tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567134795557913482024-02-07T18:05:18.644-08:00Global IT & Business NewsGlobal Reach. Global Times.MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.comBlogger249125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-89553145366504998732010-09-07T16:46:00.001-07:002010-09-07T16:46:22.725-07:00SnakeBot Climbs Trees!<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><object height="300" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8VLjDjXzTiU&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1" /></param><param name="wmode" value="window" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8VLjDjXzTiU&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="window" height="300" width="500"></embed></object></p> <p> </p> <p>The good people at Carnegie-Mellon have developed this amazing Robot, named Uncle Sam, that looks and moves like a garden variety serpent.</p> <p>How cool is that! </p> <p>I wonder what might've happened happened in the Garden of Eden had this sucker come by to say hello to Eve :)</p> <p><a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/05/snakebot-inspires-dr.html" title="SnakeBot Climbs a Tree - Global IT & Business News" target="_blank">More here:</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://pulsepoll.posterous.com/snakebot-climbs-trees">Pulse Poll</a> </p></div>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-48434158443409178592010-09-07T16:44:00.001-07:002010-09-07T16:44:52.377-07:00SnakeBot Climbs Trees!<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><object height="300" width="500"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8VLjDjXzTiU&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1" /></param><param name="wmode" value="window" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8VLjDjXzTiU&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1" allowfullscreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="window" height="300" width="500"></embed></object></p> <p> </p> <p>The good people at Carnegie-Mellon have developed this amazing Robot, named Uncle Sam, that looks and moves like a garden variety serpent.</p> <p>How cool is that! </p> <p>I wonder what might've happened happened in the Garden of Eden had this sucker come by to say hello to Eve :)</p> <p><a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2010/09/05/snakebot-inspires-dr.html" title="SnakeBot Climbs a Tree - Global IT & Business News" target="_blank">More here:</a></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://pulsepoll.posterous.com/snakebot-climbs-trees">Pulse Poll</a> </p></div>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-11065964432663357292009-12-29T23:48:00.001-08:002009-12-29T23:48:15.501-08:00Indian Central Bank Buys IMF Gold
<p> <p><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 17px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><img src="http://breakingupdate.com/files/rbi-bank.jpg" alt="" /></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 17px;">The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased the quantity of its gold holdings. With a recent purchase of 200 tonnes of gold from the International Monetary Fund, the Indian Central Bank is now the ninth or tenth largest holder of gold globally.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;">Executed as a part of its foreign exchange reserves management, the RBI recently purchased $6.7 billion USD worth of the IMF's gold, from Oct. 19 to Oct. 30th 2009. Although the RBI does not officially discuss its diversification strategy, speculation is rampant that the purchase may be part of India's push for greater influence within the IMF itself. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;">India</span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;">, along with other emerging BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) is jockeying for greater bearing on the global economic stage, and this recent move may be a tactic of this strategy. The Indian economy has grown rapidly in recent years, and is now in aggregate, a $1.2 trillion USD economy. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;">According to the latest data, of India’s total foreign reserves of $285.5 billion on Oct. 23, 2009, slightly more than $10 billion worth was in gold. The recent purchase has increased India’s percentage of gold holdings in its portfolio, from approximately 4 percent to approximately 6 percent. The purchase was one of the largest single purchases of gold by a Central Bank, in memory. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;">Portfolio-wise, Indian gold holdings are on average much less than most Central Banks of the developed world, but interestingly, Indian gold holdings are approximately four times the size of China's share. With this recent move, perhaps New Delhi may be trying to assert its strength in world economic affairs, relative to the other BRIC nations. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: Perpetua;">For gold markets in general, the picture is less clear. What does the RBI’s decision signal for the global gold market? Does India’s recent move potentially signify the beginning of a new bull market for bullion? Only time will tell. <p /> </span></p> </p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/indian-central-bank-buys-imf-gold">Global Business News</a> </p> MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-47473773880187382432009-11-21T22:58:00.001-08:002009-11-21T22:58:25.257-08:00US and Asian GDP Return to Growth
<p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"> <p><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: medium;"><img src="http://www.wiut.uz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/ADB%20for%20web.jpg" alt="" /></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: medium;">American GDP is growing again. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: medium;">After four consecutive quarters of GDP decline, the US Economy grew in the third quarter by 3.5%. This ends the longest contraction in the US economy since the Great Depression. The 3.5 per cent growth figures were stronger than expected by some analysts, including Goldman Sachs, who had forecast only 2.7 per cent growth.</span> </p> <p><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: medium;">Simultaneously, the IMF has doubled its forecast for Asian economic growth in 2010. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: medium;">The region’s prospects have improved dramatically over the past 6 months due to the concerted efforts of Asian Governments to nurse their economies back to health. China, South Korea, India, and Japan have taken the lead in this regard. The International Monetary Fund has forecast GDP growth of 2.8 per cent for 2009, and 5.8 per cent in 2010 for the region. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: medium;">The “Great Recession”, as it has come to be known, may be technically over according to the Economists, but it's been replaced by fears that this may only be a statistical recovery. The manifest growth in the US is literally underwritten by billions of dollars in US Federal government spending. Some economists posit that all of the government money in the US system will lead to an artificial and jobless recovery in America. Last month's US jobless rate was 9.8 per cent, its highest rate in 26 years. </span></p> <p><span style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: medium;">Nonetheless, third quarter figures indicate that 2010 will be a year of growth in the American economy, which is certainly reassuring news for the Global economy, as the US Economy is currently underperforming globally.</span></p> </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com">Posted via web</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/us-and-asian-gdp-return-to-growth">Global Business News</a> </p> MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-54591500458546210782009-10-12T11:57:00.001-07:002009-10-12T12:02:02.340-07:00Taiwan lab develops panda robot<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/5nwtsyPYhBKkAAqTGiymojDOGjnYEqDwqmRmZ2o2AQijFJvNwI2c97qRrQ2x/Taiwan_Lab_develops_Panda_Robo.jpg" width="400" height="316" /> </span></p><p> <span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The world's first panda robot is taking shape at a cutting-edge lab in Taiwan where an ambitious group of scientists hope to add new dimensions to the island's reputation as a high-tech power. The Centre for Intelligent Robots Research aims to develop pandas that are friendlier and more artistically endowed than their endangered real-life counterparts.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"The panda robot will be very cute and more attracted to humans. Maybe the panda robot can be made to sing a panda song," said Jerry Lin, the centre's 52-year-old director. Day by day, the panda evolves on the centre's computer screens and, if funding permits, the robot will take its first steps by the end of the year.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"It's the first time we try to construct a quadrupedal robot. We need to consider the balance problem," said 28-year-old Jo Po-chia, a doctoral student who is in charge of the robot's design. The robo-panda is just one of many projects on the drawing board at the centre, which is attached to the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, the island's version of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The Taipei-based centre also aims to build robots that look like popular singers, so exact replicas of world stars can perform in the comfort of their fans' homes. "It could be a Madonna robot. It will be a completely different experience from just listening to audio," said Lin.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Commercial value is what counts for Lin, who hopes to contribute to the Taiwan economy at a time when it has matured and no longer exhibits the stellar growth of the earlier take-off phase. "If I write 25 academic papers, I won't contribute anything. But if I create something people need, I will contribute to the Taiwan economy," he said. Lin and his team are also working on educational robots that can act as private tutors for children, teaching them vocabulary or telling them stories in foreign languages.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">There is an obvious target market: China, with its tens of millions of middle-class parents doting on the one child they are allowed under strict population policies. "Asian parents are prepared to spend a lot of money to teach their children languages," said Lin.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Robots running amok are a fixture of popular literature but parents do not have to worry about leaving their children home alone with their artificial teachers, he said. "A robot may hit you like a car or a motorbike might hit you. But it won't suddenly lose control and get violent. Humans lose control, not robots. It's not like that."</span></p><p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Lin's long-term dream is to create a fully-functioning Robot Theatre of Taiwan, with an ensemble of life-like robots able to sing, dance and entertain. Two robotic pioneers, Thomas and Janet, appeared before an audience in Taiwan in December, performing scenes from the Phantom of the Opera, but that was just the beginning, Lin said.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"You can imagine a robot shooting down balloons, like in the wild west, using two revolvers, or three, but much faster than a person. Some things robots can do better than humans with the aid of technologies," Lin said.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">His vision is to turn the show into an otherworldly experience where robots and humans mix seamlessly on stage, leaving the audience in doubt which is which. But the bottomline is the bottomline. Lin wants commercial viability, in the interest of his home island.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"I want to be able to go to an amusement park in the US and see a building where on top it says, 'Robot Theatre from Taiwan'. That's my lifetime goal," he said.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/robot-takes-over-tokyo-classroom.html">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/robot-takes-over-tokyo-classroom.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Source: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/technology/6077266/taiwan-lab-develops-panda-robot/">http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/technology/6077266/taiwan-lab-develops-panda-robot/</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">China, Taipei, Robot panda, Robot Theatre of Taiwan, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Global IT News, The Centre for Intelligent Robots Research, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/taiwan-lab-develops-panda-robot">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-38169819558812362172009-09-22T12:05:00.001-07:002009-09-22T12:11:03.579-07:00World's Largest Yacht is Paparazzi Proof<span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;"><img height="276" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/VzLr1CpAiofjDabfCyk4UWWL868qu1eoPOrEYv8RsplQ0QTlZZksy7UL8kiV/yacht-roman-abramovich-_global.jpg" width="460" /> </span><br /><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;">Roman Abramovich's latest extravagance, Eclipse, probably so-called because it's almost big enough to block out the sun, is the world's largest mega-yacht. Measuring 557ft long, it boasts two swimming pools, two helipads and an onboard missile defence system. And, just in case any missiles do get through, it comes complete with an escape pod: its own submarine. Its most curious feature, however, defends it against an altogether more insidious weapon: the prying eyes of the paparazzi.</span><br /><p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;">The boat's anti-paparazzi system, described in several reports as a "laser shield", is a little less science fiction than it sounds. The lasers – beams of infrared light – are used to detect the electronic light sensors that digital cameras use instead of film. The camera is then targeted with a focused beam of bright light that disrupts the potential photo, making any shots unusable. It's not so much a space-age Star Wars laser shield, then, as a big budget version of shining a torch in someone's face.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;">A similar technology is already available to all in the form of an anti-paparazzi purse, devised by New York University student Adam Harvey, which detects the flash of a camera and responds with a bright flash of its own, cloaking the intended target in a blob of white light. Nigel Atherton, editor of What Digital Camera, explains, "You couldn't stop them taking a picture but you could ruin the picture." Eclipse's anti-paparazzi defence grid, he suspects, "is essentially a large-scale version of that."</span></p><p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;">What makes Eclipse's system special is that it can detect any digital camera, whether it's using a flash or not, and before the first shot. But Abramovich's shield still has a serious weakness: it can't possibly detect the presence of an old-fashioned analogue or mechanical camera.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;">So for £724m, he's got himself a boat that digital-camera-wielding paparazzi can't photograph, say, falling over outside a nightclub at 3am. It's a shame really. That's exactly the sort of memory you'd want to capture.</span></p><div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size:14;"></span></div><div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size:14;">Related Articles:</span></div><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/mitsubishi-rolls-out-zero-emission.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10;">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/mitsubishi-rolls-out-zero-emission.html</span></a></p><p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/world-most-expensive-car.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/world-most-expensive-car.html</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/teslas-founder-sues-teslas-ceo.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/teslas-founder-sues-teslas-ceo.html</a></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/world-undiscovered-gas-and-oil-is.