To be perfectly honest here, as much as I love to dig into all the money-politics issues — including the financial-reform bill — I’m much more interested in these big profits and capital gains. This V-shaped recovery is the most important item on my radar screen. It’s the single-biggest investor issue out there right now. I don’t think the bull market in stocks is over yet. Again, regarding taxes and regulations, I’ll warn about next year. But frankly, I think the prosperity theme is issue number one.
La integración de la gestión de la identidad online en Firefox está más cerca. La nueva funcionalidad se llama Account Manager y la idea es que el control de con qué cuenta está uno identificado en cada web pase a gestionarse desde un la de barra en el navegador. Lo interesante de la propuesta es su aproximación abierta, con soporte de OpenId, Oauth y distintos sistemas de identificación (Facebook y Google entre ellos). Se puede ir probando instalando un plugin y hay un análisis más detallado en Webmonkey.
Trasladar la gestión de la identidad digital al navegador desde el sistema que cada web implementa me ha parecido siempre una idea muy buena: experiencia uniforme a lo largo de toda la web, mayor sensación de control por parte del usuario y un empujón a estándares abiertos como OpenId. Lo único es que, para cuando añadan Account Manager a Firefox podría ser demasiado tarde: OpenId parece difícil de salvar (hace un par de años mejorar su experiencia de usuarios nos hubiese venido genial a muchos) y mientras la experiencia de Facebook Connect se hace más común y aceptada por los usuarios… a la par que Firefox no crece a ritmos pasados en el mercado de navegadores. Ojalá me equivoque porque integrar la gestión de la identidad en Firefox me parece una idea excelente.
The success of the recent oil auctions in Iraq is creating a windfall for American oil services companies. Schlumberger (SLB), Baker Hughes (BHI), Weatherford (WFT), and Halliburton (HAL) have committed to drilling 2,500-3,000 new wells per year and building new pipeline and shipping terminal infrastructure that could make the country the world’s largest oil exporter. The value of these contracts may reach a massive $60 billion over the next six years, and could generate $1 billion in new revenues for each company per year. Two offshore terminals are already under construction, and another two are on the drawing board. If successful, the project will boost the country’s oil production from the current 2.5 million barrels a day to 12 million b/d by 2016. Iraq’s oil production peaked at 3 million b/d in 1979, and then went to nearly zero after it invaded Iran.
I remember those days well, as I was issued a visa to accompany Saddam’s troops to Tehran, only to see it cancelled when the Iranians were able to mount a counter offensive. I still have the dessert camos and telephoto lenses need to cover the desert war, although the pants, regrettably, no longer fit. Iraq’s oil industry never recovered. UN sanctions limited the regime to minimal “official” exports that covered humanitarian imports like baby food and drugs. Tanker trucks smuggled out through Jordan what they could, with the proceeds going directly to Saddam’s family. When the US invaded, bails of hundred dollar bills were found stashed in private homes, the proceeds of these black market deals.
American oil engineers were shocked by the poor state of Iraq’s energy infrastructure after 40 years of neglect. It all has to be rebuilt from scratch. If the new Iraqi government can provide the necessary infrastructure, and stabilize the political and security environment, it will become one of the largest changes to the landscape for international trade in decades. Those are all very big “if’s”. It will dump another Saudi Arabia’s worth of crude on the market.
It will also go a long ways towards meeting China’s insatiable demand for oil, and put a long term cap on prices. Of course, this is the scenario that antiwar activists predicted eight years ago, but no one else, especially the Bush administration, thought it would take so long to play out. This is so important that I can’t believe no one else is talking about it.
The folks at CARandDRIVER recently caught up with the Jeep crew and asked them the question we’ve all been waiting an answer for. Will there be a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8? While they didn’t officially confirm anything (or deny anything), they did say that when Chrysler does do an SRT8 version of the new 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, you can expect it to appear within the first couple of model years after introduction.
Power is expected to come from a 6.4L naturally aspirated HEMI V8 making between 505-hp and 525-hp.
Refresher: The 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee will be offered with two new powertrains including Chrysler’s new flexible fuel 280-hp Phoenix 3.6L V6 which increases fuel-economy by up to 11 percent. The range will be topped off with a 5.7L HEMI V8 making 360-hp and a maximum torque of 390 lb-ft.
Confirmed: Dreamgirls director Bill Condon will step behind the lens to direct Breaking Dawn, the eagerly-anticipated fourth and final film in The Twilight Saga, The Hollywood Reporter said Wednesday.
Summit Entertainment confirmed the deal in a press release this afternoon. For his part, Condon couldn’t be more amped-up about lending his noteworthy skills to the wildly-successful franchise.
