One more thing why only using The Hulk in an Avengers movie would be a misstep: I am of the mind that the reason people don't go nuts over the Hulk movies is because they can't relate to the main character. You can relate to Superman because he's always a person despite if he's Clark Kent or Kal-El. You can relate to Spider-Man, Batman or Iron Man because you know that under their costumes they're real people who talk and communicate their thoughts and feelings even when they're their own alter-egos. With the Hulk you don't have that. All there is is a big dumb animal who just smashes stuff up. And while that may be entertaining for a while, it loses its effect on people. Yes, Ang Lee's Hulk may have been boring to a lot of people and that boredom is probably the architect of that movie's demise, but what I said is still one big flaw of the movie itself. The directors of the two Hulk movies could never do a good enough job of conveying Banner's character through The Hulk in order to make the audience understand what Banner's character is all about. Not having Norton in there would only make The Hulk that much more ineffective as a character. He would just be a plot device and nothing more.

Search Robot 6 for our most recent Con War stories and you might get the impression that the action has been one-sided. In under a month, Gareb Shamus's Wizard Entertainment has added four new shows to its “Wizard World Tour” of “Comic Con”-branded pop-culture conventions.

Apart from the early-December announcement that Wizard rival Reed is partnering with Lucasfilm to put on the next Star Wars Celebration — a move that forced Wizard to reschedule its Chicago Comic Con — the outfit behind the New York Comic Con and Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo has left the expansion arms race to its opponent.

Instead, perhaps attempting to make good on its nose-tweaking tagline “The con Chicago needs, the con you deserve,” Reed has focused on shoring up its C2E2 guest list. The show boasts some true heavy hitters, including Geoff Johns (superhero comics' biggest writer), Alex Ross (superhero comics' biggest painter), Gail Simone (superhero comics' most prominent female writer), Jeff Smith (arguably the biggest name in children's comics with Bone) and, in a very rare con appearance, Chris Ware (arguably the biggest name in alternative comics with The ACME Novelty Library).

Additional guests on the pretty-massive roster include Jim Cheung, Mike Mignola, Steve McNiven, David Finch, Steve Epting, Geof Darrow, Frank Cho, Gene Ha, Adam Hughes, Greg Land, Ethan Van Sciver, Ben Templesmith, Mike Perkins, Butch Guice, David Lloyd and a dedicated line-up of women creators spearheaded by Amanda Conner, Jill Thompson and Sherrilyn Kenyon. And as best I can tell, every single guest C2E2 has announced actually makes comics.

What of the two Wizard shows that provide C2E2 its most direct competition, Chicago (with which it shares a town) and Anaheim (with which it shares dates)?

Anaheim is closer to us on the schedule, and unsurprisingly its guest list is a bit better fleshed out. Long gone are Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev and Phil Jimenez, who pulled out almost immediately following Wizard's announcement that its Big Apple Comic Con will compete directly against Reed's NYCC on the same October weekend. Gone also is Heidi Klum, the model/host of Project Runway who shared top billing with Bendis. I'm also not seeing Ernie Hudson or Mick Foley, despite the presence of press releases trumpeting their attendance.

Heading up the Anaheim guest list right now is a genuine comics giant: The Man himself, Stan Lee. After that, the most prominent names are nerd god William Shatner, Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku, Battlestar Galactica's Mary McDonnell and Hung star and occasional comics creator Thomas Jane. Anaheim also has a moderate comics-centric guest line-up that includes Bernie Wrightson, Tim Bradstreet, J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Mayhew, Mike McKone, Simon Bisley, Glenn Fabry and Charlie Huston.

But this is simply dwarfed by the number of guests attached to old TV shows and movies (which Wizard's Anaheim sub-site helpfully groups by franchise), including Star Trek's Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig and Michael Dorn; Futurama's Billy West, John DiMaggio and Phil LaMarr; Batman's Adam West, Burt Ward, Yvonne Craig, Julie Newmar and Lee Merriwether (plus the Batmobile); and an assortment of (mostly supporting) actors from Stargate, Seinfeld, Hill Street Blues, Austin Powers, Three's Company and so on. There's also the usual sprinkling of other celebs (Adrianne Curry, Angie Everhart, Jason Mewes, Erik Estrada, Micky Dolenz, Tia Carrere, Jake Busey, Doug Jones, Taylor Dayne) and '80s wrestlers (Ted DiBiase, Virgil, The Honky Tonk Man, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine). Interestingly, the list contains several guests — Joe Viskocil, Mark Sheppard, Michael Pappajohn and J.M. DeMatteis — who were among the wave of ostensibly last-minute no-shows at 2009's Big Apple Comic Con.

The Chicago show is further away and thus its current guest list is shorter. But the make-up is mostly the same: nerd celebs like Shatner, West, Newmar, John Schneider and James Marsters, and a smattering of comic creators topped by David Mack, Michael Golden and Mark Texeira.

What to make of all of this? A few things, I'd argue. If we're judging by the guest lists alone, then Reed clearly appears to have the edge in terms of support within comics. I'd guess that this isn't just pro-community support, but institutional support as well — you'll notice how well-represented big-name exclusive creators with Marvel and DC are at C2E2 versus Anaheim. And if we extrapolate the goals of the two convention organizations from the guest lists they've produced, it appears we have two very different conceptions of what a comic con should be, and perhaps more to the point, who their audiences are and what those audiences want. Neither is necessarily my ideal — Chicago is one of North America's great alternative-comics towns, so I'd love to see C2E2 support Chris Ware's appearance with a slate of local and regional creators of that sort, for instance — but when given the choice of the two approaches, certain distinctions are not difficult to make.

One more thing why only using The Hulk in an Avengers movie would be a misstep: I am of the mind that the reason people don't go nuts over the Hulk movies is because they can't relate to the main character. You can relate to Superman because he's always a person despite if he's Clark Kent or Kal-El. You can relate to Spider-Man, Batman or Iron Man because you know that under their costumes they're real people who talk and communicate their thoughts and feelings even when they're their own alter-egos. With the Hulk you don't have that. All there is is a big dumb animal who just smashes stuff up. And while that may be entertaining for a while, it loses its effect on people. Yes, Ang Lee's Hulk may have been boring to a lot of people and that boredom is probably the architect of that movie's demise, but what I said is still one big flaw of the movie itself. The directors of the two Hulk movies could never do a good enough job of conveying Banner's character through The Hulk in order to make the audience understand what Banner's character is all about. Not having Norton in there would only make The Hulk that much more ineffective as a character. He would just be a plot device and nothing more.

Search Robot 6 for our most recent Con War stories and you might get the impression that the action has been one-sided. In under a month, Gareb Shamus's Wizard Entertainment has added four new shows to its “Wizard World Tour” of “Comic Con”-branded pop-culture conventions.

Apart from the early-December announcement that Wizard rival Reed is partnering with Lucasfilm to put on the next Star Wars Celebration — a move that forced Wizard to reschedule its Chicago Comic Con — the outfit behind the New York Comic Con and Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo has left the expansion arms race to its opponent.

Instead, perhaps attempting to make good on its nose-tweaking tagline “The con Chicago needs, the con you deserve,” Reed has focused on shoring up its C2E2 guest list. The show boasts some true heavy hitters, including Geoff Johns (superhero comics' biggest writer), Alex Ross (superhero comics' biggest painter), Gail Simone (superhero comics' most prominent female writer), Jeff Smith (arguably the biggest name in children's comics with Bone) and, in a very rare con appearance, Chris Ware (arguably the biggest name in alternative comics with The ACME Novelty Library).

Additional guests on the pretty-massive roster include Jim Cheung, Mike Mignola, Steve McNiven, David Finch, Steve Epting, Geof Darrow, Frank Cho, Gene Ha, Adam Hughes, Greg Land, Ethan Van Sciver, Ben Templesmith, Mike Perkins, Butch Guice, David Lloyd and a dedicated line-up of women creators spearheaded by Amanda Conner, Jill Thompson and Sherrilyn Kenyon. And as best I can tell, every single guest C2E2 has announced actually makes comics.

What of the two Wizard shows that provide C2E2 its most direct competition, Chicago (with which it shares a town) and Anaheim (with which it shares dates)?

Anaheim is closer to us on the schedule, and unsurprisingly its guest list is a bit better fleshed out. Long gone are Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev and Phil Jimenez, who pulled out almost immediately following Wizard's announcement that its Big Apple Comic Con will compete directly against Reed's NYCC on the same October weekend. Gone also is Heidi Klum, the model/host of Project Runway who shared top billing with Bendis. I'm also not seeing Ernie Hudson or Mick Foley, despite the presence of press releases trumpeting their attendance.

Heading up the Anaheim guest list right now is a genuine comics giant: The Man himself, Stan Lee. After that, the most prominent names are nerd god William Shatner, Dollhouse star Eliza Dushku, Battlestar Galactica's Mary McDonnell and Hung star and occasional comics creator Thomas Jane. Anaheim also has a moderate comics-centric guest line-up that includes Bernie Wrightson, Tim Bradstreet, J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Mayhew, Mike McKone, Simon Bisley, Glenn Fabry and Charlie Huston.

