Topic: Twitter Inc.

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Facebook IPO: Six key dates in its debacle

Facebook's first week as a publicly traded company will go down as a terribly botched corporate launch, perhaps one of the worst in recent history for such a highly visible entity. Eight days ago, it was the tech world's most highly anticipated initial public offering in eight years. Now, the social media company faces mounting legal woes and serves as an embarrassing example of how not to run an IPO. Despite rising insider pessimism about its growth prospects, Facebook kept boosting its asking price and the number of shares it would sell. The result: billions of dollars in losses; investigations by two congressional committees, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an industry watchdog, and the state of Massachusetts; at least 13 class-action lawsuits; and thousands of resentful shareholders who days later still were unsure how many Facebook shares they had or at what price. Here are six key dates in Facebook's unfolding IPO disaster.
Maurice Sendak: 10 tweets about the 'Wild' author and illustrator

Children's author Maurice Sendak, creator of the darkly mischievous children's classic, "Where the Wild Things Are," has died at age 83. Mourning the loss of the beloved writer and illustrator, fans of his work took to Twitter to pay tribute to one of the most important children’s book writers of the 20th century. Take a look at some of the top tweets from the worlds of literature, film and beyond that celebrate the life Maurice Sendak.
Battle for women's votes: 6 flash points

The uproar over the Obama campaign’s 'Life of Julia' Web infographic – which made #Julia big on Twitter – highlights just how fiercely both parties are fighting for the women’s vote. The economy is by far the most important issue in November for both sexes. But there are other areas with special significance to women. Here are the main flash points.
Briefing
Five things to know about Freedom House's latest global rankings

A look at the 2012 Freedom House ranking of 197 countries according to their relative freedom.
21 nonfiction books to watch for in spring 2012

This early harvest of spring 2012 titles looks promising.

All Content

NASA's Kepler observatory to continue hunt for strange new worlds (+video)

Funding for the Kepler mission, which has discovered more than 2,300 potential alien planets to date, was slated to run out this November.
Chapter & Verse
Is Ann Patchett the female Jonathan Franzen?

In some respects, Jonathan Franzen and Ann Patchett seem separated at birth – except for all the ways in which they are polar opposites.
Hitched to Qatar's rising star, Al Jazeera takes a bumpy ride skyward

Al Jazeera's relationship with Qatar's emir, who founded the channel in 1996, has drawn more criticism as Qatar takes an increasingly prominent role in the region.
Census site snarls after it releases 1940 data

The National Archives made the 1940 records available on their website, which quickly staggered under the traffic.
Backchannels
Dubai kicks out US democracy NGO, too

Though far more deftly than Egypt did.
Jet-airliner-sized April Fools' Day asteroid buzzes Earth (+video)

About 150 feet wide, asteroid 2012 EG5 hurtled past our planet Sunday, passing closer than the moon.
Global warming began in oceans 135 years ago, suggests study

A study of temperature recordings from the 1870s suggests that the oceans began warming more than 100 years ago, much earlier than previously believed.
JetBlue pilot's outburst: Could side effects from medications be at fault?

Federal investigators and JetBlue officials poring over Clayton Osbon's medical records are expected to look for clues as to whether medications, or their side effects, might be an issue.
Amazon's Jeff Bezos to search for sunken Apollo 11 engines (+video)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says that his deep-sea sonar expedition in the Atlantic has located the five engines used to launch Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon in 1969, and he plans to bring at least one of them to the surface.
Dalai Lama wins Templeton Prize as more than 'simple Buddhist monk'

The Dalai Lama has won the Templeton Prize for exceptional contributions to affirming life’s spiritual dimension by spreading his message of compassion worldwide.
Legendary musician Earl Scruggs remembered for revolutionary banjo playing style

Earl Scruggs partnered with some of the greatest musicians in bluegrass and country music throughout his career to create indelible memories.
Fossil discovery could unravel mystery of how humans learned to walk (+video)

The discovery of foot bone fossils from an early hominin may help unlock the mystery of how humans learned to walk upright.
Newt Gingrich cuts one third of campaign staff but vows to press on

Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, plans to spend much less time in primary states and instead personally call delegates to try to persuade them to back him at the Republican National Convention in August.
Global News Blog
Why an Italian lawmaker's phone call trumps Obama's speech

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti's decision to take a call from an Italian lawmaker during President Barack Obama's speech highlights the tentativeness of his claim to authority.
Study indicates existence of billions of habitable alien planets in Milky Way (+video)

A survey of red dwarf stars suggests that, in our galaxy alone, there are tens of billions of planets orbiting their stars' 'habitable zones.'
Short on cash, Newt Gingrich turns to Twitter to win delegates

Newt Gingrich fired one-third of his campaign staff, including his campaign manager. Gingrich's new strategy is to win GOP delegates individually, via social media, to position himself for the Republican convention.
Hammerhead shark twin discovery creates concern for species

The scalloped hammerhead shark has a twin, scientists have discovered. And that discovery may show that scalloped hammerheads are rarer than first thought.
Trayvon Martin case: Is hoodie a symbol of menace or desire for justice? (+video)

Protesters are donning hoodies in rallies calling for an arrest in the Trayvon Martin case, but others say that wearing a hoodie in the wrong neighborhood puts minority kids at risk.
Why James Cameron was forced to surface early

James Cameron described the Mariana Trench as "very lunar, a very desolate place, very isolated.” His six hour trip was cut in half by hydraulic problems.
'Titanic' director James Cameron dives to Earth's deepest spot

Cameron is using a submarine to descend nearly seven miles to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific. The pressure below is the equivalent of three SUVs sitting on your toe.
The Vote
If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. Obama embraces ‘Obamacare’

Ever since he launched it, President Obama’s health care reform program has been slammed by its critics as 'Obamacare'. Now Obama's reelection campaign has adopted the term.
Cash mobs: a new boost for local business?

Saturday is International Cash Mob Day. Like flash mobs, cash mobs use social media to organize. But they don't perform, they spend money at a targeted local business.
Who is Jim Yong Kim, nominee for World Bank president?

The selection of Jim Yong Kim took many by surprise since he is not well known in Washington circles and wasn’t an expected candidate for the World Bank position.
The Reformed Broker
Need an econ graph? Go to FRED.

FRED charts have exploded all over the financial blogosphere.  The site is easy to use and addictive if you're a data hound or a market nerd.
Facebook privacy: Can firms legally demand passwords from job applicants?

On Friday Facebook criticized the new practice of screening job applicants as 'alarming,' and some employment specialists say it could expose firms to legal land mines.