I mean Germany was leading in that even in the time of old chancellor Schr
5 Views
16:21:53 06/08/11
Former Governor Arne Carlson On The Budget Impasse And The Problems Inside The Republican Party
[LESS INFO] 5 VIEWS | ADDED 16:21:53 06/08/11
Former Governor Arne Carlson on the Budget Impasse, and the problems inside the Republican Party. "If you look today at the Minnesota stalemate that has occurred--the two most important people in that contest are the governor of the state of Minnesota Mark Dayton and Tony Sutton. And the big difference is, we the people elected one of those."--Arne Carlson. On May 27th in Minneapolis City Hall, hundreds met to celebrate the birthday centennial of Hubert Humphrey. Arguably one of the most effective legislators of our time. Authoring countless iconic bills, and producing them with the help Senators on the other side of the isle. Famous relationships developed between Humphrey and Republicans Everett Dirksen, Barry Goldwater and others. Humphrey, is also credited with breaking the longest running filibuster in Senate history. How did he do this? How did he perfect the "art of the compromise?" Minnesota, can look to Humphrey for solutions to today's problems, and that includes the current budget impasse. Former Governor Arne Carlson spoke strongly against the "no-compromise" strategy of the current Republican Party and its Chairman Tony Sutton here at the Humphrey Centennial, here are 3 clips assembled from an afternoon panel on "Civility in 21st Century Politics" that he sat on along with Hubert (Skip) Humphrey III, former Vice President Walter Mondale, and moderated by Federal Judge John R. Tunheim. Clip 1 : "Nowadays it's sit down, be quiet pass the bill, the flow of moneyed interests etcetera... Now we have in the state legislature is something that bothers me enormously, and that is the brazen attitude of the chairman of the Republican Party bringing legislators in and if you will "persuading them" of the virtues of no compromise. What bothers me about that kind of position is you can not govern in a democratic society if you're not willing to give and take--there is no governance. Now I realize I've got a bit of a partisan audience here, but my point is simply this : All these jobs, be it the governor, be it a member of the legislature, all of these people get tugged in different directions by different interests for different purposes. Their job is to broker the concerns, but much more importantly it's to broker the concerns within the confines of what you and I understand the role of government to do. Government in this particular instance brokers between the concerns of those who have power and those who do not. That requires a sense of judiciousness, a sense of fairness, a sense of decency. The good senator usually came down on the side of those who lacked power. But the system as a whole be it democrat, republican, liberal, conservative by in large has been protective of things like growing the middle class, making sure that there's opportunities for those who lack opportunity. Those are the normal struggles that will take place in a democratic society. And what we see here is increasingly the influence of money coming into politics to buy more power for those who have power at the expense of those who do not have power and do not have access to power. And nothing symbolizes that battle more, than what's happening in Minnesota and nationally on the issue of health care. Over 80 some odd thousand people, will be off of Minnesota Care, which is a modest health program, a kind of program we should be expanding year after year, that should be our discussion point, not how you whittle it back. But here they want to voucher-ize the system, but at the same time when I ask that they place themselves in that same system, and they become the experimentees of that system, and then report back to us in two years about how well the system worked, and how they enjoyed the high deductibles that they're willing to impose on poor people, then if it works for them, it stands to reason it's probably a pretty good program. But instead we have "Oh no"; let me promulgate a goody for you, but it's not sufficiently good for me. And that to me violates all concepts and all parameters of decency in public service. The only way we're going to change the lack of civility in our political discourse, is frankly by wining elections. It's not going to happen by having forums like this. As much as this is an enjoyable experience, we are not going to change the world because we agree that lack of civility has no place in American politics. But the moment the lack of civility becomes a political detriment, that element in the Republican party that has adopted as its mantra will immediately drop it. And so it compels in this case the Democratic party to realize that its best will not come out until such time as the Republican can match them in talent. When the two political parties compete for ideas, as they did in the Humphrey days, as they did in the Mondale days, as they did in the days of Skip Humphrey, if they can compete and have a collision of ideas, we the public win. But when one party questions the truthfulness, the patriotism and the person carrying the message and demonizes the person over the message, and that works and becomes part of the stream of media, we the public lose. We lose big. And so if we want decency, we the broad we, and I would ask you as Democrats to reach out to moderate Republicans, to all those of us who have been excommunicated if you will, and to independents, and build a positive agenda that actually wins elections, and allow this minority to assume a smaller minority status in our society. And with that I think we can bring back civility, during the process of this discussion I'll be happy to put more meat on that proposal. But I do want us to start to think about : Can we build a broad coalition as Humphrey did with the farmer labor group and the democratic group, can we build an informal kind of a coalition that focuses on the Constitutional Amendments that are coming before the people, and build the bridges necessary to coalesce support from all disaffected wings, and make sure the majority of Minnesotans and that their voices are truly felt?" 6:30 Clip 2 : "But I'll end if I may on this political note, and it's critical of the Democratic Party : I would argue that when one party significantly over-reaches, it can only over-reach with the permission of the other party. The other party has an obligation to fully participate to the fullest extent of it's capacity. If there's anything that we can remember of Senator Hubert Humphrey it's not one single human being on this planet ever accused him of not participating in debate. Even when it was on a topic when he was not sufficiently expert. And I won't digress, but there was delightful debate over botany and particularly as it effected the capitol grounds, and little did the good senator know that Everett Dirksen was an expert botantist. It was a long tough debate for the good senator. But suffice it to say, he taught us to participate. When a political party sits back, protects its own individual self-interests, the other party will over-reach as the Republican Party has. And it's up to the moderates, those of us who are moderate in the Republican Party to fight back, and to fight back publicly. It's up to Independents to fight, because if we're going to have a two party system, we're want to make sure that both political parties are producing the best and the brightest. And it's up to the Democratic Party to fight, and I think in the last several weeks we finally have seen some life on that side. That's good--and I hope it continues--but the way it can continue is coalescing this kind of a group, bring together these kinds of leaders, and say : "O.K.; we will go out and campaign throughout all of Minnesota; we will define what is in the best long term interests of the people of this state, and at the same time, defines our quality of life." And I think when we coalesce behind these kinds of issues, I think we the public win. And then both political parties are invigorated. If you go back to the hallmark years of Minnesota, it was the years when the Republican party woke up and started to compete finally in the 60's and the 70's. And