Saturday, January 23, 2010

Hope For Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief

Hope For Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief

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MTV: Hope For Haiti Now

Hope For Haiti Now

Wikipedia: Hope For Haiti Now


Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief is a charity telethon that was held on 22 January 2010 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 23 January 2010 from 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. UTC. The telethon is set to be the most widely distributed telethon in history. The event was broadcast from Studio 36 at the CBS Television City, Los Angeles, from the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, New York and from the private club The Hospital in London.[citation needed] There were also live reports from Haiti.

Creation of the telethon was announced by MTV Networks in the United States on January 15, 2010, three days after the 2010 Haiti earthquake struck on January 12 and claimed the lives of at least 70,000 people. The event is one of a number of humanitarian responses to the earthquake. The telethon is patterned after the form begun with the 2001 America: A Tribute to Heroes program and continued with the 2005 Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast.

The telethon and its album and video, currently available for pre-order on iTunes, will raise funds for Haiti relief, to be given the following organizations with humanitarian operations in Haiti: the World Food Programme, UNICEF, the Red Cross, Oxfam, the YĆ©le Haiti Foundation, Partners In Health and the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Participants

Wyclef Jean hosted the concert in New York City, with George Clooney in Los Angeles and Anderson Cooper in Haiti.

Rihanna revealed on 21 January, during the Norwegian-Swedish talkshow Skavlan, that she would perform a new song titled "Stranded (Haiti Mon Amour)", together with Jay-Z and U2's The Edge and Bono for the telethon in London.

In San Francisco, Clint Eastwood and Matt Damon appealed for donations. (Credit: Wikipedia).

Friday, January 22, 2010

FOXTEL SCREENS HOPE FOR HAITI NOW

Media Release: 22nd January 2010

FOXTEL subscribers will be able to tune into George Clooney's telethon for Haiti this weekend as the two hour commercial-free telecast is simulcast around the world.

MTV, VH1 and CNN will air the benefit live tomorrow, Saturday, January 23, from 12noon AEDT.

National Geographic will screen the star-studded event at 8.30pm tomorrow, with E! broadcasting from 9.00pm and The Style Network from 10.00pm AEDT.

Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit For Earthquake Relief will help raise funds for the hundreds of thousands affected by Haiti’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake on January 12 and is expected to reach 640 million viewers globally – the most widely distributed telethon in history.

The global fundraiser will feature a huge line-up of must-see musical performances including Wyclef Jean, Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J. Blige, Madonna, Shakira, and Sting in New York City; Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Dave Matthews, John Legend, Justin Timberlake, Stevie Wonder, Taylor Swift and a group performance by Australian Keith Urban, Kid Rock, and Sheryl Crow in Los Angeles; and Coldplay, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Bono, and The Edge in collaboration from London.

In addition to the musical performances, Wyclef Jean will host in New York City with George Clooney in Los Angeles and CNN’s Anderson Cooper from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Australian Nicole Kidman, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Robert Pattinson, Denzel Washington, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen DeGeneres, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Halle Berry, and former President Bill Clinton will be amongst more than one hundred of the biggest names in film, television, and music supporting the cause with testimonials and by answering phones during the telethon.

Proceeds from Hope for Haiti Now will be split evenly among relief organisations on the ground in Haiti – The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, United Nations World Food Programme, Oxfam America, Partners in Health, the Red Cross, UNICEF, and Yele Haiti Foundation.

The special will also be streamed live online globally across sites including YouTube, Hulu, MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN.com, Yahoo, Bing.com, BET.com, MTV.com, and Rhapsody. Facebook and Twitter have signed on as official social media partners to help drive donations and tune-in to the telethon.

Australians can contribute to the telethon via:
• Online: www.hopeforhaitinow.org (via Paypal or credit card)
• Phone: 0011 1 773 360 0205 (standard international rates apply)
• Mail: Hope For Haiti Now Fund, Entertainment Industry Foundation

About FOXTEL
FOXTEL is Australia's leading subscription television provider and is connected to 1.63 million homes on cable and satellite through retail and wholesale distribution. FOXTEL strives to ensure subscribers find TV they want to watch every time they switch on through delivery of more than 150 channels covering news, sport, general entertainment, movies, documentaries, music and children’s programming. FOXTEL is owned by Telstra Corporation Ltd (50%), The News Corporation Ltd (25%), and Consolidated Media Holdings Ltd (25%).

