Money Making Secrets

The economic troubles in Europe are leading to public unrest, as EU governments try to pare back their bloated public sectors, in some cases trimming wages and benefits, in others by delaying access to them. In France, plans to save the national pension system by raising the retirement age from 60 (!) to just 62 has lead to a massive strike of over one million people:

French strikers disrupted trains and planes, hospitals and mail delivery Tuesday amid massive street protests over plans to raise the retirement age. Across the English Channel, London subway workers unhappy with staff cuts walked off the job.

The protests look like the prelude to a season of strikes in Europe, from Spain to the Czech Republic, as heavily indebted governments cut costs and chip away at some cherished but costly benefits that underpin the European good life — a scaling-back process that has gained urgency with Greece’s euro110 billion ($140 billion) bailout.

In France, where people poured into the streets in 220 cities, setting off flares and beating drums, a banner in the southern port city of Marseille called for Europe-wide solidarity: “Let’s Refuse Austerity Plans!” The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people demonstrated throughout France, while the CFDT union put the number at 2.5 million.

(…)

French protesters are angry about the government’s plan to do away with the near-sacred promise of retirement at 60, forcing people to work until 62 because they are living longer. The goal is to bring the money-draining pension system back into the black by 2018.

As debate on the subject opened in parliament, Labor Minister Eric Woerth said the plan was one “of courage and reason” and that it is the “duty of the state” to save the pension system. He has said the government won’t back down, no matter how big the protests.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon reminded the French that it could be worse: In nearly all European countries, the current debate is over raising the retirement age to 67 or 68, he said. Germany has decided to bump the retirement age from 65 to 67, for example, and the U.S. Social Security system is gradually raising the retirement age to 67.

That sense of perspective was missing from many of the French protests, where some slogans bordered on the hysterical. One sign in Paris showed a raised middle finger with the message: “Greetings from people who will die on the job.”

Nothing like Gallic hysterics, eh?

Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised at this: statist societies like France and much of the EU use ever-expanding government-provided benefits as bribes to buy social peace, making dependents out their citizens and, in effect, infantilizing them. It’s no wonder, then, that the public then throws a tantrum when the state is forced to cut back.

But before anyone indulges in some schadenfreude at French expense, bear in mind that President Obama and his progressive allies want to take us down this same statist, dependent, and infantilized social-democratic road. (And, to a lesser extent, big-government Republicans have been willing to accommodate them.) We’re already seeing that with the growth of public sector unions in the US and their outlandish benefits*.

While Europe seems to be in for a season of unrest, the problem isn’t yet so bad in the US and, importantly, many people agree that it is a problem in the first place. Hopefully we can make the necessary reforms before we have our own mass tantrums.

*(For the record, I’m a member of a quasi-public union, and apparently it’s one of the dumber ones; we’ve never received the over-the-top wages and benefits the other unions do. I tell ya, it ain’t fair…)

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

There are a couple juicy Kate Gosselin stories in this week’s tabloids. It’s hard to believe that Kate still rates gossiping about, but there’s plenty of negative dirt on her so you can see the appeal. First off, The National Enquirer has a story that Kate doesn’t pay attention to her kids at all except when the cameras are around. She’s said to be obsessed with making money and marketing herself, to the point that she only plays with her children when they’re being filmed or photographed. Kate makes a whopping $250k an episode so she can probably afford to give it a rest and let loose with her kids. It’s too bad that the stick up her butt is pretty much permanent. Here’s part of the Enquirer’s story:

Kate Gosselin is so obsessed with making money that she’s suffering a major meltdown and her kids are turning against her, sources tell the Enquirer.

The overwhelmed single mom leaves her children mostly in the hands of nannies, and now they prefer to spend time with their dad Jon, insiders say…

“When she’s not with the kids, she’s hustling for work. She knows that she’s not spending enough time with them, but she needs to earn the money to support them all.

“She cries to friends, ‘What am I supposed to do? If I slow down, this could all go away, and we’ll be out on the street!”

Her ex-husband Jon currently does not have a job, and Kate can’t count on any financial help from him.

With Kate so focused on cash, the family’s estate in Wernersville, PA is more like a corporate office than a family home, added another source.

“Everything is for show. You’re not there unless you or someone is being paid…

“Kate always said the kids love filming, and they do - because it forces her to interact with them.”

Even worse, the children… are starting to feel as if Kate loves them only when cameras are around, said the source.

“Kate will take the kids out to play, but she stays only long enough for photographers to get pictures of her with them. Then she goes back to work in her home office and the nannies take over,” the insider revealed.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, September 6, 2010]

I don’t like this woman, but the story sounds straight from Jon. It even goes on to claim that the kids like him and his girlfriend better and call the girlfriend “mom.” If Kate had a 9-5 job she would be away from the house during that time. If she relies on nannies to watch the kids all the time and late into the night that’s one thing, but if she does it so she can work during the day I don’t see the problem. I don’t agree with her choice of career, namely putting her kids on television, but that’s different from bashing her for using nannies so she can work. However, she should be spending time with them when the cameras aren’t around, and if she’s not doing that then this criticism is dead on.

Star has another big story about Jon Gosselin’s “tell all” and how it’s going to expose Kate. We’ve already heard that he’s writing a book, but according to PopEater it’s going to be a parenting-type book that of course has no publishers yet interested.

