An urgent missive from a source near AOL confirms: AOL laid off a good chunk of the Netscape team. But, says the tipster, it's not all about rising exec Jason Calacanis:

Jason Calacanis responds to "some speculation" about him getting all up in Netscape's business. I have NO IDEA who speculated that. But the Man Who Would Be AOL CEO says "there are no details to share right now."

TechCrunch lays out an exclusive spread of leaked Google Calendar screenshots. And it looks like...a calendar. Surprise! Calendar apps are about as distinguishable as Nickelback songs.
TC also hears "serious acquisition rumors" about PubSub after the news subscription company replaces its CEO. Who's buying? Probably not Fox.
UK newspaper publisher Johnston Press can't beat its ad drought. Craig Newmark to be blamed by noon.
Microsoft starts testing its Google killer, the least likely David-and-Goliath story since the pro baseball strike.
Our big sister Lifehacker has news on Microsoft's Origami handheld and Google's "total storage" plan in a daily news roundup.
Still waiting for inside confirmation of Jason Calacanis' Netscape takeover. Anyone who leaves the AOL meeting without a job, we're here for ya.

Jason Calacanis, Weblogs Inc. warlord, is poised to take over Netscape.com (it still exists! crazy, I know) at AOL, according to a reliable source. It's crazy enough to be true — we'll see tomorrow morning.

In case you didn't catch it earlier (we didn't), Lot 49 built a thorough Google Evil Scale. Includes the wise corporate maxim, "Don't be an accessory to evil." [Google Corporate Information: Making Money]
A petition tells AOL to drop its new certified mail system (where users pay to get whitelisted and free e-mails end up getting spam-filtered away). Signers include the Democratic National Committee, Craig Newmark of Craigslist, the AFL-CIO, and others. Better plan: let AOL carry on, thus ensuring that the last poor fools using AOL mail will finally leave. [Dear AOL]
Blogger Michael Arrington, running from the hordes of TechCrunch party guests, may flee to London so his sixth party can actually fit inside the venue. [CrunchNotes]
A little groaning about Apple's less-than-fun Tuesday announcement. Bloggers can't decide whether to hate Apple for not changing the world again this month, or to hate each other for posting fake photos of an iPod Video. [Good Morning Silicon Valley]
Michael Arrington can't be as positive as he always sounds on TechCrunch, can he? Today's "Mike's true feelings" meter: How much distance is between him and the entrepreneurs he's always photographed with? For instance, Mike's keeping some distance from the Israeli businessmen pictured above (that's him on the far right). But that one overlapped arm is just enough to say "I won't run away. These guys have a chance." [TechCrunch]

While his blog was still an internal corporate one, AOL vice-chairman Ted Leonsis, challenges anyone to beat him in an AIM Fight. For the remedial class: AIM Fight measures how many online AIM users have you on their buddy lists right now (and their buddies, out to three degrees). An AIM Fight score shifts as people log on and off, but Ted Leonsis says he can beat almost anyone, especially during business hours. He whispered his screenname in my ear and I ran him up against a few other highly connected AIMsters. Here are their scores:

AOL vice chairman Ted Leonsis opens his blog to the public; linking to Jason Calacanis somehow fails to get above Blogebrity's C-list. [Ted's Take via Blogebrity]
How not to answer a job ad: "more details about you gets more details about me." [The Post Money Value]
Oracle fires 2,000 people after its Siebel buyout. Thankfully, they can all live comfortably in Larry Ellison's yacht. [Register]
Sketchiest Suicide Girls description ever: "It's a blogging site for people with awesome tattoos and piercings. You'd be perfect!" He forgot to mention, you know, the porn part. [Niall Kennedy]
Old and busted vs. new hotness [Yahoo on Flickr]:

• More cuts are coming at Time Inc., according to David Carr. [NYT]
• Time Warner picks Google search over Microsoft for AOL, and sells the the search company a 5 percent stake in AOL — which means Parsons ain't selling off the whole thing. [NYT]
• The Times gets it from two sides on wiretapping story: Some media folks don't like the paper held the story for so long, while Bush doesn't like that the paper pointed out he's spying on citizens. [USAT]
• Jon Friedman thinks the new Nightline sucks. [MW]
• Media Guy Simon Dumenco looks back at the 10 big media-news stories of 2005 — nearly all of them bad for the biz — and realizes where it'll all end: Google Hunting and Gathering. [Ad Age]

In 2000, AOL chief Steve Case conned an eager-to-be-conned Gerald Levin into selling Time Warner to AOL. TWX was trading at about $45 the day before the deal closed, in January 2001. Friday the stock closed at about $18. In the 33 months AOL Time Warner existed, $200 billion of shareholder value disappeared, although in that first post-merger year alone, Case cashed about $100 million in AOL Time Warner stock. Isn't it nice that he, too, now thinks the merger should be undone?

