It’s on.

Today the U.S. Coast Guard gave its approval to BP’s “top kill” plan to finally cap the oil spill, and at 2 p.m. Eastern time, the company got started. BP leaders warned that it may take a couple of days before they know for sure if it worked, but now say they will maintain the live video feed during the top kill attempt.

A successful capping of the leaking well could finally begin to mend the company’s brittle image after weeks of failed efforts, and perhaps limit the damage to wildlife and marine life from reaching catastrophic levels. A failure could mean several months more of leaking oil, devastating economic and environmental impacts across the gulf region, and mounting financial liabilities for the company. BP has already spent an estimated $760 million in fighting the spill, and two relief wells it is drilling as a last resort to seal the well may not be completed until August [The New York Times].

This procedure is no sure bet, because a top kill hasn’t been attempted 5,000 feet down in the sea before. BP’s CEO Tony Hayward estimates the percentage chance of success in the 60s.

The procedure requires an elaborate and precise orchestration among five vessels at the surface, whose duties range from housing pumping equipment to storing a total of 50,000 barrels of drilling mud, and several remote-controlled undersea robots. If all goes as planned, the dense mud will be pumped through a single 6-5/8-inch-diameter drill pipe from one vessel, which will then enter two 3-inch-diameter hoses. Those hoses will deliver the material to the sea floor, where they will intersect with the choke and kill lines of the damaged blowout preventer, which sits atop the well [Christian Science Monitor].

Whether this works may depend on whether the weight of the mud is enough to push the oil back into the well, which isn’t certain. If it fails, the junk shot option—trying to plug up the leak with tires and golf balls and other trash—is still on the table.

Recent posts on the BP oil spill:
80beats: Oil Spill Now on 65 Miles of Shoreline; BP Will Try a “Top Kill” to Stop the Leak
80beats: BP To Switch Dispersants; Will Kevin Costner Save Us All?
80beats: Scientists Say Gulf Spill Is Way Worse Than Estimated. How’d We Get It So Wrong?
80beats: Testimony Highlights 3 Major Failures That Caused Gulf Spill
80beats: 5 Offshore Oil Hotspots Beyond the Gulf That Could Boom—Or Go Boom

Image: BP

Once again, the euro is getting smashed, as it’s below $1.22

There are two stories roiling markets.

1) There’s the report that Greece may already be trying to renege on the austerity measures it agreed to as part of the big three-year bailout.. That’s a bad sign.

2) There’s an FT report about China possibly reviewing its Euro bond holdings. Frankly we’re skeptical on that last one. The last thing China needs is for the Euro to weaken more, and put its Europe-dependent exporters at a further disadvantage.

Join the conversation about this story »

BusinessWeek looks at a Pew study on privacy and social media trends and finds many Millennials, long thought to be laissez-faire toward their privacy, are actively guarding their personal information:

Seventy-one percent of social networking users aged 18 to 29 said
they’d adjusted privacy settings on social networks in order to make
some information private, according to the survey. Among members of
generation X, aged 30 to 49, 62 percent said they’d made such changes.
And 55 percent of baby boomers aged 50 to 64 said they’d changed from
the default privacy settings on a social network. “Contrary to common
assumptions, young people are in many ways the most active managers of
online identities,” says Mary Madden, senior research specialist with Pew and co-author of the study.

Two things to say about this. First, as Facebook entered the mainstream and became a professional Yellow Pages rather than a streaming college yearbook, kids took notice and blocked more of their information from acquaintances they didn’t know well — or did know well, but professionally, and in a way that is unreceptive to 21st birthday pics.

Second, this isn’t necessarily about Millennial privacy. It’s about Millennial technological savvy. At the risk of ageism and gross generalization, twentysomethings tend to understand the minutiae of technology better than fifty- and sixtysomethings because they grew up with it. As a result, they know how to block photos from their work acquaintances and keep their list of friends off the Google results page.

It should be said, however, that if Millennials understood how privacy control worked even better than they do, they might not have made such a huff about Facebook’s recent changes. In a way, we’re all catching up to the technology.

Facebook – Privacy – Social network – Google – Security

Australian based label Bassike shows us their Spring/Summer 2010 Collection from Australian Fashion Week. The brand’s soft yet angular construction complements their pattern choices of stripes and various bird prints. The suits are well constructed with a slightly oversized form bringing the collection to a high point. Definitely a label to look out from the land down under.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: SlamXHype

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) almost went out of business 14 years ago, and today, it became the largest tech company in the world by market capitalization.

The gains may only be brief, but for at least a portion of the day, Apple’s stock rose, increasing its market cap to above $227 billion. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s stock fell, dragging its market cap down to $225 billion. Reuters reports that Apple today became the second-largest company on the S&P 500 index after leap-frogging Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). The top spot is held by Exxon Mobil.

