The never-ending Microsoft search saga

Why won’t someone please knife this baby:

Details are starting to trickle out about how Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) plans to position a revamp of its search engine against competitors. AdAge—which previously reported that Microsoft was planning a major ad campaign to promote a relaunch of Live Search this spring—now says that Microsoft will spend between $80 and $100 million on advertising, almost double the amount typically spent on the launch of a consumer product.

Because its marketing that cause previous efforts to fail. Google envy is going to destroy them.

Bing? WTF?

Meanwhile, at least someone is getting rich from Microsoft’ search efforts:

Tullock runs a chain of seven music schools in the Seattle area, and parks Google (NSDQ: GOOG) ads on LiveSearch.com. “It makes me plenty of money sending all that Microsoft business to Google,” he says. Tullock won’t disclose how much the site brings in.

Fossilized termite found with microbe in its guts

Fascinating:

One hundred million years ago a termite was wounded and its abdomen split open. The resin of a pine tree slowly enveloped its body and the contents of its gut.

In what is now the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, the resin fossilized and was buried until it was chipped out of an amber mine. The resin had seeped into the termite’s wound and preserved even the microscopic organisms in its gut. These microbes are the forebears of the microbes that live in the guts of today’s termites and help them digest wood.

The fossil is the earliest example of a relationship between an animal and the microbes in its gut, a new study shows.

Don’t let John Hammond near the amber.

Gates has it backward about tech and the recession

Technology is a contributing factor in the wall street meltdown:

Technology can pull the United States out of recession and help the world’s ailing financial markets work better, Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates told a high-level business summit at the company he co-founded.

Technology can’t do shit to solve the recession – not increase employment, stabilize financial systems etc. All increased technology spending can do is pull Microsoft from a slowdown.

Stuff like this is what makes Microsoft lose its remaining credibility.