Author: Serkadis

Last week I attended the J. Boye Aarhus 2009 conference in Aarhus Denmark. For me, the highlight of the event was the opportunity to kick off the Web Content Management track by serving on a panel with Janus Boye (a.k.a., @janusboye) and LBi’s Jon Marks (a.k.a., @mcboof). The theme of this panel was "How do we fix WCM?" The session even had a Twitter hashtag – #fixwcm – where Jon crowd-sourced the Twitter community for their ideas.

While my fellow panelists brought up many cogent arguments for why web content management is broken, the most poignant moment of the session was when a gentleman in the front row of the audience told a story of picking a Web CMS and only after the implementation had started realizing that the organization had picked a system incapable of doing what they wanted to do. He told how his company did not do adequate research and due diligence when selecting the product and described the disaster that resulted when the project ultimately had to be stopped and delayed by two years and untold thousands of dollars.

Surely, this is an example of how WCM is broken, right? I say no.

WCM can be broken if an enterprise picks a system that is designed for different scenarios. WCM can be broken if a WCM vendor misleads potential buyers by embellishing their products’ capabilities. WCM can be broken if a client’s requirements or budget are unreasonable. WCM can be broken if an implementer or systems integrator doesn’t configure, customize, or extend the system properly.

But, WCM is not inherently broken. Heading into 2010, the WCM marketplace is more vibrant than ever. In our recently released WCM research, we broke up 42 of the most significant WCM players into 5 tiers of systems: Complex Enterprise Platforms, Upper-Range Platforms, Mid-Range Platforms, Mid-Range Products, and Simpler Products. In each of these tiers, buyers have varying license, deployment, and technology options.

Buyers today can choose between platforms and products; traditionally installed, hosted, or pure SaaS deployment models; traditional license or the many flavors of open source; one of many pricing models; and a variety of vertical-specific expertise.

There is healthy competition among vendors and unlike some other markets, there is no one system dominating the WCM world. The web content management system buyer has a plethora of choices and options. I, for one, think this is a good thing.

We talk to a lot of Web CMS customers on a regular basis.  Each story is different, and there’s a spectrum of satisfaction with the choices they’ve made.  Many customers are frustrated, but just as many can point to success stories.  Implementing content management in a fast-changing web environment is hard, but not impossible. 

So, is WCM perfect? No. But it is not broken either.

Forbes and Yahoo have compiled a list of the ten dirtiest vehicles on the road, and surprisingly this list is NOT dominated by pickups. Instead, the list identifies a handful of SUVs and uber-expensive luxury cars that are “dirty” – as in “most polluting.”

Their calculation is pretty simple – they take the EPA’s emissions score for each vehicle and add it to the EPA’s greenhouse gas score. Both scores are a number from 0 to 10, 10 being the best. The lowest scoring vehicles rank as “dirty.”

The ten dirtiest / highest polluting cars are (according to the list here):

10. Dodge Durango

9. Dodge Ram

8. Dodge Dakota

7. Chrysler Aspen

6. Mercedes-Benz S600

5. Mercedes-Benz CL600

4. Chevrolet Trailblazer

3. BMW M6

2. BMW M5

1. Jeep Grand Cherokee

There are some problems with this list. First, the Aspen and the Durango are essentially the same vehicle. Same goes for the S600 and the CL600 – mentioning the same platform twice results in a “double count” for these manufacturers. The list also doesn’t include heavy-duty trucks like the Ford SuperDuty or Dodge Ram 2500 (this class of vehicles are likely the dirtiest vehicles on the road).

Still, the data is interesting in that some of the vehicles with the worst fuel economy aren’t found. The Jeep Grand Cherokee with the 420hp 6.1L Hemi – which gets 11 mpg in the city and 14 mpg on the highway – is less of a polluter than the 4.7L (see below).

The article is also particularly hard on Chrysler. According to Forbes, the Grand Cherokee is a perennial member of this list, as are many other Chrysler vehicles.

Diving into the EPA’s scoring system, the pollution score is based on 4 categories of tailpipe pollutants:

• NOx – Nitrous oxides (abbreviated NOx or just NO)
• CO – Carbon monoxide
• NMOG – Non-methane organic compounds (the chemical pre-cursor to actual smog)
• PM – Particulate matter

The data table below shows the difference between the pollutants produced by a 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee and the 2009 Toyota 4Runner. Both vehicles feature a 4.7L V8, making the comparison pretty close to equal.

About the data – the numbers in the NO, CO, NMOG, and PM categories are represented as grams per mile.

If you take a look, you’ll notice that the Grand Cherokee pumps out almost twice as much particulate matter, nearly three times the amount of nitrous oxides, and 30% more of the chemicals that directly lead to smog. Despite the fact that these two vehicles have roughly the same fuel economy (the EPA gives them both a 15 mpg “combined” rating) the Jeep somehow manages to be a much bigger polluter.

The next obvious question is “Why?” The Jeep 4.7L does produce more horsepower (305) than the Toyota’s 4.7L (260), and the Jeep’s engine may be tuned more towards HP than pollution. It could also be that the Toyota has a better set of catalytic converters. Without all the data it’s hard to know for sure, but what is certain is that there’s a very big difference in pollution between these two.

If you’re interested in seeing the pollution scores of some other vehicles, check out the EPA’s Green Vehicle search system.

Special thanks to TXTee (a frequent commenter and a member of TundraNetwork) for sending us a link to this story. If you have an idea for an article you’d like to see here on TundraHeadquarters.com, please contact us.

Read user reviews of Tundra Accessories.

On this Friday the 13th, the headlines offer an array of health policy views — from the possibility of including a Medicare payroll tax in health reform legislation to continuing analysis of the overhaul’s winners and losers as well as the CDC’s new estimate of the far-reach of the swine flu.