It’s definitely only coincidence, but with size comes scrutiny. Reports today also revealed that the Justice Department is examining whether Apple it is using its dominance in digital music to keep other Internet music companies from securing exclusive releases. In the U.S., Apple is by far the largest seller of online music, and was the third-largest smartphone maker in the first quarter, according to the NPD Group.

We’ve discussed how the fashion industry is an excellent example of how a creative industry can thrive and be highly competitive and innovative without copyright many times before. In fact, way back in 2003, we noted that there was much that the entertainment industry could learn from the fashion industry. Since then, we’ve seen academic research highlighting how much of the success in the industry was due to the lack of copyright, because it helped spur continuous innovation, rather than letting someone rest on their laurels. On top of that, it also helped segment the market, speed diffusion, build out trends and actually increase the reputation of top designers.

Given all that, we could never understand why some top designers (though, certainly certainly not all) are so desperate to get a special copyright on fashion, despite the suggestions it would actually stifle the market quite a bit. They’ve been relying on highly questionable research from a lawyer, which doesn’t stand up to the most basic economic analysis.

However, there are folks who are pointing out how important the lack of copyright protection is in the fashion industry. Peter Tanham points us to a recently posted TED talk by Johanna Blakely about how the fashion industry thrives without copyright:

It’s definitely a good introduction to the topic, and also has a good response to the claims that copyrights on designs work in other parts of the world (Blakely shows that’s not really true, and that problems with the way the laws are implemented elsewhere shows that they’re almost never used).

The thing that disappointed me about the presentation, frankly, is that while it’s titled: “Lessons from fashion’s free culture” Blakely never really gets that deeply into the lessons. She does talk about a few other areas of creative endeavors where copyright is not allowed for the most part (recipes, cars, furniture, etc.) and has an amusing slide that compares the revenue generated in industries with copyright and those not protected by copyright (the “not protected by copyright” part vastly outweighs the “protected by copyright” side). I’d like to see that slide in a bit more detail, because, while amusing, it threatens to fall into the same trap as the recent Chamber of Commerce report that tries to claim the exact opposite. It says that copyright protected industries contribute a lot more to the economy than non-covered industries. In both cases, though, I fear that there’s some cherry-picking of data and questionable classifications.

I do think that there’s a ton to learn from industries like the fashion industry — including suggestions on ways those lessons can be applied to industries like music and movies. Hopefully we’ll start seeing a deeper analysis on that soon.

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Ever played Cops and Robbers when you were little? No? You totally missed out. Fortunately, modern gaming permits that what your childhood lacked, they’ll deliver in fancy coded thingamajigs called video games. For Kane & Lynch 2:

Filed under: Spy Photos, Hybrid, Sedan, Volkswagen, Diesel

The clearest images yet of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta have turned up ahead of the compact sedan’s launch this fall. Like the latest MK VI Golf, the Jetta is expected to be built on an updated version of the MK V platform, although the sedan is believed to be slightly longer and wider. This will allow it to be more competitive against the Chevrolet Cruze and next generation Ford Focus.

Under the hood, the 2.0-liter TDI diesel will carry over, but the unloved 2.5-liter inline-five will probably be replaced by a 1.4-liter TSI inline-four. The TSI is a direct injected and turbocharged gasoline engine already available in Europe with several versions from 120 to 180 horsepower being offered.

A hybrid version of the Jetta will join the lineup in 2012 with a full electric version rumored in 2013. The current Jetta Sportwagen, sold as the Golf Variant in Europe, will continue unchanged for at least several more years after getting the MK VI Golf nose and interior for 2010.

[Source: AutoExpress]

Spy Shots: 2011 Volkswagen Jetta ready for its closeup originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 26 May 2010 14:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nanoelectronics is a major — and important — field right now, and graphene and its cousin graphane are very important materials research components. Both of the nanomaterials are getting a lot of  hype, particularly graphene, but there’s far too much smoke for there not to be at least a little fire. It’s exciting to keep watch on the news to see the breakthroughs as they happen, and eventually cover real-world, market-ready uses for graphene and graphane.

The release:

Graphane yields new potential

Rice physicists dig theoretical wells to mine quantum dots

Graphane is the material of choice for physicists on the cutting edge of materials science, and Rice University researchers are right there with the pack – and perhaps a little ahead.

Researchers mentored by Boris Yakobson, a Rice professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and of chemistry, have discovered the strategic extraction of hydrogen atoms from a two-dimensional sheet of graphane naturally opens up spaces of pure graphene that look – and act – like quantum dots.

