The Poor Job Creators....who get a golden parachute for killing jobs

NYT: Golden goodbyes persist for failed execs - Business - US business - The New York Times - msnbc.com: "Just last week, Léo Apotheker was shown the door after a tumultuous 11-month run atop Hewlett-Packard. His reward? $13.2 million in cash and stock severance, in addition to a sign-on package worth about $10 million, according to a corporate filing on Thursday.
At the end of August, Robert P. Kelly was handed severance worth $17.2 million in cash and stock when he was ousted as chief executive of Bank of New York Mellon after clashing with board members and senior managers. A few days later, Carol A. Bartz took home nearly $10 million from Yahoo after being fired from the troubled search giant."

A hallmark of the gilded era of just a few short years ago, the eye-popping severance package continues to thrive in spite of the measures put in place in the wake of the financial crisis to crack down on excessive pay.

Critics have long complained about outsize compensation packages that dwarf ordinary workers’ paychecks, but they voice particular ire over pay-for-failure. Much of Wall Street and corporate America has shifted a bigger portion of pay into longer-term stock awards and established policies to claw back bonuses. And while fuller disclosure of exit packages several years ago has helped ratchet down the size of the biggest severance deals, efforts by shareholders and regulators to further restrict payouts have had less success.

“We repeatedly see companies’ assets go out the door to reward failure,” said Scott Zdrazil, the director of corporate governance for Amalgamated Bank’s $11 billion Longview Fund, a labor-affiliated investment fund that sought to tighten the restrictions on severance plans at three oil companies last year. “Investors are frustrated that boards haven’t prevented such windfalls.”

What's more dangerous- climate change or the actions of the (not) right who want to remain blind to evidence?

Canadian Arctic nearly loses entire ice shelf - Yahoo! Finance: "Two ice shelves that existed before Canada was settled by Europeans diminished significantly this summer, one nearly disappearing altogether, Canadian scientists say in newly published research.

The loss is important as a marker of global warming, returning the Canadian Arctic to conditions that date back thousands of years, scientists say. Floating icebergs that have broken free as a result pose a risk to offshore oil facilities and potentially to shipping lanes. The breaking apart of the ice shelves also reduces the environment that supports microbial life and changes the look of Canada's coastline."

Transfer of money, followed by transfer of property

NYT: $22 billion federal garage sale to cut deficit - politics - The New York Times - msnbc.com: "ike Americans trying to raise quick cash by unloading their unwanted goods, the federal government is considering a novel way to reduce the deficit: holding the equivalent of a garage sale.
Deep within President Obama’s proposals to raise revenue and reduce the deficit lies a method that has garnered bipartisan support, something rare in Washington these days. It involves selling an island, courthouses, maybe an airstrip, generally idle or underused vehicles, roads, buildings, land — even the airwaves used to broadcast television."

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Spilling the beans...on coffee

CNBC special report: The coffee addiction - Business - CNBC TV - msnbc.com: "Coffee is certainly a national obsession. Americans drink over 400 million cups of it each day. Though coffeehouses are the fastest growing part of the restaurant industry, some 86 percent of Americans still get their morning fix at home from top supermarket sellers like Maxwell house and Folgers.
Whether store-bought or Starbucks, the secret to coffee is in the roasting, according to electrical engineer Marty Curtis."

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Religious boost to the economy

Durga Puja: Hoteliers, tour operators ecstatic over full bookings - The Economic Times: "Private operators and hoteliers are ecstatic over full bookings for the coming festive season, heralded in West Bengal by Durga Puja, an occasion that draws hundreds of expatriates back home.

"This puja we hope to do better business than in the last three years. All the hotels and tourist destinations are fully booked. It is a chock-a-block situation this year," said an elated Raj Basu, chairman, Eastern Himalayas Travel and Tour Operators' Association (Ehttoa).

The usual tourist destinations in north Bengal are the hill towns of Darjeeling, often referred to as the Queen of the Hills, Kalimpong and Kurseong, apart from forests in Jaldapara, Dooars and Gorumara.

Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, with its wild beauty, Royal Bengal Tigers and winding boat rides also attracts a large number of visitors"

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Free market competition in health insurance- rising rates lift all boats

Health insurance costs soar 9% this year - Business - Personal finance - msnbc.com: "Employers’ spending on health coverage for workers spiked abruptly this year, with the average cost of a family plan rising by 9 percent, triple the growth seen in 2010.

Family plan premiums hit $15,073 on average, while coverage for single employees grew 8 percent to $5,429, according to a survey released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust. (KHN is an editorially-independent program of the foundation.)
Workers paid an average of $921 toward the premium of single coverage and $4,129 for family plans."

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The Cadmium Pushers

Jewelers want states to replace limits on cadmium - Yahoo! Finance: "The U.S jewelry industry wants states to overturn laws that limit the toxic metal cadmium in children's trinkets and adopt new voluntary guidelines it helped create, saying stricter rules in several states create chaos for manufacturers and importers."

Amazing performers

The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : When music and dance melded: "Priyadarshini Govind and T. M. Krishna, two names that bring to mind visions of classical ebullience, gave Kochiites an ‘adippoli' evening to remember Thursday last, courtesy Dharani. The jugalbandi of dance and Carnatic music, though truly classical, was enjoyed as a popular art form in combo. Though purely classical, it had the draw of pop even to the uninitiated in Carnatic music or Bharathanatyam."

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When self-serve is not served

Grocers start bagging self-serve checkouts - chicagotribune.com: "Market studies cited by the Arlington, Va.-based Food Marketing Institute found only 16 percent of supermarket transactions in 2010 were done at self-checkout lanes in stores that provided the option. That's down from a high of 22 percent three years ago.

Overall, people reported being much more satisfied with their supermarket experience when they used traditional cashier-staffed lanes.

Supermarket chains started introducing self-serve lanes about 10 years ago, touting them as an easy way for shoppers to scan their own items' bar codes, pay, bag their bounty and head out on their way. Retailers also anticipated a labor savings, potentially reducing the number of cashier shifts as they encouraged shoppers to do it themselves.

The reality, though, was mixed. Some shoppers loved them and were quick converts, while other reactions ranged from disinterest to outright hatred -- much of it shared on blogs or in Facebook groups. "

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The drive to vote

Saudi Monarch Grants Women Right to Vote - NYTimes.com: "King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Sunday granted women the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, the biggest change in a decade for women in a puritanical kingdom that practices strict separation of the sexes, including banning women from driving."

Holy Makau! What a marathon!

Makau breaks world record in Berlin Marathon - Sports- NBC Sports: "Patrick Makau of Kenya broke the world record to win the Berlin Marathon on Sunday.

Makau pulled away after 27 kilometers and finished in 2 hours, 3 minutes, 38 seconds.

Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, who held the previous record of 2:03.59, pulled up after Makau's breakaway and seemed on the verge of giving up when he stopped running and bent over, but resumed the race.

For several kilometers he was second, about two minutes behind Makau, but appeared to have finally given up before the finish.

Gebrselassie had won four successive Berlin marathons from 2006 and set his world record in 2008.

Makau also won last year's race in driving rain. Sunday's race on Berlin's flat course took place in sunny, mild conditions."

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Warmly rejecting Climate Change- the Republican 'Science"

American divide over global warming getting deeper - US news - Environment - Climate Change - msnbc.com:

"The opposition by the Republicans has gotten stronger and stronger," the 79-year-old "grandfather of climate science" said in an interview. "But, of course, the push by the Democrats has become stronger and stronger, and as it has become a more important issue, it has become more polarized."

The solution: "Eventually it'll become damned clear that the Earth is warming and the warming is beyond anything we have experienced in millions of years, and people will have to admit..." He stopped and laughed.

"Well, I suppose they could say God is burning us up."

"The basic physics of anthropogenic — manmade — global warming has been clear for more than a century, since researchers proved that carbon dioxide traps heat. Others later showed CO2 was building up in the atmosphere from the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels. Weather stations then filled in the rest: Temperatures were rising.
"As a physicist, putting CO2 into the air is good enough for me. It's the physics that convinces me," said veteran Cambridge University researcher Liz Morris. But she said work must go on to refine climate data and computer climate models, "to convince the deeply reluctant organizers of this world.""

