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About 95 Texas National Guardsmen are standing by in preparation for possible flash
flooding from heavy rains that will move through the San Antonio and Austin areas
this weekend…

As the world turned its attention to the devastation caused by an earthquake in
Haiti this week, one Florida National Guard Soldier was waiting for word from family
members living in the Caribbean nation…

Airmen with the West Virginia Air National Guard’s 167th Airlift Wing are working
around-the-clock here in an
effort to get critical life-saving supplies into the hands of Haiti’s earthquake
victims….

Top Indiana military officials at Joint Forces Headquarters have selected 18 of some
of Indiana’s most experienced and proficient Army National Guard Soldiers to deploy
to Afghanistan and embed themselves with high-level commanders of the Afghan
Army…

As time for their pre-mission brief drew near, route-clearance crews here began to
gather around Army 1st Lt. Chris Johnson, their platoon leader…

Chuck Liddell joined in a lawsuit in California against Kelly Gearhart, a land developer, and the title company that facilitated the sale. The lawsuit alleges that Liddell paid $1.5 million to purchase three lots of land, but never received the titles for those lots.

According to the suit, around August 2007 Liddell entered into an agreement to buy three lots for $500,000 each and U2 LLC spent $1 million on two lots there intended for commercial property. Hutkin claims in the court document that his clients were told they’d receive title, but first had to pay the money to Gearhart to finalize a tract map to create the lots.

The lawsuit says that the money Liddell and U2 (a real estate company) invested wasn’t used to develop land; instead, it was used in a Ponzi scheme.

"The Iceman" is hardly the first athlete to end up on the wrong side of an investment scheme. Hall-of-Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax was one of the 13,000 victims of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Michael Vick lost $2 million to a con woman out of Nebraska. 

While he waits for the lawsuit to come to court, Liddell will have plenty to keep him busy as he coaches the upcoming season of "The Ultimate Fighter," facing off against Tito Ortiz. The show debuts March 31, and Ortiz and Liddell are slated to face each other after the season airs, though the date has not been set. 

Smart meter maker Itron looks set to clean up in 2010. Being the leader of the U.S. smart meter market during a period that saw the largest investment in U.S. history (via the $4 billion in smart grid stimulus funds) will do that for a company. Smart grid analyst Jesse Berst last year explained Itron’s […]

Father of the Year Michael Lohan is moving in with Kate Major, the 26-year-old former tabloid reporter once romantically-linked to Jon Gosselin.

Gosselin’s former pal will shack up with the reality star’s ex when the pair move to Los Angeles later this year, RadarOnline reports.

“Kate and I are both moving to California,” Lohan told Radar Friday. “If she can find a house or an apartment that’s right and big enough, then I’ll probably move in.”

Kate, who left her position at Star Magazine to date Jon, has found a new job in L.A. Michael, on the other hand, is hoping to escape allegations that he is a vagina-kicking batterer who has been stalking his 24-year-old ex-fiancee, Erin Muller.

“I am trying to get away from my situation. I want to put some distance between myself and Erin [Muller].”

Ever have to buy a gift for a person that has everything? That’s my mom. So this holiday season, I thought for a long time of what to get her. Remembering that she enjoys going to movies, I decided some movie gift certificates would be appropriate.

I decided to go to the first movie website that I thought of and see what they have to offer. That’s how I found Fandango Bucks. I saw the tag line of “Perfect for all occasions. Good for any movie, any time, on Fandango.com.”

Fandango Bucks: Not Good for Any Movie

I have to admit, I was excited. This was going to be the easiest and best gift I’ve ever sent her. It was a simple instant e-mail. I checked to make sure that Fandango had the theaters near my mom’s Boston suburb. I knew it would be a deal-breaker if she couldn’t go to the theaters that she was used to. I might as well buy her an In-N-Out Burger gift certificate (sorry, California reference). Fortunately, I saw that Fandango had all the theaters and listed all the movie times… it was a movie, at a time, listed on Fandango.com. So with piece of mind, I made my purchase.