That opens up a new world of possibilities for an ever-shrinking class of nanoelectronics that depend on the highly controllable semiconducting properties of quantum dots, particularly in the realm of advanced optics.

The theoretical work by Abhishek Singh and Evgeni Penev, both postdoctoral researchers in co-author Yakobson’s group, was published online last week in the journal ACS Nano and will be on the cover of the print version in June. Rice was recently named the world’s No. 1 institution for materials science research by a United Kingdom publication.

Graphene has become the Flat Stanley of materials. The one-atom-thick, honeycomb-like form of carbon may be two-dimensional, but it seems to be everywhere, touted as a solution to stepping beyond the limits of Moore’s Law.

Graphane is simply graphene modified by hydrogen atoms added to both sides of the matrix, which makes it an insulator. While it’s still technically only a single atom thick, graphane offers great possibilities for the manipulation of the material’s semiconducting properties.

Quantum dots are crystalline molecules from a few to many atoms in size that interact with light and magnetic fields in unique ways. The size of a dot determines its band gap – the amount of energy needed to close the circuit – and makes it tunable to a precise degree. The frequencies of light and energy released by activated dots make them particularly useful for chemical sensors, solar cells, medical imaging and nanoscale circuitry.

Singh and Penev calculated that removing islands of hydrogen from both sides of a graphane matrix leaves a well with all the properties of quantum dots, which may also be useful in creating arrays of dots for many applications.

“We arrived at these ideas from an entirely different study of energy storage in a form of hydrogen adsorption on graphene,” Yakobson said. “Abhishek and Evgeni realized that this phase transformation (from graphene to graphane), accompanied by the change from metal to insulator, offers a novel palette for nanoengineering.”

Their work revealed several interesting characteristics. They found that when chunks of the hydrogen sublattice are removed, the area left behind is always hexagonal, with a sharp interface between the graphene and graphane. This is important, they said, because it means each dot is highly contained; calculations show very little leakage of charge into the graphane host material. (How, precisely, to remove hydrogen atoms from the lattice remains a question for materials scientists, who are working on it, they said.)

“You have an atom-like spectra embedded within a media, and then you can play with the band gap by changing the size of the dot,” Singh said. “You can essentially tune the optical properties.”

Along with optical applications, the dots may be useful in single-molecule sensing and could lead to very tiny transistors or semiconductor lasers, he said.

Challenges remain in figuring out how to make arrays of quantum dots in a sheet of graphane, but neither Singh nor Penev sees the obstacles as insurmountable.

“We think the major conclusions in the paper are enough to excite experimentalists,” said Singh, who will soon leave Rice to become an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. “Some are already working in the directions we explored.”

“Their work is actually supporting what we’re suggesting, that you can do this patterning in a controlled way,” Penev said.

When might their calculations bear commercial fruit? “That’s a tough question,” Singh said. “It won’t be that far, probably — but there are challenges. I don’t know that we can give it a time frame, but it could happen soon.”

###

Funding from the Office of Naval Research supported the work. Computations were performed at the Department of Defense Supercomputing Resource Center at the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Each week we write about the science behind environmental protection. Previous Science Wednesdays.

Have you heard about geoengineering? It has been around as a concept for over a decade, but has come into the forefront recently because of a Royal Society report last fall and a new book. It is offered as a solution to global climate change, one of the biggest sustainability issues.

The idea behind geoengineering is that planet earth came to its present state because humans engineered natural systems on a large scale. For example, humans changed the flow of rivers. We straightened them, dammed them, diverted them, reversed them. Humans changed the landscape: cut down forests, plowed the soil, blew up hills and mountains. Humans changed the atmosphere. We sent toxic wastes skyward, spewed out CO2 from combustion, filled the skies with particles.

In short, we engineered the planet on a very large scale.

Unfortunately, these projects had unintended consequences such as poor water quality or decreased quantity, land erosion and loss of nutrients in the soil, global climate change. So, a kind of large-scale reverse engineering might be in order to fix these problems.

In particular, geoengineering has been offered as a possible way to reverse the effects of climate change. For example, geoengineers have suggested :

• fertilizing the ocean to increase the growth of algae which take up CO2 and give off oxygen as they photosynthesize
• putting huge mirrors into orbit to reflect back some of the warming sunlight
• seeding the clouds so it would rain when and where wanted
• pumping CO2 deep into the earth or ocean

All this sounds like science fiction, but it is proposed by perfectly objective scientists/engineers. The concern is that someone will come along and say let’s “just do it.” There may or may not be dire consequences from “just doing it.” This is where science comes in.