Star claims that Jon will tell all, though, and that he’s going to reveal Kate’s secrets. According to Star, Kate was probably already sleeping with her married bodyguard back when she was living with Jon and they were not yet separated. I wouldn’t put it past Jon to rewrite history in an attempt to make himself look like the wronged party, but it could have happened this way. We know they’re boning now. Here are the highlights from Star. (These are paraphrased except where there are quotes.)

- Bodyguard Steve Nield was staying in the basement when Jon was still living in the house. “Although Kate had a habit of sleeping late, leaving Jon to wake and feed the kids, ‘She suddenly started going down there to ‘work out’ in the mornings.’” TLC staff eventually made Steve leave.

- Kate belittled Jon. “She’d scream at him and call him names in front of their family and friends… Kate is really aggressive… a few times he could tell she was about to get physical and he’d… walk away.”

- Kate begged Jon to take her back for the show. “He has tons of texts and voicemails from Kate telling him she loved him and they should stay together for the show. Even after all the women he’s been with, Jon believes he could have gone back to Kate as recently as this spring.”

Jon doesn’t have much that we don’t already know, and he’s trying to drum up interest in whatever book he can write that will sell. If he does paint Kate as a controlling meanie who doesn’t love her kids he’ll be able to earn a little money at least. It seems like these people’s 15 minutes are just about up, especially Jon’s. Maybe that’s why Kate is freaking out and trying so hard to get paid while she can.

Radar has new photos of Kate and Jon out with their kids - separately. These photos are from 4/22 and 3/4. Credit: Fame

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The economic troubles in Europe are leading to public unrest, as EU governments try to pare back their bloated public sectors, in some cases trimming wages and benefits, in others by delaying access to them. In France, plans to save the national pension system by raising the retirement age from 60 (!) to just 62 has lead to a massive strike of over one million people:

French strikers disrupted trains and planes, hospitals and mail delivery Tuesday amid massive street protests over plans to raise the retirement age. Across the English Channel, London subway workers unhappy with staff cuts walked off the job.

The protests look like the prelude to a season of strikes in Europe, from Spain to the Czech Republic, as heavily indebted governments cut costs and chip away at some cherished but costly benefits that underpin the European good life — a scaling-back process that has gained urgency with Greece’s euro110 billion ($140 billion) bailout.

In France, where people poured into the streets in 220 cities, setting off flares and beating drums, a banner in the southern port city of Marseille called for Europe-wide solidarity: “Let’s Refuse Austerity Plans!” The Interior Ministry said more than 1.1 million people demonstrated throughout France, while the CFDT union put the number at 2.5 million.

(…)

French protesters are angry about the government’s plan to do away with the near-sacred promise of retirement at 60, forcing people to work until 62 because they are living longer. The goal is to bring the money-draining pension system back into the black by 2018.

As debate on the subject opened in parliament, Labor Minister Eric Woerth said the plan was one “of courage and reason” and that it is the “duty of the state” to save the pension system. He has said the government won’t back down, no matter how big the protests.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon reminded the French that it could be worse: In nearly all European countries, the current debate is over raising the retirement age to 67 or 68, he said. Germany has decided to bump the retirement age from 65 to 67, for example, and the U.S. Social Security system is gradually raising the retirement age to 67.

That sense of perspective was missing from many of the French protests, where some slogans bordered on the hysterical. One sign in Paris showed a raised middle finger with the message: “Greetings from people who will die on the job.”

Nothing like Gallic hysterics, eh?

Of course, we shouldn’t be surprised at this: statist societies like France and much of the EU use ever-expanding government-provided benefits as bribes to buy social peace, making dependents out their citizens and, in effect, infantilizing them. It’s no wonder, then, that the public then throws a tantrum when the state is forced to cut back.

But before anyone indulges in some schadenfreude at French expense, bear in mind that President Obama and his progressive allies want to take us down this same statist, dependent, and infantilized social-democratic road. (And, to a lesser extent, big-government Republicans have been willing to accommodate them.) We’re already seeing that with the growth of public sector unions in the US and their outlandish benefits*.

While Europe seems to be in for a season of unrest, the problem isn’t yet so bad in the US and, importantly, many people agree that it is a problem in the first place. Hopefully we can make the necessary reforms before we have our own mass tantrums.

*(For the record, I’m a member of a quasi-public union, and apparently it’s one of the dumber ones; we’ve never received the over-the-top wages and benefits the other unions do. I tell ya, it ain’t fair…)

(Crossposted at Public Secrets)

There are a couple juicy Kate Gosselin stories in this week’s tabloids. It’s hard to believe that Kate still rates gossiping about, but there’s plenty of negative dirt on her so you can see the appeal. First off, The National Enquirer has a story that Kate doesn’t pay attention to her kids at all except when the cameras are around. She’s said to be obsessed with making money and marketing herself, to the point that she only plays with her children when they’re being filmed or photographed. Kate makes a whopping $250k an episode so she can probably afford to give it a rest and let loose with her kids. It’s too bad that the stick up her butt is pretty much permanent. Here’s part of the Enquirer’s story:

Kate Gosselin is so obsessed with making money that she’s suffering a major meltdown and her kids are turning against her, sources tell the Enquirer.

The overwhelmed single mom leaves her children mostly in the hands of nannies, and now they prefer to spend time with their dad Jon, insiders say…

“When she’s not with the kids, she’s hustling for work. She knows that she’s not spending enough time with them, but she needs to earn the money to support them all.

“She cries to friends, ‘What am I supposed to do? If I slow down, this could all go away, and we’ll be out on the street!”

