CNN is reporting that employees and the political action committee of Goldman Sachs – the Wall Street powerhouse – gave the second highest amount of campaign contributions to Barack Obama.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/20/obama.goldman.donations/index.html
A handful of lucky Verizon customers are finding that the Droid Incredible they just ordered on Monday have started arriving. Such is the case with user SoSmarmy of AndroidForums. After mentioning in a thread that he received his phone a day after ordering it, a handful of envious members cried “Pics or it didn’t happen!” hoping to find out the truth. Well, you can guess what happened next…
Apparently this had something to do with some glitch in the Verizon ordering system and has since been addressed. If you already pre-ordered a Droid Incredible, chances are pretty good you will be waiting until the 29th. Oh the agony!
The Obama deficit commission has its first meeting next week. And when the panel finally releases its report after the election, I am sure it will contain an unsurprising mix of tax increases and spending cuts as a way of dealing with the deficit. But a new report from the wealth management group at UBS looking at public sector debt dismissed that policy prescription:
Although fiscal discipline is important, on its own it has rarely been enough to lower a country’s debt ratio. Fo example, since 1980 some 30 countries have undergone exercises in fiscal discipline and many of them have achieved significant reductions in their debt-to-GDP ratios.
However, the overall level of debt hardly ever diminished. At best, fiscal austerity helped to slow down the increase in debt, the actual reduction of the debt ratio was in practically all cases attributable to higher economic growth (often helped by falling interest rates and privatizations). Unfortunately, the growth outlook for the advanced economies is anything but encouraging over the medium to longer term, especially in comparison with the past two decades.
Now the UBS piece argues that the US will try to inflate its way out of its debt problems. Yet I think the report too easily dismisses the prospect for faster-than-expected economic growth. Remember that all those scary CBO deficit forecasts assume long-term growth of around 2 percent, less than two-thirds its historical average. That ability to generate high growth (or hinder it) is the lens though which every new government policy needs to be examined.
Windows XP users, be warned. If you are using McAfee Antivirus, then do not apply DAT update 5958. Apparently, this update causes McAfee to delete svchost.exe, which in turn sets off a chain of events that ends up messing up Windows XP installations. Affected systems will display the following error message and automatically initiate a system restart.
If you have already installed DAT update 5958, then it is best to perform a rollback (from Tools–>Rollback DAT). In the meantime, exercise caution if you get any alerts related to the detection of W32/Wecorl.a. In all likelihood, it is a false positive that can brick your system. If case your system has already been affected, you can stop the infinite restart loop by entering shutdown –a in the Run command box (Win+R).
Bungled McAfee updates are nothing new. However, this is obviously a big screw up. At the moment, McAfee is undoubtedly working behind the scenes to rush through a fix. However, even that may be too late, as possibly thousands of perplexed users worldwide have already been affected by this glitch.
image courtesey: ChevyGuys.com
In his blog on start-ups, VCs, angels, and university entrepreneurs, serial investor David Lerner warns investors about “hair on the deal” — namely, distasteful features that immediately signal the kiss of death for a company’s investment prospects. According to Lerner, investors should avoid companies and/or founders that exhibit the following 10 characteristics lest they find themselves with a hairball:
1. Legacy shareholders. It’s normal for a start-up to have legacy shareholders, provided they’re not a) disgruntled, because they’ll try to interfere with the deal; b) missing, because they may come back to haunt the company in the future; or c) overabundant, because “rounding them up will be like herding cats,” Lerner says.
2. Unrealistic (inflated) valuation. If an angel-backed company touts a $15M pre-money valuation but doesn’t yet have customers or revenue, “how receptive do you think they [will be] to a conversation in which you tell them their pre-money is $2M?” Lerner asks.
3. Irrelevant founders who think they’re still relevant. Sometimes a founding team needs to make way for the next phase, according to Lerner. If the founders can’t come to grips with this, the company will fall flat — a situation that is very common, he says.