Because of the importance and scale of these issues, we need to gather the knowledge to make intelligent decisions. Ignorance is not bliss and must be erased in the light of facts.
In the case of geoengineering, we must neither avoid research in this area just because it seems like a science fiction solution to our climate problem, nor should we embrace it as a quick fix and neglect the long term action of lowering and controlling emissions. Just like steroids’ quick fix, these solutions may have dire consequences.

About the Author: Dr. Barbara Karn is a scientist in EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research and a regular Science Wednesday contributor.

by Daniel J. Weiss.

This post is co-authored by Susan Lyon.

ExxonMobil will convene its annual shareholders meeting in Dallas this morning as the magnitude of the ongoing BP oil disaster grows. This is a reminder that oil companies need to be held accountable for their actions—both while the oil gushes from the ocean floor and 20 years after the spill. The Exxon Valdez oil accident that slimed Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1989 is a chilling reminder of the need for government oversight and corporate accountability.

Exxon and BP’s broken record

Many would assume that BP—the company responsible for the Gulf Coast disaster—will cover the entire cost of cleanup. But we learned from the Exxon Valdez spill that the reality is very different:

The Exxon Valdez tanker spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound, which eventually contaminated approximately 1,300 miles of shoreline. The total costs of Exxon Valdez, including both cleanup and also “fines, penalties and claims settlements,” ran as much as $7 billion. Cleanup of the affected region alone cost at least $2.5 billion, and much oil remains.

Yet Exxon made high profits even in the aftermath of the most expensive oil spill in history. They made $3.8 billion profit in 1989 and $5 billion in 1990. And this occurred while Exxon disputed cleanup costs nearly every step of the way.

Exxon fought paying damages and appealed court decisions multiple times, and they have still not paid in full. Years of fighting and court appeals on Exxon’s part finally concluded with a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2008 that found that Exxon only had to pay $507.5 million of the original 1994 court decree for $5 billion in punitive damages. And as of 2009, Exxon had paid only $383 million of this $507.5 million to those who sued, stalling on the rest and fighting the $500 million in interest owed to fishermen and other small businesses from more than 12 years of litigation.

Twenty years later, some of the original plaintiffs are no longer alive to receive, or continue fighting for, their damages. An estimated 8,000 of the original Exxon Valdez plaintiffs have died since the spill while waiting for their compensation as Exxon fought them in court.

Coastal regions and coastlines of the Prince William Sound are still contaminated. The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council’s 2009 status report finds that as much as 16,000 gallons of oil remains in the sound’s intertidal zones today. A 2001 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study surveyed 96 sites along 8,000 miles of coastline and found that “a total area of approximately 20 acres of shoreline in Prince William Sound is still contaminated with oil. Oil was found at 58 percent of the 91 sites assessed and is estimated to have the linear equivalent of 5.8 km of contaminated shoreline.”

Animals and ecosystems suffered immediately after the spill and still do today. Scientific American reported that, “some 2,000 sea otters, 302 harbor seals and about 250,000 seabirds died in the days immediately following the spill.” The researchers estimate that long term, “shoreline habitats such as mussel beds affected by the spill will take up to 30 years to recover fully.”

Most of the oil cannot be mopped up. In fact, only about 8 percent was ever recovered. Dr. Jeffrey Short of Oceana testified at a hearing on the 20th anniversary of Exxon Valdez that, “Despite heroic efforts involving more than 11,000 people, $2 billion, and aggressive application of the most advanced technology available, only about 8 percent of the oil was ever recovered. This recovery rate is fairly typical rate for a large oil spill. About 20 percent evaporated, 50 percent contaminated beaches, and the rest floated out to the North Pacific Ocean, where it formed tar balls that eventually stranded elsewhere or sank to the seafloor.”

Exxon fought the courts, while BP botched the cleanup

Exxon didn’t fail in its response efforts 20 years ago alone. BP actually joined Exxon in its response efforts—officially BP PLC, the same firm working to stop the gusher in the Gulf of Mexico now.

The Associated Press reports: “BP owned a controlling interest in the Alaska oil industry consortium that was required to write a cleanup plan and respond to the spill two decades ago … investigations that followed the Valdez disaster blamed both Exxon and Alyeska for a response that was bungled on many levels.”

The same lack of preparation persists today, as BP workers and trained local employees and officials scramble to contain the gushing oil.

BP profits while disaster unfolds

BP has made huge profits over the last 10 years. In fact, during the early days of the Gulf of Mexico disaster, BP was making “enough profit in four days to cover the costs of the spill cleanup” so far.

BP made $163 billion in profits from 2001 to 2009 and $5.6 billion in the first quarter of 2010. And The Washington Post found that, “BP said it spent $350 million in the first 20 days of the spill response, about $17.5 million a day. It has paid 295 of the 4,700 claims received, for a total of $3.5 million. By contrast, in the first quarter of the year, the London-based oil giant’s profits averaged $93 million a day.”

