The GenY Spin on Start-Ups

I’ve been interviewing young entrepreneurs for almost two years now and one of the re-emerging themes in the businesses they start is dissatisfaction with the status quo. Sure, that’s pretty much true for all entrepreneurs, but this generation of upstarts has its own way of looking at existing products and services and judging them not quite up to snuff for their own needs. Their response: I can do better. The result: businesses like Mint.com, Unigo, and Ignighter.

Mint.com, which was featured on our Inc.com 30 Under 30 Coolest Entrepreneurs list, and in our magazine feature, Cool, Determined and Under 30, was started by Aaron Patzer, who was frustrated with personal finance software like Quicken and Microsoft Money. They were “tedious and boring and failed my basic needs,” he says. For instance, they took too long to set up and didn’t categorize his expense accurately enough. So he built something more to his own liking. Mint.com is an online personal finance tool that tells you exactly how you’re spending your money, how you can save, when your credit card payment is due, and when your bank balance is low. Sounds like mom, but without the nagging. Mint.com now has 600,000 registered users and half of them are under age 30.

Unigo is a website that contains free student-generated information on over 300 colleges and universities. It’s CEO Jordan Goldman’s response to what he believes is the failure of traditional publishing companies to adequately serve the needs of prospective college students. The big guides put out by Fiske and Princeton Review have a few pages on each college and are typically light on substantive student comment. “We’re not interested in white-washing the college experience,” says Goldman. “If part of going to a particular college is going to keggers every week, it’s better that you know that ahead of time.” Amen to that. The company launched last September with 15,000 student comments, pictures and videos. In its first week, it racked up 1.5 million page views and Goldman had a long list of potential advertisers knocking at his door.

Ignighter.com is a GenY spin on Match.com. Co-founded by Adam Sachs, Dan Osit, Kevin Owocki, the site allows young singles to register in groups and arrange group dates with other groups. Did you get that the key word here is “group"? “We had friends who were beginning to explore the online dating world and they’d come back to us with horror stories,” says Sachs. “So we thought, this wouldn’t be so awkward if you could just be with your friends and still be able to meet new people.” The founders spent the summer in Boulder at a highly selective incubator/mentoring/funding program called TechStars, where they refined their website, which now has 6,000 registered groups world-wide.

By the way, all of these companies are either venture or angel-backed, so the founders aren’t the only ones who think they’re on to something by starting companies that specifically serve the needs of their generation. Do you know of other start-up companies like this, or do you have examples of established companies that are tweaking their products or services to entice GenY consumers?

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New York businessman wears sandwich board pleading for job

By Alastair Jamieson

Paul Nawrocki, 59, took to the streets after nine months of fruitless searching for a new job Photo: AP

Mr Nawrocki made a salary of 'almost six figures' Photo: AP

The image of desperate jobseekers on street corners is associated with the darkest days of the Great Depression.

However, the scene has become a reality once again as America suffers a deep recession that has left millions out of work.

Paul Nawrocki, 59, took to the streets after nine months of fruitless searching for a new job, with a sandwich board that reads: "Almost Homeless. Looking for employment. Very experienced operations and administration manager.

"Desperately seeking full-time employment with insurance benefits. For self and family. Disabled wife on 15 medications."

Despite several job interviews arranged by sympathetic passers-by who requested his CV, he has yet to return to work but has become a minor celebrity, with spots on CNN and articles in newspapers.

Mr Nawrocki, who has a 22-year-old daughter just out of university and lives in Beacon, New York, made a salary of "almost six figures" in his old job but has spent almost all his savings.

"My unemployment benefits are going to run out in less than a month," he said. "I was getting a little panicked and didn't know what to do."

"People can be very warm here when they see that someone is genuinely vulnerable," added Mr Nawrocki, who was made redundant from his toy company job after 23 years as an import manager.

"I've seen a lot of people look at me and get scared, too. Not of me, but you see it in their eyes. They are thinking, "Could it come to this? Could this be me someday?"

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Company launches pre-chewed pencils

A British design company have launched a new product to help children concentrate at school - pre-chewed pencils.

The company, called Concentrate, says the pencils look like they have already been chewed making pupils less likely to put them in their mouths.

And they say this is a cheap but effective way of encouraging youngsters to get their teeth into their lessons instead.

Concentrate specialises in products to help kids at school and identify why they get distracted or are unable to focus in class, claim the chewed end encourages them to get thinking straight away.

"We know it's daft but just get down to some concentrated thinking and who knows what might happen," said company boss Mark Champkins.

"We began to look at the reasons that children might be distracted, uncomfortable or unable to focus in lessons - and we set about designing some simple, cost-effective products to address some of the problems."

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Some New Tools for Investing Nerds

Posted by Mary Pilon

Getty Images

Loves cheese, well-allocated.

People are starting to think more about saving–and investing–than spending, which is perhaps the sole upside to the market turmoil. Being an investing geek has become much more socially acceptable, and companies are taking notice.

In the last few weeks, several start-ups and familiar names have added, changed or completely revamped their online investing offerings. There are so many nest-egg incubators out there that we haven’t even had a chance to dive fully into them all. Here’s what’s new:

- Investment research firm Morningstar has relaunched its home page with more analytic content upfront. Fund fanatics will relish the new reports (still in beta) that allow you to research past fund performance and what their stakes are. It’s charts all over the place, but much more engaging than a prospectus. Besides monitoring your own investments, you can also share your portfolio with other users and get a star rating.

- Budgeting hub Mint now allows you to track your investments. You can track whether or not you’re beating the market and what your returns are like, but even more helpful (in our view), the site breaks out how much you’re paying in fees, a figure normally buried in the fine print.

