Small cap hell is where you end up in about six months after your IPO, when all the high fives and champagne have receded into a distant memory. Unless your company is big enough. How big is big enough? According to Investopedia, small cap refers to companies with “a market capitalization of between $300 million and $2 billion.” That’s right, to escape small cap hell you need to have a market cap over $2 billion. Sponsor To put that in perspective, that describes one out of 14 publicly traded SaaS companies (Salesforce.com). So 13 out of 14 are in small cap hell. Actually, two out of the 14 are micro cap, i.e. below $300 million in market cap. This matters to all of us. A healthy public market for Web tech ventures ripples all the way down to seed level investing and drives the innovation economy. What Does It Feel Like To Be In Small Cap Hell? Lonely. Nobody cares about your little venture. To the team that endured blood, sweat, toil and tears to get to $50 million in revenues, and then go through all the SEC gyrations to become a public company, that is tough to accept. Here is what you can do. Hire a strong investors relations team and send out lots of press releases, be accessible to the press, go on road shows and speak at conferences for investors. Your IR team can take care of the mechanics, but this is also a big time-suck for the CEO and CFO. (And you cannot say, “Sorry we missed our numbers we were too busy schmoozing folks like you.”) The result is a lot of work and you have to do it - but the payoff is small. Every other small cap is doing the same thing. Buy back your own shares. That tells even the most dimwitted investor that you think the stock is undervalued, and as you run the company you probably know. This is fine if you personally are vastly wealthy or you have massive amounts of cash laying idle on the company balance sheet. In other words it is not an option for most companies Social Media IR Rides To The Rescue? Agoracom is a modern IR firm. They use online methods to tell your story. That may not sound like a big deal, but IR is a pretty conservative business, so just using a few tools like Twitter intelligently is a big step forward. Agoracom’s pitch is that they can “tell your story”. For a while there will be an opportunity to use modern methods while your competitors are stuck with their buggy whips. But that advantage will erode really fast. So this is where the new Finance 2.0 sites like Seeking Alpha , Stocktwits , Kaching and Covestor may have the key. I decided to test this on the 14 publicly traded SaaS companies. Finance 2.0 For Small Cap: It is Too Early To Tell Select a classic small cap stock in the SaaS Index. For example: RightNow Technologies (RNOW). At time of writing, they have a market cap of $525 million. It is a cool company that is growing fast and delivering good results for customers. So how much coverage do they get on these new sites? In my test I looked at RNOW for the period Jan. 1 to March 1. StockTwits : There were nine tweets about RNOW, and many of them mentioned RNOW among a list of other stocks. Some are not very helpful, such as: “Does anyone know the future of $rnow ?” SeekingAlpha : This has two posts that were specific to RNOW and they seemed high quality. That is better than nine tweets that don’t say much. Covestor : This is interesting to play around in. You can see the last 10 trades done by Covestor members in RNOW. But you cannot drill from that to any rationale into RNOW. The system is set up to do that, but there is just nothing there yet. Kaching : This gave good news aggregation on RNOW. It looked better than YahooFinance (still the starting point for lots of investors) but seemed to lack depth. Nor did it have any fundamental new information. So, from the limited perspective of one small cap, these sites are at this time not the answer. What about “ye olde stock forum” on Yahoo Finance? Their message board for RNOW for the same period of time has 28 posts, not including the threaded replies. That puts them way ahead of the newcomers.What about quality you ask? What is the use of a lot of noise from anonymous posters pushing the stocks they own (or panning the ones they short)? That seems to be the problem with all these sources. Wanted: Patient, Long-Term Investors Found: Momentum-chasing day traders. You want investors who will buy into the quality of your technology, understand your value proposition, like the market you are in and think you are doing a reasonable job managing the business. In other words, you want Warren Buffett. That is not what these new sites are delivering. They do not seem to be the key to escape from small cap hell. Let Your Story Surface The evolution seems to be: 1.0 Tell Your Story. This is standard investor relations. The updated version of IR is to be present where investors hang out, which today means online. But it is still the old broadcast model. 2.0 Let The Crowd Tell Your Story. This is classic social media - and it suffers from classic social media problems. You might trust a user-generated review on Yelp before going to a diner, but you are likely to be a bit more nervous before investing your kid’s college fund in a company. What we need is something that reverses the flow, that lets investors discover you, that lets your story surface. This is where XBRL may help. (For a basic intro to XBRL read our earlier coverage .) The Current XBRL Disconnect For Small Cap Is Temporary XBRL was not any help when I was compiling the data for the 14 companies in the SaaS Index for the Saas Insights Report (a paid report for investors available from CapitalMarkets.com . Disclosure: The guest author wrote this report). The reason is simple. Only one out of 14 reported to the SEC in XBRL format. That company is Salesforce.com (CRM). The reason for that is also simple: The SEC currently mandates that companies with a market cap higher than $ billion report using XBRL. That is what creates the disconnect: 1. XBRL will enable the good investments from small cap companies to surface, but, 2. Only big cap companies report using XBRL (and they have no trouble reaching investors). The good news is that disconnect is temporary. The second wave of new XBRL filers in 2010 is estimated to include 1,500 - 2,000 reporting companies, and the final wave in 2011 is for about 10,000 additional companies. Imagine the Information Discovery Tools When I go to my local wine store, the owner asks me what I want and we have fun with my standard reply that I want something “incredibly delicious and ridiculously cheap”. Investors want the same. Warren Buffett got to be one of the richest men in the world by finding a few of those. When all companies file in XBRL (and some geeks have created some neat tools to help sip more effectively from that firehose), ordinary investors will be able to create really powerful filters to find those “incredibly valuable and ridiculously cheap” companies. They won’t find them among the big cap companies. They will find them among the thousands of small cap, micro cap (and yes, even nano cap) companies. When the value surfaces, they can reach out to IR who can them tell their story. Of course, when all this pans out, the opportunity to find the bargains will disappear. That is the price of an efficient market. But the value to all the companies trapped in small cap hell will be immense. They can focus on building value knowing that the value they create will surface. And that will have a great impact on the innovation economy. Photo credit: Chris Whiteside Discuss

