Samira notes

Farewell to the Gaddafi Goof-O-Rama

Blog Guy, have you been crying? What’s the matter? Oh, you know, I just hate to see Muammar Gaddafi go. Are you nuts? He was a brutal dictator, overthrown by his own people! Sure, but he was a madcap, zany goofball, too. He was in a class all by himself, and my blog was richer for him. So it’s all about you and your blog and your goofy stuff, Blog Guy? Everything in the world? Sure, now that you mention it. All I had to do was search our photo file for his name, and there he was. Meeting a foreign leader next to his ornate Kleenex box… Or driving around with Hugo Chavez, or steering his “Mr. Toad” Club Car, or making an origami swan at the United Nations… He wasn’t really making origami, Blog Guy. I know, but it was close enough for my needs. And always that same puzzled look on his face. Sniff…sniff… There there, Blog Guy. Here, dry your eyes with this tissue. Tissue? Is it from a hand-carved Gaddafi Kleenex box? Did he leave one behind for the Blog Guy? Join the Oddly Enough blog network Follow this blog on Twitter at rbasler Top: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi during meeting with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, May 26, 2009. Right: Gaddafi pretends to rip a Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice as he addresses the 64th United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York, September 23, 2009. Left: Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez drives Gaddafi’s limousine as they arrive at an event in Margarita Island, Venezuela, September 28, 2009. /Handout Bottom left: Gaddafi drives his personal cart in Tripoli after making a speech which he sought to defuse tensions after more than 10 days of anti-government protests in Libya, March 2, 2011. More Stuff from Oddly Enough

Hulu sale called off after months of talks

“Our focus now rests solely on ensuring that our efforts as owners contribute in a meaningful way to the exciting future that lies ahead for Hulu,” they said in a statement.Reuters reported last month that the auction was in danger of getting derailed by conflicts over convoluted digital rights, a wide bid-ask gap, and a lack of commitment to sell by Hulu’s owners, among other things.This was the second time Hulu’s owners had envisioned a full or partial exit strategy that failed. After nearly six months of planning, they ditched an initial public offering last December that might have raised up to $300 million.Sources with knowledge of the talks said last month a rift had developed between the price bidders offered and the amount that Hulu’s owners were willing to accept.Bids had ranged from as low as $500 million to as much as $2 billion, the sources said at the time. The most serious suitors included Google Inc, Amazon.com Inc, DirecTV and DISH Network Corp.Yahoo Inc had been viewed as one of the most enthusiastic bidders — before its leadership imploded with the abrupt firing of CEO Carol Bartz.Hulu’s owners had always faced an uphill battle in valuing a nascent Web content-streaming service with no long-term content deals and with unclear digital rights for newer Internet or mobile platforms for which there exists no established model.Some analysts had thought an outright sale to be an abandonment of Hulu’s future growth potential, particularly if, as some experts say, Internet streaming will become mainstream in coming years.

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