Zombies. Brains. Zombie hunters. Nuclear bombs. Statistics. You love all of these things, and now you can have them as the live wallpaper on your Android phone. More »










Android – Wallpaper – Handhelds – Desktop Customization – Shopping

Zombies!  RUN!  There are two things I totally geek out on — Android phones and zombie games. When I saw that Hayden The Android sent us over a copy of Pixel Zombies Live Wallpaper to evaluate and review I dove after it before any of the rest of us could snatch it away from me 🙂 In the end it didn’t matter — as soon as I’m done writing this I’m buying it from the Android Market so it’s mine forever.

It’s simple enough.  Determine the number of zombies (red pixels) you want to start with, the total population, and the number of zombie-killers (blue pixels) and apply.  Then sit back and watch the carnage! There are a few other settings as well (click the link for some other screen shots), but nothing complicated.  All nice and simple like a good zombie infestation should be.  Oh, there’s one more treat — when things get too bad, and your zombie killers are up against the wall and outnumbered, drop a shortcut on your home screen to trigger a cleansing nuclear blast that kills off everything, just like a good nuclear blast should 🙂  Follow the break to see a few more screen shots as well as some download links.  Then prepare for the zombie apocalypse! Android 2.1 + only, ROM must have live wallpapers running

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

Below are links to news stories of interest from newspapers that came up during a search today.  These links were active at the time of this e-mail, but should you want to save a story, printing it or cutting and pasting the entire article and saving it to your computer is recommended. 

State News

D300 to vote on 34 more layoffs
Elgin Courier News – Those cuts have been made as the school board slashes its way toward $15 million from its budget for the coming school year to make up for nearly $12 million owed the district and potential cuts to education funding by the state. The June 3 meeting had been scheduled to choose an Algonquin Township resident to replace former school board member John Ryan, who resigned from the board earlier 

Illinois gets $11.9M to track student progress
Chicago Defender – The federal education department says the system lets states examine student progress from their early childhoods through their careers. The systems also match students with teachers while protecting confidentiality. Duncan says this type of tracking helps teachers and principals and will help parents “better understand the unique educational needs of their child. 

Rochester Board of Education adds ‘sexting’ policy  The Rochester Board of Education Monday night approved adding a policy regarding “sexting” to the district’s 2010-11 student handbook.   

Local teacher is nationally recognized
Southern Illinoisan – A Southern Illinois teacher has gained national recognition for her work with students. Betsy Brown, a teacher at Lewis School in Carbondale and a volunteer history fair coordinator at Carbondale Middle School,  

Board declines teacher’s second request to join Marine husband
Elmwood Park Elm Leaves –  a second request for unpaid leave to join her husband on military duty overseas. Stephanie Henry, a tenured second-grade teacher in Elmwood Park Community Unit School District 401, thanked the school board May 19 while standing at the lectern during its regular meeting for consideration of her second request.  

Cerro Gordo music program is tops in its class
Decatur Herald and – Cerro Gordo’s school board meets in the band room at the high school, so on meeting days band director Barb Ozier has to push instruments and chairs around to make room. That’s life in a small school  

Palatine High senior sentenced for taking gun to school  A Palatine High School student was sentenced in Cook County Circuit Court Wednesday to a jail boot camp program for taking a handgun to… 

Students fight budget cuts  Bearing books and band instruments and wearing sports uniforms, more than 250 Chicago high school students on Monday afternoon protested sweeping cuts to public education by … studying. 

CNN: Can Chicago student beat the educational odds?  (Jen Christensen, News, National)  “There isn’t one urban school district in the country — Chicago, L.A., New York, D.C. — you could go right down the list — Philly, Baltimore — there’s not one urban system yet, where the dropout rate is low enough and the graduation rate is high enough,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in a recent interview with CNN. “There’s been lots of progress, including in Chicago, but no one is satisfied. We have to get better faster.” In Chicago only 37 percent of African-American males graduate from its public schools, according to Elaine Allensworth, the co-director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago. “It’s an absolute tragedy that we’re facing right now,” Allensworth said. In Chicago “only 2.5 percent finish college by the time they turn 25 — it’s beyond inexcusable.” 

