AOL Founder Steve Case would re-do AOL / TimeWarner Merger

disrupt on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) AOL Founder Steve Case visited Tech Crunch Disrupt for a "fireside chat" with TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington on Tuesday.

Case, who's now involved in investing in companies like Zip Car via his holding company Revolution LLC, answered Arrington's question about the future of the web. "I think what we've shifted two is having built and core infrastructure" and now are building on top of it, for example adding apps to existing web platforms like Facebook.

The AOl / Time Warner Merger

AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000. The new company, AOL / Time Warner almost immediately ran into trouble in mating two very disperate corporate cultures. While he stepped down in 2003 and said he wished he could undo the merger in 2005, Case now says he wish he could redo and not undo the merger. The problem for Case was that he had to step down in 2003; he would have focused more on content.

On the current AOL, he thinks AOL's headed in the right direction. "It's still got 100 million users. It's still got two-and-a-half-million annualized revenues, he says." AOL, to Case's view, is a more streamlined company with a more intense focus.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz Full Interview at Tech Crunch Disrupt New York

New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) On Tuesday, TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington's interview was punctuated by Bartz telling the legendary tech blogger to f-off. But from that has been a tremendous demand for the actual full video interview, which is above.

That was and still is the buzz of the conference and of the Internet to a degree, but the actual Bartz / Arrington talk was over 25 minutes and covered a large range of topics.

Bartz said that the Yahoo! web front page has 32,000 front page variations "So you don't even know what I'm seeing," Carol informs. It's part of what Yahoo! called "The web of one" or a more personalized content delivery system. "In fact we serve a million front page modules a day."

The Yahoo! application most widely used is Messenger, so "getting Messenger on the handset companies outside the US is important to us," Bartz said. Moreover, she added that they already have deals active with a number of carriers, but are just working to expand its presence in that area.

The conversation heated up a lot when Michael Arrington turned to Yahoo!'s hiring of former Microsoft exec Blake Irving. Arrington was critical of the decision, trying to "walk this carefully" but then asking pointed questions about Irving's role in the company and mentioning Apple CEO Steve Jobs by comparison. The mention of Jobs caused Bartz to bristle and state she didn't know any VP of product who could be compared to Steve Jobs. Then she explained who reports to Blake in the Yahoo! corporate structure.

The point I think Arrington was trying to make here is that companies like Apple, even if they have huge employment structures, have one person's vision that is reflected in the entire company. While Bartz is certainly combative, it's hard to say that translates into an overall vision that can be evangelized.

After a time the conversation went to an edgy level, with Bartz and Arrington trading barbs on what men look at versus women online. That was valuable, in that we learned women look at the banner on the top right, where's men have what Bartz calls "banner blindness" but do look at text ads.

Why the difference? "Because you're odd," Bartz playfully says to the male Arrington. "Now that you say it, Arrington said, it makes more sense," causing Bartz to respond, "You're so slow."

Bartz continued to talk about "science" and "process" whereas Arrington summed it up with one question: "Where's the soul?" And that's the disconnect which led to the friction between Bartz and Arrington.

From that point on Bartz communication with Arrington was more pointed and (there's that word again) edgy, and then she dropped an s-bomb on the idea of ownership of social content when she said "Oh, I'd like to own it. S---, why not?...I'd like to be queen pooba of the World, but I'm not."

Then it went downhill from there. On the matter of tech blogger Robert Scoble "trolling" Charlie Rose on Monday, Bartz said "Oh. He looks like he's slow."

She was referring to Charlie Rose. Bartz could have been kidding, but it didn't come out that way.

Shortly after that Michael asked Bartz if she was the right person to run Yahoo! I think that's what got under Bartz' skin and not too much later, she got off her glorious f-bomb.

Could Michael's approach have been considered sexist? Frankly, that did cross my mind more than once. I wondered if Michael's questions would have taken a slighly less "put-downish" tone if he were talking to a male Carol Bartz.

Hmmmm..

Stay tuned.

Facebook's new privacy approach on Wednesday; Foursquare at 700,000 check-ins

New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) TechCrunch Day 2 features a lively Tuesday morning panel moderated by TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington, and with Foursqure CEO Dennis Crowley, Facebook VP Chris Cox, and Google VP Vic Gondotra talking about the next phases in mobile.

