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The Weather Channel is For Sale...a hot or a cool buy for 08'

The Atlanta based network, The Weather Channel, and subsequent daily newpapers, non-daily papers, and other publications are for sale as the owner of the empire is in failing health and his family wants to do the humane thing and have a huge fire sale. The asking price for the channel, the website, the 109 papers and assorted periodicals is at a reasonable $5 billion, with last year's figures being at $1.75 billion, you stand to make your investment back within three years. Read

Is Palm giving some employees the ax?

Reports are starting to filter from a reliable source with PalmInfoCenter that an unknown number of Palm Inc. employees are being laid off and not expecting to return:

From PalmInfoCenter:

updated Rumor: PalmInfocenter has heard from reliable source that Palm is announcing layoffs today. Unconfirmed reports indicate that Palm has already begun to notify employees and a possible announcement may come sometime later this week.

Palm currently employs around 1,247 people. While we don't have an official confirmation at this time, a few ex-employees have come forward with claims that the layoffs are worldwide and could number in the hundreds. The company had their last round of layoffs back in June, with reports indicating around 100 people were let go.

This is not so good.

Palm hasn't been having an easy time and this may be to stave off any continued negative financial fallout from lower profits and not getting a certain device ready in time for delivery.

But still, these are people and it is always more hurtful to be staring down a termination slip around the holidays.

Why is it always the little guys who suffer when management screws up a company?

So much for striving to be mediocre.

Let's all hope tomorrow brings some sanity and clarity to this situation and all the people at Palm will still have a job to go in the morning.

via EngadgetMobile

Phil Spector Murder Trial – Deemed a Mistrial!

Judge Larry Fidler has declared a mistrial in the Phil Spector murder trial, as jurors announced they were hopelessly deadlocked.

In the courtroom yesterday, the jury told the judge that they were deadlocked after 12 days of deliberations 10 - 2 -- with 10 jurors voting for a guilty verdict.

"Some thought there was enough background to say yes, possibly she did kill herself," an electrician who voted to convict Spector said at a press conference.

What do they think it is, CSI!?! Not everything comes with a DNA stamp on it!  Logic people!!! Look at the chain of events, pattern of violent behavior towards women with guns, blood splatter analysis, etc etc THIS CASE HAS GUILT WRITTEN ALL OVER IT!

Luckily for Lana Clarkson’s family, prosecutors said they will try again to convict Spector of a second-degree murder charge.

Trial Background: LINK

Microsoft looking to get in bed with Facebook, wants to kick Google to the curb

The Wall Street Journal is reporting Microsoft is in talks with Facebook to invest $10 billion in the company hoping for future tie-ins between the Microsoft applications and those of Facebook. This comes about the same time Google is rumored to have made similar overtures to have some sort of stake in the very popular social networking site.

The people familiar with the matter said that the discussions are still preliminary and Facebook could wind up not taking an investment from either Microsoft or Google. Factors in the discussions include the valuation the suitors would offer to Facebook and other business considerations they could contribute to sweeten any deal.

Facebook, which is used by over 40 million people to set up their own personal Web pages, to communicate with each other and to share photos and videos, has emerged as the poster child for the latest Internet wave. An investment in Facebook could give Microsoft or Google greater opportunities to tie their services in with Facebook at a time when they've both recognized that social networking is changing how consumers tap into their core activities, such as Web search and email.

Still not one being on board with all this new fangled social networking stuff (and probably never will), I could see the plus side for both companies. By putting up the cash, they do get some kind of access to whatever is coming down the pike for inclusion of their respective company's offerings. Both Google and Microsoft are increasingly fighting it out in the ad revenue space as well as "destination" sites for all of their on-line applications. 

From what I've heard, Facebook is somewhat a closed system to the desires of outside corporations so throwing some money at them may open the doors a little more. What that will mean for Facebook users is still unclear. My hunch is most would probably welcome Google but frown on Microsoft and that may ultimately make the decision for the owner of Facebook.

He doesn't look like a Microsoft kinda guy to me.

Via TechCrunch

STRIKE!!! UAW Members have Walked Off The Job

The United Auto Workers union have walked off the job as of 11 AM this morning. 73,000 members have walked off after a deal was unable to be struck overnight. GM will start to see lines of picketers today, which is something the American auto naker really doesn't need, seeing as how it's hard enough to sell American cars already.

---While the strike idles 59 U.S. plants and facilities at GM, it does not affect the two other automakers whose workers are represented by the UAW, Ford Motor (Charts, Fortune 500) or Chrysler Group, which between them have more than 100,000 UAW still on the job. Members at those companies have been working under their own contract extensions as the union concentrated on reaching a deal with the UAW.

A key to the contract talks is GM's goal of shifting an estimated $51 billion in future health care costs for retirees and their family members to union-controlled trust funds. GM has more than 340,000 retirees and surviving spouses receiving such benefits today. Shifting those costs is seen as a key to GM efforts to close its cost gap with nonunion automakers such as Toyota Motor (Charts) and Honda Motor (Charts). ---CNN

Drunk Man thinks he’s Santa!