you look at those days, those were hallmark days. They truly were. It was a competition of ideas. I remember when we came in the legislature together, all four caucuses worked day and night to be the first to complete their policy initiatives and then rushed to the cameras to announce what they were for, and then beat the other team. Now there's no rush. No, I want to see every single 201 members of the legislature remember that they represent the well being and the long term good of their constituents. And the idea that a political party can pull them in for an internal threatening session, I find offensive. And it's not something that any of us, in any way shape or form, allow to occur. Let me close on this final note : If you look today at the Minnesota stalemate that has occurred--the two most important people in that contest are the governor of the state of Minnesota Mark Dayton and Tony Sutton. And the big difference is, we the people elected one of those. And I would strongly urge Republican legislators to remember who it is that they represent. And once that recognition occurs then they begin to realize that any proposition involving the governor, also involves compromise, and compromise contrary to the Chair of the Republican Party is not an evil, it's an essential positive ingredient of a democratic society. Thank you." 11:00 Clip 3 : And we've always joked about never watch the legislature in process because it's sort of like watching sausage being made, and there's truth to that. It never was a smooth process. But the sad part is, it has gotten increasingly worse, and a large part of the reason is the nominating process. The traditional politeness says well the left is skewed to the left, the right is skewed to the right, it's kind of like two bad boys got together and had a fight, you know that's kind of American. But the reality is--that it's not. When you look at the Republican side, and you wonder why so many capable candidates have dropped out? And I thought today's cartoon in the Star Tribune depicted it very well, and that is there is no-way a moderate or a traditionally conservative Republican make it through the nominating process. Look back and ask yourself the question : Could Robert Taft who was the conscience of the conservative movement for decades in the United States Senate, and for the United States, could he be a Republican today and the answer is "no". Could Barry Goldwater? Clearly Mr. Republican, could he, no and as a matter of fact in his declining days it was known, he was not and could not be. Could Dwight Eisenhower, the last Republican to balance the federal budget, could he succeed in today's environment? Probably not. The last piece of irony is Ronald Reagan. Who on one hand is the god, or held up as the god of the movement but his record would make certain that he could not get through the process. Let's suppose his name were John Johnson, and he instituted eleven tax increases. Appointed a pro-choice female to the Supreme Court of the United States, strongly opposed proposition 6 in California, which was an anti-gay proposition sponsored by the Republican Party. Could he be nominated today--or would he be demonized? I would argue he would be open to a lot of demonetization. And so what has happened is that not just the moderate wing of the Republican Party, but anybody who disagrees with the agenda that's set forth by people who have never run for dog-catcher, will be rigidly applied. And so competence is one of the first things to go along with truthfulness. Now forget about our individual biases, but when you look at the array of candidates that are now before us, can you honestly truly as an American say that they represent our best and our brightest? When you look at the survey by a national legislative groups, on finances two of the worst financial records go to the states of Alaska and Minnesota, both of whom may have horses in the race. I'm not going to pick up on that one. Now the question that you may raise is--well why should we Democrats care? The answer is, why you should care, is because you are first Americans. Secondly, none of us today can predict what will transpire a year and a half from now. Thirdly, any person who is on the ballot could be elected. And we in Minnesota have some history on that. (Why are they looking at me!) But suffice it to say, as Skip [Humphrey] has pointed out, we continue to take our best and our brightest and our most competent and put political theater ahead of political substance... One, we as a nation will not continue to be a first rate international power; two, we will not grow those kinds of quality employment opportunities that we like to think are part of our heritage; and thirdly we will find ourselves being dictated to rather than as Walter Mondale has said being a government of the people, by the people and for the people. We have a splinter wing in the Republican Part, that I believe comes across as wanting to create a theocracy. That is frightening. As a person who minored in religion, I never realized that Jesus was for greed, that Jesus was for the well-to-do and the powerful and had disdain for those who were sick or impoverished. But what's sad about that is we the people have allowed others to define religion, to define their mission in the context of a higher power, blessing that mission and we do it without proper fight back. We have to learn as the good senator taught us, we have an obligation to participate, to speak out, to be truthful, and when need be, to throw the rascals out, and frankly I think the time has come for that."--Arne Carlson.
11 Views
22:30:00 05/31/11
Studio Guest: Wolfgang Gerke, Market Expert
[LESS INFO] 11 VIEWS | ADDED 22:30:00 05/31/11
We talk with Wolfgang Gerke about the financial crisis in Europe and how we can learn from historical experiences. We also ask him, how one could solve the problems caused by heavily indepted municipalities.DW-TV: Mr. Gerke, you can probably tell us from a financial point of view what can we learn from history? Wolfgang Gerke: We can learn a lot from history, but sometimes we forget to. I think a financial crisis is a little like a dangerous virus and we know how to fight the virus, but then we get a mutation. Then we have to relearn how to fight the new virus. If you take the policies of central banks in the past and at the moment, then I fear that we haven't learned from history. We are taking so much cheap money for all the investment bankers, especially in the United States, and money under the inflation rate so we are producing the next crisis. The next crisis could perhaps lead to hyper-inflation here in Germany, like we've seen in the 1920s - is that a possibility? It's a possibility but I don't think we'll go that way. For sure there are so many debts worldwide - in the US, in Greece, in Germany too - trillions. What will happen with all these debts, the next generation has to pay for all these debts, and that means we will pay with less good money. That means inflation. I have no fear that the euro will not stay, there are so many problems outside Europe that the euro will be a stong currency. The Chinese will want to have some euros, and not only the dollar in their portfolio, but the possibility to buy with euros will be influenced by inflation rates between 3 and 4 percent. The situation in Greece, what difference would it make? I mean there are some experts who say that Greece should long have left the Eurozone and returned to their own currency. Would that make a difference? We made a wrong policy in Greece. We pretended to save Greece and we were saving French and German banks. For sure they had difficulties and we had to do something, but it was the wrong way. We could help Greece with a haircut, we could help Greece with a time out from the euro, that would be more interesting for tourists coming to Greece, so we will have all these problems in the future and I see in the moment no real solution. Let’ turn into another subject. When I don't pay my bills I get into trouble. At least when I don't pay them on time. Municipalities can wait. How is that possible? That shouldn't be possible. Everyone has to pay their bill and if it's public money I think you have to be the first one who is paying the bills. But they try to save interest rates and they do so. So