FFacing the Facebook privacy issue head on, Chris Cox saying that there will be new privacy tools to simplify user control over their Facebook profiles and it will be rolled out Wednesday May 26th.

On the matter of the growth of Foursquare, Dennis Crowley said the company passed 700,000 check-ins last Friday.

Google's Vic Gondotra said that mobile technology advances every quarter. Now, the phone that's the "new black" as Michael Arrington called it, is the EVO, whereas earlier in 2010, it was the Google Nexus. "You're going to see increasing amounts of technology that will permeate other countries."

Stay tuned.

Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz F-bomb at TechCrunch not the first time (video)

Arrington and Carol Bartz

New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz' F-bomb slammed on Tech Crunch Editor Michael Arrington at TechCrunch Disrupt is not the first time the combative Internet boss has dropped that four-letter word for many to hear.

The reputation so well copied on the Twitter account Fake Carol Bartz was created by events like the one where Bartz dropped one in April at an earnings call, when she said "We had a lot of people telling engineers what to do but nobody fucking doing anything.."

Yikes.

Still, that's nothing compared to what Bartz did Monday because her F-bomb, telling Arrington to F-off, was not by accident. She meant it and delivered it right between the eyes of Arrington.



Personally, I don't think it was deserved as all. Even in his worst moments Michael has never treated anyone like that. And while it makes for classic video-blogging, it's also a tasteless act.

Yahoo! is a public company which means it's going to be the focus of hard questions regarding its strategy. Carol Bartz should work to handle those questions with style and grace, not anger and roughness. Was it funny, hell yeah. I think even Michael wanted to laugh, even though it was directed at him.

One has to wonder what Carol Bartz is like when she's had some drink in her system. Man, I hope I'm around to make a video for that one!

Plus, you've not seen the entire interview! Yet.

Rock the Casbah!

Paul Gray: Slipknot bassist found dead in Iowa hotel room

New York, NY - For reasons not known as of this writing, Paul Gray, the bassist for Slipknot, was found dead in an Iowa hotel room. Paul Grey was 38 years old. There's no evidence of foul play, leaving open the possibility that he killed himself. The Des Moines Register reports:

Gray was a founding member of Slipknot and one of only two members not born in Iowa. The band broke into the mainstream with a platinum-selling self-titled debut in 1999. Two follow-ups, 2002's "Iowa" and 2005's "Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses)" also went platinum. The band has been nominated for seven Grammy awards, winning in 2006 for best metal performance.

"It's just a devastating loss for the Des Moines music scene and the world's music scene," said Matt Nyberg, who was dubbed "First Maggot" by Slipknot’s Shawn Crahan. Nyberg's band Facecage is on Slipknot lead singer Corey Taylor's Great Big Mouth Records. "He was always one of the nicest guys. You never heard anything negative from him."

Paul Grey was arrested for drug charges in 2003, but is said not to have been a drug addict.

Stay tuned.

Chevron finds Ecuador geologist Richard Cabrera committed fraud in lawsuit

New York, NY - Richard Cabrera, the Ecuador economist / geologist who's name has appeared in this space as recently as February of 2010, is back in the news again. Chevron, who's battling a lawsuit filed by Ecuador (but with the claim that it was issued by the indigenous people of Ecuador) claims to have found evidence that Cabrera was working with the real plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit. A suit that charges Chevron failed to do environmental cleanup in that country during its oil operations that ended 18 years ago. Those oil facilities were turned over to the Ecuador-run company called Petroecuador.

According to Reuters, Chevron vice president and general counsel Hewitt Pate said "This direct evidence of fraud and ex parte contacts further demonstrates the illegitimacy of the fictitious $27 billion number the plaintiffs' lawyers have created for the purpose of extracting money from Chevron and its shareholders. Despite years of denial by Mr. Cabrera and the plaintiffs' lawyers, one of their own consulting firms has now admitted in a U.S. court proceeding that they dealt directly with Mr. Cabrera. We also now know that Cabrera himself was previously employed by one of the plaintiffs' lawyers in another case prior to being appointed in Lago Agrio and that he never disclosed that fact to Chevron or the Lago Agrio court."