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/world-undiscovered-gas-and-oil-is.html</a></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;"></span></p><div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;"></span></div><div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;">Source: </span></div><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/22/roman-abramovich-yacht-paparazzi">http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/sep/22/roman-abramovich-yacht-paparazzi</a></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;"></span></p><div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;"></span></div><div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;">Tags: </span></div><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14;">Roman Abramovich, Eclipse Yacht, Anti-Papparazzi system, lasers, New York University, Laser shield, escape pod, missile defense systems, Global Blog Network, Billionaire, paparazzi protection, flash photography, </span></p><p style="FONT-SIZE: 10px"><a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/worlds-largest-yacht-is-paparazzi-proof">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-29134432436218250162009-09-16T22:46:00.001-07:002009-09-16T22:50:54.656-07:00Australia, US to Invite China to War Games<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/yYHIxy2H73JzYjdGfvlZeOzF69JqeorstyyAT2udLhp3myJGbJ1bByHBVvg8/Global_Development_News_-_Imag.jpg" width="468" height="294" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Australia</span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> and the United States will invite China to take part in joint military exercises to help ease fears about an arms race in the Asia-Pacific region.<br /> </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Ties between Australia and China have been strained over concerns about Beijing's military expansion and the precarious nature of trade negotiations. As a way of soothing tensions, Australian and U.S. defense officials have agreed to approach the Chinese about taking part in joint military exercises. </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Admiral Timothy Keating, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, told a Sydney newspaper that talks with Beijing were a positive sign that China was willing to cooperate in the plan. Keating also expressed hope that any joint exercise would help the U.S. and its allies better understand China's reasons for boosting its weapons capabilities. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The U.S. is reportedly worried that some of China's military ambitions do not appear to be peaceful. Andrew Davies from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute thinks that closer military sides will benefit all three countries. "It gives each side confidence in the ability of the other to act professionally and it also teaches each side how the other tends to operate, which can reduce the opportunity for accidents and misunderstandings," he said.<br /> </span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><br />China's ambassador to Australia, Zhang Junsai, has welcomed the prospect of joint army and navy exercises as a way of ensuring regional stability and peace. Tensions between Australia and China have intensified recently over Canberra's decision to grant a visa to an exiled ethnic Uighur activist and the arrest in Beijing of an Australian mining executive accused of infringing trade secrets and bribery.<br /> </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Zhang Junsai hopes the problems can be ironed out. "Current difficulties in bilateral relations is something that China does not want to see. So, we hope Australia will join China to respect and accommodate each other's interests and our concerns," said Zhang. Few details have been released about possible joint military exercises between China, the United States and Australia.<br /> </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Reports have suggested they could include naval and land activities as well personnel exchanges. A U.S. military spokesman at Admiral Keating's headquarters in Hawaii said that no formal invitations to join an exercise had yet been extended to China.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-great-game-iran-and-russia.html"><br />http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/new-great-game-iran-and-russia.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/america-snubbed-as-china-india-and.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/america-snubbed-as-china-india-and.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-eu-summit-ends-with-differences.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-eu-summit-ends-with-differences.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-parades-new-missile-defense.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-parades-new-missile-defense.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/chinas-empire-must-end-reliance-on-one.html">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/chinas-empire-must-end-reliance-on-one.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicpulse.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-final-report-card.html">http://globaleconomicpulse.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-final-report-card.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/misreading-map.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/misreading-map.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-03-voa14.cfm">http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-03-voa14.cfm</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Australia, United States, China, joint military exercises, arms race, Asia-Pacific region, Beijing's military expansion, trade negotiations, soothing tensions, U.S. defense officials, Admiral Timothy Keating, U.S. forces in the Pacific,</span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/australia-us-to-invite-china-to-war-games">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-55379656747819147872009-09-10T12:41:00.001-07:002009-09-10T12:51:00.926-07:00Delivering Data At Light Speed<p><span style="font-size:19px;"><b><a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/7sV9uFmZZBnGikhcD65gWWLDdeJtyndk4Mu7tyCUCgnAZcdm75Oew0HhMK9j/Global_IT_News_-_Delivering_da.jpg"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/iesU5XHHBneveZii5kxc6XxrsR7s9Ysk8uDCvyzQ0JVjf4lHSIrA1bxgwPho/Global_IT_News_-_Delivering_da.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="532" /></a><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size:19px;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">You may not have heard of nanophotonics, but it may be the technology that puts Intel and Broadcom chips to shame.</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><a href="http://ads.forbes.com/RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/forbes.com/personalfinance/story/id751859964/562692309/x92/OasDefault_v5/default/empty.gif/474656504945716c75615141416e3376" target="_top"></a></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Greg Young serves as president and CEO of Luxtera [full disclosure: My venture firm, Lux Capital, is an equity investor]. Prior to Luxtera, he was vice president and general manager of the High Speed Ethernet Controller and High Definition Media PC Video business units at Broadcom. While there, Greg led the growth of the Ethernet Controller business unit from concept to hundreds of millions in revenue and the No. 1 market share position. Prior to joining Broadcom, Greg was with Intel, where he held several engineering marketing and leadership positions.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Josh Wolfe:</span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> What career path led you to Luxtera?</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Greg Young:</span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> After trying some startups out of school I joined <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=INTC">Intel</a> ( <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=INTC">INTC</a> - <a href="http://search.forbes.com/search/CompanyNewsSearch?ticker=INTC">news </a>-<a href="http://people.forbes.com/search?ticker=INTC">people </a>) in the mid-90s, beginning as an engineer and then transitioning over to marketing and running product lines. I worked at Intel until 1999, when I joined <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=BRCM">Broadcom</a> ( <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=BRCM">BRCM</a> - <a href="http://search.forbes.com/search/CompanyNewsSearch?ticker=BRCM">news </a>- <a href="http://people.forbes.com/search?ticker=BRCM">people </a>). I spent eight years at Broadcom helping to pioneer the company's participation in the Ethernet market for the network interface controller business. Ultimately, I helped grow that business to about $350 million dollars a year in semiconductor revenue. Most of my career has been spent building businesses off of advanced transceiver technology (devices that both transmit and receive information), so when I recognized the opportunity within Luxtera, it was easy for me to see how the technology could be built into a large-scale enterprise.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">What excited you about the company?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">First, some market backdrop here: It's getting harder and harder to send fast signals over copper wires. The world of optics has been sitting out there for a long time as the performance leader, but it has been a very expensive way to get the performance that you need for the same kind of input/output speeds. When I recognized that Luxtera had the ability to create a complete optical transceiver in CMOS technology to take performance to 10 gigabits and well beyond 10 gigabits at a cost point that was previously unachievable, I saw the same kind of opportunity I was given at both Intel and Broadcom.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Put it in perspective--how fast is 10 gigabits?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">If you use a cable modem at home, that's about a 1 megabit connection--a million bits per second. We're talking about ultimately transitioning people to the point where they can readily transmit 10 billion bits a second. That's the equivalent of downloading more than 300 songs every second.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Why do photons trump electrons when it comes to broadcasting bits?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">When you send an electronic signal over copper wires, there is a relationship between speed, distance, and signal integrity. As you get faster and faster over the same distance of wire, your signal integrity gets worse, and you see distortion in the signal that starts to dominate the signal quality at higher speeds. Because of that relationship, there is a natural limit for how fast and far you can push a signal over a copper wire.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">At 10 gigabit speeds, electrical interconnects over copper wires really start to break down--it's hard to transmit the signal even 10 meters. Alternatively, you can send a burst of photonic energy down a low-cost fiber optic waveguide, and you can easily send a 10 gigabit signal over 10 kilometers. You can do it with less power, less complexity, and with Luxtera's technology--lower cost.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Why is transceiver technology important in this industry?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">While at Intel and Broadcom, I saw two things: first, mixed signal circuitry (combined analog and digital circuitry) would enhance the communications signals between systems, and second, I realized that the rate at which you come out with new transceiver technology is really what controlled the cadence of the innovation in the industry. I first saw this at Intel.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The company was able to utilize its own technology to build transceivers for 100 megabit Ethernet. At the time, <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=COMS">3Com</a> ( <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=COMS">COMS</a> - <a href="http://search.forbes.com/search/CompanyNewsSearch?ticker=COMS">news </a>- <a href="http://people.forbes.com/search?ticker=COMS">people</a>) was the dominant player, but by leveraging the cost and performance benefits of having an integrated transceiver technology in CMOS, we were able to transition the market from 10 megabit to 100 megabit Ethernet and move Intel's position from a minority player to the market leader within the network interface controller business. That was a really interesting learning experience for me.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">When I joined Broadcom in 1999, the company was the leader in mixed signal in CMOS and was just entering the Ethernet space, building up their business as an Ethernet transceiver vendor. What I was handed when I came into the company was a complete, single-chip gigabit Ethernet transceiver. At the time, no other company in the world knew how to build a single-chip transceiver for 1 gigabit data rates, and by having that technology I was able to facilitate a very similar transition to what I had been involved with at Intel--driving the market from 100 megabit Ethernet to 1 gigabit Ethernet.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Today, you can barely buy a computer that doesn't have a gigabit Ethernet network controller in it, and it was that transceiver advantage that Broadcom had that allowed them to subsequently grab the No. 1 market position from Intel.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">CMOS, photonics, optical transceivers--sounds complex! In the simplest of terms, what is it that Luxtera's technology does?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Our technology takes a high-speed signal and gets it from point A to point B. A transceiver sends out a signal at point A and receives the same signal at point B. We send that signal over a fiber optic cable, giving us performance and signal quality advantages. Our system is less expensive than other optical approaches because of nanophotonics--we've shrunk the optical elements down to the same scale as the transistors that sit inside your PC's CPU.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">By being down at that scale, we've enabled the manufacturing of our systems with the same processes that makes computer chips, meaning we can precisely stamp them out in large quantities, without needing complex assembly. We've been able to move the world of photonic interconnects from an era equivalent to that of the vacuum tubes, to one of the modern integrated circuit.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Who's competing with Luxtera in this market?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">If you look at the area of silicon CMOS photonics, Intel, <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=IBM">IBM</a> ( <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=IBM">IBM</a> -<a href="http://search.forbes.com/search/CompanyNewsSearch?ticker=IBM">news </a>- <a href="http://people.forbes.com/search?ticker=IBM">people </a>), <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=HPQ">Hewlett-Packard</a> ( <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=HPQ">HPQ</a> - <a href="http://search.forbes.com/search/CompanyNewsSearch?ticker=HPQ">news </a>- <a href="http://people.forbes.com/search?ticker=HPQ">people </a>) and many other big names within the industry are all doing research. But Luxtera is the leader in development in this space. The original foundation for the company came out of advanced research at Caltech, which stimulated the very early years of development.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">We have pioneered a brand new space, moving nanophotonic structures into a CMOS-compatible silicon process. By doing that, we've figured out how to increase performance while reducing cost. We've blazed a new trail, and in doing so we've established the methods and techniques needed to bring this technology into production. Based upon research papers written by other companies exploring this area, we estimate that we're at least five years ahead of the nearest competitor.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">What do you see as the current market opportunity for this technology?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">There is a huge short-term opportunity for Luxtera within the high-performance computing segment. High-performance computing refers to supercomputers and computer clusters like data centers that are trying to achieve maximum performance to solve complex computations or process large amounts of data. They are all on the cutting-edge of technology, and typically that technology very quickly waterfalls down into the mainstream PC market.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">High-performance computing centers are typically the starting point for many innovations in the industry. In each of these centers, there are many, many processors that are trying to communicate with one another at mind-boggling speed, and it's becoming nearly impossible to make that communication work with copper wires.