they should be leading by good example. But it also has to do with the fact that they want to save money because they are in debt. They are heavily indebted, municipalities. How did that happen? There are two ways to be in debt. One is, and that isn't acceptable, that you have the wrong management. We often have very poor professional management, but the other way is some have difficulties. They lost jobs and these jobs are outside perhaps even of Germany and one has to help them. But that's very expensive, so they try to do it another way, a not acceptable way. And the way that you just indicate of course is that some of these municipalities turned to the financial markets, tried their luck speculating a bit with taxpayers money. They tried to get very fast and easy money by speculating but this was a way into the casino. We must say that someone who doesn't know what he is buying in the financial market shouldn't do so. For sure there were some banks doing a good job for themselves there and they earned much money, but you cannot blame them, you have to blame yourself, and if you don't know what financial product you are buying, you shouldn't do so. And especially if it is a financial product that is known to be quite complicated. Like credit default swaps. After the crisis they started to get into criticism, and they're still being traded. How come? It's a quite complex financial product but you can understand it if you are a professional you learn the market, and therefore I would say don't do anything against products, but if you don't understand them you shouldn't speculate on long-term and short-term interest rates, that's dangerous if you have the unopen position. Understanding money, handling money isn't always that easy. Can be complicated and that's why we've been living with debts for centuries. Are debts something that we will have to live with for the rest of our lives? Yes we have to do so. It's not so difficult for someone my age, but my sons suffer that problem and we will get higher inflation rates. Wolfgang Gerke, then let's take a look now at the current level of debt here in Germany. Let's take a closer look at the clock which keeps ticking: every second, debt is growing by 2,279 euros -- so since the start of our programme, the total amount of German debt has risen by over three and a half million Euros ! Sobering thought. The last one we have time for today. Wolfgang Gerke, thank you very much for joining us. Interview: Monika Jones
15 Views
22:30:00 05/10/11
Studio Guest
[LESS INFO] 15 VIEWS | ADDED 22:30:00 05/10/11
Our studio guest is Michael Hüther, Director of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research.DW-TV: To talk about the options open to Greece, the director of the Cologne institute for economic research joins us, Michael Hüther. Tell us firstly, the ECB says restructuring Greece's debt would exacerbate the crisis. Why is that? Michael Hüther: For the time being they are saying that it will have a very strong impact on the banking system in Europe and the banks are still too weak to manage this. But I think in the medium term it's unavoidable because Greece will manage a primary surplus in their budget of about 5 to 6 percent. That is unrealistic so there will be a need for restructuring but maybe in 2013. It's a little bit time we have. DW-TV: Well, let's take a look at the debt levels across Europe. Greece has the highest level at the moment. That's no surprise of course. It's followed by Italy. You can also see there on the graph coming up Ireland and Portugal. Both of those countries are being bailed out too. But the coming weeks are going to be telling, as eurozone leaders decide on exactly what to do with Greece. What do you think Greece wants to do itself? I mean there have been rumors that it could abandon the euro. Michael Hüther: I don't think it's a good idea for Greece to leave the monetary union, because what of the advantage for Greece? It will have the chance to manage currency and exchange rate, but in fact it's the country with the very weak competitiveness of the industrial sector. It's true for decades. So, what they need is a restructuring of the public sector and it's better to do it as a partner inside the European monetary union and to have assistance from the European institution and the IMF as well. So I think even for Greece and the Greek government it's a better idea to stay in the monetary union. DW-TV: Do you think that these rumors, the rumor mongering could have been a maneuver for the Greek government to try to get a new cash injection? Michael Hüther: I don't think so. It was a little bit strange management of the last weekend. A secret meeting in Luxembourg and nobody knows what the content of that was, so I think sometimes you have such a movement in the markets and it's not a good idea to use this for tactical or strategic idea. DW-TV: Well, on that topic, what's this renewed strain doing to the credibility of the eurozone and its currency? Michael Hüther: The best is that the ECB looks on the price stability, that's the core responsibility for the central bank and there was very successful in the first decade. The second it that we will improve the institutions and we did in the decisions in March. So I'm a little bit more optimistic than most of my colleagues. The medium term future of the European monetary union, it's Greece with about three percent of GDP of the overall Europe, so it doesn't matter so much, in fact. DW-TV: Mr. Hüther, let’s talk about another hot topic. The debate on green energy puts Germans in a bit of a predicament. Is there a solution? Michael Hüther: There is a solution, but there is not a one-fits-all solution. We need a widespread mix of instruments from renewable energies, quite clear, but also the traditional power plants and the new technologies, we see CS, carbon capture storage, and we need a large scale investment in infrastructure, net infrastructure, we need not only German grid but European grid because to manage the different volatility of renewable energies it's best to have a very big region for that. DW-TV: As far as investment goes in infrastructure and research there is a huge difference in what used to be invested and what's being invested today. Michael Hüther: Today, for example, in the research for new energy, we invest about 500 million euros and thirty years ago it was 1.5 billion, so in the past we were more aware of the fact that there was a need in research and energy and new ways to produce energy and just now we have a public debate on that and no one is willing to pay the additional euro for that. DW-TV: Isn't that strange seeing as this topic is such a hot topic right now? Michael Hüther: It's a little bit strange. The German debate is a real national debate and it's only possible to have this solution in Germany if all the other European partners did different and do it the different way and for example France will stay on nuclear power plants and the Czech Republic as well. DW-TV: Now, it was the crisis in Japan, of course, that sparked this debate. Since the nuclear disaster there Germany's taken about half of its nuclear reactors offline, but the lights haven't gone out here. How is Germany managing to do it? Michael Hüther: We manage it, but since the middle of March, the start of the moratorium, we have a net import of energy and until that we were net exporter of energy, so we are, there is room for maneuver but there is no more, there is no way to skip another power plant from our infrastructure and we should be aware that there is a situation, we have a time to discuss on that, and we have a little bit period to debate, but what we need is a medium-term solution and we need starting an investment program in all different kinds of energy environment production. DW-TV: Well, especially because a lot of that energy that's being imported is nuclear energy from other countries. Michael Hüther: Some of that. From France, for example and the Czech Republic on the other side and we have now possibility to differentiate between the energy what is imported from outside. So I think, yes, we should have a European debate and we should be aware of the fact that the German debate is a little bit strange sometimes. DW-TV: Michel Hüther. Thank you very much for coming in and joining us today.