Hogan’s zeroes; $620,000 salary is way too much
Dixon Telegraph – will top $10,000 a year – also a lot of zeroes, but for people who can’t afford them. In making those decisions, the U of I trustees – most of whom were selected by Gov. Pat Quinn after last year’s admissions scandal, and all of whom serve at his pleasure – turned a blind eye to Illinois’ terrible finances.

Political News

 

Dems float budget plan with deep education cuts  The (Bloomington) Pantagraph – With lawmakers gearing up for a final push to craft a state budget, some Democrats are proposing deep spending cuts, including to state universities. A group of mostly Chicago-area Democrats rolled out plans for $100 million in cuts to public higher education and $300 million slashed from local schools. “It’ll probably take us farther down this road of looking at future budget cuts,” said Southern Illinois University spokesman David Gross. 

Dems propose insurance increases for state retirees  Calling it a “tough-love exercise,” a group of Democratic lawmakers have proposed budget reforms that include making retired state employees pay health insurance premiums. More than 90 percent of retirees pay no premiums now. 

Democrats consider backup options to get budget OK  Chicago Tribune –  Monday started exploring two backup options on the major obstacle of how to make a $3.7 billion state worker pension payment. A House committee approved a measure that would allow Gov. Pat Quinn to skip the payment next year. That has emerged as an option after Republicans balked at borrowing to cover the pension costs for the second year in a row.   

Bill to expand video gambling advances  St. Louis Post-Dispatch – An Illinois House committee on Monday passed a measure that would allow truck stops to legally host paying video gambling machines under Illinois’ controversial new video gaming law. The measure has already passed the Senate, so if the full House approves, it will go to Gov. Pat Quinn. 

Daily Herald: Don’t fall for state budget gimmicks  Daily herald – Are we that dumb? Gov. Pat Quinn and some legislators seem to think we are. They think voters in Illinois will fall for populist budgetary gimmicks that politicians can tout during this election year but that our state cannot afford.

Register Star: A busy week in Springfield  Rockford Register Star  – The Illinois General Assembly got back to work Monday in the hope that lawmakers would wrap up their work before the end of the week. The budget is the top priority, and we’d like to see a spending plan that makes serious cuts yet preserves vital programs that serve the least among us. 

Sweeny: First day’s work on state budget: House meets 1 hour  Rockford Register Star – Can anyone here drive this train? That’s what lawmakers and average residents wonder as the Illinois House and Senate return to finish the business of passing a state budget that everyone expects will be hopelessly underfunded. 

Bill Brady makes another campaign stop in Rockford
WREX (NBC) 13 –  Brady brings his campaign for governor to Rockford again. Brady toured the Woodward Governor Company facilities and met with employees on Monday morning. Brady is up against current Governor Pat Quinn and green party candidate Rich Whitney in the November election. Whitney brought his campaign to Rockford on Friday.   

Report: Brady voted for bills that benefited him  CHICAGO — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady voted for legislation as an Illinois state senator in 2003 that could have benefited his business interests as a developer, according to a published report. 

Brady denies conflict of interest
Peoria Journal –  voted for legislation as an Illinois state senator in 2003 that could have benefited his business interests as a developer, according to a published report. Brady, who faces Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn in November, has worked for more than two decades in his family home construction business in central Illinois. After the state announced plans in 2002 for an Interstate 57 interchange near   

Our Opinion: Release of tax returns fosters public trust
Springfield State Journal Register – To put it mildly, Illinois’ last two governors did little to inspire public trust in the office of the state’s chief executive where money is concerned. We would expect that anyone who desires to be governor in Illinois would be aware of this, and would do everything within reason to dispel any public suspicion of his or her financial affairs 

Our View: Damage estimate from ex-guv still climbing
Peoria Journal Star –  All told, Blagojevich’s office actually picked up the check for a paltry $22,000 of the $7.2 million – less than 1 percent of the total. Gov. Pat Quinn sensibly ordered all these dubious practices to be curtailed shortly after he took over. Nonetheless, it’s both sickening and shocking each time new examples of waste and bad choices   

 National News

 

 Boston Globe: U.S. education chief Duncan says 300,000 teachers could lose jobs

(David Abel, News, National)

“US Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned yesterday that as many as 300,000 teachers nationwide, including 4,000 teachers in Massachusetts, could lose their jobs this year if Congress does not provide additional money to aid struggling states and municipalities.”

Politico: Education debate remains heated

(Mike Allen, News, Washington, D.C.)

“Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, says the No Child Left Behind law will be updated this year to allow ‘some additional flexibility at the local level for outcomes, for results. Data that has been released under No Child Left Behind [show] where we’re having success and where we’re not having the success,’ Miller told POLITICO in an interview for the video series “The Politics of America’s Youth.” ‘We’d really like now to put more emphasis on better teachers, more emphasis on better leadership and then stand back and hold them accountable for results.’ The updates are part of a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, originally passed in 1965 as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty and amended under President George W. Bush as the No Child Left Behind Act.”

Telluride Daily Planet: Telluride considers a pay- for-performance system

(Matthew Beaudin, News, Colorado)

“The Telluride R-1 School District is on the cusp of implementing a pilot program that would pay teachers more based on high performance — not groundbreaking entirely as large districts already use such systems — but unheard of in small, high-achieving districts like this one. The system would judge teachers in three areas: leadership, innovation and student growth. A starting teacher earns $38,000 a year here, and if that teacher excelled by district standards then he or she could earn $41,000. The numbers jump up as experience and education do: an expert, or “master,” teacher earns up to $73,000, which could jump to $80,000.”

Sun Sentinel: Research shows teacher merit pay might improve classroom focus and productivity

(Dan Goldhaber, Op-Ed, Florida)

“A growing body of empirical research shows that the most important schooling factor influencing student achievement is teacher quality. These findings suggest that improving the quality of the teacher workforce presents policymakers with a tremendous opportunity to dramatically improve the educational achievement of America’s students. It is the weak relationship between teacher credentials and productivity that has prompted some to call for using more direct measures of performance to determine teacher pay. Had SB 6 bill not been vetoed, it would have tied teacher pay to student performance on standardized tests (and eliminated tenure). Is this the right thing to do?”

Oregon Public Broadcasting: Oregon Gets $10.5 Million To Track Student Achievement

(Rob Manning, News, Oregon)

“Oregon has its third multi-million dollar federal grant in three years to improve the tracking of student achievement.”

TIME.com Today’s Top Stories

The Gulf Oil Spill: A Crisis The White House Can’t Yet Answer

Will Sanctions on North Korea Do Any Good?

South Korean President Lee Myung Bak made big news by announcing a new slate of sanctions against North Korea, including the cessation of all trade between the two Koreas

Why Are Hindu Honor Killings Rising in India?

Though often associated with the Taliban and other extremist religious Muslims, Hindu honor killings are on the rise in India, exacerbated by the persistence of the caste system

White House Supports Repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

On Monday, the White House fulfilled the hopes of gay rights groups by agreeing to support an effort in the House and Senate to approve a repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

An Unlikely Outsider in Colombia’s Presidential Race

With Uribe disallowed another term, the eccentric but popular mayor of Bogotá is suddenly neck and neck with the establishment presidential candidate 

Obama backs ‘don’t ask’ compromise that could pave way for repeal
President Obama has endorsed a “don’t ask, don’t tell” compromise between lawmakers and the Defense Department, the White House announced Monday, an agreement that may sidestep a key obstacle to repealing the military’s policy banning gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces.
(By Michael D. Shear and Ed O’Keefe, The Washington Post)

Administration torn on getting tough with BP
The tenuous alliance among the Obama administration, the oil firm BP and Gulf Coast officials was visibly fraying on Monday, with exasperation on all sides mounting as oil from a deep-water gusher began lapping at the region’s environmentally fragile shoreline.
(By Karen Tumulty and Steven Mufson, The Washington Post)

Moran portfolio shows Congress’s leeway in trading
He was a stockbroker before he became a politician, and he continued playing the markets during his rise through Congress.
(By Robert O’Harrow Jr. and Dan Keating, The Washington Post)

Worried about market turmoil? You shouldn’t be if you’re investing safely.
What should you do with your investments if you hear that the Dow has suddenly dropped 1,000 points in 20 minutes? Or that euro panic has sent stocks swooning? The right answer should be “nothing.” Because if you have to worry about a thousand-point Dow drop ruining your life, your problem isn’t …
(By Allan Sloan, The Washington Post)

Man admits elderly swindle
The scheme got its start, Montgomery County prosecutors said Monday, when an 87-year-old woman pulled into a gas station 3 1/2 years ago looking for directions home.
(By Dan Morse, The Washington Post)

Word of the Day for Tuesday, May 25, 2010

shivaree \SHIV-uh-ree\, noun:

1. A mock serenade with kettles, pans, horns, and other noisemakers given for a newly married couple.
2. An elaborate, noisy celebration.

verb:
1. To serenade with a shivaree.