You’re drunk, in a bar when suddenly you think the banshee that dumped you 3 weeks ago would be ecstatic to see you on her door step at 3am in the morning.......

At 3:30 am last week Alejandro Valencio had that thought!  Full of liquor and romantic notions he went over to his ex girlfriend, Connie Deweese, house but couldn’t get in. She told him to leave, he didn't listen.  So he took a leaf out of Santa’s book, climbed onto her roof, and down her chimney, and subsequently got stuck.

"I've dated a lot of psychos in my life, but nobody like that," Deweese said.

Firefighters had to destroy part of her house to retrieve the love drunk fellow, and sent him off to hospital. Meanwhile an irate Desweese was charged with misdemeanor citations for disorderly conduct and interfering with a firefighter.

"I told them to leave him in the chimney and let him die!" she screamed.

My advice…. Valencio, she’s definitely over you, move on…..

Jury Deadlocked in Spector Murder Trial - Bloody Ridiculous!

No wonder Spector is sticking his finger up at the world! Seven days of deliberation and four rounds of voting and the jury is split 7 to 5 as to his guilt in the shooting of actress Lana Clarkson.

Why? Well it beats me. With Spector’s violent history against women, blood splatter analysis and more, it seems ludicrous that they would be at an impasse.

Judge Larry Fidler obviously can’t bare to sit through another trial so wants to add a new count, manslaughter, to the table. Manslaughter for sticking a gun in a woman’s mouth and cold bloodily shooting her. Right, and I’m the Queen of England.

So what now? Well the jury were given the afternoon/night off, and will come back today at 10am for more deliberations. But the Judge doesn’t seem to be in a positive mood about them resolving anything:

"Based on 25 years of experience, rereading reasonable doubt rarely has any positive impact," he said.

The Judge seems like he’s trying to cover his ass (excuse the French) as he disclosed to the court yesterday moments after learning of the deadlock that there is a 1999 case concerning a man who shot his wife at point-blank range and who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter. Thus he wants to re-open the trial again, allowing the jury another verdict and more testimony from both sides.

Bloody ridiculous! Talk about setting up one hell of an appeal case if Spector gets convicted of anything at this point! This is a totally different situation. Clarkson was more an acquaintance than a girlfriend, let alone a wife, hardily causing years of emotional stress and turmoil in another’s life to drive them to shoot her. It’s a pile of garbage if you ask me.

The icing on the cake is: Second-degree murder carries 15 years to life in prison. Involuntary manslaughter committed with a gun is punishable by 5 to 14 years.

What is the world coming to?! Shoot a woman in the mouth and get 5 to 14 years…. How bloody farcical. I’m going to be in a bad mood all day now……..

More on this story: LINK

Pedophile Jon Schillaci Added to FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List

A Leopard Can’t Change its Spots.

The FBI have added Jon Savarino Schillaci to its "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives" list.

Schillaci is a fugitive from New Hampshire, where he is wanted for the alleged sexual assault of a five year old boy and the possession of child pornography (23 counts).

After serving a ten-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting two 11-year-old Texas boys, Schillaci was released in 1999, less than a year went by before he was back to his old habits, and sexually assaulted the five year old boy. That was 8 years ago. Goodness knows how many others he has assaulted since.

Jon Savarino Schillaci is described as a white male, 5'11", 180 pounds with brown eyes and brown hair. He was born on December 14, 1971, in Oklahoma, and has used several aliases to include Jon Willis, Christopher Keegan, and Cody Keegan.

A reward of $100,000 is being offered for any information leading to his arrest.

Schillaci is considered extremely dangerous. Anyone with information should immediately contact the nearest FBI office or local law enforcement agency.

When will the powers that be realize that pedophiles do not get rehabilitated?

There should be a three strike rule. After the third strike the offender is chemically castrated. End of Story.

FBI Wanted Poster LINK

More on the case: LINK

Father Finds Son Dead 6 Hours After Cops Clear Crash

  Gary, Indiana. A father determined to find his son goes back to the scene of a car crash and finds the dead bodies of his son, Brandon Smith and his son’s best friend Dominique Green in the weeds a matter of yards from where the other two surviving teenagers were recovered by cops and paramedics 6 hours earlier...Continued….. .

The Russian’s Are Coming!! - And they have a new bomb!

Last week Russian military successfully tested the world's most powerful non-nuclear air-delivered bomb. Nicknamed, "dad of all bombs" is believed to be four times more powerful than the U.S. "mother of all bombs."

"The tests have shown that the new air-delivered ordnance is comparable to a nuclear weapon in its efficiency and capability," said Col.-Gen. Alexander Rukshin, a deputy chief of the Russian military's General Staff.

And unlike a nuclear bomb this ones green, it doesn’t hurt the environment....... unless of course it lands on you!

Want to know more? LINK