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Yep, they’re going there.

I may not completely enjoy the experience, but it’s an overdue move.

From the link:

Twitter is finally taking off the training wheels and moving into the world where real businesses tread with the launch today of its first advertising model .

The microblogging phenomenon has long avoided coming up with a business plan or even talking about one. Just last October, Twitter CEO Evan Williams told an audience at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco that the company wanted to focus on developing the site , instead of on a business model.

But the time has come for Twitter to figure out how to make money over the long haul.

It’s a decision that makes the company look less like a grand hobby and more like an actual business , said Rob Enderle, an analyst with the Enderle Group.

But, will the masses revolt?

From the link:

Now that Twitter has begun to display ads–pardon me, Promoted Tweets–in users’ search results, the big question is how millions of loyal Twitter fans will respond. Reaction on the micro-blogging site has been muted thus far–more questions than commentary, actually–and it’s apparent that most users haven’t seen the new ads yet.

According to a blog post by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, the ad program will be rolled out gradually, with Promoted Tweets (such as the Starbucks (SBUX) example below) appearing atop some Twitter.com search result pages.

Of course, the very idea of product-pitching tweets won’t sit well with a good number of Twitter users, who’ve grown accustomed to the ad-free (and unprofitable) service.

Sure to give agita to the Israeli embassy in Washington: The Center for a New American Security publishes a 100-page multiple-case study of how the international community could midwife a Palestinian state from a security perspective.

It’s a long study, with seven authors, and I’ve barely made a crack in it, so I won’t try to summarize the specific recommendations. But CNAS, looking at recent cases of international peacekeeping forces in transitional states or autonomous provinces, examines what security conditions need to be met for a viable independent Palestine that doesn’t threaten Israel to come into being.

Israel generally has balked over the years at the prospect of international peacekeeping forces patrolling the West Bank, as such a force would limit Israel’s freedom of military action in occupied Palestine. (Andrew Exum, one of the studies’ authors, lists a short host of reasons why Israel shouldn’t have a problem with such a force while — at least in the introduction — glossing over the fact that it does.) But less important than any specific recommendation is the fact that the think tank that has launched many an official into the Obama Pentagon and State Department, CNAS, is expending any intellectual heft on the issue at all, let along thinking through the modalities of interim internationalization of West Bank/Jordan River Valley security. Such a detailed study, coming in advance of a potential Obama peace plan — which the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu definitely does not want — will most likely be read at the Israeli embassy and in Jerusalem as a sign that a real U.S. push on a two-state solution is gathering momentum.

And it reaffirms a linkage that some on the American Jewish right and the Israeli government don’t want to see made. “Although peace in the Middle East is hardly the exclusive responsibility of the United States,” Exum writes in the introduction, “it is a goal long sought by its political leaders and one inextricably linked to U.S. interests.” That viewpoint was roundly mocked as simplistic at the AIPAC conference this year, despite it being the stated policy of decades of American administrations.

 

Those of you who are attending (or thinking of attending) Palm’s Developer Day in Sunnyvale this weekend now have access to the full agenda for the two day event.  On the docket for the weekend are hacking sessions, off-site mixers, and speeches from high-level engineering folk such as Graphics Frameworks Engineer Andy Weir, VP of Platform and Tools Joe Hayashi, and of course Directors of Developer Relations Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer. 

Looking over the agenda, it looks like developers are getting more than their $25 worth, as both days are packed solid with presentations.  The first day gives a higher level overview of webOS with presentations starting at 10:00am and ending around 5:00pm.  The second day gets down into the nitty gritty with presentations starting at 9:00am with the keynote speech (delivered by Ben and Dion), being followed up with multiple presentations during each time slot, with everything wrapping up with an off-site mixer around 5:30.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

Yesterday, Facebook announced an awesome new feature that lets anyone see your current city, hometown, education, work, likes, and interests, even if you’ve set your profile to private. Will this benefit individual users and their friends? Not unless the only thing you remember about your dear friend is that they enjoy leather-play and you’re willing to scroll through reams of headshots to find them. No, this new privacy erosion is for the real clients of Facebook: advertisers, and the data-mining minions that toil on their behalf. However, there are two ways to be totally private.

The first is to change your age to under 18. Then your interests can only be seen by friends and family and verified networks, as per Facebook’s policy for minors. Whoops, actually, you would have had to make your age under 18 when you signed up for Facebook. Tough noogies, they gotcha!

The second is to delete your profile and get off Facebook. The best safeguard of your online personal information is to never put it there in the first place.

