Obama rejects Canada-Texas oil pipeline ? for now (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Raising the stakes on a bitter election-year fight with Republicans, President Barack Obama on Wednesday rejected a Canadian company's plan to build a U.S.-spanning, 1,700-mile pipeline to carry oil across six U.S. states to Texas refineries.

Though the project promises thousands of temporary jobs for the recovering U.S. economy, Obama said a February deadline set by Congress would not allow for a proper review of potential harm from the $7 billion Keystone XL project.

"As the State Department made clear last month, the rushed and arbitrary deadline insisted on by congressional Republicans prevented a full assessment of the pipeline's impact, especially the health and safety of the American people, as well as our environment," Obama said.

The plan proposed by Calgary-based TransCanada would carry oil from tar sands in western Canada to Texas, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.

Republicans assailed Obama's decision as a job-killer and said the fight wasn't over.

And the State Department said the decision was made "without prejudice," meaning TransCanada can submit a new application once a route through environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska is established.

Russ Girling, TransCanada's president and chief executive officer, said the company plans to do exactly that. If approved, the pipeline could begin operation as soon as 2014, Girling said.

Republicans were not assuaged.

Newt Gingrich, campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination in South Carolina, called Obama's decision "stunningly stupid," adding: "What Obama has done is kill jobs, weaken American security and drive Canada into the arms of China out of just sheer stupidity."

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., has said of the Canadian crude oil: "It's going to go to China if we don't build it here."

But Alex Pourbaix, TransCanada Corp.'s president for energy and oil pipelines, said last week the company soon will have a new route through Nebraska "that everyone agrees on."

For now, though, Mitt Romney, the Republican nomination front-runner, called Obama's decision "as shocking as it is revealing," adding that it "shows a president who once again has put politics ahead of sound policy."

House Speaker John Boehner said Obama was breaking his promise to create jobs.

"This is not the end of this fight," said Boehner, R-Ohio. He called the pipeline good for the U.S. economy and a major job creator.

The pipeline proposal has forced the White House to make a politically risky choice between two important Democratic constituencies. Many labor unions back the project because of the prospects of new jobs in a fragile economy. Environmental groups fear the pipeline could lead to an oil spill disaster.

Some liberal donors threatened to cut off funds to Obama's re-election campaign to protest the project, which opponents say would transport "dirty oil" that requires huge amounts of energy to extract.

Obama said his decision was not based on the pipeline's merits but on what he called an arbitrary Feb. 21 deadline set by Republicans in Congress. GOP lawmakers set the deadline as part of a tax bill that Obama signed into law just before Christmas.

"I'm disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision, but it does not change my administration's commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil," Obama said.

Under his administration, domestic oil and natural gas production is up, while imports of foreign oil are down, Obama said.

"In the months ahead, we will continue to look for new ways to partner with the oil and gas industry to increase our energy security," Obama said.

To underscore the point, Obama signaled that he would not oppose development of an oil pipeline from Oklahoma to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. TransCanada already operates a pipeline from Canada to Cushing, Okla.

Refineries in Houston and along the Texas Gulf Coast can handle heavy crude such as that extracted from Canadian tar sands ? the type of oil that would flow through the Keystone XL pipeline.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was profoundly disappointed that Obama turned down the pipeline.

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said he doesn't believe the Keystone XL is a dead project. He said the Obama administration did not have enough time to review the project, given the Republican-imposed timeline.

"I don't believe this is the end of the story," Conrad told The Associated Press. "My personal view is that it should be constructed. It's clear Canada is going to develop this resource, and I believe it is better for our country to have it go here rather than Asian markets."

Bill McKibben, an environmental activist who led opposition to the pipeline, praised Obama's decision to stand up to what he called a "naked political threat from Big Oil." Jack Gerard, the oil industry's top lobbyist, had said last week that Obama faced "huge political consequences" if he rejected the pipeline.

"It's not only the right thing, it's a very brave thing to do," McKibben said. "That's the Barack Obama I think people thought they were electing back in 2008."

___

Associated Press writers Dina Cappiello, Ben Feller and Laurie Kellman in Washington, Shannon McCaffrey in Warrenville, S.C., and Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston contributed to this story.

Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: (at)MatthewDalyWDC

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_bi_ge/us_oil_pipeline

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Apple starts selling interactive iPad textbooks (AP)

NEW YORK ? Apple Inc. on Thursday launched its attempt to make the iPad a replacement for a satchel full of textbooks by starting to sell electronic versions of a handful of standard high-school books.

The electronic textbooks, which include "Biology" and "Environmental Science" from Pearson and "Algebra 1" and "Chemistry" from McGraw-Hill, contain videos and other interactive elements.

But it's far from clear that even a company with Apple's clout will be able to reform the primary and high-school textbook market. The printed books are bought by schools, not students, and are reused year after year, which isn't possible with the electronic versions. New books are subject to lengthy state approval processes, making the speed and ease with which ebooks can be published less of an advantage.

Major textbook publishers have been making electronic versions of their products for years, but until recently, there hasn't been any hardware suitable to display them. PCs are too expensive and cumbersome to be good e-book machines for students. Dedicated e-book readers like the Kindle have small screens and can't display color. IPads and other tablet computers work well, but iPads cost at least $499. Apple didn't reveal any new program to defray the cost of getting the tablet computers into the hands of students.

All this means textbooks have lagged the general adoption of e-books, even when counting college-level works that students buy themselves. Forrester Research said e-books accounted for only 2.8 percent of the $8 billion U.S. textbook market in 2010.

Pearson PLC of Britain and The McGraw-Hill Cos. of New York are two of the three big companies in the U.S. textbook market. The third, Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, also plans to supply books to Apple's store, but none were immediately available.

The new textbooks are legible with a new version of the free iBooks application, which became available Thursday.

The textbooks will cost $15 or less, said Phil Schiller, Apple's head of marketing. He unveiled the books at an event at New York's Guggenheim Museum. Schools will be able to buy the books for its students and issue redemption codes to them, he said.

Albert Greco, a professor of marketing at Fordham University in New York and a former high-school principal, said schools would need to buy iPads for its students if it were to replace printed books.

It wouldn't work to let students who can afford to buy their own iPads use them in class with textbooks they buy themselves, alongside poorer students with printed books.

"The digital divide issue could be very embarrassing. Because if you don't have the iPad, you can't do the quiz, you don't get instant feedback ... that is an invitation for a lawsuit," Greco said. "I would be shocked if any principal or superintendent would let that system go forward."

Greco said hardback high-school textbooks cost an average of about $105, and a freshman might need five of them. However, they last for five years.

That means that even if an iPad were to last for five years in the hands of students, the e-books plus the iPad would cost more than the hardback textbooks.

At the private Xavier High School in New York, student Omar Soria welcomed the idea of getting rid of printed textbooks.

"They get pretty heavy, about maybe one pound per textbook. And depending on all the other books, which is binders and notebooks, it can get pretty heavy," he said.

Apple also released an app for iTunes U, which has been a channel for colleges to release video and audio from lectures, through iTunes. The app will open that channel to K-through-12 schools, and will let teachers present outlines, post notes and communicate with students in other ways.

Greco called the new app "a shot across the bow" of Blackboard Inc., a privately held company that provides similar electronic tools to teachers. It, too, has applications for cellphones and tablets.

Apple also revealed iBook Author, an application for Macs that lets people create electronic textbooks.

According to biographer Walter Isaacson, reforming the textbook market was a pet project of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, even in the last year of his life. At a dinner in early 2011, Jobs told News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch that the paper textbooks could be made obsolete by the iPad. Jobs wanted to circumvent the state certification process for textbook sales by having Apple release textbooks for free on the tablet computer.

Jobs died in October after a long battle with cancer.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/software/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_apple_textbooks

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Headphone-wearing pedestrian injuries triple as audiophiles stop noticing onrushing trains

The number of pedestrians injured or killed while wearing headphones has tripled in the last six years: 16 oblivious PMP users were offed in 2004, the number rising to 47 for last year. The research, carried out by Dr Richard Lichenstein at the University of Maryland found that headphone wearers became "inattentionally blind" to dangers such as passing cars and on-rushing trains. That's not us being flip either: 55 percent of the incidents involved locomotives. The majority of victims were male (68 percent) and under the age of 30 (67 percent): which puts your average Engadget reader in the center of the danger zone -- take it from us guys: sometimes it's better to press pause, "Baby, baby" will still be there when you've crossed the railway.

