http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=63747&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1128300&highlight=

Radio One, Inc. Announces the Acquisition of Social Media Network Community Connect Inc.

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2008--Radio One, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROIAK and ROIA) today announced that it has acquired the social networking company, Community Connect Inc., for a transaction price of approximately $38 million dollars.

Community Connect Inc. (CCI), which owns and operates a number of social-networking brands under its umbrella including BlackPlanet.com, MiGente.com, and AsianAve.com, is the leading online niche social-networking company. With over 20 million members it is the 4th most visited US social networking property/publisher. (Hitwise January 2008).

"CCI is an innovator and pioneer in social networking," says Alfred Liggins, III, Radio One's CEO and President. "We believe that they are a great complement to our existing radio, TV, and online properties."

This acquisition is another example of Radio One, Inc.'s continued strategy of diversification outside of the radio broadcasting space in order to deliver a more holistic approach to targeting African Americans. Radio One purchased GIANT, a magazine targeting Urban consumers, in December, 2006 and has an interest in the African-American targeted cable network, TV ONE. This acquisition gives Radio One a strong foothold in the ever growing social networking and multicultural online space.

"We will be the clear number one in the African-American online space," said Mr. Liggins.

Analyst eMarketer predicts that by 2011, $4.1 billion will be spent worldwide for social network advertising, a dramatic increase from the $480 million spent in 2006. In 2008 alone, global ad spend in the social networking arena is expected to increase 75% year over year, amounting to $2.1 billion (eMarketer, Social Network Marketing: Ad Spending and Usage, December 2007).

"This is a great opportunity to take CCI to the next level," said Ben Sun, President and Founder of CCI. "Radio One reaches over 20 million people every week in radio, TV, print and online giving us the opportunity to capitalize on cross-platform opportunities for our brands that will truly benefit our members and advertisers."

"CCI's management team recognizes that the Internet is less about single destinations and more about connecting people, around touchpoints of culture and lifestyles. They have built incredible loyalty among their members," said Tom Newman, President of Radio One's Interactive division.

Upon closing the transaction current President and Founder Ben Sun will continue to run CCI and will report to Tom Newman. Community Connect Inc. has approximately 100 employees and is headquartered in New York City. Rothschild, Inc. acted as financial advisor to Radio One in connection with the transaction. Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. acted as financial advisor to Community Connect Inc. in connection with the transaction.

Radio One, Inc. (www.radio-one.com) is one of the nation's largest radio broadcasting companies and the largest radio broadcasting company that primarily targets African-American and urban listeners. Pro forma for recently announced transactions, Radio One owns and/or operates 53 radio stations located in 16 urban markets in the United States. Additionally, Radio One owns Magazine One, Inc. (d/b/a Giant Magazine) (www.giantmag.com), interests in TV One, LLC (www.tvoneonline.com), a cable/satellite network programming primarily to African-Americans and Reach Media, Inc. (www.blackamericaweb.com), owner of the Tom Joyner Morning Show and other businesses associated with Tom Joyner.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements represent management's current expectations and are based upon information available to Radio One at the time of this release. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond Radio One's control, that may cause the actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Radio one does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements.

    CONTACT: Radio One, Inc.
             Peter D. Thompson, EVP and CFO
             301-429-4638
             pthompson@radio-one.com

    SOURCE: Radio One, Inc.

The news is in, and it's bad: congestion pricing lost.

I think Mayor Bloomberg put it best:

"Today is a sad day for New Yorkers and a sad day for New York City. Not only won't we see the realization of a plan that would have cut traffic, spurred our economy, reduced pollution and improved public health, we will also lose out on nearly $500 million annually for mass transit improvements and $354 million in immediate federal funds.

"I will be speaking with Secretary Peters and will express my thanks for her commitment to innovative solutions to real problems facing large cities today. I will also express my deep disappointment that, sadly, even Washington, which most Americans agree is completely dysfunctional, is more willing to try new approaches to longstanding problems than our elected officials in the State Assembly. It takes true leadership and courage to embrace new concepts and ideas and to be willing to try something. Unfortunately, both are lacking in the Assembly today.