- Active traders with Charles Schwab can try new tools for risk management–enhanced alerts on trades, bracket-order technology and more charting options. Again, this is for active traders, so not everyone qualifies, nor does everyone with Schwab account need a minute-by-minute alert of what the market is doing. We just thought we’d point it out, in case that’s your thing. Schwab’s regular trade portal has also been upgraded.

- And now, time to make friends. MarketGuru is a social-networking site for portfolio fanatics. Investors create profiles with their allocations and communicate about what they’re doing and why. You can share investing triumphs and tragedies in the forums and follow other members whose investing styles interest you. A clean layout makes sifting through the mounds of information much easier.

- PortfolioMonkey is a new site that, like Mint, is geared toward more-casual investors. The site promises not only to help you view your investments, but also serves up recommendations on allocations and new investing ideas. We haven’t used this one yet, but we’d love to hear how the recommendations have worked out for people.

(stockalicious.com)

- Stockalicious is another start-up that combines portfolio monitoring with sharing. The site says it helps you examine how many of your positions are winning and losing, your investing cash flow and whether or not you’ve overtraded. You can even create a widget of your portfolio. The ridiculously adorable icons are a plus.

- Finally, financial-services giant Fidelity will unroll a new version of its homepage over the next month, with expanded content provided by their in-house experts and providers like Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. It’s all free, including a peer-comparison tool, various calculators and markets data.

Or you can handle your portfolio the same way many readers are–by not opening their statements.

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New Tax Rules: The Hidden Corporate Bailout

By Stephen Gandel

Corporate America has a new Santa Claus — the taxman. And this year he is bringing bags of cash, billions of dollars' worth, to all the suited boys and girls.

While the $700 billion bailout has been the focus of attention and scrutiny, the Internal Revenue Service and lawmakers have been quietly making changes to the tax code and how it is followed in an effort to further boost the financial strength of ailing companies. At the same time, though, the changes drain billions of dollars of badly needed tax revenue when the federal deficit is mushrooming. Many of the changes may lower corporate-tax revenue for years to come.

"The IRS has spent the past few months trying to make the rules as liberal as possible," says Robert Willens, an accounting and tax expert in New York. "They have been decreasing corporate taxes pretty consistently." (See pictures of the recession of 1958.)

The IRS this year has issued 113 notices, many of which will lower the taxes companies will pay this year and in the future. That breaks the previous record of 111 in 2006, and is nearly double the 65 issued in the last year of Bill Clinton's presidency. Lawmakers, too, have passed tax changes and are pushing for more, which will save corporations billions of dollars this year. One of the biggest windfalls could come from a proposed change in the so-called carryback rule, which would fatten the tax rebate companies get when they have losses. The extension would be similar to one that was passed after 9/11.

"I think the carryback extension is a good idea," says Mark Silverman, a prominent tax lawyer at Steptoe & Johnson. "It's been done in the past, and it ought to be done again."

Of course, some IRS notices raise taxes, and not all of the tax-relief measures pertain to what corporations pay. For example, the IRS has passed notices this year that give tax relief to hurricane and flood victims.

But in the past few months, experts say, the IRS has been unusually aggressive in doing what it can to lower corporate taxes, going above and beyond what has been allowed in the past. The result is that the IRS has become, in effect, a much less public arm of the federal-bailout machine. "There have been all sorts of Administration announcements that relax the tax law," says Thomas Humphreys, an attorney at Morrison and Foerster. "I don't remember a wave of provisions like this." (See pictures of the global financial crisis.)

The IRS has numerous stocking stuffers planned for corporate America this year. Here are some of the biggest ones:

Merger Tax Windfall

In the past, corporations could deduct from their taxes only a small portion of the losses incurred by a company they acquire. The rule, commonly called Section 382, eliminated the practice of companies' avoiding taxes by buying failing corporations just for their losses.

But in late September, just after Congress defeated the first bailout bill, the IRS issued a notice to change that rule to allow banks to significantly lower their taxes when they purchase other banks. Now, after an acquisition, a bank can reduce its IRS bill by claiming that loans on the books of an acquired rival are worth far less than the previous owners thought, not a hard claim to make these days. The acquirer can deduct from its taxes the full amount of the write-down. Before it could only lower its taxable earnings by a small percentage of the write-down of the preacquisition loans. (Read "Can Congress Pass an Auto Bailout Bill Nobody Likes?")

Jones Day lawyers estimate that the rule change could cost the Federal Government up to $140 billion in revenue during the next few years. But it would only get that high if every bank in the U.S. were sold and troubled mortgage assets were all written down to zero. Still, a number of banks have made acquisitions since the rule change and are already benefiting. Wells Fargo will book an estimated $25 billion tax credit from its November acquisition of Wachovia. PNC, which bought National City in October, could get as much as $5 billion in tax benefits from that merger. And Capital One, which bought Chevy Chase Bank earlier this month, is looking at a $500 million tax windfall.

Investment Losses Now Count for More

Here's one change that every investor in America would like this year. Typically, investment losses, when it comes to taxes, can be deducted only against investment gains. The tax you pay on regular income is not affected. And that's generally true for individuals as well as corporations, unless of course investing is your job.

But in October, Congress passed a law that said banks who held Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred shares, which were essentially rendered worthless when the government took over the two large mortgage guarantors, can count the loss on that investment as a regular business loss, not an investment loss. The Federal Government has estimated the change will save banks as much as $3 billion in tax payments this year.

