Byline: By richard siklos section: Section C; Column 5; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1 Length
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URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: BLOGS & MESSAGE BOARDS (90%); BOOK REVIEWS (90%); ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING (78%); ONLINE MARKETING & ADVERTISING (71%); INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW (63%); LITERATURE (90%); WRITERS & WRITING (89%); MILITARY WEAPONS (79%); TELEMARKETING (71%); PUBLISHING (89%) Books and Literature; Blogs and Blogging (Internet); Telemarketing; Suits and Litigation; Decisions and Verdicts; Books and Literature; Telephones and Telecommunications; United States Armament and Defense; Telephones and Telecommunications; Prices (Fares, Fees and Rates) COMPANY: AMAZON.COM INC (58%) ORGANIZATION: BN Publishing; Msnbc.com; Country Club Mortgage (Co) TICKER: AMZN (NASDAQ) (58%) INDUSTRY: SIC5961 CATALOG & MAIL-ORDER HOUSES (58%) PERSON: Seth Godin; Bob Sullivan; Andre-Tascha Lamme; Dan Mitchell LOAD-DATE: February 17, 2007 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: Drawing (Drawing by Alex Eben Meyer) PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1124 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final How Sportacus Got Children to Go Outside and Play BYLINE: By SARAH LYALL SECTION: Section A; Column 3; Foreign Desk; THE SATURDAY PROFILE; Pg. 4 LENGTH: 1050 words DATELINE: GARDABAER, Iceland EXCEPT for the muscles rippling under his form-fitting dress shirt, Magnus Scheving at first glance bears little resemblance to Sportacus, the hyperactive, health-promoting hero he plays in the international hit children's television program ''LazyTown.'' Unlike Sportacus, Mr. Scheving does not have a thin black mustache that juts out as if he had recently been electrocuted. He does not reside in a dirigible in the sky. He does not have a ski hat-cum-nightcap permanently affixed to his head. But both he and his alter ego are devoted to a single, impassioned cause: getting couch potato-prone children to exercise, eat good food and generally lead healthier lives. And somehow Mr. Scheving, the creator and chief executive of the vast entertainment and licensing company known as LazyTown Entertainment, has become one of Iceland's best-known figures and biggest exports, a sui generis hybrid of Jack LaLanne and Richard Branson. He has been credited with prying a generation of Icelandic children off the computer and sending them into the frigid outdoors. Now that ''LazyTown'' is broadcast in 106 countries, including the United States, he wants to do the same for everyone else. Mr. Scheving, 42, has worked, often simultaneously, as a talk show host, motivational speaker, actor, director, writer, carpenter, fitness instructor, health club owner, healthy-lifestyle ambassador, stand-up comedian, entrepreneur and aerobics competitor. In a recent interview in LazyTown's boardroom in this Reykjavik suburb, he held forth on those and other pursuits, supplementing his remarks by writing on a whiteboard, as if giving a lecture. He demonstrated an infectious charm, a healthy ability to laugh at himself and a tendency toward hyperbolic non sequiturs. ''When I was 15 I had a larger salary than the prime minister,'' he announced. Of his knack as a carpenter, he said, ''You will see downstairs there is a steam bath that I built myself in one weekend.'' LazyTown Entertainment, begun 12 years ago, is now so influential in Iceland that when it organized a promotion in which children could exchange special LazyTown ''money'' for healthy products, sales of fruit and vegetables increased 22 percent in one month. Across the country, children go to bed at 8:08 p.m., because that is when Sportacus does (or else he gets grumpy and overwrought). The show depicts a community whose children are constantly tempted by the sweets and sloth offered by the world's slobbiest villain, Robbie Rotten. But the day is inevitably saved by Sportacus, who repels junk food by the deft use of tennis rackets, passes off apples and carrots as energy-enhancing ''sports candy'' and never walks into a room when he can just as easily do a double flip through the window. A compact 5-foot-7, Mr. Scheving does the stunts himself, with the aid of three ''guys in their 20s,'' he said proudly. He thought carefully about what to call his creation -- ''I wanted to have sports in it, but I didn't want to call him 'Sportsman' '' -- and its potential for wider exploitation down the road. ''Tarzan was a great concept, but you can't really sell his clothing, because he was naked.'' Mr. Scheving grew up in Borgarness, a small town 90 minutes northwest of Reykjavik. He studied to be an architect, but realized that such a job was inadequate to his boundless ambition. During his 20s, a friend bet him that he would not be able to learn and excel at an unconventional sport: competitive aerobics. The sport has a certain reputation, in part because of the tendency of male contestants to wear sparkly, Liberace-style costumes, Mr. Scheving said. But ''in my mind, it is one of the most difficult sports in the world,'' he said, listing several reasons on the board. HE dropped to the floor. ''I go to the football guys, 'If it's sissy, let's go down and do a one-armed push-up and then go from side to side and up,' '' he said, before performing a maneuver that resembled a push-up the way a double back flip resembles jumping lightly in the air. ''They never can.'' He won a silver medal at the World Aerobics Championship in Japan. He won the European championship, twice. Other awards followed. (''Maria!'' he yelled, summoning his personal assistant. ''When was I sportsman of the year, 1994 or 1996?'') The first LazyTown product was a book, ''Go, Go, LazyTown!'' Then came a stage musical, written by Mr. Scheving. He starred as Sports Elf, a Sportacus precursor in a woodsy mustard-yellow outfit. ''In Iceland