Meanwhile, contamination in the gulf continues to worsen. BP CEO Tony Hayward bet there would be a “very, very modest” environmental impact on the region, but the gulf’s fisheries and shorelines will likely follow in the tragic path of the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill—ruined for decades after. Add thousands of gallons of chemical dispersants used for cleanup to this mix, along with their unknown but potentially toxic effects, and this only compounds the damage to public health, tourism, and the region’s greater economy.

NOAA has already shut down “nearly 20 percent of the commercial and recreational fisheries in the area because of the spill.” And U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke declared a fishery disaster in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday; the affected area includes Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

There is only more devastation to come to the communities in the region as their local populations and tourism industries suffer a blow not easily nursed back to health.

Holding BP accountable for the aftermath

BP cannot be let off the hook like Exxon was. No matter what anyone does, most of the gushing oil cannot be recovered; this is why BP must be responsible for regional restoration and cleanup—as well as plugging the hole.

BP needs to be held accountable for stopping the oil gusher and for shouldering the safety, health, restoration, and cleanup costs for years to come. President Obama created an independent commission to investigate causes and cleanup options for the disaster, and Congress is attempting to raise oil spill liability caps. But more steps need to be taken to hold BP fully accountable for the aftermath of the disaster.

BP should be required to place its 2010 first quarter profit of $5.6 billion in an escrow account to provide compensation to the fishermen, those in the tourist industry, and others whose livelihoods are threatened. These funds should also be used for cleaning up the soon to be blighted shores.

We are reminded as one of the largest environmental disasters in history continues to unfold in the gulf that we are putting our economy, national security, and environment at greater risk every day that the Senate fails to pass comprehensive clean energy and climate legislation. Yet ExxonMobil and BP both bragged that 2009 was a year of safety and environmental improvements for them; BP even claimed that, “2009 was an outstanding year” for their exploration and production efforts.

The BP Gulf Coast disaster reminds us that the offshore oil industry as a whole carries extreme risks that the American people cannot bear. We must act now to dramatically reduce our oil use, and President Obama and leaders in both parties of Congress must provide the leadership necessary to develop a clean energy and climate solution that becomes law this year.

Related Links:

Cousteau dives into ‘nightmare’ U.S. oil slick [VIDEO]

Oil rig workers missed ‘very large abnormality’ before explosion

What if the oil spill just can’t be fixed?

U.S. authorities investigating whether the tactics used by Apple to remain a world leader in Internet music sales involved any abuse of its dominant position, reports today, “The New York Times.”

The New York daily added that the Department of Justice U.S. investigates Apple to know whether he tried to prevent certain exclusive agreements of Amazon, its largest competitor in this sector.

The investigation,  is in a preliminary stage and might stay there, has led the Justice Department staff to ask several record companies to clarify whether Apple has used practices that could violate the rules of free competition.

Specifically, it investigates whether Apple pressured record companies not to participate in the campaign of Amazon “MP3 Daily Deal” with the company that distributes a day before its official release certain songs, and if threatened to criminalize the distribution of their products in their online store, iTunes.

The iTunes store, was established in 2003, and became the largest U.S. online music store, with a market share of almost 70% and more than 10,000 million songs sold, thanks largely to its popular iPod, and iPhone iTouch, from which users can buy directly from iTunes.

Amazon is the second largest online music store in this country but only has a market share of 8%, giving Apple a dominant position which could be abused, the newspaper said, without citing its sources. Worldwide, iTunes, which also sells applications, movies, television programs and even electronic books, also is the largest online music store, with a market share of 26.7%, according to the NPD Group audit.

Related posts:

1. Apple to Shut Down Lala: No More Lala Online Music Service!
2. HP Hopes Smartphones Will Sell Better Than Palm Brand
3. Amazon Developed Free Kindle App For iPad, iPhone and Mac Users

Our friends at Bloke Buddy have compiled a list of ridiculous fashion trends that have come about recently.  It’s hard not to agree with them, as it seems that many of the people I see in LA look like the just raided an Urban Outfitters of a children’s clothing store when they got dressed in the morning.

It warrants mentioning that this site is not based in the US, so the fashion crimes you witness may differ substantially from the ones listed here.  That notwithstanding, the items they list here are pretty damn irritating, even if they may have sprung up a year or two ago stateside.

Related posts:

1. H&M Reveals The Men’s Fashion Trend for 2010: Kilts
2. The People of Walmart Are Fashion Freaks
3. The 10 Worst Bachelor Party Cities

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June 15 is going to be a very expensive day for Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT), a Swiss-based multinational company that provides products and services for oil and natural gas wells in more than 100 countries.  That’s the day when two top executives, Keith Morley and Jessica Arbarca, will leave the company but substantially increase their personal net worth.