Improved Tax Break on Foreign Operations

Corporations have been able to postpone taxes on profits earned overseas so long as those profits remain overseas, and borrowing from a foreign subsidiary has been strictly limited to 30 days or less, lest the money be seen as repatriated profits and taxed accordingly. An IRS notice in October, though, allows companies to receive loans from their overseas businesses for up to 60 days and not have to pay taxes on the profits, so long as the loan is paid back in 60 days. Pay it back in 59 days, and you can roll the loan over three times in one year, tax-free. Willens says it's hard to put a number on how much the change will save companies but that it is substantial. "It's quite a large savings," says Willens. "Not only does it lower taxes, but it also allows companies to borrow more cheaply from their subsidiaries."

Saba Ashraf of law firm Troutman Sanders wrote in a notice to clients that the IRS's relaxation of overseas borrowing rules "continues the trend of taxpayer friendly guidance in light of the credit difficulties and economic downturn."

Federal Assistance, Tax-Free

Under the law, companies have to pay taxes on any money they receive in federal aid, just like any other income. But don't worry, corporate America, the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program won't trigger a tax bill. In October, the IRS said it doesn't consider money given by the government to the ailing banks as part of the TARP program financial aid. Call it a financial encouragement to stay in business, but not aid.

Tax-Loss Carrybacks

Perhaps the biggest tax windfall that corporations will get this year and next is from a proposed change in the long-standing rule on tax rebates for losses. What's more, companies that don't, or can't, use the losses for rebates now will be able to significantly lower their taxes for as long as 20 years, when they return to profitability.

Here's how it stands now: companies that lose money in any given year are entitled to a rebate on money they have paid in taxes for the prior two years. So if you made a million dollars for each of your past two years, and lost 2 million this year, your company would be allowed to get back all of the taxes paid for the past two years. This could result in huge corporate-tax rebates in 2008 and 2009. For instance, in 2008 there are projected to be 107 companies in the S&P 1500 that will lose money, as much as $80 billion. About half those companies were profitable in 2007, making nearly $30 billion as a group. That means, based on an average corporate-tax rate of about 30%, those companies could receive as much as $10 billion in tax rebates from last year alone.

And the companies could soon be eligible for billions of dollars more. A bill was proposed in the House of Representatives in late November by Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Iowa, that would extend the tax-carryback rule to five years, which means companies could get their tax payments refunded all the way back to 2003. And the rule would be eligible for losses that occurred in 2008 or 2009. That means a company with a large enough loss, after the proposed rebate, could effectively not pay taxes for seven years. Senator Olympia Snowe, a Republican from Maine, has proposed a similar change to the tax code in the Senate, but only for small businesses.

"All of these tax moves are being done to help address the liquidity issues of corporate America," says Willens. "The collateral effect is that they will reduce taxes."

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Senate negotiations on auto bailout break down

Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP

Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is pursued by members of the press, during a break in negotiations at the Capitol.

WASHINGTON - A $14 billion emergency bailout for U.S. automakers collapsed in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was "terribly disappointed" about the demise of an emerging bipartisan deal to rescue Detroit's Big Three.

He spoke shortly after Republicans left a closed-door meeting where they balked at giving the automakers federal aid unless their powerful union agreed to slash wages next year to bring them into line with those of Japanese carmakers.

Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio, a strong bailout supporter, said the UAW was willing to make the cuts — but not until 2011.

Reid was working to set a swift test vote on the measure Thursday night, but it was just a formality. The bill was virtually certain to fail to reach the 60-vote threshold it would need to clear to advance.

Reid called the bill's collapse "a loss for the country," adding "I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It's not going to be a pleasant sight."

The implosion followed an unprecedented marathon set of talks at the Capitol among labor, the auto industry and lawmakers who bargained into the night in efforts to salvage the auto bailout at a time of soaring job losses and widespread economic turmoil.

"In the midst of already deep and troubling economic times, we are about to add to that by walking away," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman who led negotiations on the package.

Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, the GOP point man in the talks, said the two sides had been tantalizingly close to a deal, but the UAW's refusal to agree wage concessions by a specific date in 2009 kept them apart.

The autoworkers' contract doesn't expire until 2011.

At one point there was news of progess in the talks.

"All issues are still on the table," said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, as he emerged from the talks.

But it was clear lawmakers had made substantial progress toward getting the auto industry aid back on track, and members of both parties were in search of an accord.

"We've got some issues still to resolve but we all want to resolve them," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who led the closed-door talks for his party.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman, who was his party's point man, said staff aides were working on legislative language of a still-emerging deal.

"While we've reached some agreement on a lot already, there are issues that are still outstanding," Dodd said.

Progress in the negotiations were the latest development in a long-running debate over bailing out the beleaguered auto industry. The issue gained urgency last week when the government reported the economy had lost more than a half-million jobs in November, the most in any month for more than 30 years.

"There's a lot of hardship out there. People are losing their jobs, losing their homes, losing their cars and losing their patience," said Reid, D-Nev. "We don't need to pile on."

It was unclear how far the participants were willing to go to seal the federal aid that General Motors and Chrysler said was essential to keep them from bankruptcy. Ford is in better financial shape than its rivals, although its survival is not assured, either.

The developments unfolded after Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky joined other GOP lawmakers in announcing his opposition to the White House-backed rescue bill passed by the House on Wednesday.

He and other Republicans said wages and benefits for employees of Detroit's Big Three should be renegotiated to bring them in line with those paid by Japanese carmakers Toyota, Honda and Nissan in the United States.