4. Founders who suffer from delusions of grandeur. When a founder is singularly focused on his or her destiny as a magnificent and fabulously wealthy hero, unchecked egomania will color every important decision the start-up will have to make. This treacherous reef has sunk thousands of start-ups, Lerner maintains.
5. Unscrupulous broker-dealers. First-time entrepreneurs may be sucked into the shadowy world of the “broker-dealer,” the “investment banker,” or the “middle-man,” who then latches onto the start-up’s coattails by “helping” to raise capital for a fee, taking a percentage of the money raised and, perhaps, charging a retainer and warrants to boot. Lerner writes more on this problem in Eyes Wide Shut: Welcome to the Masked Ball.
6. Encumbrances (lawsuits, disputes, debts). If there are lawsuits afoot — such as disputes among the founders and previous investors — large debts, or any other type of serious encumbrance, “there is an overgrowth of thick hair on the deal through which no machete will be able to cut,” Lerner warns.
7. A@#holes. This type of person of course comes in all shapes and sizes. The appellation can, for example, refer to founders who want to use investors’ money to pay for a job for their spouse and, perhaps, a corporate apartment. The term also can refer to founders who, although successful in their business, treat their employees like dirt. In a nutshell, the term “refers to a mercenary, not a missionary,” Lerner writes.
8. Sloppy governance. Due diligence sometimes reveals poor recordkeeping, lack of accurate accounting, and incomplete documentation. These red flags often signal a deeper mess that may require an archaeological dig to clean up.
9. Lack of transparency. Obfuscation also can manifest itself in various kinds of questionable behavior. A founder may seem defensive. Stories may change over the course of several conversations. You can never quite get a handle on the financials, the technology, or some other vital aspect of the company. Lerner writes more on this problem in different types of white lies often told to investors.
10. Lack of respect. If a founder/CEO is critical of others, dismissive of the competition, and/or generally rude, he or she most likely will not succeed at the venture, and working together will be a miserable experience.
Source: David B. Lerner
Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) sent a letter asking Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano to stop the deportation of young immigrants who would be eligible for legal residence under the DREAM (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors) Act, a bill that would give a pathway to undocumented students to become permanent residents and possibly citizens and facilitate their access to college, provided they meet a list of criteria.
Here’s a portion of the letter, attached to a press release sent out by Durbin:
We respectfully request that you grant deferred action to individuals who would be eligible for cancellation of removal or a stay of removal under S. 729, the DREAM Act, bipartisan immigration reform legislation that we have introduced…
Though they are technically out of status, DREAM Act students should not be removed from the United States. The DREAM Act is narrowly tailored to assist only a select group of young people, many of whom came here with their parents at an age when they were too young to understand the consequences of their actions.
Deferred action for DREAM Act students would conserve limited enforcement resources. DREAM Act students are not, and should not be, an enforcement priority for DHS…
What Durbin and Lugar are pushing for is a bill they re-introduced in 2009; the House version of the bill is called the “American Dream Act.” Similar legislation to the DREAM Act was first introduced in Congress in 2001 under the name “Student Adjustment Act.” In 2007, the legislation failed along with comprehensive immigration reform. Some civil rights groups are already applauding the senators’ leadership on this bill.