Facebook Further Reduces Your Control Over Personal Information [EFF]
Connecting to Everything You Care About [The Facebook Blog]

RELATED: Facebook’s New Terms Of Service: “We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.”

Several students in the University of Colorado Denver’s new BA/BS-MD program will receive School of Medicine scholarships—thanks to a new endowment funded by a bequest from former University of Colorado medical researcher Jean Baughman (BS ’58, CU-Boulder).

The bequest is currently valued at approximately $1.6 million in cash but includes other assets that, when liquidated, may add roughly a quarter million dollars more to the total. Baughman made this commitment, facilitated by the University of Colorado Foundation, in 2000 in honor of her stepfather Charles Henry Hargreaves, MD, who himself received two CU degrees including from the School of Medicine in 1950.

Baughman had worked in the hematology lab at the School of Medicine for several years after graduating from CU-Boulder with a Bachelor of Science degree in medical technology. After a career at CU and later in New Mexico, she retired to San Antonio, Texas, passing away in 2008.

The scholarships, to be awarded in perpetuity, will be distributed to students entering the School of Medicine as part of UC Denver’s BA/BS-MD program—a new UC Denver program that combines four years of undergraduate schooling on the University of Colorado’s Denver campus with four years of medical training at the School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus.

This BA/BS-MD program is aimed to attract top Colorado students, and help them pursue careers as primary physicians in underserved Colorado communities without incurring large debt loads. The first cohort of BA/BS-MD students begins this eight-year program in Fall 2010.

Materials: Leksvik bookshelf

Description: We took some IKEA fabric and nailed it behind a Leksvik bookshelf. No one can see our boring wall anymore and it looks very cool.

~ xenu, Germany.

Talk about getting comfortable with the multi-year commodities super-spike we’ve had…

Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank has disclosed that its government requires $60 just to break even on its budget these days.

Yet they’re actually aiming for $75 oil in 2010, which will provide them with a healthy $24.3 billion budget surplus.

Upstream Online:

The kingdom may end up spending 12% above the 540 billion riyals it budgeted for this year and get revenues 48% above the planned 385 billion riyals, Reuters quoted Said al-Shaikh, chief economist at National Commercial Bank (NCB), as saying.

“Crude oil prices, based on a modest recovery in global demand, are expected to average $75 (per barrel) with Saudi production rising to 8.3 million barrels per day,” Shaikh told a conference.

…

After declining by almost 8% in 2009, net foreign assets held by the Saudi central bank are set to rise by almost 10% this year to $445.2 billion, surpassing their lifetime record of 2008, Shaikh said, based on assumptions of daily production of 8.3 million bpd and a $75 average price for oil.

So they’re budgeting for $60 oil (where the budget breaks even) while wondering what to do in their likely expected scenario whereby oil remains around $75.

Which means $60 per barrel is the new cheap oil, since Saudi Arabia runs a deficit at any price lower.

Note OPEC has been pretty adamant recently about defending the $70 – 80 oil band, and at a recent oil conference even forecast that oil could remain between $70 – 80 per barrel for ten years.

Luckily for the rest of the world, OPEC’s control over the global oil market is clearly dying. So it might not be up to them anymore, really.

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The Health Effects Institute (HEI) is one of the most respected research organizations in air pollution science.

The Institute was founded in 1980 through an unprecedented partnership between the EPA and the automotive industry. With equal funding from agency and industry (by market share), HEI is in a unique position to provide “high-quality, impartial, and relevant science,” on air pollution health effects, according to their website.

“HEI began because there was a need for independent science that could be trusted by everyone,” said Dan Greenbaum, HEI’s president.

“What we find is that with industry, EPA, and environmentalists at the table, they are really asking the same scientific questions…even though they may not always want the same answers.”

To maintain objectivity, HEI’s review committees are staffed by participants who are not involved in any advocacy for industry or the environment. The Institute also avoids making regulatory recommendations.
“We don’t make policy here,” Greenbaum said. “We deliver relevant science to the doorsteps of decision-makers so they can do their jobs.”

Greenbaum is known for communicating well across business, environmental, and political realms. He has applied this savvy at the helm of HEI and steered the Institute toward the highest standards of scientific integrity.

“The scientific review process can be a little intense,” Greenbaum admitted, “but it’s so important to have research that is above and beyond reproach.”

Because of the integrity of HEI’s research, their data is often used in important decision-making processes.
In 1997, for example, the EPA reviewed national standards for PM and ozone. To ensure the review incorporated the best-possible information, HEI was asked to reanalyze large datasets from two major air pollution studies.

“They trusted us to treat the data well,” Greenbaum said, “and after tearing it apart and putting it back together again, we confirmed the results and found higher effects of air pollution in people with lower socioeconomic status.”

