interesting things
High-profile morning anchor Soledad O’Brien is on her way out at CNN as new boss Jeff Zucker moves Erin Burnett into her morning slot…
via NY Post: Page Six http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/soledad_headed_out_at_cnn_NGuo73hdisQIzTlt8EkkYM?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Page%20Six
Hard to say how investors will read the results: There are a lot of moving parts at Dish as it teases its wireless broadband plans, promotes its Hopper DVRs, and shutters Blockbuster stores — all while it manages its core satellite TV services business. But Q4 ended up with $209.1M in net income attributable to Dish, -33.1% vs the period last year, on revenues of $3.59B, -1.1%. The revenue figure is slightly better than the $3.56 that analysts expected. Earnings, at 46 cents a share, missed forecasts for 50 cents. The company’s press release and annual report this morning mostly discuss full year results, not the quarter. Dish says, though, that earnings were hurt by rising programming costs — which execs frequently decry — as well one-time items related to its many court room battles. It ended the year with 14.056M subscribers, an increase of 14,000 in the quarter, which is slightly better than some analysts expected. Dish says it had 800 Blockbuster stores at the end of 2012, and recently said it will close about 300 of them. The operation had an operating loss of $35.3M last year on revenues of $1.09B. “In addition to the landmark introductions of our Hopper Whole-Home HD DVR, the successful launch of dishNET and the developments with our wireless spectrum, one of our key stories of the year was the change in our customer trajectory,†CEO Joeseph Clayton says. “During 2012, Dish added about 89,000 net pay-TV subscribers after having lost approximately 166,000 net pay-TV subscribers in 2011.â€
via Deadline.com http://www.deadline.com/2013/02/dish-network-q4-earnings/
The military is investigating whether the ex-Navy SEAL leaked classified information to Esquire.
via POLITICO – TOP Stories http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/report-dod-probes-osama-shooter-87837.html
In 2015, more than half of the 74 U.S. senators who voted to create the Troubled Asset Relief Program in 2008 will no longer be in office.
via Washington Wire http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/02/19/many-senate-tarp-supporters-leaving-office/?mod=WSJBlog
$30M “marketing blitz†aims to win over email users.
NBC was the only broadcast network to score a ratings touchdown in the fourth quarter, thanks to “Sunday Night Football.” Early in 2013, however, the Peacock is getting tackled.
A drama, “Do No Harm,” was canceled within weeks of its debut. The lead actress of sitcom “Up All Night” is leaving the series in the wake of an NBC decision to rework its premise. The second season of much-ballyhooed “Smash” crashed in the ratings. And Friday nights have been filled entirely with news programs, including the ailing “Rock Center.”
It all points to continued struggles for the once-great NBC and an over-reliance on football that may have implications for the broader TV market.
via Advertising Age – Homepage http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/adage/homepage/~3/FcirO19-TaU/
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft is so confident it has the Internet’s best email service that it is about to spend at least $30 million to send its message across the U.S….
via AP Top Headlines At 8:21 a.m. EST http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MICROSOFT_OUTLOOK?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Dr. Peter Fröhlich of Johns Hopkins University grades exams so that the highest scoring exam receives a 100% grade and all others fall below on a curve. It wasn’t a Kobayashi Maru scenario, but his exams are hard. Fröhlich’s students devised a cunning plan to all get A grades. It involved boycotting the exam:
Since he started teaching at Johns Hopkins University in 2005, Professor Peter Fröhlich has maintained a grading curve in which each class’s highest grade on the final counts as an A, with all other scores adjusted accordingly. So if a midterm is worth 40 points, and the highest actual score is 36 points, “that person gets 100 percent and everybody else gets a percentage relative to it,†said Fröhlich.
This approach, Fröhlich said, is the “most predictable and consistent way” of comparing students’ work to their peers’, and it worked well.
At least it did until the end of the fall term at Hopkins, that is.
As the semester ended in December, students in Fröhlich’s “Intermediate Programming”, “Computer System Fundamentals,” and “Introduction to Programming for Scientists and Engineers” classes decided to test the limits of the policy, and collectively planned to boycott the final. Because they all did, a zero was the highest score in each of the three classes, which, by the rules of Fröhlich’s curve, meant every student received an A.
Dr. Fröhlich abided by his grading policy and gave all students A grades, as well as congratulating them on their cooperative spirit:
Fröhlich took a surprisingly philosophical view of his students’ machinations, crediting their collaborative spirit. “The students learned that by coming together, they can achieve something that individually they could never have done,” he said via e-mail. “At a school that is known (perhaps unjustly) for competitiveness I didn’t expect that reaching such an agreement was possible.
Link -via The Volokh Conspiracy | Image: Paramount Pictures
The sequester was Obama’s idea, but that doesn’t mean he’s to blame for the crisis, says Michael Tomasky.
via The Daily Beast – Latest Articles http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/19/who-s-to-blame-for-the-sequester.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29
THR’s awards analyst on the long weekend’s ceremonies — ACE, CAS, MPSE and WGA — and a tribute to Al Pacino that became a “Silver Linings Playbook” pep rally.
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via Hollywood Reporter http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscar-contenders-make-final-pitches-422197