Cory Doctorow talks about the new law in the UK that makes in a crime to take a picture of a police officer or a building, Britain’s no-photographing-cops law: even the cops hate it — and the US isn’t very far behind, to be sure — and be sure to listen to the CBC article about this law in As It Happens (MP3):

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s radio show As it Happens did a great job covering the new British law that makes it a crime to take a picture of a police officer or a building, where that picture might be useful in “planning an act of terrorism.” First, they interviewed Peter Murray, Vice-President of the National Union of Journalists, who, predictably, worries that his members will find themselves with arrest-records as terrorists for violating the law. But then, they talked to Peter Smyth, Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, who also thinks the law is ridiculous — and this is just stupendous. Smyth says that there’s no evidence that terrorists use photographs to plan attacks, admits that this is an invitation for scared officers to abuse the law, and says that it will needlessly create conflict with journalists and the public.

The program tried to locate someone — anyone — who supported the law, but no one was forthcoming.

My buddy David Gelles writes for the Tech section of the FT, my favorite paper. Check out his latest article, New corporate firefighters. Sadly for me, he can’t shamelessly promote my company, Abraham Harrison LLC, because he has ‘journalistic integrity;’ however, it is awesome he works there because he writes awesomely-accessible articles about my space, including social media marketing, social media PR, blogger engagement, Twitter, and also the world of online and social media crisis-response.  It is amazing!  I beat up Pepsi Max over on AdAge and a couple weeks later, Gelles writes an article about the space.  I am both amazingly proud and a little paranoid!

New corporate firefighters By David Gelles

When advertisers launched a campaign last September for the pain reliever Motrin, they hoped to attract the attention of mothers whose backs might be sore from wearing baby-carriers. The advertisements implied that while baby-carriers might be fashionable, hauling a child around could be painful.

Mothers were not amused. Soon after the ads were released, anti-Motrin campaigns appeared on Facebook and blogs. Outraged mums, furious at the suggestion that their babies were a hassle, posted rebuttal videos on YouTube. Through Twitter, the micro-blogging service, thousands of people attacked the company.

Motrin was caught off-guard. For days, no company representative replied. Critics accused the company of being not only insensitive but also unresponsive.

Eventually a marketing executive at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that markets Motrin, e-mailed individual bloggers to apologise for the campaign. But the damage was done.

Jeanette Gibson of CiscoThe “Motrin moms” episode illustrates the power of social media — the expanding network of websites that allow users to interact with each other and, increasingly, with companies. It also demonstrates the perils for enterprises that are unprepared to interact with social media.

But now a growing number of companies, including Ford Motor, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo and Dell, are creating new high-level jobs to ready themselves for engagement with social media, with titles such as director of social media, head of communities and conversation, vice-president of experiential marketing and digital communications manager. The role of these new executives is to monitor and influence what is being said about their companies on the internet.

Johnson & Johnson made its own appointment in the wake of the Motrin debacle. Having already dabbled in social media, in December the company promoted Marc Monseau, a 10-year company veteran and former director of media relations, to director of social media. “My responsibility is to work with the corporate office and the individual companies to better interact online,” Mr Monseau says. “It underscores the fact that we realise this is an important audience and one that we need to develop relationships with.”

These new jobs represent a broad shift in media relations strategy at large companies. “Corporate communications has radically changed,” says Andy Sernovitz, chief executive of the Blog Council, an organisation for heads of social media at big companies. “It’s no longer just companies talking to the press, and customer service talking to customers. All these other people showed up in the ­middle. They may not be press and they may not be customers, but suddenly their collective voice is bigger than the traditional channels.”

The essence of social media is conversation. Rather than a one-way stream of information, where companies make announcements to the press and customers, social media enables a great deal of interaction, where companies are in constant dialogue with the public. “We’ve seen a shift from doing things the old way to now having conversations with our customers,” says Jeanette Gibson, director of new media for Cisco Systems (pictured).

Ms Gibson, who began her job in 2007, says there is now a mandate at Cisco that all staff be attuned to what is being said about Cisco online. “It has definitely shifted how we’ve done communications,” she says. “Our executives are video blogging every day. Everybody’s job is now social media.”