1 Views
16:52:00 04/13/11
Video: Book Tells Story of Serial Bank Robber
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 16:52:00 04/13/11
A Crosby woman has written a book about a criminal who robbed several North Dakota banks. But Cecile Wehrman's book is much more than the story of a modern-day Jesse James. It's a look at how two brothers who grew up in a single household can take such diverse paths in life one becoming a serial bank robber, the other a 20-year veteran of the Marine Corps and Air Force. Jim Olson reports on Wehrman's book, The Brothers Krimm. (Cecile Wehrman, Crosby Author) "September 14, 2009." It's a date that Cecile Wehrman will never forget. The date Jimmy Krimm robbed the north branch of the American State Bank in Williston, led authorities on a gunfighting, car-stealing chase through eastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota, and killed himself within a few miles of Cecile's home. She'll remember it for the drama (Cecile Wehrman, Crosby Author) "Everybody in the neighborhood literally was armed. It seems kind of foolish to think that we were sitting in our living room with guns loaded, but when you're sitting there in a remote area and know someone is out there with a gun, you just do it." But she'll remember it more clearly because of how Jimmy Krimm's felonious acts that night changed her life. (Cecile Wehrman, Crosby Author) "I was so curious about how someone like this would end up here." Turns out, Jimmy Krimm had robbed banks all of his adult life. Wehrman is editor The Journal in Crosby. Her research showed Jimmy had served prison sentences, but kept getting out, and going right back to what he knew best. Bank workers and whole communities in towns across Iowa, Minnesota, and the Dakotas were terrorized by this masked man, waving a gun. Wehrman's interest in this modern-day Jesse James led her to Michigan - to interview Jimmy's mother and brother Rob. She learned that Rob had served two decades in the Marine Corps and Air Force - an upstanding member of society. (Cecile Wehrman, Crosby Author) "The idea that two brothers could start out in the same place with the same challenges and one go and become a serial criminal and the other serve his country for 20 years, that just seemed like a good story to tell." Wehrman learned that bank robber Jimmy had sexually abused younger brother Rob for years while they grew up. (Cecile Wehrman, Crosby Author) "Childhood sexual abuse is at the root perhaps of developing both of these brothers, and myself too. When I knew I had a shared background with these two men, the question had always been in my mind, why did I turn out OK, and I think Rob had those same questions." As for Rob, he too remembers the date of brother Jimmy's death well - because it was a date he savored. (Rob Krimm, Brother of Bank Robber) "For me, hearing that my abuser from my childhood was dead, it was like a celebration inside my head. I was satisfied." Rob says helping Wehrman with the book helped him close the chapter of his life that was so emotionally exhausting. (Rob Krimm, Brother of Bank Robber) "He was just a monsterous figure that only did terrible things and it helped for me to see him through some of his friends' eyes that we also spoke with." The author says the book can serve as a way for the victims of Jimmy's robbery spree to understand his background - there are indications he too had been sexually abused as a child. But she says the book is not intended to excuse what he did. (Cecile Wehrman, Crosby Author) "In some places as I was setting up the book tour I learned that people didn't even know that he was dead." Both Wehrman and Rob Krimm remember the date of Jimmy Krimm's death very well. But the process of writing the book together has helped them focus on a different date - they're engaged and will soon set a wedding date. In Crosby, Jim Olson, KX News. Wehrman and Rob Krimm will begin a month-long tour of 19 towns in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa, and Saskatchewan - many of which were places where Jimmy Krimm robbed banks, Thursday night in Crosby at the Dakota Theater. You can find The Brothers Krimm on amazon.com, and at local bookstores in the region.
7 Views
22:38:34 03/07/11
Serj Tankian INTERVIEW Imperfect Harmonies, System of a Down, and Armenia Genocide
[LESS INFO] 7 VIEWS | ADDED 22:38:34 03/07/11
http://causecast.org/music
http://axisofjustice.net
Serj Tankian (System Of A Down) on the Armenian Genocide, creating the Axis of Justice , and how music can be a powerful tool to let causes be known.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Serj Tankian: "Yes, It's Genocide" is the first song that I've ever written in Armenian, and it's on my new record "Imperfect Harmonies." We started working with the Armenian National Committee of America and the Armenian Youth Federation in trying to use the song as a way of getting attention to the awareness, having to do with the Armenian Genocide.
During World War I, the Ottoman Empire, which is the pre-cursor to the government of Turkey today, committed massacre and genocide of 1.5 million Armenians. They also killed Greeks, Assyrians, Jews. It started with the philosophers, the senators, and- kind of the thinkers- being arrested in Istanbul and hung in public format, taken into the army for "work camps," but they weren't work camps, they were just all killed. And then the women and children were put out of their homes within 24-hour notice, pogrom in the desert, through the Deir ez-Zor desert, toward Syria, which was also part of the Ottoman Empire at the time.
The hypocrisy of the denial of the Armenian Genocide led me to think, 'if this truth- how can this truth be denied in a known democratic country like ours, and why?' And that realization led me to go, 'how many other truths are there out there?' And that opened my eyes to all sorts of injustices.
Axis of Justice, we started Axis of Justice around 2000, Tom Morrello and myself. It was a way of bringing together activists and fans of music and musicians into dealing with the nonprofit world, into dealing with causes and activism. We realized- we started with Ozzfest in 2002, we realized there were all these booths selling merchandise and tattoos and all these things, but there was no one selling knowledge, you know what I mean? So we became an umbrella organization at first for Amnesty and Greenpeace and a number of other NGO's, later on grew into our own organization. There's always something new going on because we don't have one cause, our cause is injustice, you know. Or justice, I should say.
Brandon Deroche: What do you attribute your overall awareness to? What path in life I guess you can say, what keeps you there?
Serj Tankian: Curiosity. I never thought about that before, so thanks for asking that. But the activism part came from the hypocrisy of the denial of genocide that I learned about that opened my eyes to other things. And sensitivity and compassion opened up from that knowledge of so many injustices, and then the curiosity keeps me kind of on the edge of trying to find out what else is out there. It's an incredibly exciting time where, you know because of the internet and technology, we have so much information at our fingertips, yet what are we doing with that information? We're not asking the 'why?' We know the details, and we take them for granted, because they're available, they're so amply available, but we're not asking why. And that why is very important, why something has come to its fruition. And that's not on Google, believe it or not. Because that requires understanding of the whole issue, not a wikipedia page, you know?
Brandon Deroche: We've been working on a campaign, for a continuation of Haiti relief efforts, specifically driven by music, and the goal for that is to kind of take the network that has come together and be able to apply it to Darfur, or homelessness, or any other cause that it's about, and really just people who want to be doing something to create a better world in a sense.
Serj Tankian: In the case of Haiti, I think obviously not far from our shores, I think it's very important to carry through with those obligations. Not just raise the money, but make sure that we have organizations that are taking the aid to where it goes, construction where it's necessary, obviously. Construction is a part of it, because the aid is keeping people alive, but if they're all living in shanty-types of getups, than it's really hard to secure their existence with another- whether it's a hurricane or an earthquake or whatever. It's no secret that with the growth of populations and the diminishing of natural resources on the planet, we're kinda looking at a weird graph. In other words, we can't continue to live our lives this way. And sometimes we always say well how can I make a difference, or how can one person make a difference, it's the accumulation of all of our awareness that can definitely make a difference, that's what it really comes down to.