Her ex-husband Jon currently does not have a job, and Kate can’t count on any financial help from him.

With Kate so focused on cash, the family’s estate in Wernersville, PA is more like a corporate office than a family home, added another source.

“Everything is for show. You’re not there unless you or someone is being paid…

“Kate always said the kids love filming, and they do - because it forces her to interact with them.”

Even worse, the children… are starting to feel as if Kate loves them only when cameras are around, said the source.

“Kate will take the kids out to play, but she stays only long enough for photographers to get pictures of her with them. Then she goes back to work in her home office and the nannies take over,” the insider revealed.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, September 6, 2010]

I don’t like this woman, but the story sounds straight from Jon. It even goes on to claim that the kids like him and his girlfriend better and call the girlfriend “mom.” If Kate had a 9-5 job she would be away from the house during that time. If she relies on nannies to watch the kids all the time and late into the night that’s one thing, but if she does it so she can work during the day I don’t see the problem. I don’t agree with her choice of career, namely putting her kids on television, but that’s different from bashing her for using nannies so she can work. However, she should be spending time with them when the cameras aren’t around, and if she’s not doing that then this criticism is dead on.

Star has another big story about Jon Gosselin’s “tell all” and how it’s going to expose Kate. We’ve already heard that he’s writing a book, but according to PopEater it’s going to be a parenting-type book that of course has no publishers yet interested.

Star claims that Jon will tell all, though, and that he’s going to reveal Kate’s secrets. According to Star, Kate was probably already sleeping with her married bodyguard back when she was living with Jon and they were not yet separated. I wouldn’t put it past Jon to rewrite history in an attempt to make himself look like the wronged party, but it could have happened this way. We know they’re boning now. Here are the highlights from Star. (These are paraphrased except where there are quotes.)

- Bodyguard Steve Nield was staying in the basement when Jon was still living in the house. “Although Kate had a habit of sleeping late, leaving Jon to wake and feed the kids, ‘She suddenly started going down there to ‘work out’ in the mornings.’” TLC staff eventually made Steve leave.

- Kate belittled Jon. “She’d scream at him and call him names in front of their family and friends… Kate is really aggressive… a few times he could tell she was about to get physical and he’d… walk away.”

- Kate begged Jon to take her back for the show. “He has tons of texts and voicemails from Kate telling him she loved him and they should stay together for the show. Even after all the women he’s been with, Jon believes he could have gone back to Kate as recently as this spring.”

Jon doesn’t have much that we don’t already know, and he’s trying to drum up interest in whatever book he can write that will sell. If he does paint Kate as a controlling meanie who doesn’t love her kids he’ll be able to earn a little money at least. It seems like these people’s 15 minutes are just about up, especially Jon’s. Maybe that’s why Kate is freaking out and trying so hard to get paid while she can.

Radar has new photos of Kate and Jon out with their kids - separately. These photos are from 4/22 and 3/4. Credit: Fame

robert shumake

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Start Making Money

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Off & Away

Quick Pitch: Members bid in auctions on stays in hotel suites for up 99% off retail rates.

Genius Idea: How many five-star hotels have you stayed at? Of those, how many of those stays have been in the resort’s most prestigious suite? And how many of those stays have been for two nights or more? If your answer is greater than zero, then this post isn’t for you, money bags. The rest of us of, though, might want to try our hand at the innovative auction site Off & Away.

Off & Away promises unheard of discounts on luxury suites (up to 99% off retail prices) at top resorts in the U.S. and Mexico. These aren’t the economy rooms you can find on other travel sites. There is one giant catch — one that applies to all auction sites, including eBay, the granddaddy of them all: You must be the highest bidder when the auction ends in order to seal the deal.

Off & Away auctions start off cheap to begin with. Each new bid raises the auction price by $0.10, and each auction runs for a limited period of time. Once the time runs out, the highest bidder wins the auction. The process sounds simple enough, but Off & Away throws a few curve balls into the typical online auction format, making the auction experience a quirky ride that will likely get your blood pumping.

First, you’ll need to buy bids if you want to participate in auctions. Each bid costs $1.00, and you can buy as many or as few as you want. You can then use these bids during actions, but you’ll want to keep in mind that each bid is essentially costing you a buck.

Off & Away gets especially interesting when a hotel deal is just seconds away from going to the highest bidder; this is when the hidden bidders come out to play. Once the auction reaches the final two minutes, each new bid resets the countdown clock to 20 seconds and raises the auction price by $0.10.

Let’s say a resort stay is ready to go to the highest bidder for $49.50 with just seconds left on the clock. A lurking user could pop in with one second remaining, submit a bid, reset the clock to 20 seconds and raise the price to $49.60. Bidding continues until the rest of the bidders give up and allow the auction clock to run down to zero.

To say the formula is a catalyst for frenzied competition between stubborn bidders holding out for the best deal till the very end is a huge understatement. In my own experiences, the bidding competition that happens in the last few seconds can extend an auction for hours — it’s an exciting, adrenaline-enthused experience that often results in disappointment. Most of these hotel deals are so remarkable that your desire to win will outweigh the potential risk of defeat.

The good news is that your used bids don’t completely go to waste. Each used bid can be applied towards $1.10 off another room at the resort in question. You’re obviously not getting the suite experience with these standard room offers, but it’s still a decent consolation prize.

But Can You Really Win?