Hourly wages for UAW workers at GM factories are about equal to those paid by Toyota Motor Corp. at its older U.S. factories, according to the companies. GM says the average UAW laborer makes $29.78 per hour, while Toyota says it pays about $30 per hour. But the unionized factories have far higher benefit costs.

GM says its total hourly labor costs are now $69, including wages, pensions and health care for active workers, plus the pension and health care costs of more than 432,000 retirees and spouses. Toyota says its total costs are around $48. The Japanese automaker has far fewer retirees and its pension and health care benefits are not as rich as those paid to UAW workers.

Republicans also bitterly opposed tougher environmental rules carmakers would have to meet as part of the House-passed version of the rescue package and the Senate dropped it from its package.

The negotiations marked the latest development in a long-running debate over bailing out the beleaguered auto industry. The issue gained urgency last week when the government reported the economy had lost more than a half-million jobs in November, the most in any month for more than 30 years.

The White House monitored the talks but was not directly participating. Administration officials had been deeply involved in recent days in drafting a compromise with House and Senate Democrats — the measure that McConnell and other Senate Republicans promptly repudiated.

Some Senate Democrats joined Republicans in turning against the House-passed bill — despite increasingly urgent expressions of support from the White House and President-elect Barack Obama for quick action to spare the economy the added pain of a potential automaker collapse.

The White House said President George W. Bush was calling Republican lawmakers, while Obama told reporters at a news conference in Chicago an industry shutdown would have a "devastating ripple effect" on the already ragged economy."

The House-passed bill would create a Bush-appointed overseer to dole out the money. At the same time, carmakers would be compelled to return the aid if the "car czar" decided the carmakers hadn't done enough to restructure by spring.

McConnell said that measure "isn't nearly tough enough."

Pushing to convert skeptics in both parties, Democrats agreed to drop at least one unrelated provision that threatened to sink the measure, a congressional official said. They were eliminating a pay raise for federal judges after Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who represents an automobile manufacturing state, announced she would oppose the carmaker aid unless that provision was removed.

Supporters had an uphill battle pressing the rescue package on a bailout-fatigued Congress — particularly a measure designed to span the administrations of a lame-duck president and his successor. Before the late-day negotiations, patience had begun wearing thin at the Capitol as lawmakers looked ahead to adjourning for the holidays.

Reid at one point called for swift separate votes Thursday on compromise legislation backed by Democrats and the White House as well as the GOP proposal. "We have danced this tune long enough," he declared.

But with Republicans staunchly opposed to the rescue and some Democrats ill or absent from the emergency, postelection congressional session, bailout supporters acknowledged that getting the needed 60 votes to pass either would be very difficult.

The House approved its plan late Wednesday on a vote of 237-170. Supporters cited dire warnings from GM and Chrysler executives, who have said they could run out of cash within weeks.

A pair of polls released Thursday indicated that the public is dubious about the rescue plan.

Just 39 percent said it would be right to spend billions in loans to keep GM, Ford and Chrysler in business, according to a poll by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center. Just 45 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of Republicans supported the idea.

In a separate Marist College poll, 48 percent said they oppose federal loans for the struggling automakers while 41 percent approved.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Netflix to Lay Off 50. Blames Silverlight.

By Chris Albrecht

In a corporate blog post today, Netflix (NFLX) said 50 of its technical specialists in its customer service group will be let go at the start of next year. The reason? The company isn’t blaming the economy, it’s blaming Microsoft’s (MSFT) Silverlight. From the post:

For those of you who watch movies instantly on your PC or Mac, you may have noticed our player is much easier to install and use now with Silverlight. The good news is fewer problems for you. The bad news is that we are now overstaffed with technical specialists in our Customer Service (CS) group.

Fifty of these technical specialists will work through the holidays and then be let go in early January. Fifteen specialists will take new roles in the main customer service group.

We thought it odd that the company would be reducing headcount in streaming technical support, as streaming is one area where the company is expanding its efforts. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings even told us at NewTeeVee Live that the company was struck by how many people were watching on their laptops. Plus, Silverlight penetration is still not as ubiquitous as Flash, so it would seem you’d need technical people to help with the impending installs.

I asked Steve Swasey, Netflix VP of corporate communications and author of the Netflix post, about the cuts (note to all other Netflix employees, Swasey was online and answering emails at 6:46 a.m.). He sent the following response:

“The tech support folks have been underutilized. They’re specialists and the calls are able to be managed by our main Customer Service group, which continues to grow. In January we will add at least as many people to the main CS group as we’re letting go from the tech group.”

Swasey also said that it hadn’t been getting the level of inquiries from Netflix members that required the higher level of technical expertise in customer service. Any technical issues people have with streaming will be handled by the main customer service team.

The Netflix streaming service hasn’t exactly been problem-free as of late. Users of the Roku and Xbox flavors of Netflix streaming were plagued by poor video quality issues that was caused by an mysterious glitch. Netflix fixed the issue, but declined to identify what happened.

In other Netflix news, TiVo turned on its Netflix streaming capabilities today.

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Five Sexist Trends the Advertising World Just Can't Shake

This was a big year for women: The first serious female presidential candidate, the first predominately female state senate, the first female Top Chef. Yet the advertising world has not caught up to the advances of half our population and continues to use stereotypes and violence to prey on our most vile desires. Here are the worst of them--the trends that won't die despite our cultural outrage, and personal boredom.

BONDAGE - This year Remy Martin debuted it's "things are getting interesting" campaign that features a mediocre Website and a series of billboards/magazine spreads depicting women in degrading bondage positions. You may think, "hey this one shows two women, there aren't even men involved, how can it be sexist?" But most of the ads (not available online) have men between the two women in controlling positions. And even without that, these women are obviously putting on a show for an outsider, not having a passionate lesbian love affair for themselves. These types of ads gain traction in cultural periods of female advancement--capturing the fantasy of "putting us back where we belong."

