Employees not ‘Yahoo’ about recent layoffs

Yahoo is an American public corporation headquartered in Sunnyval, Californiathat provides Internet services worldwide. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine, Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, news, and social media websites and services. Yahoo! was founded by Jerry Yag and David Filo in January 1994.
According to Web traffic analysis companies (including Compete.com, ComScore, Alexa Internet, Netcraft, and Nielsen Ratings), the domain “yahoo.com” attracted at least 1.575 billion visitors annually by 2008.
The global network of Yahoo! websites receives 3.4 billion page views per day on average as of October 2007. It is the second most visited website in the US and in the world
Recently Yahoo has been cutting the fat of its employee base, becoming the first since Yahoo appointed Carol Bartz, former executive chairman of Autodesk, as its new chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors.
Much of the media related with yahoo and its advertisers, will also take a large hit. Also with its slow recovery to the layoffs, Yahoo has lost many battles for prominent and successful sites like YouTube and Facebook.
The layoffs could affect several hundred employees and may be announced as early as Tuesday when Yahoo reports first-quarter financial results, says an anonymous group in the yahoo field.
The cuts would be the third round of layoffs at Yahoo in little more than a year. The Internet Company, which has been struggling for more than two years, laid off about 1,000 workers early in 2008. It cut 1,400 or so in the fourth quarter of last year, in continuing efforts to prune its sprawling online business and bring down expenses. It ended the year with 13,600 employees.
Under Ms. Bartz, Yahoo has also been trying to sell some business units that it doesn’t consider core to its mission, including Hotjobs, the online recruiting service, according to several people familiar with the plans.
Ms. Bartz has been reviewing Yahoo’s businesses. In recent weeks, she renewed discussions with Microsoft, which attempted to buy Yahoo early last year, and later tried to acquire the company’s search business.
The new round of talk centers on a possible advertising partnership, whether than a more reasonable, acquisition or a sale of Yahoo’s search business.

More than confetti falling Monday

The game ending buzzer went off, the confetti fell, and North Carolina’s head coach’s eyes watered. The NCAA basketball tournament was nothing less of a fun ride for Coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar heels. “They took me for a beautiful ride,” he said about his players.

This victory was Williams’ second NCAA Championship and he is currently in third place for the most winning programs in college history behind Kentucky and UCLA.

The pro-Spartans crowd of 72,922 at Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan was taken out of the game early and never proved a significant factor.

“The best team won,” Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo said. “That’s an easy statement to make. They played well.”

North Carolina blasted Michigan State, 89-72, to win its fifth national championship for the University. Michigan State’s run of hope ended as the Tar Heels jumped to a 20-point lead in the first 10 minutes.

“It was a perfect storm,” Izzo said.

Williams’ two national titles equal the total of the North Carolina Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith, which is a great honor and privilege said Williams. With tears in his eyes Williams said, “I’m the luckiest coach in America, I can tell you that.”

Red faces lead to deeper looks into alcohol flush

For many college students, drinking is a way to relax or to sometimes loosen up. But for a certain group of people, there's nothing relaxing or exciting about grabbing unwanted attention and physical discomfort with the redness that comes with the consumption of a beer. These people have been made fun of, being called “Tomato” or “Cherry-face.” This redness is called ‘alchohol flush reaction.’

The flushing response may follow symptoms like nausea, and a rapid heart beat that scientists think is caused mainly by an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called ALDH2. ALDH2 is an enzyme that belongs to the aldehyde dehydrogenase family of enzymes which catalyze the chemical transformation from acetaldehyde to acetic acid. ALDH2 is the second enzyme of the major oxidative pathway of alcohol metabolism

As little as half a bottle of beer can trigger the reaction. It is also commonly referred to as "Asian flush syndrome" or "the Asian glow" because it occurs frequently in certain Asian populations. The flushing may indicate an increased risk for a deadly throat cancer, researchers report.

When most people drink alcohol, enzymes in their guts break it down and turn it into things that the body can eliminate as waste or store for energy. But some people have genetic mutations that keep the enzymes from doing their job, causing acetaldehyde - a toxic substance - to build up in their blood when they drink. People with two copies of the gene have such unpleasant reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. This aversion actually protects them against the increased risk for cancer. But those with only one copy can develop a tolerance to acetaldehyde and become heavy drinkers.

“What we’re trying to do here is raise awareness of this risk factor among doctors and their ALDH2-deficient patients," said Dr. Philip J. Brooks, an investigator with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and an author of the report published on Monday in the journal PLoS Medicine. “It’s a pretty serious risk."

