A strong Yen has combined with fierce competition from Korean television manufacturers to shrink Panasonic’s market share 10 per cent each year for the last five years.  Although Panasonic dominates the plasma-tv market, experts predict sales of plasma systems will decrease nearly 40 per cent in the next two years; and sales of liquid-crystal “plasma” sets will decrease nearly 10 per cent in that time, leaving Panasonic with approximately $100 billion in annual sales.

In the last three years, Panasonic’s television sales have generated approximately $134 billion in annual revenue, but retooling and restructuring will cost Sanyo and Panasonic nearly $7 billion in 2012 as the companies race to catch-up with advanced internet and 3-D technologies.  Panasonic has reported it will shed nearly 17,000 jobs by the end of March, 2012, and the manufacturing giant has mounted other aggressive restructuring and downsizing plans, but analysts remained concerned the company is doing too little too late.   Reporting the forecast losses, Reuters ominously noted, “Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the debt ratings of Panasonic and Sony last month and retained a negative outlook for both, citing their continued losses on TVs.”

Speaking recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo said his company has absolutely no plans to abandon its television business, and he put an optimistic spin on the company’s recovery initiatives: “At the core of our latest restructuring was to make our TV unit profitable,” Ohtsubo told reporters. “Panasonic’s TVs may one day be a case study of a recovery.”

The filing revealed some amazing details about Facebook’s popularity and reach: The mother of all social networks currently has more than 845 million members, who upload approximately 250 million photos every day, and who click “Like” at least 2.7 billion times daily, sending their preferences into a network of more than 100 billion connections, and sending valuable data to trend-hungry marketers and advertisers around the world.  For the sake of perspective, however, analysts note that Facebook’s 2011 revenue totaled barely 10 per cent of Google’s; and Google launched its own social network in June, immediately garnering several hundred thousand regular users.

“The Z-factor”

Mark Zuckerberg, the controversial twenty-something who launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room, will hold about one third of the company’s stock, but he will wield 57 per cent of the voting power.  The IPO launches Zuckerberg into the very top tier among the world’s wealthiest people, but his prominence carries a huge downside risk.  Zuckerberg’s critical engagement in every facet of the company’s operation has significant consequences for the offering, the documents for which list his death as one of the leading risks to the company’s continued evolution and growth.  The filing includes the statement, “In the event that Mr. Zuckerberg controls our company at the time of his death, control may be transferred to a person or entity that he designates as his successor.”  The filing also indicates the critical role Sheryl Sandberg plays at Facebook; she serves as the company’s chief operating officer, and the risk assessments indicate she is as essential to the company’s financial health as Zuckerberg is to its technical well-being.

A few unresolved issues

Late in 2011, Facebook reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission the terms of which require the site to tighten its privacy controls.  The site now sets users’ privacy filters for maximum security, and users may adjust their settings to relax the constraints.  Despite its new safeguards, Facebook officials expect more privacy inquires, and they also expect federal investigations into patent disputes, regulatory issues, and the site’s vulnerability to large-scale hacking.

Coach Paterno goes into the record books with more wins than any other coach in college football history—a total of 409, and he led the Nittany Lions to two national championships and five undefeated seasons, including one team that went thirty straight games without a loss.  Paterno also stands-out as the only coach to win all five premier “bowl” games—Rose, Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar, and Cotton.  As several speakers at Thursday’s memorial commented, however, Paterno was even more distinguished by the fact that he and his teams went forty-four successful seasons without an NCAA investigation into any kind of violation or irregularity; no other active coach can match that claim.

Paterno and his family were fixtures in the community around the University, frequently welcoming students and distinguished visitors into their home.  In their memorial remarks, several of Paterno’s former all-Americans made it clear the Paternos kept their door open, describing late-night visits to the coach’s house; several alumni described Paterno as the father they never had.  Just as importantly, students and faculty from the Paterno Undergraduate Fellows Program praised the Coach for his dedication to the classics and humanities.  Consistent with Paterno’s values and ethics, the unique undergraduate Fellows program allows all interested students to enroll and then earn honors, distinction, and Fellowships on the strength of their hard work, community service, and scholarship. Several speakers also praised and thanked Joe and Sue Paterno for their $4 million donation to the university for construction of the library which bears their name.