"If that wasn't shameful enough, it takes a special type of cowardice for elected officials to refuse to stand up and vote their conscience – on an issue that has been debated, and amended significantly to resolve many outstanding issues, for more than a year. Every New Yorker has a right to know if the person they send to Albany was for or against better transit and cleaner air. People know where I stood, and where members of the City Council stood. They deserved at least that from Albany."

Go Bloomy. I don't like everything he's done, by any means, but his PlaNYC and Congestion Pricing plan was genius and it makes me sick that it didn't pass. It's sad.

More:
http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/04/07/its-apparently-official-congestion-pricing-is-dead/

From here:
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2008/03/31/tomo/index.html

Hilary Clinton apparently lied about her visit to Bosnia in a few ways.

First off, there was no sniper fire, and there was no panicked running to safety. Nor, in fact, was the ceremony moved inside due to the threat of sniper fire. The whole sniper fire thing is pretty much all imaginary. To put thing in perspective: the great American war-hero, Sinbad (that old stand-up comedian) described it as completely safe - yes, he was there at the ceremony. The corkscrew landing she described was also BS - apparently, they just landed faster than normal to minimize any potential threat of hostile fire. That was a standard precaution, though, and there was no known sniper (or other) fire.

Secondly, she wasn't the first high profile American to go into the country after the peace treaty. The list there includes Madeleine Albright, John Shalikashvili, Bill Perry, various members of Congress and President Clinton. Of course, if I recall correctly, she had specifically said that she went before her husband, so that's just complete BS.

View her shocking heroism here:


Read more about it at the latest of around 1000 articles discussing it here:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/185322.php

For the record: I used to like Hilary Clinton. I no longer do. For all of Obama's faults, I think he stands head and shoulders above her in many ways, and right now, I hope she goes down in flames. She has managed, by hook and by crook (and by that of course I'm referring to her campaign staff) to single-handedly lower the standards of the Democratic primary race to the level of the Republican party. Thanks, Hil.

In other unshocking news, John McCain is a lying (and incompetent) sack of sh*t but almost no one seems to notice:
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_03/013394.php

Talk about the media going easy on someone.

I hate politics in the U.S. On a good day, it's like taking a bath in sewage... and there are very few good days.

Anyone want any furniture? I'm selling some of my stuff - 2 couches, 2 chairs, one footstool.

Round one:
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fur/607298347.html
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fur/607295936.html
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fur/607292420.html
http://newyork.craigslist.org/brk/fur/607290441.html

Well, at least so far. My boss linked me to this. Even if you hate science, and you hate toys, just watch a few minutes of this - it is SO COOL. Amazing stuff.



It's called Phun and it can be downloaded here:
http://www.acc.umu.se/~emilk/

That headline either means a bunch to you or means nothing at all. I'm guessing a 20/80 split (with 80% of you having no idea who he is or why anyone would care).

(I don't actually care that much, honestly, but he's still an important figure in some ways and deserves some recognition of that.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022902992.html

The title of the article is "We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get?". Ladies, the Washington Post thinks you're a bunch of idiots.

It's theoretically tongue-in-cheek, but... well, you can read it.

Update: I missed this earlier, apparently WaPo changed the title from calling women stupid, to just saying they act stupidly. Much better!

http://feministing.com/archives/008711.html

It's a... wrench. I guess it's a strap-on "wrench"... that you get when you buy their lubricating oil. Hmmm.

I loved the articles that were linked to on Google Finance for GOOG (Google)... right before the stock fell off a cliff. Secret to its success indeed...

(Context: GOOG was valued at 718 in December... and at 504 yesterday. As you can see, it's at 451 at the time I took this screenshot.)

http://finance.google.com/finance?q=goog

Link one:

http://www.bestweekever.tv/category/save-friday-night-lights

Link two:
http://www.petitiononline.com/savefnl/petition.html

Link three:
http://www.savefridaynightlights.tv/

If you're not a fan, you should definitely check it out. Episodes are available, for free, online:
http://www.nbc.com/Friday_Night_Lights/video/episodes.shtml
http://www.hulu.com/friday-night-lights

Finally, if you are a fan, go buy the DVDs. The show's too good to lose.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20218/

It discusses the screen, the battery, even the OS.