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">While there has always been a broad opportunity for photonics, the photonic approaches thus far have always been too expensive to implement. Our technology allows us to take the performance of optics and reduce the cost so that we're able to interconnect these high-performance computing centers economically.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">When will we see this type of technology in our home computers?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Over time, optics will transition into every market as speeds get faster and faster. The move from copper to fiber optics is a very natural transition forecasted by just about every industry pundit. You can find this technology today within the high-performance computing space, where we have products that send signals over fiber optics used to connect high-performance computing data centers.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Some of the world's fastest computer systems use photonic interconnects, and over time you're going see that transition down into consumer electronics: Home PCs, DVD players and TVs will all ultimately pick up optics for communications between subcomponents. What's notable is that optics has already moved into the home. The transition from magnetic media--like VHS and cassette tapes--to digital optical data storage on CDs and DVDs is a great precedent where storage requirements exceeded the limits of magnetic, copper-type systems and transitioned over to optics. Communication interconnects are moving down that same path.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Is Luxtera still focused on research or is the company shipping products today?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">We are in production with products today. While we continue to do research to move the edge of technology forward (with 23 PhDs on staff), we are a product company with development engineering and manufacturing operations. In fact, we recently announced that through a partnership with <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=FSL">Freescale Semiconductor</a> ( <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=FSL">FSL</a> - <a href="http://search.forbes.com/search/CompanyNewsSearch?ticker=FSL">news </a>- <a href="http://people.forbes.com/search?ticker=FSL">people</a>), we've reached full-scale production status for CMOS photonics technology.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">What does this collaboration with Freescale mean for the company?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">It means we can now design and produce chips that use our structures on a very large scale. Freescale already has a process that they use to build transistors at very large scale, and they produce lots of chips for things like network processors and automotive sensors. We've been able to integrate our novel nanophotonic device structures into Freescale's process, so now their factories can produce CMOS photonic transceivers.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">As anyone in the semiconductor industry knows, it takes about five years to develop a new CMOS process, and once you have that process in production, you build products in it for a number of years. By taking our process to maturity through our relationship with Freescale, we can now design a whole host of products and bring them very quickly from design into volume manufacturing.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">How do you think big players like Intel and Broadcom perceive your company in the market today?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">I think that Intel in particular, and others that work in silicon photonics, see silicon CMOS photonics as being part of their future roadmap. Having a company like Luxtera out there that's in production with CMOS photonics, on the cutting edge of technology, I think one, it comforts them that the roadmap in front of them is truly viable, and two, if I were in their shoes, I would be a little threatened by it. Our technology can be applied to anyone in the industry. Any company that wants to be able to adopt</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">CMOS photonics to gain performance benefits in a very large market can leverage our technology platform and get to market very quickly. On the other hand, I think a lot of companies view us as an opportunity to get their hands on a technology that could move them ahead on their own roadmap faster.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The ease by which we transport massive waves of data may leave many unaware of the physical systems that enable our virtual world. How do you give people a sense of appreciation for the importance of this technology?</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Here's an analogy that may give people some sense of scale: Many people have gone through the transition from a 56k modem to a cable modem or DSL service. What photonics represents to high-performance computing is akin to the transition from dial-up to broadband.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/09/ibm-first-to-x-ray-molecule.html">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/09/ibm-first-to-x-ray-molecule.html</a> <a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/brain-is-co-conspirator-in-vicious.html"><br />http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/brain-is-co-conspirator-in-vicious.html</a> <a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives.html" target="_blank"><br /></a><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives.html" target="_blank">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives.html</a></span></p><p> <span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives.html" target="_blank"></a><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/space-tourism-celebrates-5-year.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/space-tourism-celebrates-5-year.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/sperm-created-from-stem-cells.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/sperm-created-from-stem-cells.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-augemented-reality.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-augemented-reality.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-people-may-be-immune-to-swine-flu.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-people-may-be-immune-to-swine-flu.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/harvesting-water-from-air.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/harvesting-water-from-air.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-dinosaurs-still-exist.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-dinosaurs-still-exist.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-penguin-pair-raising-chick.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-penguin-pair-raising-chick.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-strange-species-discovered-last-year.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-strange-species-discovered-last-year.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/europe-fastest-supercomputer-unveiled.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/europe-fastest-supercomputer-unveiled.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/giant-blob-found-deep-beneath-nevada.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/giant-blob-found-deep-beneath-nevada.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/neurologist-offers-guide-to-healthier.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/neurologist-offers-guide-to-healthier.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/robot-takes-over-tokyo-classroom.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/robot-takes-over-tokyo-classroom.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/next-age-of-discovery.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/next-age-of-discovery.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:8.0pt;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/24/intel-broadcom-luxtera-personal-finance-guru-insight-nanophotonic-gigabit.html">http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/24/intel-broadcom-luxtera-personal-finance-guru-insight-nanophotonic-gigabit.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Josh Wolfe, Forbes, CMOS, photonics, Luxtera, Freescale, Greg Young, Lux Capital, Broadcom, electrons, optical transceivers, <a href="http://finapps.forbes.com/finapps/jsp/finance/compinfo/CIAtAGlance.jsp?tkr=FSL">Freescale Semiconductor</a>, nanophotonic structures, CMOS-compatible silicon process, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/delivering-data-at-light-speed">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-79206419805048863002009-09-08T11:03:00.001-07:002009-09-08T11:09:29.054-07:00Tech Mogul Injured By Elephant<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/HSFkzqSxnRWhczbUKCvckyPbkFzj9uMB4dHYTsjhZK2n1ZtraQIaCr5sYGrN/Global_IT_News_-_Siebel_Attack.jpg" width="381" height="500" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Today he's home in Woodside, recuperating from serious injuries. A little more than a month ago, Silicon Valley billionaire Tom Siebel was in the Serengeti, where a charging elephant attacked him and a guide.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"It was all happening so fast. There was no place to hide, no place to run," the 56-year-old Siebel, founder of the Siebel Systems software company, told the Mercury News in an exclusive interview Wednesday.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The elephant plowed into the guide and then turned on Siebel, breaking several ribs, goring him in the left leg and crushing the right. Siebel said they were able to radio for help only after the animal lost interest and wandered away, but it was three hours before he received any medical treatment.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Siebel sold his business to Oracle four years ago and now divides his time between his Woodside home, an office in Palo Alto and a ranch in Montana, where he raises cattle and competes in team roping events. He said he was on a photo safari in Tanzania last month when the elephant attacked without warning.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Early on the morning of Aug. 1, Siebel said, he and a guide went to a watering hole, where they hoped to observe a variety of game that were known to gather in the quiet early morning hours. They were watching a group of elephants from 200 yards away — "keeping a respectful distance," Siebel said — when one turned and without warning began to charge.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"There was no apparent reason, nothing that should have made it feel threatened," Siebel said. "It was quiet, and then the quiet stopped," when the elephant began thundering toward the two men. As the massive animal closed the distance, Siebel said the guide fired a gun but missed. Siebel said he was trampled and gored in the leg, until he just "curled into as tight a ball as I could." The guide suffered broken ribs and other injuries.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">After the animal left and the men called for help, rescuers came and eventually airlifted Siebel to Nairobi, where he received emergency care before flying back to California for more treatment. All told, he said, he spent 18 days in four hospitals before he was allowed to go home. Siebel has been using a wheelchair but has told friends he expects to make a full recovery, after reconstructive surgery and physical therapy. "I was very fortunate to have survived something you might not think was survivable," he said cheerfully Wednesday. "But I am home now, and with my family. It makes you glad to be home."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Siebel has not discussed the incident publicly before now. He said Wednesday that he was not eager for publicity about the experience but agreed to describe what happened after the Mercury News contacted him to confirm an account that was circulating in the community. A veteran software executive, Siebel has kept a relatively low profile in the business world while investing his assets through a holding company called First Virtual Group. He has made a bigger splash with his nonprofit, the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation, and by helping to fund alternative energy research and an anti-methamphetamine campaign that has been adopted by several rural states. BusinessWeek magazine included him in a 2008 ranking of the 50 most generous philanthropists in the country.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Siebel said Wednesday that he doesn't know what became of the elephant that attacked him. He said authorities in Tanzania searched for it, but as far as he knows it was never found. While he's doing some work from home, he said, he's focused on his recovery. "My job is to get healthy and get over it," he said, "and I'm going to do my job."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/virgin-looking-at-playboybut-will.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/virgin-looking-at-playboybut-will.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/richard-branson-kiteboarding-with-naked.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/richard-branson-kiteboarding-with-naked.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/ellison-tells-developers-oracle-will.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/ellison-tells-developers-oracle-will.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/08/haruki-murakami-always-on-side-of-egg.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/08/haruki-murakami-always-on-side-of-egg.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/08/reclusive-billionaire-gives-away-his.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/08/reclusive-billionaire-gives-away-his.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/bill-gates-name-surfaces-on-patent.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/bill-gates-name-surfaces-on-patent.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/apple-ceo-jobs-back-at-work.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/apple-ceo-jobs-back-at-work.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/stoned-wallabies-making-crop-circles.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/stoned-wallabies-making-crop-circles.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/steve-jobs-had-liver-transplant.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/steve-jobs-had-liver-transplant.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/teslas-founder-sues-teslas-ceo.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/teslas-founder-sues-teslas-ceo.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_13256318?nclick_check=1">http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_13256318?nclick_check=1</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Silicon Valley billionaire, Tom Siebel, Serengeti, charging elephant attack, founder Siebel Systems software company, Mercury News, Oracle, Nairobi, Tanzania, First Virtual Group, Tom and Stacey Siebel Foundation, fund alternative energy research, anti-methamphetamine campaign, BusinessWeek magazine, 50 most generous philanthropists in USA, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/tech-mogul-injured-by-elephant">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-30190210371295667062009-09-04T10:46:00.001-07:002009-09-04T10:54:29.701-07:00Who's To Blame For The Mortgage Crisis?<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/i3DliegEAq2ZHxqnG69WJ4KlgbwhGQKkHh9jkFxGuufMTQms8OBUYY086ZZr/Whos_To_Blame_For_The_Mortgage.jpg" width="433" height="274" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">If you're having a hard time getting your head around exactly what happened in the historic meltdown of America's home-mortgage market, you're not alone. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">As the wife-and-husband investigative team Leslie and Andrew Cockburn suggest in their new documentary, <a href="http://www.americancasinothemovie.com/" target="_blank">"American Casino,"</a> nobody fully understands it: Not the bankers and brokers who sold subprime mortgages (often using deceptive tactics or disingenuous language), not the Wall Street wizards who carved them up into ever more esoteric financial instruments, not the free-market wise men like former Fed chair Alan Greenspan or former Sen. Phil Gramm, and certainly not the ordinary citizens who believed they were fulfilling the American dream and wound up losing their homes, their financial security and their self-respect.