Oil, like all other goods, flows toward the highest bidder. Consequently, talking about "independence" in a global economy ruled by market forces is a contradiction. As national policy, we must protect the U.S. economy from interruptions in the supply of such a critical commodity -- whether those interruptions are related to natural or political causes. I believe that the appropriate aim is to str

Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, August 8, 2008 Internet giant Yahoo is set to announce today that it will allow users to shut off targeted advertising on its Web sites, a move that comes as a congressional committee continues to air concerns about consumer privacy. Last week, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce asked Yahoo and 32 other Internet companies to provide more information abo

Paul Wilson wakes most mornings by 5 o'clock, just in time to reply to about a dozen Facebook messages, update a MySpace account and thumb through up to 200 text messages. The routine has become something of a necessity for Wilson, owner of the Washington Glory fastpitch softball team, which wages a daily battle to win fans. Wilson sees progress every time a young girl arrives asking for discounte

News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch ruled out any discussions to help Yahoo fend off a possible takeover by Microsoft. "We're not interested in Yahoo," Murdoch told reporters yesterday at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. Microsoft will probably fail in any attempt to buy Yahoo, he added. News Corp. and Yahoo discussed a combination to block an unsolicited takeover offer from Microso

Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, July 2, 2008 The Justice Department has opened a formal antitrust investigation into a deal struck last month that would allow Internet titan Google to provide some search advertising for Yahoo, according to sources familiar with the inquiry. Investigators are planning to demand documents not only from Google and Yahoo, but also from other large companies in

Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 18, 2008 One of the nation's leading sponsors of online media, Rob Wrubel lays out as much as $20 million a month for Internet ads. Over time, his firm's ad buys have supported a wide spectrum of Web content, from video clips of rock bands to coverage of the Iraq war, and an array of online names: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, CBS, MySpace and CNN. Wrubel ma

Last month the Wall Street Journal accused me of advocating subsidies for food-based ethanol. I ought to "take a vow of embarrassed silence," it said, for claiming that ethanol's contribution to the food crisis is "overblown." The Journal's claims would be laughable if the stakes were not so high. Cellulosic biofuels offer a chance to have an environmentally meaningful impact on petroleum use whil

You probably thought the world had enough video sharing sites, but you'd be wrong? EatLime, based in Sunnyvale, CA, has raised unspecified funds from DFJ, Amidzad Partners, and various angels, reports NewTeeVee. The company's angle: faster uploads (it claims) and the ability to watch a video instantly, even as it's uploading, as opposed to waiting for the whole thing to upload, and then waiting fo

Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, May 21, 2008 Rupert Murdoch didn't have to look far to find the man he wanted to run the Wall Street Journal's newsroom. One month after Murdoch's handpicked publisher, Robert Thomson, oversaw the ouster of the paper's top editor, Thomson himself got the job yesterday, along with broader responsibilities as editor in chief of parent company Dow Jones and its