But this is simply dwarfed by the number of guests attached to old TV shows and movies (which Wizard's Anaheim sub-site helpfully groups by franchise), including Star Trek's Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig and Michael Dorn; Futurama's Billy West, John DiMaggio and Phil LaMarr; Batman's Adam West, Burt Ward, Yvonne Craig, Julie Newmar and Lee Merriwether (plus the Batmobile); and an assortment of (mostly supporting) actors from Stargate, Seinfeld, Hill Street Blues, Austin Powers, Three's Company and so on. There's also the usual sprinkling of other celebs (Adrianne Curry, Angie Everhart, Jason Mewes, Erik Estrada, Micky Dolenz, Tia Carrere, Jake Busey, Doug Jones, Taylor Dayne) and '80s wrestlers (Ted DiBiase, Virgil, The Honky Tonk Man, Greg “The Hammer” Valentine). Interestingly, the list contains several guests — Joe Viskocil, Mark Sheppard, Michael Pappajohn and J.M. DeMatteis — who were among the wave of ostensibly last-minute no-shows at 2009's Big Apple Comic Con.

The Chicago show is further away and thus its current guest list is shorter. But the make-up is mostly the same: nerd celebs like Shatner, West, Newmar, John Schneider and James Marsters, and a smattering of comic creators topped by David Mack, Michael Golden and Mark Texeira.

What to make of all of this? A few things, I'd argue. If we're judging by the guest lists alone, then Reed clearly appears to have the edge in terms of support within comics. I'd guess that this isn't just pro-community support, but institutional support as well — you'll notice how well-represented big-name exclusive creators with Marvel and DC are at C2E2 versus Anaheim. And if we extrapolate the goals of the two convention organizations from the guest lists they've produced, it appears we have two very different conceptions of what a comic con should be, and perhaps more to the point, who their audiences are and what those audiences want. Neither is necessarily my ideal — Chicago is one of North America's great alternative-comics towns, so I'd love to see C2E2 support Chris Ware's appearance with a slate of local and regional creators of that sort, for instance — but when given the choice of the two approaches, certain distinctions are not difficult to make.

existing franchises for sale , franchises for sale

MetsBlog.com – <b>News</b>: Jose Reyes scratched from Lineup

If this is bad <b>news</b>, there is plenty of time to get out on a window ledge. Log in to Reply. charlie_s March 4, 2010 at 9:44 am. Something is rotten in Denmark. You don't scratch a guy on the way back from a very shortened year so he can …

Washington Post launches paid iPhone <b>news</b> app

The Washington Post, which has launched a paid <b>news</b> application for iPhone, is also looking at other platforms.

<b>News</b> Of The Day

"I know of no other time where it's been alleged by what is basically a police agency that the governor lied under oath," said NYPIRG's Blair Horner. Asked if he had indeed lied, Gov. David Paterson replied simply: "No." "The…

When you think personal finance software, the first thing that comes to mind is probably Quicken. While Quicken has been a mainstay on Windows desktops for years, its Mac presence has been less than stellar. That changes today, with the release of Quicken Essentials for Mac. Re-built from the ground up and integrating lots of features from Mint.com, Quicken Essentials is a great addition to the Mac software space.

Quicken has always treated the Mac platform as kind of an also-ran. Although new versions of the tool appeared yearly (at least until 2006) alongside the WindowsWindows variants, the Mac editions always lagged behind in features, stability and even pricing options. Quicken Essentials for Mac, previously known as Quicken Financial Life for Mac, has been promised since Macworld 2008. After two years, it’s finally here.

Rebuilding Quicken for the Mac

Quicken Essentials for Mac is a native Cocoa app. This in itself wouldn’t be that noteworthy, except that previous versions of Quicken for Mac have not been built on Cocoa (or even optimized for Intel Macs), which has meant that there were user interface quirks and behavioral differences that made Quicken feel like less of a real Mac app.

With Quicken Essentials for Mac, the interface and program have been designed to use Mac OS X’sMac OS X core features and strengths. This is a really good thing, and it shows a commitment to the Mac platform. This is important because it has been nearly four years since a Quicken app was released for the Mac. QuickBooks has had more frequent updates, but for home users who want to manage their finances, this is a long time coming.

A Dose of Mint (.com)

In September, Intuit, the makers of Quicken, acquired the money management web app, Mint.com. The acquisition was controversial among some MintMint users, out of fear that Intuit would end up changing Mint into something different.

It’s still too early to assess how the acquisition has affected both product groups (Mint.com continues as a separate product), but consumers did get something out of the deal: Aaron Patzer, the founder of Mint.com, is now Intuit’s vice president and general manager of the company’s Personal Finance Group. That means that Aaron and the Mint team are now working on both Quicken and Mint.com.

I spoke with Aaron at the Future of Web Apps in Miami on Monday night, and he offered me some insight into his new role and the changes on the new Mac product.

Aaron described Quicken Essentials for Mac as “the closest thing to Mint on the desktop as you are going to get.” From a personal money management perspective, that’s really great, because it means that not only is it easier to visualize where money is going, but you can connect to more financial institutions through the program than ever before. More than 12,000 institutions are supported now, and a total of more than 18,000 is expected by the end of the year.

Categorization is also much easier in Quicken Essentials for Mac, which is again, a hat-tip to Mint.com

A Few Notes For Users

Quicken Essentials for Mac is designed for home users and while it supports basic investment tracking, it isn’t as robust as the Quicken for Windows offerings or the old Quicken Mac 2007. Better support for investments is planned for future versions of Quicken Essentials for Mac, but for right now, this isn’t really designed for users with heavy portfolios.

Because only 6% of Quicken users used the built-in Bill Pay option in Quicken, this was removed from Quicken Essentials for Mac. You can still track your bills and make sure you have the money to pay them, but you can’t pay directly from the app unless you sign up for Intuit’s Bill Pay service.

If you’re a TurboTax user, Quicken Essentials for Mac doesn’t integrate or export to TurboTax, although again, that type of support might be added to the future. If you rely on getting your Quicken info into TurboTax, you’ll need to use Quicken Mac 2007.

A Nice Start

This is a great rebirth of sorts for Quicken for Mac. After being virtually abandoned for such a long time, it’s nice that the most popular money management tool is finally back on the Mac and in style. Quicken Essentials for Mac is $69.99 and requires Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard or Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

Mac users — what do you think about Intuit’s new commitment to Mac? What are your favorite Mac-based financial management apps? Let us know!

Indulge in One Financial Vice to Keep Your Overall Spending in Check

If you want to be financially successful, it's important to clamp down on your spending. On the other hand, allowing yourself to budget money for a single regular indulgence might be an effective way to keep your overall spending on track.

Photo by John Weise.

Finance blogger Adam Baker says even though he's typically a frugal guy, he allows himself to sink part of his hard-earned cash into martial arts training, a hobby he really loves. Although the classes run him more than $160 a month, the benefits—good mental and physical health—far outweigh the pain to his pocketbook.

Sure, he doesn't need the classes in the same way he needs to pay his electric and phone bills. Baker's point, though, is that while financial advisors might suggest cutting back on his expensive hobbies, doing so might make him liable to burn out on saving money altogether. All work and no play… well, you know the rest.

If you're trying to decide whether an expense falls under the “financial vice” category, Baker says to ask yourself a series of quick questions to help you figure it out. Chief among them:

Is it consistent with our other goals? This is tough because many of these expenses will work against our financial goals by nature. However, we try to consider any ancillary benefits that are generated from the financial vice. Martial arts helps my fitness goals, provides me with a fun community of people, and helps me to stay mentally calm while under intense pressure (trust me).

Check out the post for more questions to ask yourself, and some ideas on limiting the amount of financial vices you indulge. What about you? Do you find that giving in to a spendy craving or two helps you stay on budget, or do you fold like a house of cards once you buy something not in your budget? Talk about it in the comments.

http://removeripoffreports.net

http://removeripoffreports.net

If you want to take control of your life, there are certain areas that require persistent tracking.  In order to track your life and make appropriate changes, you need to know what’s going on and to do that you need to track what’s going on.

Some people need to get a handle on their time (tools to track time wasted online).  Others need to better control their finances (tools for tracking expenses and budgeting).  There are also other resources that other people need to track.  These days there are tools that help in this task of tracking life’s intricacies but many of them are too complex for the needs of the everyday person.  We need something simple that we’ll actually learn and use for it to be a help.

That is why I would like to introduce you to a new start up you can use to track your life called 1DayLater.  The creators of 1DayLater originally started the project to help them track their valuable time as freelancers.  It turned out to be a tool simple enough that anyone can use and benefit from.

In my opinion a useful tool has two attributes : usability and benefit.  Let me show you how 1DayLater fits both of those attributes when it comes to tracking life.

Signing Up & Registering Is Virtually Painless!

