With the high cost of cable television and the rather sketchy quality of the programming, it makes sense that people would turn to movies for their video entertainment, and the convenience of getting a steady stream of fresh DVDs turning up in your mailbox is quite appealing. Netflix has also been offering streaming video over the Internet, and that service has also bolstered their bottom line.

Other companies have followed the Netflix model and the competition is increasing, so continued growth of this magnitude is no sure thing, but Netflix had a great business model from the beginning and they have done a good job maximizing their potential. You can read more about the growth of Netflix by clicking the link below.

Netflix Posts Strong First Quarter

“The web is at a really important turning point now. Most things aren’t social and they don’t use your real identity. This is really starting to change,” said Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook.

Personally, I deleted my Facebook account because I found that my network of “friends” stuck to a rather surface and banal, “safe” sharing of information that couldn’t possibly offend (or for that matter, inspire) anyone. When I would look at the question asking me what was on my mind, I realized that I couldn’t share what I was thinking without coming across as “inappropriate.” And I have no need for superficial relationships, so what’s the point?

This sounds like something that will be used to shill products and services and allow those who have an agenda to preach to those who felt a responsibility to become their Facebook friend for one reason or another.

When your surfing is public to all, including your professional network, it limits your freedom and injects a Big Brother into your life that tacitly monitors your behavior. It may be something that is of value with some networks of friends, but it smells to me like another Facebook attempt at regulating web usage in accordance with corporate mores.

Any time a big company like Google does well, it stands to reason that they will need to keep hiring as they grow, and they did indeed add some 800 new workers. The only problem with that is that we don’t know how many of those people actually reside here in the United States. This is why the appearance of a healthy stock market is an illusion that doesn’t reflect the true state of the economy. A company’s stock can and does rise upon news of a plant closing in the United States as it is moved to Mexico, India or South Korea.

That having been said, Google’s stock is actually down by 5% in 2010 in spite of the 10% rise in the Nasdaq exchange as a whole, much of that due to the acrimony between the company and the Chinese government over censorship demands.

To get a more detailed look at Google’s first quarter earning report, click the link below.

Google Profits Up 37% From Q1 2009

Though it is valued at $1 billion at this point, Twitter had no revenue center until it recently began to provide Google with its real time search results. But it has now been announced that Twitter is going to start running sponsored messages that they are calling “Promoted Tweets.” For now, these will only show up in searches for keywords that the advertisers will target.

With typical Twitter brevity, company co-founder Biz Stone had this to say about the move: “It’s non-traditional, it’s easy, and it makes a ton of sense for Twitter.”

This is very interesting because they obviously had to start generating revenue at some point, but the founders couldn’t identify the right way to do it for these four years. They said that they wanted to concentrate on building participation and not alienating users with monetization efforts. We’ll see if this idea does the trick. You can read more about the monetization of Twitter by clicking this link:

Twitter Now Selling Ads

Many of us are going to be paying for the car over five or even six years, so you need to be certain that the car you buy has some staying power. If you have a long commute every day, and you take the occasional road trip, you can easily put 100,000 miles on a car before it’s paid for. So it is important to select a car that has a reputation for being able to handle high mileage, and the fact is that American cars don’t last as long as many of their foreign counterparts.

Anyway, Forbes.com has evaluated the 2010 batch of cars based on reliability, value, and safety, and the worst seven cars on the road are all made by the “Big Three.” Here is the list of the worst vehicles on the road according to Forbes:

• Dodge Nitro

• Ford F-250

• Chevrolet Aveo

• Chevrolet Colorado

• Cadillac Escalade

• GMC Canyon

• Jeep Wrangler

You can read all the details here:

Worst Cars On The Road

Madoff himself does not claim to have been involved in any altercations with fellow inmates, and who can blame him when you consider the ramifications of jail house justice? Since he went down for the count, Madoff has gotten off easy and been transferred to a low-security medical facility. I wonder if an inmate who was incarcerated for stealing a Wall Street trader’s watch would wind up chillin’ in such an environment if he was beaten up by the very same guy?

When the bankers who control the government were handing out corporate bailouts, they were demanding that the same companies that they were bailing out “cut costs,” and that of course included getting rid of employees. I recognized at the time the same thing that the Chinese premier is saying.

But the real irony here is the fact that the reason why we are unemployed and can’t continue to buy Chinese-made goods is because all of our jobs have gone to places like China. Go figure. And this story is being reported without mentioning that perspective? In 2009, we imported $296,402.10 million worth of Chinese goods. We exported $69,576 million worth of our goods to China.

The global elite invest without regard for national boundaries. They couldn’t care less about the plight of Americans–even American-born investors who are citizens of this country invest without regard to the impact it has on American workers. Why would you want to pay an American factory worker a living wage here when a Chinese pseudo-slave can be forced to work seven days a week for $150 a month?

So the situation is being reported to us, with a straight face, that the Chinese Premier Jiabao is “warning” the world about a pending “recession” that stems for his country not getting enough orders for low quality products put together by his country’s slave class…wow…you can read all about it here:

China’s Premier Jiabao’s Brilliant Economic Insight

Sikes called 911 and California Highway Patrol officers instructed him via loudspeakers to apply the brakes and emergency brakes and then turn off the ignition. He was going 85 and was able to slow down to about 55 while burning the brakes to just about nothing before shutting down the engine.

This is one way to boost sales for the American “Big Three,” but you have to wish it could happen in another manner. To read more on the story, click here.

Phantom Drivers

We don’t know the exact circumstances surrounding the one car collision, but the first thing we would like to cover is the uninsured motorist clause that is a part of most automobile insurance policies. In the Woods case, he was ultimately cited for careless driving and made no contention that anyone else was involved. However, there are single driver accidents that are caused by another driver who flees the scene and is never held accountable or cited. For instance, if a car was to run you off the road, or to cause you to swerve to avoid a collision as they drove toward you on the wrong side of the road, you may be entitled to a damage reward under the uninsured motorist clause in your insurance policy. Don’t assume that you are without recourse if you are the victim of a motorist who causes an accident and flees the scene.

Cars Are Not Toys

When you are charged with the responsibility of helping people who have been the victims of injury accidents, you become acutely aware of how dangerous and even deadly an automobile can be. Drivers will do things behind the wheel of a two ton projectile hurtling down the roadways at seventy five miles per hour that are incredibly dangerous. These same people would never think of jeopardizing the safety of others at any other time, but when they are driving, all bets are off, especially when they get angry. No matter what is going on in your life, there is no excuse when you lose respect for the potential dangers that exist when you are driving. Never take out your anger on someone who is driving, whether you are in the car with them or driving behind or alongside of them. Keep in mind the gravity of the damage that you can cause and ask yourself it is really worth it.

Don’t Assume

No matter how the circumstances may appear to you at the time of an accident, it is always advisable to contact an attorney as soon as possible. There are many nuances to the law that the layman would really have no way of knowing, and there is no reason to go it alone and make assumptions when you can always get good advice from your local family lawyer.