Headphone-wearing pedestrian injuries triple as audiophiles stop noticing onrushing trains originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/17/headphone-wearing-pedestrian-injuries-triple-as-audiophiles-stop/

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Demand strong, margins better in 2012: Nike CEO (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Nike Inc (NKE.N) is seeing no slowdown in demand in its biggest markets, even as Europe struggles economically and shoppers in the United States remain skittish, Chief Executive Mark Parker said.

The world's largest sportwear maker saw sales rise 18 percent in the second quarter, and Parker said there has been no pushback from shoppers as it raised prices for spring products.

"During times of economic challenge, consumers will go to brands that they trust and can connect with. We have not seen the economy have a dramatic impact on the sales of our products, not just in the high end, but also in the mid-priced range," Parker said.

Speaking at the launch of the company's new FuelBand, Parker said he expects input costs to keep going up, and is planning to fight those partially with price increases to improve margins.

Gross margins, which were down 260 basis points during the second quarter, are expected to improve through fiscal 2012, the CEO said.

"We definitely see room for margin improvement. With the price increases and with some commodity costs coming down, margins will start climbing up by the end of this fiscal year. You'll start seeing incremental margin improvement in fiscal 2012 and as we head into 2013," said Parker, who has been working with Nike since 1979.

Nike is also betting heavily on its Chinese market, which is currently about 11 percent of total sales, and grew 35 percent during the quarter ended Nov 30.

"I frankly think we have only scratched the surface when it comes to China," Parker said.

"(Over the next five years) the rate of growth may go up or down a little bit, but China will stay a growth story," he said.

(Nivedita Bhattacharjee in New York; editing by Mark Porter)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120119/bs_nm/us_nike

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Judge says Lindsay Lohan doing well on probation

Lindsay Lohan appears in Los Angeles Superior Court for a probation progress hearing Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner also told the actress she is on track to complete strict terms of her probation by the end of March. The 25-year-old is required to do cleanup duty at the morgue and attend therapy sessions.(AP Photo/Gary Friedman, Pool)

Lindsay Lohan appears in Los Angeles Superior Court for a probation progress hearing Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner also told the actress she is on track to complete strict terms of her probation by the end of March. The 25-year-old is required to do cleanup duty at the morgue and attend therapy sessions.(AP Photo/Gary Friedman, Pool)

Lindsay Lohan leaves Los Angeles Superior Court after a probation progress hearing Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner told the actress she is on track to complete strict terms of her probation by the end of March. The 25-year-old is required to do cleanup duty at the morgue and attend therapy sessions. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Lindsay Lohan, right, appears with her attorney Shawn Chapman Holley in Los Angeles Superior Court for a probation progress hearing Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner told the actress she is on track to complete strict terms of her probation by the end of March. The 25-year-old is required to do cleanup duty at the morgue and attend therapy sessions. (AP Photo/Gary Friedman, Pool)

Lindsay Lohan arrives at Los Angeles Superior Court for a probation progress hearing Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2012. Lohan remains on probation for convictions in a 2007 drunken driving case and a grand theft case in 2011. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Lindsay Lohan received her second favorable probation report in a row and a judge told the actress that she appears to be on track to complete a strict program by the end of March.

Lohan appeared in court for less than five minutes Tuesday to update the judge on her progress in completing strict probation terms that were imposed in November after a series of missteps by the actress.

By all accounts, the rigid program has benefited Lohan, with Superior Court Judge Stephanie Sautner telling Lohan that she received favorable reports from probation officials and her community service program. Lohan is doing mandatory cleanup duty at the county morgue and attending frequent psychotherapy sessions, with Sautner requiring Lohan to appear in court monthly for updates.

"Just keep doing what you're doing, you appear to be doing it well," Sautner told Lohan.

The model and actress arrived early for Tuesday's hearing, wearing black slacks, a blue blouse and matching sweater.

The "Mean Girls" star will have to work at the morgue 15 times before she returns to court on Feb. 22.

Sautner said Lohan appears to be on track to complete morgue duty and court-mandated therapy by March 29, just shy of five years after the actress' problems began with a drunken driving arrest on Memorial Day weekend in 2007. After that, she will probably be placed on informal probation that won't require court appearances.