The easier a website makes signing up and registering the better.  Obviously they should take security precautions but when they make it so complicated that you need to consult a help file or forums just to figure out how to register, they need to back off a bit.  1DayLater made the process a cinch by asking only the basics (there’s also a line for your phone number but it’s only optional).

Signing In Is A Cinch!

Once again, going with the “easier is better” philosophy, 1DayLater hits the nail on the proverbial head with the login process!  Email-password, bing!  You’re in!

Track Your Life With a Log!

Once logged in you are faced with the opportunity to begin logging your life!  To begin with, you can start logging your time by hitting the “start timer” button.  When you stop the timer, the time is automatically entered into the “value” field which can tell what kind of measurement you are trying to log.  You can also manually enter measurements into this field.  You can log measurements such as time, money and mileage.  Then you can tag the lot with a label in the “project/client” field and add the date and a note to finish off the log.  It’s all pretty straight forward.

Glance At Your Latest Activities

As you log your life, you can get a quick look at the activities you are logging.  They are sorted by date and project / client tag (which you can assign your own colors to in order to have a visual to keep them separate here and in the charts in the analysis area).  Here you also have the ability to edit the logs and delete them altogether. Very handy!

A Visual Analysis Of Your Life

There is also a nifty chart showing off time spent on different projects.  This could be key to getting an overall idea of where your time is going.  I didn’t see charts for mileage or money so I personally hope they are also incorporated too.

The Future Of 1DayLater COULD Be In Your Hands!

All I am saying is that they are a new start up and are working hard on new features!  For instance, they have released the ability to export data into a spreadsheet and are working out the bugs there.  They are also working on the ability to output to invoices and mileage claims as well as some apps.  As a new start up, they have been smart enough to offer a feedback forum to share what you would like to see them develop and a voting system to vote on other people’s ideas using Uservoice.

Right now 1DayLater is free but in the future there may be some features that will not be.

Let us know what you think about 1DayLater as a new start up.  Also, how do you track your life?

Once You Reach Your Financial Security Goals, What's Next?

Wise budgeting, spending, and saving will help you build a retirement fund and meet your other financial goals, but what happens then? Finance blog Get Rich Slowly takes a look at what to do once you've feathered your financial nest.

Photo by pfala.

At 26 years old, entrepreneur Erica Douglass found herself in the enviable position of having a surplus of cash after selling her online business. Once she established a retirement fund and paid off debt, Douglass had to figure out what to do with the income that continued to roll in from her new business venture.

Rather than blow tons of cash on impulsive purchases just because she can, Douglass limits most spending to things that allow her to live a more fulfilled life. For instance, instead of buying a new car every year, Douglass employs a personal chef to make dishes that make living with an autoimmune illness easier.

It has been more than two years since I sold my business, and I am happier than I have ever been. I made different choices than most: We rent a house instead of owning (a savings of nearly $4,000/month in our neighborhood – more than our monthly rent payment!); we only have basic cable; we don't have a landline, credit card debt, car payments, or student loans.

I chose, instead of buying more Stuff, to live a more fulfilled life. For me, even more important than holding onto my money tightly was to learn to let it go – to give it to others in exchange for work well done, and to trust that they could do tasks well. It's one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Though most of us aren't able to afford the luxuries of a personal chef or full-time housekeeper, Douglass makes an interesting point. If you have a surplus of cash left over after paying your bills and adding to your savings each month, maybe blowing it on a fancy dinner or a new electronic gadget isn't worth it in the long run. Instead, consider spending it on something that adds to your overall quality of life—like an accountant to do your taxes, or commercial productivity software that will help you more easily manage all your work tasks.

What would you do if you had a batch of extra cash to spend as you wanted? Would you hire a personal assistant to deal with all the chores you don't like, or blow it on something frivolous like good cognac or a box of truffles? Talk about it in the comments.

http://removeripoffreports.net

The superintendent said he hopes to push dollars to school sites through a practice called “per-pupil” budgeting. Under it, money is allotted per student based on that student’s needs. Wherever that student enrolls, the money follows. Then the school decides how to spend that money.

This practice differs vastly from the current system, which allots funding for schools from the central office. The “per-pupil” method was rolled out in a pilot program this year. Next year, Cortines wants to take it districtwide.

The concept is not without challenges. To succeed, local schools must know how to spend their money wisely. And some schools could end up with more money while others have less. Some other school systems began per-pupil funding during a period when new dollars were flowing in — so that no schools would end up with less money than they had before.

Cortines won’t have that luxury, as L.A. Unified tries to solve a $640-million budget shortfall for next year. The district projects a second straight year of increased class sizes and employee layoffs. Funding for music and art will be halved — one proposal, rejected so far, involved cutting all music and art spending.

Cortines is giving the speech at Belmont High School, west of downtown, to emphasize that school’s recent academic progress.

Belmont High’s score on the state’s Academic Performance Index surged 78 points last year, one of the largest improvements in California. The school also slashed its still-alarming dropout rate from 55.4% to 38.9%.

But Belmont also exemplifies how far the district has to go. Its index score of 618 remains low; if every one of a school’s students tested as “proficient,” its score would be 875.

At Belmont, about one in five students tested as proficient in English and fewer than 1 in 10 tested as proficient in math.

– Howard Blume

Photo: L.A. Times file

With rooftop solar panels becoming increasingly affordable, and more sellers entering the market, residential and commercial consumers alike could very well be paralyzed by choice. Should they go with standard photovoltaics? Thin-film panels? What’s a good price? Who do you get to install and maintain them? A startup called CivicSolar says it can answer these questions and deliver the best possible product.

Based in San Francisco, the company, which calls itself a direct solar distributor, has just raised $404,991 in seed funding — of a targeted $501,200 round — according to a filing with the SEC. This sounds pretty modest, but considering that the company simply connects customers with solar vendors, its own costs are probably pretty low.

More indicative of the company’s potential is the roster of manufacturers it has in its network. Sanyo, Sharp, Trina Solar and SOLON all work with CivicSolar to make sure clients get the exact solar systems they are looking for. On top of that, it provides tools to help property owners find and get quotes from nearby solar panel installers and contractors — making it easy to compare bids and choose the best deal available. It even says it has the heft to negotiate prices with manufacturers and installers to serve up price breaks that can’t be found elsewhere.

So let’s say you are a homeowner interested in generating solar energy. CivicSolar’s web site makes it simple for even beginners to find the product they are looking for according to various metrics. You can choose between silicon, polycrystalline and mono-crystalline panels; you can choose based on the amount of power you need to generate, either between 151 and 200 watts, or more than 200; or you can search for products by manufacturer.

For each panel listed on the site, CivicSolar provides a wattage, the cost of a single panel, and the cost per watt generated by the panel. This gives you a solid sense of what you’ll be getting for your money.

If you need additional help making the choice, CivicSolar has agents waiting by on the phone to offer advice. Its web site is also home to a forum where prospective customers and dealers can post solar-related questions and receive replies from installers and other experts.

Right now, the company is pretty limited by the number of manufacturers it is working with — but this will probably change as it grows. It could also run into trouble competing against companies like SolarCity and SunRun, which also help consumers navigate solar installation. So far though, CivicSolar looks like a decent first stop for anyone interested in learning more about their solar options.

Next Story: Pike Research: 2.8M fuel-cell vehicles will hit the road by 2020 Previous Story: Eventbrite launches discounted service for non-profits

Google was creative when they came up with Adsense Program. Not only do they get an break to make additional money from their search engines, but they also permit Internet marketers a opportunity to create money in an easier way. Well, with conventional associate marketing, you have to make a sale before you get commission. But with Adsense, all you have to do is create content that will generate ads that readers will click on. And in return for just a click, you will get a few cents or in many cases, quite a lot of dollars.

This is where high paying Adsense keywords come in the picture. So how can you find these high paying words? There are two methods for this. The easiest one involves looking up pre-made listings. The other one involve you doing the research through Google's Adwords tool. Just enter in the term you're interested in, and the tool will tell you how much each click is appeal .

In terms of definite value, there are lofty paying keywords that are worth more than $30. There are even a few that are in the array of $40 to $69. In both cases, these keywords be inclined to turn around lawyers, debt, credit cards, schooling and illness. And, divergently to what some may think, often times the most costly Adsense keywords revolve around long-tail conditions over more comprehensive phrases.

Any way, if you choose to promote these keywords, you could become independently wealthy relatively fast. However, you do need to be conscious of some things before going after these ultra-profitable of keywords.

First off, you must keep in mind that Google will take its share from each keyword. And you will not know how much they will acquire until the stats start coming in. So, don't assume that 1,000 clicks from a $50 keyword will come to $50,000. Your share will end up being much a lesser amount of than that. But it will still be much more liberal than if you promoted a keyword that was only worth mere a 5 cents.

In addition, be alert that the higher paying keywords be inclined to not drive much traffic because there is so much rivalry surrounding them. So, unless you can bang the competition with a Fortune 500 company you'll have to be extra creative with how you encourage these keywords.