Business Information Services (BIS) Division
Virginia Department of Business Assistance
Type of Internship:
Electronic Media Internship
Description of Organization:
The Virginia Department of Business Assistance, a state economic development agency, is charged with helping businesses proper. The Business Information Services Division helps entrepreneurs get started and existing businesses grow. This division interacts with over 30,000 businesses per year through the Business One Stop system and the Virginia Business Information Center and through seminars like Entrepreneur Express and Growing Your Sales. For more information go to www.vdba.virginia.gov
Intern Responsibilities:
• To develop an overall electronic/social media strategy for the Virginia Department of Business Assistance
• To determine the interaction between the agency’s website and the agency’s social media presence
• To refine the electronic/social media strategy for Business Information Services for the entrepreneur and existing business client segment
• To evaluate and make recommendations to improve current electronic interaction with BIS clients
• To evaluate the presentations used in our current programs and make recommendations for improvements
• To use the division’s flip camera to video certain events, edit the recordings and post on the agencies website and other social media channels
• To train BIS personnel on the necessary tasks to implement the strategy
Intern Qualifications:
• Junior or Senior level undergraduate
• Strong technical skills especially related to social media tools
• Ability to communicate clearly and concisely
• Willingness to experiment with new concepts and adjust quickly to changing market needs
• Ability to work in a fast moving business environment
• Ability operate independently with limited day to day managerial oversight
Other
• Offered Summer 2010
• Office located at 1220 Bank Street, 3rd floor, Richmond, Va
• 16 hours per week, flexible
• Unpaid
Who to Contact
Wayne Waldrop
Director, Business Information Services
1220 Bank Street
Richmond, Va. 23218
804-371-8228
[email protected]
How to Contact
Send cover letter and resume for consideration
In a recent series we noted a number of portable keyboards that work with the iPad; this list includes the Freedom Pro Keyboard, a full QWERTY keyboard that folds in two for easy transport. The folks behind the Freedom Pro got in touch with us to make sure we understood that the keyboard will work with many smartphones, in addition to the iPad and Windows UMPCs.
The Freedom Pro keyboard has both HID and SPP Profiles, which means it will work with Windows systems, BlackBerries and Android phones (Android drivers in progress). The integrated device stand is designed to fit smartphones, but will also handle small UMPCs, too. The smartphones that can be used with the Freedom Pro keyboard are many:
The Freedom Pro keyboard can run for 90 hours on two AAA batteries, and connects to the device over Bluetooth. It comes with a travel case for easy transport. This video shows the keyboard in action with a BlackBerry.
Related content on GigaOM Pro (subscription required):
Facebook, as expected, launched its master plan to make the rest of the web social at its f8 conference in San Francisco today. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and director of product Bret Taylor laid out three major initiatives to that effect.
The f8 launches expand on the concept of authenticating on sites using Facebook Connect — which reached 100 million users in its first 15 months — and sending back updates to the Facebook news feed. Most interestingly, Facebook will move from the idea of a transitory stream of actions to give outside sites persistent access to its users.
First, social plugins are little widgets that bring Facebook to the rest of the web. They offer “instant personalization,” said Taylor with the goal of increasing user engagement, using an iFrame and a cookie remembering the Facebook user. So when you visit a website, even if it’s new to you, you’ll which friends have also logged in there, what their activity is, and a set of recommendations based on their actions.
One action in particular will be closely tied back to Facebook: the like button. If you indicate you like an article, a band, a restaurant, really anything, a site using Facebook’s open graph protocol can create a persistent relationship with you around that content. Sites give Facebook semantic information around the thing you liked — for instance, the title, type, genre and city for a band you like on Pandora. Then that band goes straight to the favorite music section of your profile. Same thing happens if you like a movie on IMDB, another launch partner.
The objects that you like are first-order citizens on Facebook, said Taylor. So if another user hovers over that movie you liked, they see information brought from IMDB. A click goes back to the source. If a user searches for restaurants on Facebook, the top things that show up in Facebook’s own search could be restaurants your friends liked on Yelp. And the sites can communicate back directly to that specific subset of users who have liked something. So when Stanford football star Toby Gerhart gets drafted tomorrow, Bret Taylor could automatically see that information in his feed.
One application developed with this in mind is the new Docs.com from Microsoft, a web-based document editor available later today that will enable users to can see, edit and share with their Facebook friends. (This is an obvious team-up against Google Docs.)
Lastly, Facebook’s Graph API aims to make developing on its platform much simpler for the long haul. Every object on Facebook has now been given a easy to formulate unique ID. The API will allow sites to search user updates and get real-time updates every time a user adds a connection or posts on a wall. Developers, with permission, will be able to hold onto user data for more than 24 hours. And Facebook will be adopting the open authentication protocol OAuth.
Though these launches will clearly bring even more data under Facebook’s control, Zuckerberg said they signaled “for the first time a truly open graph.”