“I’m very excited to get the chance to bring the climax of this saga to life on-screen. As fans of the series know, this is a one-of-a-kind book — and we’re hoping to create an equally unique cinematic experience,” said Condon in the statement.
“I’m so thrilled that Bill wants to work with us. I think he’s going to be a great fit, and I’m excited to see what he does with the material,” Twilight writer Stephenie Meyer added.
The film is expected to go into production in Canada in November.
HTC Corp has said that it expects record revenue in Q2 2010, and expects to ship 4.5 million devices, 50% up on the same period last year.
HTC has launched 6 devices this quarter, only one of which, the HTC HD Mini, is Windows Mobile, but HTC’s director of investor relations Joey Cheng Cheng said that despite the early adoption of Google Inc’s Android by US consumers, Europeans and Asians continued to be more familiar with smartphones running on the Windows platform.
“There is a new learning curve for each new platform,” Cheng said.
HTC said that it still expects to launch 2 further devices this quarter, and is widely expected to release 2 further Windows Mobile devices, the HTC Tera and the much anticipated HTC Trophy before the end of June 2010.
A cualquiera que lea esta noticia, le puede parecer cuanto menos asombroso y extraño tener la posibilidad de comprar un coche, personalizarlo y elegir la financiación a medida por Internet. Y es que, en la vida cotidiana, compramos numerosos gadgets por la red, ¿por qué no íbamos a comprar un coche?
Ya buscamos coches de ocasión a través de Internet, así que comprar uno nuevo no debería ser extraño. La marca nipona lo sabe, y con más razón cuando el perfil de su cliente es sobre todo internauta y varón entre 30 y 40 años. Si además de ofrecer la posibilidad de financiarlo a su gusto desde casa y sólo acudir al concesionario a recoger su vehículo y sus regalos, la cosa se hace muy interesante.
Mazda en los últimos años ha ido evolucionando para adaptarse al mercado, sobre todo, innovando con sus coches con el fin de ofrecer a su usuario lo que él desea. Así pues nació la generación zoom-zoom de vehículos, con una deportividad notoria en toda la gama, y donde conducir estaba asociado con divertirse.
Con Mazdashop se pretende llegar a un paso más allá, donde comprarse el coche sea también una diversión y una comodidad. Nada más empezar nos regalan un Parrot Bluetooth con conexión para iPod y USB, pero a medida que avanzamos en la configuración, obtenemos más puntos canjeables por regalos.
El procedimiento es muy sencillo. Tras elegir la carrocería de 3 o 5 puertas, el motor, la versión y los accesorios, se da opción a financiar el coche. Se puede aumentar o disminuir la entrada inicial, el período e incluso el tipo de seguro (coche, vida, desempleo) para después disfrutar de los regalos como ampliaciones de garantía, revisiones de mantenimiento, teléfonos móviles de alta gama, consolas e incluso cheques regalo en gasolina y marcas de ropa. Todo pensado para que estrenar coche sea inolvidable.
Mazdashop se une a las dos propuestas ya lanzadas por Mazda como son Mazda Outlet y Mazda Selected. La primera abarca los coches de la marca ya usados, bien de directivos o de particulares y la segunda son vehículos nuevos fuera de temporada. El éxito es rotundo, ya que se han vendido más de 1.400 coches en Mazda Selected desde su lanzamiento en noviembre de 2008.
La iniciativa está lanzada. Sólo queda que el resto de marcas aprovechen el tirón de la Red para facilitar la venta de sus coches y que acercarnos al concesionario sea únicamente para disfrutar de nuestro coche, sin habernos recorrido cientos de kilómetros entre uno y otro, gastado el tiempo y asegurarnos así un precio más que competitivo, con la confianza de que no lo encontraremos más barato por más que apretemos al vendedor, obteniendo además, regalos más que interesantes.
Courtesy of IHOPMan, I sure could use a cheesecake sandwich right about now. But instead of bread on either side of the cheesecake, I want pancakes. And then I want to top it with strawberry compote and whipped topping. And because that probably won’t be enough, let’s tack on eggs, hash browns, and bacon on the side. Unfortunately, this is no dream (or grodie nightmare).
Not to be outdone by KFC’s disgusting Double Down (that’s two fried chicken breasts instead of a bun, with bacon and cheese in between), IHOP’s stepped up with its own answer to the question, “How can we keep Americans fat?” Pancake Stackers, a crustless cheesecake sandwiched by pancakes—for a limited time, thank goodness, according to ads.