Richard Cabrera is the same person mentioned in this blog as being a potential winner of a portion of any damage award that would come from Chevron if it lost the case against Ecuador. Karen Hinton, the communications representative for the Amazon Defense Coalition, which is a fiscal non-profit front company for the plaintiffs and is not actually defending the Amazon, said "Since evidence at trial has indisputably shown Chevron is responsible for extensive contamination, the company has done everything within its power to attack the judicial process at its last hope of evading liability."

The trouble with Hinton's claim is much of the so-called evidence is questionable at best. There have been 118 oil spills in Ecuador since Chevron left 18 years ago. All of the so-called evidence was actually produced by Petroecuador. The other problem is that The Amazon Defense Coalition has never sued Ecuador, leaving open the perception in this space that they're working with Ecuador and adding to the fact that Ecuador's party to the lawsuit.

TechCrunch Day 1: recap: Yahoo CEO blast, Apple iPad vs. Old Media

New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) TechCrunch Day 1 is over and in the wake of Carol Bartz F-bombs and S-boms highlighted a fascinating day. Here are some highlights:

1) Charlie Rose interviewing Menlo Park Venture Capitalist John Doerr, who explained the iPad's incredible public reception and its role in technical change in this way: "When the Iphone was introduced, it took 74 days for it to reach 1 million in sales. It took the iPad just 28 days to reach that mark." Doerr thinks we haven't seen the zenith of the iPad's popularity because he contends one of its best fields of use is health care. (Part one of that video is uploading and will be available later this evening, below.)



On the matter of the growth of companies that make Facebook-based-and-distributed games, he noted that Zynga is the fastest growing company he's ever funded, and that includes Google.

2) Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz cage-fighting Michael Arrington, getting off S-bombs and F-bombs, and calling his online publishing and tech event company "tiny" and emphasizing her point by bringing her thumb and index finger close together. If you missed that video, it's here:



3. Charlie Rose leaving TechCrunch Disrupt to board a plane to Syria and to interview the President of Syria. An interesting life, Rose leads. I could not help but notice that he didn't have a wedding ring; that's telling. (Not to mention a message for this blogger.)

4. Something called "Startup Battlefield" where startup companies give pitches to a panel of judges that consist of luminaries like former-Google exec, now VC, Chris Sacca, who also sang for the TechCrunch audience in this Robert Scoble video:



5. Some really interesting startups. One called Betterment simplifies the online investment process and makes it accessible to those who may be intimidated by the complicated websites of other more traditional investment companies.

6. New York Times Writer David Carr leading a panel of what he called "ancient white men" and consisted of Angel Investor Ron Conway, Huffington Post CEO Eric Hippeau, and Bloomberg Chief Content Editor Norman Pearlstine about the iPad and asking an Asian woman who worked for the New York Times to join the panel to "balance the demographic."

The panel revealed that while traditional media's working on applications for the iPad, and New Media company Huffington Post has a new one coming out in two weeks, what they're offering is not much different from what one gets if they just visit Google News.

Day two will be equally interesting with more of a focus on media and advertisers.

Stay tuned. Off to a party!

Death of Simon Monjack- related to the bereavement process? by Dr. Christina Villarreal

Just five months after the tragically sudden death of his Hollywood actress wife Brittany Murphy, 39 year old British screenwriter Simon Monjack (also known as Con-jack) was found dead by firefighters at his Los Angeles home late Sunday. Monjack was candid about his grief following Murphy's passing in December of 2009. He described how he had lost his "best friend and soul mate" and that his "world was destroyed" after his wife's death. How do professionals in mental health delineate the process of grieving after a loved one dies? Could the sudden death of Simon Monjack be related to the recent death of his young wife? As more details emerge of the circumstances surrounding his death, we can begin to understand the psychological process Monjack may have been experiencing at the time of his passing.

Grief and Bereavement Issues and Recovery
Grief and bereavement can significantly threaten a person’s mental functioning. Although most of us are familiar with the emotional response to loss, bereavement also has physical, cognitive, behavioral, social, and philosophical dimensions. It is imperative that a bereaved person secure adequate support and/or professional treatment following their loss. Without it, life-threatening situations could emerge if a bereaved person remains isolated and without appropriate treatment such as grief counseling.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, M.D. (July 8, 1926 – August 24, 2004) was a Swiss-born psychiatrist and pioneer in describing bereavement. She is the author of the groundbreaking book On Death and Dying (1969), where she first discussed what is now known as the Kübler-Ross model. This seminal 5 stage theory continues to be widely adopted by other authors and applied to many other situations where someone suffers a loss or change in social identity.

