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Google Calendar has been given a fresh coat of paint and the new look is being rolled out for users around the world, by the looks of it. The fresh new look follows Google’s current design aesthetics and principles from some of its other main web apps, like Gmail or Docs. Google hasn’t made the official announcement yet, but some users are greet… (read more)

Today marks Massey Energy’s annual shareholders meeting in Richmond, Va, and they’re getting quite a reception from environmentalists and members of the United Mine Workers of America, who are picketing the event by the hundreds. The Wall Street Journal provides some context:

The UMWA has been one of Massey’s fiercest critics since the explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine last month, the worst coal mining disaster in 40 years. The union, which has lost organizing elections at the company’s mines in recent years, has long had an antagonistic relationship with Massey. The union represents some Massey employees who work at coal preparation plants.

A number of Massey miners — both former and current — have come forward since last month’s tragedy with allegations that the company simply doesn’t prioritize safety in its mines, particularly if those measures hinder the production of coal.

Massey has rejected those claims, insisting that its safety record is at least as good as those of its competitors. Indeed, the Journal reports that the company — despite a damning record of safety at the UBB mine  – is still lashing out at its critics.

Prior to the protests, a Massey spokeswoman said, “We respect the right of those with a narrow political agenda to express their views.”

Massey CEO Don Blankenship, whose own political agenda inspired a recent $30,400 donation to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, will testify before the Senate Thursday.

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights [official website] Navi Pillay [official profile] on Monday urged both the Thai government and anti-government protesters to seek a peaceful resolution [press release] to the current conflict [JURIST news archive]. Expressing deep concern at the escalating violence that has left dozens dead and many more injured, Pillay called on both sides to avoid further clashes and seek a diplomatic solution. Pillay called on the government to use force only in accordance with international human rights standards, warning that the situation could easily get out of hand:

To prevent further loss of life, I appeal to the protestors to step back from the brink, and the security forces to exercise maximum restraint in line with the instructions given by the Government. Ultimately, this situation can only be resolved by negotiation. I urge leaders to set aside pride and politics for the sake of the people of Thailand.

Pillay also noted that Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva [official website; BBC profile] has agreed to set up an independent fact-finding mission to inquire into the recent violence, stressing that the investigation should be impartial and thorough.

Last week, a Thai court sentenced 27 protesters [JURIST report] to six months in prison. The accused are members of the United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship [party website, in Thai], also known as red shirts [BBC backgrounder], who support ousted [JURIST report] prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra [BBC profile; JURIST news archive]. Last month, Thailand’s pro-government People’s Alliance for Democracy Network [party website, in Thai; BBC backgrounder], known as yellow shirts, called for a declaration of martial law [JURIST report] to quell the anti-government movement spearheaded by the red shirts. Earlier in April, Vejjajiva announced that he was prepared to negotiate [JURIST report] with red shirt protesters once they cease their illegal conduct. Because of the mounting violence, Abhisit has imposed a state of emergency [JURIST report] in Bangkok and neighboring provinces.

It pays to have mothers in high places: Bristol Palin is available to share her pearls of wisdom at your next company event — but it’ll cost you. America’s most famous teen mom is hitting the motivitional speakers’ circuit and will command between $15,000 and $30,000 per appearance!

The daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has inked a deal with Single Source Speakers, who will book the 19-year-old for speaking engagements at conferences, fundraisers, and youth, abstinence, and “pro-life events” accross the United States, Palin family attorney Thomas Van Flein said Tuesday. Bristol’s exact fees will depend on factors such as which group she’s addressing and what she must to do prepare for her speech.

The extra funds will come in handy, Palin is in the middle of an ugly custody battle with Levi Johnston, the 19-year-old father of her young son Tripp.

The relatively budget minded HTC Wildfire is heading to the relatively budget minded carrier, Virgin Mobile UK. The Wildfire is expected to launch in Q3 2010 in European and Asian markets and is a great addition to Virgin Mobile UK’s growing stable of Android phones. Virgin Mobile UK focuses a lot on competitively priced pay-as-you-go plans so it leaves no doubt that the Wildfire is targeted for the "entry level" customers. In the UK, Virgin Mobile doesn’t actually have their own network (they use T-Mobile as their backbone) but we’re sure users will hardly notice. Hey HTC, we wouldn’t mind an entry level device on Virgin Mobile US either! [twitter via coolsmartphone]

Everything was calm in beautiful Skamania County, Washington, until May 18, 1980. Then, a massive stratovolcano unleashed its rage, obliterating 230 square miles around it. It was Mount St. Helens. This video show how things have changed since then. More »










Washington – United States – Travel and Tourism – Parks – Counties

Watch out, Joe’s Bait and Tackle, you better not have a big, open glass door with light wooden tables along the middle and light wooden shelves lining the walls on which you will display your wares, including, but not limited to laptops and computers. Apple has that entire color scheme and layout on lockdown, so don’t even think about it.