A study by Burson-Marsteller finds that 79 percent of the largest 100 companies in the Fortune Global 500 index are using social media tools. At first glance, this may seem significant. But a closer look shows that Fortune 100 companies are showing interest but nothing to prove that social media tools are gaining significant corporate acceptance. Here’s a copy of the full report and an accompanying power point presentation . But it is early in the game and these are results show that social media tools are making credible gains. Sponsor The services of choice? No surprise: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blog platforms. Twitter is number one, followed by Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogs. The study found that 65 percent of the largest 100 international companies have active accounts on Twitter, 54 percent have a Facebook fan page, 50 percent have a YouTube channel, and one-third (33 percent) have corporate blogs. Only 20 percent of the major international companies are utilizing all four platforms to engage with stakeholders. The fact that the Fortune 100 do not leverage multiple tools is a sign of how consumer-based social media tools are not fully understood or leveraged for maximum benefit. It’s also evident of just how much of an opportunity big companies have in using the social Web if they use it to its full extent. Companies that extend to multiple media networks still have a chance to get ahead of competitors. The frequency of posts illustrates that companies are posting but not nearly as often as they could. Let’s take a quick look at some of the findings for Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogs: Twitter The report says that Deutsche Telekom uses Twitter for announcements while Volkswagen uses it to RT and Home Depot for customer service. Conclusion? Fortune 100 companies are still searching for the best way to use Twitter. But just posting announcements seems pretty sterile. From the white paper: “Leaders of the pack on the Fortune Global 100 are Sony’s SonyPlayStation with well over 115,000 followers and SonyPictures who is followed by almost 50,000 people and following over 6,000 Twitterers themselves.” Burson-Marsteller also states that Fortune 100 companies are supporting multiple accounts. This is perhaps most encouraging: customer engagement is beginning to be more widespread across product groups. Facebook Facebook shows some of the most promise. Most of the Fortune 100 companies have tens of thousands of users. Perhaps the strongest sing of acceptance is in the number of corporate product groups that use Facebook. Companies like Sony have multiple fan pages. YouTube YouTube is used mostly by U.S. companies. Entertainment, electronics and auto companies are the most likely to have YouTube channels. Viewership shows promise. Consumers want to see product videos. Connecting YouTube with Twitter, Facebook and a blog can make for a potent combination if all are updated on a regular basis. Blogs Fifty-percent of the Fortune 100 companies from the Asia Pacific have blogs. Burson-Marsteller says Asian companies prefer blogging due to the control they can have over the conversation. “Only 11% of active U.S. company blogs had posts in the past three months as compared to 83% of European blogs and 77% of Asia-Pacific blogs. The U.S. blogs also had fewer blog posts.” The results show the increasing popularity of the real-time web and its use across the enterprise. But is it smart not to update a blog? We wonder what company fares better. The one that is active on its Twitter account and its blogs or the one that has an active Twitter account but infrequently updates its blog? Conclusion Corporate America is using the social Web. It’s apparent that companies have waded a bit deeper into the water but the opportunities are clear. The companies that embrace multiple mediums and keep up with a consistent volume of updates will be the big winners, no matter if they are a Fortune 100 or a Fortune 1,000 company. Discuss

