Content Provider

The Huffington Post is a content provider. They provide news from various sources in addition to blogs commenting news. The website culls news from the Associated Press as well as other leading new outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. There are sub-pages devoted to major areas of news like politics, business, and media. They also have sub-pages devoted to news that has generated large amounts of headlines such as the inauguration of newly elected President Barack Obama. Their revenue is generated by advertising and I assume some donations as well. The business strategy must work, as they hosted their own HuffPost Inaugural Ball. Then highlights from the ball were listed as its own sub-page, it was news after all. And of course more advertisements were placed on all of those pages as well. The Huffington Post was lunched on May 9, 2005 and has since expanded at a phenomenal rate. The costs of such an operation would likely not be as high as a print outlet such as a magazine providing the same content, since there are no printing costs like paper ink and printing facilities. Beyond the purchase of a domain name and server space, which are relatively cheap when compared to housing print infrastructure, the other major costs are staff to provide and search for content. All the research and investigative work would cost about the same as print with the added advantage of instantaneous disemmination to the public, as well as instant feedback and open discussion through use of public comment boards.

My Dream Car

Ever since I took Environmental Science my second year back at college and the green side of the hippie in me woke back up l have been dreaming about a car I could drive that was as ‘green’ as possible. Soon thereafter I discovered the in-wheel motors made by PML Flightlink, and paired with Altairnano batteries that were installed in a Mini-cooper. This seemed the perfect use of wheel torque produced exactly where needed most, at the wheel. There would also be low loss of energy since it does not have to route said energy through a complicated system of transmission and bell housing to control the speed and redirect it along universal joints and finally into the wheel. At the time the company did not have a public distribution channel, so I saved the websites and checked them on occasion kind of like a window shopper, always hoping to see something new or better yet something I could actually purchase. Well one day I happened to see a new development on the PML Flightlink website. No, they had not opened a distribution channel to the public yet, but in a step closer they had a new website up, Hi Pa Drive with details of their newest project, a Ford F-150 without an engine under the hood. Replacing the engine were four 150HP wheel motors connected to software that helped the motors communicate so the truck is a true four-wheel drive vehicle. Check out the YouTube Video here. Maybe this means l can soon have my own car with in-wheel motors, something small with a bike rack so I can take my favorite mode of transport with me, because while cars are sometimes necessary BICYCLES RULE!!!

First change

So Upon discovery of the news-feed gadget and the links to my favorite news sites I suppose this will now be more of a commentary on the news akin to Alternet a website that provides a liberal perspective on the daily state of affairs. But since I do not have a staff of writers to provide lots of articles and opinions on the news thereby constructing a vast and ever-changing front page with many subsections in various topics my page will likely not look similar to Alternet. Instead my page will probably look more like Hugh Hewitts (http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog) column which is his personal opinion on current events in the news. His page is normally updated daily and on days such as Jan 20 2009 he had more than one posting. His reputation as a lawyer and law professor gives him the springboard to political punditry, and while I do not share his republican mindset I will attempt to emulate parts of his style and hopefully garner a fraction of the huge number of readers he has built up.

My First Blog

This is my first posting.....on the day following the inauguration of President Obama...YAY, and I plan to keep up with news and post links here to create sort of my own news-feed. I would like to follow Obama's progress through his first 100 days and include other news items, on environmental issues and pretty much anything else I am into on a a daily basis. Some items will be things l think others might enjoy reading, and some will be items I think the public needs to know. In the spirit of the Huffington Post I would like to have a page people can read everyday and get something new.