That’s right: Apple trademarked their retail stores. Here’s the skinny:

The correspondent listed for is LISA G. WIDUP of APPLE INC., 1 INFINITE LOOP, MS 3TM, CUPERTINO, CA 95014 . The trademark is filed in the category of Advertising, Business & Retail Services . The description provided to the USPTO for is Retail store services featuring computers, computer software, computer peripherals, mobile phones, consumer electronics and related accessories, and demonstration of products relating thereto.

Retail store services featuring computers, computer software, computer peripherals, mobile phones, consumer electronics and related accessories, and demonstration of products relating thereto

Mark Description: The mark consists of distinctive design and layout of a retail store.

My question is this: if I build my house to look like an Apple store – I’d sleep on the shelves, probably, and make breakfast at the Genius Bar, would I be sued? Is that fair use of a trademark?

Apple also trademarked the new iDisk icon, which is pretty exciting as well.

Miss USA pole dancing has been the talk of the town. Who will not be interested to know more about Miss America 2010 Rima Fakih pole dancing? This might sound awkward knowing that Rimah Fakih is an Arab-American. Miss USA pole dancing seems a big issue, other think of it as a scandal. Is it really a big deal? Rima Fakih pole dancing picture is spreading in the internet.

The picture is courtesy by Mojo in the morning. This is a morning radio show that posted images of Miss America 2010-Rima Fakih that was said to be competing from a contest entitled “Stripper 101″ way back 2007. The contest shows the best moves of pole dancers; some real strippers teach, and the chosen best student wins the price. All the contestants were said to have been fully clothed. The now “Miss America 2010”-Rima Fakih won the competition, as sources reveals.

Find out more of Miss USA pole dancing….

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Dean Jerold S. Goldberg, DDS and R. William Cornell, Jr., DDS (DEN ’60)
and his wife, Chloe

Case Western Reserve University alumnus R. William Cornell, Jr., DDS has made a $1.5 million commitment to endow the first named professorship at the Case Western Reserve School of Dental Medicine. The Dr. and Mrs. R. William Cornell, Jr. Endowed Professor of Pediatric Dentistry will be the first endowed chair in the history of the school, which was established in 1892.

“This endowed chair is an important milestone for the dental school,” said Jerold S. Goldberg, DDS, dean of the School of Dental Medicine. “Not only will it ensure excellence forever in the area of pediatric dentistry, but we also hope that Dr. Cornell’s generosity becomes a model for others.”

Cornell’s contributions to the school and the dental profession were recognized with the 2010 Distinguished Alumnus Award during the dental school’s annual gala award dinner on Saturday, May 15, at the State Theater in downtown Cleveland. The gala is part of the annual reunion celebration and welcome of dental students into the profession during graduation weekend.

“I wanted to support the school that gave me the knowledge and skills to build a career in a field I love,” said Cornell. “Faculty support was a clear choice for me, as there has always been a very positive relationship between the faculty and the students at the dental school.”

In his early career, Cornell had numerous roles at the dental school: first as a volunteer instructor and later as a salaried clinical instructor, assistant clinical professor and acting co-chair of the pediatric dentistry department. He also directed the undergraduate dental program until 1976, when he left Case Western Reserve to join the faculty at Northwestern University.

In addition to his work with the dental school and running a practice in Fairview Park, Ohio, Cornell served the greater community through the Cleveland school’s dental clinic and the Salvation Army’s free clinic.

Even though he is now retired, Cornell volunteers with the Collier County Health Department Dental Clinic near his retirement home in Naples, Fla., and provides seminars for pediatric dental residents at University of Florida College of Dentistry and Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago. He also volunteers several times a month for Habitat for Humanity through his church.

“Dr. Cornell is an outstanding educator and practitioner who has been a role model to thousands of dentists,” said Goldberg.

We’ve shown you the summer cell phone lineup from KDDI (Japan’s No. 2 carrier) yesterday. Today, Japan’s third largest carrier, SoftBank Mobile, showed its own summer lineup during a special press conference, and all of their 13 new models have one thing in common: they all come with Twitter pre-installed.

The buyers of these cell phones will be able to access Twitter either via a pre-installed app or through a pre-installed widget on the homescreen. The background is that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son himself is a huge Twitter fan (he has almost 300,000 followers) and believes Japan is set to become Twitter country. And in fact, by some measures it’s already No. 2.

Photo gallery of all the 13 new Twitter-powered cell phones over at MobileCrunch.

