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“What image would you like on the cake, sir?” “I’ll shoot you the URL.” And with these simple, misunderstood words, an epic cake wreck was born. So what was supposed to be on the cake? This: More »

Content: The Passing
Price: 560 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Dash Text: Left 4 Dead 2’s “The Passing” brings the original Left 4 Dead Survivors down south for a meeting with the L4D2 cast, while delivering new single-player, multiplayer and co-operative gameplay. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

Purchase The Passing and add it to your Xbox 360 download queue

Remember: You’ll need a full version of Left 4 Dead 2 to access this content.

Research In Motion Ltd. is expected to unveil its most recent hardware and software offerings at its annual Wireless Enterprise Symposium (WES) and Capital Markets Day in Orlando, Florida next week. This should include its new operating system (OS), browser and new devices.

The market is also looking for more clarity on the BlackBerry-maker’s 2010 growth plans, specifically what it has in store for the consumer segment. While RIM has generally been successful in its push into this part of the market, the OS and User Interface have long been the BlackBerry’s Achilles heel, says Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek. Many users feel the device is lacking in terms of navigation, look and feel.

However, the recently leaked BlackBerry OS 6.0 looks to offset the vast majority of these shortcomings and keeps the OS competitive with Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android, Mr. Misek said in a research note.

He expects the new browser, which was revealed in February, will offer tab switching, new favourites, and both pinch-to-zoom and sub three-second download speed for the most media intensive websites.

The analyst also anticipates “tap-and-hold” technology will be included, which will enable quicker access to context menus, an improved customizable homescreen, a redesigned message inbox with Facebook, Twitter and RSS integration, and a redone media player.

In terms of timing, Mr. Misek said the new OS should be available this summer on major U.S. networks.

Jonathan Ratner

Striking a decisive blitzkrieg to an internet meme that had gotten old fast, Constantin Film has asked video hosting sites to take down all the re-subtitled Hitler videos of the war room rant scene from Downfall, TechCrunch reports.

Although I’m glad to see copyright law win out over humanity’s innate sense to overkill a good joke, it’s a shame we can’t get one last Hitler video complaining about Constantin’s move.

Hitler Is Very Upset That Constantin Film Is Taking Down Hitler Parodies [TechCrunch]

This offering from Dell is a bit toned down from the recent leaks but is still a great device. The Dell Aero will be released for AT&T sometime in the second quarter. It has a 624 MHZ processor and a few other tricks up its sleeve.

Like the Moto Cliq and a few Sense devices, the Aero will come equipped with QuickOffice. And for you business people, it also has Microsoft ActiveSync and Exchange support. The browser has Flash lite support and there is a very good music player that will have some sort of music streaming and download ability that is protected by Windows Media DRM. It does have two things going wrong for it though, it has Android 1.5 and its going to be on AT&T. 2.1 is expected to be pushed to the device sometime later in the year.

[via engadget]

Our beloved Dorothy Zbornak — a devoted animal rights activist — is making a posthumous appearance in the latest ad from the fur-hating zealots at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

PETA is bringng actress Bea Arthur back to life almost a year to the day of her death in a new campaign promo sticking it to McDonald’s.

A photograph of Bea appears next to this headline: “McCruelty. It’s enough to make Bea Arthur roll over in her grave.” The bold print in followed by a pro-animal monologue that begins with the words: “Death couldn’t stop this Golden Girl from fighting the Golden Arches’ cruel slaughter practices….”

The late sitcom legend “was a staunch supporter of PETA’s initiatives against so-called factory farming techniques and she will be the public face of an effort in that campaign to be aimed at McDonald’s. A photograph of Ms. Arthur is to appear in the ad next to this headline: ‘McCruelty. It’s enough to make Bea Arthur roll over in her grave,’” The New York Times said Thursday.

“When she was alive, Bea Arthur was one of PETA’s most stalwart supporters, and now—through a provocative campaign that PETA is launching thanks to a bequest in her will—Bea will remain an activist even in death,” a PETA spokesperson remarked in a presser this morning.