“The open graph puts people at the center of the web,” he said. “It means the web can become a series of personally and semantically meaningful connections.”
Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):
Why Google Should Fear the Social Web
Please see the disclosure about Facebook in my bio.
Digitize your Real Children’s Books
Have your entire collection with you at all times! Never lose or damage a book again!
How it works.
- Mail your children’s books
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There is NO CHARGE for this service!
Although ePub Bud can be used for any sort of book, we can only digitize children’s books.
Please realize that for copyright reasons we CANNOT return any books you send to us.
via ePub Bud – Publish and share your own digital books in the open ePUB format!.
I spent my morning attending the fifth birthday of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the management organization dedicated to marshaling the 16 intelligence agencies toward a coherent, unified goal. Surrounded by the heads of all those agencies, retired Adm. Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, gave an inspiring speech to his workforce about how the next five years of intelligence integration would be “driven by joint missions, powered — united — by technology, continually learning and improving.” There were cupcakes. And then we talked about killing American citizens.
Two weeks ago, anonymous administration officials had said an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, living in Yemen and producing scores of incitement-filled sermons about the alleged Islamic imperative to kill Americans, could be targeted for assassination. The legal basis for such a thing has not been disclosed. So in a brief press Q-and-A with Blair, I asked what legal authorization he had for targeting an American citizen like Awlaki. Blair replied broadly that his authorization came from the law and the Constitution, pledged the intelligence community would “follow all rules” given to it by the “executive branch [and] the congressional branch” and then ended the press conference. There were more cupcakes.
I filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the CIA and the Justice Department two weeks ago to find out the actual legal basis claimed by the Obama administration for targeting an American citizen for death without any provision of due process.
2Market Information’s Distance Learning Division has lined up an array of practical, how-to audioconferences and webinars over the next several months, focusing on many of key challenges in research commercialization. From working effectively with in-house counsel and transforming your operations to become more industry-friendly to faculty outreach/education and IP marketing, these sessions offer an outstanding way to access high-quality training without the cost of travel. All sessions offer unlimited attendance, and recording of the sessions are also available for ongoing staff and faculty education. Also just scheduled is a 6-session series, “Start-Up Boot Camp for University TTO Professionals and Inventors,” featuring an all-star faculty of start-up experts. Here’s the schedule — for details, click on any of the individual titles:
1400mAh. 2500mAh! 10 million mAh! Ah-ah-ah!
The vast majority of consumers don’t have a clue as to what those little numbers on their cell phones battery mean. Like with processor clock speeds and television refresh rates, we all tend to just assume that bigger numbers = better product. So when Joe Consumer sees some third-party manufacturer touting their batteries with ratings double that of what the official battery offers, it seems like a killer deal.
Alas, it appears that some of these third-party manufacturers might be pulling the oldest marketing trick in the world: flat-out lying.
Armed with a nothing but a fancy battery testing suite and a desire for honesty, a gent named Doug Simmons set out to put third-party battery ratings to the test. He asked his online cohorts to loan him their third-party wares, and the brawl began.
His findings? While OEM batteries are clocking in at right around the promised rating, third-party batteries.. aren’t.
Now, no one really expects the “official” batteries sold on eBay to be.. you know, official. And they most certainly aren’t. Pitched as being one-to-one matches with the real deal, some of these bootlegs are failing to perform even half as well as the original.
That part’s obvious. You get what you pay for. But it goes beyond eBay: even amongst the (fairly pricey) batteries of some of the more well-known third parties (like Seido, or Mugen), Doug is seeing discrepancies left and right. Take Seido’s 1600mAh replacement for the Nexus One, for example. The battery is pitched as being about 14% stronger than the Nexus One’s original 1400mAh battery (which, by the way, tested at a very acceptable 1357mAh) — but in Doug’s tests, this “bigger” battery is actually clocking in at a lower capacity (1317mAh) than the original.
Doug’s only tested around a dozen batteries so far, but the results are eye opening; while the OEM batteries are almost always reasonably accurate to their promised rating, the third-party batteries are consistently 20-30% weaker than advertised. Check out his results so far here — and if you’ve got a new-condition battery for him to take a crack at, be sure to get in touch.