1. Denial. When a person comes to find out about the death of loved one, their mind and body often goes into a state of shock. "This can't be real. This isn't happening." are common thoughts that run through the mind of the newly bereaved. The person is flooded with sensations of disorientation, and even simple tasks seem overwhelming. Many people describe going into a dream-like state, and experience feelings of disconnection with the events and people around him.

2. Anger. As the body and mind begins to take in the loss, strong emotional feelings such as anger begin to emerge. "This is so unfair!" "How could this be happening to me?" "Who is responsible for this?" are thoughts that persist in the mind of the bereaved, as a person protests their tragic loss.

3. Bargaining. In instances when a person or loved one is facing death, they begin having thoughts of negotiation with a higher power in hopes of somehow postponing or delaying death. "Just let me see my family before I go" "If my loved one could live just a few more months, I promise to give up/change anything."

4. Depression. As the reality of a person's loss begins to feel more permanent, the bereaved experience commons symptoms of a major depressive episode such as weight loss, disrupted sleep, hopelessness, uncontrolled worry, frequent tearfulness and sadness or irritability. A person in this stage may refuse visitors and spend much of the time crying and grieving. However, this is often when the bereaved need the most support, as remaining in this stage in isolation can lead to tragic and possibly permanent negative consequences for the life of the bereaved.

5. Acceptance. In this last stage, a bereaved person begins to come to terms with their mortality or that of their loved one. While they continue to feel sadness and loss, they are on the path to healing, and can begin to finding meaningful ways to commemorate their loved one's life.

Respectfully submitted by Dr. Christina Villarreal, Clinical Psychologist in Oakland, CA

Yahoo!'s CEO Carol Bartz tells Michael Arrington to F-off (video)

Arrington and Carol Bartz

New York, NY - (Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.) Yahoo!'s CEO Carol Bartz is known via Fake Carol Bartz on Twitter for getting off the occasional "F-bomb."

But even with that, one doesn't actually expect a person to live up to a Twitter persona created by someone else. Not the case with Carol Bartz; she did.

Bartz, who's taken a beating from a very critical Michael Arrington in TechCrunch, walked into what TechCrunch Co-Editor Eric Shoenfeld called "the lion's den" and talked with Michael for 25 minutes.

While we have the entire 25 minute interview, this exchange on video was the talk of TechCrunch Disrupt and served to solidify Carol Bartz' combative reputation.



To set the stage, Arrington was pressing Bartz on the idea that the best companies are often "single-revenue-source" producers, and was implying that Yahoo, by getting away from search to his view, was moving away from what could work for the company. While asserting that Yahoo! is still a search company, Bartz disagreed, pointing to successful firms that were conglomerates.

Then Bartz seemed to think that Arrington was saying that because Yahoo! had not created a device they were not innovative and lacked direction. Bartz then focused on his "tiny company," saying that even with a firm as small as his, he didn't always know what direction he was going in. "So don't give me crap about what the fine people of Yahoo! are supposed to do, so F-off."

That brought the house down and it was Bartz open attempt at a knockout punch to Arrington. From all accounts she scored.

But I'm not sure what this is going to do to Yahoo! stock price.

Stay tuned.

Foresquare-type startups? Robert Scoble at TechCrunch Disrupt

John Doerr with Charlie Rose 

New York, NY - Tunerfish.com is up as the "For Show Launch" company as this blog post is written at TechCrunch Disrupt. Zennie62's trip to TechCrunch is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC.

TechCrunch Disrupt is a wonderful, dizzying array of people, companies, tech, and ideas. We're in a huge office space that was once used as a Merill Lynch Trading facility. TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington made the point that the space and what it's now used for is an example of the kind of "third wave" of tech change that the World is facing - even if it doesn't know it.

The idea of TechCrunch Disrupt is to bring together media, tech, and advertising industry representatives. So far, the idea is working very well. It even produces controversy: Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz, let loose with an F-bomb and an S-bomb, in the former case telling Michael Arrington to F-off.

But Carol Bartz and Yahoo! aside, for a moment, the interesting aspect of TechCrunch Disrupt are the sheer number of "Geo-based" social networks along the lines of Foursquare. That's what I talked with tech blogger Robert Scoble about in the video.