My mother sends me an e-mail a few days later that while it was a good idea, the certificates aren’t accepted at any of the 8 theaters she goes to. They are only accepted at four theaters in Boston proper, which is not only a bit of a drive, it’s also tough parking. That didn’t seem right, so I read things a little closer and realize that the “Perfect for all occasions. Good for any movie, any time, on Fandango.com.” is pretty much an out-and-out lie. There’s some fine print that says that not all theaters accept it because they are either not partnered with Fandango or don’t have the means to accept online ticketing.

I decided to e-mail customer support and ask what’s up. Though a response was promised in 48 hours, a week later I have heard nothing (not even an acknowledgment that they have received my e-mail. I send another e-mail thinking the first one must not have gotten through. Still no response. So yesterday, I decided to call them up and see what’s going on.

The customer service representative was really, really nice. He said that they have 3000 e-mails from the holidays and their 10 person team is a little undermanned to get back to everyone in time. He understood my problem and looked into the Boston theaters and admitted that most of the theater chains there partnered with their competitors. He suggested that my mom e-mail me back the certificates and I can use them in Silicon Valley. That’s not a terrible solution, but it really doesn’t speak to the main point: They promised one thing, didn’t deliver, and now are giving me a response they might (or might not) be able to refund me the cash.

I will admit that I could have spent a little more time reading the fine print. However, shouldn’t the fine print be a clarification or further definition of what is promised and not a complete contradiction of it?

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If you thought all you had to worry about was Chinese growth collapsing and a double dip recession, think again. The World Economic Forum has put together their best of collection of potential economy crushing crises and there are far more than you might imagine.

From oil price spikes to nuclear proliferation, here is what to look forward to in the new decade.

The 15 costliest risks in the next decade ->

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See Also:

• Desperate Greek Minister Tries Instilling Confidence On CNBC, Doesn’t Get Interrupted By News Of A Governor And Prostitute
• Euro Brinkmanship Escalates As ECB Shuts Door On Greek Bail-Out
• 10 Looming Geopolitical Disasters

Bert Reyntjens writes “Some time ago, the (nude) photograph of the wife of Helmut Lotti, a Belgian singer, was used in a famous Flemish quiz ‘de slimste mens ter wereld’ (or in English ‘the smartest man in the world’). Several newspapers and magazines reported on this, some displayed the photograph, others didn’t. Now Lotti and his wife are suing several of these publishers for copyright infringement because they didn’t have the permission to show this picture.

Everything so far seems more-or-less normal, except that one magazine (Story) was also sued even though it didn’t publish the photograph (that link is in Dutch — here is the Google translation), it only mentioned it. According to the lawyer for Lotti — ‘a mere reference to an image should be considered a reproduction of the image’!”

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More and more people are finding they need to use public transportation in the U.S. Of course, unless you live in a big city, chances are your public transportation options are limited… and probably very crappy. Public transportation has always faced an uphill battle in this country though, because hey, its a huge freakin’ country, and Americans really, really love having their own cars.

Still, if public transportation were better, more people would be apt to use it. The Obama Administration, through U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, has proposed a major revision to the guidelines followed when considering public transportation projects. But this is ground that needs to be tread carefully, especially considering recent eminent domain rulings.

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A housing bust triggered the economic downturn, but even with GDP bouncing back, the housing news is rotten. Foreclosure filings increased 14% in December over November, according to USA Today. And once again, this news is all about the handful of states with the worst foreclosure rates: Nevada, Arizona, California and Florida. We return to the awful state of MichiCaliFlAriVada.

This graph from USA Today helps to tell the story:

After a decade where Americans borrowed against home equity to fuel
consumer spending, the glut of foreclosures in California and Florida
casts a shadow on a sustainable consumer-fueled recovery, certainly
with those two sunny states leading the way. It’s no surprise why the states with the highest foreclosure rates in 2008 are also the states with the worst credit card debt and unemployment.

Once again, I think this
recovery has to be fueled in the early rounds by something else, like
exports to East Asia where GDPs are growing at a fast clip and
consumers are taking advantage of the cheap dollar to buy lots of our
stuff. Indeed, manufacturing is just about the only industry that seem to be growing at a sustained rate for the last half year.

After adjusting for inflation, average U.S. weekly earnings fell by 1.6% in 2009, which was the worst gap between wages and inflation since 1990.