ApaTech, a spinout from Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL) that was established in 2001 to manufacture and market synthetic bone substitutes, has been acquired by Deerfield, IL-based Baxter International, Inc., in an agreement valued at up to $330 million. ApaTech was launched at QMUL’s Interdisciplinary Research Centre in Biomedical Materials nine years ago with an initial investment of £3 million. QMUL’s equity interest in the spinout means the college is set to receive a significant sum from the sale. ApaTech generated sales of approximately $60 million during 2009. Its lead product, Actifuse, is being used in Europe, the United States, and other markets around the world. The acquisition follows a number of successful VC investment rounds that fueled significant expansion of the business, including new manufacturing capacity, and enabled the company to continue the development of its lead products.
“ApaTech is the perfect university spinout success story,” says Caroline Quest, managing director of Queen Mary Innovation (QMI), which serves as the TTO for QMUL and manages the equity interests in its spinout portfolio. “This sale demonstrates just how much can be achieved in a relatively short time frame when innovative scientists join together with top-class commercial leadership.”
In another win for QMUL, Activiomics, Ltd. — the first spinout created from the Institute of Cancer at Barts and The London Medical School — has signed a commercial agreement with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) through its Respiratory Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery (CEDD) in a collaborative effort to investigate inflammatory signaling mechanisms. Scientists from Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at QMUL developed a novel method based on mass spectrometry to analyze and interpret cell signaling pathways. The technology enables the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to identify biomarkers and better select new drugs for diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity, and diabetes.
The targeted in-depth quantification of cell signaling (TIQUAS) platform has several advantages over existing methods: it is quantitative, antibody-free, label-free, and applicable to any cell or tissue sample. These features offer significant value in reducing drug development cycle by aiding clinical trial candidate selection and biomarker discovery. Activiomics Ltd received early-stage financing from IP Group plc — the IP commercialization company that works closely with QMI to identify and develop new business opportunities from QMUL research. Sources: Queen Mary University of London and PRLog
The age-old conflict between East and West is endlessly debated by critics in terms of soundtracks, acting abilities and budgets. We thought we’d add to the intellectual debate by examining what really matters to film watchers. Yes, you guessed it…boobs. Read on to see some of film’s hottest beauties pitted against each other before our judges. But who will triumph? advice
The judges love the size and weight of both these contestant’s creamy jugs, so it’s going to come down to form. It’s very close, but unfortunately there has to be a winner and Carmen is awarded extra points for perfect shape and pertness. Hollywood wins it – by a nipple.
Megan Fox earns some quick early points by appearing in oh-so-cute pink lingerie, accompanied, by a teddy bear – but this contest is about boobs not bears. For sheer pertness Bipashu’s bazongas are almost unbeatable, so Bollywood collect the points.
The talent on display here is cracking – this is going to be a tough one to call. Both achieve excellence in size, weight and poise, but whereas Koina’s boast juicy pertness, the accompanying fishnet stockings on Jennifer have swayed us.
Gisele is clearly outdone in the size stakes, but her wonderfully bronzed globes are firm enough to open a beer on (which is definitely a good thing). Close, but Hollywood collect the points – although the judges have requested a thorough inspection afterward just to be on the safe side.
Clash of the Titans here – Tyra’s milk factories are conceived on an industrial scale, but are they too large? Don’t be stupid. On the other hand Rakhi is hardly lacking in the size stakes… In the end we’ll have to mark Tyra down for the suspicion of foul play (a boob job). Bollywood wins.
This is tough. We’ve seen exceptional talent in the size, shape and pertness stakes but both these contestants bring all three together into what must be two pairs of nearly perfect funbags. We’ll declare this one a tie.
If this were a melon smuggling contest, neither would do very well; as it is this is a boob perfection contest. Top marks to Malika for size and firmness; Jessica, I’m afraid your cleavage gap means we’re going to have to mark you down. Go Bollywood!