She has struggled with the terms of her sentence since then, prompting judges to send Lohan to jail and rehab repeatedly. Tuesday's hearing marked the second straight hearing in which the actress wasn't on the receiving end of threats of further punishment.

"She will continue to make the completion of her community service a top priority," Lohan's publicist Steve Honig wrote in an email after the hearing.

The actress remains on probation for both the drunken driving case and a misdemeanor grand theft case filed after she took a necklace without permission in January 2010. She pleaded no contest to taking the $2,500 necklace and served 35 days on house arrest last summer.

___

Follow Anthony McCartney at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2012-01-17-People-Lindsay%20Lohan/id-40758276be5245359b7761fedc26fe62

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Average age of US vehicles hits record 10.8 years

DETROIT (AP) ? That clunker in America's driveway has reached a record old age, but there are signs that people may be growing confident enough in the economy to get a whiff of that fresh new car scent very soon.

The average age of a car or truck in the U.S. hit a record 10.8 years last year as job security and other economic worries kept many people from making big-ticket purchases such as a new car.

That's up from the old record of 10.6 years in 2010, and it and continues a trend that dates to 1995, when the average age of a car was 8.4 years, according to a study of state vehicle registration data by the Southfield, Mich.-based Polk automotive research firm.

However, Polk Vice President Mark Seng says that a rebound in sales last year and expected growth for the next couple of years is likely to slow the growth rate in the age of cars as a whole in America. Polk has not predicted if or when the age will start to drop, but Seng doesn't see that happening for at least two or three years, if not longer.

"It's going to take the good economy several years of very high sales again, and people being willing to let go of those older vehicles that they've been holding onto," Seng said.

Last year, auto sales rebounded a bit to 12.8 million vehicles, especially in November and December, when sales were unusually strong. In 2010, U.S. sales totaled 11.6 million after hitting a 30-year low of 10.4 million in 2009. Polk expects sales around 13.7 million this year, rising by about 1 million per year through 2015, when they reach about 16 million. That's back to around what industry analysts consider normal, and approaching the U.S. sales peak of 17 million in 2005.

But even a 1 million per year sales increase will have little impact on the average age because there are more than 240 million cars and trucks on the roads in the U.S., Seng says.

The aging of the American auto fleet has been a big boon for repair shops and companies that sell replacement auto parts, and Seng expects that to continue. He says people can hang onto their cars longer because automakers are making them far better than they did in 1995, the first year that Polk began tracking the average age.

Shares of major auto parts stores, such as AutoZone Inc., O'Reilly Automotive Inc. and Advance Auto Parts Inc., have easily outpaced the S&P 500 index since late 2007 when the recession began.

Polk also says the number of vehicles in the U.S. has been falling since 2008, but that trend reversed itself last year. In 2010, there were 240 million cars and trucks registered in the U.S. That grew slightly to 240.5 million last year, the company said.

The aging vehicle trend and relatively slow sales have kept auto companies and parts makers from hiring new workers in great numbers, and that helps to hold unemployment at relatively high levels. Last month, the unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent ? still high, but the lowest level in three years.

But that started to change last year as sales started to rebound. Last January, Ford said it would hire 7,000 workers over the next two years. During the summer, GM said it would add 2,500 at the Detroit factory that makes the Chevrolet Volt electric car. Volkswagen hired 2,000 for a new plant in Tennessee, and Honda added 1,000 in Indiana. Just last week Chrysler announced plans to add 1,250 jobs at two Detroit factories next year, mainly to build a diesel version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

The industry will add 167,000 jobs by 2015, a 28 percent increase over current levels, predicts The Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Government estimates show Americans spent roughly $40 billion more on new cars and trucks in 2011 than in 2009. Based on annualized figures from the first quarter of 2011, new-car spending totaled $206 billion, or 1.3 percent of the gross domestic product, Commerce Department data shows. That compares with $166 billion in 2009, about 1.2 percent of the country's economy.

Polk said the average age of a car in the U.S. last year was 11.1 years, while the average truck was 10.4 years old.

