Eye on the World

Internet Community Websites and the Orkut Brazilian Phenomenon

Instapundit recently reported

Last week Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. agreed to pay $580 million for Intermix Media, owner of the popular community website Myspace.com which had 17.7 million visitors in June. The announcement came just days after News Corp. formed its Fox Interactive Media unit.

Which shows that the phenomenon of community websites for social networking is starting to become big business.  This article relates what it calls "Facebook Frenzy" about  Facebook.com, which apparently has become the most popular community website in university campuses.

Facebook is an Internet sensation at campuses across the nation. Constantly updated by its 2.8 million registered users at more than 800 colleges and universities, the Facebook takes the local malt shop social nexus of the 1950s and makes it universal.

Started by three Harvard sophomores in February 2004 as an online directory to connect the higher education world through social networks, the Facebook now registers more than 5,800 new users a day.

Hughes said Facebook turns a profit, mostly from advertising. He refused to disclose the private company's earnings.

Other networking community websites include Friendster.com which claims 19+ million profiles and blogs, meetup.com and hi5.com.  Other differentiated networking sites are linkedin.com and rize.com, which promote professional and business networking as opposed to social networking.  Sites like Flickr.com and Multiply.com emphasize the use of blogs and photologs.

Another community website available is Orkut.com.   However, an interesting phenomenon has ocurred with this site created by Google

As nearly everyone knows, Orkut is Google’s entry in the crowded “social networking” field. Orkut seems to be relying on the combination of the powerful Google brand combined with an invitation-only policy to create interest in a service that otherwise would be regarded as late to the game. Like other social networking services, which are designed to connect people who want to date, make friends, or do business together

However, for reasons that at this point are unclear, Orkut.com has become a site that is for all practical purposes a "Brazilian" site.   As of this date, about 75% of the users state their country of residency as Brazil, and even this understates the number of Brazilian users since Brazilians living all over the world have also joined the site while registering under their country of residency.   The second largest number of users are from the U.S., at about 5%.  Posting in Orkut's forums is now done in Portuguese in most of the communities.

Due to the amount of Brazilian users and communities in the Portuguese language, users from other parts of the world have become upset with the service, which had English as its default language. Some went as far as to start online communities and discussion groups dedicated to complain about this phenomenon.

The reasons for this phenomenon apparently follows the Brazilian Internet Phenomenon. Services such as weblogs and photoblogs are now very popular with Brazilian users as well. For example, it's not hard to see Internet searches within the Brazilian territory returning several results pointing to weblog entries. That is seldom seen in other parts of the world. The popularity of such services in Brazil intrigues many people, making this phenomenon worthy of study.

In order to understand the scale of the Brazilian Internet Phenomenon as it relates to Orkut, I put together the following statistics comparing the numbers of users in Orkut to Brazilian and U.S. internet users

Population of Brazil 181.8 Million
Population of U.S. 296 Million

# of internet users in Brazil 17.9 Million
% of population 9.9%

# of internet users in the U.S. 200.9 Million
% of population 67.8%

# of enrolled college students in Brazil 1.5 Million
% of Population 0.8%

# of enrolled college students in U.S. 15 million
% of Population 5%

% orkut users of college age 18-25 54%

Approximate total of # of orkut users 7.5 Million

% of orkut users from Brazil 73.8%
# of orkut users from Brazil 5.5 Million
# of Brazilian orkut users as % of Brazilian internet users 30%

References
http://www.oncourseworkshop.com/Miscellaneous007.htm
http://www.photius.com/countries/brazil/society/brazil_society_colleges_and_univers~6924.html
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm
http://www.orkut.com/MembersAll.aspx
http://instapundit.com/archives/024426.php

It is clear that the Brazilian Internet Phenomenon in Orkut is massive as represented by the huge % of Brazilian Internet users that are members of Orkut.  I can understand why Americans have migrated to other forums, but it is still somewhat inexplicable to me why other countries have not claimed stakes in Orkut (i.e. Mexico), or why there is not a similar forum of Brazilian origin, with Brazilian advertising.  I would think that any Brazilian internet company would kill to have anything even close to the success of Orkut and that at the same time had paid advertising.

Questions for Wilson

Rivers of ink have been spilled regarding the supposed “outing” of her name and her relationship to Wilson, starting with this article

"Wilson, while refusing to confirm his wife's employment, said the release to the press of her relationship to him and even her maiden name was an attempt to intimidate others like him from talking about Bush administration intelligence failures"

To this date I continue to hear even on the radio speculations about “who had her name and who mentioned her name first”

Now that it is documented that her name and her relationship to him were available to anybody with internet access, we see that a large part of the scandal has been simply invented out of thin air.