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Sunday, January 17, 2010

Crown Casino Aussie Millions Poker Championship kicks off, by Greg Tingle - 16th January 2010

Melbourne, if not the whole of Australia, has poker fever, thanks to casino king James Packer's brainchild, "Aussie Millions".

Media Man long time friend, associate and eyes and ears of the industry, Keith "Bendigo" Sloan, tipped us off that it would be huge and he was right on the money.

Let's start with some big picture stuff.... poker has been widely acknowledged in a court of law as primarily a game of skill. Sure, there's some luck involved, but over time on measured tests, the skill factor comes through. This is a key point in some of the arguments put forward by the Poker Players Alliance. Folks, professional poker is big business and is also a form of sports tourism, something that's been picked up on by the Victorian government, but something Australia's Labor government is still trying to grasp. Maybe it will be covered in the Aussie version of "Casino Jack"!

Let it be said from the get-go that Crown's Aussie Millions gives some much needed balance into the news media coverage of Australia's casino sector, which has been copping a bit of a battering of late. Crown's connection with tourism, sports tourism and high rollers is undisputed, and the powers that be at Crown do give back to society in a number of capacities, some of which is reported and other elements that are done on the quite. It was impossible to miss Warnie and Joe Hachem on Network Ten's 7PM project last month.

It's a given that when so many whales, high rollers and the like are in town, there's vast financial resources not far from felt.

The Salvation Army and Unicef are just a couple of worthy causes that Crown and the powers that be have assisted over the years.

This year sees a reported 1,143 entrants have a punt at Aussie Millions...a record for major poker tournaments in Australia.

A $1,143,000 prize pool will be split amongst the top 108 players, with first place set to collect the first Aussie Millions Gold Championship Ring over $200,000 in cash.

Numerous big names were in attendance for day one including Tony G, Clonie Gowen, Sorel Mizzi, David Saab, Jason Gray, Paul Khoury, Kenneth Damm and 2005 WSOP Champ Joe Hachem. Players who returned to the felt for a second chance included Tony Dunst , Emad Tahtouh, Billy Argyros, Lee Nelson, Josh Field, Ben Delaney, Andrew Jeffreys, Leo Boxell, Amanda De Cesare, Tino Lechich, James Akenhead and 2009 Aussie Millions Champion (and PartyPoker sponsored) Stewart Scott.

Nick Haidaris has emerged with the chip lead of 165,300. Eighty-three players remained from Day 1's starting field. Those back for Day 2 include David Saab, JP Kelly, Antonis Kambouroglou, Brendan Edmonds, Con Tsapkounis, and Jim Sachinidis.

Players not back for day 2 include Tony Dunst, 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event Champ Stewart Scott, Emad Tahtouh, Barny Boatman, Matthew Pearson, Rayan Nathan, Joe Hachem, Tony G, Lee Nelson, Billy Argyros, Jonathan Karamalikis, Michael Guzzardi, James Akenhead, Ben Delaney, and Sorel Mizzi.

Day 2 at Crown Casino kicks off at 12:30 p.m where approximately 200 players will be giving it all they have in their quest for the championship.

Media Man encourages players (and management) on a winning streak to continue to give back to society, and of course the world is aware of those less fortunate including in Haiti which was recently rocked by an earthquake. Casinos and big gaming companies have much bigger resources than most, so let's see if they can even come close to helping to the extent that they did when the Aussie Victorian bushfires hit last March.

*The writer holds shares in Crown Limited
*The writer is the founder and director of Media Man
*The writer is a special contributor for Gambling911

Online Poker Sites Rally for Haiti Earthquake Victims, by Dan Cypra - 14th January 2010

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that rocked the tiny nation of Haiti left the country in shambles and perhaps as many as 50,000 people may have perished. In response, the online poker world has come together to raise money for the natural disaster’s victims.

Full Tilt Poker has launched “Aid for Haiti” tournaments in which the site will match the rake paid and then donate it to several charities on the ground in the island nation. For Full Tilt Poker members who don’t want to hit the virtual felts in order to donate, the world’s second largest online poker site has set up “Aid for Haiti No Play” tournaments. Ten of these events are scheduled for Sunday, January 17th and Full Tilt is matching the buy-ins. No poker will actually be had in “No-Play” tournaments.

The site has also created a special user account dubbed “Aid for Haiti.” In a similar fashion as transferring funds from one player to another, those who wish to help can send money directly to the account in $5 increments or larger. Full Tilt will then match the funds raised.