7 Views
15:48:59 01/27/11
State of the Tech Union
[LESS INFO] 7 VIEWS | ADDED 15:48:59 01/27/11
DemDash is a new website that will provide citizens better control over their civic engagement and campaigns more meaningful ways to reach voters. Nerd Stalker interviews Founder, Jenifer Ancona.
The value of DemDash for end-users is (we think) pretty clear. If you're an activist, DemDash is a force multiplier: it's the easiest, clearest and fastest way to let your social network know about the candidates and propositions you believe in. And for ordinary voters, it's a way to find out what's going to be on the ballot, who represents you currently and to connect with groups and friends who you trust. But these new changes are a big improvement for making DemDash valuable for campaigns, too.
There are lots of reasons we think campaigns will want to put a link to their DemDash profiles on their sites and include it in their email blasts. Mainly it comes down to one simple thing. DemDash is a tool that empowers campaign supporters to generate not just impressions, but the highest-quality, most effective impressions can get: those based on social ties.
We realize this approach is not a fit with every campaign - there are still plenty of campaigns out there that don't see empowering their supporters as a helpful tactic. But the best campaigns are decided on big issues. They draw a clear different direction for the country, state or locality that you want to represent. This is why we're working so hard to build a channel for campaigns that is sociable, effective and polite.
We have a lot more features in mind that are going to make this even more helpful for campaigns in future cycles, but you can get started using it to generate social impressions now. If you'd like to try it out for a campaign you're working with, there is a little setup we need to do in the database first for now. So let us know either on twitter or via email at feedback at demdash dot us. We're looking forward to working with you and to building a stronger democracy!
43 Views
22:30:00 12/14/10
Studio Guest: Wolfgang Gerke
[LESS INFO] 43 VIEWS | ADDED 22:30:00 12/14/10
We talk to Wolfgang Gerke, financial sector expert and president of the Bavarian Financial Center in Munich, about the crisis of the euro and the future of the common currency.DW-TV: Will Spain follow Greece and Ireland and end up needing a bailout from the Euro zone? Wolfgang Gerke joins me. He is President of the Bavarian Finance Center in Munich. Is Spain next on the bailout list? Wolfgang Gerke: Spain might be the next candidate, but Spain will be a very different candidate compared with Greece or Ireland or Portugal. Spain has more possibilities to come out of the crisis itself. But on the other hand Spain has a very high unemployment rate, with 20%, and in that situation, if the economy isn't growing maybe Spain needs some help. DW-TV: Maybe it does need some help. It has high unemployment and it also has a debt problem. We have a graphic comparing Spain and Germany's debt as a percentage of GDP. At the beginning of this century, Spain was actually in better shape than Germany. Everyone today looking at Germany as the role model for the Euro zone. Then the financial crisis came and everything turned upside down for Madrid. Did the Spaniards become like the Americans and simply start living beyond their means? Wolfgang Gerke: They got too much cheap money and therefore changed their consuming behavior. And there was a very booming economy, especially in the building sector. So it could happen that the bubble burst. That is a problem for the private sector, the public sectors is going quite well in Spain, if you look at recent years. DW-TV: That's a good point. If you take private debt and corporate debt OUT of calculation, Spain's debt as percentage of GDP is LOWER than Germany's! Yet, bond markets are eyeing Spain, not Germany. Unfair? Wolfgang Gerke: Spain is nearly within the limits of the Maastricht Treaty, but the Deltas, that means the actual situation, is bad. In Germany we have a growing economy, in Spain we haven't and even the Spanish government has to borrow too much money at the moment and the Spanish bonds are suffering. DW-TV: Spanish bonds are suffering. And one solution is a joint Euro bond. We've got Belgium, we've got Italy, we've got Luxembourg coming out and saying we want a joint Euro zone bond. What do you say to that? Wolfgang Gerke: That isn't a solution. It's a very bad solution. DW-TV: Why is it bad? Wolfgang Gerke: It's a transfer system. It's an indirect transfer system and Germany will pay for it. DW-TV: Isn't that what Germany is doing now? Wolfgang Gerke: Yes but we have to do it in an open transfer and not in that way, even in the ECB we have the wrong policy making the ECB into a bad bank for European sovereign governments. DW-TV: The ECB is buying European sovereign bonds right now. You think that's bad too? Wolfgang Gerke: Yes, that's the wrong way. DW-TV: Mr. Gerke, I'm sure we'll be talking with you next year to see how this story unfolds. Thank you very much for joining us today. ? (Interview: Brent Goff)? ? ? ?
17 Views
01:38:35 11/19/10
Wintergrasp - Rated BGs - BestBuy DevChat
[LESS INFO] 17 VIEWS | ADDED 01:38:35 11/19/10
Wintergrasp queuing changed in 4.0.3
In patch 4.0.3, Wintergrasp queuing was changed so that each battle attempts to match the factions at a 1-to-1 ratio. This is the exact system being used for Tol Barad in Cataclysm. While we understand that this inflates queue times for factions which are vastly overpopulated on select realms, we prefer this system over using Tenacity. In addition, the new system at least encourages playing on a faction that's better balanced against the opposing faction. With the old Wintergrasp functionality, players were almost encouraged to be on an overpopulated faction, further contributing to realm balance issues.
That said, we'll review realms with significant faction imbalances on a case-by-case basis in the event we need to take further action.
Rated Battlegrounds FAQ
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is just around the corner -- and that means Rated Battlegrounds will soon be available. While Rated Battlegrounds will only be open to level-85 characters, we know many of you may still have some questions about this new system, so we’ve put together an FAQ to help address some of the more common inquiries we've seen.
Q. What are Rated Battlegrounds?
A. Like the Arena system, Rated Battlegrounds are an alternative way for players to battle against opponents of similar skill levels and accrue rating to purchase powerful PvP gear. Instead of competing in a 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 bracket, though, you'll be testing your mettle in familiar environments like Arathi Basin and Eye of the Storm, as well as all-new Battlegrounds set to release in Cataclysm.
Q. How are Rated Battlegrounds structured?
A. Rated Battlegrounds are broken down into two brackets: 10v10 and 15v15. These brackets rotate weekly and can be viewed in-game via the calendar by activating the Battleground holiday filter.
Q. What Battlegrounds are eligible for Rated Battleground matches?
A. Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, Eye of the Storm, Strand of the Ancients, Battle for Gilneas, and Twin Peaks.
Q. What happened to the 25v25 bracket?
A. We decided to remove this bracket. We don't feel it's feasible to ask players to coordinate a group of 25 players for Rated Battlegrounds. If any player happens to drop group just before a match begins, the raid group would not be able to enter the battle. We anticipate most players or guilds will stick with fairly dedicated 10-player groups, and making the jump to 15-player groups shouldn't be too difficult.