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A reminder for folks that tomorrow, Wednesday May 26th, at 9am PT/noon ET, we’ll be holding the next webinar in our IT Innovation series, What IT Needs To Know About The Law. I’ve been working on the content for this webinar with Dave Navetta and Larry Downes, and it’s shaping up great, covering many of the issues we talk about here on a regular basis. In fact, there’s so much good stuff, that we’re down to figure out what we’re leaving out — perhaps to revisit at a future date. Either way, it should be chock full of good info that will be useful for any IT person, so don’t miss it. Sign up now, and stop by tomorrow with questions ready. As with our past webinars, this one will be interactive. We’ll be taking questions from attendees throughout the webinar. Please join us.

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For the fifth time since taking office, President Barack Obama visits California this week, to give a major speech on the economy Wednesday and hold a second set of big political fundraisers for endangered U.S. Senator Barbara, D-Calif., Boxer Tuesday evening.

Tuesday’s fundraisers take place in Pacific Heights, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of San Francisco, which is of course THE most liberal major city in the nation. During his 2008 campaign, then candidate Obama famously explained to a San Francisco gathering that part of the reason he was having trouble in the Pennsylvania primary against Hillary Clinton was that Pennsylvania voters were bitter and cling to God and guns.

The fundraisers Tuesday will rake in about $1.5 million for Boxer’s re-election coffers…this is no cheapie…$35,000 per couple!

Boxer is in the fight of her life and she has acknowledged as much for months. On Capitol Hill she has at times been impatient and curt when asked about the campaign back home.

California holds its primaries on June 8th. The GOP primary to oppose Boxer is a three-way contest and very much in flux.

Republican candidate and former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, a millionaire, leads some polls. She’s never run for office before but was a senior adviser to John McCain’s 2008 Presidential campaign. Since then, she has shifted some of her positions to the right on things like immigration. She considers herself a social and economic conservative. As a woman she might stack up stronger against Boxer. Fiorina left HP under a cloud and has been criticized for it. Among all three candidates she is hands down the most politically polished, even if she is the least experienced. She has raised more money than her GOP rivals but has also invested some her own.

The other top contender is Tom Campbell. He is well known to California Republicans, having served five terms in Congress from Silicon Valley during the tech boom and bust years. Campbell has cast himself for years as California’s intellectual fiscal conservative. He has a PHD in economics and studied under Milton Freidman. He is a soft spoken academic type and a social moderate who is pro-choice on abortion and pro-gay marriage. That plays well in general election polls against Boxer — but even in liberal California — social conservatives hold sway in GOP primaries. Campbell has seen some polls of his support wane in recent days.

The most consistently conservative record on social and fiscal issues belongs to state assemblyman Chuck Devore. He is a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army Reserve, who worked at the Pentagon before seeking elected office. The Tea Party Express has endorsed him but the depth of their support is uncertain.

I interviewed all three GOP candidates in advance of the president’s arrival Tuesday.

Fiorina lambasted Boxer repeatedly, “She is vulnerable because she is a failed senator, she’s been in Washington D.C. for 26 years, people are tired of professional politicians, they’ve figured out that they are part of the problem and not part of the solution.” She also argued that her differences with Senator Boxer would be the reason Republicans would elect her June 8th, “Tom Campbell is not going to beat me and that’s because Republican primary voters know that Tom Campbell cannot be their representative, first of all, Tom Campbell can’t beat Barbara Boxer, you can’t beat Barbara Boxer with Barbara Boxer light”

Campbell however disputed Fiorina’s lead in recent polls, “In the primary you have a very simple and very powerful focus, who will have the very best chance of replacing Senator Barbara Boxer, every poll way beyond the margin of error, shows that I do.”

Devore said his election strategy was working, “recent polls have shown that he [Campbell] has been collapsing and that Fiorina is beginning to move, so I think that bears out my strategy of continuing to focus my attention Carly Fiorina…She’s a political opportunist who will say or do anything to get elected and I think that the voters have had enough of that.”