Arthur, best known as star of the hit TV comedies Maude and The Golden Girls, died of cancer last April 25.

President Barack Obama will give a speech on financial regulatory reform this morning at New York’s Cooper Union college, located one mile from Wall Street. He plans to demand that five elements make it into the final bill:

• Protect taxpayers from too-big-to-fail firms
• Impose the Volcker rule, named for former Fed Chair Paul Volcker, which stops firms from making large bets with their own money, or “proprietary trading”
• Make derivatives trades transparent
• Create a consumer protection agency
• Institute pay reforms to give investors a say over executive pay

Here are three excerpts from the speech, released to the press this morning:

One of the most significant contributors to this recession was a financial crisis as dire as any we’ve known in generations. And that crisis was born of a failure of responsibility — from Wall Street to Washington — that brought down many of the world’s largest financial firms and nearly dragged our economy into a second Great Depression. It was that failure of responsibility that I spoke about when I came to New York more than two years ago — before the worst of the crisis had unfolded. I take no satisfaction in noting that my comments have largely been borne out by the events that followed. But I repeat what I said then because it is essential that we learn the lessons of this crisis, so we don’t doom ourselves to repeat it. And make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen if we allow this moment to pass — an outcome that is unacceptable to me and to the American people.

As I said two years ago on this stage, I believe in the power of the free market. I believe in a strong financial sector that helps people to raise capital and get loans and invest their savings. But a free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it. That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis. Some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is family looking to buy a house, pay for an education, open a business, or save for retirement. What happens here has real consequences across our country.

A comprehensive plan to achieve these reforms has passed the House of Representatives. A Senate version is currently being debated, drawing on the ideas of Democrats and Republicans. Both bills represent significant improvement on the flawed rules we have in place today, despite the furious efforts of industry lobbyists to shape them to their special interests. I am sure that many of those lobbyists work for some of you. But I am here today because I want to urge you to join us, instead of fighting us in this effort. I am here because I believe that these reforms are, in the end, not only in the best interest of our country, but in the best interest of our financial sector. And I am here to explain what reform will look like, and why it matters.

U.S. equity index futures are lower this morning. S&P 500 futures are down 8 points in pre-opening trade. Index futures are responding to a Eurostat report showing that the debt to GDP ratios by European nations have increased again. The debt to GDP ratio by Greece is particularly of concern. The Euro is under pressure this morning and is testing support just below 133.

Weakness in the Euro has boosted the U.S. Dollar. Commodities priced in U.S. Dollars including crude oil, gold, silver and copper are trading slightly lower.

Economic news released at 8:30 AM EDT did not impact equity indices significantly. Consensus for March Producer Prices was a gain of 0.5% versus a decline of 0.6% in February. Actual was a gain of 0.7%. Consensus for PPI ex food and energy was an increase of 0.1% versus an increase of 0.1% in February. Actual was a gain of 0.1%. Also, weekly jobless claims rose 24,000 to 456,000.

A large volume of first quarter earnings reports were released overnight. Prominent reporting companies included EBay, Amgen, Qualcomm, Starbucks, Verizon, Pepsico, Union Pacific and Philip Morris. Most reported higher than expected earnings. Most quickly came under profit taking pressures following news.

Nokia was a notable exception. It reported less than consensus first quarter results. The stock fell 11% in overnight trade.

Century Tel announced a friendly share exchange offer to acquire Qwest Communications. Qwest Communications gained 13% on the news.

Boeing added 1% after Credit Suisse upgraded the stock from Neutral to Outperform.

Dupont was unchanged after Soleil upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy.
Nabors added 1% after CLSA upgraded the stock from Under Perform to Outperform.

Starbucks added 1.5% after Jesup & Lamont upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy. Target was raised from $25 to $32. 

Don Vialoux, chartered market technician, is the author of a free
daily report on equity markets, sectors, commodities, equities and
Exchange-Traded Funds. For more visit Don Vialoux's Web site

Denise Gellene wrote:

Progress on the drug development front dominated the headlines in the past week, although one company, Phenomix, also had some bad news. Get those details and more here.

