Olivia Newton-John is set to get “Physical” with the cast of television’s Glee!
The Grease star has agreed to make a special guest appearance on an upcoming episode of FOX’s smash musical comedy, series creator Ryan Murphy revealed to Entertainment Tonight this week. The cameo will see Newton-John performing her 1981 hit “Physical” alongside Cheerios coach Sue Sylvester — played by Jane Lynch.
What do you think of this news, Gleeks?
If I could control my night time eating, I could control my diabetes so much better.
File this one under over-engineered.
Bayerische Motoren Werke, better known as BMW, has come up with some eyebrow-raising concepts and engine ideas before. But this one is certainly far out. Bimmer has reportedly filed a patent for a hybrid system that features two separate-but-equal petrol powered two-cylinder engines, PLUS an electric motor. Those crazy Germans, always making things so… complicated.
Here’s a talk by Ian Couzin, a scientist who does fascinating studies on crowds and their wisdom. I wrote about Ian a couple years in the New York Times. It’s funny now to actually see him in the virtual flesh. And to hear him talk about how much he loves the Pixies.
On Thursday, Jan. 14, 2010, The Executives’ Club of Chicago will kick-off the year with its annual Economic Outlook Luncheon, “Economic Outlook for 2010 and Beyond.”
Is the recession over – or are we headed for a double-dip? The program will convene a panel of experts who will provide their forecasts for the year ahead.
Part of the Club’s Global Leaders Luncheon Series, the program will bring together over 1,400 senior-level business executives in the Chicagoland area.
The panel discussion will be moderated by Terry Savage, Financial Columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and feature panelists Dr. Robert “Bob” Froehlich, Senior Managing Director of The Hartford Financial Services Group; Dr. A. Gary Shilling, Forbes Columnist and President of A. Gary Shilling & Co., Inc.; and Diane C. Swonk, Chief Economist and Senior Managing Director for Mesirow Financial.
The luncheon program will be held at the Sheraton Chicago, 301 E. North Water Street, in the Chicago Ballroom, at 12:00 p.m.
The cost to attend is $57.50 for Executives’ Club members; $78.50 for non-members. For more information about the program, including registration information, please visit the Club’s Web site at executivesclub.org.
About The Executives’ Club of Chicago
The Executives’ Club of Chicago is a business forum for thought leadership, education and best business practices.
Founded in 1911, the ECC is one of the oldest and most prestigious business organizations in the Midwest.
The Club serves the community by providing information and resources needed to establish effective global partnerships, enhance intellectual exchange, develop diverse civic-minded global business leaders and promote Chicago as a world class business center.
Borders Group and Spring Design have come to an “agreement in principle” for Borders to sell the Android based Alex eReader. The Alex eReader will feature Borders’ upcoming eBook store. Borders announced back in December that they were in a partnership with Kobo, Inc and would be developing an eBook store powered by Kobo.
Source: PRNewswire
I’m a faithful Facebook user and defender. But it’s a bit rich to hear CEO Mark Zuckerberg boast about his company’s psychic mastery of users’ privacy wishes one month after Americans went apoplectic about Facebook’s privacy updates. Here’s Zuckerberg:
“In the last 5 or 6 years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all
these different services that have people sharing all this information.
People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more
information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people.
That social norm is just something that’s evolved over time.
Hold it. The fact that blogging has taken off in the last five or six years is evidence that people like publicly sharing their thoughts about food and politics and Jersey Shore. It does not at all mean that we’ve gotten comfortable with information we thought was private — our phone numbers, our drunken photos, our private wall-to-wall chats — suddenly being upchucked onto the World Wide Web in one messy and meaningless purge of regional networks.
Privacy is about control, and when Facebook changes its privacy control
rules every six months to keep pace with the zeitgeist (or whatever),
its users lose both control and privacy. Zuckerberg goes on:
“We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating
and be updating what our system is to reflect what the current social
norms are.“So now, a lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and
their legacies of what they’ve built, doing a privacy change for 350
million users is not the type of thing that a lot of companies would
do. But we viewed that as a really important thing, to always
keep a beginner’s mind and think: what would we do if we were starting
the company now, and starting the site now, and we decided that these
would be the social norms now and we just went for it.”
It’s cheeky of Zuckerberg to highlight Facebook’s talent to “reflect…social norms” when every Facebook privacy update is met with something
approximating funereal wailing. It’s especially sketchy that
Zuckerberg’s diagnosis of our Brave New World of diminishing privacy is
utterly self-serving. The more information that Facebook users share,
the more information Facebook can vacuum into whatever ad-based revenue
stream they’re debuting this quarter.
Facebook is trapped by its own conventions, too. It’s a social
networking site, a goldmine of private information. Like a Middle
Eastern country sitting on top of an ocean of oil, Facebook feels a
business-driven pressure to let outsiders (ad companies) drill deep into their
reserves, so they can shove Coldplay tickets in front of Coldplay fans
and job listings in front of college seniors, and so forth. Facebook’s incentive is
entirely to move toward more openness. It’s one thing to admit that a
business is a business. It’s another to pretend that your business
objectives just happen to line up perfectly with your users’ wishes, when you know very well that the opposite is true.