PokerStars has taken a streamlined approach to fundraising. The site has selected the Red Cross as its beneficiary and, like Full Tilt Poker and others involved, is matching donations dollar for dollar. The opportunity to donate will be open through January 31st and all players need to do is open up the PokerStars client, go to “Tourney” and “Special,” and enter one of the Haiti Earthquake Relief events. None of these tournaments will actually play out. Instead, the $1 to $1,000 buy-in allows players to donate directly to the Red Cross. PokerStars members can also ship money to “Haiti Fund,” a player account set up specifically to accept donations. Go to “Requests” and “Transfer Funds” in the top menu to take advantage of this method.

Meanwhile, the Calvin Ayre Foundation, named for the founder of Bodog, has pledged £10,000 to the U.K.-based foundation Oxfam to support the cause. The internet mogul added, “I also want to challenge the rest of this industry to also contribute to Oxfam to help out in Haiti and my private foundation will match any proven payment to Oxfam by an online gaming person up to $1,000,000.” Bodog, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker all accept players and donations from the United States. The latter two are the largest and second largest sites in the world, respectively.

Also accepting U.S. action and promoting relief to the residents of Haiti is Cake Poker. The room has set up three special “holding tanks” totaling $5, $25, and $100. Players can register for each of them and the site, which features Lee Jones as its Card Room Manager, will match all funds raised. No cards will be dealt in these tournaments; instead, they are purely for donation purposes. The trio of “holding tanks” will be available until Midnight ET on January 31st.

Facebook poker application Zynga is donating $1 to Fonkoze, “an organization that supports families in Haiti,” for every chip package sold. Other added benefits, including a “Hearts for Haiti” gift, will be thrown into the mix.

On PocketFives.com, top-ranked online poker player David “Doc Sands” Sands announced that he was donating 10% of his Sunday profits up to $10,000 to a “disaster relief fund.” Sands called on other all-star players to do the same, with Ryan “gutshtallin” Welch, who sits at #39 in the world, agreeing to similar terms. Sunday features some of the largest online poker tournaments in the industry, including the Sunday Million on PokerStars and $750,000 Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker.

The United States pledged $100 million in aid for Haiti. Hopefully, the online poker community can band together for this worthwhile cause.

Maria del Mar Gomez contributed to this article. (Credit: Poker News Daily)

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Tuesday, January 05, 2010

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Packer's wife finds him a giving gift - Fairfax - AAP - 18th December 2009

James Packer's wife Erica has found the perfect gift for a man who has everything.

Ms Packer, who is a Unicef Goodwill Ambassador, has bought her media mogul husband a water pump for an impoverished community, which is part of the organisation's Gifts That Give range.

"I am a strong supporter of Unicef and at Christmas it just makes sense to seek to support their work to help vulnerable children around the world," Ms Packer said in a statement from Unicef. (Credit: Fairfax - AAP)

*read the full story here

Friday, January 01, 2010

Star City Casino strike New Year's Day - 31st December 2009

Staff at Sydney's Star City casino will walk off the job for one hour on New Year's Day as part of a continuing row over pay.

The Liquor, Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) says workers will strike from 8pm until 9pm (AEDT) in a bid to secure a higher pay offer, but a Star City spokesman says the casino will operate as usual.

"Staff have been negotiating with Star City for a new enterprise agreement for more than eight months," LHMU NSW branch secretary Mark Boyd said in a statement on Thursday.

"Star City staff have decided to take one-hour strike action from New Year's Day because they are frustrated by the casino's unfair wage offer and management's refusal to listen to them."

But Star City spokesman Peter Grimshaw says only a small group of employees is expected to carry out the industrial action and the casino would operate as usual.

"Only 17 per cent of employees voted to strike so it will be business as usual at Star City," he said in a statement.

A LHMU spokeswoman told AAP on Thursday that further strikes could follow through January.

Star City staff have twice voted against previous pay offers made in September and December, the LHMU union said.

The union has previously said members have been offered a two per cent pay rise.

But Mr Grimshaw said the casino had "put a very fair offer on the table including a nine per cent increase in wages over three years and increased allowances".

"However, the union is trying to retain outdated work practices including loadings on sick leave," he said.

Mr Boyd said $575 million was being spent to renovate the venue, its top executives were paid $2.6 million and the casino's last quarter revenue was up 11.6 per cent. (Credit: Wires, Fairfax Media, Google News, LHMU, Media Man)

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