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Seismologist Forced to Remove Quake Warning From the Internet

Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on April 6, 2009 at 4:30 pm PT

After an earthquake in the Abruzzo region of Italy killed at least 100 people, a local scientist is demanding an apology from authorities and saying that he was forced to take his warnings off the Internet. A week ago, Gioacchino Giuliani, a seismologist at the nearby Gran Sasso National Laboratory, predicted that a large quake could occur soon after several small tremors. According to Reuters, his warning prompted vans with loudspeakers telling residents to leave their homes.

Discovery To Amazon: Hands Off Our Kindle!

Peter Kafka in Media on March 17, 2009 at 9:50 am PT

Discovery Communications, the cable network best known for bringing you fare like “Shark Week”, says that Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader violates one of its patents. How so? Discovery says Amazon ripped off a system it designed to let it sell digital books over the Web.

Facebook Stream: It's Stream, as in Revenue Stream

John Paczkowski in News on March 4, 2009 at 3:15 pm PT

Its proposed acquisition of Twitter now little more than an unrequited Superpoke, Facebook is tweaking its own service to mimic the microblogging outfit. The social network on Wednesday unveiled a new homepage that, in a nod to Twitter’s real-time message broadcasting system, now features “Streams”–Facebook’s “News Feed” revamped to update in real-time.

Facebook Stream: It’s Stream, as in Revenue Stream

John Paczkowski in News on March 4, 2009 at 3:15 pm PT

Its proposed acquisition of Twitter now little more than an unrequited Superpoke, Facebook is tweaking its own service to mimic the microblogging outfit. The social network on Wednesday unveiled a new homepage that, in a nod to Twitter’s real-time message broadcasting system, now features “Streams”–Facebook’s “News Feed” revamped to update in real-time.

Yahoo Tries to Bake Up Some Sales Excitement in the Desert

Kara Swisher in News on March 2, 2009 at 4:09 pm PT

I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name/It felt good to be out of the rain/In the desert you can remember your name/’cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain. Actually, for Yahoo, which is holding its big annual meeting of the company’s advertising sales staff in Indian Wells, Calif., maybe just a little pain since BoomTown is only a scant few miles away, as the crow flies, attending the Demo09 conference in Palm Desert. The Yahoofest will include an appearance by its energetic new CEO, Carol Bartz. Don’t worry, Yahoo PR, I will not crash the proceedings or be bribing the bartenders to get more leaks. But you Yahoos should still be careful with the wine in the hot tub anyway–as Carol says, loose lips sink ships!

New York Times to the Web: Hands Off Our “T”!

Peter Kafka in Media on February 25, 2009 at 11:27 am PT

The New York Times is justifiably proud of the work its staff publishes on its flagship Web site every day. It’s also very proud of the first letter of its name. That seems to be the lesson in a flap between the paper and Newser, an aggregation site whose motto is “Read Less, Know More.” The Times says it is happy to let Newser link to its stories–but not to use its “T” logo.