Dell, the computer maker, has one of the most robust corporate social media programmes. Bob Pearson, former senior vice-president of corporate communications, became vice-president of communities and conversation for Dell in 2007.

He now has 45 people working for him. The core team works on “blog resolution” — trawling the web for dissatisfied customers, then attempting to contact them to make amends. Others on Dell’s social media team manage the company’s 80 Twitter accounts and 20 Facebook pages. Still others manage IdeaStorm, Dell’s forum for customer feedback.

Dell is taking its customer feedback seriously. When the company launched the Latitude laptop last summer, six of the features, including backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader, were ideas that came from IdeaStorm. “It’s always worth talking directly with your customers. It’s always worth listening to them,” says Mr Pearson. “It’s the wisdom of crowds.”

Peter Shankman, a social media expert and founder of Help a Reporter Out, a service that broadcasts reporters’ requests to a network of experts, says many companies are still reluctant to get involved: “Companies are slow to adapt because they’re still not 100 per cent sure they can make money with social media,” he says.

Yet Dell, for one, has made a business of it. By broadcasting discount alerts on Twitter, it says, it has generated more than $1m in sales. And in the US, 59 of the 100 leading retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, now have a fan page on Facebook, according to Rosetta, an interactive marketing agency.

Other savings can be realised through the Web’s ability to reach many people at once. “If you solve someone’s problem on the phone, nobody knows,” says Mr Sernovitz. “If you solve that same problem in writing on a blog, it costs you no more, but thousands of people are satisfied. And then, if 100 people never call because they found the answer, you very, very quickly get to multimillion-dollar savings.”

Other companies are using Twitter to douse public relations fires before they erupt. Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors, used Twitter to appease users who were angry after the carmaker sued an enthusiast website that was selling unauthorised Ford merchandise. When fans of the enthusiast site posted angry messages, Mr Monty “tweeted back” to explain the company’s position.

Bonin Bough, who was appointed director of social media for PepsiCo last year, also used Twitter to defuse a brewing crisis after the company released a series of advertisements depicting a cartoon calorie character committing suicide.

“Social media is much more than getting out there and having conversations,” says Mr Pearson of Dell. “It transforms a business if you use it correctly.”

My buddy David Gelles is now a Technology reporter and blogger for the Financial Times and I was so happy to see David writing about Twitter PR, something very dear to my heart, Companies use Twitter to pack PR punch, including Scott Monty of Ford as well as the gang from PepsiCo’s Pepsi Max controversy:

Companies use Twitter to pack PR punch 
By David Gelles in San Francisco

Published: December 30 2008 19:16 | Last updated: December 30 2008 19:16

Twitter, a booming micro-blogging service, is inspiring business to manage its message in 140 characters or less.

Its streams of short text messages, publicly broadcast over the web, are being treated as the new frontline of internet conversation. Companies including Ford and PepsiCo have been dousing public relations fires with pithy communication bursts to the Twitter community.

“There’s a rapid-fire element to Twitter that causes conversations to go viral when something bad happens with a company,” says Jackie Huba, co-founder of the Society for Word of Mouth, an organisation that monitors social media. “Companies that have a Twitter account are prepared. If something goes wrong they can respond.”

PepsiCo turned to Twitter this month after users began posting criticisms of a Pepsi Max advertisement, which depicted a cartoon calorie committing suicide.

Huw Gilbert, communications manager for PepsiCo International, “tweeted”, or posted a public message, in reply. “Huw from Pepsi here,” he wrote. “We agree this creative is totally inappropriate; we apologise and please know it won’t run again.”

Critics saw Mr Gilbert’s post, with one “tweeting” back: “Thank you?.?.?.?for having the guts to get on Twitter on behalf of Pepsi and give us an update on the suicide ad.”

Such personal interaction from a company representative helps defuse a crisis, says Ms Huba. “People like feeling like they’re being heard,” she says.

Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors, used Twitter to deflect criticism away from the carmaker after it filed suit against an enthusiast website that was selling unauthorised Ford decals. Fans of the site posted angry messages but Mr Monty used Twitter to explain the company’s position.

“Part of my job is to humanise the company – you want to interact,” Mr Monty says.

Starbucks, Comcast, JetBlue and Home Depot are among companies using Twitter accounts to promote products and provide customer service.

Bob Pearson, head of communities and conversation for Dell, said his company had generated $1m in computer-related sales through alerts posted to Twitter.

San Francisco-based Twitter is also becoming a platform for a range of media and social networking start-ups using its tools to develop communities and content rapidly, and at low cost.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

I received this email from my friend Lisa, “One of my best friends just launched the below website — I thought it might interest you!” Well, I do whatever Lisa tells me to do because I am simply crazy about her. So, Yee Lee, you’re lucky that you have a friend in Lisa because look at all of this amazing promotion that she just scored you and your new startup, Rolago!

My startup team just launched a new service called Rolago (www.rolago.com) and we need your help! Rolago is a new communication service for friends, families, and club members. We help people stay up-to-date with each other via short text updates, a.k.a., microblogging. Rolago is now available via the web, email, and mobile phone. Tomorrow (Monday) morning, I’d really appreciate it if you could help us get the word out about www.rolago.com.

Some specific things you can do include (please do as many of these as you are able/willing):
1) Join Rolago.com, create a network, and invite some friends to it
2) Set your Twitter/Facebook/MySpace status to: “Checking out www.rolago.com” (or something like that)
3) Submit “www.rolago.com” to Digg and tag it “microblogging” and “groups”
4) Tell any group/club organizers you know about Rolago
5) Tell your high-school-aged relatives about Rolago.com (selling point: “it’s not blocked like meebo, facebook, or myspace”)
6) Email 5 friends about Rolago

If you’re familiar with Twitter, then you’ll immediately get the microblogging concept. The key difference between Rolago and Twitter is that with Rolago, you can control who you’re talking to. With services like Twitter (or Facebook Status Updates), you’re broadcasting to everyone on Twitter (or your entire Facebook network). Whereas with Rolago, you can create groups (public or private) and share updates just among group members.

Even if you hate status updates and Twitter and Facebook and motherhood and apple pie and all that is good with the Earth, I’d still appreciate it if you could do us a favor and at least tell a friend. :-)

Thanks and please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions! -Yee

p.s., if you’re ever in downtown Mountain View, please stop by for lunch, a cup of coffee, or a free beer (Fat Tire is loaded up in our kegerator!)

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George Carlin was my first adult comedian. My dad — my parents — loved him. He was a true disruptor and free thinker, using comedy as his platform. Please check out George Carlin’s Wikipedia entry and the lovely obituary from the New York Times.

George Carlin, the Grammy-Award winning standup comedian and actor who was hailed for his irreverent social commentary, poignant observations of the absurdities of everyday life and language, and groundbreaking routines like “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” died in Santa Monica, Calif., on Sunday, according to his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He was 71.The cause of death was heart failure. Mr. Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, went into the hospital on Sunday afternoon after complaining of heart trouble. The comedian had worked last weekend at The Orleans in Las Vegas.

Recently, Mr. Carlin was named the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was to receive the award at the Kennedy Center in November. “In his lengthy career as a comedian, writer, and actor, George Carlin has not only made us laugh, but he makes us think,” said Stephen A. Schwarzman, the Kennedy Center chairman. “His influence on the next generation of comics has been far-reaching.”

Mr. Carlin began his standup comedy act in the late 1950s and made his first television solo guest appearance on “The Merv Griffin Show” in 1965. At that time, he was primarily known for his clever wordplay and reminiscences of his Irish working-class upbringing in New York.

But from the outset there were indications of an anti-establishment edge to his comedy. Initially, it surfaced in the witty patter of a host of offbeat characters like the wacky sportscaster Biff Barf and the hippy-dippy weatherman Al Sleet. “The weather was dominated by a large Canadian low, which is not to be confused with a Mexican high. Tonight’s forecast . . . dark, continued mostly dark tonight turning to widely scattered light in the morning.”