I’ve tried my hand at a few auctions to no avail. Just the possibility of a win is enticing enough to lure me in and compel me to use my prepaid bids, but I’ve yet to reach the finish line. I’ll keep trying though, and that’s in no small part due to the genius formula cooked up by CEO Doug Aley and team.

Aley assures me that eventually I will win — and that you will too. Earlier today he penned a blog post with tips on how to win. He recommends picking auctions that are less competitive and strategizing ahead of time about how and when to bid. Of course, he also recommends stocking up on bids, but that’s a no-brainer strategy that also works to the startup’s advantage.

Off & Away’s continued success will be dependent on helping more users win. After all, who wants to spend money to buy bids that essentially just go wasted?

Risk Versus Reward for Hotels

The quality of hotel stays offered through Off & Away is impressive to say the least — these hotels are the hotels we only dream about staying at. With the price of sale totally dependent on site users, we questioned Aley about the risk-reward potential for hotels who use the service.

“We have special deals worked out with our hotel partners that ensure that they don’t field any of the risk. Beyond that, our hotel partners and customers know that just because an auction goes for an incredibly inexpensive price doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of people lurking that were interested in the room. Many times, we have a group of people that are just ’saving their bullets’ for what they think is the end of the auction, only to see their chance to bid slip away,” explains Aley.

Off & Away is a Seattle-based startup that’s raised $1.35 million from Madrona Venture Group and additional private investors. The site’s pedigree includes a staff of travel veterans from Amazon and Orbitz. As the startup evolves, look for it reduce total auction length and introduce better ways for members to apply bids used on lost auctions for better deals.

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

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Glenn Beck's original "I Have a Scheme" (per "The Daily Show:) idea for his Washington rally that he announced in late 2009 was clearly one that was highly focused on a goal of....making boatloads of money for Glenn Beck. The concept, Beck told a large crowd in the Fox-happy retirement community of The Villages, Fla., was that he would consult a bunch of experts and develop a "100-year plan for America." Then, after luring a huge audience in person and on TV to watch him at the Lincoln Memorial on what he claims he then didn't know was the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, he would roll out new product, a book called "The Plan" that would surely be the Beckian best-seller to end all Beckian best-sellers.

That didn't happen. Weeks later, the king of all right-wing media pulled a complete 180 (hardly the first time). The rally would still be on the same day and the same place, but everything else would be completely different. The event would be completely non-political, not about policy prescriptions but "Restoring Honor," with a goal of raising money not for a Beck book but for a four-star charity called the Special Operations Warrior Fund. And to some extent, that's what unfolded Saturday. Beck used his bully pulpit to urge America to turn inward, toward God as a source of answers, and although most of his aggressive fundraising went toward the massive cost of the National Mall event, Beck claims that SOWF will also reap a large donation.

There is indeed no book called "The Plan" coming out this week.

Nope. Instead, Beck -- basking in the wall-to-wall coverage on national TV and the front pages of America's newspapers -- is using that afterglow to roll out a completely different for-profit venture of Glenn Beck Inc., one that could greatly add to the showman's $32 million windfall that he reaped last year. His plan to stop America from wandering in the darkness apparently involves you visiting his new website aimed at competing with the Daily Beasts and Huffington Posts of the world.

The Beck-favored Mediate website has the scoop tonight:

Beck’s new site is called TheBlaze.com, and will be edited by Scott Baker, formerly of Breitbart TV and host of “The B-Cast”. In an exclusive statement, he tells Mediaite:

The story adds:

People will inevitably make the comparison to Arianna Huffington – whether Beck’s role as figurehead behind the site will make The Blaze into a conservative Huffington Post. “The one thing pretty clear around Mercury [Beck's company] is that Glenn is not short on ideas or hesitant on input,” Baker said. “His input is already evident in how the site looks, and that’s what will continue. It will be a continual flow of tips and suggestions and encouragement.”

The “small scrappy staff” behind The Blaze include Baker as well as Jon Seidl, formerly of the Manhattan Institute and American Spectator, and Meredith Jessup, formerly of Town Hall. Also, Pam Key of Naked Emperor News will contribute as a video editor. Baker moved over to Mercury at the beginning of June and began shaping the site. He will continue hosting “The B-Cast” the daily web show, with Liz Stephans.

According to the article earlier in this year in Forbes, Beck already makes $4 million a year online, mainly through his fairly basic GlennBeck.com website that is heavily advertised by favored businesses like the now-under-investigation gold coin peddler Goldline International and products like "survival seed banks," as well as touting Beck's "Insider Extreme" package that includes the much-ballyhooded Glenn Beck University. Needless to say, the successful launch of The Blaze (which sounds a tad apocalyptic, no?) could push Beck's web income well the hefty profits that he's already making.

Which begs the bottom line: What was "Restoring Honor" really all about? Is the punditocracy trying to hard to read the tea leaves of Beck's "agenda," of why he went with televangelist-style fervor about God and empty tributes to the MLK legacy before an audience that had been instead lured to D.C. from the so-called heartland by its red-meat displeasure with Barack Obama?

You bet they are. At the end of the day, the ultimate goal of "Restoring Honor" -- like just about everything that Beck has done in the last decade, from riding the rubble of 9/11 and the Iraq war buildup to change his persona from "Morning Zoo" guy to patriot to saying outlandish things about FEMA camps or Obama's "deep-seated hatred for white people" in his early attention-seeking months on Fox -- goes back to one thing, always the most important thing in the  Beck universe.

Building the Glenn Beck brand.

Yes sir, Saturday was all about restoring honor and restoring God in American life.