As ZEN Studios announced way back in October (qjnet/playstation-3/zen-studios-announces-ninja-gaiden-sigma-2-pinball-table.html), they’ve partnered-up with Tecmo and they’re bringing a Ninja Gaiden Sigma II table to their PSN-exclusive ZEN Pinball. They’ve completed the add-on and it’s now ready for release,
Attention, crazy dog people with too much money: these two chihuahuas are inside an anti-aging oxygen therapy chamber at a dog salon in Japan. Buy your plane tickets now! [TokyoMango]
Back in high school, I had a friend who drove a 1972 Cadillac Eldorado. The thing was a literal land yacht powered by a 500 cubic inch engine with enough torque to burn the tires at 60 mph. 500 cubic inches = 8.1 liters. This thing could displace more volume than four bottles of Mountain Dew. And there was a time people thought engines would only get bigger.
Flash forward forty years, and everyone is running in the opposite direction. How small can we get an engine? Well Ford seems to think its EcoBoost technology can take engines to less than a liter, and plans to introduce a whole slow of low-volume engines during 2010 for Europe and North America.
American Idol returns to FOX on Tuesday, and judge Kara DioGuardi talked about the new season of high notes and wacky auditions with Good Day New York’s Julie Chang.
There’s no denying Android’s momentum: Droid sales are strong, the Nexus One is drawing positive (if not fawning) reviews, and the operating system is quickly expanding beyond phones to tablets as Google works toward its vision of the Androidification of everything. But the land of Android isn’t always wine and roses for consumers, some of whom are sharing Google’s growing pains in mobile. And while such hiccups may have been predictable, they’ll need to be addressed as Android begins to get legs with mainstream users. In just the last few weeks:
No player in the mobile space bats 1.000 when it comes to customer service, of course, and Google will surely experience many more headaches as it continues to expand beyond search and advertising into the world of mobile retailer and operating system developer. But wireless consumers now have several attractive options when it comes to smartphones and the software that runs on them. Early adopters may not mind helping Google iron out the wrinkles, but as Android goes mainstream the company will have to convince users it’s not the wild, wild West of the smartphone space.
Image courtesy of Flickr user Lisa Brewster.
Has mobile operator Orange spilled the beans on the supposed Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) tablet?
Bloggers got themselves tongue-tied Monday, when they leaped on comments – given by owner France Telecom’s deputy CEO during a French radio interview – as “confirmation” that the device is indeed launching soon, equipped with webcam, network connectivity for videophone chat and a retail partnership with Orange itself…
Stephane Richard acknowledged the tablet in the interview with Europe 1 (video at NowhereElse.fr, embedded below. Asked if it could benefit Orange subscribers, he spoke about the possibility of an apparent video calling feature. Now the blogosphere is rife with reports Richard has “confirmed” specs and a strategic relationship.
But it was nothing of the sort, the Orange PR machine tells paidContent:UK: “A few comments taken out of context, then interpreted into English.”
A full statement emailed to us has further back-tracking: “These responses in no way reflect Orange’s confirmation of the existence of the rumoured device. The spokesperson was merely confirming that he is aware of the speculation surrounding a launch and that Orange would be delighted to have such a product were it ever to be available.”
Still, this wouldn’t be the first time that an Orange executive spilled the beans about an upcoming Apple device. Back in 2007, amid lots of speculation about who would stock the iPhone, and when, the CEO Didier Lombard informally told journalists that Orange secured the deal weeks before the official announcement.
That deal was eventually confirmed, although it turned out to be short-lived: the French regulator eventually overturned the exclusive arrangement a year later to allow other carriers to sell it, too—something that may well happen with other devices in the future, including this tablet that no-one wants to confirm.
After web reports of an upcoming January 26 Apple event announcing the tablet, Kara at AllThingsD upgrades the calendar forecast to January 27.
Related
We’re setting up an exhibit for Family Roots Publishing Company in the Heritage Room (across from the elevators) at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel. We plan to open up about 2 pm this afternoon and will be open tonight until 10 pm. We’ll be there from about 11 am until 10 pm Tuesday through Thursday also.
I’ll be blogging from that location this week.
On Monday, Paramount Studios announced the release date for its eagerly-anticipated Star Trek sequel, a follow-up to J.J. Abrams’s recent franchise reinvention. The second Star Trek feature — starring enterprise crew cast members Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Karl Urban, and Simon Pegg — will open in theaters on June 29, 2012.
Abrams is expected to return to the director’s chair working from a script by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof.
Production is expected to begin later this year.
Meet top investors, socialize with other entrepreneurs, hear great talks, and see inspiring pitches from cutting-edge startups at the Founder Showcase by TheFunded.com. Gain exposure for your company by entering the open pitch competition, or demo your product to investors and the press with an inexpensive pitch table. The top startup will win a number of prizes, including $2,500 and a free two-day rental of a Ferrari 360 Spider. Only a few dozen tickets remain — to register and learn more, visit here. GigaOM readers receive 15 percent off with the code “GOM”.