In 2010, the average age of a car was 11 and the average truck was 10.1 years old.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-17-Aging%20Cars/id-94347694598c4a0f9d6255c191a6f9bd

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A Weekly Roundup of Small-Business News - NYTimes.com

What?s affecting me, my clients and other small-business owners this week.

The Big Story: S.B.A. Gains Clout?

The Small Business Administration is invited back to the grown-ups? table (but reaction among small-business advocates is mixed).

Trade Shows: C.E.S. Loses Clout?

This year?s annual International Consumer Electronics Show had lots to offer for small business, and Startup America firms converged on the event. And there were plenty of models ? and Justin Timberlake, too. But many feel that the show is losing its clout. Matt Ryan explains why you should be glad you didn?t go: ?Only a handful of companies are very good about keeping secrets, and they don?t typically announce products at C.E.S.? But you could have seen these 12 quirky gadgets on display. Or checked out some really strange laptops. The Neat Company introduced new scanners aimed at small businesses. Tom Simonite says there were three gems hidden in Steve Ballmer?s final keynote speech. Apple had 250 ninjas spying. TechRepublic took a lot of photos. CNET declared the winners. My favorite: this awesome toilet seat. Meanwhile, the auto industry had its own little show.

The Data: The Fed Turns a Profit

The Federal Reserve, which continues to weigh another round of easing, returned $77 billion in profits to the United States Treasury and said our economy is expanding. But one member warns of a potential rise in interest rates. Consumer borrowing jumped. Retail sales were weak in December. Economic confidence rose to a seven-month high, small-business confidence surged and Lance Roberts shows how this affects unemployment. Structural unemployment may continue for a decade. But that is not why the doomsday clock was moved. TD Bank says small businesses are expecting stable or improving revenue performance in the early months of 2012. Lending to small business was up 18 percent in 2011 (or was it?). Mall occupancy firms up. Demand for manufacturing technology increased year over year but as the dollar grows stronger American manufacturing could suffer.

Marketing: Social Media Case Studies

Google announces a new personal approach to its search methodology, plans to go after local small businesses aggressively and photographs a woman falling on the street. Here?s a quick start guide to social media. Mark Schaefer lists some excellent case studies of companies that used social media to help them develop their products. This young lady is an excellent case study of the power of viral video to get a date with Jason Segel. Derek Singleton explains how manufacturers can use social media to win more business. These 10 companies hit the bull?s-eye with their online contests. If you?re in Chicago Tuesday, check out this social media presentation on how to compete. Keep an eye on Pinterest, a fast-growing service that promises to increase Web traffic. John Sternal offers 41 ideas to get public relations exposure (but this guy got too much exposure in this French clothing ad). Laura Finlayson shares five social media rules we learned in kindergarten, including, ?Use your indoor voice?: ?Social media is not advertising and marketers need to quash any urges to use their advertising voices here.?

Red Tape: Destroying the Internet?

Inc. takes us deeper inside the fight against SOPA. The tech community responds by blacking out. White spaces are finally open for business and those crazy accountants are back with another cool video. Speaking of accounting, 1099-K forms are becoming more prominent in 2011 filings for small businesses. A new study says small-business owners prefer same-sex financial advisers. President Obama considers tax breaks to bring back manufacturing jobs. Hostess files for bankruptcy, and a blogger blames pension costs.

Around the World: Sex, Bombs and Burgers

High unemployment now places a number of rich European countries up there with the most miserable countries in the world. How bad is it? The mafia is now Italy?s No. 1 bank, and the Philippines are starting to look like more and more fun. Peter Nowak says America is exceptional because of sex, bombs and burgers, and the global economy has taken a turn for the better. These 10 American brands are popular in China. Ann Lee imagines a world without China, and a Chinese businessman warns college students about starting a business there. But c?mon, this is a country that builds 30-story buildings in 15 days!

Around the Country: Grow or Slow?

A member of Adriana Gardella?s business group talks about Goldman Sachs?s 10,000 Small Businesses program. An educational Webinar, titled ?The Playbook for Small Businesses,? is scheduled for Wednesday. In New York, a factory grows in Brooklyn, small businesses and monster rats expand and the Philharmonic is silenced by a ringing phone. Start-ups in Puerto Rico want to put the island on the start-up map. Brother and StartupNation start a grant program to help owners live the dream. You decide (because I can?t figure it out): will business travel grow or slow in 2012? Hotel rates increase and are expected to continue increasing. Small businesses are becoming big campaign stops, but this New Hampshire restaurant bars the candidates. A Washington company is again offering search engine optimization training courses in 2012.