Q. How can I queue for a Rated Battleground?
A. Before entering the queue, you must first create a raid with the full number of players required for the weekly bracket (10 or 15). Any level-85 player on your realm and of your faction may participate in the battle regardless of guild association.
Once you have a raid of the appropriate size, simply open up the PvP window, click on the Conquest tab, highlight "Rated Battleground," and then click "Join Battle."
Q. Can I queue up solo and just be matched with a Rated Battleground team?
A. No. You will need to first join a raid of the appropriate size and level before you can queue up for a Rated Battleground. Individual queuing will not be available for Rated Battlegrounds.
Q. Do all players in the raid group have to be from the same guild in order to queue for a Rated Battleground?
A. No. So long as the raid group size matches the weekly bracket and is comprised of level-85 players, you can queue up for a Rated Battleground no matter what guild you are in. Guild membership has no effect on the formation of Battleground teams.
Winning a Rated Battleground with a team composed of at least 80% guild members, however, will result in the additional benefit of guild experience gain for that guild.
Q. How can I tell if my Rated Battleground team meets the minimum guild requirement?
A. If you join a Rated Battleground with the minimum number of required guild members, a special guild banner will appear in the upper-left corner of the in-game mini-map. This will let you know if you are eligible for the bonus guild experience.
Q. What are the normal benefits of winning a Rated Battleground?
A. When you win a Rated Battleground, you will be rewarded Conquest points, up to your weekly cap. Weekly caps are individual for each player and are based on your highest single PvP rating from the previous week (the cap resets on Tuesdays). This rating can be derived from your 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5 Arena rating or your Rated Battleground rating.
Q. What Rated Battleground rating do players start out with?
A. Players start at zero Rated Battleground rating and progress upward from there. If you lose a battle, your Rated Battleground rating will only be reduced if that rating is currently higher than your Match Making Value (MMV). For the most part, a rating only goes up.
Q. What’s MMV?
A. Match Making Value (or MMV for short) is our best measure of an individual player's skill. MMV is the skill rating per format (2v2, 3v3, 5v5, Battleground) and per character that is used for matchmaking. It exists to help the matchmaking system create great matches as quickly as possible for all players. It's generally not a rating we show, with the exception of an average MMV for Arena teams.
Q. Will my MMV go down in the event of a Rated Battleground loss?
A. Yes; however, unlike Arenas, all players in a Rated Battleground team will win or lose the same amount of Rated Battleground rating per match depending on its outcome.
Q. Does MMV for Rated Battlegrounds function the same as it does in Arenas (i.e. does it go up more when you beat a higher-rated team, and go down more when you lose to a lower-rated team)?
A. Yes. Your MMV will go up faster if you defeat a Rated Battleground team with a higher average MMV.
Q. What’s the plan to prevent your Rated Battleground rating from skyrocketing at high win ratios? If your rating only goes down when it is above your MMV, it seems that ratings will just be high on average (compared to Arena).
A. If your Rated Battleground rating gets inflated much beyond your MMV, you’ll only receive a minimal amount of points when you win. Similarly, you’ll lose many more points after a defeat, until your Rated Battleground rating gets back in line with your MMV. This will prevent inflation.
Q. Can consumables and engineering items be used in Rated Battlegrounds?
A.Yes, but they will follow the same rules and restrictions as Arenas.
Q. Will Rated Battleground teams only be matched against other teams in their Battlegroup?
A. No. Rated Battlegrounds will be region-wide, meaning that when you queue for a Rated Battleground, you will have the opportunity to be matched against a team from any of our North American World of Warcraft realms.
Q. Are there any plans to reward players with the highest Rated Battleground rating, similar to Arenas?
A. Epic ground mounts will be rewarded at the end of each season to the top 0.5% of players according to Rated Battleground rating. Titles are also available as you gain rating in the system. The titles are rewarded directly from achievements earned from gaining the required rating.
Developer Chat Hosted by Best Buy (transcript)
Will the heirloom items scale to 85?
The current plan is to have heirloom items stop at level 80 at the moment.
I was wondering what new and exciting mounts there will be and what your favorite so far is?
Not surprisingly there are all kinds of new mounts, we have spectral wolf/horse mounts, a dark phoenix, a camel, the new alchemy mount that turns you into a drake can ride, among others. Also a scorpion for the horde and a lion for the alliance. My favorite has to be the camel though... i mean really, who doesn't want to be a camel jockey?!
Has Blizzard considered adding a "Tabards Tab" to the UI, so that tabard collectors can switch out tabards more effectively without having to take up bank and bag space? --Thanks! Deathunholy of Galakrond
We have talked about adding a tabard tab. We've talked about doing a closet tab to handle it. It isn't something we are adding for Cataclysm though.
Will it be as long of a wait to fight Deathwing as it was for Lich King?
Hopefully not, we definitely have a goal to get our content patches out more quickly than we have in the past, without sacrificing quality of course, we plan for deathwing to be the most amazing encounter we've ever made! =]
Are there any plans to potentially add queueing to the rated battlegrounds instead of it having to be a pre-made raid team? I was really excited when I first heard about this feature, but after reading the FAQ i was a bit disappointed with that design.
We're currently looking into the possibility of having players in the honor battleground queue be able to be called to action by groups that aren't quite full, but we're going to see how the current queue'ing works out first so, that isn't something that would be available just yet
Will you allow players to fill their quest log with say, 25 dailies, and then turn them in right after Midnight on December 7th to get a quick boost towards 85? This is how it worked in the beta, but some players are confused on whether it will work on Live. Thanks!
Regarding 25 daily quests to turn in when the expansion goes live, this is something players have been able to do for the last 2 expansions and we aren't talking about changing it now.
I understand the decision from an economic perspective but I was wondering if the deveopers were disappointed in the decision to allow race changes immediately following the release of the expansion.
Regarding allowing race/faction change on day one. Actually this wasn't an economic decision at all. This was a decision that the leadership team made. Our priority as a dev team is to allow players to play the game with their friends, the way they want too. We also talked about the fact that this is a week one problem. So we made the decision not to restrict anything.
Will Darnasus be re built to be a real tree or will it always look like a dead stump with trees at the top?
...but now that Deathwing is doing his thing it makes much more sense than it used to! ;]
Deathwing hates trees.
A lot of players I know are trying to plan out what characters to roll for the new expansion, and the big question is: Will there be ANY new realms tagging along with the release of Cataclysm? Some point to low pop realms as a reason against, but surely with the redux'd 1-60 experience and the droves of returning players desiring clean slates, there has never been a better time for a fresh realm or two?