This week’s calendar spans three continents, three countries, and who knows how many time zones. Looking for stuff to do in the next seven days? Miami is your best bet, with events on the future of Web apps and on early-stage funding. How do you like your events calendar? As a world map ? As an iCal (and Google Calendar-importable) file? You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. Know of something cool taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or contact us . Sponsor 22 – 24 February 2010: Miami, Florida The Future of Web Apps Miami The Future of Web Apps Miami is a three day event for Web application developers and entrepreneurs, and includes tutorials, inspiration and workshops taught by leading figures at the cutting edge of today’s Web. Companies at the event include Twitter, Facebook, Mint.com, Palm, FreshBooks, Reddit and Mozilla. Topics include HTML5, jQuery, online marketing, funding strategies, measuring the success of your Web app, and Facebook Connect. Find more information at http://carsonified.com ReadWriteWeb readers use the code “RWW” and get $50 off. 25 February 2010: Miami, Florida Miami VC and Angel Event At FundingPost ’s next event, a panel of investors who will focus on early-stage venture investing. We will be discussing trends in early-stage investing, sectors that these Angels and VCs look at, things that are most important to them when they are considering an investment and the best and worst things an entrepreneur can do to get their attention. Entrepreneur summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees - all of the investors will get your company description and contact info! Additionally, there will be an optional pitching workshop lunch where we will completely deconstruct your elevator pitch, and work with you on formulating a clean and concise elevator pitch giving the important information that investors need to hear to make an educated decision on your company! Then you get to give your new elevator pitch in person to the panel of investors during the event! Click here for more information . 2 March 2010: Wellington, New Zealand IgniteWellington Fast-paced, fun, thought-provoking, social, local, global — Ignite is all of these and more. It’s a high-energy evening of five-minute talks by people who have an idea and the guts to get onstage and share it with their hometown crowd. Run by local volunteers, Ignite is a force for raising the collective IQ and building connections in each city. And, via streaming and archived videos of local talks, local Ignites share all that knowledge and passion with the world. Join us on Tuesday, March 2 starting at 6 p.m. at Paramount Theatre. Entry is free. Register online now at www.ignitewellington.co.nz . For more information contact ignite@ignitewellington.co.nz . 4 March 2010: Silicon Valley Silicon Valley VC and Angel Conference At FundingPost ’s next event, a panel of investors who will focus on early-stage venture investing. We will be discussing trends in early-stage investing, sectors that these Angels and VCs look at, things that are most important to them when they are considering an investment and the best and worst things an entrepreneur can do to get their attention. Entrepreneur summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees - all of the investors will get your company description and contact info! Additionally, there will be an optional pitching workshop lunch where we will completely deconstruct your elevator pitch, and work with you on formulating a clean and concise elevator pitch giving the important information that investors need to hear to make an educated decision on your company! Then you get to give your new elevator pitch in person to the panel of investors during the event! Click here for more information . 11 March 2010: Los Angeles, California Los Angeles VC and Angel Event At FundingPost ’s next event, a panel of investors who will focus on early-stage venture investing. We will be discussing trends in early-stage investing, sectors that these Angels and VCs look at, things that are most important to them when they are considering an investment and the best and worst things an entrepreneur can do to get their attention. Entrepreneur summaries will be given to the investor speakers and attendees - all of the investors will get your company description and contact info! Additionally, there will be an optional pitching workshop lunch where we will completely deconstruct your elevator pitch, and work with you on formulating a clean and concise elevator pitch giving the important information that investors need to hear to make an educated decision on your company! Then you get to give your new elevator pitch in person to the panel of investors during the event! Click here for more information . 15 – 16 March 2010: London, England 2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum — London The 2nd Annual Social Networking World Forum takes place at the Olympia Conference Centre in London. The two-day event features four dedicated conference streams: Social Networking World Forum Enterprise social media Social TV World Forum Mobile Social Networking Forum The event features key speakers from global brands, organizations, social networking publishers and developers, pioneering social media leaders, top agencies, content producers, and more. Full workshop program within exhibition area Evening networking reception Pre-show online meeting planner for delegates Free pass for exhibition only 26 March 2010: San Francisco, California Freemium Summit The first Freemium Summit is a one day event focused on exploring what it takes to succeed under the freemium business model. Across all segments of the media landscape, entrepreneurs and executives are pioneering models that combine a free offering with a premium, paid offering. This hybrid business model is one of the most exciting areas of business model innovation impacting the world of media and the Freemium Summit will explore the most important topics on the minds of leading practitioners. Confirmed Speakers: Toni Schneider, Automattic (WordPress); Matt Brezina, Xobni; Aaron Levie, Box.net; Phil Libin, Evernote; Tom Conrad, Pandora; Drew Houston, Dropbox; Ranjith Kumaran, YouSendIt; Ben Chestnut, Mailchimp; Lance Walley, Chargify; Isaac Hall, Recurly; and Lincoln Murphy, Sixteen Ventures. 7 – 9 April 2010: Sydney, Australia ConnectNow ConnectNow brings together international specialists and thought leaders in social media, emerging technologies and their intersection with business. Learn how the realtime web, location based services, augmented reality, ubiquitous computing and personalised services are changing marketing and communications. Understand the importance of trust in relationship marketing and what is “social currency”. For more info email info@connectnow.net.au . 13 – 15 April 2010: Dallas, Texas PubCon South PubCon , the premier search and social media conference, features the industry’s biggest names and key players shaping the future of the Web. PubCon South will include cutting-edge panel sessions exploring tracks dedicated to search, social media and affiliate marketing, an intensive professional search and social media training program, and some of the world’s top keynote speakers. PubCon South at Dallas will also hold a one-day, two-track slate of intensive educational training programs led by some of the industry’s most respected search professionals. The event takes place at the Richardson Conference and Civic Center. Register here . 16 April 2010: Mountain View, California Under the Radar: Cloud Under the Radar: Cloud is must-attend event for dealmakers and heads of IT from large enterprises, SMBs, service providers, carriers and media companies who are responsible for helping their companies leverage new technology and innovation in the fast-evolving IT ecosystem. Join us for the 15th Under the Radar conference, featuring a hand-picked selection of the world’s most innovative cloud startups among 350 top tech, media, telcom and finance executives. For ticket and more information, visit http://undertheradarblog.com . 16 – 17 April 2010: Royal Oak, Michigan FutureMidwest FutureMidwest is the region’s largest technology and knowledge conference. Founded by Adrian Pittman, Jordan Wolfe and Zach Lipson, FutureMidwest is the fusion of two successful conferences held in Michigan in 2009 - the Module Midwest Digital Conference and TechNow. Both conferences highlighted how technology and digital tools have dramatically changed the way we do business and the effect this transition has had on companies. FutureMidwest kicks things up a notch with presentations, group breakout sessions, relationship-building opportunities and influencers who are taking action to redefine business in the digital age. Register here . 19 – 21 April 2010: San Francisco, California DrupalCon DrupalCon is the premier conference focused on Drupal, the award-winning open source content management framework that is galvanizing social publishing and web development today. For a registration fee of $195, attendees get three full days of sessions led by the best and brightest Drupal experts. Drupal has been downloaded over 2 million times since its inception, and project growth has doubled annually for several years. Drupal is used to deliver a wide variety of application types including blogs, wikis, community networks, digital media portals, and web content publishing and management. 26 April 2010: San Francisco, California Future of Money and Technology Summit The Future of Money & Technology Summit will bring together the best and brightest thinkers around money, including visionaries, entrepreneurial business people, developers, press, investors, authors, solution/service providers, and organizations who work where cash and commerce collide. We meet to discuss the evolving ecosystem around money in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment. Featured speakers include Jolie O’Dell from ReadWriteWeb, as well as representatives from Wells Fargo Bank, Kiva, SharesPost, Jambool, Founders Fund, Outright.com, SoftTech VC, and many more. Use discount code “rww” to get 10% off registration . 11 May 2010: San Francisco, California FinovateSpring FinovateSpring 2010 will again showcase the most cutting-edge financial and banking technology innovations to Silicon Valley and the world. With Finovate’s signature mix of short, fast-paced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) from handpicked companies and intimate networking time with their executives, this conference packs a ton of unique value into a single day. Come see the cutting edge of banking and financial technology and network with hundreds of the leading financial executives, venture capitalists, press, industry analysts, bloggers and fintech entrepreneurs. Early bird registration rates are available. 5 October 2010: New York City FinovateFall FinovateFall will return to Manhattan on Tuesday, October 5 to showcase dozens of the biggest and most innovative new ideas in financial and banking technology from established leaders and hot young companies. The Fall event is the original and largest Finovate and features a single day packed with our special blend of short, fast-paced onstage demos (no slides are allowed) and intimate networking time with top executives from the innovative demoing companies. FinovateFall is a unique chance to see the future of finance and banking before your competition and find the edge you need in today’s market. Early bird registration rates are available. Download this entire events calendar in iCal format. Discuss