For example, consider the keyword “cancer treatment options” which is currently worth $20. There are a oceans of websites ranked for this keyword, so you can forget about search engine traffic for this term. What you will have to do is drive traffic in the course of other terms with Internet articles. And, you will have to think outside of the box to do this.

For example instead of promoting “cancer treatment options” you could promote Cancer message boards, books or treatment centre. You could talk about cancer and family support. Ultimately, if you put your spirit and brain into it, there's no boundary to what you will come up with.

In conclusion, sky-scraping paying keywords could be your ticket towards monetary freedom. However, keep in mind even the gurus don't earn money suddenly. You will still need to put in a lot of work through appropriate SEO and keyword optimization. Once you do that, the earnings will surely start to come in.

The superintendent said he hopes to push dollars to school sites through a practice called “per-pupil” budgeting. Under it, money is allotted per student based on that student’s needs. Wherever that student enrolls, the money follows. Then the school decides how to spend that money.

This practice differs vastly from the current system, which allots funding for schools from the central office. The “per-pupil” method was rolled out in a pilot program this year. Next year, Cortines wants to take it districtwide.

The concept is not without challenges. To succeed, local schools must know how to spend their money wisely. And some schools could end up with more money while others have less. Some other school systems began per-pupil funding during a period when new dollars were flowing in — so that no schools would end up with less money than they had before.

Cortines won’t have that luxury, as L.A. Unified tries to solve a $640-million budget shortfall for next year. The district projects a second straight year of increased class sizes and employee layoffs. Funding for music and art will be halved — one proposal, rejected so far, involved cutting all music and art spending.

Cortines is giving the speech at Belmont High School, west of downtown, to emphasize that school’s recent academic progress.

Belmont High’s score on the state’s Academic Performance Index surged 78 points last year, one of the largest improvements in California. The school also slashed its still-alarming dropout rate from 55.4% to 38.9%.

But Belmont also exemplifies how far the district has to go. Its index score of 618 remains low; if every one of a school’s students tested as “proficient,” its score would be 875.

At Belmont, about one in five students tested as proficient in English and fewer than 1 in 10 tested as proficient in math.

– Howard Blume

Photo: L.A. Times file

With rooftop solar panels becoming increasingly affordable, and more sellers entering the market, residential and commercial consumers alike could very well be paralyzed by choice. Should they go with standard photovoltaics? Thin-film panels? What’s a good price? Who do you get to install and maintain them? A startup called CivicSolar says it can answer these questions and deliver the best possible product.

Based in San Francisco, the company, which calls itself a direct solar distributor, has just raised $404,991 in seed funding — of a targeted $501,200 round — according to a filing with the SEC. This sounds pretty modest, but considering that the company simply connects customers with solar vendors, its own costs are probably pretty low.

More indicative of the company’s potential is the roster of manufacturers it has in its network. Sanyo, Sharp, Trina Solar and SOLON all work with CivicSolar to make sure clients get the exact solar systems they are looking for. On top of that, it provides tools to help property owners find and get quotes from nearby solar panel installers and contractors — making it easy to compare bids and choose the best deal available. It even says it has the heft to negotiate prices with manufacturers and installers to serve up price breaks that can’t be found elsewhere.

So let’s say you are a homeowner interested in generating solar energy. CivicSolar’s web site makes it simple for even beginners to find the product they are looking for according to various metrics. You can choose between silicon, polycrystalline and mono-crystalline panels; you can choose based on the amount of power you need to generate, either between 151 and 200 watts, or more than 200; or you can search for products by manufacturer.

For each panel listed on the site, CivicSolar provides a wattage, the cost of a single panel, and the cost per watt generated by the panel. This gives you a solid sense of what you’ll be getting for your money.

If you need additional help making the choice, CivicSolar has agents waiting by on the phone to offer advice. Its web site is also home to a forum where prospective customers and dealers can post solar-related questions and receive replies from installers and other experts.

Right now, the company is pretty limited by the number of manufacturers it is working with — but this will probably change as it grows. It could also run into trouble competing against companies like SolarCity and SunRun, which also help consumers navigate solar installation. So far though, CivicSolar looks like a decent first stop for anyone interested in learning more about their solar options.

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Buying your first guitar can be an overwhelming and daunting experience. There are hundreds of styles and variations to choose from, and you can seemingly pay as little or as much as you want. You may have questions about what kind of guitar to buy and how to choose. Following these guidelines will help make the buying process a low-stress, enjoyable, and ultimately successful endeavor.

Steel strings or nylon?

The difference between steel string guitars and nylon string guitars is simple; guitars with nylon strings are classical guitars. If you enjoy classical or jazz music and are interested in learning how to play detailed melodies using a fingerpicking style, a classical guitar might be the perfect choice.

The fretboard of a classical guitar is wider than that of a steel string. This means that the strings are a little farther apart, so it is great for learning how to position your hand and fret the strings properly. Classical guitars produce rich and beautiful tones with each pluck, and they can be very rewarding and enjoyable to play. The body of the guitar is also smaller than a steel string, and a slightly altered, yet comfortable posture is required to play the guitar.

If you are planning on playing with a pick you should purchase a steel string guitar. Steel strings are used in most popular styles of music including: bluegrass, blues, rock, folk, country and indie.

How much should I pay?

How much you should pay for your first guitar is, of course, relative to your personal finances. However, buyers with any size budget should be able to find a guitar that will be suitable for learning how to play.

I would not recommend spending a lot of money on your first guitar. The main reason for saying this is because you might not end up playing your guitar. As with many other interests we pursue in life, the act of playing the guitar may be quite different from the idea of playing. Playing the guitar is a challenging and time consuming practice, and it can take several months for beginning players to see results. It would be a waste to invest in an expensive guitar that ends up barely being played.

You should be able to find a good beginner guitar for less than three hundred dollars, and your options increase significantly if you are able to spend up to four or five hundred. I paid $175 for my first guitar (1996) and couldn't have been happier.

What do I look for?

No matter what kind of guitar you are buying, begin with a thorough visual inspection. Examine all of the places where two pieces come together, such as where the neck meets the body, or where the bridge is mounted to the soundboard. You should see no gaps, no cracks or empty spaces anywhere. A guitar with structural deficiencies is not even worth playing – put it down and move on, no matter how good the price.

The soundboard of the guitar should be perfectly flat. There should be no cracks or humps anywhere on the surface of the instrument. Pay close attention to the wood around the bridge; any bowing of the soundboard here is indicative of major structural problems. Be sure to closely inspect where the bridge is affixed to the guitar, and proceed with caution if you notice any gaps or warping.

Look at the frets and make sure they don't hang over the edge of the fingerboard. Frets should be filed off and should have no jagged or exposed edges. The frets should also be a smooth and consistent shape, and should not be too flattened in the places where the strings are pressed. Look for this especially at the end of the neck nearest the headstock.

Hold the guitar on its side and look with one eye down the neck. Is it straight? Does it twist to one side or the other? Is the neck slightly bowed in either direction? See if the store's technician can adjust the truss rod (a metal rod that runs inside the length of the neck) until the neck is either straight or has slight relief (the neck curves in very slightly along its length).

The action on a guitar is how high the strings are off the frets. A guitar with very low action will buzz when strings are fretted, and might require anything from a minor truss rod adjustment to serious repairs. If the strings are too high, the guitar can be much more difficult to play, especially for a beginner. Try to buy from a shop that will 'set-up' your guitar upon purchase – they should be able to adjust your neck and action before you leave the store.

The quality of a guitar is a combination of design and craftsmanship. Even inexpensive guitars can be well constructed despite using simpler designs and less expensive materials. A poorly constructed guitar will end up causing you more frustration than enjoyment and is not worth your investment of time or money.

Should I plug in?

Most inexpensive acoustic electrics are not a good buy. The low quality electronics that are used do not well represent acoustic tones. Learning to play using amplification can result in a lack of understanding of how to create full tones with the guitar itself, and may ultimately set you back on your road to becoming a proficient player.

For your first acoustic I would suggest going without a pickup (non-electric). There are inexpensive pickups such as the Seymour Duncan Woody that can easily be installed in and removed from the sound hole when amplification is desired. If you frequently play with an amp, you may consider purchasing a nicer acoustic with a pickup for you next guitar.

Final tips.

These guidelines can help you avoid a disastrous first experience, but in the end you have to buy a guitar that you like if you are going to put in the time required to learn to play. Inspect the guitar with great scrutiny, and be wary of any imperfections. A few scratches and nicks aren't going to affect how your guitar plays, but even minor problems with the construction of the guitar can be very serious.

If you know someone who plays guitar, take them with you when you go to buy, as they will likely be able to offer you invaluable guidance.

Finally, don't be afraid to consider a used guitar, but buy with the same discretion as you would a new one. Unless there is a specific guitar I want, I almost always buy used because of the incredible bargains you can find on high quality instruments. Many of the large chain stores even sell used instruments, as well as most neighborhood shops. If buying from a pawn shop, be sure to take someone with you who can help assure the quality of your purchase.

