Archive for April 13th, 2008
- In: account | Crunchbase | ebay.com | Rocketboom | Twitter | twitter.com
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How much is a Twitter account with nearly 1,500 followers worth? Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron wants to find out, and launches a publicity stunt that will spark a debate about trust and privacy: He’s selling his Twitter account, including the followers. His explanation for the sale:
I really love my Twitter account but I feel like I haven’t been using it the way I want to. Quite honestly, I feel sorry for all of my followers because they wind up with my tweets in their timelines and I haven’t been able to utilize the medium the way I want to. I also participate in another Twitter account over on Rocketboom so I’m thinking I’ll post more over there and start up a new account to do what I want to do next.
It would be silly to just delete this account I have here, especially if there is someone out there that had like interests and had something to say or wanted to get involved in some relevant conversations. In terms of monetary value, I have no expectations or needs at all so I decided not to put a minimum bid on this. Whatever will be, will be.
At the time of writing the current bid for the account, complete with 1400 followers is $26. [Editor’s Update: The bid is at $1,125 as of 4/13, 9 PM ET). You can follow the auction here.
Twitter, of course, will almost certainly delete the account if a sale occurs (I’d suspend it immediately if I were them). But they may not have considered this possibility when drafting the terms of service or privacy policy – a sale or transfer of an account isn’t specifically prohibited.
| Website: | twitter.com |
| Location: | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Founded: | March 1, 2006 |
| Funding: | $5.4M |
Founded in March of 2006, Twitter is social networking and micro-blogging site that allows users to post their latest updates. An update is limited by 140 characters and can be posted through three methods: web form, text message, or instant message…. Learn More
| Website: | ebay.com |
| Location: | San Jose, California, United States |
| Founded: | September 1, 1995 |
eBay is an online auction site where people buy and sell goods worldwide. Any item can be sold online as long as it is not illegal or it does not violate eBay’s Prohibited and Restricted Items policy.
eBay generates revenue by charging various… Learn More
| Company: | Rocketboom |
| Website: | www.rocketboom.com |
| Launch Date: | October 26, 2004 |
Here is a screenshot of a typical video. Click here for today’s video.
Rocketboom is a three minute long daily vlog founded by Andrew Baron and… Learn More
- In: California | Company | dead | Fremont | Google | GrandCentral | Offline | Phone | united states
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GrandCentral, Google’s $50 million phone company, has been down all morning (see overview of service here). And that means every single user who has started using their GrandCentral phone number isn’t able to receive any calls. Users are complaining on Twitter, and I’ve confirmed this as well by simply calling friends who use the service. Calls will not go through.
We’ve noted problems with the service in the past, but never a general outage. The site is down. The service is down. Everything appears to be offline.
If you want to be a phone company, and get your users to rely on you to manage all of your incoming calls, this simply cannot happen. There are undoubtedly going to be a lot of very upset homeless people this morning, as well as GrandCentral’s other users.
GrandCentral’s blog is offline as well. If Google wants users to take the service seriously in the future, they should make some kind of announcement on their main blog letting users know what happened and when they can expect the service to be back.
Update: service is back online sometime before noon PST. Still no word from them on the cause of the outage.
Update 2: Cofounder Craig Walker posts the following on the GrandCentral blog:
I wanted to write a quick note to all the GC users and apologize for the service interruption this morning. We had a power issue at our current colo facility and it knocked us off line for a few hours. Unfortunately I’ve been up in the mountains with the family this weekend and had no cell/internet coverage so couldn’t respond earlier. I did want to let you know that we were able to restore the service by noon today and are working extremely diligently to make sure this won’t occur in the future. We’ll do a better job keeping you informed in the future, not only about service related issues but also about upcoming features, soliciting your feedback, and generally making sure that you, the GC user, is well informed as to what’s going on with the service.
Thanks for your patience with us and we’ll continue to work to make the service better by the day. – Craig Walker
| Website: | grandcentral.com |
| Location: | Fremont, California, United States |
| Founded: | April 1, 2006 |
| Acquired: | July 1, 2007 by Google |
The basic idea around GrandCentral is one phone number for all your phones, for life. As we change jobs, homes and cell phones, there are a lot of phone numbers to keep track of, and keeping everyone up to date with your most recent phone numbers is… Learn More
Is India facing a food crisis?
Posted on: April 13, 2008
- In: Congress | Delhi | facing | food crisis | india | Milk | populous | Pulses | Rice | second | United Nations | Vote | World
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Is India, the world’s second most populous nation, facing a food crisis?
This question is vexing policy makers and analysts alike even as creeping inflation – around 7% now – is sending jitters through the Congress party-led ruling coalition.
To be sure, India has not yet experienced riots over rising food prices that have hit other countries like Zimbabwe or Argentina.
But what is worrying everybody is that the current rise in inflation is driven by high food prices.
In the capital, Delhi, milk costs 11% more than last year. Edible oil prices have climbed by a whopping 40% over the same period.
More crucially, rice prices have risen by 20% and prices of certain lentils by 18%. Rice and lentils comprise the staple diet for many Indians.
Tax on the poor
Inflation, economists say, is akin to a tax on the poor since food accounts for a relatively high proportion of their expenses.
All of which is bad news for ruling politicians because the poor in India vote in much larger numbers than the affluent.