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Actually, the Cockburns meet one guy in "American Casino" who understands the whole mess better than most, a California real estate investor named Jeff Greene who smelled the end of the housing bubble around 2006 and bet $1 billion against the mid-decade exuberance of Wall Street. Sitting in his walled and gated beach compound in Malibu, Greene calmly tells the camera that the opportunity for his successful hedge bet (which has yielded $500 million so far) involved massive pain for millions of homeowners.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">We meet some of those people too; the Cockburns focus in particular on the African-American community of Baltimore, a city devastated by the tidal wave of foreclosures. Of course foreclosed properties can be found in virtually every neighborhood of every town and city, and at every income level. But Latinos and African-Americans are several times more likely to be affected than whites, and while the problem is undeniably complicated, that almost certainly reflects the enduring legacy of racism. In the 1990s and 2000s, neighborhoods that had previously been "redlined" by traditional lenders became targeted by unregulated and unscrupulous vendors of subprime mortgages, who neither knew nor cared whether borrowers were likely to default on those loans. As we now know, the results were toxic.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">One of the film's sad ironies is that middle-class homeowners like Denzel Mitchell, a Baltimore high-school teacher, or Patricia McNair, a family therapist, might well have qualified for conventional loans from normal banks. (One survey mentioned in the film suggests that at least half the people who applied for subprime mortgages in 2006 could have qualified for prime mortgages.) Instead, they were enticed into too-good-to-be-true first and then second mortgages that adjusted sharply upward, which they couldn't realistically afford. Both people are aware that their own lack of financial sophistication is partly to blame for their predicament, but that does nothing to lessen the heartbreak as McNair and her husband have to leave the appealing family home where her adult children grew up, or as Mitchell must abandon his organic vegetable garden and the Tuskegee Airmen-themed bedroom for his little boys.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">But if you want to blame somebody for what happened to Mitchell, McNair and millions of other Americans, the place to point the finger is at the fervid deregulation advocated by Greenspan and enacted by Congress under the whip of Gramm and other free-market ideologues. Such laissez-faire reforms created a wide-open marketplace where bankers and brokers could sell whatever extortionate mortgage deals they wanted to whomever they wanted, while lying to consumers about what they were getting and lying to lenders about the borrower's income and assets. Meanwhile, as one anonymous former Bear, Stearns banker tells the Cockburns, Wall Street securities dealers carved up packages of mortgages into abstruse, "fourth-dimensional" instruments to be sold to "idiots."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"American Casino" is of necessity a fragmentary tale; it was being filmed in 2008 as the crisis broadened and deepened, with events unfolding too fast for the Cockburn cameras. But while the mortgage crisis still awaits a rigorous deconstruction along the lines of Alex Gibney's <a href="http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2005/04/21/enron/">"Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room,"</a> this film stands as an intimate, terrifying document that renders an incomprehensible slice of recent history in human terms. While the stories of Denzel Mitchell and Patricia McNair made me want to weep, the film's most memorable images stem from the Sisyphean task of Jared Dever, a bright and handsome local official in Riverside County, Calif., whose job is to control the county's mosquito epidemic, largely caused by the fetid, abandoned swimming pools behind foreclosed suburban homes.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Dever patrols a nightmarish, new-but-decrepit landscape straight out of the fiction of J.G. Ballard, carefully checking empty houses for signs of meth labs or marijuana grow zones before attacking the pools, whose algae-green water is full of abandoned patio furniture, tires and sports equipment, along with millions of mosquito larvae and the minnows who live on them. I'm not sure that hosing down the whole subdivision with Malathion is any kind of answer. Civilization didn't leave much of an imprint on that place. Now that the bankers have sucked out all its supposed economic value, we might as well drain the pools, knock down the houses and let the coyotes and rattlesnakes take over.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles:</span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/thriving-norway-offers-lesson-in.html"><br />http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/thriving-norway-offers-lesson-in.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/geithner-goes-to-china-hat-in-hand.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/geithner-goes-to-china-hat-in-hand.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/future-of-us-capitalism.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/future-of-us-capitalism.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-america-is-bank-owned-state.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-america-is-bank-owned-state.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/great-deficit-scare-returns.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/great-deficit-scare-returns.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/world-bank-cuts-2009-global-growth.html">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/world-bank-cuts-2009-global-growth.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/uk-economy-shrinks-most-in-50-years.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/uk-economy-shrinks-most-in-50-years.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/greenspan-fears-inflation.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/greenspan-fears-inflation.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:8.0pt;"><a href="http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/09/02/casino/index.html?source=rss&aim=/ent/movies/btm/feature">http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2009/09/02/casino/index.html?source=rss&aim=/ent/movies/btm/feature</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Salon, American Casino, Leslie and Andrew Cockburn, documentary, bankers, brokers, subprime mortgages, Jeff Greene, redlined, Phil Gramm, Alan Greenspan, Global Economic News, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/whos-to-blame-for-the-mortgage-crisis">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-57864709558772612282009-09-02T10:56:00.001-07:002009-09-02T11:05:28.932-07:00Workers Adjust To The New F-word: Furloughs<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/jd9kazGfpfE0HJ6Pdvn1SNP0ZllBhTl9RA2qmfCtxMzUvrTCX4ojXtSeJoLt/Workers_adjust_to_new_F_word_-.jpg" width="389" height="457" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">"Furlough Fridays" for John Krumm may as well be called "Food Bank Fridays."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Along with 210,000 fellow state government workers, the driver and safety clerk for the Department of Motor Vehicles is helping California balance its battered budget by taking an unpaid day off from work three Fridays each month. But he's not going to Project Open Hand's kitchen to volunteer. "I go to save money and get food for my table," says Krumm, describing a still-life tableau of his furlough handout:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"Couple pieces of chicken. Some fruits and vegetables. Beans, milk and cheese. I'm losing $450 each month from my paycheck, so I'm watching every penny," he says. "And if they make us take off any more days, I won't be able to afford my rent."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">As private and public employers seek to whittle overhead while skirting the heavier costs of laying off and rehiring staff, millions of workers are being poked and prodded with America's hottest management tool.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"Furloughs make sense because if you have a good employee, you want to do whatever you can to keep them," says labor lawyer Michael S. Bernick, former head of California's Employment Development Department under Gov. Gray Davis. "But while they may help reduce layoffs, they have their other side — for most workers, taking a 10 to 20 percent pay cut is a big hit."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Furloughs can also create huge workload backups as well as raise sticky legal questions for employers who try to force exempt workers into unpaid leaves. And critics like San Francisco State University professor John Sullivan say the management tool could actually end up causing more workplace problems than they solve. "If you cut everyone's pay," he says, "you'll drive away your top performers and end up with mediocre people."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Cost-cutting tool</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">As the new F-word makes the rounds of the water-cooler and cocktail-party circuit, it seems everyone from autoworkers to bridge inspectors to newspaper reporters is being forced to take unpaid leave as companies try to stay afloat and governments slash budgets. Firm numbers are hard to come by, according to economist Stephen Levy, who says that in the private sector, at least, "as long as sales start to pick up slightly, we're probably at the peak of layoffs and furloughs right now."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">But in an economy where 6.7 million jobs have disappeared since the recession began in December 2007, and as private wages and salaries continue to fall each month, no one's betting against the prospect of more furloughs. In fact, 6 percent of employers surveyed by the consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide say they will force mandatory furloughs within the next 12 months, while nearly one in 10 of those asked say they expect to implement a shortened workweek over the same time frame.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">And while nearly half the state governments have instituted or proposed furloughs, it may have been California's historic embrace that moved them onto the front page. In addition to planned layoffs, California hopes to save $3 billion over 17 months by sending home state employees the first three Fridays of each month. With the Department of Personnel Administration using the tool for the first time to bridge its gaping deficit, spokeswoman Lynelle Jolley says furloughs were the best fix for a dire situation.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"With the state in a precarious position, we needed to conserve cash immediately," she says. "The layoff process can be quite lengthy, but with furloughs we can achieve savings immediately. We were desperate."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">State governments seem to be taking a page from industries like heavy manufacturing and airlines, which historically have furloughed employees when business slowed. In Silicon Valley, temporary shutdowns have been a common practice, often a year-end tradition at many high-tech firms.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Mark Perry, a computer programmer with 30 years' experience in the valley, says state workers are now "getting a taste of real life that we've known for years in tech. They've been sort of sheltered. "I was with Intel, Fairchild, 23 different companies, and I was furloughed at about half of them until business turned around," says Perry, laid off in 2003 from Applied Materials. "The first time it's a bit of a shock, because you depend on a certain amount of income. But gradually you learn to treat it like you're on a pretend vacation. You kind of expect it and build it into the salary you think you're making. "Furloughs," Perry says, "train you not to live paycheck to paycheck."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Beats a layoff, but "...</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">A lot of affected employees are conflicted: Having a job is great — but taking a pay cut to keep that job stinks. First-timers like John Krumm are struggling with furlough shock. "I think it's a shame," says Krumm, who works at a San Francisco branch of the DMV. "You've already cut our pay by 14 percent, and if you add another day, you're up to 18 percent. People working here will now be making less than they made when they started 10 years ago."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">For a couple employed by the state, the furloughs can be devastating. Krumm says "a lot of my colleagues at the DMV are filing for bankruptcy. A lot of them have a partner or husband who works for the state," which is a double whammy for the family budget.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">While most experts stress the positive impacts of furloughs over layoffs, no one says they're a panacea. They punish lower-paid workers disproportionately; they can torpedo workplace morale; and workers whose pay has been cut make for lousy consumers, saving more and spending less, hampering a quick economic recovery.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Forced to downsize by his boss to a three-day workweek, San Jose real estate professional William Huey says his furlough threw him off kilter, "because I'd had this structured routine and suddenly everything changed. On my days off, I had to think, 'What am I supposed to be doing today?' "</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Even though his three days eventually turned into a layoff, Huey does see some benefits to mandatory time off. "In retrospect,'' says Huey, who used his forced leave to help his wife start a private Chinese-language school, "it was as if I'd been allowed to leave my job gradually, because having that time off gives you the chance to explore other ideas you may want to try. The furlough,'' he says, "was like the severance package I never got in the end."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Hard choices</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Yet for Rick Binger, furloughs became a powerful if painful management tool to save his San Francisco catalog marketing firm and, he hopes, will ensure that his six staffers all have jobs when the recession recedes. In February, faced with a virtual collapse of his business, Binger had his employees take a month off without pay. When new business didn't materialize, the furlough grew even longer until work picked up and employees started coming back to their jobs in July.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"I told everyone I was really sorry, but I just didn't have any work so there was no income coming in," he says. "My hands were tied. Everyone sacrificed, and I think they knew that as hard as this was, it was better than being laid off."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The use of furloughs, says Binger, "enabled me to survive over those four months." Others, though, say furloughs create more problems than they fix. Sullivan, of San Francisco State University, is not only a passionate critic of the practice, but he's now being forced to take a furlough himself as part of the college system's efforts to cut costs.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"I ask employers, 'Why are you doing furloughs?' and they say, 'Because the other guy is,' " he says. "But they're a fad and they don't really save money. It's the poorly managed companies that use them, not places like Microsoft or Google."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Sullivan says the smarter route would be better planning, a greater push for productivity gains — and the corner-office fortitude to let heads roll. "Managers are chicken to make the tough decision and let you go. But that's what a great manager does."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"When you cut time and not workload," he says, "you've really compounded the problem you had to begin with." Just ask Krumm. DMV offices on Monday mornings after a Friday furlough have been described on online forums as a circuslike crush of humanity, with drivers lined up out the door to reach clerks whose workloads have been stacking up since Thursday. "After a while,'' Krumm says, "they have to stop people from coming in the door because otherwise we'd be in violation of the fire code."