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Media and Money, not quite social

Facebook and Twitter user boom may not mean big profits, says ad boss | Media | guardian.co.uk: "The chief executive of marketing services giant WPP was speaking after reports this week that Facebook has delayed its flotation until the end of next year, and an analyst's claim that Mark Zuckerberg's company had missed its revenue targets.

"I have some fundamental doubts about the ability to monetise social platforms," Sorrell told the Royal Television Society Cambridge Convention on Friday.

"If you attempt to monetise it, it's risky, there are question marks," he said. "Facebook, Google+, Twitter … is a social interaction. We used to write letters to each other and now we correspond through Facebook and Twitter and other forms of communication. If you interrupt that with a message you may run into trouble.

"Mark Zuckerberg tried two failed experiments – Beacon and one other – which were withdrawn in 24 hours after a revolution on Facebook."

Sorrell said influencing social networks was an "extremely powerful way of building brands, building trust and building reputation", such as by users recommending products to each other.

"But it is a dangerous territory if you try to over-monetise it," he added. "I'm not sceptical about social media, I'm concerned about when you monetise it because by it's nature it's me talking to you electronically, digitally. If I'm talking to you and I send you a commercial message how do you feel about that? If i say 'buy this' or 'do that', it's not the right context."

Sorrell said: "Somebody asked me whether I thought Facebook was worth $15bn and I said no. It just shows how stupid I am because it's now being talked about at $100bn so what do I know?""

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The Rich Gap between Want and Reality

Romney says he wants all Americans to be rich - Yahoo! Finance: "Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney says he wants everyone to be rich but isn't comfortable defining that threshold.

The Republican presidential contender said during a debate on Thursday that he wants all Americans to have the same opportunities to build wealth while President Barack Obama's Democratic Party wants to raise taxes on wealthy workers and give that money to poorer Americans."

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Shutting the Door on Education...by those who never got an education

Republicans say education department should go - Yahoo! Finance: "The Republican presidential contenders say vast parts of the Department of Education would be on the chopping block -- if not completely shut down.

The GOP candidates on Thursday universally panned the education department as they met for a debate. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota says she would push the repeal of federal education laws and personally go to the department's headquarters, turn out the lights, lock the door."

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Americans and Taxes

Americans Favor Jobs Plan Proposals, Including Taxing Rich: "Americans generally favor raising taxes on higher-income Americans and eliminating tax deductions for some corporations as ways of paying for President Obama's proposed jobs plan.



Obama laid out his proposals for the jobs bill in an address to Congress on Sept. 8, and sent the bill to Congress a few days later. Since then, the president has been pushing Congress to adopt the plan, although there are no signs yet as to when either House of Congress will begin to debate the bill."

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Rich in Europe and Rich in the USA

Obama’s Tax on Millionaires - NYTimes.com: "Britain and France have imposed new taxes on their highest earners — and Italy, Spain, Greece and Japan are considering similar moves, despite some protests.

Whether the taxes on the rich in Europe raise enough money to close much of their budget shortfalls, they are being promoted as a step toward economic fairness at a time when governments are cutting spending on social programs like pensions, health care and education. Mr. Obama — whose millionaire’s tax would probably raise a modest amount of revenue over the next 10 years by collecting more from several hundred thousand Americans — has also framed his plan as a way to make the system more equitable."

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G.O.P. - No Friend of the Public Interest

G.O.P. Urges No Further Fed Stimulus - NYTimes.com: "Even though the financial markets have been counting on the Federal Reserve to take action, Republican Congressional leadership sent a letter to the Federal Reserve chairman on Tuesday evening urging it not to engage in further stimulus.

The letter was sent in the midst of a two-day meeting in which Fed officials are widely expected to undertake policies to lower long-term interest rates. That move would be intended to loosen up credit in hopes of promoting growth. The meeting ends Wednesday, and the Fed is expected to release a statement Wednesday at 2:15 p.m.

“We have serious concerns that further intervention by the Federal Reserve could exacerbate current problems or further harm the U.S. economy,” said the letter, signed by four of the top Republicans in Congress: Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate Republican leader; Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Senate Republican whip; House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia."