—Phenomix announced that diabetic patients who took its experimental drug dutogliptin in a clinical trial saw statistically significant drops in their blood sugar. But the company is looking for a new strategic partner to help develop dutogliptin after New York-based Forest Laboratories said it had terminated its alliance with the San Diego biotech.

—My end-of-flu-season wrap up showed some San Diego companies received a temporary revenue boost from sales of products related to swine flu, and at least one company garnered enough funding to continue work on a H1N1 vaccine.

—Luke profiled Amplyx, a startup that is working on redesigning existing drugs to make them more effective or tolerable. The company’s first project is to develop improved protease inhibitors for H.I.V.

—Anadys Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ANDS) reported promising interim clinical trial data for its experimental hepatitis C drug ANA598. The results were announced at the European Association for the Study of the Liver meeting in Vienna, Austria.

—Luke chatted with Nobel laureate Roger Tsien of UC San Diego about his startup company, Avelas Biosciences, which is working on fluorescent molecular tags that surgeons may use to distinguish tumors from healthy tissue.

—Ligand Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: LGND) earned a $6.5 million milestone payment from Switzerland-based Roche for advancing its experimental hepatitis C drug RG7348 into clinical trials. Ligand obtained the drug through its acquisition of Metabasis Therapeutics; Metabasis shareholders will receive $2.7 million from the milestone payment.

—The Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute promoted Kristina Vuori to president from her previous position as executive vice president of scientific affairs. John Reed will continue as CEO of the institute.

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UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

When it comes to speech to text, Vlingo has BlackBerry covered. I’ve been using the app since it was released, and it has certainly served me well. The price tag — free — helps matters, too. Yet they’re not the only game in town. While Dragon doesn’t cover all the features that Vlingo does — it’s limited to your email — it does present an alternative. It uses Nuance’s technology, which has been available in other formats. Now that it’s on BlackBerry, it’s worth giving a try.

(more…)

The Dell Aero, the sort-of good-looking Dell Android phone headed to AT&T, just got some new information that’s just not worth getting excited about. The Aero is said to use a middling 624 MHz Marvell processor, a 3.5-inch capacitive screen, and a capacitive stylus for handwriting recognition. If you remember, the software is all sorts of crazy and the leak suggests that there’ll be a media player that will use Windows Media DRM to protect downloaded music (dont ask us why). But it’s not all bad, QuickOffice, ActiveSync, on-device photo editing, and social networks come stock on the Aero too. However, it’s expected to run Android 1.5 with 2.1 as a promised update later this year, and we all know how that story goes.

Compared to the other Dell phones leaked yesterday, the Aero is just, un-exciting. At least it’s going where Android phones go to die AT&T. [Engadget]

[JURIST] Rwandan authorities arrested opposition presidential candidate Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Wednesday, accusing her of denying the 1994 Rwandan genocide and collaborating with terrorists. Authorities cited Ingabire’s call for the prosecution of those who killed Hutus during the genocide, in which over 800,000 people, mostly Tutsis, were slain, as evidence of her denial of the genocide. Prosecutors also alleged that Ingabire has collaborated with Hutu rebels in the Democratic Republic of Rwanda, which borders Rwanda. The arrest comes at a time when current Tutsi President Paul Kagame has received criticism from Human Rights Watch (HRW) for his treatment of opposition parties. The United Democratic Forces (FDU), the party chaired by Ingabire, released a statement Wednesday condemning the arrest:
Such a barbaric and unlawful act against a peace loving mother who braved the system to show that there is another way to bring about lasting peace and development in Rwanda is not only a challenge to the conscience and dignity of the Rwandan people but also to the international community, in particular foreign governments who are sponsoring the government.The UDF urged “governments and peace loving people and organisations to support us in getting our chair immediately and unconditionally released.”Rwanda continues to try those involved in the 1994 genocide. In March, an aid to Ingabire who had been convicted in absentia, pleaded guilty to genocide charges in exchange for a reduced prison sentence of 17 years. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) was established for the prosecution of high-level officials responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law during the Rwandan genocide. Last month, the Appeals Chamber of the ICTR affirmed the genocide conviction of popular Rwandan singer-songwriter Simon Bikindi. The court also reversed the conviction for counts of genocide, murder, and extermination against Rwandan district attorney Simeon Nchamihigo. Earlier in March, the widow of assassinated Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana, Agathe Habyarimana, was arrested in France on suspicions of complicity in genocide and was later released on bail. In January, the Rwandan government released a report concluding that the assassination of then-president Juvenal Habyarimana, which sparked the genocide, was the work of Hutu extremists.