Now, the part that about compromising her job.

In a previous posting it was also documented that 36 news agencies and reporter’s groups stated in an affidavit that even the original op-ed by Wilson had the potential to compromise her cover:

"Wilson Op-Ed. Did no one at Langley think that Plame's Identity might be compromised if her spouse writes a nationally distributed Op-Ed piece discussing a foreign mission about a volatile political issue that focused on her subject matter expertise?"

Thus we are now talking about a matter of degree of exposure.  The original op-ed increased the risk of her cover being blown because as documented before, her maiden name and her relationship to him were available on the internet and because, as D. Corn states, the nature of her job was

“ the dicey and difficult mission of tracking parties trying to buy or sell weapons of mass destruction or WMD material”

thus being identified on the internet as wife of an individual who bragged openly and widely of being CIA contractor carrying WMD missions is not quite consistent with being on DEEP COVER.   Thus the op-ed had already partially compromised her identity, even without Novak’s article, unless WMD dealers do not have internet access, do  not know how to use google and do not read the NYT.

  Novak’s article further increased the potential of exposure by publishing that she was a CIA employee, one of many thousands in DC, although several individuals have stated that this information was relatively common knowledge among the press and even her neighbors.

Thus what was the final nail in the coffin?  What completely ensured that Ms. Plame’s ability to carry out further operations would not be possible?  Perhaps when as C. May states, an indignant article , that received significant play in the MSM, published the following statements, none of which were mentioned in Novak’s article

“and his wife was outed as an undercover CIA officer.”

“A pair of top Bush officials told a reporter the name of a CIA operative who apparently has worked under what's known as "nonofficial cover"

“The White House has wrongly branded a woman known to friends as an energy analyst for a private firm as a CIA officer”

Perhaps the author of such  article would like to comment on the source of the information that Ms. Plame/Wilson was an undercover officer, had “non official cover” or that she worked as energy analyst, since none of this information was available prior to the publication of the article.

The real issues about outing a cover agent are 1) knowledge of the covert status and most importantly, 2) intent of blowing the cover. The questions then are:

1)  If Ms. Plame's cover was so deep, and outing her identity so dangerous, why did Wilson allow her maiden name to be posted on his internet bio at the Middle East Institute in 2002 where it was available in July 2003 at the time of his Op-Ed in the NYT? 

2) Given the established public nature of her maiden name documented above, why didn't Wilson think that writing an Op-ed about the CIA and her subject matter expertise in the NYT and then giving public interviews about it could plausibly increase the risk (even if it was only marginally) to her job, her cover and potentially her life?

3)  Given that he was so casual about making very public statements related to his wife's field of expertise and place of employment, it would be logical for any rational observer to conclude that Wilson had a lackadaisical attitude to protecting any subjects related to her wife's job.  Thus the questions are, would any rational husband in the world do anything public that would create ANY risk, even minimal risk, to his wife's job and potentially her life?  Would anyone even think that a husband would be so reckless?

4)  Thus, knowing this information, why would any other rational person, regardless of position, when learning about her place of employment would even think or speculate that her CIA employment was of a covert nature or that there would be any sort of risk associated with mentioning it?

Terri Schiavo has passed away

Terri Schiavo has passed away.  Unfortunately the combined efforts of a lot of people were not enough to overcome the inertia of a system that was biased against preservation of life.

Terri Schiavo wanted a divorce at the time of the collapse

A friend of Terri has stated that she knew Terri was having marital problems at the time of her collapse and was potentially looking to divorce her husband

Terri Schiavo had a bad fight with her husband the night before she was discovered unconscious in the hallway of her St. Petersberg, Fla., home 15 years ago, and intended to seek a divorce, a close friend said Friday.

"They were talking about divorce at the time that Terri collapsed," Jackie Rhodes told Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends." Rhodes became a friend of Ms. Schiavo's when they worked together at an insurance company.

M. Schiavo ordered medical care withheld soon after getting settlement money

One of the things that are being widely ignored in the current media report on Terri Schiavo, is that her husband stopped rehabilitation treatment 3 months after getting the settlement money(1993) and a few months later he ordered that medical treatment for an infection be withheld even though he later admitted that it could have been fatal.

Michael filed a medical-malpractice lawsuit, during which he said he would care for her for the rest of her life, which, assuming proper care, would be a normal lifespan. He also presented at trial a medical-rehabilitation expert who had developed a plan to provide support for Terri to maximize her ability to respond to her environment.