But now it's Monday and Glenn Beck has something he wants to sell you.

UPDATE: The site -- which is already live -- is already running ads for Goldline International.

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This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here.

Name: Off & Away

Quick Pitch: Members bid in auctions on stays in hotel suites for up 99% off retail rates.

Genius Idea: How many five-star hotels have you stayed at? Of those, how many of those stays have been in the resort’s most prestigious suite? And how many of those stays have been for two nights or more? If your answer is greater than zero, then this post isn’t for you, money bags. The rest of us of, though, might want to try our hand at the innovative auction site Off & Away.

Off & Away promises unheard of discounts on luxury suites (up to 99% off retail prices) at top resorts in the U.S. and Mexico. These aren’t the economy rooms you can find on other travel sites. There is one giant catch — one that applies to all auction sites, including eBay, the granddaddy of them all: You must be the highest bidder when the auction ends in order to seal the deal.

Off & Away auctions start off cheap to begin with. Each new bid raises the auction price by $0.10, and each auction runs for a limited period of time. Once the time runs out, the highest bidder wins the auction. The process sounds simple enough, but Off & Away throws a few curve balls into the typical online auction format, making the auction experience a quirky ride that will likely get your blood pumping.

First, you’ll need to buy bids if you want to participate in auctions. Each bid costs $1.00, and you can buy as many or as few as you want. You can then use these bids during actions, but you’ll want to keep in mind that each bid is essentially costing you a buck.

Off & Away gets especially interesting when a hotel deal is just seconds away from going to the highest bidder; this is when the hidden bidders come out to play. Once the auction reaches the final two minutes, each new bid resets the countdown clock to 20 seconds and raises the auction price by $0.10.

Let’s say a resort stay is ready to go to the highest bidder for $49.50 with just seconds left on the clock. A lurking user could pop in with one second remaining, submit a bid, reset the clock to 20 seconds and raise the price to $49.60. Bidding continues until the rest of the bidders give up and allow the auction clock to run down to zero.

To say the formula is a catalyst for frenzied competition between stubborn bidders holding out for the best deal till the very end is a huge understatement. In my own experiences, the bidding competition that happens in the last few seconds can extend an auction for hours — it’s an exciting, adrenaline-enthused experience that often results in disappointment. Most of these hotel deals are so remarkable that your desire to win will outweigh the potential risk of defeat.

The good news is that your used bids don’t completely go to waste. Each used bid can be applied towards $1.10 off another room at the resort in question. You’re obviously not getting the suite experience with these standard room offers, but it’s still a decent consolation prize.

But Can You Really Win?

I’ve tried my hand at a few auctions to no avail. Just the possibility of a win is enticing enough to lure me in and compel me to use my prepaid bids, but I’ve yet to reach the finish line. I’ll keep trying though, and that’s in no small part due to the genius formula cooked up by CEO Doug Aley and team.

Aley assures me that eventually I will win — and that you will too. Earlier today he penned a blog post with tips on how to win. He recommends picking auctions that are less competitive and strategizing ahead of time about how and when to bid. Of course, he also recommends stocking up on bids, but that’s a no-brainer strategy that also works to the startup’s advantage.

Off & Away’s continued success will be dependent on helping more users win. After all, who wants to spend money to buy bids that essentially just go wasted?

Risk Versus Reward for Hotels

The quality of hotel stays offered through Off & Away is impressive to say the least — these hotels are the hotels we only dream about staying at. With the price of sale totally dependent on site users, we questioned Aley about the risk-reward potential for hotels who use the service.

“We have special deals worked out with our hotel partners that ensure that they don’t field any of the risk. Beyond that, our hotel partners and customers know that just because an auction goes for an incredibly inexpensive price doesn’t mean there weren’t a lot of people lurking that were interested in the room. Many times, we have a group of people that are just ’saving their bullets’ for what they think is the end of the auction, only to see their chance to bid slip away,” explains Aley.

Off & Away is a Seattle-based startup that’s raised $1.35 million from Madrona Venture Group and additional private investors. The site’s pedigree includes a staff of travel veterans from Amazon and Orbitz. As the startup evolves, look for it reduce total auction length and introduce better ways for members to apply bids used on lost auctions for better deals.

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Glenn Beck's original "I Have a Scheme" (per "The Daily Show:) idea for his Washington rally that he announced in late 2009 was clearly one that was highly focused on a goal of....making boatloads of money for Glenn Beck. The concept, Beck told a large crowd in the Fox-happy retirement community of The Villages, Fla., was that he would consult a bunch of experts and develop a "100-year plan for America." Then, after luring a huge audience in person and on TV to watch him at the Lincoln Memorial on what he claims he then didn't know was the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, he would roll out new product, a book called "The Plan" that would surely be the Beckian best-seller to end all Beckian best-sellers.

That didn't happen. Weeks later, the king of all right-wing media pulled a complete 180 (hardly the first time). The rally would still be on the same day and the same place, but everything else would be completely different. The event would be completely non-political, not about policy prescriptions but "Restoring Honor," with a goal of raising money not for a Beck book but for a four-star charity called the Special Operations Warrior Fund. And to some extent, that's what unfolded Saturday. Beck used his bully pulpit to urge America to turn inward, toward God as a source of answers, and although most of his aggressive fundraising went toward the massive cost of the National Mall event, Beck claims that SOWF will also reap a large donation.

There is indeed no book called "The Plan" coming out this week.

