The easiest way to describe Spire, a new community site that made its debut Monday, is as a more grown-up, cultured Yelp: the latter offers expert advice on the ideal dive bars in Brooklyn, whereas the former focuses on four-star restaurants and hotels across the river in Manhattan. Calling itself …

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U.S. Steel’s profit more than doubles on higher prices By Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch Last Update: 7/29/2008 12:15:00 PM SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — United States Steel Corp. shares jumped more than 14% on Tuesday after the company reported its second-quarter profit more than doubled on prices pushed higher by surging global demand for its steel products. The stock added $20.92 to $166.25 […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net

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There’s going to be an Elvis karaoke contest on MySpace. That is not a joke. I can’t seem to figure out whether it’s trying to market Elvis to a younger generation or MySpace to an older one–or if it’s just for kicks.

The News Corp.-owned …

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This day, our food is riddled with labels claiming this and that. But what do all these terms mean? Which labels are valid? Which should you care about? Well, here you go…food labels, demystified.

The Quick Guide

Unfortunately, the U.S. government does not require third-party verification for any label except “organic.”

1. “Organic” means a lot of great things—but unfortunately it doesn’t really tell us much about how the animals were treated.
2. If you care about humane animal treatment, your ideal bet is to go with “Certified Humane” or “Free Farmed” products. Both certify producers along pretty stringent animal welfare guidelines.
3. Be aware that “no chemicals added” has no legal meaning. Zero.
4. “Fresh,” “natural,” and “no additives” do have legal meanings–but those meanings aren’t necessarily the same as the ones we use in everyday life!

The Nitty Gritty

“Organic” (also “certified organic“)

• To put “organic” on a product, farmers must receive certification from a third-party organic certifier who has been approved by the USDA. Certifiers follow standards created by the USDA to verify that animals were raised on a diet of 100% organic feed (none of which was animal byproducts); that no growth hormones were administered; that the animals were raised without the use of (most) fertilizers, antibiotics, genetic engineering, irradiation, sewage sludge, or artificial ingredients.
• Theoretically, animals must also have been raised with continuous access to the outside, even though there have been numerous complaints that certifiers are more lax about applying this stipulation than the others. Complaints have centered on the treatment of dairy animals and poultry, where there’s more industry pressure to have indoor raising areas.
• This label is third-party verified. Yay!

“No antibiotics administered” (or “raised without antibiotics”)

• This label means that the animal was not given antibiotics as part of its regular diet, and that it was not administered antibiotics for specific therapeutic reasons.
• About 70% of the antibiotics in this country are fed to healthy animals. This promotes animal growth and prevents disease, even though it significantly raises the resistance to antibiotics. Strains of salmonella, e.coli and campylobacter are all now resistant to significant numbers of antibiotics, because of this practice. It is not clear how much of the antibiotics fed to animals remain in the meat, even though many people like to avoid even small quantities of unneeded antibiotics.
• There is some concern that farmers may refuse to treat infected animals with antibiotics, so that they have the ability to use this label. Any animal treated with antibiotics—even if treated for an acute infection—may not be labeled “no antibiotics administered.”
• There is no third-party verification of this label—you just have to have faith in the company making the claim.

“No chemicals added“

• This term isn’t defined by the USDA, and it is not third-party verified. The problem is that almost everything is technically a “chemical.” So essentially, this means whatever the company wants it to mean.
• There is no third-party verification of this label—in fact, it pretty much means nothing.

“No additives“

• The USDA defines a food additive as any of 2800 listed substances used to provide a “technical effect” in food. This includes coloring, preservatives and flavorings (including sugar, corn syrup, and salt).
• The animals might have been fed antibiotics and/or hormones, and the label makes no claims about whether they were treated humanely.
• There is no third-party verification of this label. You just have to have faith in the company.

“Free range“ (also “cage free“)

• USDA regulations let producers put this on products made from poultry that have been “allowed access to the outside.” What does that mean? It means that the animal had to have the option of being outside (i.e., there had to be an open door to some outdoor area), for some amount of time (even just minutes), during some part of the day or night.
• “Free range” does not mean “organic.” Free range products may contain antibiotics or hormones.
• There is no third-party verification of this label, so you just have to trust the company making the claim.

“Grass-fed” (also “pasture-raised”)

• Cattle fed on 100% grass have higher levels of vitamins A and E, more omega 3 fatty acids, and lower levels of saturated fat—but it’s less clear just how much grass cattle have to eat before these benefits accrue. For now, producers can put “grass-fed” on their products even if the animals were fed only partly grass, so it’s worth looking for the “100% grass fed” label if that’s important to you. (The USDA has issued a proposed standard for meat that will require “grass-fed” to mean “100% grass-fed,” but those standards won’t apply to milk or poultry.)
• Grass-fed animals are not necessarily pasture-raised (that is, they could be kept inside and fed grass, although this is not particularly common–imagine feeding huge quantities of grass to hundreds of cows inside a large warehouse, and you can probably envision why). Nor does “grass-fed” mean that the animals were treated humanely. Grass-fed animals may still have been fed antibiotics and hormones, even if it states 100% grass-fed, because these are not considered “food” products.
• This label is not third-party verified, so you just have to have faith in the company making the claim.