A jury awarded $1.3 million in the malpractice case, of which $750,000 was put in trust to pay for the kind of care that Michael promised to provide Terri.
Michael never kept his promise.
Within months of the money being deposited in the bank, Michael ordered a do-not-resuscitate order placed on Terri's chart. He has also repeatedly denied her other forms of medical care, such as treatment for infections.

Most of the media reports erroneously state that he only ordered treatment withheld when he officially requested the tubes be removed in 1998.  What is not reported is that from 1993 to 1997, Terri's parents wanted Michael removed as guardian and the judge eventually ruled against them.  Furthermore, an independent guardian appointed by the Judge during this period clearly stated in 1998 that the evidence that Terri wanted treatment withheld did NOT meet the standard required by Florida's law and found a bias and significant conflict of interest in the husband.  Subsequently, the judge REMOVED the independent Guardian and appointed HIMSELF as the Guardian. 

Below is the timeline of events that has been completely ignored by the mainstream media

1990
Feb - Terri Collapses in her home May - Terri discharged from Humana Hospital in St Petersburg, Florida. Dec - Terri taken to California for experimental implant
1991
Feb - Terri moved to home with husband. Jan - Terri moved to Bradenton Mediplex Rehabilitation Center. Apr - Terri's condition is assessed as improving. Apr - Terri's husband advised to move her to Gainesville Rehabilitation Center to receive advanced therapy to continue Terri's recovery. Jul - Terri moved to Sable Palms Nursing Home.
1992
Aug - Terri awarded $250,000 in malpractice settlement. Nov - Terri awarded $1.4 million in malpractice trial. Nov - Michael Schiavo awarded $600,000 in malpractice trial.
1993
Feb - Michael Schiavo denies recommended rehabilitation treatment. Feb - Schiavo and Terri's parents have falling out regarding lack of therapy for Terri. Feb - Schiavo withholds medical information from Terri's parents. Feb - Schiavo posts Do not Resuscitate order in Terri's medical chart. Jun - Schiavo threatens Schindler family with  lawsuit. Aug - Schiavo orders medical staff not to treat Terri for potentially fatal infection. Sep - Bob and Mary Schindler petition courts to remove Schiavo as Terri's guardian. Nov - Schiavo admits in deposition that he knew withholding treatment of infection could result in Terri's death.
1994
Feb - Judge Penick dismisses guardianship suit. Apr - Terri moved to Palm Gardens Nursing Home.
1995
Sep - Schiavo orders Palm Gardens not to treat Terri for potentially fatal infection.
1996
Jun - Terri's parents obtain court order for access to Terri's medical records.
1997
May - Judge Shames approves Schiavo action to remove Terri's nutrition and hydration. Jul - Schiavo's engagement to Jodi Centonze announced.

New medical report on Terri Schiavo disputes court's conclusions

A new medical report on Terri's condition that disputes the court's conclusions

Independent evaluation of Terri Schiavo's CAT scan disputes court's conclusions

The following statements are an independent analysis of Terri's CAT scan that disputes the court's conclusions. 

The most alarming thing about this image, however, is that there certainly is cortex left. Granted, it is severely thinned, especially for Terri's age, but I would be nonplussed if you told me that this was a 75 year old female who was somewhat senile but fully functional, and I defy a radiologist anywhere to contest that.

I HAVE SEEN MANY WALKING, TALKING, FAIRLY COHERENT PEOPLE WITH WORSE CEREBRAL/CORTICAL ATROPHY. THEREFORE, THIS IS IN NO WAY PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE THAT TERRI SCHIAVO'S MENTAL ABILITIES OR/OR CAPABILITIES ARE COMPLETELY ERADICATED. I CANNOT BELIEVE SUCH TESTIMONY HAS BEEN GIVEN ON THE BASIS OF THIS SCAN.

The worrisome, no alarming thing, for me, was that I heard a bioethicist and several important figures on the major media describe Terri's brain as MUCH WORSE. One "expert" said that she had a "bag of water" in her head. Several experts described her as a "brain stem preparation"

These statements are wholly inaccurate. This is an atrophied brain,  yes, but there is cortex remaining, and where there's cortex (?life) there's hope.

If you starve this woman to death it would be, in my professional and experienced medical opinion, the equivalent of starving to death a 75-85 year old person. I would take that to the witness stand.

Huge Conflicts of Interest in Terri Schiavo's Case

This post documents the HUGE conflicts of interest between the judge, the lawyer for M. Schiavo, and the board of directors of the hospice where Terri is dying.  It is hard to believe that this case was decided in a neutral and impartial way after reading this. 