there's a whole tradition of elves,'' he said. He himself does not necessarily believe in them, and was irritated when a German interviewer repeatedly demanded, in apparent seriousness, ''Are you sure you're not really an elf?'' When he is filming, Mr. Scheving said, he works ''17.7 hours a day.'' But he has other interests. He and his girlfriend, whom he met at a gym 18 years ago and is LazyTown's chief financial officer, have three children. While he sits in the makeup chair eating his porridge on filming days, employees line up for an audience like airplanes stacked up on the runway. ''Maria says, 'O.K., you have five minutes each,' '' he said. He also holds meetings while in the shower (though he closes the curtain) and strews dumbbells strategically around the building. ''Sometimes when I'm talking to people in postproduction, I'm lifting weights,'' he said. A BELIEVER in fitting exercise into daily life, Mr. Scheving jumps up and down 20 times when he boards a plane; performs 100 push-ups before bed; and does an indefinite number of squats before getting in the shower, even at the public swimming pool. ''My son thinks I'm a nutcase,'' he said. As he was winding down the interview, Mr. Scheving showed a promotional video that included shots of his silver-medal aerobics routine. Then he put on his jacket and prepared to disappear into the late-afternoon Icelandic gloom. ''I'm going to a bank to sign a deal for $10 million,'' he said. But he had a few final thoughts. ''My philosophy is 'learn while you live,' '' he said. ''LazyTown is about balance. I'm not there yet. ''There's a lot of things I want to do,'' he declared. ''I want to learn Italian. I want to learn to play tennis better. I want to motivate the world, basically.''
(Photo by LazyTown Entertainment) DOCUMENT-TYPE: Biography PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1125 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final In New Orleans, Fighting to Stay SECTION: Section A; Column 4; Editorial Desk; Pg. 14 LENGTH: 663 words To the Editor: ''New Orleans's New Setback: Fed-Up Residents Giving Up'' (front page, Feb. 16), about the continuing exodus of New Orleans's ''best and brightest,'' is saddening, but not unexpected. Despite the efforts to restore and rebuild, the wounds both physical and financial are deep and painful. This historic cultural center of American soul will not die, but the healing process will at first diminish its old glory and artful glee. This is what is happening now, but in my mind it will bottom out and a new, but probably smaller Big Easy will arise. I say give it time, stand by its side and keep the faith in a unique people who right now know it's ''blues'' time, but who will soon fully revive both the spirit of this great city and the heart of America.Waddell RobeyCamp Hill, Pa., Feb. 16, 2007To the Editor: ''New Orleans's New Setback: Fed-Up Residents Giving Up'' misses what is a glaring truth to those living in New Orleans, and missing from reporting around the country. New Orleans has become a city in two parts, not segregated by money or skin color or politics, but by location. The survived areas inside the City of New Orleans are a glaring counterpoint to the devastation caused by flooding. Even with the loss of our neighbors and friends, those remaining in these survived areas are successfully struggling to flourish, with neighborhoods that are highly diverse ethnically, economically and politically. And what the article also misses is the glaring inequity that those in New Orleans and in Southwest Louisiana, struck by Rita, see as obvious: the disproportionate treatment and financing across the Gulf Coast (Mississippi versus Louisiana), the unequal treatment with respect to state matching-fund requirements (9/11 versus Katrina), the wasteful spending (cleanup contracts), the unfair crediting of flood insurance payments as part of the woefully inadequate federal allocation of funds (New Orleans has among the highest percentage of premium-paying participants in the flood program). These inequities, and the missing geographic counterpoint, do a disservice to those who want to stay in flooded areas, and a disservice to those who still live in unflooded areas.John RuskinNew Orleans, Feb. 16, 2007To the Editor: Some parts of New Orleans, such as Magazine Street, and many historic areas are thriving, or at least coming back to life. There are innovative new charter schools. Political reform has cut a tangled maze of levee districts for each parish down to two -- east and west bank of the Mississippi -- and our overabundance of tax assessors is shrinking to one. It hurts deeply that many people have not yet returned to the neighborhoods where vernacular culture like traditional jazz, Mardi Gras Indians, Creole cookery and the building trades (plastering, bricklaying and fine carpentry) have been nurtured. But your suggestion that the ''best and brightest'' are leaving, based as much on anecdotal evidence as hard numbers, overlooks the significant wave of new people who have chosen to come be part of the city's rebuilding. They range from college kids and other volunteers who strip sheetrock or clean up neighborhoods, fall in love with New Orleans and stay (for at least the time being), to high-end artists and professionals. The city is now flooding with urban planners, environmental engineers, educators, media producers, managers, home builders, writers, architects, entrepreneurs and others. Unlike earlier times when uptown white society as well as downtown black and Afro-Creole communities were largely closed to newcomers, outsiders are increasingly accepted as needed for their skills and knowledge, and welcomed for what they bring to the economy and as a counterpoint to those who have made the painful decision to leave, or have not as yet returned.Nick Spitzer New Orleans, Feb. 16, 2007The writer is a professor of folklore and cultural conservation at the University of New Orleans.
Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1126 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Opera Orchestra of New York Says It May Reduce Concerts Next Season BYLINE: By DANIEL J. WAKIN SECTION: Section B; Column 4; The Arts/Cultural Desk; Pg. 11 LENGTH: 444 words Opera Orchestra of New York, an institution beloved by the aria-addled for its big voices and little-known works, is facing financial problems that could force it to curtail next season's performances, said Eve Queler, who founded the company nearly 40 years ago and remains its music director. ''We're surviving,'' Ms. Queler said in an interview this week. ''We may just have to cut back.'' The company normally presents three performances a season of operas in concert at Carnegie Hall; its final production this season will be ''L'Arlesiana'' by Francesco Cilea on Wednesday. At the moment, Opera Orchestra can guarantee only one production next season -- Bellini's ''Sonnambula'' on Feb. 27, 2008, with Eglise Gutierrez, Dmitri Korchak and Ferruccio Furlanetto in the cast -- although two other dates are reserved, Ms. Queler said. She said a number of singers had stepped forward and offered to perform at a fund-raising gala on one of the dates. Other ideas have been floated and rejected, Ms. Queler said, including moving to the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center (too small) or joining with the Collegiate Chorale (no previous relationship). The company asked Carnegie Hall to sponsor the performances, as it had briefly several decades ago, but was turned down. Meanwhile, board members are trying to come up with more donations. Ms. Queler said the board was trying to cover a gap of about $250,000 on a budget of $1.4 million. ''There is the question of money,'' she said. ''Our ticket sales have slipped. I am very, very concerned about this.'' Ms. Queler said her audience was aging, with younger potential operagoers more captivated by visual and dramatic elements, things that are hard to come by in her unstaged versions. ''With the whole focus now on what you see instead of what you hear, this affects opera in concert,'' she said. ''Basically, I can't reinvent myself. I'm doing concert opera.'' And she has done that for a long time. Ms. Queler started the company in 1967, and it became a fixture at Carnegie Hall five years later. From the start, she was regularly reviewed and became a darling of both critics and nonscribbling opera lovers because of her dedication to laying bare the unknown riches of the genre. ''Tireless'' was a word applied to her. Operas in recent seasons have included Donizetti's ''Dom Sebastien,'' Italo Montemezzi's ''Amore dei Tre Re'' (''Love of the Three Kings'') and Rossini's ''William Tell.'' Ms. Queler also had a canny eye for casting soon-to-be stars early in their careers. Renee Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Dmitri Hvorostosky and Jose Carreras, among numerous others, fall into that category. URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: OPERA (90%); MUSIC (79%); JAZZ & BLUES (78%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (78%); INTERVIEWS (77%); SPONSORSHIP (77%); FUNDRAISING (67%); TICKET SALES (63%); SINGERS & MUSICIANS (79%) Opera; Opera; Finances COMPANY: CARNEGIE HALL CORP (85%) ORGANIZATION: Opera Orchestra of New York PERSON: MICHAEL MCMAHON (84%) Daniel J Wakin; Giovanni (1430-1516) Bellini GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, USA (93%) UNITED STATES (93%) LOAD-DATE: February 17, 2007 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: Photo: Eve Queler, the music director of Opera Orchestra of New York, said the company was ''surviving.'' (Photo by Ruby Washington/The New York Times) PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company 1127 of 1258 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Silicon Valley Meets 'American Idol' With Prizes to Inspire Inventors BYLINE: By MATT RICHTEL SECTION: Section C; Column 1; Business/Financial Desk; STREET SCENE: V.C. NATION; Pg. 8 LENGTH: 1035 words FACING down stiff competition to win fame and big prize money? Forget singing for Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul. Try sequencing DNA for a panel of technology investors. Yes, something like an ''American Idol'' for the technorati may be coming to Silicon Valley. Venture capital firms are considering contests that offer competing engineers and entrepreneurs multimillion-dollar prize purses if they come up with innovative technologies in various industries. The concept is getting an introduction on March 3 at a fund-raiser at Google. The event is intended to raise a chunk of $50 million to operate the X Prize Foundation, a nonprofit group that already has awarded $10 million to designers of a private spacecraft. The foundation plans to use the money to develop prizes in fields like medicine, poverty reduction and fuel-efficient cars. But the foundation's next stage of prize-giving will also include partnerships with venture capitalists who, the group argues, can use prizes to spur entrepreneurs to innovate and, in turn, to create an efficient research and development machine. ''Prizes can help create markets,'' said Tom Vander Ark, president