“Certified Humane” and “Free Farmed“

• These are both trademarked stamps, created by third-party companies—Humane Farm Animal Care (Certified Humane) and the American Humane Association (Free Farmed). The companies set their own standards about what they mean.
• Both require that livestock have access to sufficient, clean food and water; proper protection from weather; sufficient space to move around; and that their environment is generally not dangerous to their health. Animals must be cared for by “humane-trained” handlers.
• These labels are administered by Certified Humane and American Humane Association. Both have very strict verification procedures.
• These labels are good signals that the animals have been treated humanely. Humane treatment of animals usually requires fewer antibiotics, and cleaner raising environments. There is also some evidence that stressed animals (especially pigs) release stress hormones that can affect humans.
• Despite these probable health benefits, these products are not necessarily organic, and producers are granted to use hormones and antibiotics.
• This label is third-party verified. Yay!

“Fresh“

• “Fresh” has a legal meaning: the food must never have reached temperatures below 26 degrees Fahrenheit—the freezing temperature of most muscle tissue (ew). This standard comes from the USDA regulations.
• This label has nothing to do with how an animal was raised, or what it ate.
• This label isn’t third-party verified, so you just have to trust the company making the claim.

“Natural“

• “Natural” has a legal meaning too: it means that the product contains no “artificial” colors, preservatives, or ingredients. That’s it.
• This label has nothing to do with how an animal was raised, or what it ate. The animal may have been exposed to pesticides, given hormones and/or large quantities of antibiotics.
• This label isn’t third-party verified, so you just have to have faith in the company making the claim.

For more visit Source:[green.yahoo]

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Commuto is a smart swapping community that’s been designed to undermine the in-person swap meet of the past with an on the web system that finds other people with items you want automatically.

Like Craigslist’s wanted section you can list items you’re looking for, be it electronics, text books, video games, or any other common good. You can also list items you own but are looking to pawn off. To aid in that, there’s a built in search that will let you pull in things like box art and product information so you don’t have to type anything in. I found it to be less than complete for some older items, but for things like books, video games, and DVDs, it picked up nearly everything I searched for.

After you’ve posted a wanted item, other people within your area will be alerted to the fact that you’re in need and offer to swap one of their own items. Alternately, if they’ve already listed ownership of stated item, the service will do a tiny virtual handshake to introduce you to the other person.

Like Craiglist, Commuto is all about keeping things local, so there’s no integrated payment system or way to auction off your goods. Instead, you just get in touch with the other person and arrange a swap. It’s delightfully easy and will work great as long as there are enough users in your area. There were only eight items in my neck of the woods, so your millage might vary.

Managing a successful trade on Commuto requires time, but less than you might get waiting for it to sell on eBay.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Fore more visit Source: [webware]

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You know you love it: The CW Television Network has decided to begin streaming its teen show Gossip Girl on the web again.

According to The New York Times, free ad-supported episodes of the program will soon reappear on The CW’s Web site. They’d been taken down in April as …

Source [The social]

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Mac users who use Google Calendar and iCal to manage their on and offline calendaring have had to use a myriad of third-party products to keep the two in sync. That’s changed now that Google is including CalDAV support as part of Google Calendar’s built-in functionality. This means you’ll be able to make changes in iCal and have them instantly reflected in Google and vice-versa. Previously that data swap was a one-way affair, with users simply subscribing to their Google Calendar feeds in iCal.

CalDAV is a standardized sharing protocol, allowing you to access the same set of data with others to edit and sync data changes between multiple users. On a workflow level, this means people with access to edit your Google Calendar will be able to make changes in both iCal and Google Calendar that’ll sync up with both.

To make use of it on a Mac you’ll need the latest version of iCal, which comes with OS X (Leopard). It has native support for CalDAV subscriptions, as does Mozilla Sunbird, but Google says it’s currently not supported.

One thing to note is that the current iteration of CalDAV support on Google’s part isn’t perfect. The support article on known issues is somewhat lengthy, with show-stoppers like the inability to create new iCal calendars from Google Calendar, and reminders and alarms not moving to the other platform when created. Until some of those issues are ironed out, getting perfect sync will require one of the many third-party tools that does the legwork for you (see Calgoo, Spanning Sync, and Plaxo).

[via Google Operating System]

Fore more visit Source: [webware]

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It’s public beta time for Qik, the mobile live-video service that’s captured the hearts of Web 2.0 bigwigs like Jason Calacanis and Kevin Rose. The service has been in private beta since late last year.

Along with its debut to the masses, Qik has made some tweaks: …

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US Coal Stocks Rebound On Strong 2Q Results, Analyst Views Last Update: 7/25/2008 1:42:59 PM DOW JONES NEWSWIRES Coal producers are having a good day in the market following Arch Coal Inc.’s (ACI) report Friday that second-quarter net income more than tripled, while smaller firm International Coal Group Inc. (ICO) received positive comments about its results. As oil […] For more visit Source:www.investment-blog.net

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