Quietly, the European Union is moving toward broad privacy tightening of privacy on Internet applications, specifically in relation to advertising.

The European "Data Protection Working Party" is developing rules for online privacy, and one of the more commonly discussed elements of the new rules is the "cookie directive," which would require all opt-in by consumers to accept a cookie.

This, of course, is a big change in the way online advertisers currently track your activity. They don't need opt-in to insert a cookie in your browser.

While the rest of the world sips coffee, mows the lawn, takes the kids to soccer practice, or whatever else it is that you do on Saturday, the world banking system is frantically meeting behind closed doors to save the global financial system. This is it. This is the mother of all crises. They really need to announce a Hank Paulson bazooka. After reading and analyzing reports from the top sources in the markets, it's clear to me that panic is going on behind the scenes and European banks are planning to launch several efforts to staunch the bleeding on Monday, including opening up currency swap lines with the Federal Reserve as well as creating some sort of "rescue fund."

Good morning on this winter day. I realize it's been a particularly brutal winter in many parts of the United States and Europe, but just be thankful you don't live in Siberia (not sure if we have any Siberian readers yet).The town of Hoseda-Hard, Russia hit the second-coldets temperature on recored in Europe last week, at -70 degrees F (-56 C). To warm things up, lets take a look at some news:

• Stocks open down on falling consumer confidence numbers (Bloomberg)
• The Apple "Sexy Ban" is still percolating in the newsprint.
• Apparently Apple's ban includes apps developed by swimwear companies. The great 2010 Bikini Ban is on!
• The swimwear is gone, but not all the adult apps! (PCWorld)
• There are 50 million Tweets going off per day, says Twitter.
• Home prices slipped in December, but the annual rate of decline has slowed (Reuters). Always when reassuring when the economic "good news" is that things aren't getting worse as fast as they were.
• Gartner says the handset market will rebound in 2010 (Reuters). In other news, Gartner's magic quadrant will be moved slightly up and to the right.
• Ah yes, nice to have a job on Wall Street, isn't it? Bonuses moved back up 17% in 2009 (Wall Street Journal).
• A Microsoft executive has compared living without Google to quitting smoking. This writer decided to give it a shot. Yes, and a life without windows might be akin to giving up the sauce (CNET).
• European banks face one Trillion Euro in debt rollovers (Telegraph).
• French air-traffic controllers have gone on strike (EuroNews).
• Oil can't quite hold $80 (Wall Street Journal).
• Star Trek fans set nerd world record (joystiq). That's 99 Star Trek costumes. C'mon now, we can do better than that! 99?
• Cool picture of Endeavour landing.

The markets are entering a "digestive" phase today with what looks like a pullback, possibly driven by -- what else -- China? The Chinese government raised capital requirements in a move to slow the credit expansion and economy. You have to wonder if the the Chinese ministers were reading the Economist, as I was last night, which is warning of the potential for growing asset bubbles in emerging markets and especially China. Well, what do you want, you can't have it both ways. Economic depression or bubbles -- take you pick. Personally I prefer bubbles, but that's just me. Let's run through the other news, because as always there is lots happening across the globe:

• Some jobs won't return, says the Wall Street Journal. Well, duh. I know mine's not coming back. Shouldn't have put that Whoopee Cushion on the boss's chair.
• Alcoa disappoints, driving down shares in Europe (New York Times). I can assure you that's not the first time that's happened.
• Paul Krugman: Learning From Europe (New York Times). I thought the Krugster was going to give is tips on how to make Espresso. Alas, no. He's trying to convince us that they like to work in France.
• Speaking of France. I thought I'd catch up on what Le Monde has to say. Holy cow, Sarah Palin makes the front page!
• Don't you hate it when you are awash with data from drones? (New York Times)
• Some reactions to the Mark McGwire steroid admission (L.A. Times).
• Next time, I have to remember to hire a mermaid for my party (L.A. Times).
• The Nexus One honeymoon is over (PC World)
• Google's Nexus One termination fee is $350 (Engadget)
• Best and Worst of CES (Scobleizer).
• Shanda Games acquires Mochi Media for $80M (TechCrunch)
• New sex hormone found -- could lead to male birth control (National Geographic). I can't think of a more dangerous idea.
• The birth of a massive star (MITnews).