If an agency has ever pitched you on outreach to women’s blogs and they don’t mention the BlogHer network, there’s something wrong with them. BlogHer and its 2,500 contributing blog affiliates are celebrating the network’s 5 year anniversary with the combined traffic of 21 million unique visitors per month and some huge lessons learned along the way. ReadWriteWeb spoke to co-founder Elisa Camahort Page to find out what it’s like to run a women’s network in a man’s world. Sponsor According to the Catalyst Census , “From 1995 to 2005, the average rate of increase in women’s representation on Fortune 500 corporate boards was, on average, one-half of one percentage point per year. At that rate of growth, it would take another 70 years for women to hold approximately 50 percent of Fortune 500 board seats and reach parity with men.” Page explains that the market was ripe for BlogHer from the very beginning as media began to latch on to the idea of women’s representation in technology, science and business. In 2004, Page and co-founders Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardins created the BlogHer Conference in an effort to answer the media question - where are the women bloggers? As the conference came to fruition, the three were immediately flung into the spotlight with media coverage from CNN and MSNBC. Says Page, “We knew then we were on to something and we decided to make it a business.” A year later the conference lead to a publishing network and a diverse range of female bloggers joined forces with the trio to promote discussion across their domains. After 18 months of bootstrapping with their own funding, the co-founders raised $3.5 million from Venrock and have since raised an additional $13 million to build out the 20+ topic channels. The network currently syndicates to iVillage , Oxygen.com and BravoTV.com . While other publishing networks of this size often opt for a wholly automated system of content aggregation, home page features and related blog links, BlogHer has a commitment to curation. Says Page, “It’s not just about the traffic, we want to ensure that diverse voices come through in order to generate more discussion. We’ve got a headline editor who looks for topics we want to explore and we take care to feature interesting content.” Featured pieces are then served across the publishing network to the 2,500 affiliate blogs and relevant pieces are linked alongside a blog owner’s own content. When asked what keywords (other than “BlogHer”) drive the most traffic to the network, Page replied, “Women are not a monolithic block who think, act or buy in the same way. It differs from week to week, but for instance, in 2008 the keywords all revolved around the election or the economy. The areas of interest that drive traffic are not much different than other blogging networks.” The one topic that rally’s Page’s diverse community is female representations in the media, workplace and of course, on the Web. In the backlash against a particularly bad YouTube campaign launched by Motrin , BlogHer was among the first communities to retaliate with a Motringate. The consumer trust, distribution and collective spending power of the BlogHer community is enough to make or break a household brand. As Page and her co-founders begin experimenting with targeted feed and podcast programs, advertisers may find even more opportunities to test their mettle in this female media landscape. To check out the network visit blogher.com . Discuss

If an agency has ever pitched you on outreach to women’s blogs and they don’t mention the BlogHer network, there’s something wrong with them. BlogHer and its 2,500 contributing blog affiliates are celebrating the network’s 5 year anniversary with the combined traffic of 21 million unique visitors per month and some huge lessons learned along the way. ReadWriteWeb spoke to co-founder Elisa Camahort Page to find out what it’s like to run a women’s network in a man’s world. Sponsor According to the Catalyst Census , “From 1995 to 2005, the average rate of increase in women’s representation on Fortune 500 corporate boards was, on average, one-half of one percentage point per year. At that rate of growth, it would take another 70 years for women to hold approximately 50 percent of Fortune 500 board seats and reach parity with men.” Page explains that the market was ripe for BlogHer from the very beginning as media began to latch on to the idea of women’s representation in technology, science and business. In 2004, Page and co-founders Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardins created the BlogHer Conference in an effort to answer the media question - where are the women bloggers? As the conference came to fruition, the three were immediately flung into the spotlight with media coverage from CNN and MSNBC. Says Page, “We knew then we were on to something and we decided to make it a business.” A year later the conference lead to a publishing network and a diverse range of female bloggers joined forces with the trio to promote discussion across their domains. After 18 months of bootstrapping with their own funding, the co-founders raised $3.5 million from Venrock and have since raised an additional $13 million to build out the 20+ topic channels. The network currently syndicates to iVillage , Oxygen.com and BravoTV.com . While other publishing networks of this size often opt for a wholly automated system of content aggregation, home page features and related blog links, BlogHer has a commitment to curation. Says Page, “It’s not just about the traffic, we want to ensure that diverse voices come through in order to generate more discussion. We’ve got a headline editor who looks for topics we want to explore and we take care to feature interesting content.” Featured pieces are then served across the publishing network to the 2,500 affiliate blogs and relevant pieces are linked alongside a blog owner’s own content. When asked what keywords (other than “BlogHer”) drive the most traffic to the network, Page replied, “Women are not a monolithic block who think, act or buy in the same way. It differs from week to week, but for instance, in 2008 the keywords all revolved around the election or the economy. The areas of interest that drive traffic are not much different than other blogging networks.” The one topic that rally’s Page’s diverse community is female representations in the media, workplace and of course, on the Web. In the backlash against a particularly bad YouTube campaign launched by Motrin , BlogHer was among the first communities to retaliate with a Motringate. The consumer trust, distribution and collective spending power of the BlogHer community is enough to make or break a household brand. As Page and her co-founders begin experimenting with targeted feed and podcast programs, advertisers may find even more opportunities to test their mettle in this female media landscape. To check out the network visit blogher.com . Discuss