HEI continues to push the research envelope. Through a new committee, HEI is identifying needed research on the potential health consequences of new fuels and engine technologies.

“We are forecasting a range of new technologies and looking to see whether they could have unintended consequences for public health,” Greenbaum said.

“This is a great example of research to fill gaps in understanding. The key thing we do is listen to what information people need and then do the research to get it.”

For more information, visit: http://www.healtheffects.org/

About the Author: Becky Fried is a science writer with EPA’s National Center for Environmental Research. Her OnAir posts are a regular “Science Wednesday” feature.

It’s such an obvious question: Why couldn’t Apple track this phone down? As it turns out, they may have had two chances to get it back—and blown them both. More »

It’s “really hard” to say whether al Qaeda has tried to launch another attack on the aviation system since the failed Christmas Day bombing, but no one has been taken into custody for attempting to carry out such a plot, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

“It is always difficult to talk about what you have deterred and what has been prevented,” she said in a wide-ranging and lengthy interview with Fox News.

Since 23-year-old Umar F. Abdulmutallab boarded a plane in Nigeria and then allegedly tried to blow up an airliner over Detroit, Napolitano has been trying to persuade countries around the world to boost their aviation security measures.

“There has been remarkably little resistance,” said Napolitano, who over the past several months has met with officials in Europe, Africa and South America. “When al Qaeda and al Qaeda-related groups go at aviation, they’re really going at the citizens of the world and the global aviation system.”

Asked whether an al Qaeda operative could access the aviation system by simply going to a country that has not agreed to boost security measures, Napolitano suggested such a scenario is unlikely.

“We have processes in place that allow us to identify travelers who may be trying to avoid” countries or airports with boosted security measures,” she said. “I don’t want to talk about that any more than that.”

Most recently, Napolitano met with African authorities in Nigeria, where officials were “eager” to host international officials to help dispel any notion that Abdulmutallab is a “typical Nigerian,” she said.

Nigeria has already deployed “new types of technology” to the airport in Lagos, and U.S. partners around the world have implemented new procedures for collecting information and “vetting” passengers, according to Napolitano.

Among the new measures, airports across the globe have added more K-9 teams, more explosive detection equipment, and different kinds of scanners, including the “advanced imaging technology scanners,” she said.

On a broader scale, the United States has “totally reconfigured” how U.S.-bound and U.S.-based passengers are screened, with officials now focusing on intelligence rather than time spent in at least one of 14 worrisome nations.

Napolitano dismissed the idea of using both intelligence-based screenings and a 14-nation list, saying a list of nations was “helpful as an immediate tool” right after the attempted Christmas Day attack but isn’t practical today.

“It’s too much and too little at the same time,” she said. “It’s too much because [there are] too many people you don’t need to be spending time on. They’re innocent travelers. They just happen to be from a particular country. … And it’s too little because you’re not focusing on intelligence that may be derived from passengers who are coming from other places in the world.”

In addition, Napolitano acknowledged that some countries face “capacity issues” when it comes to boosting their security measures.

Specifically, she said some countries have “resource issues,” difficulties with maintenance and repairs, or “electrical supply issues.”

While the United States, for example, may deploy technology to boost security, in some counties it’s “easier to deploy more people to actually do pat downs and physical screening than it is to deploy new types of technology,” she said.

Napolitano said these “capacity issues” will be addressed by international partners when they meet in Canada in early Fall, after which nations “will need” to discuss offering resources to less fortunate nations.

Since the failed Christmas Day bombing, U.S. flights have increasingly been diverted for security reasons.

According to a study by USA Today, in the first three months of this year, 35 U.S. flights were diverted from their destination to a different airport for security reasons. In the same period last year, 17 U.S. flights were diverted for security reasons.

Napolitano defended the uptick.

“Where airline security and air security is concerned, those are judgments that should not be second-guessed,” she said. “You always have to act in what you believe is the security of the passengers. There’s really not room for error there.”

Asked whether she thought the failed Christmas Day bombing might have hurt the Obama administration’s standing with the public, she emphatically said, “No.”

“I think the administration responded very quickly and also identified that there were problems that needed to be addressed and fixed,” she said. “We have obviously on the security side … taken material steps forward and really used Christmas Day as an opportunity to address the world-wide aviation system as a whole.”

She said the issue would not impact Democrats in mid-term elections later this year.

Napolitano travels next to the Middle East, where she’ll urge nations there to boost aviation security measures in their airports.