Interesting quote about that:

"Amazon decided that the Kindle would run a modified version of the Linux 2.6.10 kernel. One of the modifications added support for execute in place (XIP), which allows faster and more efficient memory usage. In compliance with Linux licensing, Amazon has made the modified source code freely available."

I wonder under what circumstances it allows for said "faster and more efficient memory usage". Hmmm.

Heh, nice press release:




"Carbon Footprint," "Environmentally Friendly" and "Green." Have you considered these words when it comes to your reading material?

Winnipeg, Canada, February 19, 2008 --(PR.com)-- We're encouraged to buy, use and dispose with the environment in mind. While it's easy to recognize the negative impact of excess packaging and chemical content in many of the products we purchase, it's not so easy when it comes to books, magazines and newspapers.

We do have alternatives other than paper for our reading material. Many books, newspapers and magazines are created electronically. No trees are cut to produce them. No ink is used to put the words on the page. No fossil fuel is used to run presses or trucks to move the books around the country. Heated storage facilities are not required to warehouse e-books as they remain within your computer.

March 9-15th, 2008 is Read An E-Book Week. The week is set aside to educate consumers about reading electronic books and other reading material. E-books are delivered to the end user electronically. They are read on devices such as the new Sony portable reader or Amazon's Kindle. They are destroyed with the push of a delete button, without ever taking up room in a landfill.

It takes 24 trees to produce a ton of printing paper, the type normally used for books, 12 trees are harvested for a ton of newsprint. Up to 35% of books printed for consumers (down from nearly 60% several years ago) are never read. They are used for window dressing in book stores, and eventually returned to the publisher for disposal in landfills. Given that a mature tree can produce as much oxygen in a season as 10 people inhale in a year, a serious alternative to paper books, magazines and newspapers needs to be considered. That alternative is e-books.

Before purchasing your next paper book, magazine or newspaper, consider your carbon footprint commitment. Read electronically.

Read An E-Book Week, March 9-15, 2008. For more information please visit www.domokos.com/readebookweek.html

For those of you that haven't heard, a crazy person attacked and killed a female pyschologist in her office on the UES, cutting her up with a butcher knife and then attacking two other people before fleeing.

The police released a sketch of him:


They were unable to identify him, as the killer's face didn't show up in any of the standard databases of known criminals. However, thanks to my connections, I was able to run the face through another database which quickly found a match:


Oh Bill, how far you've fallen...

If there's anyone who hasn't been convinced by the past-odd years worth of elections that maybe, just maybe, our system of electing presidents is sub-optimal, raise your hands. For anyone else, there's an interesting article in Salon.com here:
http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/02/12/gaming_vote/index.html

The end result of that, though, is that it says that what seems like the best form of voting available is the same one that the Olympics and Hot or Not use - Range Voting. Read the very, very, very thorough website on it here:
http://rangevoting.org/

I haven't read enough to be confident that it's correct, but the article and site are interesting regardless.

In honor of Black History Month, I thought it might be appropriate to talk about what Martin Luther King Jr. meant to all of us. Here, thoughts from my girlfriend's 5 year old daughter:

"Martin Luther King Jr was a very bad man. He didn't let other people go near the water fountains when they were thirsty. For this he was thrown in jail and shot. And this is the reason why we don't eat cake on his birthday. He is also not really a king."

A moment of silence, please, for a very bad man.

Good article in the NY Time's "The Fifth Down" blog:

The Game Comes to the Rescue, and Oh, What a Game It Was
By Will Leitch

PHOENIX – Anyone reading this space over the last week probably noticed that my first trip to the Super Bowl was leaving me disillusioned. It was all so overwhelming, a celebration of everything that is wrong with the world of sports. Shameless hucksters, over-hyped “storylines,” endless gimmickry and schtick, “the fine folks at Nextel now bring you the newest hit from ‘American Idol’s’ Paula Abdul.” The N.F.L.’s showcase event was putting the ugliest public face on its sport, a distancing and antiseptic mishmash of corporate back scratching. It was sometimes difficult to remember why we were all here in the first place.

