Nice Talk, But Will Action Follow?

Top Muslim president calls for peace jihad at summit

The leader of the world's most populous Muslim nation called Friday for a jihad of peace to spark an "Islamic Renaissance", at a summit where leaders struggled to agree reforms to the main international Islamic group.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for greater democracy and efforts to improve the plight of Muslims and spread Islamic values, in a speech to the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) summit.

"The possibility of an Islamic Renaissance lies before us," Yudhoyono told the summit, but first, he added: "We need to get our act together as an organisation of Muslim nations.

"When the Islamic Renaissance comes it will be the natural fruit of a peaceful and constructive 'jihad'."

Ah, if only, if only!

Previously here:

Ever Read Any Muslim Articles?
Two Interesting Quotes

I Don't Need Any More Stuff

By John Aloysius Farrell

I was cruising the aisles at Costco yesterday when it occurred to me: I don't need any more stuff.

Ipod. Flat Screen. Gap wedge. MacBook.

Check. Got it. Yup. Okay.

Don't need no more DVDs. Won't have time before the grave to read the books I've bought. The 96 Mustang convertible still runs good. And if my Luccheses get worn in the sole, I'll haul 'em to a cobbler.

I suppose, if I came into some real money, I could take up a hobby, like scuba spearfishing, in some exotic locale. Or ditch the Mustang for an older, classic version. Or learn the fine points of costly wines and art.

But that won't put folks back to work in Michigan, or keep them at their jobs in Shanghai.

We in the US of A have had a great run, stuff-wise, in the last 10 or 15 years. Our tools and toys got cheap, as our houses soared in value.

We had outlet malls and on-line businesses bidding with retailers for our bucks. Whole industries - recorded music, movie rentals, newspapers - collapsed from the relentless, technology-fueled, downward push on prices. With cheap money, we bought more cars and computers and phones and televisions than we know what to do with.

So it's real easy, now that we hear the economy is slumping, to cut back on non-essentials. What is out there that we'll really miss?

Which is all a little worrisome. What is going to pull us out of the slump? The stock market took a jolt this week when word reached Wall Street that we've just stopped buying. Will China be as docile, or the world as stable, if we lose our jones for cheap fashion, toys and gizmos?

We'll still need doctors and grocery stores and blue jeans and sneakers and, I suppose, the odd book at Christmas or tie on Father's Day.

But the big consumer boom may be over. There is only so much stuff we can digest. Who knows what will happen? Maybe we'll get more spiritual, maybe we'll just get mean.

It's not just the bubble in housing that's burst, it's also the bubble in baubles.

High-level al-Qaida figure is captured

By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Authorities have captured a high-level al-Qaida figure who helped Osama bin Laden escape from Afghanistan in 2001, the Pentagon announced Friday.
Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to say when or where Mohammad Rahim was captured — or by whom — announcing only that he was handed over by the CIA to the Pentagon earlier this week and is being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But in a memo obtained by The Associated Press, CIA Director Michael Hayden told agency employees that Rahim was detained last summer, and he suggested Rahim was not captured by American authorities.

Read the rest:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080314/ap_on_go_ca_st_
pe/pentagon_al_qaida;_ylt=AjrtDglUWQ5vQsRWMOiZQ4.s0NUE
 

Fox Interactive: We're Making Our Own Video Search Tool

News Corp.'s (NWS) Web group is building out its own video search tool, an exec told the McGraw-Hill Media Summit today.

Ron Berryman, who runs the Fox Stations Group at Fox Interactive Media, says FIM is building new search capabilities to supplement its current tools, which can only find video that has been labeled with metadata tags. Since there are only a handful of tags for each video, searchers often can't find what they need.

It's a common complaint among video execs: Yesterday a Google official said his company was trying to move beyond tag-based search for YouTube.

Berryman also said that while FIM is committed to streaming TV shows on the Web, right now it's a money-losing proposition for the company: Streaming costs are too high, and there isn't enough ad inventory to cover them, he said.

"Today you have just the pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll," he said. "If you stay in that mode it won't work."

"You can have 700,000 viewers, but if you're only putting in five spots, the revenue, the CPMs, aren't going to be there," he said. "We are not making money on it today." He added, partly in jest: "Rupert has given us 48 hours" to work it out.

Berryman predicted that streaming would remain unprofitable until the cost of distribution comes down to the 4 cent to 5 cent per stream range. He said currently FIM is paying 9 cents to stream a show, but didn't specify what length he was talking about.