Toyota tops Interbrand's 2012 Best Global Green Brands report.

News Corp. considers splitting company in two, spinning off publishing assets, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft acquires Yammer for $1.2 billion to take on Oracle and Salesforce with new cloud-based services.

Nissan rises on fast recovery from disasters and plans $1B China auto plant as CEO Ghosn remains Japan's highest paid exec and automaker turns to Facebook to launch five new models.

Facebook names first woman to board — COO Sheryl Sandberg — and pulls so-called stalker app while creating uproar by changing all users' email addresses to facebook.com.

Google I/O news on Wednesday expected to reveal Google and Sony taking on cable and satellite operators with voice-controlled YouTube TV box, as Google prepares to battle Apple with discount tablet.Continue reading...

The tobacco industry has been looking for some kind of silver lining somewhere for the past few years as cities and countries across the globe have continued to attempt to make it more difficult and more expensive for the world population to sit back and light a few up. From banning smoking in restaurants to replacing brand names on packaging with horrendous images of what could happen to you if you (gasp) inhale, governments of all shapes and sizes have used many strategies to make life more difficult for Big Tobacco.

Now the tobacco industry finally has something it can feel good about. Its product actually has something positive to share. New research from the University of Louisville has it that tobacco “may hold the key to preventing Parkinson’s disease,” according to the Indianapolis Star.

The key component, the paper reports, is something called tobacco mosaic virus, or TMV, which attacks the plants and “may be protective against Parkinson’s,” said Dr. Robert Friedland, a clinical and research neurologist at U of L, the Star reports. The hope is that this discovery will lead to a vaccine against Parkinson’s.

The study was initiated after a number of studies showed that smokers have a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s. Indeed, Friedland warned that people shouldn’t use this new research as an excuse to smoke, since tobacco use has been tied to heart disease and lung cancer, which are much bigger killers annually than Parkinson’s.

The Michael J. Fox Foundation, the largest private funder of Parkinson's Disease research in the world, also cautioned consumers not to raise their hopes about tobacco as a treatment.Continue reading...

Yahoo CEO and five board members step down as Ross Levinsohn named interim CEO and Scott Thompson discloses he has cancer.

Apple drops "4G" from UK iPad ads and reportedly bringing retina display to MacBook Pro while Foxconn prepares for Apple TV production.

Facebook co-founder renounces U.S. citizenship to avoid $600M in taxes as almost-over IPO roadshow focuses on mobile and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak wants in. (Also, wish Mark Zuckerberg a happy 28th birthday today.)

ABC bids adieu to Desperate Housewives.

Ally mortgage unit files for bankruptcy.

Avon weighs sweetened offer from Coty. (Update: Coty withdrew its offer late Monday.)Continue reading...

The Michael J. Fox Foundation made headlines last fall with a limited-edition collection of Nike shoes inspired by the actor's Back to the Future character. The high-profile auction raised $9.4 million for the foundation, the largest private funder of Parkinson's Disease research in the world.

Fox's foundation is now heading into its own future with a new look and feel, one prompted by its humble founder, who wants to take the focus off himself and shine a spotlight onto the community of people helping find a cure for P.D.

Founded in 2000, the Foundation has just unveiled the first logo refresh in its history. "While our mission remains exclusively to speed research progress, we are increasingly a portal to engagement for the PD community at large — not just researchers but patients, their loved ones, physicians and members of the general publich who are inspired to give back," writes Holly Barkhymer, the organization's VP of marketing and communications, in a blog post.

The logo refresh features an updated font, simplified color scheme and a few tweaks to its iconic fox, who now features a dashing tipped tail and has added an ear. "We adore our fox, and it was very clear to us that the fox would remain," Barkyhmer told brandchannel. "One of the goals of the refresh was to make sure that people saw that the fox is a fox with a second ear and more defined tail. He's still fleet, intuitive, cunning, resourceful and smart."Continue reading...

Let’s get visual! Posters are always a popular medium of visually conveying messages, whether it is an advertisement or just a statement. Case in point: the eyecatching Back for the Future campaign poster by La Boca, above, promoting the Nike MAG (aka the "Marty McFly sneaker") release and eBay auction to benefit the Michael J. Fox Foundation.Continue reading...