Judges are impartial, right? Not Judge George Greer, the judge that has ordered Terri Schiavo executed by starvation and dehydration, twice.

Our good ole boy judge has worked side by side as county commissioner with Barbara Sheen Todd (county commissioner) for eight years. Barbara Sheen Todd is on the board of, you guessed it, the hospice where Terri Schiavo is kept prisoner by her husband, Michael Schiavo, who lives with another woman that he has two children with.

Also, Judge Greer's fellow judge, Judge John Lenderman is the brother of Martha Lenderman, also on the, you got it, the same hospice board.

Our fine judge accepted as the basis of his rulings, the questionable testimony of Michael Schiavo that Terri would wish to be killed, yet Michael never stated this until after he had received the 1.2 million dollar settlement during which time he portrayed himself as a loving husband that just wanted to bring his wife home and take care of her.

The judge also accepted as the basis of his rulings, the "opinion" of a third doctor who is the brother of a close associate of George Felos, Michael Schiavo's right-to-kill attorney, and very significantly, former Chairman of, you got it again, the same hospice board, Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, which operates Woodside Hospice in Pinellas Park, Florida.

Still have some hair left? Let's see what we can do about that!

Mary Laybak, CEO of Woodside Hospice has direct ties to Euthanasia Society of America and Hemlock for Hospice, an organization that seeks to accelerate the dying process. Federal funds may not be used for these purposes.

The Hospice is a federally funded program designed for terminally ill and those whose death is eminent. Terri has been in Woodside Hospice illegally for three years under Medicaid payments, for free, courtesy of, yep, George Felos. Felos combined and conspired with Michael Schiavo to arrange for Terri's "free" stay at Hospice Woodside as part of an "exit protocol" designed to advance Felos' self-perceived messianic mission of "helping" incapacitated people to die by categorizing them as "terminal," warehousing them, and depriving them of therapy and rehabilitation services.

Note also the involvement of another Hospice's board member in getting the modification to the law that applies to T. Schiavos' case passed

August 1997 - New attorney for Michael Schiavo, George Felos, notifies the Schindlers that Michael was going to have the feeding tube removed.

May 1998 - George Felos files a petition to have Terri's feeding tube removed.

April 1999 - House Bill 2131 was introduced in the legislature by the Florida Elder Affairs & Long-Term Care Committee to amend Section 765 (Civil Rights) of the Florida Statutes. Amendments to Section 765.101 = legal definition of life prolonging procedures to add: "INCLUDING ARTIFICIALLY PROVIDED SUSTENENCE AND HYDRATION, WHICH SUSTAINS, RESTORES, OR SUPPLANTS A SPONTANEOUS VITAL FUNCTION". It becomes law on October 1, 1999.

January 24, 2000 - Judge Greer presides over the case determining whether Michael Schiavo can have Terri starved/dehydrated to death.

February 11, 2000 - Judge Greer orders Terri Schiavo to rot away.

Notice, Felos becomes the lawyer and files the petition. Then the law in Tallahassee gets changed. Then the Schiavo case gets heard. In that order.

Who lobbied for changing the law to make food and water be defined as "artificial" life support in 1999?

In 1999 House Bill 2131 was introduced from the Florida Elder Affairs and Long-Term Care Committee

House 2131: Relating to End-of-life Care

H 2131 GENERAL BILL by Elder Affairs & Long-Term Care (HFC); Argenziano;

   (CO-SPONSORS) Heyman; Sobel; Reddick; Fiorentino; Bilirakis;

   Littlefield; Kosmas; Bitner; Jacobs; Levine; Bloom

Source: < http://www.flsenate.gov/session/index.cfm?BI_Mode=ViewBillInfo&Mode=Bills&SubMenu=1&Year=1999&billnum=2131>

I contacted the Clerk of The Florida House and was informed that "Bilirakis" was Representative "Gus Michael Bilirakis" (terms 1998 - 2000 and 2001 - 2003). See also http://www.gusbilirakis.com

Note that the hospice where Terri Schiavo has been held is operated by Suncoast Hospice. Rep. Gus Michael Bilirakis lists himself on the Suncoast Hospice Board of Directors - along with George Felos who filed the suit in the summer of 1998 to withdraw food and water form Terri Schiavo.

Source: http://www.gusbilirakis.com/about.html see last paragraph

But note that the legislators at the time the law passed did NOT believe it would be applicable to T. Schiavo's case

The modification to the law was subsequent to a report commissioned by the legislature. See attachment.