Remy Martin describes its followers as "influential, social, and multicultural urban males, ages 25 to 35." Men of this ilk and age range (read: over 16) should know better than to fall for this kind of pandering. If we switch the view from this being sexy, to this being a pathetic attempt to make an undersexed male feel powerful in the face of female accomplishment, the image loses its appeal. I would like to start a "things that are not interesting" campaign, which would include men insecure enough about themselves that they can't talk to women who aren't physically degraded. I would also include cognac.

RAPE -- The world of high fashion has been the worst offender in the violence-as-art game. Cavalli had pirates, Chanel had a wife beater, and now Dolce and Gabbana has this.

Let's get this out there now: It's not edgy, it's ridiculous. This is a gang rape, and any woman that sees those shoes instead of that message deserves those shoes. Any man who doesn't see that this is rape is probably looking at one of the hard bodies in the background and therefore not really a threat to women.

"SLUTS" -- Much like the Calvin Klein ads of the early 90s--you remember the ones that made you feel like you were watching child porn, cause you sorta were--this ad offers a young woman (with the face of a small child) posed in a sexually suggestive manner. They are offering you a virgin in looks and expression, and a slut in the tagline: "You know you're not the first." She's been fucked before--she knows what she's doing. She's been used so you can do whatever you like to her. That's the implicit message of this ad. She's young and nubile, but not prudish. She's the ultimate fantasy: a virgin who won't say no to anything.

This combination of the Madonna and the whore is ultimately a fantasy of degrading both body and mind. This girl is in no way a threat: she's young and won't say no, no one has to offer her anything, she is just there for your needs, just like a car.

GIRL ON GIRL ACTION -- Oh my god is this played out. We get it, some men find the idea of two women together appealing. MTV has reality shows devoted to it, casual and exploitative lesbianism is now a part of our culture. But aren't companies like Nikon supposed to be better than that? They bring us goofy Ashton Kutcher commercials (not that those are okay either) and sponsor the Boston Red Sox (yeah, that's pretty bad too). But they are a staple of the photography world and should be held to a higher standard than Tila Tequila. There are many meanings to the term corporate responsibility and one of them is not to fetishize female sexuality.

CUM SHOTS -- Forgive me that lewd term, but I didn't know how else to phrase it. I can't open a magazine anymore without seeing a thinly-veiled coital moment posing as an advertisement for some sort of beauty product. Jezebel tracked these for a while, rounding up the worst offenders.

The images and tag lines reinforce the idea of women sex receptacle, and therefore simply a receiver of sex, not one engaging in an equal process. This ad reads "I Want You All Over Me," which is as subtle as it is sexy. As Jezebel points out, women like orgasming too, sex is not just about male pleasure, it's a two way road and all of these ads find their own way around that truth.

The fact that these trends are so widespread is not the fault of the advertising world--these people are paid to appeal to our ids, they are often self-aware in their tendency to make the world harder for women, that's the life they've chosen. It is mainstream companies like BMW, Mitchum, Nikon, mainstream publications that host these images, and mainstream readers who use these products despite their appalling treatment of women that are truly to blame. The advertising world reacts to client demands and consumer activity--we have control over only one of those fields.

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Chicago workers end window plant sit-in

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) -- Laid-off workers at a Chicago window factory ended a five-day sit-in after banks agreed to lend the failed company $1.75 million for outstanding wages and benefits, union officials said Wednesday.

Protesters demonstrate in support of the window-factory workers in Chicago on Wednesday.

"The occupation is over," said Armando Robles, president of the United Electrical Workers local 1110, which led the sit-in.

About 200 workers launched what they called a "peaceful occupation" of the Republic Windows and Doors factory Friday after Republic gave its employees three days notice of the layoffs. According to the workers, Republic told them that Bank of America had cut off credit to the company.

Federal law requires 60 days notice or 60 days paid compensation for workers when they close plants.

Bank of America agreed Wednesday to approve $1.35 million in loans to pay those obligations. Another $400,000 came from J.P. Morgan Chase, union officials said.

Workers approved the deal at a meeting Wednesday night. Union official Carl Rosen said the average worker will receive about $6,000 under the package.

But he added: "This is about more than just money. It's about what can be achieved when workers organize and stand up for justice."

Union representative Leah Fried said this week that Republic had put the blame squarely on the bank for the layoffs.

"The company told us very clearly they are shutting down, shutting their doors because Bank of America refused to continue their credit and their financing," she said.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich ordered the state government to suspend doing business with Bank of America on Monday as the weekend protest spilled into the workweek.

After meeting with the workers on Monday, Blagojevich told reporters that "we are going to do everything possible here in Illinois to side with these workers."

His meeting with the workers came a day before he was arrested on federal corruption charges related in part to the selection of a successor to President-elect Barack Obama's former Senate seat.

