Weekend Digest: The Nelson Mandela Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF NELSON MANDELA
As the world mourns the passing of South Africa’s anti-apartheid hero, Sky News goes full tilt at the local level.

Soweto has barely slept since the announcement of Mr Mandela’s death on Thursday.

The township near Johannesburg which was famed as the frontline of the battle against apartheid, is once again echoing to the sound of struggle songs as the people celebrate the life of its most famous resident.

“Without him I wouldn’t be living the life I have today, I just hope he’s looking down and watching us, because all of this is for him,” one man said.

For extensive newspaper and web coverage as well as videos full of tributes, click here.

PADDING TWITTER
It’s not illegal but is it ethical? At best it is misleading, but some say manipulating Twitter accounts to make their “followings” look bigger than they actually are, “Is part of the game.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, one pro at padding Twitter is Jim Vidmar, who has roughly 50 clients and manages 10,000 robot accounts.

Mr. Vidmar offers a window into the shadowy world of false accounts and computerized robots on Twitter, one of the world’s largest social networks. Surrounded by a dozen computers at his home overlooking a golf course near the Las Vegas Strip, Mr. Vidmar has been buying fake accounts and unleashing them on Twitter for six years.

His are among millions of fake accounts on Twitter. Mr. Vidmar and other owners manage them to simulate Twitter users: they tweet; retweet, or forward, other tweets; send and reply to messages; and follow and unfollow other Twitter accounts, among other actions.

What is Twitter doing to try and block fake accounts and who are some of the other type of clients manipulating Twitter beside entertainers?  Click on this link for the whole story.

DO YOU WRITE BAD EMAILS?
According to Forbes, “There is an epidemic out there – an epidemic of bad emails.”

It’s not that we’re incompetent, people. We’re just not putting the care into our emails that many of them deserve. The care, say, an editor might give an article.

So, to help us all improve our workplace communication, here is the editor’s guide to writing emails that will earn you respect (and responses).

For that classic editorial advice to boost your emails, go to this link. It’s advice that may also help you boost your rank.

DRONES ON YOUR DOORSTEP – GOOD OR BAD?
As far-fetched as it seems, that’s the futuristic plan announced by Amazon’s CEO, but according to Forbes home delivery drones would be a “nightmare for law enforcement.”

The big announcement by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos came this past Sunday on 60 Minutes.

Bezos upped his game by going on 60 Minutes Sunday night and revealing a “secret R&D project: ‘Octocopter’ drones that will fly packages directly to your doorstep in 30 minutes.” Yup, an autonomous drone delivery service that would use GPS coordinates to navigate, called Amazon “Prime Air.”

Currently illegal, Congress has ordered the FAA to clear the skyway for commercial use of drones by 2015.

But what headaches might that cause law enforcement, especially when it comes to surveillance?

Being able to send things by drone could be hugely disruptive to the existing mail system. That’s fine when Amazon is shipping out books, but what about the kind of deliveries that law enforcement wants to be able to track? The existing postal system is full of surveillance.

In addition, the postal system logs all mail for law enforcement, scanning the information on the outside of letters and parcels before they are delivered. That scanning helped law enforcement track ricin-laced letters sent to Michael Bloomberg and President Obama back to a C-level actress in Texas.

For more on this incredible story, the technology behind it, and other law enforcement concerns, click this link.

A NEW WALMART EXPERIENCE
They are in the nation’s capital, and one veteran Walmart shopper, who also happens to write for Fast Company, was so overwhelmed by his grand opening experience at Washington D.C.’s first two Walmarts, he decided to share it.

The D.C. stores bring the total number of Walmarts in the U.S. to 4,786 – one Walmart for every 66,000 Americans.

Both stores stirred up tumult and opposition in the run-up to Wednesday’s ribbon cuttings. A lot of that had to do with the fact that they’re in urban neighborhoods, as opposed to the cow pastures and outskirts spaces where the big box retailer usually develops.

Despite the controversy, the stores prove Walmart can really adapt. Click on this link for a 3D tour of the Georgia Avenue store that Fast Company says was full of surprises in big-box evolution.

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON STRENGTHENS RELATIONSHIPS WITH AFRICAN-AMERICANS
Will she run or won’t she? If she does run, strengthening ties among blacks will be a must to heal old wounds, according to the New York Times.

Since Mrs. Clinton left the secretary of state post in February, she and her husband have sought to soothe and strengthen their relationship with African-Americans, the constituency that was most scarred during her first bid for the presidency.

Five years after remarks by Mr. Clinton about Barack Obama deeply strained the Clintons’ bond with African-Americans, the former first family is setting out to ensure that there is no replay of such trouble in 2016.