In Rural Kentucky, A Surprising Twist On The Health Care Debate
From a strip-mined bluff at the edge of this famous mountain town you can see one of the most concentrated and diverse sets of medical facilities in rural America: a general hospital, a psychiatric hospital, a university-based rural health care center and clinics for primary care, cancer, urology, cardiology, addiction and ear-nose-and throat problems. This story has four related videos featuring local health care experiences and perspectives: Cathy Nance, Gerry Roll, Annie Fox and Beverly May (Kaiser Health News, 11/13).

Reid Mulls Medicare Tax Increase For High Earners
The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is considering a proposal to increase the Medicare payroll tax on high-income workers to help offset the costs of providing health insurance to millions of Americans, Senate aides said Thursday (The New York Times).

Reid Weighs Rise In Medicare Tax
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, seeking a new source of funding for the health-care overhaul legislation the Senate could begin debating next week, is considering a proposal to raise Medicare payroll taxes on couples who make more than $250,000 a year, according to people familiar with the discussions (The Wall Street Journal).

Polls Suggest Healthcare Debate A Boon To Senate Candidates
The healthcare battle appears to be helping Republicans running for the Senate. Two Quinnipiac polls released Thursday show the leading GOP candidates in Connecticut and Ohio growing their leads (The Hill).

Number Of Insured Varies By Bill
When the Senate unveils its health-care bill, all eyes will be on the price tag. But an equally significant number may be how many people get health insurance under the legislation (The Wall Street Journal).

Children’s Hospitals Object To Proposed Funding Reductions
The nation’s children’s hospitals are lobbying Congress to change a provision in the pending health care legislation that industry leaders say will reduce their federal funding by as much as $876 million (USA Today).

Insurer Enlists Employees To Fight Health Reform
The nation’s largest health insurance carrier is urging its employees to lobby the Senate against reform proposals that would hurt the firm’s bottom line, according to copies of e-mails released Thursday by a liberal advocacy group (The Washington Post).

Powerful Health Care Groups Offer Optimism On Overhaul
Two powerful health care interest groups yesterday urged lawmakers constructing a sweeping health care overhaul to focus on cost containment and affordability (The Boston Globe).

Women Face Tough Choices On Abortion Coverage
Millions of American women will face tough choices about abortion coverage if restrictions in the House health care bill become law, both sides in the abortion debate agree (The Associated Press).

Shinseki Measures Scope Of Veterans’ Mental Issues
In his first nine months as head of the Department of Veterans Affairs, retired Gen. Eric Shinseki has spent hours just listening to veterans talk. Shinseki tells NPR’s Steve Inskeep that he feels a strong obligation to “give back” to the men and women he once served with (NPR).

For Many Ill With The Flu, Staying Home Isn’t An Option
Though President Obama has declared H1N1 flu a national emergency and federal health and labor officials have urged sick workers to stay home, for many that’s not an option. A third of the nation’s workers don’t have paid sick days — about 51 million people, according to U.S. Department of Labor estimates last spring. That percentage rises to about 40% in California, according to a study last year (Los Angeles Times).

CDC’s Swine Flu Toll: 4,000 Dead, 22 Million Ill
Estimates of deaths caused by the swine flu have grown to nearly 4,000 since April, roughly quadrupling previous estimates. But that doesn’t mean swine flu suddenly has worsened (The Associated Press/The Washington Post).

Sign up to receive this list of First Edition headlines via email. Check out all of Kaiser Health News’ email options including First Edition and Breaking News alerts on our Subscriptions page.

Google has released several new features for Google Ad Planner. Google says these are aimed at providing a more granular view of where your audience can be found. Features include subdomain data, ad placements, and reach and relevance at a glance.

When Google says reach and relevance at a glance, it is referring to a new interactive graph feature, which lets advertisers see which sites in their plan provide the best reach and relevance.

"In its default setting, the graph will compare sites in your search results by audience reach and composition index," explains Google’s Katrina Kurnit. "Sites with the most reach will appear in the top-left quadrant. Sites with the most relevance will appear in the bottom-right quadrant. Sites near the top-right quadrant will have the best combination of both reach and relevance."

Users can customize the graph in a number of different ways. The feature is discussed in more detail on this page.

 Google has added subdomain data that gives you more detailed views of sites. It can help users refine their media plan by providing more info on specific pages. It lets usres search for subdomains, view the top subdomains based on total domain traffic for a site, view traffic, demographics and other data for the subdomain itself, and add subdomains to their media plan.

The Ad Placements feature consists of specific sections of a site where advertising can be purchased. This feature allows advertisers to review placement data for sites in the Google Content Network, and beta test publishers using Google Ad Manager. Google says more placement data will be coming soon.

Google says publishers and site owners can now use Google Ad Planner to share more Google Analytics data points like page views, unique visitors, total visits, average visits per visitor, and average time on site.

Related Articles:

> New Google Tool Benefits Both AdWords and AdSense Users

> Google Improves Traffic Estimation with Ad Planner

> Google Launches New Ad Planner

 

Missed this one when it first came out, but Copycense points us to the news that TV broadcasters have sued SESAC, one of the collections agencies for songwriters and composers (the smallest, after ASCAP and BMI), claiming that SESAC is violating antitrust laws in how it prices music used in television shows — especially for syndicated shows. The details are really quite fascinating. Local stations quite often run syndicated shows (such as sitcom reruns). When they buy the rights to run those syndicated shows, the package includes all of the related copyrights except for performance rights for any of the music included. Those have to be purchased separately by the broadcasters themselves. Now, for SESAC, representing the songwriters, this presents a golden opportunity. It’s the only thing standing between the broadcaster and being able to show the syndicated shows — and thus, it can ask for extremely high prices, or — more commonly — pressure the broadcasters into a high-priced “blanket license.” Since the broadcasters can’t change out the music (it’s in the shows already), they generally have no choice but to go along. So, the argument goes, SESAC effectively has a monopoly position, and is abusing it.

