Saturday, November 21, 2009

“Broadcom’s McGregor on OC: ‘Culture of Creativity’ - Orange County Business Journal” plus 4 more

“Broadcom’s McGregor on OC: ‘Culture of Creativity’ - Orange County Business Journal” plus 4 more

Broadcom’s McGregor on OC: ‘Culture of Creativity’ - Orange County Business Journal

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 08:33 PM PST

When Scott McGregor first was tapped to run Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp., he said he couldn't find Orange County on a map.

"To be honest, we didn't quite know where OC was," McGregor told a crowd of more than 100 businesspeople and high school students at the nonprofit Orange County Forum a few weeks ago. "I came to Orange County with my wife a little less than five years ago and we sort of thought it was LA. But we've found that it's definitely not LA."

The soft-spoken executive gave a talk that addressed different perceptions of OC, including a big one that's sometimes overlooked—that the coun-ty's a great place to do business.

"OC has had a tradition and a history of really providing a great environment for business—strong education and the entrepreneurial character of all the people in the area," he said. "We have a culture of creativity and innovation, everything from chip design, finance, car design and fashion."

Before becoming Broadcom's chief executive, McGregor ran the chip arm of Royal Philips Electronics NV in the Netherlands.

Living in Europe "was a very interesting experience as an American," he said. "To be the alien in a different culture where you don't speak the language and where you are the outsider is an interesting experience that many Americans don't get to have."

McGregor talked up Broadcom's practice of hiring engineers and workers with higher degrees as one way to "keep that entrepreneurial spirit going" at the maturing company, which makes chips that go into networking gear, cell phones, set-top boxes and consumer electronics.

"It's against this backdrop that Broadcom has grown from a very small startup to a leadership position in a number of markets today," he said.

Ingram Deal

Santa Ana's Ingram Micro Inc., the largest distributor of computers, software and consumer electronics, inked a deal that's set to help its resellers push networking gear made by Cisco Systems Inc.

Ingram signed a contract with Cisco that "standardizes terms and conditions across all regions," Ingram said.

Ingram Micro, which has yearly sales of about $30 billion, is the biggest distributor of Cisco products. The company provides Cisco networking products to technology consultants that install and service them.

The "new global contract with Cisco allows our resale partners to take full advantage of business opportunities on a worldwide scale," said Ken Bast, vice president of vendor management. "Now, our customers will be able to expand into new markets, as well as support their existing global clients with quicker product availability, which will ultimately shorten their sell cycle and positively impact their balance sheets."

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A Culture of Denial - ZNet

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 08:33 PM PST

The upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference next month represents a tremendous possibility for the U.S. and the rest of the world to seriously commit to sustainable development.  Many questions still surround the Obama administration and whether it is willing to support the needed cuts in CO2 emissions in order to avert climate change disaster.  As the follow up to the Kyoto Protocol, Copenhagen is meant to strengthen European nations' commitment to the development of renewable energy, as well as to bring in countries such as the U.S., India, and China, which to this point, have not made legally binding global commitments to CO2 reductions.

               

The Obama administration has stepped away from the extreme intransigence of the Bush administration, which long refused to concede that global warming is a serious problem.  Obama and Congressional Democrats have made a modest attempt to address climate change with their support for "Cap and Trade" legislation, despite the consistent efforts of Republicans to derail the initiative.  Current legislation in the House of Representatives and Senate, opposed by Republicans, will commit the U.S. to a 17-20 percent decline in greenhouse gases by 2020 (from 2005 levels), and a planned reduction by more than 80 percent by 2050.  Such cuts, although a marked break from the Bush administration's intransigence, fall short of the demands of environmental NGOs, environmental groups, and scientists who call for a 40 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2020.  Cap and Trade has also been criticized for failing to offer a comprehensive vision for the future for how to wean Americans off of the carbon economy, and for failing to address the underlying tension between economic dogmas that assume limitless resources and endless growth on the one hand, and demands for sustainable development on the other. 

 

One of the greatest obstacles to fighting climate change is the culture of ignorance and denial surrounding the science of global warming in the United States.  First the good news: as of October of 2009, 57 percent of Americans feel that there's "solid evidence of global warming," while 65 percent think that global warming is a "very serious or somewhat serious problem."  The bad news is that just 36 percent of Americans - barely more than a third of the country - believes that global warming is taking place "because of human activity."  Even worse, the percentage of Americans who believe that global warming is occurring has declined in recent years.  According to the Pew Research Center, although 57 percent of respondents believe there was evidence of global warming as of 2009, that figure has declined from a high of 77 percent of Americans from 2006 to 2007 - a full 20 percent drop in just two years!