Radio Shack rumors, Executive changes, tiny scraps of C40 information, and plenty of developer news: even a relatively slow news week gives us good fodder for PalmCast Live. Tonight it’s Dieter and Keith and their good friend webOS. Come join – 8pm Eastern.

Got questions? Tweet them with the  #palmcast hashtag for our lightning round.

We’ll be giving away an invisibleSHIELD full body cover for the Palm Pre, too, because we know you need to protect that Pre from all the pollen and volcano ash out there.

8pm Eastern tonight. We’ll see you there.

Toyota may be a tad on the low side after its relentless string of technical issues which has seen so many Toyota commuters being recalled, but the Prius has been one ray of hope that has never let the moniker down. Toyota is now thinking of further embarking upon the Prius success and the news is that a Prius Minivan may be released in 201. The Prius derivative will come with three rows of seats that will help the commuter accommodate a maximum of seven passengers. What is great is that it will again be a green commuter that will be based on the Li-on battery technology. This will help to improve fuel economy and the excess weight will also not be an issue.

Just one hour until our LIVE coverage of Apple’s Q2 earnings report. Join us at 4 p.m., and read our Apple earnings preview now →

Join the conversation about this story »

Filed under: Sedan, Wagon, Plants/Manufacturing, Subaru, Toyota

Subaru is still seeing record sales for its newly redesigned Legacy and Outback, and as such, the company is looking to bump up production at the birthplace of our long-term Legacy 2.5GT by a hefty 40 percent. Automotive News reports that Fuji Heavy Industries wants to see a total of 140,000 vehicles roll out of the doors at its Indiana plant by the end of 2010 – a figure that could prove to be problematic considering that the Lafayette facility is presently only geared to turn out 100,000 cars per year.

That means Subaru will have to rummage up a way to crank out an extra 40,000 units, which may mean adding an additional production line. So far, Subaru hasn’t said how it plans to meet the goals set forth by the higher-ups, but Automotive News seems to think the company may take over a line currently devoted to producing the Toyota Camry. Considering there are whispers that the increased output will require an investment of tens of millions of dollars, our money is on seeing another line at the plant.

Last year, Subaru sold a total of 216,652 vehicles. The company says that with the announced nudge in production, that figure should increase to 230,000 for 2010.

[Source: Automotive News]

Report: Subaru to boost Indiana output by 40% originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hartford Courant cartoonist Bob Englehart weighs in on the Susan Bysiewicz case.

http://blogs.courant.com/bob_englehart/2010/04/april-11-2010.html

Posted by Monique Garcia at 1:55 p.m.

Gov. Pat Quinn today called for a review of the use of state-owned vehicles following the weekend drunk driving arrest arrest of Senate President John Cullerton’s son while behind the wheel of a taxpayer-funded SUV.

“This is an alarm bell that we need to pay attention to,” Quinn said. “Especially in these times of austerity, we need to look at where all state vehicles are, how they are used, where they’re assigned, and I intend to pursue that.”



Garritt Cullerton, 26, was driving a state-owned Ford Escape SUV when he was pulled over by Chicago police early Sunday. Police said he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.188, more than twice the legal limit.



The 2009 SUV was used by John Cullerton and kept primarily at his Chicago home, where Garritt Cullerton lives. The Senate president told the Tribune that as a result of his son’s "unauthorized" use of the vehicle, he would now keep it parked at his downtown state office in the Thompson Center.

Cullerton also told the Tribune he would examine “limiting the fleet” of taxpayer-funded cars purchased by the General Assembly, a little-known perk the arrest brought to light. The General Assembly currently owns 14 vehicles, including six vehicles assigned to the Senate, and eight assigned to the House.



Quinn said it is “absolutely wrong” for state-owned vehicles to ever be used by family members or anyone not working for the state, but he stopped short of saying top lawmakers should be stripped of the perk saying he planned to meet with legislative leaders and discuss the issue this afternoon.



The governor did suggest the legislative branch could face budget cuts that would force the General Assembly to reconsider some purchases.



“It bears inspection, and this is a good time to do the inspecting,” Quinn said. “We have a tough budget, we have to tighten the budget. Any information that we have that indicates that a vehicle is not necessary, then we will act appropriately.”



“All branches of government have to be united in being thrifty and frugal," Quinn said. "I think it’s important for the governor, whose responsible for the whole state, to make it clear to the legislative leaders in both houses in both parties that this is an area that needs oversight and reform."

Online marketplaces like eBay have a bit of protection from liability if their platforms are used to sell counterfeit or copyrighted goods. However, in the offline world, flea markets have historically not been granted the same type of protection, as seen in Fonovisa v. Cherry Auctions (1996), where flea markets were found to be liable for selling infringing works.