“I think that this is an effort to repair whatever damage they felt may have been done in ’08,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton. Mr. and Mrs. Clinton “know that there are some who have lingering questions, if not antipathy, towards them,” Mr. Sharpton said.

So what is the damage control and how far is Hillary Clinton reaching out? Go to this link to find out.

TAX REFORM TABLED
Republican Representative Dave Camp’s tax plan was called disastrous for the GOP by conservative media. Last month, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and others pulled the plug on Camp’s long-standing vow for the Ways and Means Committee he chairs to take up a tax overhaul bill this year, putting his three-year quest in limbo.

The reversal shows how support for tax reform, even among Republicans, is broad but not deep. They routinely say they want to overhaul the Tax Code, but when the Michigan Republican pushed to take the first big step — putting out a bill — party leaders blinked.

The deferral of tax reform, at least for the foreseeable future, also reflects the enormous task Camp set for himself in pledging to overhaul the 70,000-plus-page Tax Code, which has not been revamped since 1986. No matter how small, every change would elicit cross-pressure on lawmakers, and any accomplishment would be a major feat even in a climate of bipartisan comity.

But is the tabling of Camp’s bill the real reason Republican’s “aren’t ready”?

POLITICO has the inside story and analysis at this link.

OBAMA REACHES ‘NEW LOW’
The Washington Post says it simply. He “can’t win.” And that’s on any polling issue, even the ones which used to be his biggest strength like immigration.

The Pew poll showed Obama’s approval rating on immigration, for instance, was at 32 percent, with 60 percent disapproving, and Quinnipiac showed just 35 percent approving of Obama on that issue.

And it goes from bad to worse.

Recent polling from the Pew Research Center and Quinnipiac University has shown Obama’s approval rating on almost all major issues plunging into the 30s — below even his lowest-ever overall approval rating, which has stood around 40 percent in recent polls.

The Quinnipiac poll also showed Obama’s approval on foreign policy, the federal budget and health-care all below his overall approval rating. On none of these issues did he crack 36 percent approval.

So when you throw in the disaster from the Obamacare website, “All of it suggests a difficult road ahead for Obama when it comes to the looming legislative fights in Congress.”

For the complete story and a full look at the numbers, click on this link.

HUGE FED PROFITS FROM STUDENT LOANS
USA Today reports that the federal government made enough money on student loans over the last year that, if it wanted, it could provide maximum-level Pell Grants of $5,645 to 7.3 million college students.

The $41.3 billion profit for the 2013 fiscal year is down $3.6 billion from the previous year but it’s a higher profit level than all but two companies in the world: Exxon Mobil cleared $44.9 billion in 2012, and Apple cleared $41.7 billion.

When asked Education Secretary Anne Duncan said, “It’s actually neither accurate nor fair to characterize the student loan program as making a profit.”

“The administration has taken steps to improve college affordability, and thanks to collective efforts, students and families are paying lower rates on their loans today than they would have otherwise,” Stephen Spector, U.S. Department of Education spokesman said in an e-mail to the Free Press. “More must be done to bring down the cost of college, and we look forward to continuing to work with Congress, institutions, borrowers, and other stakeholders to make college more affordable.”

USA Today says Congress is expected to look into the issue next month.

For more on how this story may evolve in the future, go to this link.

WHAT DIALECT DO Y’ALL SPEAK?
In America how we speak is as diverse as our culture.

Do you pahk the cah in Hahvahd yahd? Do you refer to multiple people as “dey”? Is a jelly doughnut called a “bismark,” or is everything that comes out of a soda fountain called a coke, even if it’s really 7-Up? Do you root for Da Bears?

According to the Washington Post, “The way we speak, both the phrases we use and the accents that inflect those phrases, come from our upbringings.”

More than a decade ago, Robert Delaney, a reference associate at Long Island University, put together a map of the 24 regions of American English.

For a look at the map and how Arkansas is broken down as well as a rundown of all the regions, y’all need to go to this link.

AM RADIO TO GET A BOOST
AM radio is a sad reflection of what it used to be and its numbers continue to dwindle especially among young people.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, in the mid-1980s, AM radio still claimed 30 percent of the nation’s radio listening hours. By 2010, that had dwindled to 17 percent. And among younger listeners, the number is just 4 percent. Part of the problem, says FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, is that the AM signal is getting increasingly hard to hear.

“Whether you’re outside and you’re getting interference from a power line, or you’re inside and everything from the bulbs in your house to the cable box on top of your TV send out signals that conflict with the AM radio signal, and so for broadcasters trying to reach an audience, it’s more and more difficult for them to do that,” Pai says.

So what are the fixes the FCC is proposing to boost AM signals to get rid of interference? “Dial-up” this link to find out.