Archive for October 24th, 2008
‘Tribe Called Quest’ Rapper Phife Dawg Has Kidney Transplant
“When’s the last time you heard a funky diabetic?”
This memorable line – by rap icon Phife Dawg - is taken from the classic tune “Oh My God” — performed by the immortal 90s hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest.
After battling diabetes since 1990, Phife has finally been given a ray of hope, as he recently received a kidney transplant.
Hopefully, this will allow Phife to join Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammad and continue to perform as part of the newly reunited Tribe — who performed shows throughout the summer as part of the Rock the Bells tour.
Phife Dawg’s long fight with diabetes recently took a new turn for the better, as the Queens native finally received a kidney transplant.
The new kidney comes after a waiting period of over two years, which saw Phife endure problems performing live and a dramatic weight loss through his dialysis treatment.
Originally diagnosed with diabetes in May of 1990, Phife admitted to not taking care of himself by eating the worst types of food for someone with his condition: fats, sweets, and alcohol.
Tags: Culture | Music | rap | hip-hop | Celebrity | rapper | Rock the Bells | phife kidney transplant | a tribe called quest | tribe phife dawg | phife dawg | funky diabetic | oh my god tribe called quest
Chrysler to Cut 25% of Workforce
Add Chrysler to the list of major corporations getting set to hack and slash their workforces, due to the economic downturn.
Chrysler LLC announced Friday that the company will cut 25% of its salaried workforce — more than 5,000 jobs.
Company CEO Bob Nardelli announced the cuts in a letter to employees, saying the automaker will make the reductions through a mix of voluntary buyouts, retirement packages and layoffs. Chrysler employs about 18,500 white-collar workers.
But even more people stand to lose their jobs with the company. Chrysler also said Friday it will cut about 25 percent of its contract employees.
Friday’s announcement came just one day after the company said it will cut 1,825 jobs by eliminating one shift at a Toledo, Ohio, Jeep plant and accelerating the closure of its sport utility vehicle factory in Newark, Del..
Tags: auto | vehicle | Layoffs | United States | newark | Toledo | Chrysler | Financial crisis | Tech & Biz | chrysler job cuts | chrysler layoffs | chrysler llc | chrysler jobs
Beyoncé Reveals Her New Name: Sasha Fierce
Beyoncé is changing her name and, no, she won’t be asking you to call her B-yiddy or Be-Yo — instead, the R&B megastar has chosen something far more ANTM-worthy: Sasha Fierce.
Sooo…do you think Tyra had a hand in this? Hmmm. Definitely a possibility.
The R&B singer has christened herself Sasha Fierce for her new double album, I Am … Sasha Fierce, due in US stores on November 18, and has released a lengthy justification for the comical moniker.
She insists Sasha Fierce is who she really is, and is more fun, sensual, aggressive, outspoken and glamorous.
Um, didn’t we just answer that…?
Seriously, Sasha, what are you going to do next — ask us to say your new name?
Tags: Culture | Singer | Beyonce | new album | Sasha Fierce | beyonce new name | beyonce sasha | beyonce name change
Heather Mills Blows Through $16 Million in 7 Months
The UK’s esteemed Sun paper has revealed that Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills has blown through a massive $16 million (£10 million) of settlement cash — in just seven months since the couple’s divorce.
Apparently, Mills has spent the money on an elaborately lavish lifestyle that shows no signs of slowing down.
I suppose that, for some (read: celebrities), the current global financial crisis is little more than abstract mythology.
At least, for a few more months.
HEATHER MILLS has blown nearly £10million of her huge divorce settlement in only seven months, The Sun can reveal.
She spent the dosh on plush properties, lavish holidays and a staff wages bill of £500,000.
The former porn star — dubbed Mucca — was awarded £24.3million in March after her six-year marriage to SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY, 66.
But she is getting through her fortune at such a rate that she had talks with Macca about him buying her £4million home because she claimed she could no longer afford to run it.
Tags: Culture | London | Paul McCartney | Celebrity | UK | Beatles | cash | Heather Mills | Divorce Settlement | heather mills divorce settlement
Will the Financial Crisis Kill ‘Freeconomics’?
Author Andrew Keen does not believe in the so-called ‘wisdom of crowds‘ and, in our current volatile economic climate, he believes — even less — in “web businesses that rely on free labor and crowdsourcing to survive”.
This is in staunch opposition to Wired editor Chris Anderson’s recent assertion that the future of business free — an approach known not as ‘freakonomics‘ but as ‘freeconomics‘.
Web businesses that rely on free labor and crowdsourcing to survive are in for a rude awakening, says Andrew Keen, journalist, author and self-proclaimed hater of all things free.
“Is $0.00 really the future of labor in an age of mass unemployment?” Keen writes in a recent blog post. “Of course not.”
“The basic point is that free labor is fine when everyone’s got a lot of money and they’re employed, but when they start getting laid off, I think people’s attitude towards money changes,” Keen said in an interview with Wired.com. His book, Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet Is Killing Our Culture speaks volumes in the title alone.
The impact of this downturn for user-gen and crowdsourced businesses, argues Keen, will be declining participation and the resurgence of ‘professionally’ vetted and curated web content.
In Keen’s estimation, this could even amount the demise of citizen journalism.
Keen opined Tuesday in an Internet Evolution blog post that the current economic downturn will pop the open source, Web 2.0 bubble and sites that depend on the kindness of strangers for content like Wikipedia and The Huffington Post will start to see a decline in user participation.
“It will mean the success of Knol over Wikipedia, Mahalo over Google, theatlantic.com over the HuffingtonPost.com, iTunes over MySpace, Hulu over YouTube Inc., Playboy.com over Voyeurweb.com, TechCrunch over the blogosphere, CNN’s professional journalism over CNN’s iReporter citizen-journalism,” he writes.
What do you think, NowPublic? Is a “free economic model” only able to survive during robust and healthy economic times? Are these necessary freedoms or simply luxuries that we can no longer afford?
Tags: wired | Media | Journalism | free | Huffington Post | freakonomics | Andrew Keen | Tech & Biz | Mahalo | Chris Anderson | freeconomics | cult of the amateur | economy of free