But now, the same protections afforded to online marketplaces could now be coming to their offline counterparts. Texas judge Lynn Hughes has dismissed the case Sony Discos Inc. v. EJC Family Partnership, where Sony Music sued a flea market operator, Elwin J. Cole, for copyrighted goods being sold at the market. Sony alleged that EJC was guilty of contributory infringement by allowing its sellers to sell copyrighted goods in the market. The judge disagreed, ruling that it was not EJC’s responsibility to police the market for Sony (full ruling here – pdf):

Sony does not argue and cannot show that Cole aided or enhanced infringing sales specifically, in a manner distinct from Cole’s facilitation of all sales at the flea market.

…Cole is not akin to the driver of a get-away car; he is closer to the service station manager who sells the bank-robber gasoline.

So, perhaps driven by the safe harbors enjoyed by their online counterparts, offline flea markets are no longer to be held responsible for infringing uses of their marketplaces. If infringement happens, then it’s reasonable for the owners to go after those specifically responsible — it’s inefficient and unfair to expect a marketplace to do the police work, especially when there are tons of non-infringing sales happening all of the time.

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We always imagine chief executives tend to be well-traveled people, flying off to power lunches and taking critical conference calls on their cell phones from the back seat of their cars.

But some corporate chieftains seem to have a little more wanderlust than others — and while the jet-setters usually get the attention, a few seem to have their wheels planted firmly on the ground. Exhibit A: Michael J. Saylor, president, chairman and CEO of MicroStrategy Inc., a McLean, Va., firm that helps other companies analyze their data.

Saylor racked up $125,615 in personal use of company vehicles in 2009 — plus another $57,800 in “alternative car services,” according to the proxy MicroStrategy filed April 16. That’s part of his total pay of $4.7 million, including cash incentive compensation of $3.35 million.

Earlier in the filing, the company provides a lengthy description of the various wheels to which Saylor is entitled:

“We provide Company-owned vehicles and a driver to Mr. Saylor. In addition to business use, we have authorized Mr. Saylor to make personal use of the company-owned vehicles and related driving services when such vehicles are not being used for business purposes, and we provide a tax gross-up for taxes he may incur as a result of this personal use. … [W]e permit him to acquire the services of one or more drivers for vehicles other than Company-owned vehicles for personal use, and we provide a tax gross-up for taxes he may incur as a result of this personal use.”

The explanation is simple: The company wants to

“enable Mr. Saylor to make more productive and efficient use of his time for Company business while he is in transit, enhance his personal security and help to preserve Company confidentiality by limiting his use of public transportation such as taxis and limousine rental services”

There’s a limit even to MicroStrategy’s automotive generosity, however. Personal use of drivers for non-company vehicles is reimbursed only up to $150,000 a year, including tax gross-ups, for Saylor and all employees and directors. There doesn’t appear to be a limit on personal use of company vehicles.

Never mind that $183,415 could buy Saylor four 2010 BMW 335 i 2D Coupes. We were curious what the company would get for that kind of cash at the rates charged by a New York City cabbie. The answer: nine round-trips from the company’s Washington, D.C.-area headquarters to Anchorage, Alaska – plus an 18.6% tip. That much traveling would amount to 211 miles a day.

Now that’s a hard-driving CEO.

Image source: Fly Navy via Flickr

Consumerist reader David recently made the switch from Comcast internet to Verizon DSL because he figured if he was going to get slow web access, he might as well pay less for it. David also works for a company that will reimburse him for a portion of his internet cost, so long as he provides them with a copy of his bill. One catch — Verizon doesn’t seem to want to show him his bill.

Here’s David to explain his story:

Unfortunately, Verizon refuses to send me paper bills. I’ve been at this for about 3 months now. Apparently I can see my bill if I go online, but… what I end up seeing is the ‘bill’ for the placeholder phone number they give me to run my DSL (I don’t have a landline, just cellphone). That ‘placeholder’ phone number is not charged of course, so the bill is $0.00.

That is the only bill I can see online.

I’ve been on the phone with them for hours (just recently two phone calls of 49min and 13min). I keep getting bounced around from billing department to web support department back to billing department.

Each time the rep assures me they’ve placed a ticket in, and each time I have to go through all the same information.

David has had similar bad luck with the online chat support, which just keeps leading him through the same steps and then offering to open up a ticket.

Below are copies of the useless “bill” for $0.00 he keeps being directed to, along with a copy of bank documentation that Verizon has been deducting money from his account for service.

In terms of getting reimbursed by his company, we suggest showing them the same copy of the bank statement and explaining the situation.