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">FURLOUGH FACTS</span></b></p> <p><b style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Although the actual number of furloughs is hard to come by, one national survey of employers found some interesting statistics:</span></span></b></p><p style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">» 17 percent of employers surveyed in April said they had initiated mandatory furloughs, up from 11 percent the previous month.</span></p><p> </p> <p style="margin-left: .5in;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">» Nearly one in 10 employers expect to implement a shortened workweek within the next 12 months.</span></p><p> </p> <p style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">» Another 6 percent will force mandatory furloughs.</span></p><p> </p> <p style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">» 9 percent say they"ll have voluntary furloughs.</span></p><p> </p> <p style="text-indent: .5in;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">» 7 percent have cut workers" salaries.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Source: Watson Wyatt Worldwide</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/california-ills-give-us-headache.html">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/california-ills-give-us-headache.html</a><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/california-paying-bills-with-ious.html" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/california-paying-bills-with-ious.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/california-paying-bills-with-ious.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-hot-pursuit-of-fusion-or-folly.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/in-hot-pursuit-of-fusion-or-folly.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/san-francisco-links-311-call-center-to.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/san-francisco-links-311-call-center-to.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/microlending-taking-off-in-us.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/microlending-taking-off-in-us.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/future-of-us-capitalism.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/future-of-us-capitalism.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/will-economy-change-buying-habits.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/will-economy-change-buying-habits.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_13053940?nclick_check=1">http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_13053940?nclick_check=1</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">California</span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> state government workers, Department of Motor Vehicles, unpaid day off, Project Open Hand's, furlough, Michael S. Bernick, California's Employment Development Department, Gov. Gray Davis, San Francisco State University, John Sullivan,</span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/workers-adjust-to-the-new-f-word-furloughs">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-25972973148116275512009-09-01T08:39:00.001-07:002009-09-01T09:00:59.483-07:00IBM First to X-Ray a Molecule<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/ng85hWal1O5KDoc9EHs2DIwT7OdS1udVs5TihxxQpQfaBKnn6wIIqUJHARkD/ibm_pentacene_molecule_full_-_.jpg"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/8YaT1jAlRod0U864OLxemxf1Ey4audYn0gFw1kOF9OIcM9aujRNpN22nnfMt/ibm_pentacene_molecule_full_-_.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="243" /></a> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">IBM scientists claim to be the first to image the inner structure of a molecule, opening up new possibilities in building smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient computing components. The achievement, reported in the August 28 issue of Science magazine, is described as a milestone in surface microscopy, which pushes the exploration of using molecules and atoms in the field of nanotechnology.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"Though not an exact comparison, if you think about how a doctor uses an x-ray to image bones and organs inside the human body, we are using the atomic force microscope to image the atomic structures that are the backbones of individual molecules," IBM Researcher Gerhard Meyer said <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/28267.wss" target="_blank">in a statement.</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The latest publication comes two months after IBM scientists used the same complex technique known as "non-contact atomic force microscopy" to measure the charge states of atoms within a molecule. That work, combined with the latest achievement, are considered breakthroughs in the investigation of how an electrical charge transmits through molecules or molecular networks.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">An understanding of how a charge is distributed at the atomic scale is essential for building smaller, more powerful, and more energy-efficient computing components than today's processors and <a href="http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=memory&x=&y=">memory</a> devices, IBM said. In <a href="http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=imaging&x=&y=">imaging</a> the inner structure of a molecule, IBM scientists in Zurich, Switzerland, operated an atomic force microscope at an ultra-high vacuum at minus 451 degrees Fahrenheit. As a result, the researchers for the first time were able to look through the electron cloud covering the molecule to see its atomic backbone.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Atomic force microscopy, or AFM, uses a sharp metal tip to measure the tiny forces between the tip and within the molecule to create an image. The image created by IBM scientists was of an organic molecule called a Pentacene, consisting of 22 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen atoms measuring 1.4 nanometers in length. The researchers imaged the carbon atoms, which were only 0.14 of a nanometer apart, or about 1 millionth the diameter of a grain of sand. From this image, scientists deduced the positions of the hydrogen atoms.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">A particular challenge in the imaging process was getting the tip of the AFM within a half nanometer from the molecule without disturbing it. To achieve this, a carbon monoxide molecule was placed at the tip, which acted as a powerful magnifying glass able to capture a 3D map of the molecule's inner structure. The IBM scientists who worked on the project were Meyer, Leo Gross, Fabian Mohn, and Nikolaj Moll. The researchers worked in collaboration with Peter Liljeroth of Utrecht University. A <a href="http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=video&x=&y=">video</a> of the scientists describing their work <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnLRl_74BZs" target="_blank">is on YouTube.</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/brain-is-co-conspirator-in-vicious.html">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/brain-is-co-conspirator-in-vicious.html</a> <a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives.html" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/08/disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives.html" 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href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-people-may-be-immune-to-swine-flu.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-people-may-be-immune-to-swine-flu.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/harvesting-water-from-air.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/harvesting-water-from-air.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-dinosaurs-still-exist.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-dinosaurs-still-exist.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-penguin-pair-raising-chick.html" 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;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/neurologist-offers-guide-to-healthier.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/neurologist-offers-guide-to-healthier.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/robot-takes-over-tokyo-classroom.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/robot-takes-over-tokyo-classroom.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/next-age-of-discovery.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/next-age-of-discovery.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:8.0pt;"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/processors/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219500495&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News">http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/processors/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219500495&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">IBM scientists, inner structure of a molecule, energy-efficient computing components, Science magazine, surface microscopy, atoms, nanotechnology, Gerhard Meyer, Leo Gross, Fabian Mohn, Nikolaj Moll, Peter Liljeroth, Utrecht University,</span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/ibm-first-to-x-ray-a-molecule">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-86926942404353827162009-08-29T13:54:00.001-07:002009-08-29T14:31:25.831-07:00High Frequency Trading: The Rise of the Machines<p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:7;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 40px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; "></span></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Perpetua;font-size:7;"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template" style="margin-top: 0.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-bottom: 1.5em; "><div class="post-body entry-content" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 1.6em; "><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-7H9onXfDFQRPouZRoibFQE_YP2GtNM653mCHDK7tlQNj6fLq3taNa4kmd-zqdHDjFKw6FZpWk2hKjj3tyilrD06z8iqit-_t3umzkS3nhHY_rXu0WJ8dYdxPwTF-YCMNh2q7XtM2R2gV/s1600-h/Global+Economic+News+-+Machine+Trading+-+the+rise+of+the+machines.jpg" style="color: rgb(85, 136, 170); text-decoration: none; "><br /><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-7H9onXfDFQRPouZRoibFQE_YP2GtNM653mCHDK7tlQNj6fLq3taNa4kmd-zqdHDjFKw6FZpWk2hKjj3tyilrD06z8iqit-_t3umzkS3nhHY_rXu0WJ8dYdxPwTF-YCMNh2q7XtM2R2gV/s400/Global+Economic+News+-+Machine+Trading+-+the+rise+of+the+machines.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375497295035833954" style="border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; padding-top: 4px; padding-right: 4px; padding-bottom: 4px; padding-left: 4px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-right-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><div><p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Perpetua; font-size: 19px; ">As a professional trader, you are confronted daily with all kinds of dynamics and situations that require a flexible and adaptive mind. You are faced with multiple variables constantly interacting with each other and your task is to process ever-changing information quickly and profitably. Valuations arbitrage, reflexive supply-and-demand dynamics, and structural changes are recurrent landmines in the typical day of traders and money managers.</span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">We accept this “dangerous” line of work for only two reasons: monetary compensation and pride in being part of capital markets, that transmission mechanism without which innovation and creativity would be prisoners of their own ethereal state.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">As a society, we are ready to strike compromises in return for a system that will allow the ethereal state of our creativity to turn into reality. We allow market insiders like market makers, broker-dealers, and others to have small advantages over us mortal investors in order to have them create the positive externalities that help us build a more sophisticated economic system. We give market makers and specialists a privileged look at the order flow (the supply and demand of stocks) in exchange for their commitment to maintaining orderly markets whenever an imbalance occurs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">We give systemic firms like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs privileged access to liquidity via the Federal Reserve so that the banking system and capital markets can continue to serve us in our quest to invent, produce, and distribute new products. But sometimes things turn out more like a bad inland casino rather than a better market… We may still be reeling from the systemic economic collapse of last year, but new structural changes with potential negative externalities are already at our door.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">For months I have witnessed strange dynamics in the way markets behaved: liquidity issues, intra-day volatility, and a constant disconnection between technical, sentiment and fundamental inputs. Markets often go through periods of irrationality, but this time it felt different.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">As a professional trader and an educator on markets, my sensitivity level is higher than normal and I immediately began conducting research to make sense of my discomfort. This process pointed consistently to one element: high frequency trading or as I like to call it “the rise of the machines.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">What is High Frequency Trading?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">High frequency trading (HFT) was, until recently, a topic confined to Wall Street insiders. Only in the last few weeks has it become a mainstream subject of debate via articles on the<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/opinion/29wilmott.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(85, 136, 170); text-decoration: none; ">New York Times</a>, the Washington Post, and interviews on CNBC (yes even CNBC’s clueless anchors can now spell HFT).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">The reason for this foray into the mainstream media is the potential negative ramifications HFT can have for all of us: investors, entrepreneurs, and just plain hopeful citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">But first, let’s define HFT as it is a very technical classification that, nonetheless, encompasses many different things. Generally speaking, HFT is high velocity trading based on mathematical algorithms that create huge daily volume on different electronic exchanges and platforms. It is machine against machine—endless trading in order to capture fractions of pennies in profits. But, so far so good: the machines provide liquidity to all of us. The owners of the machines (financial institutions) make an all-American profit and the liquidity aggregators (electronic exchanges) provide competition to other exchanges in the most capitalistic way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">But what happens if we scratch the surface? Like Michel de Montaigne, the famed Renaissance scholar, once said: “There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the law would not deserve hanging ten times over.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">High frequency algorithmic trading is ridden with issues:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">Volume.</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "> Machine-driven trading is over 60% of trading volume on a daily basis and in some confined cases it can be as high as 90%.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">Adaptability.</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "> Machines are unthinking units that do not adapt to human reactions. HFT algorithms are based on correlations and historical relationships, which are great guidelines for trading and investing but by no means they can be used blindly (see: 1987 portfolio insurance, long-term capital management 1998, credit default swaps 2008, mortgage-backed securities 2008…the list of quant-related disasters is a sad one).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">Exclusivity</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">. HFT can only work by using incredibly fast and powerful computers that also must be placed in the exchanges as proximity helps the speed. Few people can afford the computers and/or the co-location fees charged by the electronic exchanges.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">Flash quotes</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">. Some brokers have access to quotes of orders before anyone else. By exploiting the speed of their machines, they can either arbitrage price differentials or potentially front-run clients. Another abuse of flash quotes (called flash because they last one–to-three milliseconds) is that they can be used as teaser quotes to gauge supply and demand without the risk of being hit due to their quickness.