Alluding to but never explicitly mentioning widespread corruption in college athletics, many of Thursday’s memorial speakers spoke about Coach Paterno’s “Great Experiment”: Paterno insisted his teams would achieve “success with honor,” and he also insisted his players would persist in and graduate from college—a rare and controversial premise when Paterno assumed the head coaching position in 1966.  Until recently, the NCAA  had no standards for graduation rates among college scholarship athletes, and some elite schools graduated fewer than one in five of their “blue chip” players.  Pundits credit Paterno with leading the initiative to end exploitation of college athletes.

“The 800 pound gorilla in the room.”

All but one of Thursday’s speakers scrupulously avoided mention of the sexual-abuse scandal which has rocked the Penn State football program and campus community since late October, 2011.  The scandal ultimately cost Paterno hand the University President their jobs.  Although Paterno was just weeks from retirement, university trustees fired Paterno on November 5, 2011, alleging he had failed to take proper measures when a former graduate assistant came forward with charges defensive coach Jerry Sandusky had molested boys in a campus-sponsored youth sports program.

Nike Chairman Phil Knight, however, spoke directly to the point, saying, “It turns out he gave full disclosure to his superiors, information that went up the chain to the head of the campus police and the president of the school.  The matter was in the hands of a world-class university and a president with an outstanding national reputation. Whatever the details of the investigation are, this much is clear to me: if there is a villain in this tragedy, it lies in that investigation, not in Joe Paterno.”  Knight went on to rebuke the trustees, recounting Paterno’s accomplishments, contributions, and unwavering integrity, finally demanding, “”Who is the real trustee at Penn State University?”  As Knight finished his question, the standing-room-only assembly of more than 12,000 mourners accorded Knight by far the longest and loudest of several standing ovations during the ceremony.

Concluding the ceremony, Jay Paterno, the Coach’s son and a former Nittany Lion quarterback coach, reassured his audience that his father died with a clear conscience.  Jay Paterno stressed, “Among the things he accomplished in his life, it was the games he won that counted the least,” Jay, one of the Coach’s five children, “His impact reached to men who worked for him, to Penn State students, to people he never met. One mourner told me Wednesday: ‘Your family’s not very good at math. Your father has millions of children and grandchildren.’ ”

Divers said they found the drowned woman, still wearing her life vest, trapped in a narrow hallway near one of the life-boat boarding stations.  In order to pass through the narrow passage, divers had to wait for Italian Navy under-water demolition experts to clear obstructions with small explosive charges.  Recovery divers reported they easily could see how the woman might have been trapped in rapidly shifting debris; and they speculated she may have been a crew member who let passengers board the life boat before her.  A female Peruvian bartender numbers among the missing.

Relatives of the missing persons joined the Coast Guard, imploring the 4000 people who evacuated the ship after it ran aground to share whatever information they may have about the twenty people still unaccounted for.  “We are asking the 4,000 persons who were on board to give any information they can about any of the persons still missing,” Alain Litzler, a Frenchman who is the father of missing passenger Mylene Litzler told the Associated Press on Friday. “We need precise information to help the search and rescue teams find them.”

Police divers find captain’s files.

Captain Francesco Schettino faces manslaughter charges and has come under fire for abandoning his ship very shortly after it capsized.  Authorities believe the ship ran aground on a perilously rocky reef as a result of Shettino’s reckless attempt to navigate well outside standard sea lanes to give his passengers an exceptionally close-up view of Giglio Island.  Shettino is under house arrest while police and maritime authorities review his conduct and management of the evacuation.

Early Saturday, police divers found and recovered the captain’s safe and two of his suitcases; other divers searching the bridge found a hard disk containing data about the voyage.  That hard disk will supplement findings from the ship’s two “black boxes” recovered earlier this week.  Other experienced captains familiar with the cruise ship’s course have described Shettino’s maneuver as “foolishly arrogant and just plain stupid.”

Divers have seen no indication that any of the half-million gallons of heavy fuel oil aboard Costa Concordia have leaked from their double-bottomed tanks, but authorities warn that the ship easily could hit more sharp rocks if it shifts and sinks deeper.  Therefore, they want to begin off-laoding fuel oil as soon as possible, and they have specialized equipment standing by.

