As some of you will know I co-founded a media network called Negative Penguin Media in late 2005 / early 2006 and since then we have hit some major speed bumps including not launching until half way through this year due to website delays and even now we are in no way happy with the current state of the website. Not only that but we have had trouble getting organised in the way of programming. However of late things have improved significantly we have reduced the size of our team and in doing that only kept committed management. We have also made sure we keep a small amount of podcasts on our lineup and hope to improve them over time.
We have also launched a number of things unfortunately another network likes to pick up our ideas and use it themselves but thats OK as that just shows we are innovative and lead not follow. So now as we approach our first anniversary of the founding of the group we have huge changes in the works. We shall launch a brand spanking new site around January. It is being almost totally rebuilt and should finally break through the problems we have had with the base we have been working on. We are also restructuring the company entirely I cannot say what that entails until everything is final but it involves alot of changes (possibly a name change of sorts). We hope these initiatives will boost our outlook and performance. We are also looking for a new management position to be filled. If interested email us. I believe we can stake our territory in the podcast market, however it is a uphill battle.
Seeing as my blogs first anniversary is just 5 days away (25th November) I have updated the blog design and fixed up the back-end. I hope you like it. I wanted to go for a minimalist stylish look.
What a depressing week it has been, as Australian’s and NZ folks would know TV talk-show host Rove McManus is mourning the death of his actress/singer Wife’s Belinda Emmett’s death. As a fan and someone who runs a Rove Live news site this is terribly sad news. As it is to a large amount of Australians as visible in tributes by many famous Australians and an out pouring of support from ordinary Australians.
Belinda Emmett was a vibrant and talented actress and singer and was terribly struck down with Cancer for many years before finally loosing the battle Saturday morning. My thoughts are with Rove and his family and after having family experiences with Cancer I know how much a terrible and unforgiving disease it is.
Rove is usually an upbeat personality and seeing him inconsolable is such an unusual experience and you just have to feel for the guy so much.
Skype 3.0 Beta has been released. If your not aware what Skype is check out it’s Wikipedia entry. Anyways the new Beta contains some excellent new features including new plugins and so far my favorite is Pamela Call Recorder which I believe like most of these can be downloaded seperately. The quality is quite good although only one track as far as I can see is used it does sound good and fine for most purposes. Especially for what I will use it for.
The User interface has also been improved with a shiny new interface and bigger buttons. Web 2.0 Anyone? Also new are public chatrooms which allow text chats with many people to be public so they can be joined more easily. Unlike private group chats. Nice new feature if you ask me. It seems good so far and a vast improvement over 2.5. Currently only available for Windows check it out here.
The federal government’s “no sex without marriage” message isn’t just for kids anymore.
Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.
The government says the change is a clarification. But critics say it’s a clear signal of a more directed policy targeting the sexual behavior of adults.
“They’ve stepped over the line of common sense,” said James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit that supports sex education. “To be preaching abstinence when 90% of people are having sex is in essence to lose touch with reality. It’s an ideological campaign. It has nothing to do with public health.”
Abstinence education programs, which have focused on preteens and teens, teach that abstaining from sex is the only effective or acceptable method to prevent pregnancy or disease. They give no instruction on birth control or safe sex. The National Center for Health Statistics says well over 90% of adults ages 20-29 have had sexual intercourse.
But Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the Department of Health and Human Services, said the revision is aimed at 19- to 29-year-olds because more unmarried women in that age group are having children.
Government data released last month show that 998,262 births in 2004 were to unmarried women 19-29, the ages with the most births to unmarried women.
Abstinence message goes beyond teens.
This will work won’t it? For goodness sakes since when is it the governments job to assist adults in sexual decisions. What happened to the separation of church and state? Did that die when the Republicans were elected or did everyone just forget about it? If your religion practices this thats fine and good but when the Government becomes involved they’re stepping way over the line.
