Articles
Google Embarrassed By Nasty Michelle Obama Image
Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 5:02pmHow many Americans harbor unpleasant thoughts about Michelle Obama? Google (GOOG) just gave us a pretty good idea.
Anti-Google Conspiracy Widens
Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 4:16pmWow, it's really happening. Yesterday, we mentioned that Microsoft (MSFT) was reportedly teaming up with News Corp (NWSA) to block stories from Fox News and other Murdoch properties from being scanned and indexed by Google News. Now, Dean Singleton—the owner of the Denver Post, the Oakland Tribune, and an army of suburban newspapers around the country—is about to do the same thing.
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Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 2:07pmSince retailers make most, if not all, of their profits in the slim window between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it’s no surprise that they’re eyeing the calendar this year with more trepidation than usual. While first-time unemployment claims dropped by 20,000 in the last week of October and home sales rose by 10.1 percent last month, prospects are still gloomy for much of the economy.
TAP Tagline:What You’re Going To Get for Christmas and Why.
Photo illustration by Holly Allen based on photos from Getty Creative Images and Shutterstock. Looking Through Tyson's Entrails
By Dan MitchellPosted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 12:51pmRobert Kenner's film Food Inc. has been widely praised for its in-depth reporting. But might that reporting have been even stronger if Kenner and company had pored over the financial filings of the companies he scrutinized?
GM’s Saab Deal Falls Through
Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 12:27pmIt’s bailout capitalism day! We all know about how GM balked at selling Opel. We also know that autoland tycoon Roger Penske backed out of a deal to buy Saturn, leading to the storied division’s demise. Now word comes that a Swedish supercar maker, Koenigsegg, isn’t going to buy Saab.
The Opel Plan: It’s All About Jobs
Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 12:05pmSpecifically, it’s about where General Motors—which earlier this month shocked just about everyone when it decided to hang on to Opel, its main European division, rather than sell—will oust thousands of workers. The focus of the jettisoned deal with Canadian parts supplier Magna and Sbrebank, a Russian bank, was to preserve German jobs. For security, the government of Angela Merkel was willing to put up almost $7 billion in financing.
Breast Practices
Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 10:53am
The Senate is proposing a "botax" on plastic surgery in its health care bill. Slate's Christopher Beam tells us why they shouldn't:
Who's Afraid of the E-Book?
Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 8:40am
One of the key questions confronting the future of digital reading is where to find the best source of material for the new devices. Since Amazon (AMZN) broke through with the Kindle, the assumption has been that books would drive the development of software for this new hardware.
TAP Tagline:Why Publishers Are Wary of E-Books.
Amazon and Wal-Mart Don’t Want To Share the Web
Posted Tuesday, November 24, 2009 - 1:19amA front-page story in today's New York Times details the swelling rivalry between Amazon (AMZN) and Wal-Mart (WMT). This may seem odd because, in reality, the retailers are fundamentally different. Wal-Mart is rooted in its big-box retail stores, and Amazon operates only online. But that hasn’t stopped them from engaging in a heated competition for overlapping customers.
TAP Tagline:The rivalry between Amazon and Wal-Mart is heating up.
What We’ll Actually Lose on GM
Posted Monday, November 23, 2009 - 10:58pmEarlier today, I took exception with Edward Niedermeyer’s NYT op-ed, in which he argued that General Motors will never be able to fully pay back the U.S. taxpayer, an apparently unforgivable offense. Paying the taxpayer back never really seemed why GM got bailed out and then shepherded through a full-court-press bankruptcy, but what if GM could pay back a decent portion of what it was given?