“I'm actually hoping for an answer to this one too..., I've heard pepcid works, little before you drink, and on a full stomach. But it’s an extremely annoying problem. People will tell you, well just don't drink. But first, you want to have a good time once in a while, and sometimes you don't have a choice. I'm a waitress and every week in a class, we have to try out new kinds of alcohol for the first hand experience of a buzz on it. I cannot skip this because it helps me familiarize with all the drinks very effectively, yet I can't get up from the class after one or two drinks looking totally blown, and the worst part is my tolerance is the same as most people my size, i just get beet red after one drink and maybe the slightest buzz…please help” says Nicole Tangie of Sudbury, ON in response to a ‘Health Message Board’ article.

Missing fingers add up to low expectations of housing authorities

A young “home health aide” had the end of her finger cut off because of a mishap in an electrical elevator, on April 30th. Indira Abreu, 23, was working as a tenant in New York City in public housing at the Sedgwick Houses in Bronx, and stepped into an elevator to see a patient on the fifth floor.
The elevator was an old-fashioned model, with an outer door that swung out and an inner door that slid shut. When another passenger stepped out on the third floor, the outer door stopped short of closing, leaving Ms. Abreu stranded. Her storyline of the incident begins with her grabbing the edge of the door to pull it closed because it did not have an inside handle.
The door slammed into her right hand, catching her middle finger between the door and the frame. The tip of her finger up to the end joint was sliced off. “I immediately felt pain, and then I saw the blood and I just grabbed onto my hand,” said Ms. Abreu. “I held my hand. I still didn’t realize part of my finger was missing.”
Tenants who live in New York City public housing have been complaining almost everyday on the inconvenience that the elevators in the building have been giving. More than 170 injuries have occurred in elevators of the public housing in New York City including injuries to hands, arms, feet, backs, heads, legs and knees, according to the agency and to the records.
The Housing Authority, the City’s biggest landlord, help with poor families by giving them a lower rent. As a result of Ms. Abreu’s accident, and other complaints, the authority pledged last year to spend $107 million to replace about 550 elevators in the next five years.
“We care about our residents,” Mr. Morales said. “We care about our elevator situation and are working at it. Any injury to us is one too many. If anybody gets hurt, it’s a concern for us.”
From 2001 to 2007, the agency paid $3.5 million in settlements and judgments in elevator-related personal injury lawsuits, according to the documents. The agency has an operating budget deficit of $177 million in fiscal year 2009 and has closed underused community centers, eliminated hundreds of jobs and raised rents on its highest-income households to cut costs.
After Ms. Abreu’s accident, an inspector issued a violation to the agency for failing to maintain the elevator, in part because the outer door needed adjustment. Ms. Abreu is suing the agency and hiring Herbert Subin as her lawyer, and says she still has pain in her right hand, which she keeps covered with gloves.
“I was a happy person before this accident, and that happy person no longer exists,” she said

FACEBOOK’S private policies turn public

“Facebook,” one of the world’s largest social networks, has a chief privacy officer that has been predicted to diminish in the next few years because of its enormous growth and the building of relationships with other competing and social networks leading to a smaller gap between the private and the public. The main issue is that many of Facebook’s members consisting of mostly high school students, college students, and graduates, all seem to have no problem with sharing their personal information, but also have the concern of having their privacy withdrawn. Among members, a Law of Amiable Inclusiveness seems to be revealing itself: over time, many are deciding that the easiest path is to routinely accept “friend requests,” completing a sequence begun when one member seeks to designate another as a Facebook friend. In other words, they are defining “friend” simply as any Facebook member who communicates a wish to be one. Facebook provides many different types of privacy policies and options, where many of these members do not take advantage of. They ignore the opportunity to change their privacy settings and then blame the network for revealing such private data. But many of these private settings can be easily “tweaked” by users who need or want to find out more about an individual. Facebook does let members create customized subsets of friends. Members can selectively restrict access to some items, such as photo albums and videos. But because of the amount of time and/or amount of clicks a user must go through to create a custom permission account, many of these users are shying away from the advantages that Facebook offers. For many members, “friends” now means a mish-mash of real friends, former friends, friends of friends, and non-friends; younger and older relatives; colleagues and, if cursed, a nosy boss or two. Everyone accepted as a “friend” gets the same access. When the distinction blurs between one’s few close friends and the many that are not, it seems pointless to distinguish between private and public.

here comes square root day

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/wireStory?id=6993354
A rare holiday only occurring nine times each century was a huge hit to math teacher Tuesday with the addition of a little competition. The day is none other than 3/3/09, obviously because the square root of nine is three times three. “We have but nine of these days in a century, and hope all can enjoy a little math fun on Tuesday (Today),” said Ron Gordon, a Redwood City Oklahoma math teacher.
Gordon, who started a contest meant to get people excited about the event. The winner gets, of course, $339 for having the biggest Square Root Day event. Celebrants are expected to mark the occasion by cutting root vegetables into squares or preparing other foods in the shape of the square root symbol.