On the air and in the news the June 8th primary for the Senate has been overshadowed by the bitter battle in the race for governor to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger. In it, EBAY founder and Billionaire Meg Whitman is in a vicious fight with state insurance commissioner and a multimillionaire Steve Poizner. The winner will face Attorney General Jerry Brown who was already governor from 1975-1983.

O Salão Internacional do Automóvel Ecológico e da Mobilidade Sustentável teve lugar em Madrid no último fim-de-semana. A Seat aproveitou a ocasião para revelar alguns modelos criados pensando no meio ambiente. O destaque maior foi para o novo Ibiza Ecomotive, apresentado pela primeira vez ao público. Agora na sua terceira geração esta versão conta com emissões de CO2 de 89 g/km e um consumo misto de 3,4 l/100 km, estando equipado com o motor 1.2 TDI de 75 cv e filtro de partículas, e com sistemas de recuperação de energia e Start/Stop.

No evento espanhol estiveram ainda o protótipo IBE Concept e o Leon Twin Drive Ecomotive. Recentemente revelado no Salão de Genebra, o compacto esportivo eléctrico utiliza um sistema de propulsão elétrica e permite também antever as linhas da próxima geração de automóveis da montadora espanhola. Quanto ao Leon, é um modelo híbrido plug-in com autonomia para 50 km. Os primeiros veículos de produção de série deste modelo estão previstos para 2014.

Fonte: Auto Motor

It’s a pain to play emulators on the iPhone because not only is it small, but you have to sacrifice screen space to allow for buttons — and in the SNES’ case, that’s a lot of buttons. The iPad has a lot of promise as a portable gaming platform, but without a decent controller and interface, even a perfectly emulated console will be no fun to play. This SNES HD app seems to pretty much solve all those problems… at least, if you have an iPhone or iPod touch to use as a controller.

The iPhone connects over Bluetooth and you even use the physical buttons for the L and R buttons. To be honest I doubt it controls all that well, but it’s better than having it all on one screen. Someone PLEASE make a decent controller for this thing already. I love the save state pictures and the actual console in the interface. Man, I really want an iPad now.

Did I mention it’s free? More info at the creator’s site.

[via iPhoneblog.de, Kotaku]

The field to replace disgraced former Indiana 3rd district Congressman Mark Souder on the general election and (yet-to-be-announced) special election ballots expanded again today.

According to the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette, businessman Lonnie Powell is throwing his hat into the ring.

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100525/BLOGS01/100529722

That makes 11 candidates. What about an even dozen?

On Facebook, a draft Paul Helmke movement has emerged. The ‘Paul Helmke for Congress’ page states:

“Paul Helmke is the most reasonable political leader who ever came out of NE indiana. We don’t know if he has an interest in being a member of Congress, but we want to draft him to serve.”

Have a look for yourself:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Helmke-for-Congress/111929555516866?ref=search&sid=4veJJxnprEZ8DY5FEeUNjg.3878047291..1

Helmke served as Ft. Wayne’s mayor and is a something of a rarity as a gun-control Republican. He is currently the president of the DC-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Today, there are reports the 520 GOP committeemen and women in Indiana’s 3rd Congressional district will  gather June 12th in Columbia City to select a replacement Republican candidate.

The winner of the GOP caucus will face Democrat Tom Hayhurst in the general election…and state partry officials have signaled Hayhurst is a shoe-in to be selected for the special election as well.

New Observations estimates excess inventory for sale equals 1.4 million units with over 4-million homes on-the-block, a figure hovering just 11 percent below peak-crash inventory, while at the very same time the realtors’ chief economist forecast Monday that “the housing price correction appears essentially over.”

A respectable 521,000 units sold in April, yet inventory for sale increased by 418,000 units. On average inventory is 2.66 million units and currently 4.04 million homes are for-sale (Please see the chart below of units for sale. The red line represents an average. Click image for a large view.).

Inventory increased to 8.4 months of supply versus the long-run average of 5.8 months and the recent low of 6.5 months last November. The crash high inventory was 11.3 months in April 2008.

“Although inventory levels remain above normal and much of the gain last month was seasonal, the housing price correction appears essentially over,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). “In fact, a majority of the markets have seen price gains recently. A return to old-fashioned responsible lending and buying will help the housing market avoid disruptive and painful bubble-bust cycles.”

Last week the Mortgage Bankers Association said that a record 4.63 percent of homes are in foreclosure. Foreclosures are a major contributor to falling prices.