Fifteen thousand taxpayers came to Springfield Wednesday to tell the members of General Assembly to do the job they were elected to do by raising the taxes of the protesters.

Isn’t people demanding their taxes be raised sort of a classic “Man bites dog” story, the kind of story that defines what is considered “news?”

The SOS rally received a brief wire story in the online New York Times business section.

The number of attendees was many times the number of participants of any Tea Party event.  Yet, people who are heavy users of government services (transportation, Medicare, Social Security, etc…) demanding tax cuts are considered to be some sort of significant “movement” that is reshaping our country.

Rachel Maddow used the SOS rally to make this very important point last night.   You can see the entire program here. Watching it is a sort of “sanity check” for those of us who are having trouble understanding why our state government has allowed the current budget crisis to fester for so long.

The most oft-asked question about the rally is, “Will it make a difference?” We think the answer is “yes,” because there is no reason to believe that the politicians will fix what’s wrong on their own.  They have to be asked, pushed, cajoled.  Rallies like Wednesday’s are an important part of the process.

But there is another reason to take the action that was taken in  Illinois yesterday.

As Maddow’s guest, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell stated, “If we’re going to go down in November, and I don’t think we are, but if we do, let’s go down fighting for the things we believe in.”

So, does it makes a difference?  Yes.  And, it also is something that we have to do for ourselves because it reflects our values.

Be sure to watch the Maddow story about SOS.  You might want to send the link to a friend who wonders whether all of this matters.

Dell is on a full on Android assault, they have many new devices in the pipeline. Seeing as how they entered the game late, they are positioning themselves to offer the most Android devices in the market. This tablet is similar to the Dell Mini 5, aka the Streak, it is a seven inch tablet. Rumors have this thing set for a November release.

This tablet will feature Android 2.1 on a Tegra 2 processor, with an optional TV tuner module so you can watch ATSC or DVB-T. It can also render slideshows via AT&T Uverse. It also has 4GB of RAM, another 4GB of flash for storage and an SDHC slot for up to 32GB of expansion, and there’s a 1.3 megapixel camera. So if you wanted the Streak but want more screen real-estate, this is the device for you.

[via engadget]

Not according to Journal Watch editor and New York Times writer Abigail Zuger, writing here in the Times.  She’s referring to the recent Darren Chiacchia case, where his former partner has filed a legal complaint that Chiacchia did not disclose having HIV — potentially a first-degree felony in Florida.

Were it a matter of science alone, all those AIDS statutes could be rescinded tomorrow. But the science was only a small part of the panic that created them. And effective treatment has not altered the rest of that potent emotional brew: the virus still sows terror, uncertainty, shame and endless complications, whether the infection is concealed or revealed…

Now we think we know better, but do we really? We blame that coughing woman in the subway for our cold, the giant meat company for our food poisoning, all manner of chemicals and electromagnetic radiation for our cancers, and fast-food outlets for ourdiabetes and heart disease. We cannot experience illness without casting around for blame.