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Merkel- right on the money

Merkel criticizes quest for growth at any cost - Yahoo! Finance: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the longstanding pursuit of growth at any cost is one cause of the debt crisis afflicting countries in Europe and beyond.

Merkel said Tuesday that the current debt troubles are in part the result of a "wrong philosophy" that persisted for decades.

She says that everything else was subordinated to growth as an end in itself -- "and I don't think we can carry on that way.""

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Sugar versus HFCS

Lawsuit Debates High-Fructose Corn Syrup - WSJ.com: "The "all natural" battle isn't the only one roiling the food industry. In a Los Angeles courtroom, two big industries are going after each other over the definition of a word well-known by every first-grader: sugar.

In April, eight leading sugar companies and two trade associations sued six corn processors and a lobbying group, alleging the corn industry is improperly using the term "corn sugar" in advertisements and elsewhere to describe high-fructose corn syrup, a widely used sweetener used in snack foods, condiments, fruit drinks and other products."

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Not in-line when online

Poll: Young people see online slurs as just joking - Yahoo! Finance: "But young people who use racist or sexist language are probably offending more people than they realize, even in their own age range. The poll of 14- to 24-year-olds shows a significant minority are upset by some pejoratives, especially when they identify with the group being targeted.

"It's so derogatory to women and demeaning, it just makes you feel gross," Lori Pletka, 22, says about "slut" and more vulgar words aimed at women. The Southeast Missouri State University senior said other terms regularly offend her online, too -- slurs for black people, Hispanics, and gays or lesbians.

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed say they see people being mean to others on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. And 51 percent encounter discriminatory words or images on those sites.

But they mostly write off the slurs as jokes or attempts to act cool. Fifty-seven percent say "trying to be funny" is a big reason people use discriminatory language online. About half that many say a big reason is that people "really hold hateful feelings about the group.""

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Green that is urgently needed

Business Line : Industry & Economy / Info-tech : India’s Green IT spend to reach $70 b by 2015: Gartner: "NEW DELHI, SEPT 19:
With ‘Green IT’ and sustainable development becoming top priorities for businesses in the country, India’s spending on green IT and sustainability initiatives is set to double to $70 billion in 2015, research firm Gartner said.

In a report, ‘Hype Cycle for Green IT and Sustainability in India, 2011,” analysts said Green IT and sustainability initiatives have already found their way into the IT roadmap of many industries in India.

Although still buzzwords for many, they will soon emerge as top priorities for businesses, investors and technology professionals across industries and policymakers in India, it added.

The report pegged spending on green IT and sustainability initiatives at $35 billion in 2010.

“India’s information and communication technology (ICT) industry will be an early adopter of green IT and sustainability solutions, as India is one of the fastest-growing markets in terms of IT hardware and communications infrastructure consumption,” the Gartner Research Director, Mr Ganesh Ramamoorthy, said."

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The Text on Text Messages

Technolog - 18-24 crowd exchanges 3,200-plus texts a month: "Cellphone users between ages of 18 and 24 send and receive an average of 109.5 text messages on a "normal" day, or more than 3,200 texts a month, according to a new report.
And a small number of them — 12 percent — say they do almost double that kind of texting traffic, exchanging more than 200 messages on an average day, or 6,000 a month, according to the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project report, "Americans and Text Messaging," released Monday.
Another 23 percent say they send or receive more than 100 texts a day. In contrast, among all American cellphone owners, users exchange an average of 41.5 messages on a typical day, with the "median user sending or receiving 10 texts daily."
Those who are deep into text messaging also prefer getting a text over a phone call as a way to communicate."

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A different take on the tax issue

UK hires extra tax collectors to police super-rich - Yahoo! Finance: "As the U.K. tightens its belt during economic uncertainty, a senior government official said Sunday he was hiring more than 2,000 extra tax inspectors to make sure that Britain's wealthiest feel the squeeze.

The British Treasury's Chief Secretary, Danny Alexander, told the Sunday Independent newspaper that his priority was "making sure that those with broadest shoulders bear their fair share of the burden."