Of course, the real “monopoly” here is copyright. At a quick glance, it certainly looks like SESAC is doing exactly what copyright allows — but the structure of licensing for syndicated TV content allows SESAC to make life difficult for the broadcasters. So, I’m not really sure SESAC should really be faulted here, as it seems to be doing exactly what it was enabled to do thanks to overly broad copyright laws. At the same time, it also makes you wonder why the broadcasters don’t go back to the TV program owners themselves and demand that they bundle the music performance rights as well, since there’s more negotiating power there. So, while it does seem unfair for the broadcasters as the market is currently structured, I’m not sure it’s an antitrust violation on SESAC’s part. More a problem with how the industry licenses are set up, combined with copyright being way too broad in such situations.

There’s also a separate interesting element to this lawsuit — which is why it’s SESAC being sued rather than ASCAP and BMI. ASCAP and BMI are both already limited due to previous antitrust fights and consent decrees against them, whereas SESAC has been more or less free to act this way. Either way, it’s yet another lawsuit concerning aggressive use of copyright to try to demand as much money as possible, even for music that is a small part of an overall presentation of content.

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The firms Bar Code Revolution [barcoderevolution.com] and D-Barcode [d-barcode.com] use a unique process that allows for an original design element to be integrated into a traditional barcode. While retaining the functionality of the barcodes themselves, their visual appearence are augmented with beautiful iconography or outlined in larger graphic patterns.

More barcode design collections are available at creattica and ESBlog. Via Fast Company.

See also Barcode Plantage and Barcode Art.

The 3rd version of Visualizar started yesterday at the Medialab-Prado in Madrid. The 2-week workshop annex seminar is directed by José Luis de Vicente and counts with a team of well known tutors, which this year includes Ben Cerveny, Aaron Koblin, Andrés Ortiz, Santiago Ortiz and Manuel Lima.

The first day was dedicated to discuss the theme chosen for the current edition: “Public Data, Data in Public”. Authors from different parts of the world presented the projects to be developed within the next weeks. Themes of these projects vary from piracy and patents, to water usage and diseases. After the project presentations, collaborators and the Medialab team presented themselves. This session was a warming up for the formation of teams that will happen on Saturday morning, when the projects will start to be designed and developed.

After the traditional Spanish 2 hour long lunch pause, it was time for the first lectures. The lawyer Eva Moraga gave a very insightful talk about the legal issues involved in the access and reutilization of public data in Europe. She explained recent agreements that attempt to define rules for such utilization, while pointing out to practical issues such as the organisms that provide such information, and steps involved in the process. Questions such as if all entities involved in a political system should make their data available, or if every person should know how exactly governments apply their money, were raised.

In the following lecture it became clear that having the right to access information is not enough in order to make such data public. According to José Manuel Alonso, it is necessary to put the information where people are looking for it – e.g. the Library of the Congress that published photos on Flickr. He presented the benefits of making public data available through structured formats instead of through official portals. In this way information can be turned into well used applications, such as Facebook.

The last talk was given by Liz Turner from the Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN), a community focused on promoting the use, reused, and redistribution of information. Liz presented the practical problems that a designer faces while developing visualizations of public data.

All seminars of Visualizar are streamed live, which can be accessed here.

This post was written by Larissa Pschetz and Miguel Cardoso.

Kevin Donovan points us to a short but interesting essay by Steven Pinker, on technological progress. In it, he discusses the popularity of moral panics over new technologies, and claims by folks who say that Google/text messaging/the web/email/etc are “making us stupid.” He suggests a rather simple test for determining how silly those are, which includes seeing whether or not you’d exchange what you have today for what you had in the past:

I would suggest another way to look at the effects of technology on our collective intelligence. Take the intellectual values that are timeless and indisputable: objectivity, truth, factual discovery, soundness of argument, insight, explanatory depth, openness to challenging ideas, scrutiny of received dogma, overturning of myth and superstition. Now ask, are new technologies enhancing or undermining those values? And as you answer, take care to judge the old and new eras objectively, rather than giving a free pass to whatever you got used to when you were in your 20s.

One way to attain this objectivity is to run the clock backwards and imagine that old technologies are new and vice-versa. Suppose someone announced: “Here is a development that will replace the way you’ve been doing things. From now on, you won’t be able to use Wikipedia. Instead you’ll use an invention called The Encyclopedia Britannica. You pay several thousand dollars for a shelf-groaning collection of hard copies whose articles are restricted to academic topics, commissioned by a small committee, written by a single author, searchable only by their titles, and never change until you throw the entire set and buy new ones.” Would anyone argue that this scenario would make us collectively smarter?

The reason technology progresses the way it does is because it is progress. Otherwise, people wouldn’t be using it. We use Wikipedia because it has many features that make it more useful. We use email/Twitter/text messaging/mp3s and other technologies for the same reason. They make life better in some way. Otherwise, they wouldn’t get used at all.

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NTT, Japan’s biggest telecommunications company (its subsidiary NTT East, to be more exact) has unveiled the Hikari iFrame [JP] yesterday, an Android-powered tablet PC that’s supposed to be extra-easy to use and doubles as a digital picture frame. NTT East has already set up a dedicated product web site [JP] for the iFrame, marketing it as a lifestyle product of sorts.

The device features a 7-inch touch-panel display, an internal battery, a speaker, an alarm clock, a USB port and an SD memory card slot. And yes, it can be used to access the web via Wi-Fi. In an attempt to appeal to casual web users, NTT East says it will make heavy use of widgets that just need to be tapped to display various content like the weather, recipes, or the latest news.

The Hikari iFrame will be released in Japan only (initially, at least) in the first half of fiscal 2010, which under the Japanese system means sometime between April and September next year. It will cost between $220 and $330, with NTT East saying the use of Android as the OS resulted in reducing costs by 20-30% per unit. The company is currently looking for test users residing in Japan, mainly targeting women in their 20s.

