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THEREs an intriguing theory that gets hauled out every time Jacob Zumas son/confidante/lawyer/butcher/baker/candlestick-maker is unmasked as the beneficiary of some business deal or other.

And that is, Zuma himself doesnt know this is happening. He isnt ordering the deployment of his cronies into positions of influence, the theory goes, as part of a calculated empire-building strategy of the masterminds behind Zuma Inc.

Rather, it is the companies themselves who are trying to ingratiate themselves with him of their own volition, perhaps in expectation that some day theyll be able to call in a favour.

The Guptas, for example, might claim that Zuma has ordered their inclusion in a specific deal, but thats just them name-dropping: its not as if the man from Nkandla is actually giving these sorts of orders.

Its an interesting theory, especially given the number of Zuma-linked people who just happened to end up on the shareholder list of Invictus, Gold Fields BEE shareholder.

Gold Fields, you might remember, gave the BEE shareholding to Invictus in a deal put together by former convict Gayton McKenzie in 2010. In its circular for that deal, Gold Fields said it wanted to reward those who had helped bring democracy to the country and who had not been the beneficiaries of BEE to date.

The full list of 72 shareholders of Invictus was only released this week. For no apparent reason, Gold Fields suddenly decided to reveal these names. (The identity of these beneficiaries was briefly released to shareholders in 2010 then removed, bizarrely).

All it took was a mountain of criticism in recent days over the poor governance of keeping such a list secret, a disagreement with its former chair over how the deal was put together, complaints from BEE shareholders that the money wasnt coming through and, voil, Gold Fields does the right thing and publishes the list.

It would be churlish to castigate Gold Fields now, despite its snippy press release entitled Invictus names again released in which it points out, rather huffily, that it did release the names to shareholders at the time of the (deal) in 2010.

Anyway, looking down the list, you see Jerome Brauns SC, who represented Jacob Zuma during his rape trial - one of the names disclosed from the start.

Go here to read the rest:
LAST WORD : Invictus list shows Zuma connections

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) While Oklahoma legislators have spent much of the session so far publicly debating school safety and whether to allow armed teachers in schools, the discussion that educators and administrators are really interested in is taking place behind closed doors how much money common education will receive in next year's budget.

Funding for public schools in Oklahoma is one of many contentious education-related issues being hammered out by legislative leaders this year, but an agreement on how much money will go to public schools this year hasn't been reached.

Rep. Scott Martin, the chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, said last week that officials with the House, Senate and governor's office are nearing consensus on a supplemental budget proposal for select agencies to finish out the fiscal year that ends June 30, but no final decision has been made.

"We're very close, but we're not ready to announce anything just yet," Martin said Friday.

Martin said a supplemental funding agreement will have to take into account the overall budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

State Superintendent Janet Barresi has asked lawmakers for nearly $40 million to finish out the current fiscal year, mostly to pay for recently enacted legislative mandates like the new Achieving Classroom Excellence, or ACE, end-of-instruction tests and new reading proficiency requirements. Also included in her request is $8.5 million for increased costs of teacher health benefits and nearly $6 million to help districts cover the estimated increase of nearly 10,000 new students since the end of the last school year.

Fallin's executive budget, however, only included a request for $8.5 million in supplemental funding to help pay for the costs of the flexible benefit allowance for public school teachers and staff. The actual costs of those benefits have exceeded the projections that were available during the 2012 session.

The governor and Republican leaders in both the House and Senate have said increasing funding for common education will be a priority in next year's budget.

"We are extremely dedicated to making sure common education receives a significant increase in the upcoming year," Martin said. "The exact amount is what we're discussing right now."

A trio of Republican senators earlier this year, including the chairman of the Senate Education Committee, Sen. John Ford, asked to increase common education funding by at least $75 million for the next fiscal year.

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Okla. education leaders wait for word on funding

Fanbase Media, a new social media marketing startup which has been flying under the radar for over half a year, helps companies use Instagram for connecting with their customers. Despite the companys low profile its turnkey, self-serve solution wont launch until next week, in fact it has already attracted the interest of some bigger-name brands, including Michael Kors, Shape Magazine, and others which the company isnt allowed to publicly name.