Its all over the internet, Miss USA 2010 winnner Miss Rima Fakih is hiding some impressive skills that she actually wanted to keep a secret. Holding the title of Miss USA 2010, definetely she can hardly hide any of her secrets.

Sources tell us that Rima Fakih was not competing for the first time, she has been joining a “Stripper 101” contest in the year 2007. It was the Detroit morning radio show that revealed some pretty interesting pictures of Rima Fakih Pole dancing. During this contest, contestants put their best perfomance on stage infront of female listeners. And the best perfomance won the contest. If you wanted to see Fakih in sexy clothes i have to disappoint you then, since the girls were carefully dressed according to the radio station.

According to the radio show, they have been contacted by the Miss USA officials “requesting more photos and information” about Rima Fakih’s involvement in this contest. After the producers of the show asked pageant officials if the images could affect Fakih’s title, they didn’t provide any answer.

Well, its very interesting how secrets come out after people become famous. Should Rima Fakih be proud of her past or not, what do you think?

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Adam Wheeler was admitted to Harvard University and became a student in 2007 after he falsely claimed he had earned a perfect academic record at Phillips Academy in Andover and had studied for a year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

23-year-old Adam Wheeler from Milton, Delaware also plagiarized his resume by saying he won the Winthrop Sargent Prize for English, and the Hoopes Prize for outstanding scholarly work.

He has been accused of snagging $45,000 in financial aid, grants and scholarships. Wheeler spent the night in a Massachusetts jail and is now charged with more than 20 counts, including identity fraud, larceny and forgery.

According to authorities, Harvard started to look into Wheeler’s background after he sought the school’s endorsement for Rhodes and Fulbright scholarships. Prosecutors said a professor reviewed his application and noticed similarities between Wheeler’s writing and that of a colleague.

Authorities also said that before attending Harvard University, Adam Wheeler was a student at Bowdoin College in Maine from 2005 to 2007, but was suspended for academic dishonesty.

No related posts.

While we’ve been covering the ongoing back and forth about proposed new internet censorship rules in Australia we didn’t quite realize that Australia already has internet censorship rules in place. Michael Scott points us to the news of Electronic Frontiers Australia (sort of an EFF for Australia, but with no official relationship between the two) challenging an attempt by Australian officials to censor a blog post EFA put together to highlight Australian censorship:

In May 2009, EFA published this blog post discussing the current censorship regime in the context of the new filtering system soon to be introduced. As part of that discussion, we included a link to a page on American website abortiontv.com that we discovered was on ACMA’s blacklist. Abortion being a sensitive political issue, we felt it illustrated the dangers of internet censorship in general and a secret blacklist in particular. Furthermore, since discussion site Whirlpool had received a notice instructing them to delete the link, we thought it highlighted the serious way in which internet content in Australia is already regulated.

Shortly thereafter, EFA’s web host at the time, Sublime IP, received a “Link Deletion Notice” of their own, for the link contained in the EFA post hosted on their servers. They contacted us, and given the fines involved, EFA complied. (The post in question is still redacted.)

EFA helped its ISP, Sublime, challenge the deletion notice on two counts: (1) that it was a violation of the supposed freedom of political communication, especially since it was a discussion about the “political effects of censorship policy,” and (2) that officials should have sent the notice to EFA directly, rather than its ISP (in fact, EFA had asked for a notice to be sent directly to it, rather than Sublime, so that it could take on the case directly… and officials refused).

Unfortunately, the Australian Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) rejected both challenges, twisting itself into a bit of pretzel logic to explain why this wasn’t a violation of freedom for political communication. Basically, the tribunal claimed that EFA could have hidden the link behind a special “restricted access system” that would block that content for those under 18 (in theory, of course, but not in practice). And, since you have to be 18 to vote, the tribunal reasoned, if such a age verification wall had been in place, the content would not have been blocked from those of voting age… and thus there was no violation of political communication. Yes, that’s quite twisted logic, but if you’re defending internet censorship, sooner or later your logic is going to get twisted into knots…

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When I am making a layer cake, I usually put the bottom layer on the cake plate that I intend to serve it on, then start layering frosting and more cake right from there. It is a hassle to move layer cakes as they tend to be delicate and heavy. Usually this works out very well, especially when I am going to be serving a cake at home. Other times, however, I am taking a cake out to a party or event and I need to put it in a cake carrier – meaning that I usually assemble it in the cake carrier and leave it there to serve it. No one has every complained about this, but I recently picked up a Norpro Cake Lifter to help me improve my presentation.

