Sandberg's LeanIn.Org to Its Interns: Work For Free

Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg's nonprofit foundation, Leanin.org, recently posted for a part-time intern to assist its editorial guru Jessica Bennett. Apparently, Ms. Sandberg's associate thought free labor was her entitlement: a foundation spokesperson later noted in a statement quoted in a Los Angeles Times story on the contretemps that Leanin.org "has enjoyed the participation of part-time volunteers to help us advance our education and peer support programs."

Keep in mind that Ms. Sandberg recently cashed in over $90 million in Facebook stock. Surely her nonprofit venture, which managed to find a healthy compensation package for Jessica Bennett, could find at least a minimum wage salary for a part-timer.

The moral of the story? Women who "lean in" promptly get "pushed out." Is that the legacy Sandberg wants to create?

Chicago's O'Hare Airport Goes "Animal"

Llama at O'Hare Airport
(Image:redeyechicago.com)

I fly in and out of Chicago's O'Hare Airport every so often. My arrivals and departures are typically uneventful affairs. I certainly don't expect to see llamas near the runway. Yet, according to a story in today's Chicago Tribune, live animals help manicure the airport's grassy areas that humans prudently avoid.

The creatures who feast on O'Hare's apparently fertile grounds include sheep, goats, and burros, as well as llamas. I'll admit that catching a glimpse of an animal associated with the Andes Mountains on the airport's restricted areas seems like a mirage. However, there's a resourcefulness in O'Hare "going animal" that I admire. The alternative -- dull, machine cutting -- hardly seems like an option at all.

"Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" Star Haji -- RIP

Canadian actress Haji
(Image: cbc.ca)

In 1965, movie directors still had the ability to both shock and amuse their audiences. This knack seemed connected to the Ed Wood school of directing; any glimpse into Luis Bunuel's more outrageous montages was purely coincidental. Russ Meyer's circa mid-1960s films fit this profile to a T.

His movies were testaments to comic bad taste and soft core porn. One of his best known features was Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! Haji, the actress who played a leading role in the movie, recently passed away; an obit was published in today's online editions of the BBC. However, a much more fun obit, and one more in tune with Meyer's world, appeared in The National Enquirer. The tabloid's piece includes video trailers that capture Haji's screen presence and Meyer's sense of ribald humor. They're great guilty pleasures to watch.

Fukushima Radioactivity Again Reaches "Emergency" Status

Fish Caught Near Fukushima, 2013
(Image: LA Times)

In 2011, nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan, became radioactive disaster areas, courtesy of an earthquake and subsequent catastrophic tsunami. The Japanese government and the facility's corporate ownership have tripped over themselves in their desperate flight from their failed Faustian bargain with nuclear energy. The grim scenario has recently become even bleaker, as radioactive groundwater is building up without any obvious exit except one: the Pacific Ocean.

A recent BBC story notes the evident alarm Japanese prime minister Abe's government feels at this most unwelcome turn of events. This environmental disaster continues largely unabated, without any clear solution. It wasn't so long ago when many, including President Obama, were touting nuclear power's promise. That song has changed, hopefully for keeps.

Average Silicon Valley House Costs $1 Million

A story in today's Mercury News notes that the average price of a Santa Clara County home now costs a cool million dollars. The county is the heart of Silicon Valley and its legion of tech zillionaires. The area now rivals the moated areas of Manhattan and Miami Beach as among the country's most expensive residential real estate.

As for the other 99% of Americans, well...there's always $11 per hour jobs "middle class" jobs at Amazon warehouses.

Auction to Feature "Maltese Falcon" Statuette

The "dingus" (a/k/a "The Maltese Falcon"
(image: bonhams.com)

If you're in New York on November 25th and have money needing something to do, see if you can become a bidder for the statuette featured in the movie The Maltese Falcon. Sam Spade's "dingus" will be auctioned, along with other items from motion pictures past and (sometimes) remembered. Bogie's "bird" will be as plain as the creature that served as the dramatic vehicle for the eponymous 1941 film. No diamonds, no precious jewels, no gold will appear on the falcon. Instead, you'll find those items among the prospective buyers at this special event conducted by the auction house Bonham's.

Just don't try to outbid the fat man.

Justice Dept to Apple: Open iPhone and iPad to Amazon.com apps

The Washington Post reported that a recent US District Court ruling against Apple has opened the legal door for the Amazon-friendly Department of Justice and a majority of the nation's state attorneys-general to make commercial demands on the late Steve Jobs' company. The government's brief included demands that Apple open its e-book store to competitors' links. This is supposedly being done so that consumers can have access to "competitive pricing."

