The Ticker

Dutch airliner partly fueled by cooking oil

A Dutch airliner is flying from New York to Amsterdam on a fuel mix that includes leftover oil from frying Louisiana's Cajun food.

The KLM flights from Kennedy Airport are powered by a combination of 25 percent recycled cooking oil and 75 percent jet fuel.

After the first such flight Friday, the concept will be tested on 24 round-trip trans-Atlantic trips every Thursday for the next six months.

TODAY

• Analogic Corp. and Urban Outfitters report quarterly financial results.

TOMORROW

• Costco Wholesale Corp. reports quarterly financial results.
• The U.S. Treasury releases the federal budget for February.
• Boston-based environmental and engineering firm Haley & Aldrich has hired Marc J. Richards, left, as a vice president and leader of the firm's Massachusetts Licensed State Professionals team.
• Abt Associates of Cambridge has named Scott Royal president and CEO of Abt SRBI, the survey research and data collection arm of the firm, effective April 1. Royal is currently Abt's division vice president for U.S. Health, a position he has held since 2008.
• Aushon Biosystems Inc. of Billerica has appointed Thomas Mac Mahon, former president and CEO of LapCorp, to its board of directors. Previously, he held the roles of senior vice president of Hoffmann-La Roche Inc., president of Roche Diagnostics Group, and chairman of PharMerica Corp.
• Wells Fargo Private Bank has hired John Rogers as a private banker. Rogers, who will be based in Boston, will provide banking relationship management for clients, including banking, credit and access to brokerage and investment management services.
• Micronotes of Cambridge has announced that Donald W. Layden Jr., operating partner at Baird Venture Partners, has joined the company's board of directors. Prior to joining Baird, Layden held executive positions with Metavante.
• Cambridge-based bike-sharing service Zagster has hired Dan Sewell as its director of operations. Sewell previously held the positions of member services manager and fleet manager at Zipcar, where he worked for seven years.

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Fine-tuning fine dining preferences

A Cambridge startup is making it easier for diners to choose from the 200-plus eateries participating in Boston's Winter Restaurant Week this month.

Nara Logics aims to become for restaurants what Pandora is for music.

After users of Nara's website or mobile application answer a few questions, an algorithm uses the information to create their "personal digital DNA" and match their tastes to restaurants. Nara developed a special filter for Restaurant Week to narrow the field.

"We're a personalized web engine," CEO Tom Copeman said. "We like to say we're 'Pandorifying' other key consumer lifestyle categories on the Web, and we're starting with restaurants."

Users can fine-tune their dining preferences by giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to restaurants.

Searching the Web is so 20 years ago, according to Copeman. Now it's about "finding and getting something recommended to you," he said. "We're sort of the Match.com between restaurant and consumers."

Nara's patented "Nara Neural Network" is powered by an artificial intelligence-like architecture that trolls sites and emulates users' thinking patterns.

In stealth mode for two years, Nara made its public debut last June and launched its products in November. The company generates revenue from users who book restaurant reservations on OpenTable, order takeout from GrubHub or book a ride from Uber through its site. The company also has fielded interest from companies interested in using Nara's technology to power their own sites, Copeman said.

Nara's restaurant recommendation engine is available in 50 North American cities, and the company plans to expand into areas such as shopping and hotels.

Nara has $7 million in funding to date, led by Boston investment advisory firm Account Management.

"I don't do many startups," Account Management founder Peter de Roetth said. "I invest in people, and it was the combination of (Copeman and CTO Nathan Wilson)."

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Phoenix's BizNasty scoring on Twitter

PHOENIX — EDITOR'S NOTE — Phoenix Coyotes enforcer Paul Bissonnette adopted Twitter reluctantly but has now become an unlikely star on the social media network. In keeping with Twitter style, this story about Bissonnette's online personality is broken up into lines of 140 characters or less. Sections written by sports writer John Marshall are preceded by his Twitter handle (jmarshallap). Quotes from other sources are preceded by the handle or name of the person being quoted and set off by quotation marks. Actual tweets are clearly noted when they appear in the story.