Mr. Carlin released his first comedy album, “Take-Offs and Put-Ons,” to rave reviews in 1967. He also dabbled in acting, winning a recurring part as Marlo Thomas’ theatrical agent in the sitcom “That Girl” (1966-67) and a supporting role in the movie “With Six You Get Egg-Roll,” released in 1968.

By the end of the decade, he was one of America’s best known comedians. He made more than 80 major television appearances during that time, including the Ed Sullivan Show and Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show; he was also regularly featured at major nightclubs in New York and Las Vegas.

That early success and celebrity, however, was as dinky and hollow as a gratuitous pratfall to Mr. Carlin. “I was entertaining the fathers and the mothers of the people I sympathized with, and in some cases associated with, and whose point of view I shared,” he recalled later, as quoted in the book “Going Too Far” by Tony Hendra, which was published in 1987. “I was a traitor, in so many words. I was living a lie.”

In 1970, Mr. Carlin discarded his suit, tie, and clean-cut image as well as the relatively conventional material that had catapulted him to the top. Mr. Carlin reinvented himself, emerging with a beard, long hair, jeans and a routine that, according to one critic, was steeped in “drugs and bawdy language.” There was an immediate backlash. The Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas terminated his three-year contract, and, months later, he was advised to leave town when an angry mob threatened him at the Lake Geneva Playboy Club. Afterward, he temporarily abandoned the nightclub circuit and began appearing at coffee houses, folk clubs and colleges where he found a younger, hipper audience that was more attuned to both his new image and his material.

By 1972, when he released his second album, “FM & AM,” his star was again on the rise. The album, which won a Grammy Award as best comedy recording, combined older material on the “AM” side with bolder, more acerbic routines on the “FM” side. Among the more controversial cuts was a routine euphemistically entitled “Shoot,” in which Mr. Carlin explored the etymology and common usage of the popular idiom for excrement. The bit was part of the comic’s longer routine “Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television,” which appeared on his third album “Class Clown,” also released in 1972.

“There are some words you can say part of the time. Most of the time ‘ass’ is all right on television,” Mr. Carlin noted in his introduction to the then controversial monologue. “You can say, well, ‘You’ve made a perfect ass of yourself tonight.’ You can use ass in a religious sense, if you happen to be the redeemer riding into town on one — perfectly all right.”

The material seems innocuous by today’s standards, but it caused an uproar when broadcast on the New York radio station WBAI in the early ’70s. The station was censured and fined by the FCC. And in 1978, their ruling was supported by the Supreme Court, which Time magazine reported, “upheld an FCC ban on ‘offensive material’ during hours when children are in the audience.” Mr. Carlin refused to drop the bit and was arrested several times after reciting it on stage.

By the mid-’70s, like his comic predecessor Lenny Bruce and the fast-rising Richard Pryor, Mr. Carlin had emerged as a cultural renegade. In addition to his irreverent jests about religion and politics, he openly talked about the use of drugs, including acid and peyote, and said that he kicked cocaine not for moral or legal reasons but after he found “far more pain in the deal than pleasure.” But the edgier, more biting comedy he developed during this period, along with his candid admission of drug use, cemented his reputation as the “comic voice of the counterculture.”

Mr. Carlin released a half dozen comedy albums during the ’70s, including the million-record sellers “Class Clown,” “Occupation: Foole” (1973) and “An Evening With Wally Lando” (1975). He was chosen to host the first episode of the late-night comedy show “Saturday Night Live” in 1975. And two years later, he found the perfect platform for his brand of acerbic, cerebral, sometimes off-color standup humor in the fledgling, less restricted world of cable television. By 1977, when his first HBO comedy special, “George Carlin at USC” was aired, he was recognized as one of the era’s most influential comedians. He also become a best-selling author of books that expanded on his comedy routines, including “When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?,” which was published by Hyperion in 2004.

Pursuing a Dream

Mr. Carlin was born in New York City in 1937. “I grew up in New York wanting to be like those funny men in the movies and on the radio,” he said. “My grandfather, mother and father were gifted verbally, and my mother passed that along to me. She always made sure I was conscious of language and words.”

