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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

Those damn BP liars are making things even worse trying to fix the catastrophe they caused. Their efforts are turning the massive oil flood into giant underwater clouds made of corrosive particles. Here’s the underwater video to prove it. More »










Gulf Oil – Scuba Diving – Oil spill – BP – Underwater Photography

Wow. After being down huge in early trading, with the indices off over 3%, on all the same fears, the market did a big comeback in the final hour of trading. The modest down day in most of the indices was a big win for the bulls

Here’s the scoreboard:

Dow: -22.82
S&P 500: +0.38
NASDAQ: -2.60

And now, some of today’s top stories:

• As noted above, the big comeback is huge. Investors live to see another day — a day that, perhaps, will include some kind of new quantitative easing measure in Europe, or maybe even a move by our Fed. A big winner today was Goldman Sachs, which ended up over 4%. See some of the key trades of the day here >

• During this morning’s big selloff, the March Case-Shiller got lost in the shuffle, but it was weak, showing further signs of a possible double-dip in housing. New York in particular seems vulnerable to further declines.

• The BP situation continues to get more tense. The company is expected to try its top-kill method tomorrow, in its desperate bid to halt the leak. See pictures of beleaguered Grand Isle, LA here >

• Germany continues to invite short-sellers, as it expands measures aimed at curbing short sellers. Funny how that works, no?

• Tensions on the Korean peninsula heat up, as the North decides to cut of all relations with the South. Here’s a look at possible war scenarios >

• Gold never succumbed to the flight-to-liquidity trade, edging up over $4 during the trading day. Oil on the other hand is below $70.

Join the conversation about this story »

Remembering the passwords we
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2010 Mitsubishi Lancer

TrueCar, a new car price search site, recently completed a study that shows the brands that have the highest concentration of younger buyers. The study showed that Mitsubishi, Mazda and Volkswagen have the youngest customers, while brands like Buick, Lincoln, Cadillac and Mercury produce eight of the 10 models with the lowest percentage of buyers under 34.

The study also identified the beast deals on models for buyers that are between the 18-34 range.

Click here to get prices on the 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer.

Mitsubishi topped the list (18.3 percent) with the Lancer and the Eclipse. Mazda came in second (18 percent) with the Mazda3 and the Mazda6 being the most popular amongst buyers in the 18-34 range. Volkswagen came in third (17.6 percent) with buyers flocking towards the Jetta and the GTI.

Hit the jump for the list and check out TrueCar’s full study here.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: TrueCar

After his headscratching and side-splittingly frightening Mamma Mia audition leaked to the Innernets last week, we knew it was only a matter of time before we were treated to more hilarious audition tapes from American Pie’s own Chris Klein.

Boy, that Katie Holmes sure knows how to pick ‘em.

We’ve just added a new Pro Apps category to TechUniversity and with that addition come two new screencasts, Logic Pro 101 and Final Cut Pro 101 (subscription required).

In Logic Pro 101 we cover all the major bits and pieces of the interface as well as sharing the content you’ve created.

In Final Cut Pro 101 we walk you through everything you need to know to edit a video including: the interface, working with audio/video clips, rendering, keyframes, speed, titles, transitions and exporting.

Below are samples from each. Check out the new Pro Apps category on TechUniversity for more details and to subscribe!

Screencast Samples

Materials: Rast chest of drawers

Description: This started life as a paint job gone horribly wrong. Eventually, after I hid the thing in the closet for months, I decided to give it a second try.

I sanded down the whole thing to get rid of the bad shellack job (not mine), then gave it 4 coats of paint and one coat of clear lacquer. I primed two of the drawers and covered them with fabric using Mod Podge Hard Coat. I also covered the top of the drawer pulls with scraps of other fabrics.

It went from “hide in the closet” to “kid’s delight”.

You can see the step by step process here.

~ Clara, PuntaCana

Vlingo on Blackberry offers great voice control of features on the phone, now it is available for Android! Vlingo for Android allows you to speak emails and text messages; it opens the default app then writes what you said you confirm and send it, can search the Web, find businesses on Google Maps, speak tweets for Twitter, and more. The SafeReader feature reads email and text messages aloud to you when on the go. The app costs $9.99 and available in the Android Market for Android 2.0+ phones.

Video of Vlingo for Android:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7cNlIeQNl8

Screenshots of Vlingo for Android:

We’ll be thoroughly testing with Android App Review with video so you can try before you buy it.

Update: We couldn’t find it in the Market for Android 2.2 phones, even following this link didn’t work: http://www.vlingo.com/getvlingo

[Via Android Community via Vlingo]

Dropbox is the easiest way to sync and share your files online and across computers. Dropboxify brings the Dropbox experience to your webOS device. Browse your entire Dropbox on the go. View your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, video, photos, and listen to your music. Register for a free account from within the application or login using your existing Dropbox account. We specialize in usable software and pay meticulous attention to detail in our products. If you find as much as pocket lint in this app, we want to hear about it! *File uploads coming soon with an update.*

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews

Today, Microsoft doomed its Entertainment and Devices division to failure, in a sudden shake-up removing key creative leaders. Timing is simply terrible. Microsoft is engaged in a pitched battle with Apple and Google in several strategic entertainment and mobile categories. It’s like Microsoft changed generals on the eve of a major and quite possibly war-outcome-defining engagement.