___

jmarshallap: Paul Bissonnette's fists helped get him to the NHL. His Twitter alter-ego, BizNasty2point0, gave him unheard of popularity for a 4th-liner.

DonMaloney (Phoenix Coyotes GM): "U.S. hockey fans might not know Paul Bissonnette, per se, but BizNasty's a name everyone's familiar with."

jmarshallap: Biz has the knuckle scabs and mangled nose of a brawler, but a cache of Twitter followers more suited for a star, 397K and counting.

That's more than Patrick Kane (255K), Henrik Lundqvist (231K), Steven Stamkos (226K). (hash)rare.

ShaneDoan (Coyotes captain): "It is unique. Look around the league and there's not that many people in his position who have that many followers. He's amazing that way."

jmarshallap: Tough and quirky, enforcers have always been fan favorites.

The Twitterverse sent Biz into another realm for a player who sat out half his team's games last season.

BizNasty2point0: "It just blew up."

Jmashallap: Now he's got a Taco Bell commercial, a clothing line with Sauce Hockey, a fervent following.

DonMaloney: "We had a youth team come down from Canada and 4-5 of the kids went to Shane, 1 to Mike Smith and the rest went to BizNasty's locker."

jmarshallap: Biz hated Twitter initially, put off by updates on tanning, shopping, relationships. (hash)vapid

BizNasty2point0: "I thought it was dumb; they have 20,000 tweets and 100 followers, and it's like what are doing with your life? Do something productive."

jmarshallap: Former teammate Scottie Upshall changed things. Told Biz to joke, comment on TV sporting events. (hash)perfectfit.

ScottieUpshall (Florida Panthers): "He's one of the funniest guys in the game. There's no filter."

jmarshallap: It occasionally leads to trouble. He had to shutter his original Twitter account, BizNasty.

Reason? A comment about Russian hockey player Ilya Kovalchuk with references to lap dances and communism.

BizNasty2point0: "It was probably being politically incorrect, but I wasn't trying to be hurtful. I just said back to the Soviet. A little offside."

jmarshallap: Biz rebooted his Twitter account. He's still pointed.

Some examples in these real BizNasty2point0 tweets:

___

Dwight howard is up for worst body language. (hash)Grammys

You have to live in a trailer park to call in to the Nancy Grace television show.

Leaving a voicemail over 1 minute should be punishible by death.

If Christmas has taught me one thing it's to never kidnap Liam Neeson's children.

MY ROOMMATES LISTENING TO RASCAL FLATTS. PLEASE SEND HELP.

___

jmarshallap: Biz still straddles the line. Occasionally trips over his fingers on the keyboard.

DonMaloney: "We've had to address it a number of times.

"There's a fine line between what's acceptable as a professional athlete and what's acceptable as a 14-year-old."

jmarshallap: To keep Biz from getting too nasty, the Coyotes have a staffer track his Twitter account.

Biz occasionally checks in to see if he's about to go too far. Most of it gets through. (hash)leeway.

BizNasty2point0: "They do let me get away with a lot and show my personality, and I do appreciate that. I'm not very filtered compared to some other guys."

jmarshallap: Self-deprecation augments the appeal. Starts with his Twitter bio:

BizNasty2point0: "Play in the NHL for the Phoenix Coyotes. Well sort of. Once played in the ECHL for the Wheeling Nailers, seriously, that was the name. Living the dream."

jmarshallap: His actual tweets and retweets continue the theme:

___

"NHL_problems: Tag the worst hockey player you know in this tweet." BizNasty2point0

If you drafted me in fantasy hockey I thank you and the people you are playing against thank you.

Should I mention 'being sued by NHL' on my McDonald's resume?

Instagram takes me from a 4 to a soft 7.

tsnjamesduthie: BizNasty2point0 btw, was at my daughter's swim meet on Sat. 4 freakin hours and she swam for 3 mins. Now I know how your parents feel.

