Reading around — Nov. 30

Reuters: Microsoft and Yahoo in talks again

WSJ: Are Democratic Presidents Good for Stocks?

TechCrunch: When Everyone Is A Blogger, Nothing You Say Is Off The Record

TechCrunch: SEC Outlines Its Reasoning For Shutting Down P2P Lender Prosper — SEC rules the person to person network is a seller of securities and as such should be licensed. Other P2P lenders are also under scrutiny. The issue first arose in October — San Francisco Business Times: Prosper suspends lending, Zopa exits U.S. market.

WSJ: Consumers Say Wall Street Failed Them — Consumers say they’re asked to take all the risk, and they don’t know what they’re doing.

Reading around — Nov. 24

Kevin Kelly: Screen FluencyWe were once People of the Book but now we are becoming People of Screen. But to complete this transformation in full we need a set of tools which will allow us to manipulate, create, and process moving images with the same ease we have for words.

Lifehacker: Trim Your Budget by Reclaiming the Special Treats

Richard Karlgaard: Twelve Steps To Economic Recovery

Business Opportunities: Lifetime Spent On Fun And Games — a profile of the inventor of Twister and Nerf balls

Business Opportunities: Crowdsourcing The Sales ForceLeadVine lets users post the types of sales leads they seek along with the referral fee they’re willing to pay; the community is then invited to earn that fee by making the desired connections. Fees listed on the site must be at least USD 50, but the range is considerable.

WSJ: Builders Make Plea for Federal AidStruggling U.S. auto makers left Washington empty-handed after weeks of pleading for a handout, but that hasn’t deterred home builders from stepping up to lobby Congress for help.

WSJ: Investors Say Wait Till Next Year

Variety: Needed: TV Network bailout?

TechCrunch: Acquisition Dance Between Facebook And Twitter Over For Now?

WSJ: ‘Cyber Monday’ Discounts Bloom

Lifehacker: GreatSummary Boils Down a Web Page to a Few Sentences

TechCrunch: Facebook Wins An $873 Million Judgment Against Spammers That It Will Never Collect

Digital Rules by Rich Karlgaard: Detroit’s Brand KillerIn addition to its other mistakes, Detroit’s addiction to fleet sales, particularly of rental cars, was a killer.

Reading around — Nov. 19

WSJ: Google, P&G Swap Workers — two different corporate cultures, but both are successful

FT.com: Oil groups expect $40 barrel – CNOOC head

WSJ: Online Retail Spending Slows

WSJ: Ex-MSNBC Chief Launches Consulting Firm

CSMonitor: Auto giants up against bailout fatigue

USA Today: Offended moms get tweet revenge over Motrin ads

Fortune: Wal-Mart may sell iPhone — will it still be as cool?

IDD Magazine.com: Vanguard founder talks about the current market, speculation and how investors need to adjust their expectations — one of the financial gurus I listen too.

NY Times: China’s Auto Industry Presses for a Bailout From Beijing

TechCrunch: Poll: More Than Half Of Twitter Users Would Pay

NationalPost: Military researchers use nanoscaffolding to regrow limbs, organs — this is amazing.

Google: LIFE photo archive hosted by Google

Reading around — Nov. 18

NY Times: Newest Veterans Hit Hard by Economic Crisis

NY Times: Economix: How Many Jobs Depend on the Big Three? — claim that 1 in 10 jobs is based on the auto industry is for all in the car industry, not just GM, Ford or Chrysler.

NY Times: Web Sites That Dig for News Rise as Watchdogs — As newspapers shrink, rival operations have arisen in several cities, forcing the papers to follow their lead.

CS Monitor: Where should bailout dollars go?

CS Monitor: A lone bright spot in real estate: farmland

USA Today: More hotels go completely smoke-free

NY Times: Why G.M. Needs an Orderly Chapter 11

Yahoo Finance: Florida pension fund loses a quarter its value — Well that makes me feel better. It’s not just me.

CNN: Builders’ confidence sinks to new low

ReadWriteWeb: Murdoch: The Future Of Newspapers Goes Beyond Dead Trees

Publishing 2.0: Hulu to Match YouTube’s Revenue: Ten Observations For The Future of Media

Bloomberg: China Passes Japan as Biggest U.S. Treasuries Holder

graphicdesignr: Newspaper turns off Twitterfeed, gains followersOther newspapers have had great success using Twitter as a conversation tool — not an RSS feed.

Reading around — Nov. 17

Stephen Covey: The Greater Identity Theft is Our Cultural DNA

The Long Tail: Does the Long Tail create bigger hits or smaller ones?

Michael Hyatt: Book Review Friday: My Top Ten Favorite Business Books (Several I need to add to my reading list.)

ReadWriteWeb: Compete: Google Docs & Spreadsheets Keeps Growing, But User Engagment is Flat

TechCrunch: Online Ad Growth Grinds To A Halt

NY Times: In Times Square, a Company’s Name in (Wind- and Solar-Powered) Lights

NY Times: Ideas & Trends: How Industries Survive Change. If They Do.

WSJ: Cellphone Makers Brace for Shake-Up

WSJ: Bank Lending Isn’t Easing Crisis

NY Times: The Media Equation: Newspapers Jettisoning Top Talent to Cut Costs Circuit City fired its best employees and is now in bankruptcy. Are newspapers following the same path?

ReadWriteWeb: Scared Of Technology? You’re Old!

Footnoted.org: Lots of drama at Blockbuster…

Wired: Five Gadgets That Were Killed by the CellphonePity the makers of PDAs, MP3 players and pocket digital cameras: Their devices have been all but wiped out by the advent of the massively capable smartphone.

Boing Boing: Charles Platt takes a Zero-G flight — being in zero-g is an experience I’d like to have, but it’s still expensive and not practical, so I’ll just read the experience of others.

WSJ: Extinction Threatens Yellow-Pages Industry

Reading around — Nov. 14

NY Times: Worst May Be Yet to Come for Citi

NY Times: Hedge Fund Managers Ask for a Few New Rules

Footnoted.org: Some banks are just saying no to bailout money…

Michael Hyatt: 10 Benefits of a Recession

  1. It causes you to get more creative.
  2. It forces you to make the tough decisions.
  3. It thins out the competition.
  4. It makes you realize you can’t take anything for granted.
  5. It reminds you that real wealth isn’t about the stuff you own.
  6. It fosters out-of-the-box thinking.
  7. It makes it easier to abandon business-as-usual.
  8. It brings you back to the basics.
  9. It accelerates change.
  10. It causes you to be less wasteful.

WSJ: PC Makers Scramble as Demand Shrivels

WSJ:Luxury-Goods Makers Trim Prices in U.S.

Reading around — Nov. 13

CoStar: Retail REITs Feeling Effects of Tenant Fallout & Leasing Slowdown

WSJ: Bulging Waist Carries Risk — if the waist is over 40, you’re at risk.

NY Times: Valleywag to Fold Into Gawker.com, more news of new media weakness, see story from Tuesday from San Francisco: Layoffs at Current Media, Wired.com, Six Apart

Crains Chicago: Buffett was client of accused Deloitte partner

TechCrunch: Online Video: Where’s The Money?

Wired.com —GM Asks Employees to Beg Congress for Money

Footnoted.org — Live blogging hedge fund hearing!

Buzzworthy —The true spam king