Yahoo Inc has announced it will quarry short messages posted on Twitter to find some of the newest, real time information on some the top news and feature stories.
Microsoft’s Bing and Google have already announced plans to include Twitter somehow into their search functions, but Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo said it will be displaying Tweets on search results.
This is seen as another attempt by Yahoo to spike its search result use.
It will work like this: When a user enters a search request tied to a breaking story, there will be four tabs at the top of the page— one for direct links to news sites, one for photos, another for video and one to display Twitter results.
It will be a variety of Twitter users that populate that tab, including accounts from credible news organizations, while others could be pulled from regular people.
John Francis Welch Jr., or Jack Welch, was born on Nov. 19, 1935 in Peabody, Massachusetts. In 1957, he graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering.
While at the university, Jack Welch was a member of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. After completing his bachelor’s degree, he went on to obtain his MS and PhD at the University of Illinois at the Urbana-Champaign in 1960.
After graduating, Jack Welch went on to join General Electric, where he earned an annual salary of $10,500 for working as the company’s junior engineer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Eventually in 1972, Jack Welch became the group’s vice president. Moving to the top of the ranks, he was then promoted as the vice president in 1977. In 1981, he succeeded Reginald Jones as the youngest chairman and chief executive officer of General Electric.
As the new chairman and chief, Jack Welch worked towards a more streamlined operation at GE. Seeing the products, employees, and customers as the main constituents of a business, he pushed his managers at GE to become more productive. He worked to eliminate inefficiency by cutting down inventories.
Under his leadership, General Electric acquired NBC in 1986. Through a number of acquisitions made during the 1990s, Jack Welch transformed the company from manufacturing to financial services. As a result, the shift led to a highly modernized GE. He also led and inspired the company to earn massive revenues in the late 1995 when he adopted Motorola’s Six Sigma quality program.
His exemplary business sense earned him the title “Manager of the Century” from Fortune magazine in 1999. Prior to leaving the company to enjoy his retirement, Jack Welch significantly increased its revenues to almost $310 billion. Due to the influence he has left, GE became the most valuable and largest company in the world by the end of 2004.
CEMEX is currently testing if burning tires for fuel at their Kosmos cement plant in southwestern Louisville, Kentucky will affect air quality. In accordance with CEMEX air quality standards, CEMEX is exploring ways to reduce emissions.
By using tires as fuel, CEMEX could potentially improve air quality by reducing the amount of coal and petroleum coke it using. The fuel could also solve the millions of illegally dumped tires that are a blight on the environment. According to Jennifer Borgen, a CEMEX spokesperson, the Kosmos cement plant could use up to 2 to 3 million tires. The ash generated from the burning tires actually become part of the cement, thereby eliminating any waste product.
It’s still too early to say if the tire burning complies with CEMEX air quality requirements. There are still many tests to run. According to Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, the most extensive testing will begin later this year. The Kentucky Resources Council negotiated the terms of the test burn. Fitzgerald is concerned that the tire burning might affect air quality.
Still, CEMEX and the KRC wish to seek to explore ways to reduce coal-based air pollution. CEMEX still needs to demonstrate that burning tires will comply with the city’s toxic air reduction program, said Matt Stull, spokesman for the Metro Air Pollution Control District.
The Supreme Court today refused to renew a lawsuit brought upon by Native American activists who feel the Washington Redskins’ team name is highly offensive and racist.
In a battle that has gone on since the 1960s, the activists say the name does not deserve trademark protection and is disparaging.
The Supreme Court’s decision basically lets stand a lower court ruling that the name has been around too long, without challenge for it to be banned. The professional football team has been called the Redskins since 1993. Before that, the team was called the Boston Braves.
According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit was filed in 1992 when seven activists challenged a Redskins trademark issued in 1967. They won that case from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board after seven years based on a decision that it could be construed as offensive to Native Americans.
The football team appealed and the activists lost based on a doctrine that defends against claims that should have been made a long time ago.
For the past 11 years he has been one of Rupert Murdoch’s closest advisers, but Gary Ginsberg announced recently that he plans to leave the News Corporation by the end of this year.
Murdoch has been called the global media king and is the chairman and controlling shareholder of News Corporation.
Ginsberg is an executive vice president and the second top executive to leave the corporation in the last few months. Peter Chernin, former president of News Corporation, stepped down also this year.
Ginsberg had been hired in 1999 to be director of communications. He also became an important liaison between Murdoch and members of the Democratic party.
Major department store retailer J.C. Penney Company, Inc is expecting earnings this holiday season that would surpass Wall Street projections, according to an article on Reuters.
Earlier this month, Penney reported “that comparable store sales for the four-week period ended Oct. 31, 2009, decreased 4.5 percent, slightly better than the company’s guidance for sales to decrease 5 to 8 percent. In last year’s October period, comparable store sales decreased 13 percent. Total company sales in October decreased 3.5 percent.”
Company Chief Executive Officer Myron Ullman said the retail chain reduced clearance selling and “unprofitable discounting.” He said that strategy will continue into the fourth quarter.
According to a release from the company today, the company “reported fiscal third quarter results that were significantly better than initial expectations and showed further improvement in cash flow performance. The company continues to be in a strong financial position, ending the quarter with cash and cash equivalents balance of $2.1 billion.”