 

Scholars are left to wonder, just what is it that accounts for the increasing ignorance of the American public?  The scientific consensus on global warming certainly has not changed in the last few years.  Scientists continue to agree that global temperatures are closely indexed to CO2 concentrations, and that such concentrations are currently at an all time high for recorded human history.  Scientists also agree that the earth has gotten warmer in recent decades (by about one degree Celsius, with another .6 degrees of warming probably unavoidable), and that much of this warming is the result of human activity.  Furthermore, scientists from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warn that if CO2 emissions are not brought under control, it could spell disaster for humankind.  At the current concentration of more than 380 CO2 parts per million in the atmosphere, IPCC scientists warn that the manageable level of risk from CO2 emissions should not grow beyond 450 parts per million, and that action must be taken immediately so that a "peak and decline" in emissions is reached within the next 10 to 15 years.  The IPCC predicts that, if world temperatures increase uncontrollably (for example, by as much as 3.5 degrees Celsius in coming decades), that it could lead to the extinction of between 40 to 70 percent of species worldwide.  Other predictions include the flooding of coastal areas, the mass extinction of coral reefs, the melting of the polar ice caps, and an increase in global drought, among other developments.

 

So what are the major barriers to overcoming public ignorance about the dangers of global warming?  My own review of the Pew Research Center data suggests a number of culprits.  Statistical analysis reveals that some demographic groups are systematically more likely to reject the consensus that global warming is real.  These groups include: older Americans (as compared to the young), Republicans and Conservatives (as compared to Democrats and Liberals), whites as compared to non-whites, men as compared to women, born again Christians, and the wealthy.  Many of these variables have one major thing in common: privilege.  In general, privileged Americans are more likely to be ignorant about the dangers of global warming than those who are less privileged.  This shouldn't be all that surprising, considering that America's economic and political elites have benefitted from an unsustainable economic system for decades - one that has presided over the degradation of the natural environment in the pursuit of profit and greed. 

 

The sad reality today is that our capitalist economic system has blinded America's privileged elites to the dangers that their actions pose to humankind.  Equally problematic is the industry that's sprung up in the American press that's dedicated to questioning the scientific consensus on global warming. 

 

The power of the mass media to actively foster ignorance should not be underestimated.  Environmental advocates such as Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio have made major contributions to the public consciousness on global warming with documentaries such as An Inconvenient Truth and 11th Hour.  However, the backlash against these efforts has been just as dramatic.  Conservative radio and television lead the way in the global warming denying, flat-earther crusade.  A brief review of conservatives' attack on science is illuminating:

 

Bill O'Reilly: On the science of global warming - "Who knows?  It's all guesswork, and I'll leave the definitive word to the deity...As you may know, global warming is cyclical, and right now is the focus of a ferocious debate."

 

Rush Limbaugh: "Scientists are being intimidated if they disagree with the idea that burning fossil fuels has increased carbon dioxide levels.  The earth has not been warming since 1998, and this year (2009) is colder than the previous year.  It's cooling.  This is not anecdotal.  It's scientific, temperature research surveys.  We are actually cooling.  We're having record cold temperatures in over two-thirds of the country and throughout the Northern Hemisphere this winter!"

 

Sean Hannity: "You know what's funny?  I see how the whole global warming debate, everyone's politicized the whole thing.  It's funny.  If you look at the industry of temperatures, there's a natural ebb and flow to all of this."

 

Glenn Beck: "Al Gore's not going to be rounding up Jews and exterminating them.  It is the same tactic, however.  The goal is different.  The goal is globalization.  The goal is global carbon tax.  The goal is the U.N. running the world.  Back in the 1930s, the goal was to get rid of all of the Jews and have one global government...You got to have an enemy to fight.  And when you have an enemy to fight, then you can unite the entire world behind you, and you seize power.  That was Hitler's plan.  His enemy: the Jew.  Al Gore's enemy, the U.N.'s enemy: global warming."

 

 

As recent studies demonstrate, conservative media pundits enjoy a tremendous reach when it comes to perverting public debate on the environment.  Of the more than 220 million Americans who are over 18, an estimated 50 million, or 22 percent, listen to talk radio every week.  According to the Center for American Progress, over 90 percent of talk radio is dominated by conservatives, translating into a massive audience for climate deniers.  Additionally, the Pew Research Center estimates that 23 percent of Americans (or 52 million people) count themselves as regular Fox News viewers.  Fox enjoys a following from across the political spectrum, as 49 percent of its viewers are either Republicans or lean toward the Republican Party, whereas 39 percent are either Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party.

 

The power of the climate denying industry does not end with conservative media either.  Scholarly studies find that climate skeptics receive significant attention throughout most mainstream media outlets.  A recent study by scholars Jules and Max Boykoff finds that reporting in elite newspapers from the late 1980s through the post-2000 period regularly included the claims of global warming skeptics alongside scientists' warnings.  53 percent of articles provided equal attention to conclusions that "humans contribute to global warming and that climate change is the result of natural fluctuations." 35 percent of stories stressed the role of humans while presenting "both sides" of the debate, whereas just six percent of stories provided only the scientific consensus that humans are responsible for global warming.