However, the Feds' Amazon-friendly lawyers didn't stop there. The demand expands the judge's intent to include any digitial and print content, including video, streaming movies, printed books, and music. It's clear that the DOJ's demand, as Apple attorneys noted, goes well beyond the district court's ruling. The DOJ's broadside's impact obviously benefits Amazon, under the guise of "helping consumers." The Justice Department brief did not mention the data collection Amazon and others would be able to reap as a result of opening Apple's walled shopping garden. There's money -- big money -- in the data, as Amazon has amply demonstrated. I suppose the DOJ was absent from that presentation.

The story, unsurprisingly, was reported on a slow news summer Friday. Most media outlets, including Silicon Valley and Seattle outlets, played down the story's implications, with the The New York Times' ho-hum account of the episode doing the light lifting for many mainstream publications. The irony is that Amazon has experienced a fabulous week with Barack Obama and friends, and no one really wants to ask why.

Here's this week's Obama Administration-Amazon scorecard:

• President Obama visits an Amazon warehouse, touting its $11/hour jobs as an entry point to the middle-class. The story gets national coverage.
• POTUS 44 offers Amazon a one-on-one interview exclusive.
• The interview is available for free via amazon.com as an "Amazon Single". (Does anyone think it's available at Apple or Barnes & Noble?)
• The DOJ hammers Apple's content merchandising advantage and essentially demands that Apple accept becoming a free gateway and data collector for Amazon sales.

If Mitt Romney or George W. Bush had shown such blatant favortism to a corporation, liberals would have screamed. They're notably silent on the Amazon issue, perhaps because they're addicted to shiny Kindles.

Again, I ask the question: Why is President Obama and his administration so tight with Jeff Bezos' Amazon?

Obama to Tout Amazon.com at Tennessee Speech

Amazon warehouse outside Chattanooga, TN.
Can you count the number of "middle-class" jobs in this photo?
(Image: timefreepress.com)

On Tuesday, July 30th, President Obama will visit Chattanooga, Tennessee, to deliver a speech about his administration's economic policies. According to WRCB-TV in Chattanooga, the address will be delivered at an Amazon warehouse. President 44 may very well cite Amazon's physical expansion and subsequent hiring as examples of America's middle class moving forward economically. It is unlikely the President will comment on the hundreds of small firms Amazon's Walmartization scheme will knock out of business.

The joint chutzpah of Obama and Jeff Bezos' Amazon juggernaut is breathtaking. Obama's Department of Justice has already gone to the mat for Amazon on the lucrative, influential e-book front: witness the recent, allegedly "consumer friendly" case against Amazon nemesis Apple and the major New York publishing players.  Meanwhile, the Obama administration has approved AWS, Amazon's data and cloud computing arm, to get hush-hush contracts with the CIA and NASA. Then again, this secrecy-obsessed administration may have found a kindred spirit with Amazon, which notoriously keeps the public at arm's length about its affairs.

One wonders why the president of the United States feels so compelled to publicly praise Amazon. What is the connection between the Obama Administration and Amazon? Why is this connection not questioned in major media outlets?

Amazon Deepens Reach into Federal Contracts

In March 2013, I wrote a blog post about Jeff Bezos' Amazon juggernaut landing a contract to handle CIA data storage and related data management needs. The Seattle-based firm muscled out IBM to win the deal. IBM squawked and had the contract assignment reviewed.

Reuters reporter Alistair Barr has followed up on the contretemps. His piece, which was picked up by the Mercury News, notes the impact of the shock waves the Amazon cloud computing triumph on Old School tech firms, including "Big Blue," as IBM is sometimes known.

The story quoted some investment analysts for attribution. They noted how AWS -- the heart of Amazon's cloud computing initiative -- allegedly strongly shapes Amazon's current stock market valuation. Reuters' Barr grasps the notion that Amazon is really a tech company, an inconvenient fact most journalists ignore. To that end, his article cites AWS' impact on Oracle, cloud computing competitor Rackspace Holding, Microsoft, and other tech heavyweights.

Barr also cites some of AWS' publicly identified clients. One of them is NASA, which, as with the CIA, happens to be involved in highly classified operations. (An ironic aspect of this situation is that Jeff Bezos recently sponsored the retrieval from the Atlantic Ocean of what he claimed were Apollo 11 rockets. A related report and images appear in a gizmodo.com post.)

Another AWS client is PBS. Inquiring minds are wondering why a federally and viewer-subsidized media outlet requires Amazon's cloud computing clout. (In late 2011, PBS and Amazon signed a deal in which PBS would show some of its programming on Amazon Prime.)

What's most interesting in the increased coziness of the Obama Administration's bureaucracy and Amazon is why it's happening at all. Just don't expect that story to appear on the News Hour anytime soon.