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AIG Contemplates Joining Stockholder Suit Against US Gov't 354

Posted by timothy from the just-to-be-on-the-safe-side dept.
inode_buddha writes "After completing its bailout rescue and paying back the money with interest, AIG is considering suing the US Government for doing so. The reasons why? Among other things, the 14% interest rate paid to the government. 'The lawsuit does not argue that government help was not needed. It contends that the onerous nature of the rescue — the taking of what became a 92 percent stake in the company, the deal's high interest rates and the funneling of billions to the insurer's Wall Street clients — deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits the taking of private property for "public use, without just compensation." The former CEO and current major shareholder said: "The government has been saying, 'We're your friend, we owned and controlled you and we let you go.' But A.I.G. doesn't owe loyalty to the government," a person close to Mr. Greenberg said. "It owes loyalty to its shareholders."' The lawyer representing him is none other than David Boies of SCO fame."
The Media

Al Jazeera Gets a US Voice 444

Posted by Soulskill from the hopefully-it's-not-gilbert-gottfried's-voice dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that Al Jazeera plans to start an English-language channel available in more than 40 million U.S. homes, with newscasts emanating from both New York and Doha, Qatar. They announced a deal to take over Current TV, the low-rated cable channel that was founded by Al Gore seven years ago. But the challenge will be persuading Americans to watch the award winning network with 71 bureaus around the world — an extremely tough proposition given the crowded television marketplace and the stereotypes about the channel that persist to this day. 'There are still people who will not watch it, who will say that it's a "terrorist network,"' says Philip Seib. 'Al Jazeera has to override that by providing quality news.' With a handful of exceptions, American cable and satellite distributors have mostly refused to carry Al Jazeera English since its inception in 2006. While the television sets of White House officials and lawmakers were tuned to the channel during the Arab Spring in 2011, ordinary Americans who wanted to watch had to find a live stream on the Internet. Al Jazeera's Robert Wheelock said, We offer an alternative. It's a broader coverage of news. It's a broader spectrum into countries that aren't traditionally covered.'"

Comment Re:God bless the free market! (Score 2) 386

by gtomorrow (#41629685) Attached to: Seafood Raised on Animal Feces Approved for Consumers

Before there was such legislation you could still restrict yourself to only purchase from companies that voluntarily got certified and voluntarily informed ingredients.

What? WHAT?! What "voluntarily certified" products/companies were there??? Oh, you mean like Crest toothpaste certified by the American Dental Association, created by that very same toothpaste company?! And, sorry, but what the hell is "voluntarily informed ingredients" supposed to mean?

"No one (sic) were making you buy food who didn't list ingredients."

To this day the FDA doesn't insist on labeling the rat feces in your can of tomatoes or fruit flies in your canned peaches. You seriously think that you're going to know the difference when you buy that bag of frozen tilapia, wherever the provenence?

"...contract a well known specialist etc." Really?! Please. You obvious have missed very few meals in your lifetime to be so callous. Nanny State my ass.

Comment Re:anecdotally.... (Score 1) 405

by gtomorrow (#39317499) Attached to: Bing Now Nearly As Good As Google — Says Microsoft

FWIW (not much, I know, since (a) you don't know me and (b) I'm a Google employee), I know one of the engineers who works on the "do not track" stuff, and they are pretty ferocious about making sure that no data gets recorded about queries with the do-not-track cookies set. Google's culture is such that if it turned out the do-not-track cookies weren't being honored, and that information became known in the company (and there's basically zero censorship and lots and lots of internal communication so it *would* become known), it would create a firestorm of internal protest. Fully half of Google employees are engineers, and engineers tend not to like deceptive practices.

You mean like Google's Safari cookie trick?

Comment Re:OK, Since we can't discuss Gimp w/o Photoshop (Score 1) 264

by gtomorrow (#35838114) Attached to: GIMP 2.7.2 Released — Another Step Toward 2.8

As a "professional" (paid broadcast designer/graphic asrtist), in your case i'd recommend GIMP. In my case, Photoshop (but not CS5, but that's another story). Difference being you have no real deadlines and i can't afford to do in 15 minutes with GIMP what i can do in 3 minutes with Photoshop.*

*Not pulling numbers out of my colon: i actually timed it for a project (GIMP 2.6 vs CS2).
Japan

Japanese Build Robot Toddlers 81

Posted by timothy from the soft-spot-is-not-the-reset-hole dept.
kgeiger writes "The Japanese birth dearth may be crashing their population and rendering kids a rarity, but never fear! Robotics researchers at Osaka University are building robot babies to learn how people are supposed to interact with young children. For anyone who has raised real kids, cyberkiddies would seem a cheat unless they come with "why? Why? WHY?" and "No!" infinite loops and no OFF switch."

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