Roughly one out of four Indians lives on less than $1 a day and three out of four earn $2 or less.
The rise in food prices, the government says, is an international phenomenon.
But this argument is unlikely to cut much ice with the people.
Food prices have risen sharply in the past year
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At the crux of the crisis is the tardy pace at which farm output has been growing in recent years.
The Indian economy has been growing rapidly at an average of 8.5% over the last five years.
This growth has been mainly confined to manufacturing industry and the burgeoning services sector.
Agriculture, on the other hand, has grown by barely 2.5% over the last five years and the trend rate of growth is even lower if the past decade and a half is considered.
Consequently, per capita output of cereals (wheat and rice) at present is more or less at the level that prevailed in the 1970s.
The problem acquires a serious dimension since farming provides livelihood to around 60% of India’s 1.1 billion people even though farm produce comprises only 18% of the country’s current gross domestic product (GDP).
On the other hand, the services sector – that includes the fast-growing computer software and business process outsourcing industries – constitutes over 55% of GDP with the remainder being taken up by industry.
The crisis in farms is exemplified by the state of the country’s cereal stocks.
Vulnerable farmers
Six years ago, the stocks were at record levels.
Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen had said if all the bags of wheat and rice with the state-owned Food Corporation of India were placed end to end, they would go all the way to the moon and back.
Stocks have come down over the past three years because of low production and exports.
The problem has been compounded by the fact that whenever India has imported wheat in recent months, world prices of wheat have shot up.
Growth in the farm sector has been sluggish
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There is also considerable resentment over the fact that the price of wheat that the government imports is often twice as high as the minimum price the government pay its own farmers for domestically grown wheat.
Indian farmers are particularly vulnerable since 60% per cent of the country’s total cropped area is not irrigated.
They are also dependent on the four-month-long monsoon during which period 80% of the year’s total rainfall takes place.
The crisis in agriculture has been manifest in the growing incidence of farmers taking their own lives.
At least 10,000 farmers have committed suicide each year over the last decade because of their inability of repay loans taken at usurious rates of interest from local moneylenders.
Populist moves
There has never been an acute shortage of food in India, not even during the infamous famine in Bengal in 1943 in which more than 1.5 million people are estimated to have died of starvation.
The problem then – and now – is entitlement or access to food at affordable prices.
Given the low purchasing power of India’s poor, even a small increase in food prices contributes to a sharp fall in real incomes.
The current crisis in Indian agriculture is a consequence of many factors – low rise in farm productivity, unremunerative prices for cultivators, poor food storage facilities resulting in high levels of wastage.
Rising food prices has made the government jittery
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Fragmentation of land holdings and a fall in public investments in rural areas, especially in irrigation facilities, are also to blame.
The government has announced a $15bn waiver of farmer loans and extended a jobs scheme – ensuring 100 days of work in a year entailing manual labour to every family demanding such work at the official minimum wage – to all over the country.
None of these populist initiatives will really work until India’s rulers begin giving its ignored farms the importance they deserve.
Moving forward in PopCrunch’s 50 Hottest Women of Sports, here are positions 31-40. Athletes have extremely toned bodies that very few in Hollywood can match.
40. Danica Patrick
At 5′2 feet tall, and weighting 100 pounds, Danica is a heck of a sexy racing driver. She was born in Wisconsin, and currently competes in the IndyCar series. In 2005 Playboy invited her to get featured on the magazine, but she decline. Damn!
39. Tanith Belbin
Yeah we also think that ice dancing is a lame sport. You can’t deny that watching the performance of this 24-years-old Canadian-American would be pleasant though. She is five-times U.S. National champion, 2006 Olympic silver medalist, and hot!
38. Francesca Piccinini
Francesca is an Italian volleyball player. At a height of 6′1, she is able to spike at 304 cm from the ground (equivalent to 9′11). She also played over 330 official matches with the Italian national team. The woman is beautiful, but with such an athletic performance you can’t help but admire her.
37. Dara Torres
One of the most famous athletes from the United States, Dara was the first swimmer to compete in four Olympic games. Despite having nine Olympic medals, no one ever gave her one for being one of the hottest swimmers around. We would!
36. Amy Acuff
Amy was born in Texas, 1975. She is a high jump competitor for the United States, and she participated in three Olympic games. Lately she also started a career as model, getting featured on magazines like FHM and Playboy (you should check that…).
35. Natalie Coughlin
Alright, no big boobs, we know. She has a really cute face and a toned body to compensate though. Natalie is a professional swimmer, and she won two gold medals on the 2004 Athens Olympic games.
34. Lokelani McMichael
Man, that is a true Hawaiian beauty! Lokelani has already being featured in several magazines like Maxim and GQ. Ah, in the case you want to know what she does, she is competes in the triathlon.
33. Mary Sauer
You would never have thought that pole vaulters could be sexy eh? Well, take a look at Mrs. Mary Sauer. Born in Wisconsin, 1975, she definitely makes watching this discipline more fun.
32. Jamie Sale
Jamie is one of the prettiest things you will ever see on a pair of skates on the ice. She already won both an Olympic gold medal and a world championship. Unfortunately for us, she is happily married since 2005.
31. Gretchen Bleiler
One of the most famous female snowboarders in the world, Gretchen lives in Aspen, Colorado. I am not a fan of cold temperatures, but if she invited me over I would be booking my ticket straight away.
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