Is it 2054 yet? Light Blue Optics unveiled the Light Touch at CES this week taking us one step closer to the interactive displays that wowed audiences in the Tom Cruise vehicle Minority Report.
The Light Touch essentially converts any surface into an interactive touch screen display. Light Blue Optics dubbed their method of display Holographic Laser Projection or HLP. HLP uses lasers to create a 10.1 inch WVGA image. Laser projection ensures the image is always in focus and the wide throw angle allows the Light Touch to display large images from short distances. No worries about retinal burn or shooting your eye out as the Light Touch carries a Class 1 laser safety rating.
The Light Touch features 2GB of onboard flash memory with an SD slot capable of supporting up to 32GB. Built-in wifi and bluetooth radios provide network and device connectivity. The Light Touch runs on Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 and in turn makes use of it’s developer base which should provide speedy application development.
Continue reading for more images.
Today in Detroit, the next-version electric Volvo C30 concept was introduced at the 2010 North American International Auto Show. The Swedish automaker, which will be sold to Geely later this year, plans on producing 50 units, which will be used in real-time traffic starting in 2011.
The program will run the 50 unit test-fleet for two-years to study how consumers use the vehicle.
“Our test-fleet data will be valuable in Volvo Cars’ development of electric cars. It will also provide crucial input for the infrastructure planners and help define which services are needed to make rechargeable cars the most attractive choice in the future,” says Lennart Stegland, Director of Volvo Cars Special Vehicles.
The program is sponsored by the Swedish Energy Agency with a SEK 150 million funding.
2010 Detroit: Volvo C30 BEV:
All Photos Copyright © 2009 Stephen Calogera – egmCarTech.
Volvo C30 BEV:
– By: Stephen Calogera
Wade Roush wrote:
The patent portfolio and other assets of Actuality Systems, a Bedford, MA-based maker of visualization systems for medicine, oil and gas exploration, and other applications, has been acquired by Optics for Hire, the Arlington, MA, company announced December 28. Actuality launched in 1997 after winning the MIT $50K business plan competition; its flagship product, Perspecta, creates hologram-like images from 3-D digital data. As part of the acquisition, Actuality founder Gregg Favalora has taken a full-time position at Optics for Hire, which is a product development house specializing in lens design for lighting and medical devices and video games.
Last week, I wrote about the AIG-New York Federal Reserve bank swap controversy. At that time, I speculated that it could be a problem for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, given that he resided over the NY Fed at the time. Today, Bloomberg reports that powerful Democrats are standing behind Geithner. I find this quick support a little surprising and premature. Shouldn’t Democrats wait to better investigate the situation before drawing a conclusion about Geithner’s innocence?
Bloomberg says virtually every Democrat in a prominent place of power has Geithner’s back:
Asked yesterday for comment, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he stood by his earlier statements that the president had full confidence in Geithner. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, said “Secretary Geithner enjoys the strong support of the Senate Democratic caucus.”
. . . he maintains the backing of Democratic leaders including Representative Barney Frank, House and Senate Democratic aides said in interviews Jan. 8.
So what might change that? According to the article:
Only a revelation that he was directly involved would erode that support, a Senate Democratic aide said on condition of anonymity.
And here’s what they’re saying his role consisted of:
The Obama administration and the New York Fed came to Geithner’s defense, saying he had nothing to do with the e-mail exchange between lawyers for AIG and the district bank. Treasury spokeswoman Meg Reilly said that Geithner was already recused from AIG matters when the e-mails were written.
Now listen: Geithner may now have written the e-mails, but are we really to believe that, as President of the NY Fed, he shouldn’t have been expected to run a tight ship? Should we take comfort in the fact that he ran an organization where this kind of thing could happen — and now he runs the U.S. Treasury? I know I don’t. That’s why I don’t particularly care if he wrote the e-mails himself, but I think it’s more telling that this kind of thing could happen under his watch.
Of course, at the end of the day, this is just politics:
Geithner’s role as the administration’s point man on overhauling financial-industry regulation makes him more of an asset than a liability on Obama’s team as the November midterm elections approach, said former congressional aide Charles Gabriel, managing director at Capital Alpha Partners LLC, a Washington-based firm that provides research to institutional investors.
I agree that this is probably the thinking. If Democrats suddenly shunned Geithner, that would cast a very dark shadow over financial regulation. After all, the House bill — which is likely to closely resemble whatever eventually passes — was essentially created from the Treasury’s, i.e. Geithner’s, framework. If Democrats reveal doubt about Geithner’s character or ability to discern what’s right for the financial industry, then Republicans would surely connect the dots to their financial regulation proposal.
Yet, I’m not as convinced as Gabriel that this is smart politics. Geithner’s presence could still harm the financial regulation push if more moderate or fringe Democrats in Congress are angered by his association. Moreover, by keeping Geithner around, Republicans will have a delightful time during the midterm elections explaining how the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress cater to more business as usual when it comes to Wall Street — just look at their Treasury Secretary!
So I’m not entirely convinced that Democrats’ “support first, ask questions later” policy makes a whole lot of sense from a practical or political standpoint. As the President of the NY Fed, if the buck doesn’t stop with Geithner, with whom does it stop?