We haven't decided exactly what the new realm decisions are yet, but we open new realms when there is player demand for them. One thing we can't do is plan all realms for day one. The goal is for realms to have good concurrency so everyone has a great game/matchmaking experience.
Could you comment on the plan for raids in Cataclysm? If i remember it was said that there would be smaller raids in cata but more of them. Would that mean like two small raids per patch or more patches in total?
The idea is that we'll have more raid environments, but fewer bosses in each environment, but a similar total number of raid bosses overall... if that makes sense. =] so, for cataclysm launch we have the skywall environment, the twilight bastion environment, and blackwing descent, versus having almost all the bosses in one environment like we did with naxrammas.
With the changes to the game environment itself, what new computer requirements will be optimal to run the game smoothly?
One of the things that is really important to us is a great gaming experience regardless of your hardware. While the system requirements do go up over time, we do want the experience on slower machines to be great. We do this by trying to add a lot of graphical options to allow players to control the experience from "runs fast" all the way to "looks great".
Will there be more than one Legendary weapon in Cata? Will there be a Caster DPS legendary? Any info or plans would be awesome =) Thanks!
It's likely there will be more than one legendary weapon, although it's too early to say for sure. We do, however, have a plan to do a caster dps staff soon.
Where did Uldum come from?
Egypt ;]
The idea with Uldum is that it has always been there, cloaked from the eyes of the players. The emergence of Deathwing has damaged some of the technology that kept it hidden. There is a story in the zone that explains this and what has been happening in the player absence.
With resource systems now broadened to include focus, rage, energy, and runic power as well as mana, and there being conditionals like enrages, holy power, combo points and runes, will classes that just use mana be getting similar treatment or remaining as they are?
Really that decision is made on a class-by-class, talent tree-by-tree basis. If we feel like the talent spec in question needs a broader resource management then we do it, but we don't like to unnecessarily complicate a spec's resource management if it isn't absolutely necessary.
Why is it that we are not able to use Archaeology before the expansion? I thought it was really cool how you guys released Inscription last time and would love to have the opportunity to level it before the expansion drops.
Using archeology before the expansion was something we talked about, but ended up adding everything about the profession to the "post sundered" world. Thus, you won't be able to use archeology before the sundering happens.
The first tier of Cataclysm raiding has 3 separate instances to tackle. Are you guys planning on keeping with the Burning Crusade model (SSC/TK, BT/Hyjal) and having multiple instances per raid tier? Will Deathwing have to share the spotlight with some other instance?
We'll evaluate that on a tier by tier basis. When we have awesome ideas that we can successfully make happen we'll do multiple environments, but it won't necessarily always be the case. We do have a super cool idea for the deathwing tier though... ...or at least so we hope. =]
What happened with the Worgen district in Stormwind?
We decided it didn't really fit very well, it was looking kind of awkwardly forced into the city. Plus deathwing would have destroyed it anyways.
As the world of Azeroth is changing I was wondering if the Death Knight zone will stay the same or will it also be affected by the cataclysm?
The death knight zone doesn't have any changes for Cataclysm.
I have been confused from the different posts for tier gear. Will there be three levels within each tier still or just heroic and normal and in either case will u just be getting them with points or will u still have to get certain things off drops off certain bosses to get the higher more heroic version of the tier gear?
There is still just normal and heroic difficulty for the raid and dungeon content, and the heroic gear has a higher item level than the corresponding normal gear
Do you feel faction imbalance is a problem at the moment? My queue is around 10-15 min at prime time as a member of the Horde and I know this is the case on at least two of the battlegroups. If so, do you think Worgen will fix the problem? And if they do not, will free faction changes ever be a possibility in the future on battlegroups or servers with a major problem?
We are working on some technology to further combine the PVP queues at server sites. This has been going on behind the scenes for a few weeks now in preparation for Cataclysm. Queue time is one of those things that gets a lot of attention and time, but will change significantly post Cata. Really good question.
What would you say was the hardest and/or easiest parts of developing this expansion? After all, many are saying this is the best expansion to date... So, what was the biggest challenge/easiest feat in creating it?
There have been huge challanges with this expansion, unlike any we've seen in the other two expansions. The scale of Cataclyms is huge for us, and something we didn't really expect when we started development. But we certainly feel like the effort has been worth it, and feel it's our best expansion so far.
Why does it seem the scorpion guild mount doesn't have a guild flag where the lion does? I was hoping to see Hordes of scorpions from our guild walking around with our tabard hanging from the tail like a flag behind them.
When riding a scorpion mount, your character displays holding a large standard with your guild symbol on it.
Why did you decide to make 310% mount speed purchasable in 4.0? It's a huge price for such a tiny speed upgrade, and used to work well as a just-above-vanity perk for people who completed the toughest achievements.
The primary reason was to equalize the awesome vanity mounts players had, and change the mechanic to one where you used the mount you were most excited about using. We wanted players to be able to see the mount players want, without considering the speed differential as a factor.
Will you allow players to change their login screen? I'd love to be able to use the Classic login screen, the unreleased one that was shown at Blizzcon, or perhaps a login screen of a previous expansion.
Players are not able to change their login screen.
How would a person get a Guild Mount? Would it be guild rep? If so how would that be calculated or obtained?
Once your guild gets to a high enough level and unlocks the guild mount, any player in the guild with a high enough guild reputation is able to buy the mount.
Will heirloom items work for goblins and worgens leveling from 1-80 at release?
Heirloom items will work perfectly for Worgen and Goblin characters! Enjoy!
Has there been any discussion of changing the heirloom items to true "Bind on Account" instead of the bind on server limitation that it has currently?
That is something we would like to do. Currently the servers mail carriers refuse to work together, and haven't worked out the economic terms from transferring mail from one server to another. One day we hope to resolve the union issues.
Will the option ever be available to change ones class, contingent upon what's currently available to the race restrictions at the time?
Never say never, but we don't currently have plans to do that.
There's any through about making account wise achievement, like Starcraft ones? It a reason for many players to not reroll/change mains since its look like a lot of work wasted when you switch your main char. Even changing to another char to help with one fight look a bit wrong now, if you are after achievements.
We do have plans to solve this problem, as it is limiting people from re-rolling for sure. This is something we want to solve, but don't have a good solution on how to do it at the moment.
Was there anything you guys regret not being able to include at launch? Possibly something that didn't have enough polish to it that me way see in the future? (You don't need to mention the Dance Studio at this point, really, it's okay)
Well... there is the dance studio. ;] There are of course always things we'd hoped to get into any patch/expansion that get pushed out until later. One example would be the idea to have a built-in atlas that details every encounter in each dungeon/raid. We're not super happy about the fact that the first time anyone encounters a new boss, the only way to learn about it (other than looking up strategies on the web) is to charge in and die a lot.
