links for 2009-07-10

"Sports site RootZoo has sued Facebook for click fraud, alleging that the social networking site charged for more clicks than actually occurred. The lawsuit comes several weeks after Facebook users began flooding message boards with complaints about overcharging. " The first of many I'm sure.

" The Treasury Department could be undervaluing billions of dollars worth of stock warrants that it received from banks that took out loans through the government’s $700 billion bailout program, a Congressional oversight panel said on Friday. The panel estimated that the government’s approach could cost taxpayers as much as $2.1 billion if it were to be applied to all the banks and Wall Street firms that have borrowed a total of $240 billion since last fall."

"These are based on raw Pew data, reweighted to adjust for voter turnout by state, income, and ethnicity. No modeling of vote on age, education, and ethnicity. I think our future estimates based on the 9-way model will be better, but these are basically OK, I think. All but six of the dots in the graph are based on sample sizes greater than 30."

"Rather than saving Americans from the Real ID legislation that they have rejected in such large numbers, PASS ID would actualrescue the core policies of Real ID at a time when it is about to die of its own misguided impracticality."

"Cutting calories may delay the ageing process and reduce the risk of disease, a long-term study of monkeys suggests. The benefits of calorie restriction are well documented in animals, but now the results have been replicated in a close relative of man over a lengthy period. Over 20 years, monkeys whose diets were not restricted were nearly three times more likely to have died than those whose calories were counted."

"Public figures whose mobile phones were allegedly hacked into by investigators hired by the News of the World are said to be considering suing the newspaper. It follows claims in the Guardian that the tabloid paid £1m to settle legal cases which threatened to expose the use of illegal methods to get stories."

"A state lawmaker who made national headlines by claiming homosexuality is a greater threat to the United States than terrorism was heckled by protesters as she launched a campaign for a morality proclamation that opponents said promotes an atmosphere of hate." WTF?

Oh Bill.

"I have a few friends who work in the comedy business and I've had disturbing conversations as of late about the gender dynamic therein. For example, did you know that there is not one single female writer at The Daily Show? Not one. (Samantha Bee is a correspondent, and does some writing, but is not an official writer. Kristin Schall is only an occasional contributor.) When I think about how many women adore Jon Stewart, myself included, it makes me really sad to know that we're not also pushing him and Comedy Central, more broadly, to hire more women."

"Imprisoned fraudster Bernard Madoff has decided not to appeal against his 150-year sentence, his lawyer has said."

"A report in a Russian military journal claims that half the planes Russia lost in its war with Georgia last year were shot down by friendly fire. The article, in the Moscow Defence Brief magazine, also claims that Russia lost a total of six military aircraft, two more than it is admitting to." Awesome work Russia.

"The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Virginia today demanded that officials at the Rappahannock Regional Jail immediately end their illegal practice of censoring religious material sent to detainees. In a letter sent today to the jail's superintendent, Joseph Higgs, Jr., the ACLU asks for jail officials to guarantee in writing that the jail will no longer censor biblical passages from letters written to detainees and to revise the jail's written inmate mail policy to state that letters will not be censored simply because they contain religious material."

"Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against the federal government yesterday, challenging the legality of the Defense of Marriage ACT (DOMA). Passed in 1996, DOMA defines marriage as between one man and one woman and denies federal recognition of same-sex marriages. The lawsuit, filed by state Attorney General Martha Coakley, claims that the law forces the state to discriminate against its approximately 16,000 same-sex married couples."

"Impressive. But sadly, not enough for Microsoft (MSFT) to make real headway. Because Bing actually ended up losing market share during June, slipping to 5.25 percent from the 5.64 percent it had in May (click on chart below). Meanwhile, Google (GOOG) gained share, rising to 74.04 percent from 73.66 percent in May. And Yahoo (YHOO) gained as well, starting out the month with a 15.55 percent share and ending it with 16.19 percent."

"The Netherlands has returned to Iraqi ownership dozens of ancient artefacts that were stolen from the country after the US-led invasion of 2003. The 69 items were surrendered by Dutch art dealers after Interpol disclosed their illegal origin."

"The Philippines government plans to resume peace talks with communist rebels next month, officials have said. The last round of talks collapsed in 2004 amid communist anger at being included on US and European lists of terrorist groups. "

"The search giant said it was working with many firms on Chrome OS hardware including Acer, Asus, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba."

"However, sponsored links on the right attracted more attention on Bing (~42% of participants per search) than they did on Google (~25% of participants per search)." Bing gets those ads.

"A group of 26 AIDS activists chained themselves to each other in the Capitol Rotunda on Thursday morning, startling visitors, shutting down the landmark area and prompting their arrest by Capitol Police. Candidate Obama said he would help overturn the ban on needle exchange. President Obama reversed himself and banned federal funding for needle exchanges in his budget this year."

"As it stands, Amazon.com’s $9.99 e-book price is unsustainably low for the company and publishers, said Claudio Aspesi, a Sanford C. Bernstein analyst in London, in a June 19 note. Amazon.com will probably raise the price it charges Kindle users to $12.50 and pressure publishers to sell electronic books for less so it can make a profit, he said. "

What happens when Darth Vader falls in Love?

"A US judge has rejected a last minute request by a group of personal injury claimants to delay the sale of the profitable parts of General Motors." The last hurdle is down.

Stupid and a waste of time.

Apple does have a sense of humor.

"I don’t understand why so many outsiders are concerned about this. If Steve Jobs and the other members of Apple’s board think Schmidt’s spot on the board poses a competitive conflict of interest, they’ll ask him to leave. If they don’t, then what’s the problem? Does Tom Krazit really believe he has a better grasp of Apple’s competitive position versus Google than Jobs? Does he think Jobs is too shy or polite to confront Schmidt?" What he said.