This video shows the tablet in action:

Via TechCrunch Japan [JP]

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Topping the download list of the week ending November 11th on the PlayStation Store is The Warden’s Keep DLC for Dragon Age: Origins. The wacky kids f…

New kid on the block Cranberry claims that their new DVD will last 1,000 years. Of course no one will be around to dispute that claim, and by then we’ll be using some kind of organic memory light data cell, but hey! Who knows, maybe future generations will want to see those vacation photos you took of Grandma Rhoda and Aunt Suzy.

Seriously though, I can see this as being a good thing at the corporate level. The DiamonDisc is a standard capacity DVD that can be read with a normal drive. Where it gets interesting is that the disc is resistant to heat (up to 176 degrees), UV, and normal material degradation. No word on if it will survive being microwaved though.

Don’t expect the technology to be cheap though. The discs will cost you $35 each, but the price does go down for larger quantities. You have to send your information to Cranberry to be written to the disc, and then they ship the discs to you. It is possible to buy one of the special burners required to write to the discs yourself, but that drive will set you back a cool $4995.

[via Computerworld]

The good news is, with this one you don’t even need to get dressed. You can probably hit these “door busters” in your pajamas. Dell spent quite a bit of time on their full color ad, it’d be a shame not to look at it.

Computer Accessories

Microsoft Natural Ergonomic 4000 USB Keyboard – $19.99

Computers

Dell 10.1″ Inspiron Mini 10V Netbook w/Atom 1.6Ghz Processor N270 – $249.00

Dell 14″ Inspiron 14 Notebook w/Intel T4300 Processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive – $599.00

Dell 14″ Studio XPS 13 Notebook w/Intel P7450 Processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive – $999.00

Dell 15.6″ Inspiron 15 Notebook w/Intel T4300 Processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive – $549.00

Dell 15.6″ Studio 15 Notebook w/Intel T6600 Processor, 4GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive – $699.00

Dell 16″ Studio XPS 16 Notebook w/Intel P7450 Processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive – $999.00

Dell 17″ Studio 17 Notebook w/Intel T4300 Processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive – $749.00

Dell 20″ Studio XPS 8000 Notebook w/Intel i5-750 CPU, 6GB RAM, 750GB Hard Drive – $899.00

Dell Inspiron 537s Desktop w/Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5300 Processor, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive – $349.00

Dell Inspiron 537s w/Intel E5300 Processor, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, w/20″ LCD Monitor – $499.00

Dell Inspiron w/Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 Processor, 3GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive – $499.00

Dell Studio Desktop w/Intel E7500 Processor, 6GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, w/18.5″ LCD Monitor – $699.00

Dell Studio Desktop w/Intel Q8300 Processor, 6GB RAM, 640GB Hard Drive, w/20″ LCD Monitor – $749.00

Dell Studio Slim Desktop w/Intel E5400, 4GB RAM, 500GB Hard Drive, w/18.5″ LCD Monitor – $599.00

Digital Cameras

Fujifilm FinePix A170 10.2 Megapixel 3x Optical Zoom Digital Camera (Silver) – $59.99

Kodak EasyShare C180 10.2 Megapixel 3x Optical Zoom Digital Camera w/Kodak P820 8″ Digital Picture Frame – $99.99

DVD Players

Sony BDP-S360 Blu-ray Disc Player – $149.99

GPS Navigation Systems

Garmin Nuvi 255W Portable GPS Navigation System – $129.99

Hard Drives

Dell 8x DVD+/-RW External USB Drive – $59.99

Monitors

Dell S2209W 21.5″ Full HD Widescreen Monitor – $144.00

Dell SP2309W 23″ Full HD Widescreen Monitor w/Webcam – $219.00

MP3 Players

Microsoft Zune 120GB MP3 Player – $199.99

Television

Sharp 42″ 1080p LCD HDTV (Model # LC42SB45UT) – $599.00

Sony Bravia 40″ 1080p LCD HDTV (Model # KDL40V5100) – $989.00

Vizio 55″ LCD HDTV w/Blu-ray Player Bundle – $1649.99

More Black Friday deals…

Office Depot’s Black Friday ad dropped today, and it’s looking pretty juicy. Of course everyone has a netbook on sale this year, but there’s a few other things on sale that look good. Click on through to see the full ad.

CD/DVD Drives

Gear Head 8x Slim External DVD -/+RW Lightscribe Drive – $49.99

Cell Phones

Ed Hardy iPhone Faceplates – $24.99

XtremeMac InCharge Auto Charger for iPhone – $13.99

XtremeMac Tuffsheild Three Pack Screen Protectors For iPod Or iPhone – $10.49

XtremeMac Tuffwrap iPhone Case – $13.99

Computer Accessories

All Case Logic Laptop Sleeves – 50% Off

APC 550VA Battery Backup – $24.99

Height-Adjustable Mobile Laptop Cart – $17.99

iHome Wired Optical Mouse – $6.99

Logitech LX6 Cordless Optical Mouse – $7.99

Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 6000 – $12.99

Moble IT Retractable USB Hub – $4.99

USB Web Cam – $9.99

Computers

Acer Aspire 15.6″ Widescreen Notebook Computer w/AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core Processor L310, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive – $379.99

Acer Netbook 10.1″ Computer w/Intel 1.6GHz Atom Processor N270 – $199.99

Compaq CQ4010F Desktop Computer w/AMD Sempron LE-1300 Processor, 2GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive – $229.99

Compaq Presario AMD LE-1300 Desktop w/18.5″ Monitor – $329.99

Free Software w/Purchase of Computer – Free

HP Notebook Computer G60-508US w/Intel Celeron Processor 900 – $299.99

HP Notebook Computer G71-343US With Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6600 – $449.99

HP Pavilion Desktop P6229PG w/20″ Widescreen LCD Monitor – $499.99

HP Pavillion Slimeline Intel E5300 Desktop w/20″ Monitor – $519.99

HP Pavillion Slimline s5220f Desktop Computer w/Intel Pentium Processor E5300, 4GB RAM, 640GB Hard Drive – $369.99

Toshiba 15.6″ Widescreen Notebook w/AMD Turion II Dual-Core Processor M500, 3GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive – $469.99