Alexander said a 100-member "affluence team" would be in place in less than a month to keep an eye on the country's wealthiest taxpayers -- the estimated 350,000 people whose personal wealth exceeds 2.5 million pounds ($3.95 million)."

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Calling names is easy

Republicans Call Obama’s Tax Plan ‘Class Warfare’ - NYTimes.com: " Republicans on Sunday decried the notion of a new minimum tax rate for millionaires as “class warfare,” saying the proposal by President Obama may be intended to portray Congressional Republicans who resist it as being callously indifferent to the hardships facing many Americans."

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Power-ful but tear-ful for language lovers: but how can something be reduced by 300 times?

The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Technology : Intel aims to lower PC power consumption by 300 times: "The world’s largest chip-maker Intel Corporation on Friday said it is working on a host of futuristic technologies that would improve the power efficiency of PCs 300-fold in the next 10 years, as well as ensure the security of data and user identities.

Speaking on the final day of the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) 2011 here, Intel Chief Technology Officer Justin Rattner said the company was developing technologies to take computing to the next level, with better performance and lower power consumption."

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Eco-angle

The Hindu : Life & Style / Homes & Gardens : Whimsy gone wild: "Contemporary, Indian, eco-friendly and completely different... that's Gumdrops, Goodearth's recently launched brand for children.

Simran Lal was not alone in her search for baby products that satisfied these adjectives: unique, fun, creative and, most importantly, eco-friendly. Now isn't that what her store stood for anyway? So why not start a line for babies and children? That's what led to the birth of Goodearth's Gumdrops brand that caters to children aged one to five and partly to teenagers.

The recently launched collection has gifts, clothes, bed linen, bath and spa, toys, dining, silverware and furniture but what makes these products stand out from others in the market is the store's philosophy: “Contemporary design with a touch of Indianness that is also environmentally sensitive,” states Beenu Bawa, Head of Marketing, Goodearth."

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Fest or Waste?

The Hindu : States / Karnataka : Karnataka Chief Minister squelches tomato fest: "Blame it on Bollywood. Some Bangaloreans got so carried away by the re-creation of the Valencian tomato fight in the movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara that they wanted their own La Tomatina right here in their city, a move that divided public opinion and triggered campaigns.

On Friday, however, Karnataka Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda ordered that the festival, scheduled for Sunday at the Palace Grounds here, be squelched."

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Headline takes a hike

India's hikes interest rates to curb inflation - Yahoo! Finance: "India's hikes interest rates to curb inflation
India's central bank hikes interest rates by a quarter percentage point to curb inflation "

Texas drought - of water and science

Texas drought worsens from 'abysmal' - Weather - msnbc.com: "The drought in Texas that has fueled wildfires, devastated agriculture and caused water shortages actually worsened in the past week while several other states also saw spreading drought, according to a weekly report issued Thursday. The forecast for three months out isn't any better: Texas was told to expect abnormally warm and dry conditions from October to December thanks to another La Nina weather cycle."

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Project Gutenberg loses founder

Project Gutenberg founder dies aged 64 | Books | guardian.co.uk: "Long before the Kindle, Nook or iPhone, there was Michael Stern Hart and his Project Gutenberg, a network of volunteers dedicated to providing free online access to as many books as they could.

Hart, who is also considered the founder of the ebook, died Tuesday at his Illinois home, said Stephanie Gabel of Renner-Wikoff Chapel and Crematory. He was 64. Gabel did not know the cause of death.

Hart was a student at the University of Illinois when he founded Project Gutenberg 40 years ago. He got started in 1971 by typing the text of the US Declaration of Independence into a computer network that he and about 100 others had access to. In an interview last year, he said the project, and partners it works with, had made more than 100,000 books available for free online."

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The Cornhusker Raise

University of Nebraska leaders get big raises - Yahoo! Finance: "University of Nebraska President James B. Milliken received a 12 percent raise, budget documents show. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Harvey Perlman's pay will increase by 9 percent. University of Nebraska Medical Center Chancellor Harold Maurer will get a 13 percent raise.

The salaries of University of Nebraska at Omaha Chancellor John Christensen and University of Nebraska at Kearney Chancellor Doug Kristensen grew 2 percent and 4 percent, respectively. Their increases were smaller because their salaries were closer to their peers' midpoint, Regent Bob Whitehouse said."