“JC Penney’s third quarter results reflect the success of our strategy to balance top line performance with bottom line profitability,” said Ullman. “Our ability to deliver earnings above original expectations resulted from better than expected improvement in gross margin as we have maintained appropriate inventory levels and reduced both clearance selling and unprofitable discounting.”
Competitor’s Macy’s and Kohl’s, however, have given fourth-quarter estimates of lower than analysts’ estimates for holiday sales.
A privacy agency in Switzerland said it plans to sue Google over its Street View feature.
Street View allows users to see street-level pictures online. The application has been criticized by other European countries because it could expose private or embarrassing things about people’s lives, according to an Associated Press article.
The Swiss agency said it wants Google to ensure that all license plates, faces and private streets are blurred. It also wants at least one-week notice of when Google will be in the area taking photographs and when it will be available online.
“In the Street View service, which has been online since mid August 2009, numerous faces and vehicle number plates are not made sufficiently unrecognizable from the point of view of data protection, especially where the persons concerned are shown in sensitive locations, e.g. outside hospitals, prisons or schools,” said Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, Hanspeter Thür in a news release.
The commission maintains that previous advance information from Google has been incomplete.
“Google announced that it would primarily be filming urban centres, but then put comprehensive images of numerous towns and cities on the Internet,” said Thür. “In outlying districts, where there are far fewer people on the streets, the simple blurring of faces is no longer sufficient to conceal identities. This is primarily due to the website’s zoom function, which enables the Street View user to isolate and enlarge images of individuals on the screen.”
A group of Burger King franchise owners are suing the fast-food chain over its $1 double cheeseburger promotion, saying it is costing them money.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, Nov. 10 in the U.S. District Court in Southern Florida.
The National Franchise Association of Burger King, which represents about 80 percent of the Burger King’s U.S. franchise owners, said the deal is forcing a loss of about 10 cents per burger, according to an article from the Associated Press.
The $1 deal was tested in certain markets before it was launched nationwide in October despite objections from franchise owners.
It’s been common practice for restaurants, and more widespread among fast-food chains, to offer menus that are for the lighter budget due to the poor economy. Burger King’s goal is to increase visits by 20 percent.
Burger King franchise owners are suing the fast-food chain over its $1 cheesburger promotion.
Zerona is a new, non-invasive body slimming technique that has been proven to reduce a patients’ waist, hips and thighs by more than three inches.
“Our partnership with Santa Barbara Medical Innovations will significantly strengthen our position in the North American market,” said Steve Shanks, President of Erchonia. “We believe SBMI sees the value in our revolutionary technology and their strategic approach complements our vision and long-range plans.”
Santa Barbara Medical Innovations will manage sales, distribution and marketing of the Zerona laser to physicians and will market the technology through direct mail, advertising and public relations.
Also, in October, Santa Barbara Medical Innovations announced that Emmy Award winning television personality, entrepreneur and philanthropist Leeza Gibbons has the company in an alliance focused on educating and empowering people to take charge of their health.
Gibbons will be a spokesperson for the Zerona laser.
“I am always inspired by transformation, and Zerona and SBMI are innovators in offering the tools and technologies for people to change the way they look and the way they feel about themselves,” said Leeza in a press release. “This is an ideal partnership for me because it offers so many opportunities to connect with people about the things that matter most; taking charge of our health, our fitness and our self-esteem. Zerona gives us a perfect way to empower ourselves to truly transform our lives. I love telling the stories of life changing results that produce better health and happiness.”
Erchonia is the global leader in low-level laser healthcare applications. During the last 15 years Erchonia has been conducting research and development with the world’s leading physicians to advance the science of low-level lasers.
Taiwan officials said yesterday they are preparing to sign a memorandum of agreement on financial supervision with Taiwan, according to an article on cctv.com.
“We are ready to sign the memorandum with Taiwan,” said Yang Yi, a spokesperson for the State Taiwan Affairs Council. “As to the location, time and form of the signing, the Chinese mainland will have no problem.”
Sean King, vice president of Park Strategies, discussed the disconnection between the Taiwan and China economic relationship with CNBC’s Martin Soong and Emily Chan on Oct. 1.
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Sean King, who is leading the public policy firms’ push into Asia, said it is hard for him, or anyone, to predict what the communist leaders in China are thinking. King is heading Park Strategies’ newly opened office in Taipei, Taiwan.
Sean King said Taiwan is interested in getting back on the “world stage,” and hope to do so by striking free-trade agreements with China.
China and Taiwan have already established deals to expand tourism and transportation links.
Sean King referenced a recent poll that showed 60 percent of Taiwanese support a free-trade agreement with China.
“They all support the economic openings but for them, that’s where it stops,” King said. “For the Chinese leaders, that’s where it starts and that’s where the disconnect happens. They are really talking different languages past each other.”
After the Financial Service memorandum is settled, negotiations are expected to begin in December on the Economic Cooperation and Framework Agreement. That would form a free-trade agreement area.
“Like it or not, the fact is that the world’s supply chain and economy goes through southeastern China today,” King said. “So, if you’re not there you are missing out on the world. That’s why Taiwan wants this.”
