The Walt Disney Co. said Monday its TV group plans to offer four ABC prime-time shows including "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" online for free beginning in May.
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The TV group also said it will launch a broadband channel for soap opera viewers on April 17, available to Verizon Communications Inc. consumer broadband customers, called Soapnetic.

So it begins. What begins? First, it is formal offering of free shows from a major network. Ad supported, and likely to be better supported when they realize they can do better targetted advertising (the listing is all the Major Brands, like P&G and Unilever) online. I expect these shows will become more scarce on the P2P nets if it is faster and as cheap to download it with the ads.

But more significantly, this is a formal offering of a free TV network over the Internet, for a single high-speed provider. The broadband commodity game is changing...

Print Story: Disney to Make 4 ABC Shows Free Online on Yahoo! News

This analysis is by no means comprehensive. But in general, I believe that if an entrepreneur wants a seed-investor who can add real value, it is not productive to economically penalize that investor when they add it. Structuring a seed-round as equity allows the investor and entrepreneur to be completely aligned and share one goal - to create as much value as possible for the company.

Redeye VC: Bridge Loans vs. Preferred Equity

Benzene can also form in soft drinks made with Vitamin C and sodium or potassium benzoate. Heat, light and shelf life can affect whether benzene will form, according to FDA.

A spokesman for the American Beverage Association said the amount of soft drinks people consume is far less than the amount of tap water they are exposed to.

Really? Is that what they tell their shareholders, too?

"You can crunch the numbers any way you want; it's still adding up to safe products," said the spokesman, Kevin Keane. "We're going to continue to work with FDA to ensure the safety of our products."

Benzene Levels in Soft Drinks Above Limit - Yahoo! News

The Texas comptroller's Office suspected for years that well-heeled Lone Star citizens were buying big-ticket private planes out of state to dodge sales taxes. But the tax collector couldn't prove it. Then the agency installed new computer technology that matched federal airplane registrations with state tax records. In just the past six months, Texas has collected $5 million in unpaid taxes from 43 scofflaws.

As tax season nears its Apr. 15 peak, revenue agencies are reaching for a software tool kit that has long been popular in Silicon Valley and in the back offices of big retailers. A combination of advanced data mining programs and vast repositories called data warehouses is allowing the taxman in about a dozen states to gather and analyze unprecedented heaps of information about individuals and businesses, especially small companies.

If You're Cheating on Your Taxes... - Yahoo! News

Apple has set up a company based in Nevada with the purpose of managing its cash and short-term investments in a tax-advantageous manner, BusinessWeek Online has learned.

According to public documents, Apple has incorporated Braeburn Capital, an asset management company based in Reno, (Nev.) Braeburn -- named for a variety of apple that's uniquely sweet and tart -- will be a vehicle for managing Apple's investment portfolio. By incorporating in Nevada, Apple will be shielded from certain taxes imposed by the state of California

Apple Takes Its Bankroll to Reno

It seems like every other day my RSS is filling up with these anti meme memes. Anti memes come in all shapes and sizes. The anti 4 Things meme is what is getting waved around the most now.

Can we all just agree that anti meme memes are pretty damn stupid. I mean first we waste time with the original meme and then we waste more time with the anti meme meme and even more time going back to the anti meme meme meme. And so on. RSS readers everywhere are being flooded, the kids are all confused and damnit no one is doing the wave anymore.

Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection: Anti Meme Memes in My RSS Reader

Sega Holdings, the U.S.-based arm of Japan's Sega Sammy Holdings Inc. (6460.T), said the acquisition of Secret Level Inc. was part of its effort to focus more on the U.S. and European video game markets.

Sega buys Secret Level for $15 million - Yahoo! News

Interesting piece in the Times last week about the SATs. Seems that kids with disabilities can get extra time to take the test. But the problem is, most kids who even learn about the dispensation process are upper-crust kids from prep schools. So they gin up bogus justifications for extra time — like having ADD or some shit. And it’s costly to apply for extra time. Generally, you need a physician or a shrink to write a recommendation (which they don’t do gratis) detailing why extra time is necessary.

The article notes that we can’t eliminate the extra-time option altogether; kids with real disabilities — like blindness or prosthetic hands – should be accommodated. But the abuse by kids from the Upper East Side who want an extra couple hours because of, say, sugar addiction — that shit has to stop.

The proposed solution is just removing the timed aspect of the test. That is, let every kid take as much time as he or she needs (within reason — maybe no more than a day).

The Fifth Column » The Time of Test

SEOUL -- Hines Ward, the MVP of the Steelers' Super Bowl XL win, has received another honor.

On Wednesday in South Korea, the country of his birth, Hines became an honorary citizen.

He wept as he apologized for previously being ashamed of his Korean heritage.

ThePittsburghChannel.com - News - Ward Receives Honorary South Korean Citizenship

Studies in the 1990s estimated the cost of medical care for sleep disorders at $15.9 billion, the report said. In addition, it said, fatigue is estimated to cost businesses roughly $150 billion a year in lost productivity and mishaps, and damage from motor vehicle accidents involving tired drivers amounts to at least $48 billion a year.

Chronic Sleep Problems Affect Millions - Yahoo! News