 

The practice of placing global warming skeptics - who are often conservative think tank pundits or representatives from fossil-fuel based industries - on par with scientists in terms of their credibility is referred to as "false balancing."  False balancing mistakenly provides the impression to readers that "the experts" seriously disagree on global warming.  As veteran reporter Ross Gelbspan explains, "The professional cannon of journalistic fairness requires reporters who write about a controversy to present competing points of view.  When the issue is of a political or social nature, fairness - presenting the most compelling arguments of both sides with equal weight - is a fundamental check on biased reporting.  But this canon causes problems when it is applied to issues of science.  It seems to demand that journalists present competing points of view on a scientific question as though they had equal scientific weight, when they actually do not."

 

The negative effects of false balancing, superficial coverage, and conservative attacks on global warming science are entirely predictable.  Communication scholar Kris Wilson finds that those who rely on television news (a traditionally shallow medium) retain "less cognitive knowledge about greenhouse gases and atmospheric gases...very few of these respondents are equipped with global warming knowledge to partake in global warming public policy" debates.  Another study by Professors Jessica Durfee and Julie Corbett finds that readers who are exposed to articles that discuss global warming as controversial are less certain about the reality of global warming than those who follow news stories providing a context for the scientific consensus.

 

Media propaganda may not be the only cause of global warming ignorance.  The Pew Research Center speculates that the recent economic collapse may have diverted public attention away from global warming in recent years, and that recent downturns in temperature in nine states (during the summer of 2009) may have played some role.  Such explanations, however, are rather limited in their explanatory power if one fails to take into account the effects of media in fostering ignorance.

 

There is hope for those who wish to challenge climate change deniers.  As my statistical analysis of the Pew data suggests, increased education plays a major role in decreasing public ignorance about global warming.  Progressives share major responsibility for educating fellow Americans about the scientific consensus on climate change.  While conservative radio, T.V., and think tanks may enjoy a privileged economic position in the mass media, progressives can take advantage of their power in numbers, in addition to the support of the scientific community, in challenging global warming distortions.  The very fate of the Copenhagen meeting and the planet are in the balance.

 

 

 

Anthony DiMaggio teaches U.S. and Global Politics at Illinois State University.  He is the author of Mass Media, Mass Propaganda: Examining American News in the "War on Terror" (2008) and the forthcoming When Media Goes to War: Hegemonic Discourse, Public Opinion, and the Limits of Dissent (February 2010, Monthly Review Press).  He can be reached: adimagg@ilstu.edu

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Wildlife event draws thousands - Thomasville Times-Enterprise

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 07:58 PM PST

Published November 21, 2009 11:11 pm -

Wildlife event draws thousands


Patti Dozier

THOMASVILLE — A photograph of a white goat's face peering through a fence was among Shannon Thompson's photography on exhibit Saturday at the Plantation Wildlife Arts Festival at Thomasville Cultural Center.

Nearby was a photo on canvas of two cheetahs. The artwork appeared to be a painting. What looked like a fog-like haze surrounding the big cats was a dust storm, Thompson explained.

Another photo was of an elephant giving itself a dirt bath via its trunk.

Yet another photo Thompson shot in Africa is of a lilac-breasted roller. The pastel-hued bird sits atop a weathered, worn fence post in Tanzania.

This is Thompson's first year exhibiting in the festival.

When she isn't traveling around Africa shooting photos of wildlife, Thompson, a Camilla resident, manages a sweet-corn business belonging to her father, Joe Thompson.

Africa offers Thompson many photographic opportunities. Patience is required in waiting for the shot and in sorting through many, many shots to find that one stand-out photo, she explained.

Another first-time exhibitor was Dexter, Mich., artist, Lauren Kingsley.

"I'm honored to have gotten in," Kingsley said. "It's a great show."

She hand-paints fresh- and salt-water fish, birds and bugs on silk to create exquisite scarves.

Her silk comes from Thailand, China and Vietnam. "No silk is produced in the United States," Kingsley said. She is in the process of trying to acquire silk from Italy.

"I started doing quail this year. I had been doing pheasants and ducks," said Kingsley, owner of The Painted Trout.

Kingsley also offers bandanas, men's ties and other men's clothing, including whimsical cotton boxers with patterns of "blue flies" and "happy fish."

Mike Stephenson of Tallahassee, Fla., admired oil paintings by D. Arthur McBride. The Havana, Fla.,'s art is not new to Stephenson.

During a trip to Panama, he took two photos McBride turned into oil paintings.

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International Emmys to honor David Frost - Modesto Bee

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 08:26 PM PST

The presentation will highlight an evening in which 41 nominees from 17 countries will be competing in 10 categories for International Emmys, honoring excellence in TV programming produced outside the U.S.