Nikon releases 24mm f/1.4 G ED fast wideangle lens: Digital <b>…</b>

Nikon releases 24mm f/1.4 G ED fast wideangle lens: Nikon has released the AF-S Nikkor 24mm F/1.4G ED wide aperture prime lens for full-frame DSLRs. It features an anti-reflective Nano Crystal coating and both ED and …

Andy Borowitz: Fox <b>News</b> Gives Palin's Hand Job

"We were very impressed with the job her hand did at the Tea Party Convention," Fox <b>News</b> chief Roger Ailes said. "And we said to ourselves, let's give Sarah Palin's hand a job."

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<b>News</b> and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

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Nikon releases 24mm f/1.4 G ED fast wideangle lens: Digital <b>…</b>

Nikon releases 24mm f/1.4 G ED fast wideangle lens: Nikon has released the AF-S Nikkor 24mm F/1.4G ED wide aperture prime lens for full-frame DSLRs. It features an anti-reflective Nano Crystal coating and both ED and …

Andy Borowitz: Fox <b>News</b> Gives Palin's Hand Job

"We were very impressed with the job her hand did at the Tea Party Convention," Fox <b>News</b> chief Roger Ailes said. "And we said to ourselves, let's give Sarah Palin's hand a job."

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: The Hill: 'Cracks are beginning to show in <b>…</b>

<b>News</b> and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

Nikon releases 24mm f/1.4 G ED fast wideangle lens: Digital <b>…</b>

Nikon releases 24mm f/1.4 G ED fast wideangle lens: Nikon has released the AF-S Nikkor 24mm F/1.4G ED wide aperture prime lens for full-frame DSLRs. It features an anti-reflective Nano Crystal coating and both ED and …

Andy Borowitz: Fox <b>News</b> Gives Palin's Hand Job

"We were very impressed with the job her hand did at the Tea Party Convention," Fox <b>News</b> chief Roger Ailes said. "And we said to ourselves, let's give Sarah Palin's hand a job."

AMERICAblog <b>News</b>: The Hill: 'Cracks are beginning to show in <b>…</b>

<b>News</b> and opinion about US politics from a liberal perspective.

If you haven’t heard an Apple Tablet rumor by now, you’ve most likely been living in a cave somewhere for the past year. It’s all anybody can talk about, especially since it could launch at the end of the month.

With the daily deluge of rumors flooding your TwitterTwitter stream and RSS feeds, it’s easy to become cynical about the mythical device. Why should you care about a device that has no confirmation at all of its existence?

The answer is that its potential impact could be nothing short of revolutionary. Like the iPod and the iPhone, an Apple-built tablet could not only become a consumer hit, but actually redefine multiple industries and how they do business. Here are just some of the ways an Apple Tablet could spark a revolution.

1. Publishing and Media

Let’s start with the most obvious choice: Media. We’ve covered the previous rumors that Apple wants to redefine print with its rumored tablet. While the Kindle has done a lot to bring print into digital form, a tablet could be far more suited for reading the newspaper, opening up your textbook, and even sharing notes. Hell, Wired’s already preparing for the tablet.

The simple point is that it’s easier to carry a smart tablet than 300 hardcover books and 20 newspapers with you. Apple’s tablet will almost certainly have a focus on bringing all of print into the digital world, whether the industry is ready for it or not.

2. Healthcare

Above: The AirStrop OB iPhone App. It allow doctors to check on their patients vitals on-the-go.

A few days ago, a rumor spread that Apple was designing the tablet specifically for the healthcare industry. While we, of course, have no idea whether the tablet is being made for doctors or whether it’s being made at all, the notion is very logical.

First, the iPhone is already a tool that doctors use to save lives. If the tablet can run apps, then those tools will immediately be at their disposal. Second, it has the capability to replace the clipboard by accessing digital records, making medical data easy-to-search, and having references built right into the tablet.

Healthcare is a lagging industry in terms of technological adoption, but if any company has the resources to break that barrier, it’s Apple.

3. Entertainment

Entertainment is another industry that could be immediately affected by an Apple Tablet. It’s big enough to provide easy viewing for your movies and television shows. And if the 3G rumors are true, you could access that data via an iPhone app. Having the ability to view TV from anywhere is no small deal.

It’s not just the TV and movie experience that could potentially be upended, either. Gaming would get a completely new platform, paving the way for a new wave of touchscreen games, depending on how the tablet is designed (I wouldn’t want to hold the tablet in one hand and touchscreen with the other). It probably won’t have the same effect on the music industry as the iPod had, though.

4. Finance

The finance industry is a giant behemoth with many arms — trading, banking, personal finance, and investment banking, just to name a few. The tablet could have a dramatic impact on all of these areas.

Trading: Traders need to have information at their fingertips and make trades in an instant. Many use their mobile phones or specialized devices for this, but a tablet could present a lot more information and be far more dynamic. You could see tablets everywhere on the floor eventually.

Banking: Bank tellers could process information with the tablet and easily hand it over to someone else when the situation arises. A tablet would be a far more effective way of sharing financial data or even making payments. The need for paperwork would be gone.

Personal Finance: With apps like MintMint at your fingertips, managing your finances would be a snap. If tablets have a wireless way to communicate with one another, it could also prove to be the ultimate payment system.

Investment Banking: In addition to facilitating faster and more effective trading, investment banks could use them to quickly conduct research and swap notes.

The right software and the right interface could stir many financial institutions to purchase Apple Tablets in bulk.

5. Computing

Consider the big picture with this final industry. For years, we’ve relied on desktops and laptops with bulky keyboards. Only recently has mobile become a computing force, but even that is nothing compared to the computing industry.

Imagine that the Apple Tablet comes with a new type of tactile, gesture-based keyboard, something a recent Apple patent supports. Imagine you can type almost as well on it as you can with a keyboard, or even 75% as well. It immediately becomes a great device for computing on the go, an object that could be used as a primary computer if you wanted to.

Now imagine that the devices does have a few input ports, specifically two USB ports. Now you have a device that can be connected to your keyboard and mouse, as well as your other devices potentially. Stick the tablet on a stand and it’s a computer. Unplug and take it with you and your computer can come with you, even easier than a laptop.

While this was a thought exercise, this is the type of thing Apple has clearly thought about in the tablet process. If the Apple Tablet proves to be real, you can expect this type of imaginative thinking to be present in every aspect of the tablet’s design, interface, and functionality.

This is why the media and millions of early adopters care so much about the potential tablet and the rumors: Its potential as a revolutionary device is very real.

More Apple resources from Mashable:

- 5 Mac Apps to Boost Your Productivity
– Mac Gift Guide: 10 Buying Ideas for Apple Fans
– HOW TO: Create a Mac Theme for Windows 7
– Top 10 iPhone Apps as Judged by Mashable Readers
– APPLE TABLET: Ultimate Gallery of Concept Designs and Prototypes
– 10 iPhone Apps to Avoid Work Disasters
– 20 Creative Apps For Your iPhone

UPDATE: Is Wyclef Jean's Charity the Best One to Help Haiti?

There's no doubt Wyclef Jean — who has raised $1 million since the Haiti earthquake — wants to help his homeland. But a look at his personal foundation's finances raises questions about whether it's wisely managing the donations it's collecting.

UPDATE: Go here for more on why Jean's charity may not be the best way to help Haitians right now.

The Smoking Gun took a look at the finances of Yele Haiti, the foundation Wyclef Jean founded to help his homeland—and it's ugly. Jean founded Yele Haiti in 1998, according to TSG, but didn't file any tax returns until five months ago, in August 2009. And the returns filed so far—for 2005, 2006, and 2007 only—reveal that Yele directed huge sums of money to commercial entities that Jean and his business partner Jerry Duplessis own stakes in.

The most eye-popping expenditure is $250,000 that the foundation paid in 2006 to Telemax, S.A., a Haitian television company that Jean and Duplessis own a controlling interest in. The payment for “airtime and production services” appears to have been related to a telethon of some sort that Yele Haiti produced in the country—its chalked up to “outreach”—and amounts to one out of every five dollars that the foundation took in that year. The return claims the fees were “below market” and constituted the “most efficient” way for Yele Haiti to conduct outreach.

The foundation also paid Platinum Sound, the production company that Jean and Duplessis co-own, a $100,000 fee for Jean's performance at a Yele Haiti fundraiser in 2006.

And Platinum Sound charges Yele Haiti more than $31,000 in annual rent for office space at its Manhattan studio. UPDATE: A tipster familiar with Platinum Sounds' set-up just e-mailed to say that the “office space” that Yele rents from the studio consists of one staffer who works out the kitchen, at a cost of $2,600 each month paid from the charity to Jean and Duplessis.

All told, TSG says, Yele Haiti has paid out $410,000 in the three years for which it has provided tax returns to businesses owned by Jean and Duplessis.

Which makes it even more stunning that the foundation ended 2007 with a $489,000 deficit. That year it took in only $79,000 in direct public support—not much more than the $54,711 it spent on travel—and reported $503,000 in cash with $956,000 in liabilities, including a “30-day demand note” in the amount of $500,000 borrowed from a foundation controlled by music impresario Lou Adler. Its only charitable activity that year was a $270,000 grant to Yele Haiti's Haitian operation, which presumably then distributed the funds to recipients there.