On the positive side of the ledger, interest rates are outstanding right now and affordability has dramatically improved following a 30 percent national loss in home prices which started four years ago.

The national median existing-home price was $173,100 in April, up 4.0 percent from April 2009. Distressed sales accounted for 33 percent of the total and all-cash sales clocked in at 250 percent of their normal tally.

“Buyers are focused on finding the right house and taking advantage of favorable affordability conditions,” said Vicki Cox Golder, NAR president and owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates. “For many buyers, owning a home is a lifestyle choice. They want a place of their own to raise a family, build memories, and be part of a larger community.”

Nearly 10 percent of current mortgage borrowers are seriously delinquent, being 90-days late or more. New Observations estimated last week that a minimum of one in ten mortgage borrowers will lose their home to the bank in a distressed sale or foreclosure in the next two years.

Our real estate market rests on a razor’s edge. On the edge lie high mortgage delinquencies, 12 million homeowners who have no equity or negative equity, high unemployment stuck at 10 percent, an unprecedented loss in house values following a bubble greater by far than any in the last 120 years, and a frightened Fed and Treasury who literally own the new mortgage market in the United States. Predicting that we are done with falling prices may end up landing the speaker north of reckless. Desperation hides behind a mask of confidence.

Join the conversation about this story »

Although Geithner’s trip to Beijing may have moved the country closer to a yuan revaluation, it may be too little too late.

Michael Pettis went on Bloomberg today to discuss the need for an immediate revaluation.

With European trade going down the hole, either China or America will have to pick up the slack. America can’t afford a bigger trade deficit, Pettis says (1:30), and would be forced to launch a trade war. (via PragCap)

Join the conversation about this story »

Over the past two days, to big banking regulators, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), have each taken steps to help credit card consumers. The Fed introduced a new searchable database of credit card agreements. The FDIC, provided guidance for consumers on how to better manage their credit cards. Even though the Fed’s effort is more sweeping, the FDIC’s approach might be more effective.

You can play around with the Fed’s new database here. It contains hundreds of credit card disclosures. The creation of this accessible file of paperwork was required through last spring’s credit card regulation bill. While a valiant effort, it’s hard to see how the database changes much. Sure, if you have an Internet connection, you can now search online for your disclosure. But banks, theoretically, already supplied you with that disclosure. And they likely will supply you with another if you lost it (or should be required to if they aren’t).

Moreover, the problem isn’t really with obtaining these disclosures, but with understanding them. The Fed’s effort does nothing to simplify the legalese that stumps so many consumers without any finance training. Even though the Fed’s heart was in the right place on this one, it’s hard to see how it will have that much impact.

The FDIC’s effort is more useful, however. In its most recent consumer newsletter the regulator provides some clear and well-written information for credit card consumers. One part includes a nice narrative summarizing new consumer protections. Another provides eight ways to avoid credit card pitfalls. They include:  

• Understand your right to cancel a credit card before certain significant account changes take effect.
• Keep an eye on your credit limit.
• Decide how you want to handle transactions that would put you over your credit limit.
• Be cautious with “no-interest” offers.
• Keep only the credit cards you really need and then periodically use them all.
• Do your research before paying high annual fees for a “rewards” card.
• Take additional precautions against interest rate increases.
• Parents of young adults have a new opportunity to teach responsible management of credit cards.

The webpage contains additional detail on these tips. They’re great advice. Some of them might seem like common sense to fiscally responsible consumers, but others might find these tips revelations. These recommendations are especially good because even unsophisticated credit card users should be able to understand the advice that the FDIC provides. That gives this approach a big advantage over the Fed database.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – Credit card – FDIC – Bank – Finance

Stuart Pimm, a leading conservation biologist, is turning out to be a blogger to follow. He’s down in the Delaware Bay right now, studying some of the birds that are migrating unbelievable distances (see my story in today’s Times). Unfortunately, the birds are having a rough time because we’re taking away the food they need to power their long-haul flights: horseshoe crab eggs. Check it out.