As apple media event approaches, rumors about what to expect apple to reveal builds up, the huge ones are that Apple would release it long awaited “Tablet” , also the Big news on releasing the iPhone from it’s exclusivity with AT&T and the expected iPhone 4.0 firmware announcement!
What do you think that apple would surprise […]

In my Do you Tweet? post, I said the following about AlQabas newspaper -
“On the media side, AlWatan is the only account that is active. Sadly, AlQabas is probably 20 years behind and I doubt they even know that it exists. AlJarida had an account which was active for 1 day and four tweets.”
As of […]

In my Do you Tweet? post, I said the following about AlQabas newspaper -
“On the media side, AlWatan is the only account that is active. Sadly, AlQabas is probably 20 years behind and I doubt they even know that it exists. AlJarida had an account which was active for 1 day and four tweets.”
As of […]

In my Do you Tweet? post, I said the following about AlQabas newspaper -
“On the media side, AlWatan is the only account that is active. Sadly, AlQabas is probably 20 years behind and I doubt they even know that it exists. AlJarida had an account which was active for 1 day and four tweets.”
As of […]

 
Twitter did it this year. They’ve been there for a while but finally became the biggest phenomenon on the net since blogs came up. Even facebook is slowly changing into a mini twitter with their “feeds”.
Anyway, do you tweet? If so, who do you follow?
I’m very interested in seeing if people follow local companies. I try […]

Marina FM invited Deera Chat for an interview about Podcasting and the idea of the show, they were great host and the interview was a lot of fun, check it out

On the 18th August, Michelle Obama and family went on Vacation, passing by the Grand Canyon………………it seems her shorts have caused quite a stir…
So bloody what! What is the big deal? Seriously? Leave her alone, her breasts were covered and her butt!
Why the big deal about her shorts?
Who was she harming?
She is showing the american […]

I don’t buy it. This is too little, too late. He thought he could ease on down out of it but it’s not happening. Some of the media might have forgotten what went down exactly and this is the perfect time for the apology, not too far away from the incident yet far enough for […]

After a particularly sleepless night, I decided to browse through the BBC News website for anything of interest and actually came across a pretty interesting article. After reading the article thoroughly, I must admit that I’m pretty impressed! Read the article here: The 99 News
Let me explain in short: The 99 is a comic book […]

Yesterday the internet came alive, every page I clicked on was something to do with Michael Jackson, whether it was ‘911 call’, ‘accusations of child abuse’, ‘mj’s music videos’ or just a rambling or too about his life.
Another person died on the same day as him.
A beautiful woman.
The Original Charlies Angel star ………Farrah Fawcett died […]

I came across an interesting case study conducted at Harvard University, where a ‘map’ of the Arab blogs has been created & discussed. For those of you who are interested whether our blogs actually count, then you definitely need to read the publication linked below. Also the map is linked and is very interesting.
Read the […]

This column by my (favorite) columnist Muna Al-Fuzai in the Kuwait Times prompted me to respond. I’m sorry Muna, but you really need to clean up your act. Lady, please spare me your articles and pursue some other career?
Read the following article found in Kuwait Times: How much do we know about swine flu?
Now I’ll […]

If they’re not angry about Dijon mustard or busy hating on minorities, Republicans and conservatives alike are occupied with a whole lot of misinformation. No wonder the dumbest people on the face of this earth vote for them. They like fear mongering and the puritan mindset works overtime when it’s fearful. So, they have to […]

I was having a lot of trouble with uploading pictures, media and links.
My firefox would automatically crash….
I have come up with a solution!!
Go to Tools>Add ons>Disable Google Gears

Voila! problem solved!!
Posted in Writing Tagged: crashing, firefox, links, Media, mozilla, pictures, problem solved!, problems, Technology, videos, wordpress

Heard this on MBC Max … playing in the background of an ad.
googled the lyrics as I recognised the voice…….. turns out it’s the one and only Miss Beddingfield.
Thanks Natasha for giving us another great song.. Soulmate by Natasha Beddingfield.
Here’s the lyrics, I’ll try add the link but lately everytime I do, my mozilla […]

Well Apple is expected to unveil the new iPhone 2009 on Monday. Since last week we have seen photos leak that show what is supposed to be the new iPhone in all black.
A few months back I wrote about it .. wasn’t sure whether it would be black or white, but wouldn’t it be cool […]