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Iraq pull-out may begin in March

Advertisement Negotations have been taking place over the terms of the withdrawal British forces could begin pulling out of Iraq by next March, a senior defence source has revealed to the BBC. The UK has been negotiating the legal basis on which its forces can stay when its UN mandate expires at the end of the year. It still has 4,100 troops in Basra but defence chiefs plan a withdrawal over the next year if Iraqi elections in January pass off peacefully. A withdrawal could allow soldiers to be diverted to Afghanistan. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has indicated that almost all British troops should leave Iraq by the middle of next year, with a few hundred possibly remaining to train Iraqi security forces. Previously it had been suggested that troops could start leaving in January. However, the BBC has learned that the process is likely to begin in March - six years after the US-led invasion. 'Significant progress' A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "Significant progress has been made in Basra, a city which has now been transformed thanks to Iraqi, coalition and British efforts. Some troops could eventually be redeployed to Afghanistan "As such, we are now expecting to see a fundamental change of mission in early 2009." The majority of the British troops are confined to Basra air base. The Iraqi parliament may have to vote on any deal to allow British troops to remain in the country beyond the end of the year. It recently agreed a similar deal which allows American forces to remain in Iraq for another three years. US troops are due to pull out of Iraqi cities by the middle of next year, and be gone completely by December 2011. The US is planning to boost the strength of its force in Afghanistan in the new year and is hoping its Nato allies follow suit. BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq "should allow a renewed focus on the multi-national mission in Afghanistan, which is facing a stalemate". She said it would free up helicopters, intelligence assets and eventually troops for the battle against the Taleban.

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Group seeks nuclear weapons ban

By Gordon Corera
BBC security correspondent, Paris

Many dignitaries support 'Global Zero'

A group of international dignitaries have launched a new campaign in Paris to eliminate nuclear weapons.

Global Zero consists of 100 leading figures seeking practical steps towards nuclear abolition and gaining public support for that goal.

They say the risk of nuclear weapons spreading to unstable countries or getting into the hands of extremist groups is too great.

The group will hold meetings in Moscow and Washington in the coming days.

In the past, talk of nuclear disarmament was confined to the margins of political debate, but now a chorus of national security officials past and present have joined calls for multi-lateral disarmament.

In the US, the debate was kick-started by a joint call for "getting to zero" from a group of veterans of the Cold War, including Henry Kissinger and George Schultz.

Global Zero's aim is to translate this stance to the international arena and into public debate.

Signatories for Global Zero include former US President Jimmy Carter, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, businessman Sir Richard Branson, Ehsan Ul-Haq, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Pakistan, and Brajesh Mishra, former Indian National Security Advisor.

Hopes and fears

Motivating those who attended was a sense that this is a moment pregnant with both possibilities and dangers.

Possibilities because of new leadership in the US which appears to support the goal of nuclear abolition but dangers because of the fear that if this moment passes without action then the nuclear race could quickly gather pace with many more countries acquiring weapons and the risk increasing that weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists.

We have to work on de-legitimising the status of nuclear weapons Queen Noor of Jordan

"It's not about idealism, it is about public safety and security," said former British Defence Secretary Malcolm Rifkind who attended the conference.

"If there's to be disarmament, it has to be multilateral," he added.

A key aim is to build public support for the issue in the way that activists have helped put climate change on the agenda.

Polling of 21 countries for Global Zero found an average of 76% of the population favouring an agreement to eliminate nuclear weapons within a timetabled agreement.

But members of Global Zero emphasise the need for more public information, particularly to educate the post-Cold War generation for whom the dangers of nuclear weapons may be more remote.

"We have to work on de-legitimising the status of nuclear weapons," Queen Noor of Jordan told the BBC.

'Getting to Zero'

The conference began on Monday with a presentation on what would happen to Paris in the event of a nuclear detonation before moving towards a discussion of what "Getting to Zero" would mean in practical steps, for instance the need for an intrusive system of inspections to ensure no country was evading its obligations.

It's not about idealism, it is about public safety and security Malcolm Rifkind former British Defence Secretary

"That process needs to start with American and Russian leadership," argued Richard Burt who was Washington's Chief Negotiator in the START talks in the early 1990s between the two countries and who chaired the press conference in one of Paris's ornate hotels.

The Global Zero group believes that reducing the still large US and Russian stockpiles - which make up 96% of all the nuclear weapons in the world - should be amongst the first steps which in turn can then draw in third parties and other nuclear powers into a wider and deeper process.

Senator Mikhail Margelov, Chairman of the Russian Senate's Foreign Relations Committee spoke of how as a schoolboy he had been convinced that at some point the US would launch a nuclear war on the USSR.

Whilst he was pleased his sons had not had to live under the same shadow, one negative consequence was that for the last 18 years the issue of nuclear non-proliferation had been 'neglected', not least because the US and Russia had failed to build a sustained partnership on the issue.

South Asia, the place where many experts fear a nuclear exchange is most likely, was well represented at the conference with retired Foreign Minister Shaharyar Khan from Pakistan pointing to President Zardari's recent offer of a no-first strike agreement to prevent their spread.

Shankar Bajpai, former Indian Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs, remarked on India's statesmen arguing for nuclear abolition for many decades.

Many challenges

If the idea of getting to zero is having any traction, then getting the support of key leaders will be vital.

During his election campaign, US President-elect Barack Obama expressed his support for the goal of disarmament.

Queen Noor and Richard Branson believe a ban can be achieved

"This is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons," he told a large crown in Berlin in July.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed similar sentiments in a speech in September when he talked of how it would be better to "close this Pandora's box".

The challenge for Global Zero is not only that the new President already has a full in-tray domestically and internationally but that even within the narrower confines of nuclear proliferation issues, the immediate challenges of dealing with Iran and North Korea's nuclear ambitions may consume much of Washington's attention in the short term.

Iranians were absent from the Paris conference and Richard Burt acknowledged that it would be hard to achieve Global Zero if Iran did acquire nuclear weapons.

"It's a real showstopper," he acknowledged. Israel with its undeclared nuclear arsenal have to participate in any process, Burt said.

The conference moved on to Moscow and then on Thursday to Washington DC.