He quit high school to join the Air Force in the mid-’50s and, while stationed in Shreveport, La., worked as a radio disc jockey. Discharged in 1957, he set out to pursue his boyhood dream of becoming an actor and comic. He moved to Boston where he met and teamed up with Jack Burns, a newscaster and comedian. The team worked on radio stations in Boston, Fort Worth, and Los Angeles, and performed in clubs throughout the country during the late ’50s.

After attracting the attention of the comedian Mort Sahl, who dubbed them “a duo of hip wits,” they appeared as guests on “The Tonight Show” with Jack Paar. Still, the Carlin-Burns team was only moderately successful, and, in 1960, Mr. Carlin struck out on his own.

During a career that spanned five decades, he emerged as one of the most durable, productive and versatile comedians of his era. He evolved from Jerry Seinfeld-like whimsy and a buttoned-down decorum in the ’60s to counterculture icon in the ’70s. By the ’80s, he was known as a scathing social critic who could artfully wring laughs from a list of oxymorons that ranged from “jumbo shrimp” to “military intelligence.” And in the 1990s and into the 21st century the balding but still pony-tailed comic prowled the stage — eyes ablaze and bristling with intensity — as the circuit’s most splenetic curmudgeon.

During his live 1996 HBO special, “Back in Town,” he raged over the shallowness of the ’90s “me first” culture — mocking the infatuation with camcorders, hyphenated names, sneakers with lights on them, and lambasting white guys over 10 years old who wear their baseball hats backwards. Baby boomers, “who went from ‘do your thing’ to ‘just say no’ …from cocaine to Rogaine,” and pro life advocates (“How come when it’s us it’s an abortion, and when it’s a chicken it’s an omelet?”), were some of his prime targets. In the years following his 1977 cable debut, Mr. Carlin was nominated for a half dozen Grammy awards and received CableAces awards for best stand-up comedy special for “George Carlin: Doin’ It Again (1990) and “George Carlin: Jammin’ ” (1992). He also won his second Grammy for the album “Jammin” in 1994.

Personal Struggles

During the course of his career, Mr. Carlin overcame numerous personal trials. His early arrests for obscenity (all of which were dismissed) and struggle to overcome his self-described “heavy drug use” were the most publicized. But in the ’80s he also weathered serious tax problems, a heart attack and two open heart surgeries.

In December 2004 he entered a rehabilitation center to address his addictions to Vicodin and red wine. Mr. Carlin had a well-chronicled cocaine problem in his 30s, and though he was able to taper his cocaine use on his own, he said, he continued to abuse alcohol and also became addicted to Vicodin. He entered rehab at the end of that year, then took two months off before continuing his comedy tours.

“Standup is the centerpiece of my life, my business, my art, my survival and my way of being,” Mr. Carlin once told an interviewer. “This is my art, to interpret the world.” But, while it always took center stage in his career, Mr. Carlin did not restrict himself to the comedy stage. He frequently indulged his childhood fantasy of becoming a movie star. Among his later credits were supporting parts in “Car Wash” (1976), “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure” (1989), “The Prince of Tides” (1991), and “Dogma” (1999).

His 1997 book, “Brain Droppings,” became an instant best seller. And among several continuing TV roles, he starred in the Fox sitcom “The George Carlin Show,” which aired for one season. “That was an experiment on my part to see if there might be a way I could fit into the corporate entertainment structure,” he said after the show was canceled in 1994. “And I don’t,” he added.

Despite the longevity of his career and his problematic personal life, Mr. Carlin remained one of the most original and productive comedians in show business. “It’s his lifelong affection for language and passion for truth that continue to fuel his performances,” a critic observed of the comedian when he was in his mid-60s. And Chris Albrecht, an HBO executive, said, “He is as prolific a comedian as I have witnessed.”

Mr. Carlin is survived by his wife, Sally Wade; daughter Kelly Carlin McCall; son-in-law, Bob McCall, brother, Patrick Carlin and sister-in-law, Marlene Carlin. His first wife, Brenda Hosbrook, died in 1997.