Now Casey Anthony appears in a YouTube video that supposedly was made back in October of 2011. Anthony’s attorney claims the video was “hacked” and stolen and that the contents were never intended to be publicly aired. She was merely making a video diary for herself. She had plenty to say in that video however and the press and talk show hosts were all over the content as well as commenting on Anthony’s appearance. She now sports short blonde hair and glasses as she gazed into the camera and spoke of how she finally got her own computer and can now Skype, keep a video log, and finally has “something she can call her own”. She had something to call hers and that was her tiny daughter whom she discarded like she was trash back in 2008!

Casey Anthony, who was quite the camera hog back during her days of partying and sleeping around back at the time Caylee was killed, now states she hates being on the camera. Now she wants to “conquer that fear” and making her own video diary is a good start. What a load of crap!

Calling this video “the first of many” Casey Anthony remains in hiding at an undisclosed location and the press is trying to determine where she was when making the video but it leaves little as evidence. Paneled walls and a few pictures in the background don’t give many clues. In the “video diary” Anthony never mentions her daughter Caylee or her parents George and Cindy, who by the way continue to worry for their daughter’s safety and hope she is safe. As can be imagined, Casey Anthony has more than a few “haters” out there.

The big question is how did the video become public and aired on YouTube? Was it “hacked” or stolen or did Anthony herself allow it to be shown? How does it benefit her if she is responsible for its release? It does appear to show her acting nervous and somewhat uncomfortable as she speaks to the camera. But she may just be attempting to appear contrite and innocent while the majority of people (who may be interested in the event) still consider her a murderer who got away with it! In either case one thing is clear and that is she will be back with more of these video diaries and the news folks will continue to attempt to track her down. Anthony says “things will only get better” for her.

Official results of the Iowa Caucus of 2011 are as follows:

1)    Mitt Romney with 30,015 votes (24.6%)

2)    Rick Santorum with 30,007 votes (24.5%)

3)    Ron Paul with 26,219 votes (21.4)

4)    Newt Gingrich with 16,251 votes (13.3%)

5)    Rick Perry with 12,604 votes (10.3%)

6)    Michele Bachmann with 6,073 votes (5%)

7)    Jon Huntsman with 745 votes (0.6%)

Herman Cain got 58 votes from somewhere!

Even though he had dropped out weeks ago Herman Cain received some 58 votes (0.0%). The Iowa caucus is not the same as a primary but does carry some “weight” as an indicator of things to come politically. It opens up the road to the party’s national convention and gives early evidence as to who might be the popular choice for, in this instance, the Republican Presidential candidate. Now it’s on to New Hampshire on January 10^th.

Michelle Bachmann drops out after Iowa Caucus

First it was Herman Cain who dropped from the competition and now Michelle Bachman (Minnesota Rep.) stated after her poor showing at the Iowa Caucus that she’s had enough and is dropping out of the race. As we move on to New Hampshire and other early primaries there are several more that might need to give up and quit wasting their money. Jon Huntsman and Rick Perry both had terrible showings in Iowa and might need to admit they’re fighting a losing battle. Ron Paul is a dangerous man by many indications and Newt Gingrich may have passed his prime politically speaking. So that leaves Mitt and Rick to battle it out until November. The Iowa caucus saw a dead heat between the two and it might come down to the wire to see who defeats whom to win the Republican party nomination.

Incumbents have the edge in politics

Whether Rick Santorum or Mitt Romney wins the Republican primary race may not matter if the incumbent, Barack Obama can earn some respect before November 6^th 2012. He has lost favor with many over the past three years and must do whatever is necessary to keep from becoming the “Rodney Dangerfield” of the political world. Incumbent Presidents usually have a good chance of being re-elected if they’ve fulfilled most of the promises made back before they were elected. Obama has disappointed many since he vowed to get this country out of debt (something Democrats are not noted for) and ease the unemployment issues that plague our country. He was handed a difficult task when he took on the Presidency of the United States and has not shown himself to be especially capable of tackling the tough issues he was faced with. Time will tell if Barack Hussein Obama becomes yet another incumbent to lose his party nomination.

Celebrity news and events or how the other half lived

1) Big news on the television front involved Charlie Sheen, star of Two and a Half Men. His apparent mental meltdown made the news nightly for a while as he continually acted in a bizarre fashion. He stated he was on a drug and that drug was Charlie Sheen! Even his “Tiger Blood” could not save him from public humiliation. While everyone, including family members Martin Sheen (father) and Emilio Estevez (older brother), worried that he was becoming suicidal Charlie (born Carlos Irwin Estevez) partied on with his “goddesses” while showing up on the nightly news with regularity as he ranted and seemed to imploded after being fired from his role in Two and a Half Men. The higher they are the harder they fall!

