NewsScan Daily, 2 December 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 2 December 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"
        Microsoft Launches Free Blogging Service
        'Blog' Heads the List of Most-Looked-Up Word for 2004
        Subscription-Based Music Will Drive Sales
        ESPN to Kick Off Wireless Phone Service Next Year
        LG Philips Plans $5-Billion Flat-Panel TV Factory

FEATURES
        Flash Card
        Worth Thinking About: Etiquette and Penmanship

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES FREE BLOGGING SERVICE
      Microsoft launched a free consumer-oriented "blogging" service called 
MSN Spaces, which provides a platform and tools for the creation of 
personal Web logs (blogs) that include pictures, music and text. Users will 
be allowed to post as much as 10 megabytes of digital images -- the 
equivalent of 250 photos -- to their site, and will have the option of 
sharing it with a select group of contacts or with the general public. 
Microsoft's move comes in response to similar services offered by rivals: 
AOL offers a service called Journals and Google last year bought Pyra Labs, 
which runs the Blogger service. In addition, several independent Web sites 
such as LiveJournal.com also offer blogging services. (Wall Street Journal 
2 Dec 2004)
<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110194455538888633,00.html> (sub req'd)

'BLOG' HEADS THE LIST OF MOST-LOOKED-UP WORD FOR 2004
      U.S. dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster says "blog" topped the list 
of  most looked-up terms on its Web site during the last 12 months. The 
word will now appear in the 2005 print version of Merriam-Webster's 
dictionary, defined as "a Web site that contains an online personal journal 
with reflections, comments and often hyperlinks." However, Oxford 
University Press says "blog" is already included in some print versions of 
its Oxford English Dictionary and has entered mainstream usage. "I think it 
was the word of last year rather than this year," says an Oxford U. Press 
spokesman. "Now we're getting words that derive from it such as 
'blogosphere' and so on." According to the Pew Internet & American Life 
project, a blog is created every 5.8 seconds, and blog analysis firm 
Technorati estimates that the number of blogs in existence now exceeds 4.8 
million. Other top 10 terms on the Merriam-Webster list were related to 
natural disasters that struck the U.S. this year ("hurricane" and "cicada") 
and the election ("partisan," "incumbent" and "electoral"). (BBC News 1 
December 2004)
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4059291.stm>

SUBSCRIPTION-BASED MUSIC WILL DRIVE SALES
      Subscription-based digital music services, such as the revamped 
Napster and RealNetworks' Rhapsody, are gaining in popularity among young 
adults (those aged 18- to 24-years), and a new report from JupiterResearch 
predicts that such services eventually will outgrow the a la carte song 
downloads that are favored by younger music fans (13- to 17-year-olds). The 
survey results also showed that CDs won't be replaced by digital music 
sales any time soon -- even as far out as 2009, digital music sales are 
projected to comprise just 12% of total consumer music spending. About half 
of the adults polled believe that music recorded on a physical disc is more 
valuable than digital. "CDs offer higher sound fidelity, aren't burdened 
with awkward copy protection and are compatible with pretty much every way 
people listen to music," says Jupiter analyst David Card. "MP3 players and 
portable rentals could turn around that value perception, but it will take 
time." (CNet News.com 1 Dec 2004)
<http://news.com.com/Study+Subscription+services+to+drive+digital+music/2100-1027_3-5473153.html>

ESPN TO KICK OFF WIRELESS PHONE SERVICE NEXT YEAR
      ESPN says it will launch its own branded wireless phone service next 
year, dubbed ESPN Mobile. The service, which represents the first in a 
series of branded cell phone services planned by ESPN-owner Walt Disney 
Co., will lease space on Sprint's nationwide PCS network. ESPN Mobile will 
be marketing its own handsets, accessories and applications, including 
access to sports headlines, photos, ringtones and streaming audio and video 
over Sprint's high-speed data network. (1 Dec 2004)
<http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041201/D86N1KKO0.html>

LG PHILIPS PLANS $5-BILLION FLAT-PANEL TV FACTORY
      The LG Philips LCD Company, a joint venture of LG Electronics of 
South Korea and Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands, is planning 
to build a $5.1-billion plant to produce large (42-inch and 47-inch) liquid 
crystal display (LCD) television sets. LG Philips, which is the world's 
second largest maker of LCD TVs, plans to begin mass production of its new 
line in the first half of 2006. The companies hope to process 45,000 sheets 
of glass a month during the first half of 2006, increasing to 90,000 sheets 
a month later on. The market for LCD TVs is expected to grow 21%, to $43 
billion, in 2005, according to market research firm DisplaySearch. (New 
York Times 2 Dec 2004)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/02/business/worldbusiness/02lcd.html>

*****

FLASH CARD
      "A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait." 
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

WORTH THINKING ABOUT: ETIQUETTE AND PENMANSHIP
      In his biography of George Washington, author Joseph J. Ellis calls 
into question the conventional wisdom about the first president's Rules of 
Civility:
      "Several biographers have called attention to his hand-copied list of 
110 precepts from The Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and 
Conversation, which was based on rules of etiquette originally composed by 
Jesuit scholars in 1595. Several of the rules are hilarious (#9, 'Spit not 
into the fire ... especially if there be meat before it'; #13, 'Kill no 
vermin, or fleas, lice, ticks, etc. in the sight of others'); but the first 
rule also seems to have had resonance for Washington's later obsession with 
deportment: 'Every action done in company ought to be done with some sign 
of respect to those that are present.' As a reminder of an earlier era's 
conviction that character was not just who you were but also what others 
thought you were, this is a useful point that foreshadows Washington's 
flair for disappearing within his public persona. But the more prosaic 
truth is that Rules of Civility has attracted so much attention from 
biographers because it is one of the few documents of Washington's youth 
that has survived. It is quite possible that he copied out the list as a 
mere exercise in penmanship."
                               ***
[Source: Joseph J. Ellis, "His Excellency"; to find a library copy of 
Ellis's "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation," visit RLG's 
RedLightGreen.com: 
<http://www.redlightgreen.com/ucwprod/servlet/ucw.servlets.UCWController?ACTION=EDITION&WORKID=12083767&> 
-- or to purchase a copy of his "His Excellency" go to: 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1400040310/newsscancom/ref=nosim> 
Note: We donate all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy 
programs.]


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