Nope. Instead, Beck -- basking in the wall-to-wall coverage on national TV and the front pages of America's newspapers -- is using that afterglow to roll out a completely different for-profit venture of Glenn Beck Inc., one that could greatly add to the showman's $32 million windfall that he reaped last year. His plan to stop America from wandering in the darkness apparently involves you visiting his new website aimed at competing with the Daily Beasts and Huffington Posts of the world.

The Beck-favored Mediate website has the scoop tonight:

Beck’s new site is called TheBlaze.com, and will be edited by Scott Baker, formerly of Breitbart TV and host of “The B-Cast”. In an exclusive statement, he tells Mediaite:

The story adds:

People will inevitably make the comparison to Arianna Huffington – whether Beck’s role as figurehead behind the site will make The Blaze into a conservative Huffington Post. “The one thing pretty clear around Mercury [Beck's company] is that Glenn is not short on ideas or hesitant on input,” Baker said. “His input is already evident in how the site looks, and that’s what will continue. It will be a continual flow of tips and suggestions and encouragement.”

The “small scrappy staff” behind The Blaze include Baker as well as Jon Seidl, formerly of the Manhattan Institute and American Spectator, and Meredith Jessup, formerly of Town Hall. Also, Pam Key of Naked Emperor News will contribute as a video editor. Baker moved over to Mercury at the beginning of June and began shaping the site. He will continue hosting “The B-Cast” the daily web show, with Liz Stephans.

According to the article earlier in this year in Forbes, Beck already makes $4 million a year online, mainly through his fairly basic GlennBeck.com website that is heavily advertised by favored businesses like the now-under-investigation gold coin peddler Goldline International and products like "survival seed banks," as well as touting Beck's "Insider Extreme" package that includes the much-ballyhooded Glenn Beck University. Needless to say, the successful launch of The Blaze (which sounds a tad apocalyptic, no?) could push Beck's web income well the hefty profits that he's already making.

Which begs the bottom line: What was "Restoring Honor" really all about? Is the punditocracy trying to hard to read the tea leaves of Beck's "agenda," of why he went with televangelist-style fervor about God and empty tributes to the MLK legacy before an audience that had been instead lured to D.C. from the so-called heartland by its red-meat displeasure with Barack Obama?

You bet they are. At the end of the day, the ultimate goal of "Restoring Honor" -- like just about everything that Beck has done in the last decade, from riding the rubble of 9/11 and the Iraq war buildup to change his persona from "Morning Zoo" guy to patriot to saying outlandish things about FEMA camps or Obama's "deep-seated hatred for white people" in his early attention-seeking months on Fox -- goes back to one thing, always the most important thing in the  Beck universe.

Building the Glenn Beck brand.

Yes sir, Saturday was all about restoring honor and restoring God in American life.

But now it's Monday and Glenn Beck has something he wants to sell you.

UPDATE: The site -- which is already live -- is already running ads for Goldline International.

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Apple Is Forking The Web » Podcasting <b>News</b>

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The Obamacare Inquisitions: A Brief, Brutish History

by Michelle Malkin

Creators Syndicate

Copyright 2010

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is just the latest creepy keeper of the Obamacare enemies list. The White House has been keeping tabs on individual and corporate critics of the federal health care takeover for more than a year. It started with the health czar’s Internet Snitch Brigade. Remember?

Last August, the White House Office of Health Reform called on its ground troops to report on fellow citizens who talked smack about the Democratic plan. Team Obama issued an all-points bulletin on the taxpayer-funded White House website soliciting informant e-mails:

“There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.”

Then-health czar office spokeswoman Linda Douglass appeared in an accompanying video singling out conservative Internet powerhouse Matt Drudge. Why? Because his website featured a video compilation of Obama and other Democrats — in their own words — exposing the “public option” as a Trojan Horse for government-run health care and the elimination of private industry.

The Obama dog whistle rang out loud and clear: Report online dissidents immediately.

Calling on the White House to cease and desist, GOP Sen. John Cornyn pointed out that “these actions taken by your White House staff raise the specter of a data collection program. … I can only imagine the level of justifiable outrage had your predecessor asked Americans to forward e-mails critical of his policies to the White House.” The flagging operation was shut down, but a plethora of federal disclosure exemptions protect the Obama administration from revealing what was collected, who was targeted and what was done with the “fishy” database information.

In February, the White House coordinated a demonization campaign against Anthem Blue Cross in California for raising rates. Obama singled out the company in a “60 Minutes” interview, and Sebelius sent a nasty-gram demanding that Anthem “justify” its rate hikes to the federal government. A private company trying to survive in the marketplace was forced to “explain” itself to federal bureaucrats and career politicians who have never run a business (successful or otherwise) in their lives. Sebelius went even further. She called on Anthem to provide public disclosure on how the rate increases would be spent — a mandate that no other private companies must follow.

We already have a federal pay czar requiring companies to justify their pay raises and claiming authority to claw back bonuses already paid. Will the White House next demand that other businesses — not just health insurers — justify price increases deemed unreasonable, excessive or “extraordinary”?

On Capitol Hill, Democratic chief inquisitor Henry Waxman trained his sights on executives from Deere, Caterpillar, Verizon and AT&T in a brass-knuckled effort to silence companies speaking out about the cost implications and financial burdens of Obamacare. He scheduled an April 21 show trial of corporate heads who dutifully reported writedowns related to the Obamacare mandates. Obama Commerce Secretary Gary Locke joined in on the witch-hunt, pummeling the companies on the White House blog and TV airwaves for their “premature” and “irresponsible” disclosures.