2) Lindsay Lohan perpetual bad girl who could be an actress if she’d only lay off drugs and alcohol. Her continuing bad behavior and lack of respect for authority (she ignored court orders handed down by judges) finally lands her in the morgue, doing community service work. How can she be blamed though when her entire family appears to be a train-wreck and her father shows up on Celebrity Rehab.

3) Kim Kardashian weds Kris Humphries. Marriage lasts nearly 72 days before they split! Someone should have told the basketball star that he needed to give up his last name and become yet another K-Kardashian. Was the entire affair just a publicity stunt? No matter the reason, he’s more of a celebrity now than he’d ever be as a mere pro sports star.

4) Amy Winehouse dead at age 27. Autopsy results point to alcohol poisoning when the singer is found dead in her apartment in London. What a sad way for someone so young and talented to go.

5) A royal wedding but who cares? This one was not the extravagant affair that occurred back in 1981 when Charles and Diana wed but Prince William wed Catherine Middleton, a commoner at Westminster Abbey while three billion watched on their tellies.

6) This time around the courtroom drama celebrity was Conrad Murray, doctor of Michael Jackson, and he was convicted! Judge and jury gave the doctor the full four year sentence for negligently handling the care of the pop star icon.

7) Casey Anthony was acquitted in her trial involving the death of her daughter on July 5, 2011, causing many to reflect back the the O.J. Simpson trial and his acquittal even though evidence was strong against him. Casey was guilty of winning over the jury if nothing else.

Politically speaking 2011 provided us with scandals but little substance

Never quite as interesting as celebrity fame and self destruction but still necessary is politics and how those guys handle the scandal they may become involved in makes interesting news. The year before an election year is always full of surprises, defeats, and excuses from those who aspire to high office and 2011 was no exception. Some of those who fell in defeat or at least stumbled mightily include:

Herman Cain who’s run for president was severely handicapped when it was disclosed he had affairs and “inappropriate” behavior with several women in his past.

Anthony Weiner proved to be a “perve” when he sends weiner pics to several women while using his Twitter account. On June 16^th he resigned from his position as Congressman.

David Wu made some sexual advances to the daughter of a fundraiser that were unappreciated.

Multi-million dollar “Pros” just live life their way

While scandal prevails on many levels most of those who participate in professional sports tend to lead cleaner lives.

1) Derek Jeter’s 3000^th hit.

2) The sport of basketball is back in full swing by end of 2011 after striking ended.

3) OK time for a scandal! Jerry Sandusky accused by several men of sexually abusing them when they were young boys. And supposedly coach Joe Paterno knew of the incidences and kept quiet.

Weather wise life was a tornado of events!

2011 was a banner news year weather wise from beginning to end:

1) A draught and fires in New Mexico and Texas

2) May 21^st there was an extremely dangerous EF5 tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri as it passed through tornado alley and killed 160 people. The massive storm with winds up to 250 mph destroyed at least one third of the city whose population was about 50,000 at the time.

3) A hurricane named Irene that devastated the east coast in August, causing massive flooding. Although hurricanes do move up the eastern seaboard occasionally, they are not all that common, especially those that prove so destructive and devastating as Irene.

Asteroid hitting the earth… and other newsworthy tidbits!

1) The size of an aircraft carrier, asteroid 2005 YU55 came close to hitting Earth. It was an estimated 202,000 miles away at its closest while our moon is 239,000 miles away. That’s too darned close!

2) Scientists have concluded that we may not be alone! Our Milky Way contains at least fifty billion other planets comparable to our Earth and may be capable of sustaining life as we know it. They call this the Goldilocks zone.

3) A human heart is successfully grown in a lab using stem cells as a foundation.

4) The United States officially ends its Space Shuttle program when NASA launches the Endeavour for the final mission May 6.

5) This one did hit the Earth! Satellite UARS “deorbited” and fell back to Earth on September 24, 2011. It was a guessing game as to exactly where it would crash land and how small the pieces would be when they hit.

Is this a monster or a mental case who needs medical assistance? Clearly he is a man with deep physiological problems. Someone who needs help. But does he also need to be eliminated from society? Should he be executed legally? Hell yes!