Toshiba 17″ Notebook w/AMD Turion II M500, 3GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive – $499.99

Digital Cameras

Ativa Digital 1080p HD Video Camcorder 4x Optical Zoom – $89.99

Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS 10.0-Megapixel Digital ELPH Camera – $149.99

Canon PowerShot SD780 IS 12.1-Megapixel Digital Camera – $179.99

Kodak EasyShare CD80 Digital Camera Bundle – $79.99

Kodak EasyShare M381 Digital Camera w/Case & Tripod – $169.99

Kodak EasyShare Z915 Digital Camera w/Case & Charger – $199.99

Nikon Coolpix S570 12.0 Megapixel Digital Camera (Black) – $149.99

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W220 Digital Camera – $129.99

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W290 Digital Camera w/Case & Charger – $229.99

Vivitar Digital Camera Bundle – $49.99

Digital Media Cards

SanDisk 4GB Ultra II SDHC Memory Card – $12.99

SanDisk 8GB Memory Cards – $14.99

SanDisk 8GB Memory Stick PRO Duo Memory Card – $24.99

SanDisk 8GB Ultra II CompactFlash Memory Card – $19.99

Electronics

1.5″ Digital Photo Frames – $7.99

Ativa 8″ Digital Photo Frame – $49.99

Brother P-Touch PT-1290 Electronic Labeler – $9.99

Panasonic DECT 6.0 Digital Cordless KX-TG9332T Phone Answering System (After Rebate) – $29.99

Plantronics Explorer Bluetooth Mobile Headset 220 – $14.99

Sony Earbuds – $7.99

GPS Navigation Systems

Garmin Nuvi 1200 GPS Navigation System – $119.99

Garmin Nuvi 1300 GPS Navigation System – $149.99

TomTom GO 630 GPS Navigation System – $169.99

TomTom ONE 130 GPS Navigation System – $77.99

TomTom XL 330 GPS Navigation System – $97.99

Hard Drives

Seagate 1.5TB Expansion External Hard Drive – $99.99

Seagate 2TB FreeAgent External Hard Drive – $179.99

Seagate 320GB Expansion External Portable Hard Drive – $59.99

Seagate 640GB FreeAgent Go External Portable Hard Drive – $119.99

Seagate 750GB Free Agent Go External Portable Hard Drive – $149.99

Verbatim 1TB External Hard Drive – $79.99

Home Theater

Ativa Home Theater System 5.1 – $39.99

Memory

Kingston 1GB PC 5300 DDR2 Memory Upgrade – $17.99

Miscellaneous

All Cross Gift Pens – 50% Off

Monitors

Ativa 21.6″ HD LCD Monitor – $119.99

Movies

Over 50 Sony DVD Movies – B1G1

MP3 Players

Ativa 2GB MP3 Player With Video And FM Radio – $17.99

Ativa Speaker Dock For iPod PF112 – $19.99

Memorex Docking Clock Radio For iPod – $34.99

Sony Speaker Dock Clock Radio For iPod Or iPhone – $79.99

Networking & Wireless

D-Link Basic N Wireless Adapter – $19.99

D-Link Basic N Wireless Router – $19.99

Linksys Wireless-N Rangeplus Adapter – $39.99

Linksys Wireless-N Rangeplus Router Or Adapter – $39.99

Office

Ativa 6-Sheet Cross-Cut Shredder (After Rebate) – $14.99

Brother FAX 575 Fax/Phone/Copier – $9.99

CL Shore Mini-Solution Desk w/Hutch – $99.99

Limval L-Shaped Desk – $49.99

Office Depot Brand Premium Glossy Photo Paper – B1G2

Realspace Merrick High-Back Boded Leather Chair – $79.99

Realspace Soho Harrington High-Back Chair – $99.99

Realspace Soho Magellan Corner Desk w/Hutch – $139.99

RS To Go Alvy Task Chair – $34.99

RS To Go Ruvia Mid-Back Chair – $39.99

True Innovations High-Back Bonded Leather Chair – $79.99

Photos

Ativa 7″ Digital Photo Frame – $29.99

Portable USB Storage

Ativa 4GB USB Flash Drive – $7.99

Lexar 32GB TwistTurn USB Drive – $59.99

SanDisk 16GB Curzer USB Flash Drive – $27.99

SanDisk 8GB Cruzer USB Flash Drive – $14.99

Printers

Brother MFC-295cn All-In-One Printer – $59.99

Brother MFC-7340 Laser All-In-One Printer – $99.99

Brother Wireless MFC-490cw All-In-One Printer – $79.99

Canon 100 LIDE Scanner – $29.99

Canon PIXMA MP490 Photo All-In-One Printer, Copier, Scanner – $29.99

Free HP Printer D4360 With Any PC Purchase – $0.00

HP 6000 Officejet Wireless Printer – $59.99

HP 8500 Officejet All-In-One Printer – $149.99

HP CP1518ni Color Laser Printer – $199.99

HP D5460 Photosmart Printer – $29.99

HP J4680 Wireless All-In-One Printer – $64.99

HP LaserJet P1005 Monochrome Laser Printer – $49.99

HP P1006 Mono Laser Printer – $89.99

HP Plus Photosmart Wireless Printer – $74.99

HP Premium Photosmart All-In-One Printer – $99.99

Lexmark S605 Wireless All-In-One Printer – $119.99

Lexmark X7675 Wireless All-In-One Printer – $99.99

Samsung CLP-315 Color Laser Printer – $79.99

Wireless All In One Printer – $39.99

Software

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(NaturalNews) When you publish a hard-hitting story containing links to lots of little-known documents, you never know what kind of bizarre blow-back you’ll receive. The latest episode of reactive strangeness occurred following our publication of the story about SIGA Technologies and the conflicts of interest found in Dr. Mehmet Oz’s holding of 150,000 option shares in that company (http://www.naturalnews.com/027451_Dr_Mehmet_Oz_vaccines.html) even while pushing vaccines on TV. Shortly after publishing this article, NaturalNews was contacted by a public relations firm called KCSA Strategic Communications, which represents SIGA as an “investor relations counsel.” (http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS190221+17-Mar-2008+BW20080317)

The Vice-President of this P.R. company rather forcefully informed us that SIGA Technologies had no involvement with vaccines, and that our reporting of such a false statement was potentially “libelous.” They demanded we retract parts of our original story to eliminate any idea that SIGA was involved in vaccines in any way.