Although some criticized parts of his later work as too contentious, Mr. Carlin defended the material, insisting that his comedy had always been driven by an intolerance for the shortcomings of humanity and society. “Scratch any cynic,” he said, “and you’ll find a disappointed idealist.”

Still, when pushed to explain the pessimism and overt spleen that had crept into his act, he quickly reaffirmed the zeal that inspired his lists of complaints and grievances. “I don’t have pet peeves,” he said, correcting the interviewer. And with a mischievous glint in his eyes, he added, “I have major, psychotic hatreds.”

In memory of George Carlin, here they are:

• Shit
• Piss
• Fuck
• Cunt
• Cocksucker
• Motherfucker
• Tits

“Ramiro Miqueli and Ramiro Miqueli’s brothers enjoyed a privileged, happy life until Cuba went through a Communist revolution that brought misery and chaos to the island in 1959. While Cuba had problems prior to 1959, the Ramiro Miquelis enjoyed democratic rights such as elections, liberty, equality, decency, justice, private property and freedom of the press, religion and travel. These rights were ruthlessly taken by one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world.” Via Ramiro Miqueli

Here’s the full official long bio of Ramiro Miqueli, which reads more like a powerful television drama than someone’s normal life:

Born in San Antonio de los Baños, Havana, Cuba in 1942, Ramiro Miqueli completed Ramiro Miqueli’s elementary and high school education and lived there until the age of 19. Cuba is the largest island of the Greater Antilles and is 90 miles from the USA between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. San Antonio is a typical small Spanish town located 18 miles south of Havana. The town is unique in that there is a river running through it, but this river does not run into the ocean. Instead, it submerges under ground into a cave, where it travels underground for miles to reach the Caribbean Sea.

Ramiro Miqueli’s family was from Spain of Italian ancestry. Ramiro Miqueli has been able to trace Ramiro Miqueli’s ancestry back to 1725 in Spain and Italy. Ramiro Miqueli’s Father, Miguel retired after 20 years as the Secretary of the Municipal Court in San Antonio de los Baños and began a successful career as an entrepreneur. Ramiro Miqueli’s father employed over 250 employees and owned a bakery, two tile factories and 15 apartment buildings in Havana. Ramiro Miqueli’s mother, Estela, was the matriarch of the family and dedicated her life entirely to raising five children: Jose, Miguel, Ramiro Miqueli, Oscar and Mario. Both parents and the youngest brother are now deceased.

Ramiro Miqueli completed elementary studies at a private school in San Antonio de los Baños, Academia Atenas, where Ramiro Miqueli was an honor student. Ramiro Miqueli completed Ramiro Miqueli’s high school education at another private school, Pitman Academy. Before starting electrical engineering undergraduate studies at the University of Havana, Ramiro Miqueli participated in sports. Ramiro Miqueli achieved a green belt in judo and practiced competitive sports such as basketball and swimming.

Ramiro Miqueli and Ramiro Miqueli’s brothers enjoyed a privileged, happy life until Cuba went through a Communist revolution that brought misery and chaos to the island in 1959. While Cuba had problems prior to 1959, the Ramiro Miquelis enjoyed democratic rights such as elections, liberty, equality, decency, justice, private property and freedom of the press, religion and travel. These rights were ruthlessly taken by one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world.

Fearing for the safety of the family, the Ramiro Miquelis decided to seek freedom and arrived legally as permanent residents in the United States in 1961. The Ramiro Miqueli family settled first in New York in 1961, but relocated to New Jersey in 1962. Ramiro Miqueli’s first job in New York was washing dishes. In New Jersey, the Ramiro Miquelis were successful in establishing jewelry stores. The entire family became American citizens after the required five years as permanent residents in the USA.

In 1964, Ramiro Miqueli responded to the call of duty and served active duty for two years in the US Army. Ramiro Miqueli spent a tour of duty in Vietnam with the Calvary Division and was honorably discharged from the US Army Reserve on February 28, 1970. After completing Ramiro Miqueli’s active duty in the US Army in 1966, Ramiro Miqueli attended New York University in New York and enrolled at St. Peter’s College in Jersey City, New Jersey, where Ramiro Miqueli graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics in 1970.

