• In case you were wondering why everyone seemed amazed that Bill Gates joined Twitter yesterday, here’s why. It’s a fresh reminder that Twitter is just as susceptible to calculated publicity campaigns as any other medium. It just looks viral. That said, we’re not here to scold, we’re here to praise a guy who gives most of his money to charity because he’s too much of a nerd to be anything but our modern-day Andrew Carnegie. Larry Ellison is probably snorting coke off a hooker in a hotel (not room, hotel) he rented out. Carlos Slim’s wasting his money on bad investments like Circuit City and The New York Times. Warren Buffett’s probably making Jiffy Pop in his modest Nebraska home. But our Bill is using his money to help make the world better. We salute you, dude. source

• NBC execs pinned the blame for the contract dispute directly on Conan. So, let’s say you’re a late-night host treated like crap by your network. They damage your trust and you are basically forced to walk. But you want to make sure all of your employees get a severance package that doesn’t suck, because, hey, it’s the recession. Would you pose the situation like this?: “It was Conan’s decision to leave NBC that resulted in nearly 200 of his staffers being out of work.” We sure wouldn’t. In case you were wondering: NBC is run by greedy douchebags. source

• I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements in the package that people agree on.
• President Barack Obama • Regarding his signature health care bill, which got screwed up by Scott Brown winning the Senate race yesterday. It’s perhaps the largest failure of his presidency so far, but one with a silver lining. Now Obama has an opportunity to push for that bipartisan congress that never really happened. Or maybe the Republicans can just stonewall some more. It’s worth noting a couple of things: The fact that Obama plans to wait until Brown takes office to tackle health care is smart. And, as Andrew Sullivan notes (amazingly), he could totally use this as an opportunity to turn the tables during his State of the Union address next week. We want to see him do that. source

• Updated: Big money for Conan. Others, not so much. Conan’s reportedly close to a $40 million deal to get out of his contract, but he wants more than the $12 million in severance being offered for his employees (reportedly $600,000 more). Before you think that severance is a ton of money, we just did some math:

How many employees does he have?:

• 200the number of employees Conan has, roughly source

The way that splits up:

• $4.5
  million the amount that would go to executive producer Jeff Ross
• $7.5
  million the amount that would go to everybody else. Jesus.

How this breaks down for Conan’s people:

• split Based on the number given by MTV today, that’s exactly $37,500 a piece per employee. Not too huge at all, guys.
• seniority Our number doesn’t account for salaries of sidekicks like Andy Richter and Max Weinberg, nor seniority.
• taxes It’s also before the 40% or whatever they take out of severance before they give it to you. It’s kind of a raw deal. source

The silver lining:

• In the end, Conan was appreciative of the steps NBC made to take care of his staff and crew, and decided to supplement the severance they were getting out of his own pocket. Now he just wants to get back on the air as quickly as possible.
• Gavin Polone • Conan O’Brien’s manager, regarding the deal NBC reportedly struck with the comedian last night. Conan’s not only a rich man, but apparently he’s a prince, because he’s taking care of his workers when he doesn’t have to! Good show, old red-headed chap! source

• Brown offers nothing constructive, nothing coherent, nothing concrete, and no support for anything President Obama has done or plans to do. He’ll fit right in.
• Newsweek columnist Daniel Gross • Regarding Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown, who he feels has no firm fiscal policy, just like many other Republicans. Gross argues that it seems like the current agenda for many Republicans is something along the line of party pooper for any sort of economic recovery. He’s argued this before in Slate, referring to the party as the “Failure Caucus.” Ouch. He goes further: “In fact, it’s virtually impossible to find an elected Republican official who can speak intelligently and accurately about budget issues.” Painful. source

• Google’s updated their satellite images for Port-au-Prince, Haiti, post-earthquake, and some of the new views are devastating and terrible. The images are also being given to relief organizations, who may be able to use it to assist others. source

• It is clear that my nomination has become a lightning rod for those who have chosen to push a political agenda at the risk of the safety and security of the American people.
• Transportation Security Administration chief nominee Erroll Southers • Regarding his decision to drop out after a brutal, months-long stalling created by Sen. Jim DeMint. DeMint’s big problem with Southers? He didn’t like the fact that he might unionize the TSA. This nomination became contentious, by the way, after the attempted terror attack in Detroit last month. source

• $353 amount Verizon has spent in infrastructure per customer
• $308 amount AT&T has spent on infrastructure per customer
• $5B amount AT&T needs to spend, at least, just to catch up source

• The gray lady’s change from free to pay makes sense. Simply put, if there’s one newspaper in the U.S. that can blaze the trail for online pay walls and get it right, it’s the New York Times. Here’s why:

• one They’re big enough to take the kind of risks that smaller papers can’t.
• two They understand the Web better than most papers – there’s no tired cynicism here.
• three They get the sharing nature of the Web, and so does their planned model.
• four They’ve had a long history of online innovation already, such as Times Skimmer.
• five They have content that’s good enough that people will pay for it. Duh. source

• Basically, CBS has decided that it could cost too much to pay a lawyer to figure out if they can release these films – or even turn them over to Benny’s fans and family for release – and so it has decided to simply abandon them, sealing them back up in the vault forever.
• Boing Boing blogger Cory Doctorow • Regarding CBS’ decision to block the release of a set of old Jack Benny masters to the late comic’s fan club, for purposes of remastering. The network blocked the decision despite the footage being public domain, the fan club getting consent from Benny’s family, promising to pay for the remastering themselves, and being genuinely good-intentioned. These 25 episodes were thought lost forever. Now they’ll be locked away in some vault instead. Lame. source