That’s funny, I thought to myself, because in researching the story, I remember very clearly reading the title of this company’s own home page, which reads, exactly:

Smallpox Antiviral, Drug Development and Vaccine Development – SIGA Human BioArmor

This is found in the title tag of their home page, www.Siga.com — or at least it was as of this writing. (They will likely change the title as soon as this story hits the ‘net, but I saved a copy for safekeeping.)

I don’t know about you, but when I read the title of some company’s web page, and it says, “Vaccine Development” in plain English, I sort of figure the company must be involved in — guess what? — vaccine development!

But no, I was told. That’s completely wrong. SIGA Technologies had nothing to do with vaccine development. They only make anti-virals, we were told. Nothing to do with vaccines. Nothing. Nada.

So I took a moment to search a little deeper into their home page, and within less than five seconds, I found these keywords in their meta keywords tag:

Smallpox Antiviral, Smallpox Drug Development, Smallpox Vaccine Development, Infectious Disease Development, Biological Warfare Terrorism… [and so on]

Now, maybe I’m just seeing things because I haven’t yet been vaccinated against H1N1, so perhaps I’m suffering from double vision or something, but when I see “Smallpox Vaccine Development” in a company’s home page title tags, I sort of figure that company is somehow involved in — wait for it — smallpox vaccine development!

But no. The P.R. consultant for this company said I was totally off base, and that they had nothing whatsoever to do with vaccine development. The exact quote we were given on the phone was, “SIGA Technologies has nothing to do with vaccines…”

Well, maybe not, except for the fact that they claim to develop them right on their home page.

Crowdsourcing more research
In any case, I wasn’t waiting around for these people to get their story straight, so I went to my Facebook page (http://facebook.naturalnews.com) where really cool NaturalNews fans hang out and discuss important subjects, and I posed this question to them: “Hey, this company SIGA is claiming they have nothing to do with vaccines. Can you find any additional documents demonstrating they do?”

This “homework assignment” was deemed altogether too easy for the NaturalNews Facebook crowd. It took them mere minutes to come up with all sorts of additional documents proving beyond all doubt SIGA Technologies’ involvement in vaccine development.

For example, they found this description of SIGA Technologies on Hoovers.com (http://www.hoovers.com/siga-technologies/–ID__53208–/free-co-profile.xhtml), a Dunn and Bradstreet company, which says: (emphasis added)

“SIGA Technologies is trying to put itself on the front lines of US biodefense efforts. The drug company has a number of development programs for vaccines, antivirals, and antibiotics for drug resistant infections; however, its main focus is on vaccines for bio-defense. The company’s smallpox vaccine ST-246, which is intended both to prevent and treat the disease, has received Fast Track and Orphan Drug designations from the FDA. SIGA is also developing vaccines for use against hemorrhagic fevers and other infectious diseases and biothreats.”

NaturalNews Facebook team members also discovered this Yahoo Finance link (http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=SIGA) which describes SIGA Technologies as “…a biotechnology company [that] engages in the discovery, development, and commercialization of anti-infectives, antibiotics, and vaccines for the prevention and treatment of serious infectious diseases.”

Continuing with the financial research, this company profile at Morningstar.com (one of the leading financial ratings companies) describes SIGA Technologies as “…developing vaccines that may prevent strep throat and periodontal disease.“

Our Facebook group also found this quote from Bloomberg.com, which describes SIGA as follows: (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=siga)

“SIGA Technologies, Inc. discovers and develops vaccines and antibiotics for the prevention and treatment of a wide variety of infectious diseases.

Once again, I don’t know about you, but when I read that a company “develops vaccines and antibiotics,” I sort of figure that those words mean… well, the company develops vaccines and antibiotics. The point of using words, after all, is that they carry some sort of consistent meaning so that when person A says “vaccines” then person B can magically hear “vaccines” and understand what’s trying to be communicated.

But maybe SIGA operates in an alternate universe where the word “vaccines” doesn’t mean “vaccines” and instead means the opposite of vaccines. Sort of like vaccine antimatter.

Maybe they’re developing vaccines in conjunction with the physicists at the Large Hadron Collider, accelerating and smashing vaccine materials in order to find Dark Matter Vaccines that don’t exist, and that’s what they were really talking about. So when their P.R. person said they were NOT developing vaccines, maybe she really meant they were developing “NOT vaccines.” (Get it? Like antimatter vaccines…)

It’s tricky to deconstruct their claims, actually. As a bit of a linguist myself, I like to think that words convey fairly consistent meaning, but this SIGA public relations rep was essentially telling me that “vaccine development” doesn’t really mean vaccine development. It’s difficult to talk to people when they keep changing the definitions of the words they use.

Vaccines, vaccines and more vaccines
About this time, the research results from the Facebook group really started to pour in (yes, what we’ve printed above is just a fraction of the links we received from Facebook members).

We received these links about SIGA Pharmaceuticals being involved in vaccine patents with the U.S. Army (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-53169654.html), and how they developed a cancer vaccine (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-53023069.html), and how they have an amazing new vaccine delivery system (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-82345557.html). The headline of that story is, “SIGA Technologies Reports Successful Trials for Vaccine Delivery System.”

SIGA even received a $3 million research grant from the NIH just two months ago (http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/news.html?d=172511). This award is described with the news headline, “Company to Research ST-246 as a Treatment for Adverse Reaction to Smallpox Vaccine.” That announcement goes on to describe how ST-246 is used “as an adjunct to the current smallpox vaccine for prevention of smallpox vaccine-related adverse events.”