of the X Prize Foundation. ''It's an interesting twist on venture. Instead of betting on a company, they can bet on a sector.'' The X Prize foundation, whose board of trustees includes Larry Page, a co-founder of Google, and Elon Musk, a PayPal founder, has been asking venture capitalists to donate money for prizes and to consider more formal partnerships. Such partnerships, Mr. Vander Ark said, could involve giving money in exchange for an option to buy equity stake in the prizewinning companies. Mr. Vander Ark declines to disclose what deals -- if any -- have been struck, but he says an announcement is imminent. Already, some big-name firms, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, are endorsing the idea, at least in principal. But the concept also has engendered some skepticism. Prizes may be of limited value to venture capitalists, who ultimately are less interested in groundbreaking science than they are in concrete and market-ready technologies, according to some technology investors and academics. ''There's no market merit to any of this,'' said Paul S. Kedrosky, executive director of the William J. von Liebig Center, which studies venture capital trends. He argues that the prizes might be good for generating press, or buttressing the egos of donors and winners, but not particularly valuable at leading to profit-capable companies. ''It's a naive assumption that good science is good business,'' he said. Prize-inspired entrepreneurialism, however, is a concept that goes back hundreds of years. And there have been a number of recent examples. Al Gore, the former vice president, and Richard Branson, the British billionaire, announced last week a $25 million prize for development of technology to reduce greenhouse gases. In October, Netflix, the online movie rental store, began offering a $1 million dollar prize to spur development of a system that can better predict what films consumers might like based on their previous viewing habits. For their part, venture capitalists have used prizes on a limited, albeit modestly growing, basis as a way to prompt engineers and scientists to articulate their ideas in marketable terms. Several venture firms, including Polaris Venture Partners, have sponsored an annual $100,000 business plan competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1998, Akamai Technology, whose software is used to route Internet traffic efficiently, didn't win the M.I.T. competition. (It finished in the top 10.) But it did get the attention of both Polaris and Battery Ventures, which invested in the company and later helped take it public. More recently, Advanced Technology Ventures, Atlas Ventures and General Catalyst have financed a $100,000 prize in the Boston area to be awarded to the best business plan related to alternative energy. The idea is to spur innovation and give the venture firms a chance to see prospective technologies and business plans ahead of other venture investors, said Wes Raffel, a partner with Advanced Technology Partners. ''It gets a lot of people competing,'' Mr. Raffel said. He added, though, that it doesn't obligate the entrepreneurs to sign bigger investment deals. ''They don't have to take our money.'' Yet Mr. Raffel, echoing concerns of other venture capitalists, has some concerns about whether more ambitious and costlier prizes make sense. His wariness is that if prizes rise into the millions, venture capitalists are going to want some guarantee that they will have an option to invest in the winner. And if a lot of venture capitalists wind up donating prize money to the same pot, that could create conflicts over who has the right to sign up the winner. But William Woodward, chief executive of Anthem Venture Partners, based in Santa Monica, Calif., counters that the value of donating to a prize could extend beyond the guarantee of an ownership stake. Mr. Woodward, who has been approached by the X Prize Foundation about participating in its new program but hasn't yet made up his mind, said the concept could help spur development in industries that have been sluggish because of political reasons. ''Like stem cells, which is an area I'm passionate about,'' Mr. Woodward said. In general, he said, prizes, ''can keep the science moving forward.'' Mr. Vander Ark said his aspirations are not just about science, but viable businesses. For instance, the foundation already has plans to award a $25 million prize for a car that gets 100 miles a gallon, but the vehicle must be in production to get the award. The awards, he said, have an opportunity to generate press attention and buzz, and in turn to motivate a greater number of engineers and entrepreneurs than individual venture capitalists or their firms might be able to do. For the superefficient automobile, the foundation even envisions a made-for-TV road race and finale. Somewhat like ''American Idol,'' Mr. Vander Ark conceded, but with at least one major difference. ''Singing, who knows? We haven't yet lined up any musical component.'' Directory: ~hesterj -> Entrepreneur Entrepreneur -> Byline: By armand limnande section: Section mm; Column 0; T: Men's Fashion Magazine; Pg. 76 Length Download 4.36 Mb. 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