No word on the calorie count for the new cheesecake-pancake sandwich, but the company’s regular Pancake Stackers combo (no cheesecake in between and with all the sides mentioned above) tops out at 1,250 calories, more than double the Double Down, which is 540 calories.
So cheesecake sandwich for breakfast, Double Down for lunch, and what for dinner? Here’s one idea:
Proxy season is almost over and the folks here at footnoted are looking forward to turning our attention over to the first quarter Qs, which have already begun to trickle in. Not that proxies aren’t lots of fun — they’re chock full of all sorts of information. But as with all SEC filings, sometimes what’s not there in black and white is much more interesting than what is there.
That’s why we appreciate footnoted friend Ric Marshall, chief analyst at The Corporate Library bringing something that’s MIA from Owens Corning’s (OC) proxy to our attention: a seemingly important detail from the biography of Audit Committee Chair Norman P. Blake.
You see, Blake, who has been a director at Owens since 1992, used to serve on the board of a company called Enron, something you wouldn’t know unless you went all the way back to the proxy that Owens filed in 2000. And, since most people aren’t likely to do that, they’re left with the extensive bio that Owens Corning does provide on Blake:
Norman P. Blake, Jr 68, formerly Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Comdisco, Inc., global technology services, Rosemont, Illinois, until 2002. Director since 2006; formerly a Director of the Predecessor since 1992. A graduate of Purdue University, Mr. Blake also previously has served as Chief Executive Officer of the United States Olympic Committee; Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Promus Hotel Corporation; Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of USF&G Corporation; Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Heller International Corporation of Chicago; and Executive Vice President—Financing Operations, General Electric Credit Corporation, General Electric Company. Mr. Blake is a member of the Purdue Research Foundation, Purdue University’s President’s Council and Dean’s Advisory Council, Krannert School of Management and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Army War College Foundation. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Keraplast Technologies, Ltd. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Purdue University and is the recipient of the degree of Doctor of Economics honoris causa from Purdue University, granted jointly by the Krannert School of Management and School of Liberal Arts. He has also been awarded The Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
While Blake’s membership on Enron’s board has been whitewashed from Owens’ proxy for the past 10 years, this year, it seems even more significant, in light of the SEC’s new rules (pdf) requiring greater disclosure on the background of board members and their qualifications. Indeed, one would think this would be particularly important, given Blake’s role on Owens’ Audit Committee.
“This is clearly a case of compliance with the letter, but NOT the spirit, of the new regs,” Marshall writes. “The lawyers must have had a field day!” Of course, isn’t that what lawyers are trained to do? Earlier today, Owens filed its 10-Q, which makes us wonder what’s been lawyered-out there.
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The Met Office Book of the British Weather 978-07153-3640-3 · £9.99 · paperback with flaps
· Includes the latest climate science research and predictions of how the weather will change where you live
· Authoritative Met Office information
· A great gift – everyone talks about the weather – especially in light of the extreme weather over Christmas 2009 and into 2010, and for anyone whose hobby or sport relies heavily on the weather e.g. sailors, pilots, fisherman & walkers
· Forecasts the likely weather for the British Isles over the next thirty years
When Arizona passed its highly controversial immigration bill — which among other provisions requires police to ask people about their legal status if they have reason to believe they might be illegal immigrants — into law last week, national Democrats hoped to turn the issue into a wedge for Republicans. And things seemed to be going their way at first, as high-profile conservatives like Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio came out against the Arizona law.
But this morning, polls showed a healthy approval rating bounce for Gov. Jan Brewer (R-Ariz.) after she signed the immigration bill. And now at least one Republican gubernatorial candidate is hoping to follow Brewer’s lead.
On the Peter Boyles talk radio show Wednesday morning, Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis said that if he were governor, he would seek to pass the same kind of harsh anti-illegal immigration laws recently passed in Arizona.
“I am going to wave the magic wand. You’re governor. What would you do?” Boyles asked McInnis.
“I would do something very similar [to what Gov. Jan Brewer did in Arizona],” said McInnis, lauding Brewer for signing the legislation. “Finally some governor stood up and said ‘We are stopping the retreat. No more retreat. Federal government if you are not going to do it, we are going to do it.’”
Canadian heartthrob Justin Bieber, NBC News correspondent Ann Curry, and Pretty Woman Julia Roberts are among the stars featured on PEOPLE Magazine’s annual roundup of entertainment’s “Most Beautiful People.”
Jesse has turned to Consumerist for help because he is being haunted by a relic from his past. Specifically, he writes that a debt collector has contacted him, claiming that he owes them for having a gas service account that he never used–in an apartment where he thought all utilities were included. What should he do?
