![[Money and a couple of skyscrapers]](https://blog.rac.me.uk/photos/whoownswhat.jpg)
I’ve had bookmarked/hot-listed for some time the Who Owns What page which details what other companies certain large megalomaniac companies own. Whilst it is mainly US Media orientated companies (and therefore doesn’t list the companies owned by Microsoft) – it does reveal some interesting things.
Did you know that AOL TimeWarner (the owners of Warner Brothers, New Line Cinema, Netscape, Mozilla and the Open Directory Project) also partially own Amazon (who, in turn, own Alexa Research who also own The Internet Archive). Or that News Corporation (aka “Fox”) owns such wide ranging companies as the book publishing company Harper Collins, the cosmetic “*ding dong* It’s Avon calling” company, The Sun and The Times UK newspapers, partially own the Electronic Arts games software company and, of course, Sky satellite broadcasters?
One entry I was quite surprised at was Viacom – I didn’t know they owned Paramount Studios, MTV, Nickelodeon (mainly with Fox/News Corp/BSkyB), VH1, BlockBuster video and the Star Trek franchise.
Wow! Combine that with the fact that the Daily Mail And General Trust (that own the Daily Mail newspaper and used to own UKPlus) also owns my local newspaper (via Northcliffe Newspapers) and, via their 29.97% controlled GWR subsidery, my local radio station – it’s quite scary how much of my ‘media input’ is controlled by just a few companies… [add: the DMGT also owns part of the Teletext company via Harmsworth Media and a 20% share in the ITN News corporation which provides news services to ITV and Five]
What about news organisations in your area? Are they owned by just the one company? Or can you list all the companies Microsoft own?
![[W3C logo]](https://blog.rac.me.uk/photos/w3clogo.gif){kind=small}
“Prodded” into action by Neil’s ![[Pong Screenshot]](https://blog.rac.me.uk/photos/pong.gif)
Wow! There seems to be quite a few sites about ![[Lisa Scott-Lee from Steps]](https://blog.rac.me.uk/photos/lisascottlee.jpg)
Life: World Aids Day
Updated at 07.50am, 14.22pm
Continued as World Aids Day – Part II
Neil’s post reminded me that it was “World AIDS Day” today (AIDS is an acronym for “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome”). (I did originally read about it via WannaBeGirl‘s site)
Like Neil, I believe I am HIV negative (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) negative – i.e. I am not carrying the virus that leads to AIDS (if I was, I would be HIV Positive: that is the HIV virus had been detected in my bloodstream).
Neil did comment “The fact that there is no real cure, the fact that you know you will die a slow, painful and premature death should the disease take hold” does ring a bell for me, as a relative of mine does have Myasthenia Gravis (which, like HIV+/AIDS, is where the body’s immune system develops a fault – but luckily MG isn’t transferable between people, except maybe through hereditary reasons).
Oh, and whilst on the “tangent of the subject” – did you know, that like Alzheimer’s Disease, no one has yet directly died of AIDS. But, rather, AIDS related illnesses. All three conditions mentioned (AIDS, MG, AD) weaken the body in such as way that even a common cold can develop into pneumonia and kill a sufferer.
Other bloggers, please consider joining in with the “Link And Think” campaign.
For more details, facts and statistics about AIDS (include how you can get tested and/or free contraceptives) – read on!