• Does Jann want to sell off Wenner Media? [WWD]
• And does Time Warner no longer want to sell off part of AOL? [NYT]
• Former Regan Media flack Paul Crichton could be considering suing his old boss Judith over her characterization of his departure. Oh, the fun never stops over there. [Radar]
• Washington Post Magazine Reader Peter Carlson discovers the charms of erstwhile New York Presser and onetime Spicoli gondolier Matt Taibbi. [WP]
• ABC went with Vargas and Woodruff only after the network couldn't reach a deal with Charlie Gibson. [NYT]
• And apparently there's this cool blog revolutionizing Hollywood coverage. [LA Mag]

• Never mind Judy Miller; everything about working at the Times sucks right now. [WP]
• Of course, the entire newspaper business sucks right now, at least judging from the new circ numbers. [E&P]
• In a bid to create the most conservative editorial page in the history of the planet, Rupert Murdoch wants to buy the Journal, although he knows it's not for sale. [WSJ]
• Microsoft leads the crowded pack of companies interested in buying AOL. [NYT]
• The problem, however, is that AOL sucks ass. [AdAge]
• Anderson Cooper is termed a "boyish metrosexual," in which five of the seven syllables are accurate. [Boston Globe]
• New MSNBC show will be like dinner at the Chung-Povitch's. Just what we've always wanted. [NYT]
• Libby trial might be toughest on reporters — Miller, Cooper, and Russert. [WSJ]
• Glamour editor discovers gender imbalance in top mags' bylines. Glamour, on the other hand, we're sure has a masthead that, to use Clinton's term, "looks like America." [NYT]

We're really proud of Weblogs Inc. co-founder Jason Calacanis. He stopped videocasting from his flights just long enough to sit down and sell his company (a blog network of 80 sites with advertising) to AOL for a reported $25 million. Not too shabby! And God bless him for it — after he held on to his Silicon Alley Reporter publishing venture a bit too long and consequently got bit in the ass when the 90's bubble burst, we'd genuinely shed tears if Calacanis made the same mistake again. But our faith in the dorkier side of mankind is thus restored as, for now, no one is that stupid (knock on wood). Lesson learned; sell yourself while you can!

• Time Warner sets aside $3 billion to settle lawsuits resulting from the Worst Merger in History. Sadly, it's not coming from Steve Case and Jerry Levin's personal bank accounts. [NYT]
• Newly arrived OK! doesn't look much different from the competition. [USAT]
• Judy Miller fits in fine in jail, warden says. And, if not, they have vays of making prisoners "fit in." [WP]
• Howard Stern to go uncensored on video-on-demand TV. [NYP]
• "All that press coverage of the blogs, and the audience is just minuscule," a Forrester Research veep says while releasing a new study. And how big's your audience, Forrester? [Boston Herald]

Simon Dumeneco analyzes the recent AOL ad campaign that featured Sharon Stone writhing on a bed post-orgasm, then slyly telling her loverthe AOL running man iconthat "that was the best experience [she] ever had." Dumeneco's take: "Here, in a nutshell, is the message of AOL's new $35 million ad campaign: SHARON STONE IS NOT GETTING LAID." He adds, "The dipshits at America Onlinehaving just now realized that everyone wants broadband (as opposed to AOL's standard pokey, dial-up service)think the cutting-edge way to market their own high-speed service is with this hot hot hot new phenomenon called 'cybersex.'"
Base Instincts [NY Mag]

Ted Turner on the AOL/TW merger: "I'd rather go back and be with one of my ex-wives than go through this again...If you ever have the chance to merge with AOL, stay away." Ted's Happiness-Is-a-Private-Plane philosophy: "To be happy in this world, first you need a cell phone and then you need an airplane. Then you're truly wireless."
Ted Turner prefers "ex-wives" to reliving the AOL merger [Internetnews.com]

Three years ago today, Henry Blodget and Jessica Reif Cohen gave the AOL/TW merger a big fat "buy" rating. "Wall Street responded favorably today. AOL jumped $7.13 to $56.06, and Time Warner rose $7.25 to $81.06."
Analysts bullish on AOL/TW merger [CNET via Anil]

AOL lost 170,000 users in the last quarter. Somewhere in Atlanta (or Florida), Ted Turner is smirking.
AOL reports first drop in subscribers [AP via Anil]

In the Gawker sequel to "Ted Turner runs like hell" (tentatively titled, "Sneaky, sneaky Ted"), Ted Turner considers buying all of AOL/TW. How's that for revenge?
Ted mulling AOL/TW bid [NY Daily News]

In case you missed the whole "$44.9 billion loss" part of the post on the new AOL/TW building, you should know that Ted Turner has also resigned as Vice-Chairman of the company. Seems like only yesterday Turner was waxing poetic about the merger and saying he hadn't had this much fun since he'd lost his virginity.
Ted Turner out at AOL/TW [CNET]

The Observer's Tom McGeveran looks at the monstrous building that AOL/TW will be moving into sometime this fallassuming they're still around, what with having lost a mere $44.9 billion this quarter. At $1.8 billion, it's the most expensive single-building construction project in the history of the U.S., and it's designed to be a sort of self-contained city. "It will be possible for the [condominium] owners feet to literally never touch the ground, if they re so inclined," says Dolly Lenz, senior vice president of Insignia Douglas Elliman.
The glass menagerie [Observer]