When we called a contact number for Duplessis listed in Yele Haiti's tax return, a receptionist at Platinum Sounds answered the phone and referred us to a public relations firm. We haven't heard back from the publicist. We also tried to contact Hugh Locke, the head of Orsa Consultants, a firm that Yele Haiti paid $82,000 in 2006. According to this 2005 press release, Orsa is a “corporate social responsibility consultancy” that managed Yele Haiti's programs; we couldn't find any public references to Orsa independent of Yele Haiti, and the firm's web site is no longer operative. When we called Lock, he immediately handed the phone to someone identifying herself as “Mrs. Lock,” who referred us to the PR firm. When we asked her about Yele Haiti's expenditures, she said, “Our finances are totally straightened out. We have filed, and are up to date on everything.”

None of this means that Jean, Duplessis, and Yele Haiti aren't doing important work in Haiti, or that they can't play a constructive role in responding to the earthquake crisis. It does mean that, if the past is any guide, they are unlikely to wisely manage any of the money they are currently collecting from concerned Americans on behalf of the victims in Haiti.

Send an email to the author of this post at john@gawker.com.

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MrSun tracks the sun's position | iLounge <b>News</b>

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Gmail to Get Social <b><b>News</b></b> Feed: Report – GigaOM internetreporter » Blog Archive » personal finance budgets February 8, 2010Tracked on. Gmail to Get Social <b><b>News</b></b> Feed: Report – GigaOM …

ehh, what news item are you reading??
first of all this is a USA issue only, no euro car maker is involved. second, I was under the impression that europe is far ahead of usa in fuel efficiency and has been for many years. you should probably read the article again and go over your comment. a few mistakes crept in.

yes any support to make electric drive a reality. no the Volt really doesn't deserve any support as it is a half hearted over engineered attempt. it's a bit like asking how much should you give to oil companies for environmental efforts..

number one, didn't GM recently say it will be profitable at the 40k$ price point before tax credit? so let's not say they lose money at that price point.
two, take a cobalt sedan, put in a plugin drive train with minimum battery range, say 40km (25miles) with no factor 2 overdesign. plus a 2-cylinder backup generator for cruise extension. lean and mean. sell it for 20k$ with a profit and no tax rebate.
the problem is they don't really have their heads in the game. so we should have mixed feelings about subsidies.
what should be done is one of two things, Obama tells them how things are going to go down along the design lines I just mentioned. or he should start a car company for that very purpose to force the way. it is more than a little foolish to put faith in the big auto we know have fought and still do fight against EVs.

this should be obvious to all. we're now 3½ years into the revolution and the big auto makers all still beating around the bush. come to think of it I'm not sure where that expression comes from but it sounds a little pornographic you could say they're jerking off but that's not much better. seems fitting though.

case in point, they could easily do better, and that should be on your minds before giving them money.

Mobile location-based social network and gaming service Foursquare has been generated a bit of buzz lately, especially amongst the early adopter crowd. In just under a year, it has amassed a user base of 300,000, and with deals like the one it recently signed with television network Bravo, some believe Foursquare may be ready to hit the mainstream.

That's good news for the company and its investors, but as Foursquare starts exploring the commercial opportunities that come with popularity, it may find that maintaining the 'cool' factor and maximizing commercial opportunities at the same time is a difficult thing to do.

As AdAge details, various businesses are starting to experiment with Foursquare. The appeal is obvious: Foursquare knows where you are. That means that Foursquare offers a lot of potential to businesses with physical locations. One such business is frozen dessert chain Tasti D-Lite. It's using Foursquare to deliver promotions to Foursquare users who check in to a location near one of the chain's 50 stores. And it's also testing out a loyalty program that rewards users for checking in and making purchases.

According to Tasti D-Lite, “preliminary data is showing that this is driving foot traffic in stores“. That's good news for Tasti D-Lite, and for Foursquare. But before anyone jumps to the conclusion that Foursquare may be on the verge of cracking the location-based mobile advertising nut, it may not be quite so easy.

On Sunday, TechCrunch's MG Siegler discussed how Foursquare's 'Douchebag' badge was creating controversy amongst some users. The complaint: it's offensive. The badge is awarded (if that's the right word) to users who check in to locations that other users have tagged. These tend to be 'trendy' locations, such as Barney's.

Putting aside the political correctness of a 'Douchebag' badge, it's obvious that this badge creates a potential conflict between the interests of the businesses Foursquare needs to court and the interests of its users. As one commenter, Jim Kerr, put it:

They are an innately local business, which will live and breathe with the success of dealing with local brands and establishments, and yet they…overtly tag local businesses (their lifeblood) with badges like “douchebag.”

Foursquare, which, according to AdAge, is earning little to no revenue from its initial deals with businesses, apparently has no plans to ditch the badge. Dennis Crowley, the company's co-founder, posted a response:

The douchebage badge isn’t going anywhere. It’s supposed to be a joke, I feel like 97% of users are in on it, and the only way to unlock the badge is to check-into places that *other users have tagged* douchebag. Sure, it’s a little out of control in some places (I unlocked it on the N/R train over the Manhattan bridge!) but that’s part of the fun of it.

While it would be premature to claim that a somewhat offensive badge is going to destroy Foursquare's business potential, there is a question as to whether things like this will fly once Foursquare decides to start asking businesses for money.

When it comes down to writing a check, a business might be inclined to look at the situation and demand some protection in return. A guarantee that users who check in to their locations aren't labelled 'douchebags' would probably be a good start. Will Foursquare give in, potentially diminishing its 'cool' factor with the early adopters propelling its current growth, or will it decide to give potential paying customers a reason to second guess deals? Only time will tell.

Foursquare's dilemma is not unique of course. Many successful consumer internet businesses find that certain elements of their original offerings that contributed to early appeal eventually come to threaten their potential as businesses. Without users, of course, that potential ceases to exist. But users and no revenue isn't exactly viable either. In short, sometimes you can't stay cool and become filthy rich at the same time.

Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr.

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ehh, what news item are you reading??
first of all this is a USA issue only, no euro car maker is involved. second, I was under the impression that europe is far ahead of usa in fuel efficiency and has been for many years. you should probably read the article again and go over your comment. a few mistakes crept in.

yes any support to make electric drive a reality. no the Volt really doesn't deserve any support as it is a half hearted over engineered attempt. it's a bit like asking how much should you give to oil companies for environmental efforts..

number one, didn't GM recently say it will be profitable at the 40k$ price point before tax credit? so let's not say they lose money at that price point.
two, take a cobalt sedan, put in a plugin drive train with minimum battery range, say 40km (25miles) with no factor 2 overdesign. plus a 2-cylinder backup generator for cruise extension. lean and mean. sell it for 20k$ with a profit and no tax rebate.
the problem is they don't really have their heads in the game. so we should have mixed feelings about subsidies.
what should be done is one of two things, Obama tells them how things are going to go down along the design lines I just mentioned. or he should start a car company for that very purpose to force the way. it is more than a little foolish to put faith in the big auto we know have fought and still do fight against EVs.

this should be obvious to all. we're now 3½ years into the revolution and the big auto makers all still beating around the bush. come to think of it I'm not sure where that expression comes from but it sounds a little pornographic you could say they're jerking off but that's not much better. seems fitting though.

case in point, they could easily do better, and that should be on your minds before giving them money.

Mobile location-based social network and gaming service Foursquare has been generated a bit of buzz lately, especially amongst the early adopter crowd. In just under a year, it has amassed a user base of 300,000, and with deals like the one it recently signed with television network Bravo, some believe Foursquare may be ready to hit the mainstream.

That's good news for the company and its investors, but as Foursquare starts exploring the commercial opportunities that come with popularity, it may find that maintaining the 'cool' factor and maximizing commercial opportunities at the same time is a difficult thing to do.

As AdAge details, various businesses are starting to experiment with Foursquare. The appeal is obvious: Foursquare knows where you are. That means that Foursquare offers a lot of potential to businesses with physical locations. One such business is frozen dessert chain Tasti D-Lite. It's using Foursquare to deliver promotions to Foursquare users who check in to a location near one of the chain's 50 stores. And it's also testing out a loyalty program that rewards users for checking in and making purchases.

According to Tasti D-Lite, “preliminary data is showing that this is driving foot traffic in stores“. That's good news for Tasti D-Lite, and for Foursquare. But before anyone jumps to the conclusion that Foursquare may be on the verge of cracking the location-based mobile advertising nut, it may not be quite so easy.

On Sunday, TechCrunch's MG Siegler discussed how Foursquare's 'Douchebag' badge was creating controversy amongst some users. The complaint: it's offensive. The badge is awarded (if that's the right word) to users who check in to locations that other users have tagged. These tend to be 'trendy' locations, such as Barney's.

