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Google to open global technology think tank. Tentatively dubbed "Google Ideas," the search giant will run a new global think tank. It is scooping up State Department wunderkind Jared Cohen for the project, according to Fortune. The think tank will run out of New York, and Cohen is expected to join Google full-time this fall. Cohen joined former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's policy planning staff in 2006, rising to prominence by urging Twitter founder Jack Dorsey not to close the service for maintenance during the political upheaval in Iran last year. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is reportedly aware of his impending departure. http://bit.ly/9yND2Q

WikiLeaks founder hired as a newspaper columnist. Julian Assange has been hired by Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet as a columnist, enabling the whistleblower website to apply for full source protection under the country's constitutional law. According to an English transcript of an interview with Aftonbladet, Assange said he chose a Swedish paper because the country has supported WikiLeaks from the beginning. http://bit.ly/9sYJhx

As China surpasses Japan, R&D centers moving there. China surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest economy, according to reports released on Monday. "Global companies like Caterpillar, General Electric, General Motors and Siemens — as well as scores of others — are making a more aggressive push into China, in some cases moving research and development centers here," the New York Times reports. http://nyti.ms/dsosb

Border security bill could be tough for some IT companies, critics charge. The legislation, which President Obama signed on Friday, sharply increases visa fees for some companies in order to pay for tighter border security. The new expenses could be particularly tough on "foreign outsourcing firms with large U.S. operations," the Wall Street Journal reports. "For instance, Zoho, a company based in Pleasanton, Calif., has about 20 employees there — most of them American-born — and about 1,000 in India." The National Association of Software and Service Companies pushed back on Friday, arguing that Indian outsourcing firms have added to the American economy and have hired American workers. The chief sponsor of the measure, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), said on Thursday that it is "simply untrue" that the aim of the bill is to target Indian IT companies. http://bit.ly/di1dV4

Katie Jacobs Stanton starts at Twitter today. She is the new head of international strategy. Formerly the special adviser to the Office of Innovation at the State Department, Stanton says she is psyched to see how Twitter can make the world a better place and to stop wearing outfits that require pantyhose.

Time Warner Cable chief weighs in on Google-Verizon. "I really support having more people in the room and getting more of a consensus." — TWC chief executive Glenn Britt in a Q&A with the Wall Street Journal, in which he expresses hesitation about net-neutrality rules, a long-held stance of his company. No discussion of Google and Verizon's proposed exemption for wireless services. http://bit.ly/bJpMzE

MoveOn.org, other liberal activists protest Google in Mountain View; Google responds. Protesters to Google: "Google's evil deal with Verizon and AT&T is a cynical power-grab designed to enrich these corporations while killing the exact open Internet that allowed Google to flourish in the first place,” said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn.org. Google to protesters: "Thanks for your feedback on this important, complex issue today. We value your input." The protest drew around 100 people. It is prompted by a net-neutrality policy proposal that Google arranged with Verizon (and not AT&T, despite Ruben's charge). Detractors say it is too weak. 

45 percent — The amount of venture funding nationwide that went to Silicon Valley start-ups in Q2. That compares with 32 percent in Q1. "In recent years, the region has typically collected one-third to 40 percent of venture dollars," the San Jose Mercury News reports. http://bit.ly/aO6qFE

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Can't-miss news

Industry notes

Google preps for battle with Facebook. "Google is piecing together the makings of a social networking infrastructure – one explicitly designed to challenge Facebook, which has quickly emerged as one of the most potent forces on the web," the Financial Times reports. Analysts predicted a social-media push from Google in the coming months. Acquisitions are the tipoff, including a Friday purchase of Jambool, which runs money systems for social games. "Industry veterans say this strategy should give Google a fighting chance when it launches its new social push, which is likely to be called Google Me." http://bit.ly/duBsA6

Meanwhile, Facebook making acquisitions, too. Including Chai Labs, All Things Digital reported on Sunday. Chai Labs is "a startup that helps other companies build search-friendly websites focused on specific topics," Mashable says. "Other recent acquisitions included photo sharing service DivvyShot, local recommendation service NextStop and Sharegrove, a platform for sharing content and messages in real-time."

Executive notes

Satellite ISPs want a piece of broadband stimulus. Satellite-based Internet Service Providers WildBlue and HughesNet are planning to launch massive new satellites in coming years and think their industry deserves a larger slice of the $7.2 in Recovery Act funds aimed at expanding the availability of broadband Internet access, the New York Times reports. Just $100 million is aimed at satellite providers, often the only option for rural residents living outside the reach of fiber-optic cable lines. http://nyti.ms/90YgVb

State Department's pushback against BlackBerry struggles is 'ironic," AP reports.  The U.S. State Department has waded into the issue of international technology bans, "saying it hopes to broker a compromise that addresses the legitimate security concerns of some governments while ensuring that the free flow of information is not compromised," AP says. "That's somewhat ironic, considering the U.S. restricts exports of encryption technology. The restrictions are light, but were quite comprehensive before 1999." Encryption technology that allows the government to obscure phone data in a way that not even law enforcement can decode is one thing that makes the countries nervous about cell services. But the U.S. has struggled with encryption technology too. http://yhoo.it/aHaLVY

Most malware attacks on government after money. The vast majority of malware attacks on federal networks are motivated by theft — not espionage or terrorism, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security's United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) team, NextGov reports. Ninety percent of malware incidents from the first half of 2010 were designed to steal money from users through techniques such as key logging and phishing. The data shows how prevalent the threat of theft using malware is over the Internet, according to DHS. http://bit.ly/bMJ5oL

Court notes

Blog posts by Internet radio host result in conviction for threatening lives of three judges. After three trials, a jury convicted Internet radio host and blogger Hal Turner of threatening the lives of three U.S. appeals-court judges," Bloomberg reports. He had threatened them with violence after a ruling that eased restrictions on handguns and was found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York. Turner, 48, faces up to 10 years in jail. Here's what he had written, according to Bloomberg: "Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed,” Turner wrote of the appeals court panel in a Web posting. “Their blood will replenish the tree of liberty. A small price to pay to assure freedom for millions.” http://bit.ly/apsOcW

Research notes

Neuroscientists head into the wild to see if Google is making us stupid. The New York Times has a long report on a group of neuroscientists who headed into the wilderness to understand how heavy use of the Web and cell phones "changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects," the article says. No concrete conclusions, but "the scientists are prepared to recommend a little downtime as a path to uncluttered thinking." http://nyti.ms/bT85R6

SAID

"It feels like your entire life has been lost." 

—Glenn Derene describes the experience of losing a cell phone on NPR. He is senior technology editor at Popular Mechanics magazine. http://n.pr/bxt3Tq 

WATERCOOLER

REVENGE BY TWEET — Justin Bieber, a teen pop star, tweeted a phone number to his 4.5 million Twitter followers on Saturday night: "everyone call me 248-XXX-XXXX :) or text." Turns out it was the phone number of an "enemy," according to Gawker. The enemy posted a video on YouTube of his phone blowing up with calls and texts. http://bit.ly/bZkWEo