Currently a bootstrapped team of three, the startup helps businesses create, manage and promote campaigns involving user-generated photos posted on Instagram. For example, a company might want to run a photo contest on Instagram, specifying that entrants tag their photos with a particular hashtag to qualify.

Fanbase Media then helps to aggregate those photos, which can be pulled into a businesss Facebook Tab page, mobile microsite, or another page on the companys own domain. For example, you can see this page on a Michael Kors website, which shows a Fanbase-managed photo contest which the fashion brand ran in February for Valentines Day. The company had asked users to tag their favorite things, using the hashtag #fallinginlovewith.

Explains Fanbase founder Michael Zsigmond, a lot of brands are starting to tap into user-generated content for marketing, and we realized that theres really no platform that made it really simple for a brand to tap into user-generated content on Instagram.

Thats not entirely true, of course. Fanbase will compete with a growing handful of companies offering Instagram marketing solutions, including but not limited to, recently fundedNitrogram, as well asOlapic, Statigram,Chute,Curalate, and others. But Fanbase Medias focus on photo campaigns specificallymay appeal to those looking for an end-to-end, targeted solution.

The company offers three pricing tiers, starting at $299/month for 100 approved photos, then $499/month for 500 photos, and custom pricing beyond that. In an online dashboard, businesses can view the photo entries, approve or deny them, comment, and share them back to social networks, or mobile or desktop websites. The campaigns also support features like user voting mechanisms, Facebook Like gating, embeddable widgets, and more. And tools to design the photo websites and contest pages are provided, too.

The company has been working on the platform over the past eight months, Zsigmond says, and they believe this is the direction social media marketing is headed. The first generation of social marketing platforms was really about helping brands manage the content they push out, and we think the next generation of social marketing platforms is helping brands tap into their audience for content, and then use that content for marketing results, he explains.

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Fanbase Media Debuts Its Social Marketing Platform For Instagram (And Maybe One Day, Vine)

BP hasnt finished watching the ThaiPBS series on the monarchy so havent got around to blogging about it yet, but see that tonight at the FCCT there is an event on this subject. Below is the blurb:

Media Censorship and Self Censorship: What Is the Role of Thailands Public Broadcasters? A panel discussion

8pm, Thursday March 28, 2013

(Please see pricing and reservation procedure below)

First it was a soap opera Nua Mek 2 on Thailands channel 3 that was yanked off the air after its 9th episode (there were 12 in all), as was quoted in the press the content of the show had violated the Broadcast and Telecommunications Operations Act. In particular it was Section 37 which bars broadcast content that seeks to overthrow the constitutional monarchy, threatens national security or morality, constitutes profanity or harms peoples mental or physical health. Social media buzzed with speculation to political interference while audiences were left with a real life cliff hanger.

Just a few months, later the popular Thai talk show Tob Jote Prathet Thai or roughly translated to Answering Thailands Issues on Thai PBS held a 5 episode week long discussion about the role of the constitutional monarchy in Thailand. Featuring several well known figures, it was heralded as a breakthrough for open discussion about a topic that is seen as the most sensitive issue in the Kingdom. When Thai PBS pulled the 5th installment of the program, which it later aired, more drama ensued with the police now combing the series for any lese majeste content. Small protests took place outside of Thai PBS and underscore just what a flashpoint continues to be.

Join us for a panel who will discuss the role of Thai pubic broadcasters and whether their mission is to serve the public by providing factual information and room for debate, upholding the prevailing ideology of the country and its laws, or a combination of the two.

On the panel are:

Supinya Klangnarong, a Thai media rights advocate who is also on Thailands National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC). The Commission oversees all public and private media outlets.

Vornai Vanijaka, a print and TV social and political commentator

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FCCT Event tonight : Media Censorship and Self Censorship : What Is the Role of Thailand’s Public Broadcasters?

Color Correction Tutorial: FaZe ILLCAMS: Episode 46 by FaZe Meek
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