Media Navel Gazing by Mark Kollar

Chile suffered a earthquake with an 8.8 magnitude, forcing tsunami warnings throughout the Pacific over the weekend; the nation witnessed another health-care summit, which Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal appropriately called a “talking-point festival”; ABC News announced cuts between 300 to 400 people, citing “business forces”; Greece scrambled for a bailout in some form ahead of a bond auction; Gatorade dropped Tiger; the Olympics and the US ended a stupendous run; and the Dow ended the month up 2.6 percent at 10,325.

Oracle Shares Business Views in Shareholder Letter
Warren Buffett published his widely read annual shareholder letter over the weekend and reported net income rose 61 percent from a year ago amid speculation everywhere but in the letter that David Sokol, the chairman of Berkshire unit MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., may be the one of next Oracles – two are expected, a CEO and a CIO. In his letter, Buffett called out on fat cats heading companies that lost money, saying “they should pay a heavy price,” and said the recession was an “ideal period for investors,” adding that “a climate a fear is their best friend.”

From Red Square to Foursquare?
The US last week sent a team of geeks to Moscow to demonstrate how Russia’s online social networks can be used to promote social causes and strengthen relationships between the two nations. (According to the article in The New York Times, Russia has one of the most active social networking audiences, with adults spending 6.6 hours a month on networking sites – citing comScore.) Members of the delegation included Esther Dyson of EDventure Holdings, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, the chief of eBay, the “chief lizard wrangler” of Mozilla, and Ashton Kutcher, of course, now more popular than Britney Spears on Twitter. As the Financial Times’ headline expressed best what was called the Innovation Delegation, “From Russian with Tweets.” 140 that!