It seems thousands are searching for a photo of a man who killed himself this week.
The shocking published photo shows David Carradine with his hands tied in front of him, hanging from the support bar in a closet.
This is disgusting. Have some respect for this poor man’s family.
Posted in Writing Tagged: Carradine photo, death, […]

Thanks Sky!
A manhunt for Ian Griffin was launched after 36-year-old Kinga Legg was found dead at a £1,000-a-night hotel in Paris last Tuesday.
Miss Legg’s body was found by a maid “battered and bruised” in the bathroom of their suite at the Hotel Le Bristol.
The Pole ( EXACTLY WHAT DID THEY MEAN – POLE? LOL) died […]

Whoever said this was on the decrease is talking out of there a$$.
11,000 cases – that’s a hell of a lot of infected people.
Are we still on level 5 alert?
I think the WHO really should consider increasing to level 6.. or are they waiting for this to mutate, get stronger and kill […]

Are you next?
38 out of 50 states in the US are infected with H1N1-swine flu, amazing how this thing has spread from just a few to hundreds worldwide.
The current number of cases according to the CDC are 403 cases in 38 states total and 1 death in Texas that of a mexican child.
CNN are […]

I came across a blog last night and was scared.
I haven’t thought much of the swine flu in the last few days until I read the comment by ‘i’m leaving’ on this blog page.
I’ll give you a snippet of what he has to say…
”Trust me when i tell you that the wheels have already been […]

The guy didn’t even buy the car, what is he going to do when he buys the damn thing !

What a terrible thought but …..How can it be that the only fatalities are Mexican hispanics nearly a week into the outbreak?
Race-specific viruses can occur naturally, but this is a rare phenomenon. Is the swine flu virus a synthetically manufactured race-specific bio-weapon being beta-tested in preparation for more deadly pandemics in the
future?
Scientists are still baffled […]

Leaders of the World Health Organisation WHO on Wednesday evening told us that they now requested all countries to put into operation or update their ‘pandemic plans’ as a result of the spreading of the H1N1 flu virus.
I am waiting.
I am also demanding- and I suggest that we bloggers, as a matter of urgency, demand […]

“So you think some holding it secret?”
I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I like to deal in fact. But for financial reasons (economies are in a weakened state) and to not create panic, I do think governments are “sitting on their hands” over the actual tests or releasing of the information. I’m not saying they’re lying, […]

Well, Jack Cafferty has been getting on my nerves this week, what with ‘radical islam’ and now ’suggesting obese passengers pay for 2 seats’
His thoughts were ‘For years, I thought those who trundled to the counter with a ton of bags were really pushing the limit. Eventually there were additional charges for extra baggage. We […]

My favourite act of the night, yes, it was indeed…… Anoop
it was heartfelt, emotional and soulful.

He won’t win, because America is a racist nation. Sorry, true. He’s foreign so, you don’t like him. Infact, they probably believe he is a terrorist. lol
simon said ‘zero to hero’ - I’ve got to agree..
Posted in Writing Tagged: america, […]

Two people are taking Reality TV by storm.
Adam Lambert of American Idol and Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent.
You might say. I’ve never heard of either. Well, it’s about time you did. These two faces could be the future of your radio. LOL Sorry, I’m not keen on either, however, Adam does have authenticity and […]

Posted in Writing Tagged: boss, employees, employer, entertaiment, funny, humor, i hate my boss, jobs, jokes, lifestyle, management, manager, Media, News, pictures, Travel, work

Some interesting names here… I had a giggle, any wonder most of them changed lol.
Woody Allen = Allen Konigsberg
Tony Bennett = Anthony Benedetto
Nicholas Cage = Nicholas Coppola

Michael Cain = Maurice Micklewhite
Cher = Cherilyn Sarkisian

Eric Clapton - Eric Patrick Clapp
Tom Cruise = Thomas Cruise Mapother […]

Just found this on the Sky News website in the ‘Latest News’ section……………spot the deliberate ( or not so ) error:

Latest :
Read full story April 15th 

Security Leak Cost Terror Raid Cops 24 Hours

Terror Blunder: Ex-Chief Says Sorry To PM

BoE Holds Interest Rate At All-Time Low

Easter Weekend: Travel Chaos Expected

Staff Sacked On Air In New TV Reality Show

And […]

Well………..North says not bound by nuclear deal, to re-start plant
* U.S. criticises North Korea’s action
* Pyongyang tells U.N. inspectors to leave
What are YOU hiding North Korea?
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: “North Korea will not find acceptance by the international community unless it verifiably abandons its pursuit of nuclear weapons.”
Is this the next country for […]

I have just read this article and thrown up, literally.
The Tracy Sunday school teacher accused of kidnapping and killing 8-year-old Sandra Cantu is set to be arraigned at 1 p.m. today in a Stockton courtroom.
Melissa Huckaby has been charged with murdering her daughter’s friend, according to the Associated Press. In addition, San Joaquin County have […]

I was reading Marzouq’s blog zDistrict when I read this post about the article in KuwaitTimes… and I totally disagree with the article. I once wrote about the definition of a blog in a previous post which specifically mentioned that it’s a personal diary.. yes blogs can be for a specific purposes but that’s not […]

It seems a huge attack is in progress……… there’s a Twitter Worm
It seems the culprit has been found according to twitter..Twitter..
” news service BNO News reported StalkDaily’s 17-year-old owner, Mikeyy Mooney, had claimed responsibility for the attack.”
“I did it out of boredom,” he told BNO.
But.. another twitter user has said:
That Twitter status message is […]

Seems another shoot up is going on in Michigan
http://twitter.com/BreakingNews
When are America going to start having some godamn gun control?