Morley, the departing SVP – Well Construction & Operations, joined the company in 2001. Arbarca joined the company in 1996 and worked her way up to the position of Vice President — Accounting and Chief Accounting Officer.

The company filed a short 8-K on May 24, 2010 to announce the upcoming departures, name the executives’ successors, and note this one-sentence disclosure:

“In connection with Mr. Morley’s and Ms. Abarca’s exercise of their employment agreements, we anticipate recording an expense of $12.0 million in the quarter ending June 30, 2010 and making cash consideration payments of $24.5 million in the quarter ending December 31, 2010.”

Both executives signed new employment agreements with the company on December 31, 2009. One day later, on January 1, 2010, the company adopted a new Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan. In the 8-K that the company filed on New Year’s Eve, the filing stated that the new agreements contained changes pertaining to the company’s redomestication from Bermuda to Switzerland and revisions to ensure that the company’s plans complied with the Internal Revenue Code.

The company hasn’t yet disclosed how much of the $24.5 million will go to Morley and how much will go to Arbarca. However, Weatherford’s May 13, 2010 proxy discloses that Morley was eligible to receive nearly $17.5 million if he left the company for “good reason” (Arbarca is an executive, but not a NEO; thus, numbers for her are not stated in the filing.)  The company further noted that “…the freezing of the SERP may constitute ‘good reason’ for five of our executive officers, including Dr. Duroc-Danner, Mr. Becnel and Mr. Morley, to terminate their employment under their employment agreements.” Of course, it also added, “The actual amounts to be paid out can only be determined at the time of, and depend upon the circumstances surrounding, such named executive officer’s termination.”

Regardless of the final numbers, though, the size of their exit packages is surely a bitter pill for the thousands of employees who have been laid off in the past few years with comparatively tiny severance packages.

Image source: Photos8.com via Flickr

Want to see more of what’s hidden in corporate filings? Check out FootnotedPro, where we highlight unusual opportunities and potential problems before the rest of the market notices. For more information, or to inquire about a trial subscription, email us at [email protected].

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

About five years ago, when blogging as an analyst, I asserted that computing and informational relevance had started shifting from the Windows desktop to cloud services delivered anytime, anywhere and on anything. The day of Windows’ reckoning is come: 2010 will mark dramatic shifts away from Microsoft’s monopoly to something else. Change is inevitable, and like IBM in the 1980s, Microsoft can’t hold back its destiny during this decade. The Windows era is over.

What’s surprising: New competition encroaching on Microsoft’s Windows territory. Mobile device-to-cloud competition’s shifting relevance bears striking similarities to the move from mainframes to PCs, and it is a long, ongoing trend. Microsoft’s newer problem is sudden and unexpected: Competing operating systems moving up from smartphones to PCs or PC-like devices. Apple’s iPhone OS on iPad is one example. More startling: HP’s acquisition of Palm and plans to release WebOS tablets this year; and Android’s push upwards to Sony TVs.

Some readers of this post will balk at such assertion. Windows is a huge, profitable monopoly coming off version 7’s successful launch. Windows & Windows Live accounted for 48 percent of the five Microsoft divisions’ combined operating profit during fiscal 2010 third quarter — that’s without factoring in expenses or other charges.

Windows is a cash machine. But so was the IBM mainframe monopoly before the dawn of the PC era and for many years afterwards. The DOS/Windows PC didn’t destroy IBM or its mainframe monopoly, but simply diminish its computing and informational relevance. Windows is on the same track. The mobile device-to-cloud applications stack will merely displace Windows’ relevance. It’s inevitable.

Before the PC, computers were large and expensive. Only large corporations really could afford them. The PC extended computational and informational utility to more people, and at much lower cost. Information could be accessed in many more places, too. IBM’s mainframe monopoly made the company slow moving to adaptation, even when launching its own personal computer in 1981. The company’s huge ecosystem and customer base made executives cautious, with many decisions made for fear of losing customers.

Nearly three decades later, Microsoft’s situation is so similar to IBM at the height of its mainframe monopoly’s dominance. Microsoft’s main business is reselling to the same corporate customers running the company’s software, much the same as IBM 30 years ago. Many Microsoft business strategies follow a similar track: Making concessions and avoiding risks to keep existing customers coming back for more.

Sudden Changes are Long Coming

Still, it might not be obvious to many people that the Windows cash machine could run out. That’s because change can be dramatic and sudden, although the causes and progression tend to be long-time coming. The Berlin Wall fell suddenly in 1989, but not without Perestroika and a warming of the Cold War preceding it. Similarly, Windows’ dominance will seemingly change suddenly and, I predict, during the first half of this decade. A new era dawns.