Here’s his email:
I’ve run into a small problem recently, and I’m not sure what to do about it. I got a call from a debt collector saying I owe a gas bill from a couple apartments ago. I’ve never heard of the company and certainly never opened an account with them.
The debt collector gave me a phone number and an account number, so I called the company to learn what I could. They said if I lived there, I owed the bill, which is comprised entirely of fees for even having an account (I was a single bachelor and NEVER ONCE used the stove in that apartment).
As far as I knew, gas was included in the rent for that place. I’m not confident I still have a copy of the lease agreement, though. If I’m mistaken about utilities being included, what are my options? I’m quitting my job in 6 weeks and moving across the country, so I’m a little strapped for cash just now (there’s no lucrative job on the other end of the move).
We’ll turn this over to the Consumerist hive mind in case any of you have been in similar situations, but here are some places to start: First, Jesse should get hold of that former landlord, whether it was an individual or a company, to see whether they have any idea what’s going on. It’s possible that the building just recently switched to having tenants pay gas–and former tenants like Jesse were caught up in some kind of crazy billing error.
If hecan turn up evidence that the debt is invalid (or if he’s really, really sure that the gas was included) dispute the debt after making sure that the zombie agency really does own the debt.
Apple just dumped a truckload of money at the doorstep of Siri, a startup you’ve probably never heard of, which makes a voice search iPhone app you’ve probably never used. Why? The answer, as usual, has to do with Google. More »
Wear your thumb socks – Click above to watch video after the jump
In the never-ending battle to get teenage drivers to put down their cell phones while driving, Sprint has assembled an A-Team of comedic force to advocate the use of thumb socks. We’re not kidding. The ever-hilarious comedians Ken Jeong and Joel McHale have jumped on board to get teens to wrap up their opposable digits while driving. The theory is that the slick sock fabric makes it nearly impossible manipulate your phone’s buttons and cuts out using the iPhone’s touchscreen all together.
Sprint will be more than happy to send you three pairs of the socks once you sign up for an account over at the Do Something web site. The company is hoping kids will give the extra pairs to their friends, or keep a pair in the glove box.
Sounds like a good idea, to be sure. Thing is, we have a hard time believing your average teenager is going to embrace wearing something that’s four fingers short of a glove and takes effort to put on. Considering the fact that tying shoe laces is too much a stretch for most of the sub-20 population, we don’t expect to see thumb socks become all the rage all of a sudden. Hit the jump to see Jeong and McHale do their best to get the word out.
WASHINGTON–Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine said Wednesday there is a “civil war” within the GOP.
Kaine made his remarks at a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, where he discussed the new DNC program to energize for the November mid-term elections some 15 million first time voters the Obama campaign recruited in 2008.
Republicans are wrestling with Tea Party activists, an “energy” Democrats take seriously, Kaine said. Unlike Republicans, Democrats, Kaine said are unified.
“We don’t have a civil war going on within the Democratic Party. You know, we know who our leader is, it is the President. The other side has a civil war, that is ‘who is our leader, which faction are we going to follow’ and the other side tends to have a little more of a litmus test- ‘if you are not with us, we are going to throw you out.’
“That’s not who we are. Not that we agree on everything, but we are usually at least singing in harmony, if not the same note. But there is a real battle going on on the other side.”
NEWS RELEASE April 28, 2010 Contact: Frank Murray, 542-4835
Columbia Basin College career and workforce students won 14 of 30 medals at the SkillsUSA Washington Post Secondary State Conference April 23 and 24 in the Tri-Cities.
Nine of CBC’s students qualified for the national competition in Kansas City in June. CBC medalists included:
You should probably just click this to see the whole comic. Notice I didn’t say “… see the whole joke” because, of course, it’s true. It’s also true that lobsters live in trees.
David Sanger points us to a case that is so full of confusion and ridiculousness that it’s difficult to know who to support. It appears that both parties are greatly confused about the law, terms of service and what each other did. It involves news giant AFP and a photojournalist, Daniel Morel, who was in Haiti at the time of the earthquake, and took some photos right after it happened. That’s when things get mixed up. In an effort to get the photos out to the world, the daughter of a friend helped him upload the images to Twitpic, and then announce them via Twitter. From there a different photographer, Lisandro Suero, based in the Dominican Republic, apparently copied those images to his own account on TwitPic and tweeted that the images were available for licensing. The AFP then used those photos, uploaded them to Getty for distribution, and credited Suero. The photos then started appearing in a variety of places credited to AFP/Getty/Suero. Morel gets upset and sends a legal nastygram to the AFP… and after some back and forth the AFP sues Morel (yes, the AFP sued Morel after using his photos without credit) asking for summary judgment that it did not infringe on his copyrights and saying that Morel’s claims that his work was infringed upon were “commercial defamation.”