[JURIST] The Obama administration on Monday filed a brief [text, PDF] urging the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by the state of Virginia challenging the constitutionality of the recently enacted health care reform law [HR 3590 text; JURIST news archive]. The suit [complaint, PDF] filed by Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli [official website] challenges the constitutionality of the individual mandate provision of the health care bill, which would require most Americans to purchase some form of health insurance by 2014 and directly contradicts a state law [text, PDF; JURIST report] purporting to prevent the enforcement of a federal mandate. In the brief, attorneys representing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius [official website] argued that the state lacks standing to challenge the provision because it “alleges no actual or imminent injury to its own interests as a state,” and went on to argue:

The Court would … have to step beyond the proper role of the Judiciary, for Virginia does not satisfy … standing to sue. The Commonwealth asserts it has standing to vindicate a sovereign interest in its new statute purporting to exempt Virginians from any federal requirement to purchase health insurance. A state cannot, however, manufacture its own standing to challenge a federal law by the simple expedient of passing a statute purporting to nullify it. … Virginia itself neither has sustained a direct and concrete injury, nor is in immediate danger of such an injury. In seeking to speak on behalf of unnamed citizens, Virginia brings into a judicial setting arguments that failed in the legislative arena, where a proponent need not show immediate and concrete harm.

Additionally, the brief argued that even if Virginia had standing, the law is a constitutional exercise of congressional Commerce Clause power [Cornell LII backgrounder] under Supreme Court [official website] precedent.

The Virginia General Assembly [official website] passed the ban on a federal mandate in March. The Virginia Health Care Freedom Act was the first of its kind [WP report] passed by any state, and says that no individual shall be held liable if they refuse to sign up for health care. Earlier this month, the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) [association website], a small business lobby group, joined a lawsuit [complaint, PDF; JURIST report] challenging the health care reform law. The NFIB joined 20 states in a suit that began in March when a complaint seeking injunction and declaratory relief was filed [JURIST reports] in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida [official website]. Among the allegations in the suit are violations of Article I and the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution [text], committed by levying a tax without regard to census data, property, or profession, and for invading the the sovereignty of the states. The plaintiffs also assert that the law should not be upheld under the Commerce Clause. Also in May, the US Department of Justice [official website] filed [JURIST report] a response [brief text] to a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] challenging the health care law filed in March by the Thomas More Law Center [advocacy website] on the same day President Barack Obama signed the bill into law [JURIST report].

When most of us flip on the lights (or type into our computers, for that matter), we aren’t thinking about how those simple acts might affect those living in coal country. Yet nearly half of the country’s electricity is generated by coal, and increasingly that coal is being extracted not by removing the coal from the earth, but by removing the earth from the coal.

In Appalachia, that means blowing the tops off mountains to get at the coal seams inside — a process that cuts company costs, but also ravages neighboring communities, poisoning wells and waterways, contaminating air, killing off wildlife and flooding nearby homes. Leading scientists say the effects are irreversible.

This week, a coalition of Appalachian environmentalists launched a campaign they hope will mitigate the disconnect between the electricity Americans use and the devastating processes that keep it so cheap, unveiling a national TV ad that could bring mountaintop removal into living rooms nationwide. The idea is simple: If consumers knew they were contributing to the destruction of the country’s oldest mountains, perhaps they would demand an end to the practice.

For effect, the ad borrows from one of the most famous commercials in the history of television: Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 “Daisy Girl” spot, in which a young girl plucking flower petals looks up to see a nuclear explosion in the distance. (In the MTR version, of course, the nuclear blast is replaced by the elimination of an Appalachian peak.)

“These are the stakes,” the narrator says. “We can allow the land, water and people of Appalachia to be sacrificed. Or end mountaintop removal coal mining.”

If the explosions aren’t enough to captivate interest, the coalition has brought on Ashley Judd, a longtime MTR critic, as the narrator.

Filed under: Humor

Kevin Cotter recently found himself among the other 50 percent of Americans who wind up getting divorced from their first spouse. Rather than wallow in the broken remains of 12 years of marriage, the guy decided to have a little fun. See, his ex-wife refused to take her wedding dress when she left the house. Rather than throw the dress on Craigslist and call it a day, Cotter decided to write a book about the 101 uses a newly-single guy could come up with for a fancy piece of silk and lace.

Only no one was exactly champing at the bit to publish his idea. Instead, he did what any self-respecting freshly-rejected writer would do. He took to the internets! Cotter now runs My Ex Wifes Wedding Dress – a blog all about the wide array of uses he’s come up with so far. While we’re personally fans of the scarecrow, Cotter has also used the gown for a drip cloth when he changes the oil in his Honda Element and a gas cap. Hilarity ensues. Thanks for the tip, Jubby!