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">Rebates.</span></b><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "> Many high frequency traders trade not for profit but for rebates paid by the electronic platforms to attract liquidity. This escamotage incentivizes useless and toxic volume.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">While these are only the most immediate concerns about HFT, they have a potentially disproportionate influence on the cost of running our capital markets. The HFT lobby pushes the argument that they create positive externalities by exploiting improving technology—but there is a difference between volume and liquidity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">If over 60% of trading is toxic, it will go away in a nanosecond and most likely it will dissipate right when investors and money managers need it the most. This could cause a huge liquidity vacuum and a 1987-type of event. Liquidity is created by market players with a stake in the game, not by casino-like machines. Flash quotes and “predatory algorithms” also raise the cost of execution for the necessarily slower institutions like pension funds and mutual funds. Additionally, the surreal tempo of machine trading makes trading for all more expensive as we now have to prepare for the irrational moves and volatility of markets when executing our trades.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">I love this business and I love technology, but checks and balances are needed to preserve our capital markets. Little adjustments can be made to reduce systemic risk, like re-instating circuit breakers that cut off program trading when price changes accelerate beyond certain parameters, like investigation or stopping flash quotes that drive front running, like making good on teaser quotes for longer than just three milliseconds, and so on. In the end, we need to understand that capital markets are here not to destabilize our economy, but to serve us as a society and help us make better lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">Related Articles:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/thriving-norway-offers-lesson-in.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-decoration: none; ">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/thriving-norway-offers-lesson-in.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/geithner-goes-to-china-hat-in-hand.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-decoration: none; ">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/geithner-goes-to-china-hat-in-hand.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; 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font-family: Perpetua; "><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/buy-china-policy-set-to-raise-tensions.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-decoration: none; ">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/buy-china-policy-set-to-raise-tensions.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/world-bank-cuts-2009-global-growth.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-decoration: none; ">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/world-bank-cuts-2009-global-growth.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/uk-economy-shrinks-most-in-50-years.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-decoration: none; ">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/uk-economy-shrinks-most-in-50-years.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/greenspan-fears-inflation.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-decoration: none; ">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/greenspan-fears-inflation.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/good-news-in-music-business-no-really.html" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-decoration: none; ">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/good-news-in-music-business-no-really.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Perpetua; ">Source:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Perpetua; "><a href="http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/blog/index.php/2009/08/10/1341/" style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-decoration: none; ">http://gbr.pepperdine.edu/blog/index.php/2009/08/10/1341/</a></span></p></div></div><div class="post-footer" style="margin-top: 0.75em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.75em; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.1em; font: normal normal normal 78%/normal 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4em; "><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-3"><span class="post-location"></span></div></div></div></span><p></p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-64791807386239996232009-08-18T08:29:00.001-07:002009-08-18T08:46:01.137-07:00The Future of Search: Social Relevancy Rank<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/xYoYdjqbkm0LMxLfuOgOw5AAJIpeCcmIIuUcTQyCQpo8Msatijpw1uQw21Nj/Global_IT_News_-_The_future_of.jpg"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/L8ch4LAYiGKAenyfkiKYIlLzDNM0HRefAU4NpG5ageMr4hzxlXybm0jfXspA/Global_IT_News_-_The_future_of.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="500" /></a> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">FriendFeed has <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_use_the_new_friendfeed.php" target="_blank">recently launched</a> a search feature, and so Facebook search must be coming soon.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Real-time Web search (of streams of activities) is a <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/keeping_an_eye_on_collecta_real-time_search_engine.php" target="_blank">hot topic</a> <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/sorry_google_you_missed_the_real_time_web.php" target="_blank">right</a> <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/make_google_real_time_with_twitter_ad-on.php" target="_blank">now</a>. Everyone, including Google and <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/bingtweets_microsoft_launches_a_twitter_search_eng.php" target="_blank">Microsoft</a>, recognizes the value of using trusted contacts as filters. What was once called <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_social_search_is_coming.php" target="_blank">social search</a> is now called real-time search, but this time it will really happen. First, it will be applied to streams and then to the Web in general.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">What we are about to get is a Social Relevancy Rank. Whenever you search streams of activity, the results will be ordered not chronologically but by how relevant each is to you based on your social graph. That is, people who matter more to you will bubble up. How does this work? Well, there will be a formula, just as there is a formula for Page Rank.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Solution 101: Rank by Friends and People You Follow</span></b></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Here is an idea so obvious that it is surprising Twitter has not implemented it already: front-load search results with people you follow. When you search for, say, "Wilco" on Twitter today, the results are in the chronological order. That is not really relevant because you do not know who most of these people are. But if instead you could see people you follow, the search results would be much more useful.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">This is not possible on Twitter today, but it already works great on FriendFeed. There, results are filtered or ranked based your social graph. This is not difficult for FriendFeed to do because, on the one hand, it knows who you care about and, on the other, it applies its advanced feed search technology to your social graph:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">This sounds awesome, but there is a problem. "Wilco" works well as a query because the band has just released a new album, but many other queries would return no results. Simply put, your friends on Facebook and people you follow on Twitter can't possibly have an opinion on every topic you may be interested in. This is a problem of sparse data: trusted opinions are scarce.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Small Worlds and Taste Neighbors</span></b></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">To solve the problem of sparse data, we need more data... obviously. One possible solution is to incorporate other sources that you trust (i.e. broaden your social graph). As a next step, search results could rank people you may not be directly following but who are being followed by people you follow. Or in Facebook-speak, friends of friends. You could argue that you are not familiar with their opinions and so cannot yet trust them, but given the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small-world_network" target="_blank">small world phenomenon</a>, their contributions are often just as valuable.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Another step could be to include people with similar tastes, so-called taste neighbors. This approach is common among vertical social networks such as Last.fm, Flixster, and Goodreads. These networks have ideas about which people, other than your friends, are like you. However, this is a costly calculation and takes time. In order for Twitter to do something like this, it would have to compare people based on links or perform semantic analyses of tweets over time. Yet even though this is a difficult problem, it will be solved in time.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The Influencers and the Crowd</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Aside from using the "second degree" of your social graph or taste neighbors, a Social Relevancy Rank could front-load influencers. In the absence of any other metric, someone who is followed by hundreds of thousands of users is likely more relevant to you than someone you don't know at all. Using number of followers as a weight might be a good way to order the rest of the activity stream.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">In general, combing through countless tweets from strangers is not terribly useful anyway. Just as people have stopped looking at anything beyond the first page of results on Google, sifting through pages of tweets in chronological order gets tedious quickly. What needs to be incorporated into the Social Relevancy Rank is the aggregate sentiment of the crowd: a score that tells you yay or nay and gives you an opportunity to drill into more results if you choose.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The Quest for the Perfect Filter</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">There is no such thing as a perfect formula. Even Page Rank isn't perfect. Yet we all use it and find it useful. Much as Page Rank has been adapted and tuned to search the web, Social Relevancy Rank will evolve over time to help us make sense of endless streams of activity. This ranking will have a profound impact on how we tap into our friends' opinions.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">It will change the face of general Web searches in time, too. Today, results are automatically ranked by relevancy and freshness. Once Social Relevancy Rank is factored in, search results will be re-ordered based on social relevancy.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related articles: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/technorati-to-launch-twittorati.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/technorati-to-launch-twittorati.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-unveils-new-search-features.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-unveils-new-search-features.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/twitter-search-to-index-pages-and.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/twitter-search-to-index-pages-and.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/yahoo-upgrades-search-engine.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/yahoo-upgrades-search-engine.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/search-sucks-and-microsoft-is-almost.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/search-sucks-and-microsoft-is-almost.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/searching-for-meaning-of-bing.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/searching-for-meaning-of-bing.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/microsoft-must-buy-twitter-msft.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/microsoft-must-buy-twitter-msft.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/ballmer-on-bing-economy-and-more.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/ballmer-on-bing-economy-and-more.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/china-google-and-pornography.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/china-google-and-pornography.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-they-might-be-little-evil.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-they-might-be-little-evil.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/wolfram-alpha-has-google-attention.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/wolfram-alpha-has-google-attention.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/26-people-who-mislead-you-on-twitter.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/26-people-who-mislead-you-on-twitter.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/ballmer-all-traditional-content-will-be.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/ballmer-all-traditional-content-will-be.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/rate-of-tweets-per-second-doubles.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/rate-of-tweets-per-second-doubles.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-unveils-sms-service-for-africa.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-unveils-sms-service-for-africa.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/yahoo-ceo-stop-comparing-us-to-google.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/yahoo-ceo-stop-comparing-us-to-google.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/future-of-facebook-usernames.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/future-of-facebook-usernames.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/googles-schmidt-rips-microsofts-bing.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/googles-schmidt-rips-microsofts-bing.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/history-and-future-of-computer-memory.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/history-and-future-of-computer-memory.html</a></span></p> <p></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/kosmix-tries-to-avoid-google-search.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/kosmix-tries-to-avoid-google-search.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/dispute-finder-intel-program-finds.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/dispute-finder-intel-program-finds.html</a></span></p> <p></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_search_social_relevancy_rank.php" target="_blank">http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_search_social_relevancy_rank.php</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">FriendFeed search feature, Facebook search, real-time Web search, Google, Twitter, Twitter search, PageRank, <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/bingtweets_microsoft_launches_a_twitter_search_eng.php" target="_blank">Microsoft</a>, trusted contacts as filters, <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_social_search_is_coming.php" target="_blank">social search</a>, Global IT News, Social Relevancy Rank, metrics, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/the-future-of-search-social-relevancy-rank-6">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-84343195295702423772009-08-16T10:33:00.001-07:002009-08-16T10:56:00.197-07:00Tuition Soars in India<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/YGGvTsUK6mQAdgvzVSyQ3YIYLCqoXf2NApi3YiE2lbnbJx3nXCH9PyMDFwFs/Global_Development_News_-_Priv.jpg"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/xEqu0KXZrLeMwxeUHIYtooJLzfGxIr7aT0R9tXtkjyUIS2W6LmR7aLEg7YjE/Global_Development_News_-_Priv.