Management: Reducing Chatter

The Better Business Bureau says be careful when you hear ?top 10? (that?s also good advice when you?re bungee jumping). An airline passenger has a few suggestions for the industry. In this video, Terry Starbucker says there are nine ways social media can make us better leaders. Joyce Rosenberg offers tips for reducing chatter in the office. Macro Man introduces 10 management terms for 2012, including Deep Sea Ten: ?Basically an idea or thought process that only the Deep Sea 10 global rescue vehicle from a 1960s puppet show could pull off.? Sally Ann Hughes offers advice for acquiring a competing business.

Ideas: Females to Follow

Would-be author TJ McCue needs our help to finance his next business book project. Springwise offers 10 business ideas and opportunities for 2012. Natalie MacNeil lists female entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Guess what? Are you ready for this: a study finds that people want to date someone who is attractive. A report finds that consumers intend to buy fewer televisions this year. But the future for electric cars looks good. Charlie Sheen is sane again. Life expectancy reaches a new high. Finally, an easy way to read a broadsheet newspaper.

Start-Up: If They Existed

This company will help us get that fuzzy feeling from helping a small business grow in the neighborhood. Martin Sullivan says it?s start-ups (pdf), not small businesses, that create jobs. Sarah Kessler suggests six start-ups to watch in 2012. Here are 13 start-ups that would be awesome (if they existed).

Boss of the Week: Mike O?Shaughnessy

Mike O?Shaughnessy?s company, Element Electronics, will soon be manufacturing HDTVs in the United States. ?We have watched for years as jobs have left America for other countries,? he said. ?We have wanted to and planned for producing TVs here, at home. Element Electronics wants to pioneer a resurgence of creating quality manufacturing jobs in the U.S.A.? Here?s a 3-year-old acting like a boss.

Technology: Is This Microsoft?s Year?

While Windows-based PCs are expected to continue dominating the workplace through 2013, Apple products will ?storm the corporate hardware market,? according to Forrester Research. Apple?s new chief executive rakes it in (actually he really didn?t make as much as some people think). Even so, could 2012 be the year of, well, Microsoft? Mark Fidelman says companies should be more like I.B.M. and less like Apple. A small-business management suite gets an $8 million vote of confidence. One company is counting on a rush to the cloud. Sven Rasmussen explains why small businesses should upgrade networks: ?offering wireless access in a conference room simply isn?t enough for most small businesses.? Ron Schenone exposes seven technology myths, including: ?a 64-bit O.S. will make computing twice as fast as a 32-bit one.?

This Week?s Bests

Lesson from Tony Soprano. Donald DeSantis says ?everything I need to know about start-ups, I learned from a crime boss,? including, ?cut out the middleman?: ?Sometimes the middleman?s market is so huge, that a freaking enormous business can be built simply by providing their customers a lower cost and more efficient option. Two-sided marketplace businesses are a textbook example of this type of disruption.?

Explanation of?the myth of American productivity. Michael Mandel: ?Our bullish measures of productivity suffer from an enormous statistical blind spot. Rather than wait for rising productivity to save the day ? and relying on economic policies that are essentially complacent ? the U.S. needs to adopt drastic measures if it wants to keep living standards from falling.?

Ideas for naming your product. Tom Grasty: ?In the name game, being allusive can be a powerful attribute. Take the word, Amazon, for example. For Jeff Bezos, books always were just the beginning. From the very outset, the forward-thinking entrepreneur saw his company expanding well beyond the written word. Don?t kid yourself. The selection of the name Amazon was hardly happenstance. Bezos deliberately chose a word that alluded to the business he saw downstream, rather than the actual entrepreneurial waters he set out to navigate in 1995.?

This Week?s Question: Have you thought about renaming your products or services lately?

Gene Marks owns the Marks Group, a Bala Cynwyd, Pa., consulting firm that helps clients with customer relationship management. You can follow him on Twitter.

Source: http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/this-week-in-small-business-destroying-the-internet/

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