Out are Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices division, and J Allard, Microsoft’s Apple Jony Ive wannabe. In expanded roles: Andrew Lees, senior veep of the Mobile Communications Business, and Don Mattrick, senior veep of E&D’s Interactive Entertainment Business. Bach will stay on through autumn in an advisory role, but the move leaves one of Microsoft’s five major business units without a president. Allard is leaving. Period. Although Microsoft claims he will remain in an advisory role to CEO Steve Ballmer.

The question to ask: Are Allard and Bach creative bozos who failed Microsoft’s consumer strategy or are they creative visionaries crushed by the Office-Windows machine? I think the answer lies somewhere between, with the latter being more reason than the other. Allard is clearly some kind of casualty. Bach is quoted in Microsoft’s press release. Allard is not.

Last week, Mary Jo Foley asked: “Where in the world is J Allard?” Foley’s sources indicated that Allard and Ballmer had a falling out over Courier, Microsoft’s long-rumored tablet. Nearly a month ago, Microsoft confirmed Courier’s existence and cancelled it in the same statement. At the time I wondered: “Why confirm something exists only to kill it?” Microsoft could have quietly pulled the plug, unless there was something else going on behind the scenes — like the alleged Allard-Ballmer scuffle.

Somebody did right by silencing Courier, which two-panel design simply made no sense. It’s not rocket science to see the usability problems and potential high manufacturing/component costs associated with a two-touchscreen design, particularly compared against Apple’s iPad, which appeal is simpler single-slate design and reasonably low purchase price. How could Microsoft conceivably offer a two-panel tablet for $499? If Allard was too attached to Courier, he has lost his creative mind.

Then there is Robbie Bach, who really can’t be blamed for many of Entertainment and Devices division’s problems. Ballmer made the decision to launch Xbox as a money-losing product designed to steal market share away from Nintendo and Sony. That strategy worked. But the division never really left the pattern of generating loads of revenue with little return profit. For example, during fiscal 2009, E&D generated $169 million operating income from $7.76 billion in revenue.

The division also was charged with pushing Microsoft products into the living room, a strategy that has repeatedly failed. While Xbox succeeded, other products did not. Windows Media Center stuck in a niche, which is unsurprising giving the advantages of incumbents, mainly cable and teleco providers; they built DVR and on-demand services into their set-top boxes. Last week, Google announced Google TV, which surely wasn’t received well among Microsoft’s upper echelons. Is Google TV perhaps a catalyst driving the reorg?

Microsoft’s mobile device strategy is the Britannic torpedoed. Research in Motion has consistently gained mobile market share, despite Microsoft’s push-mail and other push-service efforts. Meanwhile Apple and Google storm the smartphone markets. Windows Mobile worldwide smartphone OS market share dropped to 6.8 percent in first quarter down from 10.2 percent a year earlier. Windows Mobile ranked fifth, behind iPhone OS (third) and Android (fourth). Meanwhile the catch-up strategy isn’t looking great. Reviewers generally panned Microsoft’s two KIN phones, which debuted earlier this month. Windows Phone 7 will come to market too late. Android phone sales are tracking to be 9 million units per quarter and rising, about the same as iPhone. Windows Mobile is stuck in the 3.7 million range.

For years, Microsoft has talked up a three-screen strategy: Windows PC, TV and mobile phone. The company has real success with PCs, reasonably good success with game consoles and near failure with mobile phones. Even where there is success there’s no real synchronicity.

Given Microsoft’s meager mobile and three-screen advancements, Lees’ performance should be questioned as much as Allard’s or Bach’s. If the old blood is so bad, where’s the life-reviving transfusion? On July 1, Lees will report directly to Ballmer, who views the world in enterprise business-shaded glasses. In December, I explained how Microsoft had lost its consumer edge, as the company shifts more resources to enterprise products leveraged off Office, Windows and Windows Server. Before assuming his Mobile Communications Business role in February 2008, Lees worked on Server and Tools division sales. Entertainment and Devices needs something more consumer not something corporate.

Then there is the entertainment product horizon. Microsoft just launched KIN, Windows Phone 7 is coming in autumn, Project Natal also is due in autumn and Windows Live Wave 4 is just beginning its rollout. Microsoft mixes it up with another leadership shakeup. Microsoft made E&D organizational changes in January 2010 and February 2009 — at least those are the ones I remember. How many more will there be?

By the bean counter’s measure, Entertainment and Devices is a failure; the profits aren’t there. But from a creative and new market perspectives, E&D is a colossal success. The division opened new markets after many earlier failed attempts to push beyond Office and Windows.

Today’s reorganization announcement is the bloodletting of Microsoft key creatives, while replacing them with an incomplete organizational structure too closely tied to the old monopoly leadership. For anyone thinking things were bad, they’re about to get worse.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010
















Microsoft – Google – Robbie Bach – Xbox – iPhone