Looking at the report and the committee's recommendation, it is my opinion the current use of that law (765.101) in Terri Schiavo's case was unforeseen by many who voted in favor of the amendment because Terri Schiavo does not meet the threshold criteria to get to the issue of whether to remove food & water. i.e. Terri is not "brain dead", "unconscious" or "unresponsive to anything

Just to make things more interesting, M. Schiavo's lawyer a made a contribution to Judge Greer's reelection campaign one day after a ruling in his favor.  While this contribution may appear small, it is unbelievable that one of the lawyers involved in a litigation would contribute to a judges' campaign ONE day after a crucial ruling. 

According to public records available from the Florida Department of State: Division of Elections, Judge George W. Greer received a campaign contribution from the law firm of Felos & Felos during his re-election efforts in the spring of 2004.

Of course, no direct evidence suggests collusion between the two parties, but the timing of the campaign contribution is highly suspect. On May 6, 2004, a Pinellas county court struck down legislation (“Terri’s Law”) passed by the Florida legislature and signed by Governor Jeb Bush, which was designed to halt a previous attempt to starve Terri Schiavo to death. On May 7, 2004 — only one day after the ruling — Judge Greer received a campaign gift from the law firm of Michael Schiavo’s attorney.

This was not due to a fundraising effort, as this was the only contribution made to the Greer campaign fund on that particular day.

Potentially illegal procedural issues in Terri Schiavo case

The Empire Journal has a detailed report on potentially illegal procedural issues and significant conflicts of interest in the Terri Schiavo case

Court discounted testimony that implies Terry Schiavo would not want to die even in her situation

There appears to be evidence that the court made a mistake when it discounted testimony that contradicted Terry Schiavo's husband testimony about her views of a person in vegetative state.  If correct, this completely eliminates any claim by her husband to have the right to make decisions for her.

The Schindlers contend that Greer lacked the clear and convincing evidence needed when he issued the Feb. 11, 2000, death order and made a “clear mistake: when he discounted testimony by one of Terri Schiavo’s best friends, Diane Christine Meyer.

“WHERE THERE’S LIFE, THERE’S HOPE”

   Meyer testified at trial that in 1982 when Terri Schiavo was 19, the recent high school graduates had just seen a television movie about Karen Ann Quinlan who had been in a coma since collapsing six years earlier and was the subject of a contentious court battle over her parents’ decision to take her off a respirator.  Meyer said that Terri uncharacteristically lost her temper when Meyer told a joke about Karen Quinlan.  Meyer said that Terri didn’t find the joke funny and “did not approve of what was going on in the Quinlan case”, referring to the legal battle to remove the woman from life support.  “I remember one of the things she said is, ‘How did they know she would want this?  How would they know she wouldn’t want to go on?” Meyer testified.

   Meyer recalls Terri sauing, “Where there’s life, there’s hope”.

   Gibbs says Meyer’s conversation with Terri occurred in 1982 in connection with the action in the Quinlan case in 1976 and Quinlan’s death a decade later in 1985.

   “In the summer of 1982,when the conversation occurred, she would have been 19, not 11 or 12 as the court assumed her to be”, Gibbs said.  “In its Feb. 11, 2000, order, the court recounted at great length Ms. Meyer’s testimony, finding her “believable at the [outset] but then questioning her credibility when recounting her conversation with Terri when she recalled it as being during the summer of 1982 after watching a television movie about the Quinlan case”.

   “The Court noted two quotes from the discussion between Meyer and Terri which raised serious questions about the time frames.  Quinlan did not die in the mid-70s when the court case ended as the court presumed.   Instead, after taken off the respirator in 1976 and given assisted feeding, Quinlan lived another nine years in a New Jersey nursing home and died June 11, 1985 at age 31”

   Greer said in his decision and order that Meyer had used the present tense in her statements which he said raised serious questions about when they occurred. “The court is mystified as to how these present tense verbs would have been used some six years after the death of Karen Ann Quinlan”, he wrote.    Quinlan had lived three years after Terri Schiavo had reportedly made her comments to Meyer in 1982.

   “It was not Meyer who was mistaken, but the court”, Gibbs said.  Greer ruled that Michael’s inadmissible self-serving hearsay and that of his family constituted clear and convincing evidence that she would want the feeding tube removed and starved to death.

   He said Greer discounted Meyer’s testimony because of its own mistaken conclusion that Karen Ann Quinlan was already dead in 1982.  The fact that she died in 1985 was never presented to the court.