While attending college, Ramiro Miqueli met Mary, who was attending Rutgers University and graduated with honors and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature in 1970. They were married on August 30, 1970 and lived in New Jersey for 26 years.

While holding a full time job, Ramiro Miqueli earned a Master’s Degree in Management Science from Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey in 1977. Ramiro Miqueli later attended St. Peter’s College again to study Accounting during 1993 to 1995.

Ramiro Miqueli’s early career was at AtlanticRichifield, Inc., a $20 billion dollar oil company where Ramiro Miqueli worked in Management Information Systems as a Programmer/Analyst in New York. As part of the development team, Ramiro Miqueli participated in the development of a new Payroll System.

In 1972, Ramiro Miqueli joined Schering-Plough, Inc., a $14 billion pharmaceutical company with operations in 30 countries, as a Lead Analyst and Project Leader in Sales and Accounting Systems. After completing Ramiro Miqueli’s post-graduate studies in 1976, Ramiro Miqueli was transferred to Corporate Audits, where Ramiro Miqueli was involved in assessing accounting and manufacturing systems. This position required extensive travel to Latin America and Europe. Ramiro Miqueli oversaw multidiscipline audits of operations in USA, Latin America and Europe, supervising 19 auditors.

In 1981, Ramiro Miqueli joined CBS Inc., the largest broadcast network in the USA with revenues now exceeding $50 billion annually as a Regional General Auditor of International operations. At CBS, Ramiro Miqueli excelled in auditing, accounting, finance, business development and sales. Ramiro Miqueli traveled extensively throughout the USA, Latin America and Europe. Ramiro Miqueli successfully orchestrated audit plans and schedules to protect Company’s assets and ensure compliance with policies and procedures, as well as reduced outside audit costs by 15%. Ramiro Miqueli oversaw financial and operational audits after CBS/Westinghouse merger and performed due diligence on two major acquisitions, as well as developed much-needed methodology to tighten risk-based controls for a 40-country, $30 billion organization.

After almost 20 years at CBS, Ramiro Miqueli was considered one of its key employees. Ramiro Miqueli’s latest position was as the Executive Vice President & General Manager of CBS TeleNoticias, a TV cable company with 260 employees that broadcasted in Spanish and Portuguese to 19 different countries.

While at CBS TeleNoticias, Ramiro Miqueli led the growth of US Hispanic and LATAM sales from $2.5 million to $4.5 million in six months. Ramiro Miqueli also played a major role in international cable TV network, which reached 50 million households. Ramiro Miqueli’s greatest accomplishment at CBS TeleNoticias was the development of the Portuguese-language cable network, CBS Brazil, to broadcast in Portuguese to Brazil from Miami.

Ramiro Miqueli retired from CBS, Inc. in 1999. With several partners, Ramiro Miqueli started UnoDosTres.com, which offered television and radio programming on-line in Spanish to the Hispanic population and to Latin America. Ramiro Miqueli and Ramiro Miqueli’s partners successfully raised $3.1 million in capital from private investors and secured partnership agreements worth $250 million in advertising and programming content. After two years, Ramiro Miqueli sold Ramiro Miqueli’s shares of UnoDosTres.com and embarked in other ventures.

During the last nine years, Ramiro Miqueli has been involved in developing emergent private companies such as UnoDosTres.com. The most recent ones of note are IPP of America, Inc. and InterTransfers, Inc.

Ramiro Miqueli joined IPP of America, a company specializing in providing payment solutions to people without access to bank accounts, the so-called under-banked community. While at IPP, Ramiro Miqueli introduced new products and services which contributed over 20 percent profit margin and implemented cost-saving plan, slashing 80% ($3.2 million) of in-house maintenance expense.