Yet at the same time we believe deeply in prevention. Surely if we watch our diets and get our mammograms and colonoscopies, wash our hands, take whatever vitamin is foremost in the news and eat our burgers well done, we can avert bad things. Whole generations have now grown up knowing that sensible people “play safe,” with the overriding implication that if you catch a sexually transmitted disease, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Then the key point:

And so whose fault is a new H.I.V. infection, really? Is it mine, for giving it to you, or is it yours, for being stupid and cavalier enough to get it?

(Sorry for the lengthy quotes, she’s such a great writer it was irresistible.)

I mostly agree with Abbie that effective treatment of HIV has changed the risk equation profoundly, and that what what originally motivated these laws — transmission of HIV was murder!  — no longer holds.  But remember that some (most?) might think that transmission of any infection — herpes, syphilis, MRSA, salmonella from peanut butter, hepatitis A from spinach — is potentially a crime.

And people holding this view will continue to see these HIV statutes as completely justified.  As a result, don’t expect them to be removed from the books anytime soon.

Ryan McBride wrote:

From the moment GlaxoSmithKline acquired Cambridge, MA-based Sirtris Pharmaceuticals about two years ago for $720 million, the pharma giant said it wanted two of Sirtris’ principals, Christoph Westphal and Michelle Dipp, to help it connect with some of the best people and biotech ideas in Boston. That’s still true today, although the specific roles for Dipp and Westphal are shifting in a couple important ways.

Yesterday Xconomy broke the news that Westphal is ending his six-year tenure as CEO of Sirtris, the Cambridge, MA-based developer of drugs for diseases of aging, to take the helm at Glaxo’s venture capital firm, SR One. Yet Westphal is also resigning from his job as senior vice president of Glaxo’s Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD). Dipp is now being promoted to take on that big job, which involves identifying and managing partnerships with biotechs who can help fill up Glaxo’s drug pipeline. Dipp, who had been the U.S. head of the center serving as a deputy to Westphal, is now in charge of the center’s U.S. and U.K. operations, as Westphal had been.

If you’re older than 30 and still living at home, don’t read the rest of this story. Dipp, who is in Theo Epstein-wunderkind territory at the age of 33, is now the youngest senior vice president at on of the the top 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. She’s in charge of the external drug discovery unit that Glaxo created in 2005.The Glaxo business unit has gained more influence over biotech companies in recent years because of the limited availability of venture capital for young startups, making the cash the young firms can bring in from option-based deals with drug companies a viable way to stay afloat. A good example of one of these deals is the partnership Glaxo formed last year with Lexington, MA-based Concert Pharmaceuticals. Dipp says her group oversees about a dozen such partnerships in all.

Dipp, who has an MD and a Ph.D in pulmonary physiology from the University of Oxford, found her way into the business side of biotech quickly. She struck an important deal early in her career by becoming an early investor in Sirtris while she was a member of the investment team at the Wellcome Trust, a London-based nonprofit that is the world’s second-biggest funder of medical research. At the Wellcome Trust, she got to know Westphal, who recruited her to join then Sirtris as one of its founding employees in 2005.

But Dipp and Westphal have more on their plate than just what they are doing at GlaxoSmithKline. They, along with fellow Sirtris co-founder Rich Aldrich, are launching …Next Page »

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1886 Mecedes-Benz – The world’s first true automobile

Benz Velo 1894.The origins of the Daimler-Benz company founded through a merger in 1926 date back to the mid-1880s, when Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900) working with Wilhelm Maybach (1846–1929), and Karl Benz (1844–1929) independently invented the internal combustion engine-powered automobile, in southwestern Germany.

Although they were merely sixty miles apart, these pioneers were unaware of each other’s early work.

Karl Benz had his shop in Mannheim where he invented “the world’s first true automobile powered by an internal combustion engine” in 1885. It had three wheels.

He was granted a patent for his vehicle dated January 29, 1886, for what he called the “Benz Patent Motorwagen.” Among many inventions, Benz patented his first engine in 1879, a high-speed single-cylinder four-stroke engine of his own design which he included in his “integral” design for the Motorwagen patent application.