Microsoft has long known this day would come. It’s why the company fought the browser wars with Netscape. During the US antitrust case, Microsoft repeatedly asserted it faced competition, not that the US Justice Department, suing state attorneys general or presiding judge believed it. The trial ignored how much Microsoft invested on sales, marketing and its huge channel of partners. The competition Microsoft feared has come, and there is some irony to it. Last week, Google announced the Chrome Web Store, which makes reality what Microsoft feared in the late 1990s: The browser as competing applications platform to Windows.

Microsoft lumbers along, avoiding risks, clinging to Office and Windows revenues.  Meanwhile, companies without Microsoft’s existing monopoly-bound customers drive change, and they are willing to take risks. The mobile-to-cloud service platform is to the PC what the PC was to the mainframe: It extends computational and informational utility to more people and places — and for lower cost. The Windows era is giving way to the anytime, anywhere, on-anything era. The most dynamic innovations are occurring outside the Windows monopoly.

Perhaps it’s no coincidence that 2005, the year Microsoft originally planned to release Windows XP’s successor, marks the beginning of dramatic changes affecting the company today. This month, YouTube celebrated its fifth anniversary — of posting the first video, anyway. The service opened to the public in late 2005. In August 2005, Google bought Android, while seemingly innocuous then it is hugely problematic for Microsoft today. In 2006, Facebook opened to the public and Twitter launched. In the vacuum left by Windows, innovators, well, innovated. Most of the popular transforming cloud services in use today didn’t exist before 2006. Then there is iPhone (released in June 2007) and Apple’s App Store (launched in July 2008). Google followed with Android and Chrome in autumn 2008.

The numbers show how dramatically computing and informational relevance is shifting to the mobile device-to-cloud app stack and how suddenly change can come:

• Firefox launched in late 2004; according to Net Applications, its usage share was 24.59 percent in April.
• Internet Explorer usage share dropped from around 95 percent six years ago to 59.95 percent in April, according to Net Applications.
• Android and iPhone OS outsell Windows Mobile on smartphones; Windows Mobile was ranked fifth in Q1 by Gartner.
• Google claims 100,000 new Android activations per day. Apple’s iPhone run rate is close but just a little behind based on first-quarter phone sales.
• App Store has more than 200,000 applications, and the Android Marketplace more than 50,000.
• Facebook has close to 500 million subscribers, up from 30 million in July 2007.
• Americans watched 31.2 billion videos in March, 42 percent of them at YouTube, according to ComScore.
• Apple’s market capitalization is $227.95 billion and Microsoft’s $228.47 billion. Apple’s market cap was $88.68 billion on Oct. 2, 2008 and Microsoft’s was $228.35 billion on Sept. 29, 2008. Mmmm, do you see a difference?

Unsurprisingly, all this competition — and innovation — is beyond Windows, much as the PC ecosystem was to the IBM mainframe during the 1980s.

Loyal Partners Go Rogue

Microsoft has a much bigger problem. Competition from without is to be expected. Competition from once loyal partners is something else. Nokia and Intel are partnering on MeeGo, which the companies plan to bring to mobile devices. In March I declared the end to the Wintel (Windows-Intel) hegemony when asking: “Which is eviler? Apple, Facebook and Google?” — all Microsoft competitors. Microsoft can no longer count on Intel’s loyalty, which has been in doubt since Apple shipped the first Intel-based Macs in 2006.

But matters are worse. Compaq was Microsoft’s most important partner. In the 1980s, Compaq popularized the IBM PC clone, which allowed Microsoft to broadly license DOS and later Windows. HP assumed the loyal partner role after acquiring Compaq, particularly for servers. Now, because of the Palm acquisition, HP is a turncoat.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer should have listened to me. In December, I gave 10 reasons why Microsoft should buy Palm. Had he bought Palm, Microsoft’s future phone strategy would be stronger and Windows wouldn’t be weakened by a major partner adopting an alternative-OS strategy.

HP already has announced a WebOS-based tablet. HP’s next, logical step is to release a laptop running WebOS. Losing HP is bad, but there may be more trouble coming. Sony is yet another traitor in the making. Last week, Sony announced plans to support Google TV by offering a television running Android. As part of a recent reorganization, Sony execs responsible for VAIO PCs are in charge of TVs. OS migration from Sony smartphone (the Xperia X10) or Google TV-based television to tablet or PC is logical next step. What about Dell, which already has adopted Android for smartphones? Windows is bloated and moribund compared to these lither mobile OSes pushing up into the PC market.