This happened as consumer prices shot up 2.7% during the year. Even core inflation, which excludes food and energy since their prices can bounce around, rose 1.8%.

Overall, this level of inflation is considered tame by economic standards, but it would have actually been far lower, or even negative (deflation) had the Federal Reserve not stepped in to boost liquidity in the financial system and slashed interest rates to near-zero.

While inflation was the lesser evil in Ben Bernanke’s economic calculus (whereby he has been trying to stave off ‘recession-inducing’ deflation), even minor amounts hurt when wage growth is weak. Aware of this, he probably preferred this problem over the damaging effects of a potentially deeper recession.

Nevertheless, it’s still shocking to see how inflation-adjusted wages (In constant dollars) have deteriorated over the course of 2009:

Read the Bureau of Labor Statistics release here >

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Inflation Expectations Keep Rising, Now Back To Pre-Crisis Levels
• Who Needs Gold As An Inflation Hedge When You’ve Got Coke?
• Sorry Ben Bernanke: Your Inflation Fighting Scheme Won’t Work

Real-time search engine OneRiot, which recently launched search ads, is trying to spread the wealth.

Its offering a revenue share from its realtime ad network, RiotWise, for developers that integrate its results into their projects. Partners can choose how they want the ads to look, whether they appear in the content stream, in the form of mobile banner ads, or in a text-block like Google’s AdSense ads.

The company won’t release its actual click-through rates on ads, but says they’re three to four times the standard rates in real-time apps. One their web site, these ads are usually for content like on The Huffington Post or Examiner.

Because of Google’s play in the real-time space, many young startups are trying to focus on distribution of their search results through partners. OneRiot has partnered with companies that offer instant messaging services to Twitter clients.

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Florida, US | Incredible Ruins

Close to the St. Augustine airport, behind a run down barbed wire fence that implies (though doesn’t out right state) that the land behind it is private property, rests at least eight decaying airplanes. Strewn throughout the overgrown flora, the skeletal remains of these hulking planes are slowly losing the battle with nature, painting a picture of technology overtaken.

The planes themselves are 60s and 70s naval bombers, specifically Grumman S2 Trackers. A first of their kind, they were designed to combine detection with armament for the search and destroy of submarine vessels from an aircraft carrier. These specific planes, the S-2Cs, were also equipped to perform photo reconnaissance.

They are currently owned by a man who lives in the area, and have reportedly been in the field for at least fifteen years. He stripped most of their parts, removing engines, propellers, wings, electrical devices, seats, etc. to sell back to the Grumman Corporation, then left the planes in the large yard where they have since been slowly consumed by encroaching plants.

Vines have grown through broken windows, entangling themselves with tendrils of hanging clumps of electric wires; dead leaves have taken the place of seat cushions, and the removed nose of some of the planes offers a gaping view of the field floor. Tires, wing pieces, control boxes, scraps of the plane, and the occasional beer can litter the area surrounding the decaying metal shells. Though benign enough, one can’t help but feel the sense that something very wrong happened here in order to have so many abandoned and gutted planes and parts laying about, the eerie displacement is too curious to ignore.

It is illegal to enter the premises, but a relatively easy-to-find opening in the fence has yet to stop photographers and curious passersby alike. The property is surrounded by a small neighborhood though, so caution is advised when visiting these relics.

Ever wondered what an exact replica of the Kindle DX would look like? Well, if you were thinking that it would look like an exact replica of the Kindle DX, you’re a winner. You’re currently checking out the Boeye E900, a 9.7-inch reader hailing from Guangdong, China. Besides the obvious lack of branding here, we’re hard-pressed to spot another difference — though we do only have the one photo. Both sport WiFi, Bluetooth, and text-to-speech, plus apparently the exact same internals as the DX, including an 825 x 1200 resolution, 3G, 128MB built-in flash memory, and a microSD card slot. We’ll tell you this — the price, at around $311, is way cheaper than Amazon’s actual reader. That is however, seemingly a wholesale price as the minimum order accepted is apparently 100 pieces. Anybody need 99 fake Kindles?

Boeye’s OEM E900 reader is the Kindle DX’s cheaper twin originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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