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="265" /></a> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Once a fortnight, Bharati Prayag, a driver in New Delhi, used to treat himself to a chicken curry and a quarter bottle of rum. Earning a salary of 7,000 rupees ($144) a month and living in a hovel far from his wife and three children back in Shivan, a village in the state of Bihar, the curry and rum served to lift his spirits momentarily. But a year ago, his wife complained that the village school teacher was frequently absent leaving the pupils with no proper instruction.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Knowing his children would have no future without an education, 45-year-old Prayag, now sends home 800 rupees ($16) every month to pay for private tuition in maths and English for two of his children. "I don't mind forgoing my little treat. Their future is more important," he said. Like millions of poor Indians, Prayag has to send his children to a state school because it is free. But he knows the education they are getting there is mediocre and must be supplemented by a private tutor. Some Indians, both in villages and in urban slums, are so dismayed at teacher absenteeism in state schools that they make huge sacrifices to enrol their children in private schools.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">A study conducted by Pratham, a non-governmental organisation providing education to under-privileged children, found that 65 per cent of slum schoolchildren in Hyderabad, south India, were registered at private schools. Mohammed Ansari, a farmer in Haryana, near New Delhi, says the teacher at his son's school is sometimes absent for weeks on end. "My son started school at [the age of] six. After three years, he still couldn't write a sentence or do simple addition," said Ansari.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Education system criticised</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The malaise runs deep and wide; while the poor are unhappy with state schools and hire tutors for a basic education, the middle class is unsatisfied with the education provided at the top private schools. The middle class hires private tutors to compensate for declining teaching standards in private schools so that their children perform well in exams and secure a place at a good university.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"The mismatch between demand and supply is crazy. The shortage means that students have to score 95 per cent or more in their exams to get admission in the university of their choice," said New Delhi parent Anisa Tiwari. Tiwari's son, Nishant, 20, secured a place last year at St Stephen's College - an elite institution in New Delhi - largely because he scored 97 per cent in his final maths exam. "In India, if you don't get into a top university, you're wasting your time. So you have to make that superhuman effort to score top marks," Nishant said. Despite being exceptionally bright, he had tutors throughout secondary school to help him with maths, physics and chemistry. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">A recent survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) shows that middle class families spend one-third of their income every month on private tuition. The survey revealed that the use of private tutors has increased by between 40 and 45 per cent in the last few years. </span></p><p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Maths and sciences</span></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Assocham's interviews with 5,000 students and parents across 11 cities in India indicated that maths, physics and chemistry were the main subjects for which tutors were needed. "Many schools conveniently push the ball back to parents, to tell them to engage private tutors for their kids. This is a serious failure in the education system," says D S Rawat, Assocham's secretary-general.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The result is a parallel education system in India. More than 80 per cent of tutors in the survey said that parents hired them to compensate for the deficiencies of school education. But Anuradha Awasti, a former maths teacher at Springdales School in New Delhi, says that tutoring weakens the students' independence and self-direct learning capabilities. She believes private tutorship hinders a child's reasoning and analytical abilities, and places too much emphasis on exams as opposed to genuine learning. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"With a tutor around, children are being spoon-fed instead of learning themselves and relying on their own resources and figuring things out for themselves. Tutors are a crutch," Awasti told Al Jazeera. Mohini Verma, an English teacher at Step-by-Step School just outside Delhi, says a child's extra-curricular activities should include time to play, daydream and relax."It saddens me that they have no space to breathe with all that pressure from so early on," she said.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tuition traffic</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Just as Prayag's sons trudge 3km to their tutor's house in another village, Akash Gupta, 12, is picked up each evening by the family driver and taken across New Delhi in rush hour traffic to his maths teacher's home in Saket. He changes out of his uniform in the car and has a snack on the way. "It's one of the best private schools in Delhi but the teaching is pathetic. His teachers give him homework on subjects they haven't covered properly in class so he can't do it alone," says Akash's mother Neha, a graphic designer. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"I'm a working mother with little time, so I had to get a tutor." Throughout urban India, on weekday evenings, a frenzied two-way traffic takes place. Tutors on their humble scooters rush across town to the homes of affluent children. If they cannot go to the children, the children are ferried to their homes or to coaching centres. Centres with names such as The Cambridge School in New Delhi and The Harvard Centre in Faridabad, just outside the capital, have sprung up all over India. Every evening, hundreds of children troop through the gates of these plush new buildings with air-conditioned rooms and manicured lawns.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Education has always been highly prized by Indians, not so much for its intrinsic worth but as the key to a better life. However, just 20 years ago, engaging a tutor for your child was an abnormality. Now, not having a tutor is a sign of parental dereliction. "You have the brightest students getting tutors to score good grades. It's become a ubiquitous crutch. Parents feel secure and the children also feel they have a safety net under them," child psychiatrist Megna Kapoor tells me.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Race to university</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">July is a stressful month for students who have applied to university. Jawaharlal Nehru University in the capital, for example, receives around 100,000 applications but accepts only 1,500. At the hugely respected Indian Institute of Management, 70,000 students fight every year for 200 places. At St Stephen's College 12,000 applicants compete for 450 places.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Despite the fact that half of India's population is below the age of 25, the Indian government has not built a new university for 50 years. India has 338 government universities. A government commission looking into the state of higher education said last month that it needed 1,500 universities. Kapil Sibal, India's education minister, has promised long overdue root-and-branch reform of the educational system, saying it had to be 'de-traumatised' for the sake of pupils and parents. He also plans to encourage foreign universities to open shop in India to alleviate the shortage of places. He also wants the Grade 10 exam for 15-year-olds to emphasise grading a pupil's work throughout the year so that the focus switches from marks-based to knowledge-based learning.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Blaming absenteeism, laziness</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">But critics of the private tutor culture say lazy teachers and mediocre teaching - even in some of the country's top private schools - is to blame. In state-owned rural schools, absentee teachers are virtually the norm. In Bihar, where Prayag comes from, 40 per cent of all schoolteachers are absent at any given time. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Instead of being in the classroom, they give private tuition to bump up their government salaries. Experts always point out that enrolling poor Indian children in school is easy. Their parents prize education above all else. It is keeping them in school that is difficult because of what they say is mind-numbingly boring teaching. "After a year or two, they drop out because it doesn't seem worthwhile. If they aren't going to school, then their parents send them out to earn to supplement the family income," says Mohini Kapoor, an education consultant.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">When Prayag's sons talked about dropping out of school in Shivan a few years ago, he would have none of it and threatened to beat them. "This is about their future," he said. "Without maths and English they will never escape poverty."</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:11.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/america-snubbed-as-china-india-and.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/america-snubbed-as-china-india-and.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:11.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-draws-line-with-china-on-climate.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-draws-line-with-china-on-climate.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:11.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-final-report-card.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-final-report-card.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:11.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-reaches-seminal-climate-change.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-reaches-seminal-climate-change.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:11.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/singularity-university-launches.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/singularity-university-launches.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Source: </span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/07/2009797207338966.html" target="_blank">http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2009/07/2009797207338966.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags: </span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India Assocham, Global Best Practice, India has 338 government universities, Springdales School in New Delhi, Indian Education system, India Education, Indian Teachers, Kapil Sibal, India's education minister, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/tuition-soars-in-india">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-40567476944733296302009-08-14T07:02:00.001-07:002009-08-14T07:21:44.137-07:00Disorderly Genius: How Chaos Drives The Brain<p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/902EOdL1kDj2qvqtb2FVLg7fsGTfG6pEWiuNyTSTkvT2ByrzZOnL4QJcCfEV/Global_Development_News_-_Chao.jpg" width="300" height="400" /> </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">HAVE you ever experienced that eerie feeling of a thought popping into your head as if from nowhere, with no clue as to why you had that particular idea at that particular time? You may think that such fleeting thoughts, however random they seem, must be the product of predictable and rational processes. After all, the brain cannot be random, can it? Surely it processes information using ordered, logical operations, like a powerful computer?</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Actually, no. In reality, your brain operates on the edge of chaos. Though much of the time it runs in an orderly and stable way, every now and again it suddenly and unpredictably lurches into a blizzard of noise.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Neuroscientists have long suspected as much. Only recently, however, have they come up with proof that brains work this way. Now they are trying to work out why. Some believe that near-chaotic states may be crucial to memory, and could explain why some people are smarter than others.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">In technical terms, systems on the edge of chaos are said to be in a state of "self-organised criticality". These systems are right on the boundary between stable, orderly behaviour - such as a swinging pendulum - and the unpredictable world of chaos, as exemplified by turbulence.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">The quintessential example of self-organised criticality is a growing sand pile. As grains build up, the pile grows in a predictable way until, suddenly and without warning, it hits a critical point and collapses. These "sand avalanches" occur spontaneously and are almost impossible to predict, so the system is said to be both critical and self-organising. Earthquakes, avalanches and wildfires are also thought to behave like this, with periods of stability followed by catastrophic periods of instability that rearrange the system into a new, temporarily stable state.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Self-organised criticality has another defining feature: even though individual sand avalanches are impossible to predict, their overall distribution is regular. The avalanches are "scale invariant", which means that avalanches of all possible sizes occur. They also follow a "power law" distribution, which means bigger avalanches happen less often than smaller avalanches, according to a strict mathematical ratio. Earthquakes offer the best real-world example. Quakes of magnitude 5.0 on the Richter scale happen 10 times as often as quakes of magnitude 6.0, and 100 times as often as quakes of magnitude 7.0.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">These are purely physical systems, but the brain has much in common with them. Networks of brain cells alternate between periods of calm and periods of instability - "avalanches" of electrical activity that cascade through the neurons. Like real avalanches, exactly how these cascades occur and the resulting state of the brain are unpredictable.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">It might seem precarious to have a brain that plunges randomly into periods of instability, but the disorder is actually essential to the brain's ability to transmit information and solve problems. "Lying at the critical point allows the brain to rapidly adapt to new circumstances," says<span> </span><a href="http://www.zi-mannheim.de/zi_andreas_meyer-lindenberg_e.html" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg</span></a><span> </span>from the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" line-height: normal; color: rgb(167, 167, 167);font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;"> </span></p> <p style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:#A7A7A7;">Disorder is essential to the brain's ability to transmit information and solve problems</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">The idea that the brain might be fundamentally disordered in some way first emerged in the late 1980s, when physicists working on chaos theory - then a relatively new branch of science - suggested it might help explain how the brain works.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">The focus at that time was something called deterministic chaos, in which a small perturbation can lead to a huge change in the system - the famous "butterfly effect". That would make the brain unpredictable but not actually random, because the butterfly effect is a phenomenon of physical laws that do not depend on chance. Researchers built elaborate computational models to test the idea, but unfortunately they did not behave like real brains. "Although the results were beautiful and elegant, models based on deterministic chaos just didn't seem applicable when looking at the<span> </span><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/topic/brain" alt="human brain" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">human brain</span></a>," says Karl Friston, a neuroscientist at University College London. In the 1990s, it emerged that the brain generates random noise, and hence cannot be described by deterministic chaos. When neuroscientists incorporated this randomness into their models, they found that it created systems on the border between order and disorder - self-organised criticality.