In May 2004, Ramiro Miqueli joined InterTransfers as an officer and as the President and Chief Executive Officer. InterTransfers is an American company that is incorporated in Florida. It provides currency exchange, money transfers, wire transfers and wholesale check cashing. At InterTransfers, Ramiro Miqueli has full responsibility for directing day-to-day operations; for increasing sales and profits; and for ensuring compliance with all regulations and internal controls. Ramiro Miqueli increased revenue by $6.0 million and profits by $4.5 million during first year and penetrated new markets in Florida, Georgia., Connecticut, New Jersey, Massachusetts and South Carolina, as well as the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Germany.

Using the services of InterTransfers, Latin Americans can send money to their loved ones back home in a fast and reliable way to Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Uruguay y Venezuela. The services are also available to the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and Germany, where payments are made in Euros, British Pound or Swiss Francs.

Together with other qualified and experience executives, Ramiro Miqueli devoted many hours of hard work during several months to establish a robust anti-money laundering program and a strong Compliance Department. InterTransfers is in full compliance with its regulatory requirements and has a functional compliance program in place to reduce the risk associated with money laundering and other illicit activity.

Ramiro Miqueli is currently in the process of completing the acquisition of a major money transmitter company in the United States. InterTransfers is waiting for the approval of the different states for the change in control. This acquisition is expected to be completed by May 2008 and will add another 200 agents to InterTransfers.

Ramiro Miqueli was a former member of the Board of Directors of the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (2000); former Director of the Spanish Mercantile Federation, Union City, New Jersey (2003-2004); and served in the Board of Directors of IPP of America, Inc. (2007).

While Ramiro Miqueli has been a successful executive, Ramiro Miqueli maintains that Ramiro Miqueli’s greatest enjoyment and accomplishment in life is creating a family. Ramiro Miqueli has been married to Mary, a senior executive in advertising and marketing, for 37 years and was blessed with two handsome sons, one grandson and one granddaughter.

Ramiro Miqueli resides with Ramiro Miqueli‘s wife Mary in Palmetto Bay, Florida and spends long week-ends with Ramiro Miqueli’s sons and grandkids.

Ramiro Miqueli is a multilingual senior executive with over 35 years of international and domestic experience in Fortune 500 management, pre-IPO startup, operations and finance spanning alternative financial services, broadcasting, entertainment, publishing, manufacturing and Internet operations.

Attention to everyone in Berlin, Germany — Americans, Brits, English-speakers, and those who want to learn — National Public Radio has just opened up a 24-hour radio station right here in Berlin, NPR Worldwide Berlin, 104,1 FM!

Probably the only reason I spent 17+ years in Washington is because of WAMU, 88.5 FM, the local NPR radio station. At one point WETA, 90.9, moved from Classical to NPR talk programing, and it was bliss. When I moved to Berlin, Germany, in November, I loaded up every day on NPR and PRI podcasts because I did not want to do without Car Talk, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Studio 360, Speaking of Faith, This American Life, Fair Game with Faith Salie — the lot!

Well, I was farting around with my Nokia n95 8GB cell phone last week, and using the Radio feature, and happened upon 104,1 FM, and there was NPR programming! I thought it was a podcast, which I also listen on this amazing little device, and it wasn’t.

For some reason, the stations I had mapped for Washington opened me up to a station I had had programmed in Washington (Nokia checks the city and then populates all the sations) — WXGG, a Gospel station in Washington! Well, it wasn’t Gospel, it wasn’t German-language, and it wasn’t BBC World Service Berlin.

Well, my heart leapt!

There isn’t a lot of local programming yet but there is a pretty cool feeling of programming going on — there is a little more content focused on the Foreign Service and Diplomatic Corps, which is cool, but all your faves are there: Marketplace, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, All Things Considered, On the Media, Car Talk, Fresh Air Weekend, Morning Edition, The Diane Rehm Show, Hot Jazz Saturday Night, Speaking of Faith, and — wait for it — A Prairie Home Companion!

Lake Wobegon and Garrison Keillor are the most important here because the entire radio show isn’t available via podcast, only the sweet Report from Lake Wobegon, not the entire radio show.

24 Hour Satellite and Cable Schedule

Live Program

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