I’m making my proclamation today that the Windows era is over. But perhaps it’s slightly premature. The defining moment, where people look back and say, “Ah, ha!”, likely will be when Apple’s market capitalization exceeds Microsoft’s. As I write, $520 million separates the companies. How unbelievable is that?

[Update: Almost as soon as I posted, Apple’s market cap exceeded Microsoft’s — $225.98 billion to $225.32 billion.]

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
















Microsoft – Apple – Windows Mobile – IBM – Google

Look out DC! An exciting, yet unconventional conference series is storming through the nation this year and the capital city is next on the target list.

On May 27^th, the Green Innovation in Business Network Solutions Labs come to Washington, DC!

Solutions Labs are one-day, interactive events where participants help craft the agenda and spend the day brainstorming ideas for accelerating green innovation while sharing their experiences and lessons. Solutions Labs provide leading thinkers and “doers” from business, academia, government and non-profit organizations the opportunity to explore the next generation of business sustainability—one in which we can grow profits for our companies and create positive impact on the planet.

What: Green Innovation in Business Network: Solutions Lab 2010 – Washington DC

When: Thursday, May 27, 2010 from 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM (ET)

Where: The George Washington University, Washington, DC

It is not too late to sign up for this event! See the full Solutions Labs schedule for 2010.

The Solutions Labs are organized by the Green Innovation in Business Network (GIBN), an online and offline community focused on creating a well-informed, well-connected, rapidly-learning network of innovators making business more sustainable and are made possible by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), in partnership with DIG IN, Greenbiz.com, Net Impact, Sony, Ashoka and many others.

In not-so-depressing news about the economy, the Commerce Dept. announced this morning that sales of new homes in April had jumped up 14.8% from March — the highest level in nearly two years.

But before you break out the trombone to start playing “Happy Days Are Here Again,” it’s believed that the bump in new home sales was the result of buyers needing to sign contracts by April 30 in order to take advantage of a federal tax credit.

Here’s how some analyst guy explains it to Reuters:

That is a big number, but my sense is that while this is great news, we’re drawing last-minute incentive sales from the future… We’ll probably see a few months of soft patches to make up for this.

In order to qualify for the credit, contracts needed to be inked by April 30 and closing has to happen by the end of June.

However, points out Reuters, the demand for loans to buy homes was still at a 13-year low as of last week, while mortgage applications to refinance home loans hit a seven-month high as rates neared record lows.

And while there was a spike in new home sales in April, the median sale price for a new home dropped to $198,400 — down 9.7% from the previous month and the lowest since Dec. 2003.

New home sales at 2-year high [Reuters]

Dreadlocked singer Crystal Bowersox should be the next American Idol, according to a new study conducted by HCD Research after Tuesday night’s final performances.

In a national study of 3,901 American Idol viewers, Bowersox, 24, was selected as the contestant who should win American Idol this season based on her three performances last night. Bluesy darkhorse Lee DeWyze — a 24-year-old former paint shop employee — finished a distant second in the voting after losing some of the confidence that saw him overshadow Bowersox in recent weeks.

Bowersox received 66.2 percent of the votes, while Dewyze received 33.8.3 percent of the votes.

In a first for Idol, the new song unveiled in the finale as the winner’s first release was replaced this year by two different cover versions of existing songs — U2’s “Beautiful Day” for DeWyze and “Up to the Mountain” for Bowersox.

Also on tonight’s Idol finale, Simon Cowell will end his nine season run as the judge Americans love to hate on, with no word on who will fill his shoes.

Article Tags: James Delingpole

“Can’t you find something else to talk about?” someone (a nice, sympathetic person, not one of my house herd of festering libtard trolls) commented below one of my previous blogs.

So let me explain, briefly, why I rarely can – with reference to the ludicrous story which was given the front page of today’s Times (formerly a newspaper of some note).

The story, enthusiastically headlined EU SETS TOUGHEST TARGETS TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING goes like this:

Europe will introduce a surprise new plan today to combat global warming, committing Britain and the rest of the EU to the most ambitious targets in the world. The plan proposes a massive increase in the target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in this decade.

The European Commission is determined to press ahead with the cuts despite the financial turmoil gripping the bloc, even though it would require Britain and other EU member states to impose far tougher financial penalties on their industries than are being considered by other large economies.

The plan, to cut emissions by 30 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020, would cost the EU an extra £33 billion a year by 2020, according to a draft of the Commission’s communication leaked to The Times.

The existing target of a 20 per cent cut is already due to cost £48 billion. The Commission will argue that the lower target has become much easier to meet because of the recession, which resulted in the EU’s emissions falling more than 10 per cent last year as thousands of factories closed or cut production. Emissions last year were already 14 per cent below 1990 levels.

Source: blogs.telegraph.co.uk

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