"These days are like calendar comets, you wait and wait and wait for them, then they brighten up your day and poof they're gone," said Gordon. The last one occurred on February 2, 2004, and the next will occur in seven years on April 4, 2016.

Square Root Day isn't the only humorous holiday celebrated in the math world.
Pi Day is observed each March 14 (3/14), while Pi Approximation Day falls on July 22 (roughly equal to 22/7). The first Pi Day was observed in 1988 by staff at the San Francisco Exploratorium, who walked around in circles.

So as you can see these holidays may be small but do have meaning, and all include fun times. So dust off the cobwebs from the math-section of your brain, recharge your calculators, and enjoy Square root day.

Murdoch's chimp-ish apology

http://blog.newser.com/post/2009/2/19/Chimp-Cartoon-Makes-Murdoch-A-Chump.aspx
Rupert Murdoch released a statement on Tuesday saying, "I am ultimately responsible."
Murdoch was responding to the uproar after last week's controversial stimulas cartoon, for which the paper had already semi apologized.
The main point of the cartoon Murdoch claims was mainly to make a reference to the attacking chimp of the previous report on the women, who treated it like a child and family member. His approach, mainly seen as racist, was never purposely aimed as such.
With the paper’s original apology “Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today we want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted” and the official apology of Murdoch, readers should be feel that Murdoch’s attempt to be funny and point proving was irresponsible and deserves to be forgiven for his misread mistake.
Being a frequent reader of the New York Times, I believe that this actual cartoon was aimed to grab attention to an unknown writer. Basically Murdoch was looking for an attention grabber and failed, with the actual impact it had on the media and their negative outlook on him personally. It was a cartoon taken way out of context by a man who just hasn't had enough time in the spotlight. Murdoch should have either kept his mouth shut and not said anything about it or come up with a more proper approach to the issue.

Expectations for low profits, don’t match Wal-Mart

http://www.newsonfeeds.com/article/8880399/Wal-Mart%20Profit%20Tops%20Expectations
One of the world’s largest retail stores posted a “quarterly” profit that exceeded much of the Wall Street Journals’ small expectations, with much help from its sales and discounts in United States stores, on Tuesday.

With the fourth quarter ending on Jan 31, profits fell considerably from 1.02 cents per share to 96 cents per share.

According to Reuters Estimates the expectations for Wal-Mart and their earnings was at the price of 99 cents per share, but the actual earnings with a 7 cent charge for settlement, ended with 1.03 cents per share, drastically overlooking estimators.

Total sales were $109.12 billion, up from $107.34 billion in the previous year period.

Results of Wal-Mart’s forecast earnings, which took place last month, resulted with 1.03 cents to 1.07 cents, from original 91 to 94. This was due to the pain from a stronger economical dollar, a settlement for class action lawsuits, and expected sales in certain divisions with weaker outcomes.

C. Douglas McMillon, president and chief executive of Wal-Mart International, said the last few months were “a challenge for Wal-Mart International,” adding, “The global economic slowdown is affecting all our markets.”

Wal-Mart’s shares rose nearly 1 percent in premarket trading from its close of $46.53 Friday.

“It was a superb performance in a horrible environment,” said Bill Dreher, senior retailing analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities. “Bottom line? It’s a 5 percent increase on earnings during a recession.”

keeping kids home from school, when its alright, and its preventions

http://health.nytimes.com/pages/health/index.html
When kids are feeling woozy or abnormal, the first instinct of a parent is to keep them home from school, says professor of pediatrics in a study recently released. Doctors, as a group, are strong believers in sending children to school. Doctor’s are more concerned about children unnecessarily missing school than about their posing an infection risk to their classmates says Dr. Caroline Breese Hall, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Rochester.
In a study by Dr. Hall, hospitalized babies were examined on how they did or did not transmit the virus to “sitters, touchers and cuddlers.” ‘The sitters’ were adults who sat in the room, more than three feet away from the infected baby. ‘The touchers’ came into the room when the baby wasn’t there and touched the area around the crib. And you can guess what the ‘cuddlers’ did. Results were as followed: The sitters didn’t catch the virus at all; the cuddlers did, and so did the touchers.
So then the question arises, how do you reduce infections? “The only thing we can really show well in infection control is hand washing,” Dr. Hall said. “Even for those viruses that are spread by aerosol”
The final message is keep your child home from school if there’s fever, or if the child does not feel well enough to participate.