Putting aside the political correctness of a 'Douchebag' badge, it's obvious that this badge creates a potential conflict between the interests of the businesses Foursquare needs to court and the interests of its users. As one commenter, Jim Kerr, put it:

They are an innately local business, which will live and breathe with the success of dealing with local brands and establishments, and yet they…overtly tag local businesses (their lifeblood) with badges like “douchebag.”

Foursquare, which, according to AdAge, is earning little to no revenue from its initial deals with businesses, apparently has no plans to ditch the badge. Dennis Crowley, the company's co-founder, posted a response:

The douchebage badge isn’t going anywhere. It’s supposed to be a joke, I feel like 97% of users are in on it, and the only way to unlock the badge is to check-into places that *other users have tagged* douchebag. Sure, it’s a little out of control in some places (I unlocked it on the N/R train over the Manhattan bridge!) but that’s part of the fun of it.

While it would be premature to claim that a somewhat offensive badge is going to destroy Foursquare's business potential, there is a question as to whether things like this will fly once Foursquare decides to start asking businesses for money.

When it comes down to writing a check, a business might be inclined to look at the situation and demand some protection in return. A guarantee that users who check in to their locations aren't labelled 'douchebags' would probably be a good start. Will Foursquare give in, potentially diminishing its 'cool' factor with the early adopters propelling its current growth, or will it decide to give potential paying customers a reason to second guess deals? Only time will tell.

Foursquare's dilemma is not unique of course. Many successful consumer internet businesses find that certain elements of their original offerings that contributed to early appeal eventually come to threaten their potential as businesses. Without users, of course, that potential ceases to exist. But users and no revenue isn't exactly viable either. In short, sometimes you can't stay cool and become filthy rich at the same time.

Photo credit: cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr.

CTV releases Official Olympics Coverage App | iLounge <b>News</b>

The official Canadian broadcasters for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games have released a <b>news</b> and information application for the iPhone and iPod touch. Developed by Indusblue, the CTVOlympics.ca app provides …

Another Gremlins Film? That's <b>News</b> To Spielberg – goonies – io9

Gremlins scribe Chris Columbus put the new movie rumors to bed, with the help of original executive producer Stephen Spielberg. What do they seem much more interested in: a Goonies 2 "all grown up with kids" feature.

Sports Media Blog | Sports <b>News</b> | <b>News</b> for Dallas, Texas | Dallas <b>…</b>

Krulewitz said <b>news</b> of a lawsuit filed in Fort Lauderdale alleging a rape in 2007 simply expedited the situation. Irvin's also had was falling ratings. Ben & Skin start today. Irvin's other employer, NFL Network, told me earlier this …

http://www.shumakerelays.com/

Here are some of the great blog postings around the personal finance blog world that I have really enjoyed reading this past week or so. Be sure to check out these great articles.

Notable articles from my RSS reader:

New in 2010: Do you want to earn more money? – This post at I Will Teach You To Be Rich is a great one. While you may not realize it from the title, Ramit makes some great points about how you should really be focusing on increasing your income instead of worry so much about cutting costs. Cutting costs will only get you so far, but increasing your income can change your life exponentially. You should definitely check this post out!

Looking Out to 2010: Economy and Personal Finance – Wojciech recently had a great and very detailed post about his financial and economic outlook for 2010 on his blog Fiscal Fizzle. He also gathered up some great insight from a lot of other personal finance bloggers about what individuals can expect from 2010, and their takes on the market was a quite interesting read.

The Most Important Financial Goals For 2010 – Patrick talked about some of the most important financial goals that should be on everyone’s radar on Cash Money Life. The goals hit at the heart of getting back to the basics of personal finance: investing, getting out of debt, creating an emergency fund, and living your life.

Six Ways To Knock Out Creditors – Many people do not know their right when dealing with creditors and collection calls. A lot of people do not know what to do or how to handle it. J Money recently had a great guest post on his blog Budgets Are Sexy that talked about this very topic. Well worth the read.

Should Companies Teach Their Employees the Basics of Personal Finance? – I think that most readers of this blog know how I feel about teachers teaching personal finance to our children, but what about businesses? My company has a program to teach our new and younger employees the basics about personal finance. But, is that the right answer to solve the problem with debt, etc.? Check out this great posting at  PT Money.

83 Ways To Be Smarter With Money While You Are Still Young – The Consumerist, the blog for Consumer Reports, featured Own The Dollar’s post about the money moves you need to make now before you turn 30 years old. It was a great honor to be mentioned by them.

Blog Carnivals:

Best of Money Carnival # 30 – Hosted by Scordo.com. (My second inclusion in this great blog carnival that only accepts the top ten posts every week!)

Money Hacks Carnival # 99 – Hosted by 20s Money.

Welcome to the 239th Carnival of Personal Finance! This week’s theme is based on New Trends of 2010. I wanted to bring in the New Year with some hot trends in 2009 that will likely continue into 2010.  Some are frustrating to all of us, while some present opportunities for savvy folks like yourselves (following this Carnival is a great start!).  Please feel free to check out the rest of my site, and don’t forget to Subscribe to Email/RSS (what is RSS?) to get future updates from Darwin’s Finance.  Enjoy!

Editor’s Choice

J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy presents The Move Your Money Movement which is a grassroots effort to “Fight the Power” if you will, of the Big Banks.  How effective this movement could be in the face of massive lobbying dollars and insiders (ex-bankers) spread throughout Congress and the administration is questionable, but never second-guess the will and determination of the everyday citizen.

DR from Doughroller presents 11 Smart Money Moves to Supercharge Your Finances.  Jim listed out some top-notch financial priorities everyone should jump on now to take charge of their finances.  Now’s as good a time as any!

J.D. Roth from Get Rich Slowly presents 10 Steps to Financial Success in 2010 – while it’s a new year and you may have seen other  similarly themed articles out there to start off on the right foot, this was one of my favorites – great bang for the buck.  Check it out!

Jim from Bargaineering presents How to Opt Out of Credit Card Internal Marketing.  I love a good screw-you back to companies that routinely mess with and take advantage of their customers.  Marketing ploys are a common abuse and Jim shared some easy ways to opt out.

Miss M from M is for Money presents Money and Etiquette: Dining with a Terrible Tipper.  We’ve all encountered this situation before and it’s always fun to reminisce on your annoying outing while taking some advice from Miss M.

Money Management and Budgeting

Personal Finance Goes Mainstream – From Dave Ramsey and other PF personalities gaining prominence on television to some of our own PF trailblazers writing books and producing podcasts, there’s no slowing down the PF movement in 2010.

Kevin from No Debt Plan presents Go Radical: Sell Everything, and says, “Want to truly change your financial life in 2010? Selling everything is a great start to put some serious money toward your debt.”

The Engineer from Engineer A Debt Free Life presents The Engineer’s guide to setting up a personal budget , and says, “It’s a great how to get started budgeting article for beginners.”

Kevin Duffey from 20s Money presents Personal Finance Manifesto, and says, “This is a fairly comprehensive guide to personal finance and establishing a strong financial position.”

Mr. ToughMoneyLove from Tough Money Love presents Staying Off the Car Payment Treadmill, and says, “Many consumers buy their first vehicle on credit and never get off the car payment treadmill. This is how we got off and stayed off.”

RC from Think Your Way To Wealth presents 5 Common Money Related Resolutions that Can Help Your Finances in 2010.

Craig Ford from Money Help For Christians presents 20 Reasons To Start A Budget In 2010, and says, “Sometimes we need to know why we should do something before we get the motivation to follow through. This post offers 20 reasons to start budgeting.”

Studenomist from Studenomics presents How-to Save Money on Gym Memberships & Are They Worth it?.

Patrick from Cash Money Life presents The Most Important Financial Goals for 2010, and says, “Many people have lofty New Year’s resolutions, which they may or may not achieve. This article boils down personal finance goals into a few top level goals to strive to achieve.”

Single Guy Money presents Single Guy Money’s 2010 Financial Goals.

Fabulously Broke in the City presents 5 lies we tell ourselves to help continue spending, and says, “The 5 lies we keep telling ourselves so we can continue spending when we know we should stop.

Sun from The Sun’s Financial Diary presents Indulge Your Resolutions without Breaking the Bank.

Simon Zhen from Realm of Prosperity presents Be the Friendly Financial “Stop” Sign.

FFB from Free From Broke presents New Year’s Resolutions Are Bulls&%$, and says, “Are New Year’s resolutions really worth it? Most people don’t end up keeping them and even worse get set back from their original goals.”

Revanche from A Gai Shan Life presents Furniture Shopping on Craigslist.

Big Cajun Man from Canadian Personal Finance presents Personal Finance Resolutions For the New Year?, and says, “Is it time to make resolutions? If so, make them achievable ones”

Free Money Finance presents Seven Financial Resolutions for the New Year, and says, “Resolutions for money success in 2010!”

Jason from Live Real, Now presents Bribes vs Rewards, and says, “This is an article about family finance and responsibly reward positive behavior in children.”