Even if this sort of human can be rehabilitated he should never be allowed to walk among us again! He must be put to death and the only issue is that he can never be legally killed in such a way to equal how poor little 9 year old Aliahna Marie Maroney Lemmon spent her last few moments on this earth.

He has admitted to police that her head as well as her hands and feet were still in his deep freeze. And technicians with the crime scene investigatory unit did disclose that those items were found in a freezer in Michael Plumadore’s home.

Previously when Plumadore was interviewed he stated that Aliahna vanished while he was asleep that Friday morning. He was babysitting for her parents and was a close friend of the family.

The average looking 39 year old Plumadore freely admitted to killing little Aliahna and went into detail explaining how he disposed of the body. He cut her up with a hacksaw then put body parts into several individual trash bags. Then he stuffed them into his freezer, waiting until dark of night. He then took those bags to a nearby dumpster and tossed them in just as if he was dumping his trash. He did also admit to keeping her hands, feet, and even her head, for some strange reason, in his own freezer.

Michael Plumadore had been caring for David Story who is little Aliahna’s grandfather up until his death on December 3, 2011 and was living in his trailer when Aliahna died. He was considered a trusted friend of the family. Aliahna’s grandfather had a criminal record involving child molestation and was himself listed as a sex offender. This is evidently a really messed up family with many issues that complicated the life and death of little Aliahna Lemmon. Someone made a post on Facebook that said “no kid should be missing Christmas”. Poor little Aliahna never saw Christmas of 2011.

The London Telegraph calls Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol  a “fast-paced, gravity-defying thrill ride,” a phrase which may, for once, under-state the case.  Cruise, who reprises his role as Ethan Hunt for the fourth time, held nothing back.  Among other improbable feats, he scales Burj Khalifia, the world’s tallest building, and then he turns right around and sprints 800 meters right back down.  Director Brad Bird worked his usual magic on the almost-epic saga of four operatives (and their faithful pet) charged with stopping an imminent nuclear strike.  Cool gadgets and wonderfully seductive BMWs, of course, come as standard equipment in the operatives’ packs.  Conveniently for Bird and his crew, the bad guys lead the operative team through “the most urgently photogenic places on earth.

For peak suspense and industrial strength special effects, the operatives plan and execute a super sneaky-stealthy-snarky raid on the Kremlin.  Master of disguises, Cruise slaps on a fake moustache as he impersonates a Russian general—uber deceptive.  Michael Nyquist satisfactorily plays the villain just because the plot more or less requires an in-person bad guy from time to time.  After defying gravity, however, a briefcase-carrying international terrorist seems little more than an afternoon at the office for Hunt and associates.

The calendar and the American hunger for something heroic at the end of a year filled with Casey Anthony and Congressional catatonia combine to drive people into the cineplexes precisely as producers hoped.  The annual take will be down for the second straight year, but Cruise, Spielberg, and even Alvin and the Chipmunks are doing their best to finish the year with a flourish.

This will allow the Apple iPhone 4 to get Siri.  For those devices not currently running the latest update it can be automatically downloaded; those who have the software version will likely need to download the revised update for iOS 5.0.1 via a direct link from Apple.

This method of obtaining Siri for iPhone 4 users is miles apart from the process of getting unique identifiers and ‘validation tokens’, which are viewed as possibly dangerous because of Apple dim legal view on users getting files from other devices.  This new method resultant from the unencrypted RAM disks allows users to use files from their personal device, thus keeping everything on the up and up in legal terms.

The reason behind Apple’s ‘oversight’ of the unencrypted RAM disks is up for speculation at this time, and much will be revealed if they return to encrypted status with the release of iOS 5.1.  Whatever the reason, those iPhone 4 users running the latest iOS 5.0.1 can ‘hack’ their way to running Siri on their phones without running the risk of feeling the all powerful Apple’s legal wrath.

In the last couple of days, a blog called 9to5mac uploaded a video showing how well Siri works on an iPhone4.  The video by Irish hacker of the iPhone, Steve Troughton-Smith, was preceded earlier this month by one showing the software installed but unable to work properly.

According to Troughton-Smith, the hack seems to work with more than just the iPhone 4, other devices including the 4^th generation iPod touch can use the workaround in order to run Siri without any hardware difficulties or functionality issues.