[Source: My Ex Wifes Wedding Dress]

101 uses for ex-wife’s wedding dress includes oil pan, gas cap originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 15:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Passing around internet porn. Using illegal drugs. Accepting gifts from the oil companies.

Apparently, all that went on in the Lake Charles, Louisiana office of the federal Minerals Management Service between 2000 and 2008. And some of the workers involved were inspectors on offshore drilling platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

The long and troubling list of employee behavior is outlined in a new report from the Interior Department’s Inspector General. The IG released her findings early because of attention to the BP oil spill.

Acting Inspector General Mary Kendall says her greatest concern is the cozy relationships between federal inspectors and oil companies, and how easily inspectors move back and forth between industry and government.

For example, the report found one worker conducted four inspections on an oil company platform while he was actively negotiating for a job with that same company.

The investigation also found that oil companies invited inspectors to all kinds of events including “skeet-shooting contests, hunting and fishing trips, golf tournaments, crawfish boils and Christmas parties.” Investigators confirmed that inspectors attended many of these events.

There’s more.

Investigators found emails containing porn or links to porn sites. They found additional emails containing racist or sexist humor. Two workers admitted using illegal drugs.

Perhaps the most damning allegation was that some inspectors allowed oil company workers to fill out the federal inspection forms. The inspector general was not able to conclusively substantiate that tip from a confidential source.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar responded to the report in a statement, calling it “deeply disturbing” and “further evidence of the cozy relationship between some elements of MMS and the oil and gas industry.”

But Salazar was quick to defend his own record. Both he and the inspector general point out that the report covers ethical lapses before he became Interior Secretary.

Salazar notes that he implemented new ethics rules in 2009. He has asked the inspector general to expand her investigation to the period after 2009, looking into any possible failures to enforce standards at the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

Some of the employees mentioned in the report have resigned, been fired or referred for prosecution. The rest are on administrative leave.

Several weeks after the BP oil spill Salazar announced that he would break up the Minerals Management Service, reorganizing it into three separate bureaus.

(Fox’s Kristin Brown contributed to this report.)

The Guardian isn’t the kind of tech-savvy enterprise one would normally look to for guidance on digital issues or Internet-related topics. For one thing, it’s not a startup — it’s a 190-year-old newspaper. And it’s not based in Palo Alto, Calif., but in London, England. The newspaper company, however, is doing something fairly revolutionary by simply changing the way it thinks about value creation and where that comes from in an online world.

The vehicle for this change is its “Open Platform,” which launched last week and involves an open application programming interface (API) that developers can use to integrate Guardian content into services and applications. The newspaper company has been running a beta version of the platform for a little over a year now, but took the experimental label off the project on Thursday and announced that it’s “open for business.” By that The Guardian means it’s looking for partners that want to use its content in return for licensing fees or to enter into a revenue-sharing agreement of some kind related to advertising.

To take just one example, The Guardian writes a lot of stories about soccer, but since it’s a mass-market newspaper, it can’t really target advertising to specific readers very well. In other words, says Guardian developer Chris Thorpe, the newspaper fails to appeal to an Arsenal fan like himself because it can’t identify and target him effectively, and as a result, runs standard, low-cost banner ads. By providing the same content to a website designed for Arsenal fans, however, those stories can be surrounded by much more effectively targeted ads, and thus be monetized at a much higher rate — a rate of which the newspaper then gets a cut.

Open APIs and open platforms aren’t all that new. But The Guardian is the first newspaper to offer a fully open API (the New York Times has an API, but it doesn’t provide the full text of stories, and it can’t be used in commercial applications). We thought it was worth looking at why the paper chose to go this route, and what it might suggest for other companies contemplating a similar move — and not just content-related companies, but anyone with a product or service that can be delivered digitally. I explore the topic in depth in a new GigaOM Pro report (subscription required).

Why would a newspaper like The Guardian choose to provide access to its content via an open API — and not just some of its content, but everything? And why would it allow companies and developers to use that content in commercial applications? For one simple reason: There is more potential value to be generated by providing it to someone else than the newspaper itself can produce by controlling it within its own website or service. You may be the smartest company on the planet, but you are almost never going to be able to maximize all the potential applications of your content or service, no matter how much money you throw at it.

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Flickr user Fabbio

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