After the Democrats’ own congressional staff pointed out that the companies “acted properly and in accordance with accounting standards” in submitting filings that were required by law, Waxman called off the hounds. But it was a temporary reprieve. Sebelius’ threat last week against individual market health insurers who raise rates to cope with new federal coverage mandates will be far from this desperate administration’s last.

As health costs skyrocket, doctors abandon the profession, hospitals lay off workers and private insurers shut down, the only way to quell the Obamacare backlash will be through an even more thuggish campaign to demonize, marginalize and silence nationwide dissent.

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Editor’s Note: On the right, please watch our exclusive interview with Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, and then below, please read an original guest blog to The Foundry from the Governor himself.

We’ve been through a global recession. Now we’re fighting through a stalled recovery. Revenues are the lowest they’ve been in half a century. Their finances a wreck, many states have effectively sunk into bankruptcy.

Indiana is still afloat. In fact, we’ve fared better than most. We continue to meet our obligations without raising taxes, and the reserves we carefully built and protected will get us through the downturn.

But as if we did not already have enough on our plates, the passage and implementation of Obamacare presents us with a whole new set of challenges and a costly to-do list.

id="more-41858">I note with special sadness that first and foremost amongst the bill’s consequences will be the probable demise of the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP). This program is currently providing health insurance to 50,000 low-income Hoosiers. With its Health Savings Account-style personal accounts and numerous incentives for healthy lifestyle choices, it has been enormously popular and successful.

Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid, soon to cover one in every four citizens, will not only scoop up most of HIP’s participants, but will also cost the state between $3.1 and $3.9 billion over the next decade. It is hard to see how my successors as governor will be able to avoid a steep state tax increase to pay for it. Meanwhile, our medical device companies and small businesses will shed jobs as they wrestle with the taxes and penalties levied to help finance Washington’s “reforms.”

Of course, it’s a misnomer to even refer to this as “reform.” It doesn’t reform anything. Instead, it perpetuates and magnifies all the worst aspects of our current system: fee for service reimbursement, “free” to the purchaser consumption, and an irrationally expensive medical liability tort system. It’s a sure recipe for yet more overconsumption and overspending.

There were better options.

Since my election, my state coworkers have had the choice of Health Savings Accounts in lieu of traditional health care plans. The first year this option was made available, some 4 percent of us signed up for it. Six years later, more than 70 percent of our 30,000 state workers have opted for the personal account.

This trend has had a startlingly positive effect on costs for both employees and the state. State employees enrolled in the consumer-driven plan saved more than $8 million in 2010 compared to their coworkers in the old-fashioned preferred provider organization (PPO) alternative. Indiana will save at least $20 million in 2010 because of our high HSA enrollment.

It has also been the source of significant changes in behavior, as state workers with the HSA visit emergency rooms less frequently and are more likely to use generic drugs than co-workers with traditional health care. Hoosiers enrolled in HIP have experienced similar changes in behavior with generic drugs now accounting for 84 percent of all prescriptions used by enrollees.

This is a sharp contrast to the prevalent model of health plans in this country that encourage individuals to buy health care on someone else’s credit card. What seems free will always be overconsumed, compared to the choices a normal consumer would make. Hence our plan’s immense savings.

The condescension of the “reformers” is misplaced. It turns out that typical Americans are neither too dense nor too intimidated to make sound decisions about their own health. This is, of course, a fact that national policy makers sadly ignored during their overhaul of our health are system. Now the rest of us are left to pick up the pieces.

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Scripting <b>News</b>: Yes, Virginia, there are two ways to read RSS

The kind of flow almost everyone agrees is suited to River of News are feeds from news orgs like Reuters, the BBC and Guardian, AP, the Washington Post. They're constantly publishing links to stories, many of them different views of the ...

Would You Pay for Online <b>News</b> Content? « Internet Nut

It cannot be denied that newspaper circulation and the rate of real media advertising is on the decline. As more and more people turn to modern technology and.

PressThink: &quot;Where&#39;s the Business Model for <b>News</b>, People?&quot;

Rants, links, blog news, and breaking wisdom from Jeff Jarvis, former editor, magazine launcher, TV critic, now a J-professor at CUNY. Always on top of new media things. Prolific, fast, frequently dead on, and a pal of mine. ...

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From Hotline (HT: Mataconis):

O'Donnell, a perennial conservative candidate in Delaware, is challenging moderate Rep. Mike Castle (R), the clear favorite of the GOP establishment. But she has come under fire recently for her personal financial problems. Reports have surfaced that she owed $10K in back taxes, defaulted on her mortgage and holds outstanding campaign debt.

Levi Russell, a spokesman for the group, told Hotline On Call that the group was not aware of O'Donnell's personal financial problems before it endorsed her.

"We don't know the exact situation," he said.

When asked if the group discussed the issues with O'Donnell, Russell responded: "No we haven't. We don't really have any contact with the campaign or the candidate."

We have blogged before reasons why we support Mike Castle over O'Donnell. But this report raises even more questions, such as:

1. If the Tea Party really stands for fiscal conservatism, why would they endorse somebody who can't even manage her personal finances?


2. Does it give you confidence in the Tea Party that they go around endorsing people without having any contact with the candidate? How do they know that this female version of Harold Stassen is really worthy of such an endorsement?