British television productions garnered a leading nine nominations, including the long-running MI5 spy series "Spooks" for best drama and the TV talent show parody "Peter Kay's Got the Pop Factor ..." for top comedy.

Mexico's "Capadocia," produced by HBO Latin America, had three nominations. The series set in a fictional women's prison rife with corruption is in contention for best drama, actress (Cecilia Suarez) and actor (Oscar Olivares).

China's "Ultimate Rescue" was a double nominee for best TV movie/mini-series and actor (Chen Li).

Other British nominees include actress Julie Walters for her role in "A Short Stay in Switzerland," inspired by the true story of a woman who took her own life in a Zurich clinic after being diagnosed with an incurable degenerative disease, and Ben Whishaw for his star turn in the thriller "Criminal Justice," about the odyssey of a 21-year-old defendant accused of murder.

Brazil had five nominations, including the comedy "The Slum," followed by the Philippines, Germany and Mexico with three apiece. Thailand had its first-ever nomination for the children's program "Lharn Poo Koo E-Joo."

Paisner said the honorary award to Frost is "long overdue." The Founders Award has been presented annually since 1980 to a person who "crosses cultural boundaries to touch our common humanity."

Frost, 70, first gained prominence on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 1960s as host of the irreverent groundbreaking satirical program "That Was The Week That Was" that lampooned the political establishment.

Frost later turned to more serious interview-based shows. He holds the distinction of having interviewed all seven British prime ministers serving since 1964 as well as all seven U.S. presidents in office between 1969 and 2008. He currently is hosting the weekly program "Frost Over the World" on Al Jazeera English.

"He's had an amazing and unique media career," said Paisner. "One of the really interesting things about David is that he's made a lot of comebacks. I think a lot of people had stopped thinking about him and then (the stage play and Oscar-nominated film) 'Frost/Nixon' appeared and you really saw how good he could be."

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who is German-born, will present the International Emmy Directorate Award to Markus Schachter for his outstanding leadership of Germany's ZDF television network. Paisner said the award was particularly fitting in a year marking both the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Paisner said the three nominations for "Capadocia" reflect a growing trend toward higher quality television production in more countries outside the U.S. "Capadocia" had the budget to spend a week shooting a single episode, compared to the typical Latin American telenovela which would do one episode in a day, Paisner said.

"There are a lot of places where they are producing more and better dramas and they're putting that on the schedule instead of the lower-cost fare that you might have seen 10 years ago," he said.

The other contenders for best drama include "The Land of the Wind" (South Korea), "The Protectors" (Denmark) and "Sokhulu & Partners" (South Africa). The comedy nominees also include "Hoshi Shinichi's Short Shorts" (Japan) and "Turkish for Beginners" (Germany).

Walters and Suarez will be competing in the best actress category with France's Emma De Caunes for "Night Birds" and the Philippines' Angel Locsin for "The Wolf." Robert de Hoog of the Netherlands was the other best actor nominee for his role in "Skin."

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'Manhattan Declaration': U.S. Christians Defend Life, Marriage ... - Catholic Online

Posted: 21 Nov 2009 08:26 PM PST

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews.com) - A group of prominent Christian leaders and scholars unveiled a manifesto Friday declaring firm opposition to current and future laws infringing upon the sanctity of life, marriage, faith, and liberty.

The 4,700-word "Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience" was drafted by Dr. Robert George, Dr. Timothy George and Chuck Colson and signed by more than 125 Orthodox, Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders, including Focus on the Family Dr. James Dobson and National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson. 15 Roman Catholic bishops, including Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., were among the signatories.

The declaration issues a clarion call to Christians to adhere to their convictions and informs civil authorities that the signers will not - under any circumstance - abandon their Christian consciences.

For more information: The Manhattan Declaration

"We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right - and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation - to speak and act in defense of these truths," reads the declaration.

"We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence."

The document lays out the groups' arguments against anti-life, anti-family, and anti-religious public policy as contravening "foundational principles of justice and the common good," in defense of which the group says they are "compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act."

In asserting Christians' right to conscientious objection to such policy, the declaration says it is "ironic" that those who advance as "rights" various immoral practices "are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage."

"Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family," it concludes.

"We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God's."

Co-author Timothy George, who is founding dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and a senior editor of Christianity Today, said the Manhattan Declaration "represents an ecumenism of the trenches that has been going on for a number of years among many denominations and confessional traditions."

"While we recognize that many important differences of doctrine and discipline still divide us, we nonetheless earnestly seek that unity for which Jesus prayed when he asked that his disciples be one in their love for God, for one another, and for the world," said George.

On his radio show BreakPoint Wednesday, Evangelical leader Chuck Colson called the Manhattan Declaration "probably the most important document I've ever signed."

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