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Chewing on this...

"A Japanese study presented at a meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes revealed that thorough chewing activates two intestinal peptides responsible for reducing appetite and food intake. Researchers said obese participants who chewed food 30 times had a significantly higher level of glucagonlike peptide-1 and peptide YY after meals, which could have a clinical impact on obesity. "

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24/7 Customer to hire 5000 social, interactive media advisors - The Economic Times

24/7 Customer to hire 5000 social, interactive media advisors - The Economic Times: "US-headquarterd 24/7 Customer, a managed services provider of online predictive customer experience solutions, today announced plans to recruit over 5,000 social and interactive media (SIM) advisors in India.

SIM advisors contribute an important element of the predictive experience (Px) solutions offered by 24/7 Customer, the company said in a statement. SIM is the customer service careers involving technology-led interactions to resolve end-user issues on client websites.

Px Solutions focus on containing end-users on websites by predicting their problems and resolving them in real time through seamless self-service and human assisted interactions, thus resulting in the highest satisfaction across channels for consumers, it said. "

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Diabetes -a growth that's not sweet

Experts: 366 million people now have diabetes - Yahoo! Finance: "An estimated 366 million people worldwide now suffer from diabetes and the global epidemic is getting worse, health officials said Tuesday.

The International Diabetes Federation described the number of cases as "staggering," with one person dying from diabetes every seven seconds.

The federation called for concrete measures to stop the epidemic, urging officials focusing on chronic diseases at a United Nations meeting next week to commit to specific targets to prevent cases and to invest in more research. Experts also said diabetes care should be integrated into local health clinics."

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An iNflection Point?

Many US schools adding iPads, trimming textbooks - Yahoo! Finance: "For incoming freshmen at western Connecticut's suburban Brookfield High School, hefting a backpack weighed down with textbooks is about to give way to tapping out notes and flipping electronic pages on a glossy iPad tablet computer.

A few hours away, every student at Burlington High School near Boston will also start the year with new school-issued iPads, each loaded with electronic textbooks and other online resources in place of traditional bulky texts.

While iPads have rocketed to popularity on many college campuses since Apple Inc. introduced the device in spring 2010, many public secondary schools this fall will move away from textbooks in favor of the lightweight tablet computers."

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Treating workers with dignity and respect, but overworking them at minimum wage

Group Criticizes Apple’s Environmental Record in China - NYTimes.com: "The report, which the group said was based on visits to many of the factories’ regions, said that factories that the group suspected were Apple suppliers often “fail to properly dispose of hazardous waste” and that 27 of the suppliers had been found to have environmental problems.

An Apple spokesman said Wednesday that the company had been aggressively monitoring factories in its supply chain with regular audits.

“Apple is committed to driving the highest standards of social responsibility throughout our supply chain,” said Steve Dowling, a spokesman for Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif.

He added: “We require that our supplier provide safe working conditions, treat workers with dignity and respect, and use environmentally responsible manufacturing processes wherever Apple products are made.”"

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Obama- Caught in the (Re)Public(an) Smog

Obama halts tighter smog standards - US news - Environment - msnbc.com: "President Barack Obama on Friday ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to shelve a proposal to tighten smog standards.
"I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover," Obama said in a statement announcing the order.
Environmental activists immediately pounced on the move as a retreat by a weakened Obama administration trying to cut deals with Republicans in Congress. And the American Lung Association vowed to fight the move in court.
The withdrawal of the proposed rule comes two days after the White House, at the request of Republicans, identified seven such regulations that it promised to review after finding each would cost industry at least $1 billion."

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att-plays-jobs-card-obama-marketwatch: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

att-plays-jobs-card-obama-marketwatch: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance: Did AT&T Corp. really think that its 11th-hour offer to bring 5,000 wireless call-center jobs back to the U.S. if its $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA was approved would work?

Probably not, but it was worth a shot. A government so hobbled by the lack of jobs created since the financial crisis might consider anything if it could boost payrolls, even allowing a massive mobile telecom deal envisioned by AT&T Inc. (T - News) and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom AG (DTE.DE - News)."