UPDATE:
A WWJ Newsradio 950 reporter says a male shot his girlfriend and then himself at the campus, but officials have not yet confirmed this.
Posted in Writing Tagged: American Politics, gun control, guns, lockdown, Media, […]

Some of you know that I’ve been having a ‘blog war’ with a fellow blogger. I was appalled to read comments but I’m glad that ‘miserable swine’ has cleared up the fact she didn’t wish a fellow human being dead.
http://miserableswine.com/2009/04/08/a-few-closing-words-about-jade-goody/#comment-1153
So, here is my public apology and explanation for my irrationality.
And perhaps I should apologise […]

UPDATE: Crowds filling up in tunnels due to Evacuation:
Evacuated to carpark..

according to bbc world news, heathrow terminal 3 has been evacuated with eye witnesses saying sniffer dogs and police have entered the terminal………….
Another part of the plan to divert attention away from the G20 fiasco ?? I think so. LMAO
Confirmation from someone who was […]

Gavin DeGraw is the true meaning of artistry.

Posted in Writing Tagged: accoustic, amazing vocals, artist, Entertainment, gavin degraw, Life, Love, Media, Music, News, one tree hill, Personal, stripped, Thoughts, video

She showed strength, courage, compassion and love.
She will be forever missed and will remain in our hearts.
May she Rest in Peace.

Posted in Writing Tagged: alphainventions, Art, cancer, celebrities, celebrity, Entertainment, Family, global voices, Health, hearts, jade goody, Jade Goody Princess, Life, Love, Media, News, Personal, pictures, reality TV, sadness, sky, sky news, Thoughts, Women, […]

Jade Goody was laid to rest this past weekend. Her sons didn’t attend the funeral and quite right, why should two young toddlers go to the funeral of their mother. They are too young to understand. It wouldn’t be morally right.
Instead, Jade choose to write a farewell to her boys, something they will have and […]

It didn’t matter that she broke protocol- the iPod made up for it apparently……. and people said it was a motherly hug.
Mistake number one could have been the jay Leno show, but it wasn’t. Mistake two could have been touching HRH but it wasn’t.
What can’t these Obamas do !!

[…]

This is a special post.. for someone special..
What’s the point in living in the UK if your miserable?
Here are a few reasons to move abroad..preferably the middle east.
1. Filling your car with a full tank of gas will cost you no more than 3 pounds… yes, that’s right 3 pounds.
2. The sun shines for 360 […]

Watching the headlines today has made me feel a variety of emotions……..from sadness to anger.
Children as young as three are being trafficked to Wales for sex and drugs by gangs who have tricked or deceived their parents, a report claims.
Sorry? Did I read that right? WALES? What in heavens is going on ??
The children are […]

The bodies found in the lake in Gloucestershire appear to be that of the missing florist and her disabled daughter.
Police are due to make a press conference in the next hour with further details. They have said that they believe the pair ‘drowned’ ?
Did the mother have enough?
Could she not cope?
What on earth happened? Yet […]

Well, today someone said …… ‘oh, my god, have you checked out Goop? It’s like totally awesome’ ….. yes, those were her ”exact” words……. hmm, anyway, moving on..
Paltrow, yes, she’s trying to be all hip and modern and well ‘’superwomanish”…..
GOOP
Goop is her website.. and apparently it  is there to provide information to women that Paltrow […]

Pauline Fowler, aka Wendy Richard has died at the age of 65 after battling cancer. Minder star Shane Ritchie, who worked alongside Richard on EastEnders playing Alfie Moon until 2005, said he was “absolutely devastated” by her death.
Meanwhile…… Jade Goody has spoke out about how she wants ”lethal injection”, unfortunately euthansia is still illegal. Much […]

Nine people were killed, including both pilots, when the jet came down in a muddy field in Amsterdam. The Boeing 737-800, carrying 134 people, suddenly lost speed and fell out of the sky two miles short of the runway at Schiphol Airport. The plane’s black box has been recovered but investigators said they […]

Number one for the most distasteful headline in history………….when the General Belgrano was sunk ( while retreating) in the Falklands War:

I am just laying back watching all the conservatives, whether here or there, squirm at this new progressive world. Why are we still talking about human rights violators like Sarah Palin. Elisabeth Hasselbeck claims that she was a great governor of the state of Alaska? Really, then why is Alaska the most corrupt state in […]

mushroom

This was a story the Arab Times, Kuwait ran a few days ago……( the red grafitti was an add-on )……you
see, over here in the Arab world we really can do what we want!
      

So as a teacher, we get all sorts of  notes from parents…………
Here are a few:
Dear School: Please ekscuse ****** being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also 33.
Please execute ***** for her absentism yesterday and the day befores this.
Please teetchir  ***** was off  yezturday because he was playing football. He was hurt […]

Had enough of your boss?
I have.
What can I do?
Here are my option………
I could……..enlist a friend to deliver papers appearing to be legal documents that insinuate he is being sued for 4 million bucks….then put the word “joke” on the last page of the 20-page document. It will be fun to watch beads of sweat form […]

The UN have decided to do the ”charitable” thing and resume aid for Gaza.
Personally I think it was rather selfish of them to stop. When they take up that job, they know that is could be high risk.
Anway, moving on………………………
There are now 21,000 sheltering in schools. 80% of the population are in dire need of […]

“He weighs just over seven stone and is very frail. He’s also had a nasty bout of emphysema and there have been reports he has another lung disease.”
Report
Posted in Writing   Tagged: addiction, alcohol, america, children, death, diet, disease, drugs, Entertainment, Family, Health, Life, Media, michael jackson, Music, News, Thoughts   