___

jmarshallap: BizNasty2point0 is a 140-character extension of Bissonnette's personality.

CalClutterbuck (Minnesota Wild forward, workout partner): "That's what he's like. He's a pretty unique individual. Unpredictable, to say the least."

jmarshallap: Biz practically came into the world with a ready comeback, firing back at a family friend's verbal jabs at an early age.

BizDad (Cam Bissonnette): "He was a 4-5 year old chirping an adult on a same level. I found at that time, this kid's not going to take any flak from anybody."

jmarshallap: He certainly doesn't on Twitter, especially when followers knock his playing ability. (hash)touchanerve.

BizNasty2point0: "Buddy, you're playing junior hockey and you're insulting a guy who's made it to the highest level.

"What does that say about you?"

___

jmarshallap: Off ice, Biz is gregarious, just like his father — and so many other enforcers. Serves him well on Twitter.

ScottieUpshall: "He makes it seem like hockey players are just normal people like the rest of them. He's pretty good at it."

jmarshallap: Grammer, er, grammar he's not so good at, a byproduct of attending French school in Welland, Ontario until 7th grade.

BizNasty2point0: "I go to tweet something and have to ask guys, how do you spell this, and it's like five-letter words.

"They'll be like, (hash)%$! off Biz, so I'll Google them now, going back and forth with it on every word."

jmarshallap: The misspellings cause his mother to cringe almost as much as when he crosses the good-taste line.

BizMom (Yolande Bissonnette): "As a mother and someone who used to be a professor at a community college, his grammar could be better."

jmarshallap: In a way, the grammatical gaffes fit right in, an inadvertent form of self-deprecation making Biz even funnier.

Like the battered nose on his face, flaws are a part of the BizNasty brand, adding character to a player who made a name for himself in 140 characters or less.

(hash)end.

___

AP Sports Writer Dave Campbell in Minneapolis contributed to this story.

___

Follow John Marshall on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/jmarshallap

EDITOR'S NOTE _ Phoenix Coyotes enforcer Paul Bissonnette adoted Twitter reluctantly but has now become an unlikely star on the social media network. In keeping with Twitter style, this story about Bissonnette's online personality is broken up into lines of 140 characters or less. Sections written by sports writer John Marshall are preceded by his Twitter handle (jmarshallap). Quotes from other sources are preceded by the handle or name of the person being quoted and set off by quotation marks. Actual tweets are clearly noted when they appear in the story.

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Producers fish for 
ideas at trade shows

Boston is a food mecca this week.

Exhibiting companies from 46 countries have descended on the Hub for the three-day International Boston Seafood Show/Seafood Processing America that starts today.

More than 19,000 attendees are expected to pack the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for the event, which coincides with the New England Food Show.

The trade-only seafood show is the largest in its 32-year history in terms of exhibition space, with more than 1,850 booths and 1,000-plus exhibiting companies. A record 19,905 buyers, suppliers and other industry professionals attended last year's show, and registrations are tracking very well this year, according to show director Liz Plizga of Diversified Business Communications, the Portland, Maine, company that produces the exposition.

"Our trade show mirrors the industry … so it's a good indication for the economy and industry here in the North American market," Plizga said.

The event's keynote speaker tomorrow comes with controversy attached to his name. Soren Kaplan is the author of "Leapfrogging: Harness the Power of Surprise for Business Breakthroughs" and founder of InnovationPoint, a San Francisco-area management consulting firm.

The Wall Street Journal last month chronicled how Kaplan bought his way onto its best-sellers list for business books last August when "Leapfrogging" debuted. Kaplan paid a marketing firm to buy 2,500 of copies of the book in advance of its publication, the Journal reported. Sales of the book plummeted 99 percent the next week, and the book dropped off the list, but Kaplan conceded the best-seller status helped him land speaking and consulting gigs.

Seafood show organizers were unaware of the controversy, Plizga said, and chose Kaplan because he'll talk about breakthrough innovation, a topic that resonates with any industry.

"We booked him a while back," she said. "He's participated with other groups within our company, and we've seen his work before."