The cake lifter is a giant, very sturdy, metal spatula that is big enough to lift up a 9-inch layer cake with ease and move it anywhere you need to put it. One of the best features of the tool is that it has a finely beveled edge that lets it slip easily underneath the cake without disturbing the top layers. Of course, I still wouldn’t recommend traveling long distances (like down a flight of stairs) with a cake balanced on this, but for short trips it works great and looks quit a bit nicer than just leaving the cake in its carrier. You can also use it to pull pizzas and breads out of the oven, if they’re too hot to handle easily on their own.

Think things are bad now?  Privacy hounds are going to be up in arms once they see what Google is up to now!  Watch the ‘news’ clip below to see what the future holds for ad-subsidized handsets and content/location aware advertising.

New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users’ Ears

Might We Suggest…

• Google Introduces Click-To-Call Mobile Ads
  Google recently notified AdWords advertisers that it will display business phone numbers on mobile ads, allowing smartphone users to call the business with a tap.  Advertisers will be charged just as…

According to the latest reports, it appears that the orders for the 2011 Bmw 5-Series are already exceeding the firm’s sales target. The new 5-Series made its debut in March and it appears that it is the key for Bmw to improve its sales in 2010 to more than 1.3 million cars.

For those who don’t know, Bmw already toppled Mercedes-Benz as the largest luxury-car maker in 2005 and has increased its sales by 27 percent since 2000. “There are still numerous risks that might prolong a complete recovery,” Reithofer said today. With Greece’s financial problems and the European Union’s efforts to stabilize the euro, “we see that the crisis is not over yet,” he said.

[via autonews – sub. required]

Source: Car news, Car reviews, Spy shots

New England groundfish sectors, a kind of a catch share management system, are entering their third week of operation. It’s far too early to pass judgment, but here’s what we’re watching for: 1) The ability of individual fishermen to maximize their profits and minimize their costs, and 2) The total 2010 harvest of groundfish compared to annual catch limits (ACLs). An article from SeafoodNews.com that we cited last week discussed these two measures, but was criticized for comparing the first week of landings versus last year’s harvest. However, since fishermen fishing under sectors no longer have any time constraints to their harvests, weekly landings are not a meaningful measure of success or failure.

Read the full post »

Carpe Diem highlights how credit card delinquencies are falling nicely, down four months in a row.

“With fewer consumers late on their bills, the outlook for credit losses over the summer may be improving,” says Reuters.

Moreover, credit card debt fell to a 45-month low, as shown by Carpe Diem’s graphic the right.

Overall, as we’ve highlighted before, U.S. households reduced their total debt (inclusive of everything, mortgages, credit cards, etc) by $239 billion in 2009. Yes much of this is due to people defaulting on their obligations, but much needed financial adjustments are being made in the U.S., even if painfully.

Moreover, given the latest credit card data shown above, we’re confident that the overall deleveraging trend of 2009 is continuing in 2010 even though the larger, total household debt number isn’t out yet from the Federal Reserve.

Despite an economic recovery post-crisis, hard times are still driving Americans to reduce their financial leverage. The new American consumer will likely be more conservative than we’ve been used to over the last decade, even as the economy gets better. Which is a good thing in the long-term given how extreme things got.

Join the conversation about this story »

Texas School Board members are meeting in Austin this week for what’s sure to be a showdown over the curriculum for social studies textbooks.

Conservative board members have moved to reverse what some see as liberal bias in the classroom and in textbooks. Critics charge the interim changes whitewash American history and downplay the role of African-Americans, Latinos and women.

Why should you care?

Texas is such a huge purchaser of textbooks that often other states will buy books that were originally created for Texas standards. Those standards are revised for each subject about every 10 years.

At issue this week is the social studies standards for children in kindergarten through the 12th grade.

Originally a committee of teachers and community members came up with revisions to the curriculum. Those revisions went through what’s called a “first reading” in January. A block of eight conservative board members found fault with the preliminary revisions and made changes.

More revisions were made during the “second reading” last March. Then, Texas board members voted 10-5 to adopt changes in line with social conservative views. Some liberal board members stormed out of the meeting after they felt their concerns weren’t being addressed.

Now it’s down to the final vote this week.

Board members are meeting beginning Tuesday at 1pm CST, but they won’t pick up the social studies curriculum till Wednesday at 9am CST.

That’s when the public will be able to talk directly to board members about the draft revisions that came out of the March meetings.

So far, 206 people have signed up to speak. Each will have three minutes to make their views known.

The Texas Board of Education has already been receiving calls and emails from the public about the revisions for the past month.

You can see a summary of the first three weeks of  public opinion to the board. click here

The issue is complex.

Conservatives on the board say the curriculum they received in January and March was way out of whack. Now liberal board members are saying the standards have ticked to far to the other side.

**FOX News will have gavel to gavel coverage of the meetings.  Check back for updates. **