3. Christine O'Donnell has run for office 4 times. Her sole victory was an uncontested Republican primary.


4. In 2008, O'Donnell lost the Delaware senate race to Joe Biden by 65-35. She later falsely claimed to have won two counties in that race. Biden's percentage of the vote in 2008 was the largest of any of his senatorial campaigns.


5. In 2008, one of the great Democratic landslides, Mike Castle beat his Democratic challenger for Delaware's sole Congressional seat by 23 points. Castle has won 13 consecutive state-wide races as a candidate either for Governor or Congressman. He's way ahead of the Democrat in the polls while O'Donnell trails the Democrat by 10 points.

As a student of Delaware corporate governance, I am firmly convinced that Delaware needs quality representation in Congress if it is to fend off the creeping federalization of corporate law. As a big tent Republican, I'm inclined to support smart, electable, centrists like Mike Castle over someone like O'Donnell. The perfect must not be allowed to become the enemy of the good. Especially when the supposed perfect candidate is pretty seriously flawed and probably unelectable.

Quicken Online users will be able to manually import certain account data into Mint.com by adding Quicken Online as an account in Mint. Quicken also encourages existing customers to export their Quicken Online data as a CSV file for backup purposes. All transaction and account data will be wiped from Intuit's servers beginning on August 29.

One group for whom this transition might be a challenge is the small business users of Quicken Online, who will no longer be able to access the Web component of Quicken's Home & Business product.

Since Mint.com is geared toward personal finance, it does not currently offer a way to differeniate between personal and business transactions. For that, business customers still looking to manage their finances online might want to consider alternatives like InDinero or Outright.

The desktop versions of Quicken's products will not be affected by the change.

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Pew: Online <b>News</b> Use Growing But Traditional Methods Hanging In <b>...</b>

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With so many options, risks and complicated strategies, smart investments are not an easy thing to do. FutureAdvisor is a personal investment advisor that helps you with managing and optimizing your investment portfolio by providing in-depth analysis, forecasts and saving tips.

Once you synchronize your brokerage and retirement accounts to FutureAdvisor it tells you if you are on track to retire at your desired age and how your portfolio would fluctuate if market performance changes. You also get tips on how to diversify your portfolio, save money by investing in similar lower-fees mutual funds and build a portfolio customized to your exact needs. FutureAdvisor also lets you work out different scenarios for an early or late retirement.

Features:

• Get personal investment advice.
• Helps to optimize your investment portfolio.
• Get tips on asset allocation, cost savings and good investments.
• See an in-depth analysis and forecast based on your needs.
• Completely secure synchronization to your investment accounts.
• Get tips to retire early with smart investment strategies.

Visit FutureAdvisor at www.futureadvisor.com [Via class="vt-p">LifeHacker]

If you are having a tough time understanding the nitty gritty of your mortgage, like the total interest you’ll end up paying and the monthly payments you’ll need to make, then you might as well use this simple web based tool called the AmortizationLoanCalculator.

It asks you for the principal loan amount, the loan term and the annual interest rate and returns a table that’s an amortization schedule showing your periodic payments, what part of it is going towards paying the principal and the interest, and the overall interest you pay in the lifetime of the mortgage.

As you can see in the above screenshot, the table is pretty easy understand. The C Prin and C Int stand for cumulative principal and cumulative interest respectively.

Features

• Online calculator for calculating loan payments and interest.
• Simple interface; no sign up required.
• Enter the principal amount, loan term and annual interest rate.
• Amortization schedule with cumulative rates and amounts displayed.

Check out AmortizationLoanCalculator @ amortizationloancalculator.net/index.php (By Abhijeet from Guiding Tech)

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With so many options, risks and complicated strategies, smart investments are not an easy thing to do. FutureAdvisor is a personal investment advisor that helps you with managing and optimizing your investment portfolio by providing in-depth analysis, forecasts and saving tips.

Once you synchronize your brokerage and retirement accounts to FutureAdvisor it tells you if you are on track to retire at your desired age and how your portfolio would fluctuate if market performance changes. You also get tips on how to diversify your portfolio, save money by investing in similar lower-fees mutual funds and build a portfolio customized to your exact needs. FutureAdvisor also lets you work out different scenarios for an early or late retirement.

Features:

• Get personal investment advice.
• Helps to optimize your investment portfolio.
• Get tips on asset allocation, cost savings and good investments.
• See an in-depth analysis and forecast based on your needs.
• Completely secure synchronization to your investment accounts.
• Get tips to retire early with smart investment strategies.

Visit FutureAdvisor at www.futureadvisor.com [Via class="vt-p">LifeHacker]

If you are having a tough time understanding the nitty gritty of your mortgage, like the total interest you’ll end up paying and the monthly payments you’ll need to make, then you might as well use this simple web based tool called the AmortizationLoanCalculator.

It asks you for the principal loan amount, the loan term and the annual interest rate and returns a table that’s an amortization schedule showing your periodic payments, what part of it is going towards paying the principal and the interest, and the overall interest you pay in the lifetime of the mortgage.

As you can see in the above screenshot, the table is pretty easy understand. The C Prin and C Int stand for cumulative principal and cumulative interest respectively.

Features

• Online calculator for calculating loan payments and interest.
• Simple interface; no sign up required.
• Enter the principal amount, loan term and annual interest rate.
• Amortization schedule with cumulative rates and amounts displayed.

Check out AmortizationLoanCalculator @ amortizationloancalculator.net/index.php (By Abhijeet from Guiding Tech)

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The Mahablog » Today&#39;s Entertainment <b>News</b>

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