Don’t support this war.
Don’t donate to it without realising. Don’t give money to finance the Israeli Army.
Boycott Israeli Goods
Posted in Writing   Tagged: American Politics, army, boycott, boycotting, business, CNN, economy, Egypt, finance, Gaza, global voices, Iraq, Israel, israeli army, Life, Media, Middle East, murder, News, Obama, Palestine, policies, Politics, Shopping, starbucks, Thoughts, truce, UN, united nations, […]

So, will he sit back and relax?
Will he want to go out with a ‘bang’?
Will he want to be remembered for more mass murders?
What is he going to do?
He’s in office until 20th Jan, is it? What will his next move be?
Wouldn’t it be fantastic if he did the unexpected.
Ha, fat chance.
The wicked only stay […]

There are been complete carnage in Gaza. It is upsetting to watch on the TV and I’ve tried not to watch it when I came home today, instead.. I found myself browsing online, surely live footage is worse.. maybe not ..
Please note; these are very very upsetting.

For goodness sake, this is just mass murder :’(
Posted […]

I love this man and his point of view. He never holds back on the truth.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so angry.
Well said George.

Posted in Writing   Tagged: Egypt, Gaza, george galloway, Israel, Media, News, Palestine, Personal, Politics, religion, television, Thoughts, Travel, video, Women   

I just got mailed this link from a friend, and I’m in tears.
This is complete carnage.
Mass Murder.
This is NOT a fight against Hamas. This is a complete bloodshed. This is a war against the palestinian people itself.
It’s disgusting, may allah curse anyone who supports this.
:’(

Posted in Writing   Tagged: disgusting, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Media, Men, Middle East, […]

A song that is playing in every UK store on repeat, I think……. it has stuck in my mind, and I haven’t heard it for two days and I’m kinda missing it ..after complaining about it, i really do think it’s quite nice.

Posted in Writing   Tagged: alexandra, Entertainment, hallelujah, Life, Love, Media, Men, Music, News, Personal, […]

This will be easy. Here are a number of reasons why I hate Terminal 5.Yes, THE NEW TERMINAL 5.
1. You save some money for your journey home to buy stuff in the duty free, cheapest bottle of perfume. 21.00 pounds.
2. Where are the normal shops like Next and Topshop? Terminal 5 consists of ….. Gucci, […]

Welll, I arrived yesterday morning, minus one suitcase……….. note: arriving in the UK, they didn’t lose my luggage, but damaged it. Yes, broken into pieces, anyway, me being the kind-hearted soul that I am decided, it’s Christmas, they are busy, etc, etc, who cares if they broke my bag…………………………well on returning, yesterday…….after a 7 hour […]

I am a little bit irked this morning ……………….as you know, I had my mobile stolen and so I am borrowing  a cousin’s. It was one day behind and this almost made me miss the first dy back at work this week as the calendar was wrong. So this morning, I get up as usual at […]

Just got this spam e mail…………….he needs an English teacher rather than an investor.
”Dear friend
    we are the HAIXING company.Here is our website XXXX.com   . we mainly sell electrical product .such as digital cameras, mobile, LCD TV, xbox, Laptops, DV, Mp4, GPS, and so on. All items come with 12months international warranty.
    The Christmas […]

I’ mwatching Oprah… the show is about centenarians!
Would you like to live to 105? 115? Be riding a bike at 100? chopping wood at 102?
There are a number of places around the world that people are living ………above AND beyond 100……..
What’s the secret?
Hard Water - good for bones?
Lets find out where these places are..
1. Nicoya […]

how did he think of doing that?? we all got to love him for it!

amazing… some fantastic movies in here!!!
Posted in Writing   Tagged: Education, Entertainment, funny, humor, inspiration, Life, Love, Media, Movies, News, relationships, Thoughts, video, Women   

It is a cheer for democracy that the banned  Un-Islamic hate preaching cleric Omar Bakri is able to preach to his followers in London/UK  from Lebanon via Internet. He is exploiting the very democracy he criticizes- would the hypocrite in the room please raise his hand?
You see Mr Bakri, the very ‘regime’ , ‘westernization’, ’satan’,  ’morals’  […]

He stole our hearts, he got artist of the year at the WMA’s.. and he just released a song for Christmas………. I like it, no, actually, I love it.. and him, he’s such a cutie..
Posted in Writing   Tagged: blogging, Entertainment, funny, humor, Media, Men, Music, News, sex, television, Thoughts, video, Women    […]

Daniel Hoevels acting out the role of a suicide.
In a later show, the knife was switched. omg, who does this kind of thing??!!

An actor slit his throat on stage when the prop knife for his suicide scene turned out to be a real one.
It was only when he did not get up to take a […]

Well, it seems he has decided ‘I want to come back’…………but ‘will he or won’t he’?
It only take a minute to say yes…………
Go on, Robbie.. get back to where you should be

Posted in Writing   Tagged: blogging, Entertainment, humor, Life, Love, Media, Men, Music, News, Personal, relationships, Thoughts, video, Women   

Well yes, someone found it. But they wouldn’t answer……until we sent a text ”Please pick up! I’ve been calling you ! We need John’s blood group! He’s in the hospital! Please pick up!”
So they called back…….and hung up. It nearly worked.
Bastard, thieving gits. May they roast for eternity. Don’t care about the phone, but how […]

Went shopping today……And lost my mobile.It was two hours before I discovered it was missing. I think it fell off my knee near Barakat in the desert car park. Hope everyone in bangladesh hasn’t had a call by now.
I am sad- and, I hope, not broke.
Please come home phone.
Phone home.
Home phone.