Another press release from 2003 declares, “SIGA Technologies, Inc. Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Assets of Plexus Vaccine Inc.” (http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-23274958_ITM). This indicates, of course, that SIGA acquired assets of a vaccine company, and those assets — I’m just taking a wild guess here — probably have something to do with vaccines.

A search on SIGA Technologies’ corporate officers (http://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/officerProfile?symbol=SIGA.OQ&officerId=66268) reveals that the company’s Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Dennis E. Hruby, “…specializes in virology and cell biology research, and the use of viral and bacterial vectors to produce recombinant vaccines.”

Here’s an announcement from 2004, bragging about how high SIGA’s stock price has surged due to its smallpox vaccine. From the press release: “The stock of SIGA Technologies Inc. soared Monday after the biotechnology company reported favorable results for a trial of its smallpox vaccine on mice.” (http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-20772875_ITM)

That same year, a Marketwatch.com article (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/siga-tech-jumps-on-receipt-of-government-funding?archive=pulsetrue&siteid=bigcharts&dateid=38244.4905208333-820592760&dist=ArchiveSplash&returnURL=/news/newsfinder/pulseone.asp%3Fsymb%3DSIGA%26sid%3D44060%26dateid%3D38244.4905208333-820592760%26siteid%3Dbigcharts%26tool%3D1%26dist%3Dbigcharts%26archive%3Dpulsetre) announces that “Shares of SIGA Technologies rose more than 7 percent… The company said it was named as the prime contractor by the U.S. Air Force to create systems to develop vaccines and therapeutics…”

And then there’s SIGA’s patent. As this BusinessWire story announces [emphasis added], “SIGA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that a United States patent covering its strep throat vaccine technology has been granted to The Rockefeller University. SIGA is the exclusive licensee to the patent.” (http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-53369917/siga-pharmaceuticals-announces-u.html).

The actual patent text from 2001 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=/netahtml/PTO/search-adv.htm&r=8&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=(SIGA.ASNM.+AND+(strep$.BSUM.+or+strep$.DETD.+or+strep$.DRWD.))&OS=AN/SIGA+And+spec/strep$&RS=(AN/SIGA+AND+SPEC/strep$)) cites SIGA Vice President Dennis E. Hruby as one of the inventors. It includes 18 mentions of the word “vaccine” and is all about vaccine-related technologies and processes.

As you can see for yourself — and there’s much more to come, below — for SIGA to claim they don’t have anything to do with vaccines is sort of like PepsiCo claiming they don’t have anything to do with soft drinks.

SIGA admits to vaccine development in SEC filing
It gets even better. We’ve barely scratched the surface of all the fascinating documents to be found on SIGA Technologies and their vaccine research project.

Here’s SIGA’s own 2003 filing with the SEC: http://investor.siga.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1169232-03-5636

In this document, they admit in plain English:

“SIGA is a development stage biotechnology company incorporated in Delaware on December 9, 1996. We aim to discover, develop and commercialize vaccines, antibiotics and novel anti-infectives for serious infectious diseases. Our lead vaccine candidate is for the prevention of group A streptococcal pharyngitis or “strep throat.” We are developing a technology for the mucosal delivery of our vaccines which may allow those vaccines to activate the immune system at the mucus lined surfaces of the body…”

And then, in another section entitled, “Vaccine Technologies: Mucosal Immunity and Vaccine Delivery,” SIGA Technologies goes on to explain:

“Our vaccine candidates use genetically engineered commensals to deliver antigens for a variety of pathogens to the mucosal immune system… Our commensal vaccine candidates use Gram-positive bacteria… We believe that mucosal vaccines developed using our proprietary commensal delivery technology could provide a number of advantages…”

I won’t bore you with all the sentences in which SIGA Technologies discusses vaccines in their 2003 SEC filing document. Suffice it to say that I counted the number of times the word “vaccine” appears in the document, and it comes to a grand total of 105.

And just in case you think this particular document is some sort of fluke (or was planted there by the SEC in a conspiracy to fool the world into mistakenly thinking SIGA is involved in vaccine development), here’s another SEC filing that includes this interesting sentence: (http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/SIGA/455136760x0xS1005477-00-2729/1010086/filing.pdf)

“SIGA Technologies, Inc. is a development stage company with interests in biotechnology and the Internet. Siga Research Labs, (SRL), our biotechnology division, is focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of vaccines, antibiotics and novel anti-infectives for serious infectious diseases. SRL’s lead vaccine candidate is for the prevention of group A streptococcal pharyngitis or ‘strep throat.’”

If you want more examples (believe me, there are hundreds), here’s a page from EvaluatePharma.com (a research site for the biotech sector) (http://www.evaluatepharma.com/Universal/View.aspx?type=Entity&entityType=Company&id=3476&lType=coInfo&componentID=co) which details SIGA’s financials for 2006, 2007 and 2008, then goes on to describe SIGA Technologies as having a “Chlamydia Trachomatis Vaccine Program”, a “Periodontal Vaccine”, a “Smallpox Vaccine Program” and a “Strep Throat Vaccine.”

Again and again… vaccines!
The funny thing is that these published news stories, press releases, research documents and SEC filings all have two words in common: SIGA and Vaccines. There’s that pesky word again… vaccines. It just won’t go away when you’re researching SIGA. In fact, it strangely shows up with a very high frequency for a company that so adamantly claims to have nothing at all to do with vaccines.

Their denials just boggle the mind. It sort of reminds me of President Clinton’s slicing and dicing of the English language in the midst of the Lewinsky saga when he actually questioned what the meaning of the word “is” was. (Classic, huh? Gotta hand it to him…)

So we asked the P.R. rep about this, and she actually tells us — get this — that “There is no SIGA Pharmaceuticals… only SIGA Technologies!”