You can read the (relatively short) complaint here:
And you can read Morel’s much longer response here (which, by the way, includes the photographs in question):
Where to start on the mess here? First, let’s start with AFP. This is the same organization that once sued Google for merely linking to AFP stories with the AFP’s headline in Google News. So for the AFP to pretend it’s on the moral high road here for blatantly using a photo without licensing it is pretty damn hypocritical, even if you believe it had the right to do so. Given its own actions on copyright issues, the AFP seems to think that any use is infringing.
You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or later developed).
AFP uses this in its filing, noting:
When Mr. Morel posted his photographs on Twitter, he made no notation that he
was in any way limiting the license granted to Twitter or third parties or that he was in
any way limiting the ability of Twitter and third parties to use, distribute, or republish his
photographs. Thus, a third party would reasonably assume that based on the Twitter
Terms of Service and typical use, by posting his photographs on Twitter, Mr. Morel was
granting the requisite license to Twitter and third parties to use, copy, publish, display
and distribute those photographs.
There are two very big problems with this line of argument (though, oddly, Mr. Morel doesn’t seem to point out either problem in his response). Problem #1: The photos were posted to TwitPic, not Twitter. While many people don’t seem to realize this, TwitPic is not a part of Twitter, but is a separate company. Thus, Twitter’s licensing terms are somewhat irrelevant. Problem #2: Twitter’s terms of service are between Twitter and the user, not for a third party. Reading the terms in question should be familiar to anyone who’s set up any online user-generated content service. They’re boilerplate terms that mean the service in question has the right to post the content that the user submitted. Not some third party. Note that the terms clearly say “you grant us a worldwide…” That “us” is Twitter. Not the AFP. For the AFP to claim otherwise is really bizarre.
Of course, this doesn’t absolve Morel, either. First, once his lawyers contacted the AFP, the AFP did seek to stop distribution of the image. Yes, this was late in the process, but if it’s true that AFP was really confused and thought it had the proper license, it did appear to act to rectify the situation as soon as it was notified. Morel’s claims that AFP must have just known that he was the originating photographer seem questionable. On top of that, he immediately jumps to demanding a huge fee from AFP, even though he admits that the reason he uploaded the images was to help them get widely seen. As he said, he posted them online “in the hopes that his images would span the globe to inform the world of the disaster.” He also claimed he posted them there so that he would “receive compensation and credit as a professional photographer,” but just because you post images hoping to “receive compensation,” it doesn’t mean you’re automatically entitled to compensation.
Even worse, while I don’t think Twitter’s terms of service matter at all here (see two paragraphs up), Morel’s response to that issue doesn’t help his case at all. He claims that Twitter’s terms of service shouldn’t apply because he didn’t read them:
Mr. Morel had no prior experience with Twitter, the social networking site and did not read the Terms of Service.
While I don’t think Twitter’s terms of service apply for all the reasons above, his failure to read the terms hardly is the best reasoning in his defense.
If he should be upset with anyone, it sure looks like his real complaint should be with Lisandro Suero, who copied the images, claimed the work as his own, and offered them up to news agencies. Morel’s complaint blames AFP for not taking the time to do the “due diligence” to make sure Suero actually took the photos:
What steps did AFP take to verify Suero’s identity? From where were the
images sent? Did they call Suero and ask him where he was when the images were
taken? Did they contact other AFP resident photographers in Haiti or the Dominican
Republic to inquire whether anybody had ever heard of Lisandro Suero?
Yet, this is coming from the same guy who just pages before admits he didn’t bother reading the terms of service for the website on which he was uploading photos — and many months later still doesn’t realize that he uploaded them to a totally different service, called TwitPic, rather than Twitter? Complaining that the AFP failed in its due diligence seems a bit strange, considering the lack of due diligence on his own part.
In the end, this is a lot of arguing over nothing. Both parties seem to have screwed up in their actions. Morel admits he wanted the world to see his photos and various news agencies helped in that regards, and have helped boost his reputation as a photojournalist. It appears there are lots of ways that he could cash in on that recognition. Meanwhile, the AFP clearly mislabled the images and appears to be blatantly misreading the terms of service on a different site than the photos were uploaded to.
HTC Corp has said that it expects record revenue in Q2 2010, and expects to ship 4.5 million devices, 50% up on the same period last year. 