Investing and Finance

Blue Chip Companies asking for (and receiving) Handouts from the US TaxPayer – With the likes of GM and various large banks coming back to the trough multiple times, Congress kept asking “How Much do you Need?”.  In the end, GM filed for bankruptcy anyway, even though it was clearly evident months in advance that nothing would forestall the inevitable.  Even though politicians warned that allowing GM to fail would result in disaster for the entire auto supply chain throughout the midwest, no such scenario played out.  The auto industry is alive and well, as evidenced by Ford’s recent blockbuster earnings (didn’t need handout) and GM’s survival under government oversight.

Dividend Growth Investor presents Dividend Aristocrats List for 2010 , and says, “The dividend aristocrats list includes companies which have increased dividends for over 25 years in a row. It is equally weighted and re-balanced once an year. Over the past 3,5 and 7 years the index of elite dividend stocks has managed to outperform the S&P 500 by 5%, 3.7% and 4.40% respectively.”

Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life presents Investing In Bonds: Make Money The Boring Way, and says, “About investing in bonds!”

Jeff Rose from Good Financial Cents presents Roth IRA For Children: Your Kid’s Guide to Tax Free Money, and says, “Wondering if your kids can benefit from the tax free savings of a Roth IRA? Here’s how.”

ElizabethG from Modern Gal presents Investments I am Avoiding in 2010.

Kevin from My Dollar Plan presents Ignoring Finances When Young is a Risky Game.

D4L from Dividends Value presents 8 Dividend Stocks Covering Their Dividend, and says, “As dividend growth investors we are looking for stocks can continue to raise their dividends indefinitely into the future. One metric that provides an indication of a dividend’s sustainability is its payout ratio.”

Mr. GoTo from Go To Retirement presents Using Whole Life Insurance to Create a Pension Income Stream, and says, “Whole life insurance is generally a bad idea for providing death benefits. But there may be other uses as a tax deferred investment for those looking forward to their later years.”

Mike Piper from The Oblivious Investor presents Spreading (mis)Information, and says, “Everybody in the personal finance industry has a business interest in getting you to believe one thing or another. So who can we turn to for unbiased information?”

Junior Boomer from Consumer Boomer presents Best Options for a 401k, and says, “hen it comes to 401(k), what are your best options? There’s a ton of information out there that could confuse a Harvard graduate and the landscape is forever changing.”

Frugality and Saving

Americans start living The New Normal – While I was initially skeptical of the ability of Americans to truly change their ways and start becoming more frugal, we’re starting to see changes in both the data and pop culture (odd correlation between the two).  Perhaps in 2010, Frugal will be “In”.

David from Money Under 30 presents Six Ways to Save on Gym Memberships, and says, “At gyms across America this January, throngs of new gym-goers will pony up initiation fees, sign year-long membership contracts and in general way too much. But not you. If you’re resolved to join a gym in 2010, you don’t have to go broke to get fit.”

Len from Len Penzo dot Com presents 10 Money Saving Tips to Get the Most from Coupons.

Miss Thrifty presents Slow Cooker: save money on food – and save on washing up .

Mike from Personal Finance Ninja presents Procrastination: Screwing You Since 1986 – Why Investing Early Matters & the Power of Compounding Interest , and says, “An article about why investing early is important complete with a slide show and some awesome ninja illustrations”

Austin from Foreigner’s Finances presents Use the Enthusiasm of a New Year to Automate & Guarantee Savings in 2010, and says, “97% of New Year’s Resolutions don’t last. If you realize this fact, you can just take advantage of the freshness of the new year and get your money automated in January so its ready for the rest of the year and on. ”

CindyS from Oh My Aching Debts presents 10 Cheap and Easy DIY Ways to Save On Your Energy Bill, and says, “Although I am by no means a Ms Fixit, even I can do these 10 things to save on my electric bill. ”

Debt and Credit

Credit Card Companies Raking Over Consumers to React to Legislative Oversight.  Outrage after outrage continue to roll out as main street watches with disbelief as credit card companies seem to be completely shameless in their efforts to stick to anyone they can in any manner possible prior to implementation of new restrictions and oversight from Congress.  Time will tell which loopholes they’ll find next, but for most Americans, can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.

Mrs. Money from Ultimate Money Blog- Save Green and Live Green presents I Can’t Bring Myself to Pay Extra on the Mortgage.

Adam from Money Relationship presents 2010 Financial Resolutions, and says, “I am giving everyone permission to call me a liar if I don’t hit these financial goals in 2010.”

Connie Prater from Taking Charge presents Video cartoon spoofs new credit card law.

Lean Life Coach from Eliminate The Muda! presents In Debt? – Find Free Help, and says, “Eliminating your debt is not easy and it’s not fast. But if you do it yourself you will learn lessons along the way that will be instrumental in keeping you out of debt in the future. You will learn how manage money, live within your means and how to make better financial decisions.”

Real Estate, Economy and Taxes

Health Care “Reform” - While the current disparity in affordability and availability of even modest health care for many Americans seems unfair, the current legislation is flawed to put it mildly.  Time will tell just how flawed the assumptions, controls and costs are, but Health Care Reform will be a major topic in 2010, as well as what impact it will have on employees with “Cadillac Plans” (millions of middle-class/working-class Americans like you and I), people/companies who stand to benefit, impact to investors and what kind of hidden tax this legislation evolves into.

Adam from RabbitFunds presents Why Parker Bros Monopoly should save the housing market, and says, “For years, I have played Parker Bros Monopoly. We all have. And yet, too many of us did not learn the most basic real estate principles that this children’s game is teaching. So it’s time to be a kid again.”

Jason from One Money Design presents Should You Prepare Your Own Taxes, and says, “Should you prepare your own taxes this year? It’s important to consider such things as time, cost and the simplicity of your return before making a final decision.”

Bucksome from Buck$ome Boomer’s Journey to Retirement presents Home Ownership: The Good, Bad and Ugly of HOAs, and says, “This is the last article in a four part series on our experiences with real estate transactions. Belonging to a homeowner’s association has points that are good, bad and ugly. ”

Well-Heeled Blog presents Buying A Home Together Before Marriage – Yay or Nay?, and says, “Would you buy a home together with your significant other before getting married? The buyer’s market has prompted many couples to do so, but I say the risks of breaking up and the complications of splitting up property are too great. I’d prefer to commit to real estate with another person after we’re both committed legally to each other. ”

Paul from FiscalGeek presents 2010 IRS Federal Tax Withholding Calculator is Out. Stop Loaning the Government Money, and says, “Using free tools available from the IRS reduce your monthly tax payments and get your refund in the form of extra money every paycheck.”

Andy from Saving to Invest presents Tax Considerations in a Rising Government Spending and Tax Rates Environment , and says, “With U.S. government debt soaring as the result of stimulus spending to rescue the economy, many economists believe there’s a good chance that tax rates could rise, perhaps even before your 2009 filing. With higher rates a real possibility, you may need to rethink the way you do year-end tax planning, and these are four ways of potentially maximizing tax efficiency, for next April and beyond.”

Kyle from Early Retirement Blog presents Why Your Taxes Might Go Up In Retirement, and says, “Many people assume their tax rate will go down in retirement. Here’s why that might not happen.”

Career

Personal Finance Blog movement has legs – More and more regular people are taking up blogging to share their experiences, gripe about crappy customer service, to try and make some money on the side or pursue various other ambitions.  Regardless of their motives, the movement is picking up steam, as evidenced by the rapid growth of quality content and reader acceptance in the PF movement.

Funny about Money presents Entrepreneurs: Adirondack Chimney Sweep, and says, “A second income stream turns into a successful business after the city buys out its senior employees.”

Mike from Minting Pennies presents Can’t Get No (Job) Satisfaction, and says, “A musically themed post about job dissatisfaction and the dangers of thinking too big too soon when starting your own enterprise.”

Reviews and Misc

Politicians Giving Away the House – in an effort to curry favor with large blocks of voters, pandering politicians on both sides of the aisle embarked on a series of hastily implemented, poorly conceived financial schemes ranging from cash for clunkers to the home mortgage modification programs fraught with fraud and waste. 2010 will see Cash for Caulkers, Cash for Appliances and whatever else they conjure up this year.

Bob from Christian Financial Help presents Verizon users have to wait until Spring for the Nexus One, and says, “Verizon users hang on just a few months, the Nexus One is on the way!”

Sam from Financial Samurai presents Everything Is Rational – The Answer To All Things Irrational, and says, “This is a core concept in addressing things that seemingly make no sense. In fact, everything makes sense, and it’s not our business to try and change others.”

Baker from Man Vs. Debt presents I’m Gonna Kick Some Major Ass in 2010!… Bet on it., and says, “An update on my plans to increase my income, build my business, and pay down my debt in 2010. It a tough road, but I’m about to kick some ass!”

Peter from Bible Money Matters presents How To Make Money With A Blog, and says, “this is the how-to article I wish I had when I first started blogging for money.”

Thanks everyone for participating in the 239th Carnival of Personal Finance!

photo credits – evil inside, yo-yo blogger

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