Fortunately, the league had a trump card, the one that not even Sen. Arlen Specter could ruin: The game itself. After all the hype and sturm und drang, Super Bowl Week had no choice but to end with an actual athletic competition. And wouldn’t you know it: It was likely the most thrilling game millions of fans have ever seen.

The particulars of the game have been discussed ad infinitum elsewhere, though one hopes the otherworldly determination of the Giants pass rush is not lost in the justified eagerness to crown Eli Manning the next New York sports hero. (Honestly, Manning was so amazing in the fourth quarter that, when he was interviewed after the game, I half expected his voice to drop four octaves and for him to start swaggering like Robert Goulet. So dominating and epic was his performance that it was a mild disappointment to discover, once the helmet was off, that he was still the same guy.)

The purpose the game served for me, and I suspect for many others, was to renew my faith. It’s very easy to sit idly by and lob stinkbombs – no matter how justifiable those stinkbombs might be – while forgetting that, through it all, this is about the kinetic thrill that only sports can provide. The sense that if you look away for so much as a second, you might miss something unprecedented, unimaginable, a supernova that happens so suddenly that it surprises even those who provide it. No matter how much anyone tries to package and polish a product, that product, ultimately, must stand on its own. And boy, did that product ever stand on its own in Glendale last night. When Manning escaped (how? HOW?!) that obvious sack and then completed his wounded duck by apparently gluing it to the head of wide receiver David Tyree, I was not a social critic of sports, anguished about the loss of sports innocence and the fear that the joy the games provided us all as children had been lost. I was, for lack of a better word, a loon: I was leaping into the air, bouncing off walls, slapping hands with anyone I could find, lunging at every possible opportunity to express the raw fever. And I’m not even a Giants fan.

It was sports at its absolute best: Random, unimaginable, insane. Not even a Patriots fan could deny it, though, just for the record, I’d wait a week or so to press them on the issue.

After the euphoria faded, or at least the swelling went down, I returned to my hotel around 10 p.m. Phoenix time. I was fully expecting rabid, screaming, inebriated Giants fans hooting, hollering and generally making life difficult for the beleaguered hotel staff. Instead, I was greeted by a lobby full of G-Men, slumped in chairs, slack-jawed and staring off into space, trying to make some sense of the magic they’d witnessed. Out in the parking lot, two preteen boys, both wearing Jeremy Shockey jerseys, tossed a football back and forth. One dropped back, shuffling his feet, bobbing, waiting, broadcasting in that preteen, high-pitched way, “Manning … back to pass … sees Plaxico and throws …” His pass went bouncing harmlessly into the path of a returning limo, whose driver stopped and gave an amused wave. The boy’s friend picked up the ball, jumped into the air and yelped, “TOUCHDOWN!!!!”

Like most people here, I’d spent most of this week so sick of football that I couldn’t wait for the actual Super Bowl to come and leave already. I was foolish to think anything as peripheral as money could ruin something as pure, visceral and cleansing as sports. I don’t know about you, but September can’t get here soon enough. Let’s do this again.

By now, I'm sure you all know that the Giants won Superbowl 42, defeating the undefeated Patriots to shock the world. It was so unlikely that even most Giants fans didn't believe they could win. (I did - so much so that I bet on the game, first time ever in my life to do something like that. It wasn't a huge sum, but it was symbolic for me - I knew they had it in them. Simple as that.) Even after the fact, sports writers blamed the Patriots' bad play on the loss, saying they had more to do with their own loss than the Giants did. But the Giants have been underdogs most of the season, and I bet even that's ok with them - they've suffered at the hands of the media all year, and they just keep on fighting. Now, they've fought themselves into the title of world champions.

I'm happy they won. I guess so are a lot of New Yorkers. It's been 17 long years, people.

The great thing is that the Giants did it with so many rookies starting - and they have the chance, next year, to have an even better year.

I'm proud of the Giants - they played with more heart tonight, and over the past few games, than they have for years. They deserved this win, regardless of what any critics or sportswriters might say. To hell with them. You did good.