Another Dot Com

Yahoo purchased Right Media, online market place for ads, for $680 million. Good move for Yahoo? I think when Google purchased Doubleclick, Yahoo had to show the market something. And something was to buy Right Media…btw, Yahoo stock price fell again (-1.07%). I think Yahoo should focus on improving their existing AD network and service rather than buy something that would take them many months to fold into Yahoo. Just my opinion.

Man Utd pulled one out. 1st leg of UEFA Championship semis, Man Utd. vs. AC Milan, took place early today. Though, Man Utd. gave up 2 goals, they would move on to play the 2nd leg in AC Milan’s home pitch with a win. The final score was 3-2, Man Utd. over AC Milan.

Here we go again! I was shocked to see another shooting took place at a high profile location this week. A white male (they think he is a NASA contractor) with a handgun or a single firearm entered Johnson Space Center and shot off 2 rounds. What’s up with the security measurea at NASA, a government agency? I’m sure NASA has several security check points and measures in place to check for any foreign objects like guns, bombs, etc. How did some contractor smuggle a gun into NASA?

Something to think about right to owning or buying a gun. If you are not a citizen of U.S., you should be able to buy a gun. I think that should be okay with all gun owners. If you can’t vote, you shouldn’t be allowed to purchase a gun! That’s just my opinion.

More details about VA Tech shooter, Cho, has come out. It looks like this psycho killed the first 2 people and then went to the postoffice to mail a package (video tape, manifesto, photos) to NBC. Then, he moved on to the engineering building to continue his rampage. Cho had this totally planned out. He knew exactly what he was doing.

I’ve heard today that in Cho’s past, he was evaluated for mental problems. In the news, this was brought up many times. They were implying that if people knew that Cho was mentally unstable, more things should have been done to prevent Cho from harming others and himself. Humm….I didn’t know all mentally unstable people killed. Aside from locking him up or filing something on his record so that he couldn’t purchase a gun…what could have been done? I’m thinking that Cho, if he couldn’t buy a gun to kill, would have used other means to kill. This was one disturbed person. He blamed everyone, except himself for problems he was having. He wanted to hurt others for his own problems.

Well…we now know little more about the VA Tech shooting that took place on Monday. The shooter was identified as Cho Seung-Hui, 23-year-old senior majoring in English, South Korean National with a greencard, immagrated to U.S. in 1992, graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., in 2003, loner, quiet…..

I’ve been browsing through korean websites, blogs, and news broadcasts (daum.net, naver.com,kbs, mbc, etc.) for reactions from koreans. Let me tell you that koreans are shocked and ashamed by this event. Shocked that someone could murder so many innocent people… ashamed that this was done by a korean native. Also, there’s a feeling that this act/event will somehow will define how non-koreans will see them - cold, evil, disturbed, anti-social??

Well, I think there will be some backlash to the koreans and korean community because of this event. But, hope to a minimum. Cho Seung-Hui is the evil, crazy, disturbed worm. I think most people will recognize that and not blame Cho’s actions on all koreans or asians (some people think all asians look alike).

One more thing. On MSNBC news, I heard someone say…was Cho driven to kill because what others had done to him at school? Was he looking for revenge? My reply to that is, stop trying to reason what Cho has done. People looking to reason ‘why Cho killed - what drove hime to kill’ are too P.C. People can be cruel…this world can be cruel, but that’s no reason to kill. Being a minority in this country (well, in any country) can be tough, but nothing should drive you to kill 33 people and injure 20 + people.

Photo by AP

This is crazy…Some crazy idiot with a gun killed 32 Virginia Tech students and killed himself. What would posses a person to want to kill? And, if you are going to kill yourself…why not just take your life and not others. I’m sure this will get folks talking about the 2nd amendment, and role of NRA lobbying in Washington. For me, this is not question of gun control or the 2nd amendment. This is all about stupid, crazy, evil people. If a car was used to kill people, you wouldn’t fault the car…would you? BTW, for you Bush haters….This is not GW’s fault. I just thought I should point that out…hehe. No one to blame here, but the shooter. Not his parents, not the police, not the school, and not George Bush…only the shooter.

According to Venturebeat.com, Google has agreed to purchase DoubleClick for $3.1 billion (all cash deal). This move for Google will enhance Google’s banner and other display ad positions. To date, Google dominates the text ads, but has been week on banner ads. Purchase of DoubleClick will put Google on competitive level with Yahoo on non-text ads. Banner and rich media ads on Google? I hope not.

Man Utd. vs. Watford in FA Cup semi-final went as expected. Man Utd’s victory over Watford (4-1) means another FA Cup finals for Sir Alex. Rooney scored 2, Ronaldo 1, and Richardson 1. Watford didn’t have a chance in this game. Again, I was little disappointed that Ji-Sung didn’t get to see any action for Man Utd.

Quick soccer news. Man United beat AS Roma 7-1 on the second leg of the UEFA Championship Round of 8. I was happy to see Man U. move on to the next round, but I was little disappointed that Ji-Sung Park didn’t play in the game (Ji-Sung Park is a South Korean soccer player…first player from Korea to join the EPL)

Chelsea is playing Valencia their second leg for the semi-final birth this afternoon. I’m predicting that Chelsea will overcome Valencia…though Valencia is hosting the game and have the advantage over Chelsea — Valencia can move on with a tie, but Chelsea must score an away goal to move on.