TV personality Regis Philbin is the keynote speaker for the New England Food Show, a trade event for the food and beverage industry which last year drew 18,000 people, 7,000 of them crossovers from the seafood show.

Joe Piantedosi, of Malden's Piantedosi Baking Co., will join Philbin to discuss the parallel between Philbin's work entertaining audiences and Piantedosi's work pleasing customers in the hospitality industry.

"Philbin was out in the front in having cooking segments on his show, and he always talked about the restaurant industry," said Peter Christie, CEO of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, the show's sponsor. "He loves dining out."

With close to 500 booths and more than 300 exhibiting companies, New England Food Show attendees range from buyers for large hotels to small mom-and-pop restaurateurs.

"The reason they come is they're always looking for new ideas," Christie said. "They're looking for better ways to cut costs or come up with a new product to help their business and attract customers."

Boston chefs Jamie Bissonnette, Joanne Chang, Brian Poe and Jason Santos also will participate in a panel about social media,"Social Chefs: How to Use Your Followers to Build a Following."

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Co. offers cash rewards 
for comparison shopping

Co. offers cash rewards 
for comparison shopping

There was a time when small businesses took out ads in the Yellow Pages to get noticed. Today, they find themselves competing with national companies for attention online. But a new website founded by two Bay State entrepreneurs offers an alternative.

Inforpaid is a comparison-shopping site that allows small businesses to pay serious customers just for checking them out. Businesses offer cash rewards to shoppers and, if a purchase is made, the customer collects the money from all the firms considered.

"As a small business, it's very hard to compete with national players," said
 Renan Levy, who launched the website this month with co-founder Meny Elany. "(Small businesses) spend money on things that don't work, and they get frustrated. With Inforpaid, we redirect some of the money they would have spent on marketing to customers."

Inforpaid contracts with nearly 120 Greater Boston businesses in four categories — insurers, accountants, mortgage companies and financial advisers — but plans to add more categories, such as moving companies and car dealerships, in the coming months.

People can choose to be contacted by up to three businesses per category. Each business decides the amount of the cash reward to offer. (Currently, rewards range from $10.50 to $35.)

If a person closes a transaction and the business confirms the sale, Inforpaid sends a check to the person for the reward amounts from each business compared. The website also collects a separate fee.

"If it gets the phone to ring a few more times, I feel I have a really good chance of winning that business," said Rick Scherer, vice president of sales at MSA Mortgage in Winthrop.

Like Scherer, Frank Keaney Jr., a manager at Amity Insurance in Quincy, said most of his leads have traditionally come from referrals. To drum up more business, Amity tried to increase the visibility of its website and the company's presence on social media.

"We were getting some leads, but not as much as we would have liked," Keaney said. "Inforpaid seemed to be a great idea to drive business. I think it's going to be a win-win for everyone — for us, for Inforpaid and for clients."

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Catholic faithful get wired for papal selection

The vote to select a new pope may remain shrouded in secrecy — the Vatican even installed special jamming equipment to block cellphone use inside the Sistine Chapel — but for the Catholic faithful who want to follow the papal election in real time, there's more than one app for that.

Since Pope Benedict XVI announced he was resigning last month, apps such as Conclave, iConclave, Popechart and Conclave Alert have sprung up, allowing mobile and tablet users to view photographs and biographies of all the eligible pope candidates, watch live webcams in St. Peter's Square for signals of white smoke for a new pope, follow the papal chatter on Twitter and vote on their pick for a new church leader.

"The interesting dynamic this time around is the conclave has become a much more communal event," said Brandon Vogt, a Catholic blogger based in Orlando. "Tools like this will allow people to watch in real time. Now you're going to have millions of people who will know right when it happens. As soon as the pope is announced, we're going to have access to an incredible amount of material. I'll be able to talk immediately on Twitter and Facebook with hundreds of my friends. In 2005, those sort of reactions took days and weeks to roll out."