A pair of scorchers meet here in this clash of opposing styles: Brinda has gone for the sweetie-pie look, complete with ice-cream cone (which we hope she’ll be spilling all over…), whereas the sophisticated Heidi thinks it’s elegance men really want in her slinky black dress. Decisions, decisions… can’t we put the two together? We’re giving it to Heidi, although we would request that Brinda and her ice cream cone join us at the afterparty.
Just look at Celina’s magnificent mammaries! Just look, man! These are surely some of the advice most glorious knockers to come before our filthy mind. Lindsay, we love what you’re doing, but Pinky and Perky just aren’t up to scratch in this case.
So it comes down to the wire in the battle for which industry has the best boobs. Once again epic performances from both sides – great size, hang and tone. On the grounds of pure sultry, raw sex appeal, we’re going to give it to Scarlett and Hollywood. Well done both contestants.
MSNBC has posted a bunch of Earth Day cartoons by top cartoonists (here). Lots of focus on global warming. Here’s “The Quack and the Faker”:
That’s Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Here’s Olle Johansson, a Swedish freelancer:
And here’s Steve Greenberg of LA:
Mustang and Camaro fans are among the most fiercely loyal in the auto industry, as necessitated by the closeness of the rivalry between their chosen cars. Throughout a long history of excellence (and sometimes mediocrity—nothing was really great for a while there in the ’70s and ’80s), both have had their ups and downs. Yesterday we asked about the Camaro. Today’s question: What’s your favorite Mustang of all-time? Vote for one of the selections below or start a write-in campaign for your favorite in the comments. Voting ends Saturday.
Related posts:
The Mayo Clinic has signed an exclusive license and commercialization agreement with Gamma Medica-Ideas, Inc., (GMI) of Northridge, CA. The company, a developer of digital molecular imaging systems, plans to further develop and commercialize a suite of technologies invented by a team of Mayo physicians and scientists headed by Michael O’Connor, PhD, a nuclear physicist in the department of radiology. The license also includes methods and devices developed at Mayo for combining next generation x-ray tomosynthesis techniques with molecular imaging of the breast. In initial clinical studies, the Mayo algorithms licensed to GMI yield better images at lower dose. The company aims to utilize the licensed technology in conjunction with its Lumagem molecular breast imaging (MBI) system to improve the diagnosis of cancers in the estimated 30% of women who have dense breast tissue, which can impede the diagnosis of abnormalities using existing mammography and other screening techniques. Mammography works well in fatty breast tissue, but in dense breast tissue “mammography is like looking through a frosted-glass pane,” O’Connor says. Mayo research shows MBI to be three times more effective than mammography at finding tumors in dense breast tissue.
While mammography uses low-energy X-rays, MBI relies on high-energy gamma radiation and the behavior of cancer molecules. Although similar gamma-camera approaches have been pursued, Mayo’s breakthrough is lowering the radiation dose needed for MBI to detect small tumors. From a patient’s perspective, MBI is similar to a mammogram. The breast is compressed, although with two-thirds less pressure than a mammogram, and two images are taken of each breast. However, in MBI, a radioisotope (Tc-99m) is injected in the patient’s arm beforehand. Breast-tumor cells absorb this tracer like a sponge and appear as bright spots on MBI films. O’Connor’s innovation was to build a dual-headed system with cameras positioned on either side of the breast, so that each camera would need to image only half the breast. “We found we could increase our ability to detect tumors by about 10 or 15%,” he says. MBI also can improve treatment once women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Because MBI can detect changes in tumor size, “you could rapidly reassess your drug regimen,” says Deborah Rhodes, MD, a preventive medicine specialist at Mayo who helped develop the technology. MBI also addresses the issue of breast cancer recurrence. Among Mayo study participants who had breast cancer, MBI detected a second tumor in a patient’s breast in about 10% of cases.
Sources: Silicon Valley Nano News and Mayo Clinic
New technique shows hearbeat-like “drumming” in atoms in graphite and may one day let us see reactions in living cells