Sort of like “there is no spoon” from The Matrix. That’s when I pointed out this link that explains SIGA Pharmaceuticals changed their name to SIGA Technologies: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2000_Feb_3/ai_59177861/?tag=content;col1

The headline reads, “SIGA Pharmaceuticals Changes Name to SIGA Technologies.”

It’s fairly straightforward. Not much wiggle room in that statement.

The P.R. rep kept talking. She said that SIGA underwent a management change way back in 2001 and since then they haven’t been involved in vaccines.

Plain English translation
Got that? No vaccines since 2001. So why, then, do we find all these articles from 2003 and 2004 talking about vaccines? Case in point: An article in 2003 declares, “SIGA Technologies, Inc. Announces Positive Results in Safe Smallpox Vaccine Development.” (http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-100113132.html)

The SEC document cited above (http://investor.siga.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1169232-03-5636), which says, ” We aim to discover, develop and commercialize vaccines, antibiotics and novel anti-infectives for serious infectious diseases. Our lead vaccine candidate is for the prevention of group A streptococcal pharyngitis…” was filed in 2003!

Importantly, note that these documents are all written in plain English. The words “Smallpox Vaccine Development” actually mean in English, believe it or not, “Smallpox Vaccine Development.”

I know this for a fact because I went to the Google translation tool (http://translate.google.com/translate_t#), and chose an English-to-English translation, then pasted in the words “Smallpox Vaccine Development.”

Astoundingly, the translation results came back as “Smallpox Vaccine Development.” (http://translate.google.com/translate_t#en|en|Smallpox%20Vaccine%20Development)

This same Google tool also verifies that the word “vaccines” translates to, exactly, “vaccines.”

At one point, we were so amazed by the insistent denials from SIGA’s public relations firm that we just had to come out and ask the obvious question: “Do you categorically deny that SIGA Technologies has no involvement with vaccines?”

Their answer? They hung up on us.

Strange matter and not-so-clever denials
I’m not sure if the hanging up part was a yes or a no. In fact, I’m not even sure the P.R. rep we were talking to has any idea what their client actually does. It’s one thing to say, “Well, we disagree with your article and we’d like to submit a rebuttal” or something along those lines (which we have published from time to time, depending on the request), but it seems completely outlandish out to call us up and claim the company in question has nothing whatsoever to do with vaccines when “vaccine development” is right there on the home page, in perhaps the most important piece of text on any home page — the title!

The whole thing really left me wondering: What’s the real story here? Why would they lie about this?

Seriously. What’s so important about distancing themselves from the vaccine projects they have obviously been involved with that they would be so insistent in their denials?

It reminds me of a child who just stole cookies out of the cookie jar, and you spot them in the kitchen with their hands behind their back and cookie crumbs on their lips, and you ask, “Have you been eating cookies?” And they say, “No. Not me.” So you ask, “Do you know why the cookies are missing from the cookie jar?” and they answer, with an expression of sudden revelation, “Maybe someone took them!”

Let’s imagine for a moment that SIGA Technologies doesn’t research vaccines. But then why would they lie on their home page and say they do? Why would they file a report with the SEC claiming they’re developing vaccines? Why would press releases, announcements and articles across the ‘net explain that SIGA was involved in vaccine patents, vaccine testing, vaccine company acquisitions, vaccine research and vaccine technologies?

Here’s an even better question: Why make a story out of a non-story by issuing a thinly-veiled denial that can be proven wrong in 8 minutes searching around on Google? I really had nothing more to write about SIGA Technologies until this denial came our way. It was the denial that made the story. Without the bizarre denial… no story!

In my years as NaturalNews editor, I’ve received some whacky phone calls. I’ve been threatened with lawsuits and attacked by hackers. I was even impersonated once by some goon trying to break into the NaturalNews offices. But I’ve never had a company’s P.R. firm call me up and point blank lie to my face with such a flimsy, hilarious lie.

SIGA Technologies needs to get their story straight. If they really have absolutely nothing to do with vaccines, why wouldn’t they just email us a statement containing these 8 simple words: “We categorically deny any involvement with vaccines or vaccine technologies.” (The mathematically inclined among you will notice there are actually ten words in that sentence. But out of respect to SIGA Technologies, we’re not counting “vaccine” or “vaccines.”)

I sent them an email, by the way, asking these three simple questions:

1) Will you categorically deny any involvement with vaccines?

2) If so, when did SIGA’s involvement with vaccines end?

3) Does SIGA have any plans to be involved with vaccines in the future?

The answer to these three questions? Nothing. Zip. Nada.

This is how the vaccine industry works, by the way: When anyone starts to ask questions, just shut them up and cut off all communication. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my years as a natural health journalist, it’s that asking questions about vaccines is a dangerous business. There are simply too many secrets in the vaccine industry that certain companies don’t want made public.

But that’s my job: To ask questions. To think critically. To demand some answers on behalf of NaturalNews readers. And to ask for help from the NaturalNews Facebook crowdsourcing team, too, because they’re great at coming up with amazing information.

Special thanks go to Brad, Carmine, Cassandra, Elaina, Lynnea, Patricia, Stephen, Josephine, Vanessa and especially Jennifer Lewis (http://fortheloveofmybugs.blogspot.com), who did such an amazing job that she should probably be working as an online private investigator.

Last call
By the way, as a matter of due diligence, NaturalNews made one more phone call to SIGA Technologies in an attempt to get clarification on these questions. A NaturalNews reporter called SIGA, identified herself as a NaturalNews reporter, and asked the phone receptionist if we could speak to someone about SIGA’s vaccine development.

We were told — get this — that we could talk to their “investor relations” people. Yep… the very same people who had already hung up on us once before.

I guess they’re exhausted from being slapped into the corporate liars Hall of Fame by Facebook fans.

P.S. This crowdsourcing project shows the power of individual action to make a difference. Without the help of our Facebook fans, this article wouldn’t have been possible. Thank you all for your amazing help! And keep up the awesome work to expose the blatant lies of pharmaceutical and vaccine companies.