The aim is to spend the next year working on a plan that could lead to a phased nuclear reduction which would eliminate all nuclear weapons in 20 to 25 years.

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Students Rally For Democracy In Iran

(CBS) Hundreds of students from different colleges gathered Sunday at Tehran University to protest against injustice and the dictatorship which runs their country and their lives.

The gathering marked "Students' Day," a commemoration of the day about 50 years ago when the Shah's police attacked students.

Iranian students inside the Islamic Republic and abroad have long used the occasion to call for political freedom and voice their struggle against dictators - first the Western-backed Shah, and now the hard-line Islamic regime led by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Despite a heavy presence of police and security forces, students inside the university Sunday managed to break down a barricaded gate and let others flood into the grounds.

Any rally or gathering at the universities has to be authorized by the government, and there are strict restrictions for entering Tehran University.

At one point, a number of students were detained by university security guards, but demonstrators demanded their release. After talks between the two sides they were freed to rejoin their fellow students.

In recent years several members of the students' movement have been arrested on security related charges and sentenced to long prison terms, exiled, or expelled from Iran's universities.

The organizers of Sunday's rally insisted that the protesters should not damage the university or get out of hand. One speaker said: "Many did not want us to hold this gathering, therefore I ask you not to give them any excuse to stop us."

At this rally, like others in the past, the students called for basic democratic rights including freedom of speech, human rights and justice. A female student talked about "gender apartheid" in the country's universities.

Students at the rally, which lasted about three hours, carried signs bearing several slogans. One read: "Democracy in Iran - International Peace".

As they marched toward the university gates, students chanted slogans against dictatorship, the behavior of the police, and against Ahmadinejad.

A senior member of one of the largest student organizations, the Office for Consolidating Unity, said about 3,000 students attended Sunday's rally.

Toward the end of the rally, a group of students started directing their chants against former President Seyed Mohammad Khatami.

Khatami, a reformist cleric who led the country from 1997 until 2005, was due to meet students at the university on Sunday but the visit was postponed to a later date.

In recent months groups of reformists have urged Khatami to run in the 2009 presidential election - a request he has neither refused nor accepted.

Pro-government students held a simultaneous rally in support of Ahmadinejad on Sunday, holding up his picture along with images of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

It has become tradition for top officials to meet with students on Dec. 6-7 each year in honor of Students' Day, but Ahmadinejad chose not to visit any universities this year.

It had been announced that Khamenei would visit Alm-o Sanat University, where Ahmadinejad studied and then taught, on the 6th. That event was cancelled without any official explanation.

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Man who lost family when jet hit house: I don't blame pilot

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- A Korean immigrant who lost his wife, two children and mother-in-law when a Marine Corps jet slammed into the family's house said Tuesday he did not blame the pilot, who ejected and survived.

Dong Yun Yoon said his 15-month-old daughter, Grace, was killed after a military jet crashed into his home.

"Please pray for him not to suffer from this accident," a distraught Dong Yun Yoon told reporters gathered near the site of Monday's crash of an F/A-18D jet in San Diego's University City community.

"He is one of our treasures for the country," Yoon said in accented English punctuated by long pauses while he tried to maintain his composure.

"I don't blame him. I don't have any hard feelings. I know he did everything he could," said Yoon, flanked by members of San Diego's Korean community, relatives and members from the family's church. Watch Yoon discuss relatives' death »

Authorities said four people died when the jet crashed into the Yoon family's house while the pilot was trying to reach nearby Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Another unoccupied house also was destroyed.

Yoon named the victims as his infant daughter Rachel, who was born less than two months ago; his 15-month-old daughter Grace; his wife, Young Mi Yoon, 36; and her 60-year-old mother, Suk Im Kim, who he said had come to the United States from Korea recently to help take care of the children.

Fighting back tears, he said of his daughters: "I cannot believe that they are not here right now."

"I know there are many people who have experienced more terrible things," Yoon said. "But, please, tell me how to do it. I don't know what to do."

Marine Corps authorities said the pilot, whose name was not released, was hospitalized after he parachuted from the jet, and an investigation into the cause of the crash has been launched. iReport.com: Eyewitnesses describe chaos in aftermath

The jet had just performed landing training on a Navy aircraft carrier before the pilot reported having trouble, according to the Marine Corps. Authorities described the jet as disabled.

Three bodies -- those of two adults and an infant -- were recovered hours after the crash on Monday. The fourth body -- that of a child -- was recovered Tuesday, as firefighters sifted through the rubble of the Yoon house.

Authorities said they did not expect to find any other victims of the crash.

The area's congressman, Rep. Duncan Hunter, said after a briefing from the Marine Corps that a power failure was the likely cause of the crash, not any structural problem with the aircraft.

"At this time, my deepest sympathies are with all those who have been affected by this incident, especially those who lost loved ones," Hunter, the ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said in a statement from his office.

Yoon's minister, Daniel Shin, told reporters the Yoon family had moved into the house a little more than a month ago. He said Yoon came to the United States in 1989 and had since become a naturalized citizen. Yoon works as manager of "a variety store -- a store where they sell a variety of things," Shin said.

Yoon's wife came to the United States about four years ago, Shin said.

Yoon spoke softly when he talked about his wife.

"It was God's blessing that I met her about four years ago. She was a lovely wife and mother," he said.

His voice fading, he added: "She loves me and babies. I just miss her so much."

The Marine Corps said Tuesday it would take "a minimum of five to seven working days" to clean up the crash site.

San Diego resident Ian Lerner said he was heading to lunch at a shopping center about a half-mile from the neighborhood of about 20 homes when he saw the jet flying low.