We'd love to give players some idea of what they're about to fight before they engage the boss. =]
Do honor points and Badges roll over into CATA, or do they reset to zero?
Yes, honor points and justice points carry over into cataclysm. Stock up now!
Is there any talks of maybe some faction cooperative campaigns? Since the cataclysm is threatening to destroy all life of azeroth, to me a logical response from the heroes of azeroth would be to set aside their differences and be able to work together in a raid. An Idea to maybe lessen the frequency of such groups is make the raid difficulty increase by choosing to work with the other faction, a sort of Heroic mode. Possibly even dual faction specific raids. Has there been any talks of such poss...
This is a common request, but not something we are looking to do. While there is a singular main bad guy in this expansion, the Horde and Alliance have their own unique challenges and agendas, and typically don't look to team up. After all it's the World of Warcraft, not the World of Peacecraft.
When designing expansions and content patches, do you have a list of new features to choose from that are planned out in advance or is there more of a brain storm session?
The feature set for each patch is determined by a combination of doing things (or finishing things) that we've been wanting to do for a while, along with completely new ideas that emerge as a result of the immediate needs of the game
The primary things you won't be able to do if you don't have Cataclysm are create a new Goblin/Worgen, level to 85, and fly in the orld world.
We like to stay as flexible as possible, so it's important to us to make sure that we aren't "over planned" into the future even though the real needs players have are changing
With the previous two expansions, the new content was actually on other continents, so if you didn't have the expansion, you just couldn't visit the continent. Since Cata is largely reworking of old-world content, however, how do you differentiate between someone with or without the xpac? What kinds of things will and won't be available to players don't have the upgrade?
See my answer above!
Will the 80 to 85 experience be closer to the 18hr mark or the 5 day mark that was 70-80?
That totally depends on the player to be honest, you'd be amazed by the differences in play patterns. That being said, somebody usually finds a way to level up very quickly.
What new feature(s) in WoW: Cataclysm are you guys most proud of?
I would have to say the 1-60 revamp, it's a ton of fun to play through the zones and an incredible amount of new content.
I'm most happy with the new Worgen and Goblin starting experiences. I think they are the best starting experience we've ever done, and that includes the death knight.
I have is why not have this latest expansion as a new territory like a Southrend similar to Northrend or a Moon body like Outlands instead of destroying Azeroth and Kalimdor? Were there limitations to expanding outwards or was this just to facelift the original game?
We make decisions like this on a case by case basis.. again depending on the needs of the game. In the case of Cataclysm, the world was due in for an overhaul, and we wanted to make everything fly-able, so it was important to flesh out any areas that were originally unfinished.
Can you clarify and confirm what will be available to players when 4.0.3a hits and what will be unavailable until 7th Dec?
4.0.3a will be the patch that actually causes the world to shatter and change forever. At that point you will be able to experience the new 1-60 leveling experience, as well as the new race/class combinations.
Is there an alternative mount for worgens that other races can ride
Worgen can ride the other mounts in the game, if that's what you're asking. They're not limited to their feral run.
With the level 1-80 Heirloom items, when Cataclysm is released will the xp gain work while leveling until you hit level 81? Or will XP gain be disabled for those on release?
They will not. Heirlooms stop granting their XP bonus at level 80. Not level 80.999999.
Will achievement points ever be able to be used to purchase any perks?
We have no plans to allow this. Achievements are a badge of honor only.
Druid
Is the Moonkin form for troll and worgen on the beta and ptr the final form or is it just a placeholder?
Final!
Mage
Right now, up to 50% of Ignite damage disappears due to the technical limitations of spells critting within certain timeframes. This has implications for Mage dps and the value of Mastery as a stat. Is overall damage being balanced to compensate and can we expect a solution in the near future?
We're resolving that by rolling up any "lost" ignite damage into the next ignite that overwrote it
Warlock
Are there any plans for a new Lock mount? I would love to see a possible flying mount for Locks..
One of the things we look at with mounts is broad appeal. While we do specific class mounts from time to time, most of the time we look to have mounts that all classes can use.
Warrior
Is Hit rating intended to tramp all other stats but Str for Fury till the 27% hardcap? Seems excessive
Generally speaking, we do balance hit rating to be the "best" stat until you're at the hit rating cap
20 Views
22:30:00 10/12/10
Our Interview Guest this Week: Rainer Strack
[LESS INFO] 20 VIEWS | ADDED 22:30:00 10/12/10
Senior Partner and Managing Director of The Boston Consultign Group DW-TV: One of your surveys found that staff motivation in companies could still be improved -- why is that? Rainer Strack: We conducted a survey in 2007 and we conducted a survey in 2009, so before the crisis and a little bit after the crisis. We saw a huge drop in engagement and motivation. If you dig then deeper you see that it is the middle managers who are suffering in the crisis and after the crisis. Traditionally the human resources department focuses on the top management, the high potentials, and the middle management are a little neglected, but a critical group. DW-TV: Staff matters are usually dealt with by a company's HR-department - "HR" stands for Human Resources... that doesn't sound very humane to me... is that where the problems start already? Rainer Strack: "I would regard resource as a positive term because in reality most companies regard employees as a cost item. And what do you do with cost? You reduce it. We think we are now coming into a new decade where people will become the scarce resource. And therefore you have to nurture them. You have to really regard them as a resource and not as a cost. DW-TV: In your survey you looked at German companies, but also global companies. Is there a difference when it comes to motivation? Rainer Strack: We see an engagement and motivation problem in all countries. In the survey we asked more than 5,000 companies in more than 100 nations and we see engagement dropping and motivation dropping all over the world. DW-TV: How do you think they should be motivated. We've just seen a very nice example in our report. Profit sharing: is that one way to go...the ultimate way to go? Rainer Strack: It should be certainly something on the compensation side but you should also think about recognition beyond compensation. So here in particular is also the leadership within organizations is weak so in terms of giving feedback and giving an atmosphere to an employee he or she can develop his or her capabilities more. And so I would say like with work for life balance that does not contradict performance. I am a physicist from my background and as a physicist and I find power is performance is work per time and not work times time. It is not about the number of hours that you spend it is more about performance on the one side and work life balance on the other. DW-TV: Does the quality of work suffer if someone is not motivated? Rainer Strack: The quality of work is absolutely suffering. Because if you look what you see in a very simple index...the top companies people would like to work for...there is an index and if you look at their total share of return, this is superior to the average. So it also matters afterwards in terms of earnings and there is a clear correlation as we just saw in the example with the enterprise Knauer. DW-TV: Rainer Strack, thanks a lot.