Vogt told the Herald he plans to watch webcam feeds from the Vatican and has signed up with Pope Alarm, a text and email alert, which advertises that "When the smoke goes up, you'll know what's going down."

Vogt, one of the bloggers invited to the Vatican in 2011 to consult with church leaders on how to use new technology, said the church has embraced social media and even released its own Pope App in January complete with speeches and the pope's event schedule.

In recent years other Catholic leaders have been following the lead of technology trailblazers such as Boston's Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley, the first cardinal with a personal blog and the author of the foreword for Vogt's book, "The Church and New Media: Blogging Converts, Online Activists, and Bishops Who Tweet."

"This is really the first crop of cardinals that are Internet savvy with 10 cardinals that have personal Twitter accounts," said Vogt. "I think we're seeing a new movement with the cardinals and the pope and his successor leading the way."

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BRA approves pay boosts

The Boston Redevelopment Authority has beefed up its staffers' salaries for the first time in five years.

The agency, whose budget is separate from the city's, recently awarded 3 percent raises to all except the top employees.

"This was the right time financially to give a cost of living increase," said BRA spokeswoman Susan Elsbree.

BRA employees have had no salary increases — only pay cuts and reinstatements — since 2008.

In June 2009, amid the Great Recession, the BRA slashed the salaries of all but the lowest-paid workers and cut 24 jobs to help address a $4 million budget shortfall.

Those wages were restored in late 2011 as the economy improved and lease revenue from BRA-owned property increased.

The BRA payroll has shrunk from 268 workers in fiscal 2009 to 207 today. The agency has also cut back on travel.

"We're just better positioned now," Elsbree said. "There was a lot of cost-cutting and belt-tightening, and now we're on better financial footing."

The 3 percent raises increased the number of BRA employees who earn six figures, according to publicly available payroll data requested by the Herald. There are 34 staffers above the $100,000 salary level, eight more than last year.

The most senior staff — nine employees including BRA director Peter Meade — did not receive pay hikes. Meade has the highest salary at $164,640, followed by chief planner Kairos Shen at $160,680.

BRA positions range from administrative assistants and project managers, to architects, planners, engineers and researchers.

Meade recently restructured the BRA's economic development department after the departure of a key director.

He created a division of business development led by Randi Lathrop, known for her work in Downtown Crossing.

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The Ticker

Downtown Crossing pushcart vendors out

The Downtown Boston Business Improvement District is pulling the plug on pushcart vendors, right, at the end of the month.

The elimination of the vendors, who have been selling food and merchandise ranging from burritos to T-shirts and umbrellas since the late 1970s, comes as the property owner-supported BID prepares to develop a new street merchandising program for 2014.

The move has angered some vendors who fear being stripped of their livelihoods. They operate under a year-to-year agreement that expires at the end of March.

The BID hopes to implement a smaller, transition pushcart program beginning this spring that includes fewer carts as construction in the district stands to eliminate currently available locations. Current vendors will be required to reapply for available spaces.

Google axing 1,200 more Motorola jobs

Google is cutting an additional 1,200 employees in its Motorola Mobility hardware unit, as the unprofitable cellphone maker struggles to compete. Last summer, Google announced 4,000 Motorola job cuts. The layoffs will affect workers in the United States, China and India and account for about 10 percent of the company's headcount.

Boeing moves flight training to Miami

Boeing Co. said it is consolidating its North American flight and maintenance training operations in Miami, a shift that will move all flight simulators for the 787 Dreamliner and other aircraft out of the Seattle area.

Miami is the company's largest flight-training center and is preferred by airlines based in Latin America, as well as the United States, Middle East and Europe, Boeing said.

THE SHUFFLE

• The Training Associates has appointed Bill Bowman, left, as a senior consultant to work with senior management to secure private equity for company growth. Bowman previously served as CEO of U.S. Inspect and president of ChildrenFirst Inc., and was co-founder of Logal Software and Spinnaker Software Corp.
• Seven Step Recruiting has hired Doug Lubin as director of business development. He previously served as director of recruitment process outsourcing solutions at Yoh RPO.