In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler and design partner Wilhelm Maybach, working in Cannstatt, Stuttgart, were granted a patent dated August 29, 1885 for what is generally recognized as the prototype of the modern gas engine, that they named the “grandfather clock engine.”

On March 8, 1886, Daimler purchased a stagecoach made by Wilhelm Wimpff & Sohn and he and Maybach adapted it to hold this engine, thereby creating a four-wheeled carriage propelled by an engine, as many had before them. The only distinction about this carriage was that it carried an internal combustion engine.

None of many similar attempts to adapt carts, boats, or carriages, in many countries, were propelled by this type of engine. On the official history pages of the Mercedes-Benz Internet site it is referred to as “a carriage — without a drawbar but with the conventional drawbar steering. A carriage without horses…” Daimler and Maybach later purposely built, from scratch, the first four-stroke engine powered automobile with four wheels in 1889. They founded Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft, DMG, in 1890 and sold their first automobile in 1892.

Foi apresentado pela Volks no Salão do Automóvel de Pequim 2010 a versão 2011 do Phaeton, o sedan de luxo alemão. Com uma parte frontal totalmente nova, faróis reestilizados com lâmpadas Bi-Xenon e um novo capô. A parte traseira do novo Phaeton também sofreu mudanças com lanternas novas, menores indicadores nos espelhos retrovisores e rodas de liga leve de 18 polegadas.

O novo Phaeton 2011 terá duas opções de eixo à disposição, sendo duas versões na parte traseira e quatro motores (a diesel e gasolina). Entre os motores, os modelos à gasolina serão V6, com 280 cv, um V8 com 335cv e um W12 com 450 cv. O motor a diesel vai ser um V6 TDI com 240 cv.

Outro recurso interessante é o sistema de navegação do carro, que pode integrar as informações online do Google Maps caso o motorista desejar.

Imagens do novo sedan de luxo

Via | Top Speed

Researchers say that reputation often trumps the quality of care when it comes to hospital rankings. 

A newly released study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine takes a critical look at the annual U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” rankings, which lists the top 50 hospitals in the nation in various fields. Researchers examined data used to compile the rankings and found that the hospitals holding the top slots were there based more on reputation than merit.

Dr. Ashwini R. Sehgal, a professor of medicine at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland, Ohio, found that while the rankings were based in part on objective data, such as death rates, nurse-to-patient ratio and patient safety, it was the reputation scores given by other doctors that were the predominant decider as to which hospitals ranked highest. Dr. Sehgal said reputation trumped factual objective data in 100% of the publication’s top hospital picks for each specialty, and 91% of the time for the top 10 overall hospitals.

Dr. Sehgal explained that the large amount of variation in the reputation scores, which are determined by interviewing top doctors in certain fields, means that the reputation scores have more of an affect on the final outcomes, because the objective data has far less variation.

“The relative standings of the top 50 hospitals largely reflect the subjective reputations of those hospitals,” Dr. Sehgal concluded. “Moreover, little relationship exists between subjective reputation and objective measures of hospital quality among the top 50 hospitals.”

Officials from U.S. News and World Report have said that the rankings have caught flack for giving reputation so much influence, and intend to scale down its effect on future rankings, according to a report by Bloomberg News. However, they say that reputation is an important overall piece of the hospital rankings that will not be removed entirely. The next annual hospital rankings results are due to be released in July. The news magazine has released the rankings for 20 years.

In a bid to create a telecommunications provider serving more than 17 million customers nationwide, CenturyLink and Qwest Communications announced Thursday that their boards have approved a definitive agreement under which CenturyLink would acquire Qwest in a proposed $10.6 billion stock-swap.

If approved, the merger will create a much stronger No. 3 telco in the U.S., behind AT&T (NYSE: T) and Verizon Communications.

The combined CenturyLink-Qwest would have operations in 37 states, and would have had revenue of $19.8 billion last year. As of December 31, 2009, CenturyLink and Qwest together served approximately 5 million broadband customers, 17 million access lines, 1.4 million video subscribers and 850,000 wireless consumers. More on Multichannel.