Bolivia’s undercarriage could carry future prominence in lithium.

Automakers and government officials seeking lower reliance towards oil, have found an answer. The answer to the problem is found in Bolivia. Bolivia provides almost half of the world’s lithium which can be used to power vehicles and company equipment. Because of the country’s easy will to give up the lithium, hopefully, many cultures like the Japanese and the Europeans are trying to cut the best deal in order to be in control of lithium’s future plans.
“We know that Bolivia can become the Saudi Arabia of lithium,” said Francisco Quisbert, 64, the leader of Frutcas, a group of salt gatherers and quinoa farmers on the edge of Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt flat. “We are poor, but we are not stupid peasants. The lithium may be Bolivia’s, but it is also our property.”
The United States Geological Survey says 5.4 million tons of lithium could potentially be extracted in Bolivia, compared with 3 million in Chile, 1.1 million in China and just 410,000 in the United States.
One of the biggest potential companies that have the possibility to use lithium and be successful is the automotive industry. It would allow electric cars to store more energy and be driven longer distances.
The United States Geological Survey says 5.4 million tons of lithium could potentially be found in Bolivia, compared with 410,000 in the United States. While estimates vary widely, some geologists say electric-car manufacturers could draw on Bolivia’s lithium reserves for decades to come.
“Of course, lithium is the mineral that will lead us to the post-petroleum era,” Mr. Castro said. “But in order to go down that road, we must raise the revolutionary consciousness of our people, starting on the floor of this very factory.”

Sprint aims to layoffs for economic solution

New chief executive of Sprint Nextel Corp. reportedly plans to lay off "several thousand" workers as part of an effort to reduce costs at the struggling wireless-phone company, which has been losing thousands of key subscribers to rivals. The aim for new hired members if sprint is to gain control over corporate expenses and increase excitement in investors according to an article in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. Sprint, which has around 60,000 employees, already cut its payroll by about 5,000 jobs last year. Many of the loss of jobs is not all focused on the down spiral of the economy but because of sprints competitors like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which are the two largest US mobile operators. Sprint still supplies to nearly 54 million subscribers, but AT&T and Verizon have widened their base of operations and now serve more than 64 million customers each. Cutting prices could be a possible solution, but that still doesn’t make a big enough dent in the competitions supplies and advantages. The sprint customers will continue to stay away from sprints products as long as news like this continues and its reasonable poor customer service.
As a Nextel user myself, I agree with horrible complaints and comments, that other users claim. The reception is horrible, every text comes in slow, and its overhaul experience is weak and un attractive. When I first heard the news of the released job from sprint, it came in no surprise. They haven’t spread market ideas into technology like other companies have, which also gives other companies an edge over sprint.

Unsung group deserving praise

Many heroes were born and recognized late Thursday night as a crippled jet soared into the Hudson river, but a few were over looked (Because they’re nothing but flight attendants, right?) while their heroic actions and decision saved many of the lives on this tragic day. “They did everything right” talking about the three flight attendants Sheila Dail, 57, Doreen Welsh, 58, and Donna Dent, 51, said investigators and aviation workers, “had they made one mistake, we would be talking about a completely different outcome than we saw on Thursday.” With a deeper look inside the story, our heroes had deep cuts and scars that weren’t noticed until after the adrenaline pumping rescue. Flight attendant Welsh, was located in the rear of the plane, while sitting in chest high water, didn’t notice her deep cut on her left leg until after the escape. So the question remains, do we give flight attendant the respect they deserve? And will we give me a silent thank you next time they give in to our requests? That answer is very obvious now. The respect for highly trained well educated flight attendant will take a huge stride and will continue to soar.
In many stories readers and witnesses tend to lean on the first seen and first credited heroes. But as you can see the real heroes are the ones not doing it for recognition or for a pay check. They are the ones who do it on instinct and on care for other people. Many times in the history of man heroes arise late after the stories have already been written. They may have not been the credited successors, but in the minds and the hearts of those they saved, they are the heroes. Tragedies like September 11th, and especially our American wars, are prime examples of heroic activity with out creditability. Be recognized a as hero is not the message, but being a hero under the shadows and without gratitude, is how we all should strive to be.

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