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Ford C-Max outperforms Prius

Ford has been in the green marketplace for quite a while, but the C-Max CUV represents a giant leap forward in its effort to topple the vaunted Toyota Prius.

The C-Max replaces the discontinued Escape Hybrid and offers an entirely new vehicle.

Based on the Focus frame and powered by the familiar 2.0-liter Atkinson gas-electric motor, Ford claims you can run the C-Max on electric power up to 62 mph. The continuously variable transmission is one of the better ones I've used, shifting smoothly and effortlessly. The modestly priced entry has 56 cubic feet of storage with the split rear seats folded down and can comfortably seat five.

Squint a little and the SUV resembles the Prius, but it ends there. At 188 combined horsepower, it's much more powerful than the Japanese standard and faster to 60 mph. All this and the estimated fuel economy is just shy of the Prius.

But let's talk about Ford's advertised claim of 47 mpg. Despite my best efforts, I only cracked 40 mpg on a 30-mile highway run and barely managed 36 mpg on average for the week.

Scouting around the Web, I've found there's some fuzzy math permitted by the EPA to attain these figures and it's being questioned legally. Listen, 36 mpg 
isn't shoddy, particularly 
at nearly $4 a gallon for gas.

The C-Max is a solid performer on dry roads and in the rain, but is horrendous in the snow. I tooled around in a recent moderate snowfall and the C-Max struggled mightily. The front-wheel-drive-only option strained to pull the 3,600 lb. car up a snowy incline and, despite the traction control, the tires slipped continually. It did not inspire much confidence in New England wintry conditions.

Fortunately, most of the year we have better road conditions and it handled smartly, rode quietly and soaked up the road bumps. The regenerative brakes had an abrupt bite to them, but managed the car effectively.

The styling is typical of many cars in the CUV class. In this case, a familiar aerodynamic bullet-shaped body is accented with a low-slung hourglass grill, swept-back windscreen and some accented body creases ending with a squared-off hands-free lift-gate. Oversized wrap-around front and rear lights tie the package together.

You settle easily into the well-appointed and fitted interior and are met with a modern array of instrumentation. The upgraded MyFord infotainment center is easily run from the leather-wrapped steering wheel controls, but still needs more engineering to make it user-friendly. The dash features a variety of data, much of it related to the hybrid engine and batteries. One gripe is that the thick front roof pillar creates a bit of a blind spot that a small vent window tries to alleviate.

I'd take this car over the popular Toyota even though it gives up a couple of miles per gallon. It's more powerful and better looking with an upmarket interior that boosts this domestic entry.

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Mass., R.I. take income tax bites

Mass., R.I. take income tax bites

Tax season is upon us and the Herald's TaxSmart experts are here to help. Today, Art Ford of Sullivan Bille Group of Tewksbury discusses issues involving multi-state returns.

I work in Rhode Island, but live in Massachusetts. My employer took state taxes in both states. I was informed that I would be able to get the Rhode Island taxes refunded as I am a Massachusetts resident. However, when I did my taxes ... I ended up owing Massachusetts more taxes and receiving a third of my Rhode Island taxes back. Is this correct? Just seems wrong that I pay resident taxes in both states, but live in one.

— Mary Richardson

This is an example of a multi-state return.

As the reader suggests, these can be a pain, as the rules in each state are different and, in this case, both states have an income tax.

Your Rhode Island income must be included on your Massachusetts return, but Massachusetts allows a tax credit for taxes paid to Rhode Island.

The Massachusetts income tax rate is currently 5.25 percent.

Rhode Island has different deductions and exemptions than Massachusetts and it has three graduated tax rates.

Rhode Island has a rate of 3.75 percent on taxable income up to $57,150; 4.75 percent above that up to $129,900; and then 5.99 percent above $129,900.

So, if you are in the 3.75 percent Rhode Island bracket, there will be an additional tax to Massachusetts of 
1.5 percent.

Email your TaxSmart questions to bizsmart@bostonherald.com

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