If you're not familiar with Foursquare, it's a mobile based software application that allows you to essentially tell the world (that's on Foursquare) where you are, be it a restaurant, an airport, or a football game. You can also locate other users at the same location or other places.

There are some really interesting startups that are variations on that theme. One of them, DeHood is designed for you to report, say, a crime being committed in your neighborhood in real time.

So as much as the buzz here is about Facebook, and something called "Zuckerberg's law of information" (after Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's determination that the rate of information flow between people has doubled in something like five years), the real interest is not in the next Facebook, but in the next Foursquare.

So far, Arringon's interviewed TV interview legend Charlie Rose, who in turn had a great talk with Venture Capitalist John Doerr. Doerr reported that Zynga, the startup famous for the Farmville game, is the fastest growing company his firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has ever funded, and that includes Google.

Stay tuned.

BP: Big Profits & Big Pollution

According to Reuters, BP has just announced they haven't been sure how much oil they were siphoning off from the leaking well in the Gulf of Mexico.  You might think it was an easy thing for BP employees to do, just look into the collection container and measure, right?  Well, it might seem easy to you, but BP's folks on-site were apparently just guessing.

BP said on Monday the oil collected by the mile-long siphon tube was at times as low as 1,360 barrels of oil per day in the six days to May 23 with the tube capturing an average 2,010 barrels per day in the time period.

The average figure is less than half the 5,000 barrels per day the company estimates is leaking into the sea and comes after it said it was managing to siphon off around 5,000 barrels per day a few days ago.

Of course, some experts have made significantly higher estimates for the size of the leak than BP provided, too. That's not surprising, BP has a profit motive, not a truth motive.

You know what is surprising, though? It got hard to find this story on the Reuters website, almost immediately. It's amazing BP can't even get the measurement where they're collecting some of the oil. You don't think Reuters is under pressure from BP or investors, do you?

Meanwhile, comparisons to the impact of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster are growing almost as fast as the pressure on the Obama administration to act. BP may have created jobs, but few who have seen the massive and spreading disaster think their response has been adequate, and we all know it will fall to the government not only to hold BP accountable, but ultimately to clean up the mess, too.

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, journalist, political staffer, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.

Zennie62 now in New York for TechCrunch Disrupt, by Christine Smith Contractors

New York, NY - As I write this blog post it's 12:43 AM EST (OK, it's supposed to be EDT, but it's really dark outside, OK. It's not daylight. Now, it refers to Daylight Savings Time, but this blogger thinks the whole deal is stupid.)

Onward.

Zennie62's trip is sponsored by Christine Smith Associates, Inc., the Premier Female Contractor in NYC. But frankly it's a miracle of God that Zennie62, uh, me, is here.

The whole deal started at 7:32 AM EST which used to be a late start, but is now an early one. Too early. After making sure the house in Georgia was secure, we headed to Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport and I ended up waiting and being bumped from flight after United Airlines flight.

Veterans to this space know this blogger flies standby and at times winds up with some cool seat assignments. Take this video on Sandra Bullock and Jesse James:



This time this blogger was at the ATL Airport from 11 to 5 PM and finally got on a plane to Chicago. I was worried that I would get into New York at something like 4 am, but no. Once at O'Hare, the departure screen reported the New York LaGuardia flight was delayed. I got in at 6:04 and it was to leave at 6:29. So hauling ass was in order; arrived at gate B5 in record time for a guy who needs to drop 12 pounds.

OK, 15 pounds.

Would you believe the agent got me on that damn flight? Can you say 'blessed?' So, after a Super Shuttle Tour of Manhattan that I have to say was really cool and with an equally cool driver named Mario, I'm blogging to you.

TechCrunch Disrupt is in the morning. I can't sleep, so I'm drinking a vodka and lemon to wipe me out; it's only half-working. Well, maybe 60 percent.

Closing thoughts.

New York City at night is beautiful. Period. Atlanta's more diverse, "modern", and fun than I'd thought, and I came to that conclusion after my Flying Biscuit Breakfast of Saturday. I now really like Atlanta, and I have to say blacks and whites mix better there than in the San Francisco / Oakland Bay Area. United Airlines' merger with Continental should make for better service out of Atlanta. Those small Brazilian planes have to go!

Stay tuned.