"It was, oh, gosh, maybe a couple of hundred feet off the ground. And it was quiet; I think the engine was off," Lerner said. iReport.com: See Lerner's photos

"Then all of a sudden, we saw the canopy of the jet explode and go up, and then we saw the pilot blast out of the plane and the parachute open," Lerner said.

Another witness said the jet was flying at a low altitude and "just spiraled, right out of [the movie] 'Top Gun.' "

A photograph taken at the crash site showed the pilot, after ejection, sitting on the front lawn, making a call on his cell phone before he was taken to a hospital. Watch burning debris near crash site »

The pilot was the only occupant of the two-seat aircraft, according to the Marine Corps.

The Union-Tribune spoke with Steve Diamond, a retired naval aviator who said he found the pilot in a tree behind a house. He told the paper he helped the man, who Diamond said was a lieutenant in his 20s, down from the tree.

The pilot told him that after he lost power in one engine, it was decided he would try to get the jet to Miramar on the single working engine, Diamond told the paper.

The pilot was in communication with military air traffic controllers before the jet crashed about two miles from the airfield, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the pilot ejected moments before the crash and landed in a tree. Jason Widmer said he talked to the pilot, who said he had tried to steer the jet from the homes and into a brushy canyon.

"He was pretty shook up and pretty concerned if he had killed anyone," Widmer told San Diego 6. "He had seen his bird go into a house."

A retired general, a pilot who has flown for 40 years and more than 270 missions in Vietnam, said the decision to eject is up to the pilot. F/A-18D planes are very dependable, but any aircraft is subject to error.

That model has two engines, and it can operate with one engine. But if one engine malfunctions, it's possible that a blade can break off and fly into the other engine, causing it to malfunction, too. If both engines are inoperable and the plane descends below 10,000 feet, it's likely the pilot will soon lose control.

When the pilot pulls a ring-like lever, a series of automatic actions is set off: The pilot's harness comes loose, and he is pushed through a canopy, which is rigged to facilitate him breaking through it without causing injury. A pilot can opt to manually activate his parachute, but if he doesn't, the parachute will open on a timer.

The plane would crash randomly once the pilot is no longer in control.

nside a house in the neighborhood, Robert Johnson sat in his living room with his daughter, Heather Certain, and her 2-year-old son, Nicholas, according to the Union-Tribune. They heard the explosion and then saw a giant fireball in the picture window facing their front yard, the newspaper reported. They ran out of the house.

"The house shook like an earthquake," Johnson said. "I saw the flames right there in front of my house."

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3 NYPD officers charged in subway sodomy case

By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer

AP – This undated photo provided by the Brooklyn district attorney's office shows New York City police officer …

NEW YORK – A police officer warned a tattoo parlor worker that if he reported being sodomized with a baton during an arrest at a New York subway station, officers would lock him up for a felony, prosecutors said Tuesday.

The threat was among details to emerge as the Brooklyn district attorney announced an indictment charging Officer Richard Kern and two other patrolmen with felonies.

Kern, 25, was charged with aggravated sexual abuse and assault after the Oct. 15 confrontation. Fellow Officers Alex Cruz and Andrew Morales were charged with hindering prosecution and official misconduct for allegedly covering up the crime.

All three pleaded not guilty Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Brooklyn. As Cruz and Morales were released without bail and left the courtroom, accuser Michael Mineo glared at them and clapped sarcastically. Kern left minutes later after posting $15,000 bail.

"I relive this every day. I'm still in pain," Mineo, a 24-year-old body piercer, said outside the courtroom. "No one should go through this."

The Associated Press does not usually name people alleging sexual abuse, but Mineo has come forward publicly to detail his ordeal, speaking to the news media and allowing himself to be photographed and captured on video.

Kern's attorney, John Patten, told reporters that civilian witnesses standing only a few feet away from the officers and Mineo never saw a sex assault, and he predicted his client would prevail at trial.

"I represent a very decent young man," he said.

Lawyers for Cruz and Morales denied their clients were part of a cover-up.

"They don't even have a paper-thin case. They have no case," said Cruz's attorney, Stuart London.

At a news conference earlier Tuesday, prosecutors for the first time confirmed reports of perhaps the strongest piece of evidence against Kern: DNA recovered from the baton matched that of the victim, they said. They also said two officers had given grand jury testimony that supported Mineo's allegations.

But District Attorney Charles Hynes was at a loss to explain why a skinny police officer who could pass for a teenager would commit a sex crime while on duty in the middle of the day in a busy subway station.

"I can't deal with a motive," Hynes said. "I just don't know."

In the most detailed narrative to date of the incident, prosecutors said Kern and Morales spotted Mineo outside the subway station smoking marijuana. When they sought to stop him, he fled into the station, jumped a turnstile, ran toward the platform and hurdled another turnstile before he was pinned down, handcuffed near a token booth and searched for drugs, they said.

With Mineo in a "helpless position" with his pants down, Kern took out a retractable baton and shoved it into the victim's buttocks, said Assistant District Attorney Charles Guria. The baton pierced Mineo's underwear, tore his rectum and drew blood, the prosecutor said.

To cover his tracks and with the other officers' knowledge, Kern wrote Mineo "a bogus summons" that was purposely backdated so it would be invalid, then warned him to keep quiet or face a felony, prosecutors said.

Police initially questioned Mineo's account and allowed the officers to stay on duty. But the case gained momentum in late October after Mineo's lawyers went public with his allegations and the district attorney launched a grand jury investigation.

If convicted, Kern could face up to 25 years in prison; the others could face up to four years.

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