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">More recently, experiments have confirmed that these models accurately describe what real brain tissue does. They build on the observation that when a single neuron fires, it can trigger its neighbours to fire too, causing a cascade or avalanche of activity that can propagate across small networks of brain cells. This results in alternating periods of quiescence and activity - remarkably like the build-up and collapse of a sand pile.</span></p> <div style="border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt;"> <h3 style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 19.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:#717171;">Neural avalanches</span></h3> </div> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">In 2003,<span> </span><a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~iubphys/research/faculty/Beggs.shtml" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">John Beggs</span></a><span> </span>of Indiana University in Bloomington began investigating spontaneous electrical activity in thin slices of rat brain tissue. He found that these neural avalanches are scale invariant and that their size obeys a power law. Importantly, the ratio of large to small avalanches fit the predictions of the computational models that had first suggested that the brain might be in a state of self-organised criticality (<a href="http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/abstract/23/35/11167" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><i style="border-;color:initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">The Journal of Neuroscience</span></i><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">, vol 23, p 11167</span></a>). </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">To investigate further, Beggs's team measured how many other neurons a single cell in a slice of rat brain activates, on average, when it fires. They followed this line of enquiry because another property of self-organised criticality is that each event, on average, triggers only one other. In forest fires, for example, each burning tree sets alight one other tree on average - that's why fires keep going, but also why whole forests don't catch fire all at once.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"> <span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"> <span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Sure enough, the team found that each neuron triggered on average only one other. A value much greater than one would lead to a chaotic system, because any small perturbations in the electrical activity would soon be amplified, as in the butterfly effect. "It would be the equivalent of an epileptic seizure," says Beggs. If the value was much lower than one, on the other hand, the avalanche would soon die out.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"> <span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"> <span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Beggs's work provides good evidence that self-organised criticality is important on the level of small networks of neurons. But what about on a larger scale? More recently, it has become clear that brain activity also shows signs of self-organised criticality on a larger scale. </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"> <span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"> <span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">As it processes information, the brain often synchronises large groups of neurons to fire at the same frequency, a process called "phase-locking". Like broadcasting different radio stations at different frequencies, this allows different "task forces" of neurons to communicate among themselves without interference from others.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"> <span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"> <span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">The brain also constantly reorganises its task forces, so the stable periods of phase-locking are interspersed with unstable periods in which the neurons fire out of sync in a blizzard of activity. This, again, is reminiscent of a sand pile. Could it be another example of self-organised criticality in the brain?</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">In 2006, Meyer-Lindenberg and his team made the first stab at answering that question. They used brain scans to map the connections between regions of the human brain and discovered that they form a "small-world network" - exactly the right architecture to support self-organised criticality. </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Small-world networks lie somewhere between regular networks, where each node is connected to its nearest neighbours, and random networks, which have no regular structure but many long-distance connections between nodes at opposite sides of the network<span> </span>(see diagram). Small-world networks take the most useful aspects of both systems. In places, the nodes have many connections with their neighbours, but the network also contains random and often long links between nodes that are very far away from one another. </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">For the brain, it's the perfect compromise. One of the characteristics of small-world networks is that you can communicate to any other part of the network through just a few nodes - the "six degrees of separation" reputed to link any two people in the world. In the brain, the number is 13.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Meyer-Lindenberg created a computer simulation of a small-world network with 13 degrees of separation. Each node was represented by an electrical oscillator that approximated a neuron's activity. The results confirmed that the brain has just the right architecture for its activity to sit on the tipping point between order and disorder, although the team didn't measure neural activity itself (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0606005103" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><i style="border-;color:initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</span></i><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">, vol 103, p 19518</span></a>).</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">That clinching evidence arrived earlier this year, when<span> </span><a href="http://www.psychiatry.cam.ac.uk/pages/profiles/bullmore.html" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">Ed Bullmore</span></a><span> </span>of the University of Cambridge and his team used brain scanners to record neural activity in 19 human volunteers. They looked at the entire range of brainwave frequencies, from 0.05 hertz all the way up to 125 hertz, across 200 different regions of the brain.</span></p> <div style="border: none; padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt;"> <h3 style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 19.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:#717171;"> </span></h3> <h3 style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 19.0pt; border: none; padding: 0in;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:#717171;">Power laws again</span></h3> </div> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">The team found that the duration both of phase-locking and unstable resynchronisation periods followed a power-law distribution. Crucially, this was true at all frequencies, which means the phenomenon is scale invariant - the other key criterion for self-organised criticality.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">What's more, when the team tried to reproduce the activity they saw in the volunteers' brains in computer models, they found that they could only do so if the models were in a state of self-organised criticality (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1000314" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><i style="border-;color:initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">PLoS Computational Biology</span></i><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">, vol 5, p e1000314</span></a>). "The models only showed similar patterns of synchronisation to the brain when they were in the critical state," says Bullmore.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">The work of Bullmore's team is compelling evidence that self-organised criticality is an essential property of brain activity, says neuroscientist<span> </span><a href="http://marr.bsee.swin.edu.au/" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">David Liley at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne</span></a>, Australia, who has worked on computational models of chaos in the brain. But why should that be? Perhaps because self-organised criticality is the perfect starting point for many of the brain's functions.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">The neuronal avalanches that Beggs investigated, for example, are perfect for transmitting information across the brain. If the brain was in a more stable state, these avalanches would die out before the message had been transmitted. If it was chaotic, each avalanche could swamp the brain.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">At the critical point, however, you get maximum transmission with minimum risk of descending into chaos. "One of the advantages of self-organised criticality is that the avalanches can propagate over many links," says Beggs. "You can have very long chains that won't blow up on you."</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 20.0pt; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Self-organised criticality also appears to allow the brain to adapt to new situations, by quickly rearranging which neurons are synchronised to a particular frequency. "The closer we get to the boundary of instability, the more quickly a particular stimulus will send the brain into a new state," says Liley.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">It may also play a role in memory. Beggs's team noticed that certain chains of neurons would fire repeatedly in avalanches, sometimes over several hours (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0540-04.2004" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><i style="border-;color:initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">The Journal of Neuroscience</span></i><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">, vol 24, p 5216</span></a>). Because an entire chain can be triggered by the firing of one neuron, these chains could be the stuff of memory, argues Beggs: memories may come to mind unexpectedly because a neuron fires randomly or could be triggered unpredictably by a neuronal avalanche. </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">The balance between phase-locking and instability within the brain has also been linked to intelligence - at least, to IQ. Last year, Robert Thatcher from the University of South Florida in Tampa made EEG measurements of 17 children, aged between 5 and 17 years, who also performed an IQ test.</span></p><p style=""><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:#A7A7A7;">The balance between stability and instability in the brain has been linked with intelligence, at least as measured by scores on an IQ test</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">He found that the length of time the children's brains spent in both the stable phase-locked states and the unstable phase-shifting states correlated with their IQ scores. For example, phase shifts typically last 55 milliseconds, but an additional 1 millisecond seemed to add as many as 20 points to the child's IQ. A shorter time in the stable phase-locked state also corresponded with greater intelligence - with a difference of 1 millisecond adding 4.6 IQ points to a child's score (<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.06.009" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><i style="border-;color:initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">NeuroImage</span></i><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">, vol 42, p 1639</span></a>).</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Thatcher says this is because a longer phase shift allows the brain to<span> </span><a href="http://www.newscientistjobs.com/" alt="recruit" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">recruit</span></a> many more neurons for the problem at hand. "It's like casting a net and capturing as many neurons as possible at any one time," he says. The result is a greater overall processing power that contributes to higher intelligence.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Hovering on the edge of chaos provides brains with their amazing capacity to process information and rapidly adapt to our ever-changing environment, but what happens if we stray either side of the boundary? The most obvious assumption would be that all of us are a short step away from mental illness. Meyer-Lindenberg suggests that<span> </span><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/topic/mental-health" alt="schizophrenia" target="_blank" style="border-color: initial;"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">schizophrenia</span></a><span> </span>may be caused by parts of the brain straying away from the critical point. However, for now that is purely speculative.</span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt; border-color:initial;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Thatcher, meanwhile, has found that certain regions in the brains of people with <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/topic/mental-health" target="_blank"><span style=" padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;color:#00759A;">autism</span></a><span> </span>spend less time than average in the unstable, phase-shifting states. These abnormalities reduce the capacity to process information and, suggestively, are found only in the regions associated with social behaviour. "These regions have shifted from chaos to more stable activity," he says. The work might also help us understand epilepsy better: in an epileptic fit, the brain has a tendency to suddenly fire synchronously, and deviation from the critical point could explain this.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0in; margin-right: 20.0pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; line-height: 18.0pt;"><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">"They say it's a fine line between genius and madness," says Liley. "Maybe we're finally beginning to understand the wisdom of this statement."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Related articles: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/to-run-better-start-by-ditching-your.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/to-run-better-start-by-ditching-your.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/space-tourism-celebrates-5-year.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/space-tourism-celebrates-5-year.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/sperm-created-from-stem-cells.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/sperm-created-from-stem-cells.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-augemented-reality.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-augemented-reality.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-people-may-be-immune-to-swine-flu.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/old-people-may-be-immune-to-swine-flu.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/harvesting-water-from-air.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/harvesting-water-from-air.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-dinosaurs-still-exist.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/do-dinosaurs-still-exist.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-penguin-pair-raising-chick.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/gay-penguin-pair-raising-chick.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-strange-species-discovered-last-year.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/10-strange-species-discovered-last-year.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/europe-fastest-supercomputer-unveiled.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/europe-fastest-supercomputer-unveiled.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/giant-blob-found-deep-beneath-nevada.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/giant-blob-found-deep-beneath-nevada.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/neurologist-offers-guide-to-healthier.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/neurologist-offers-guide-to-healthier.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/robot-takes-over-tokyo-classroom.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/robot-takes-over-tokyo-classroom.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/next-age-of-discovery.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/next-age-of-discovery.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">phase-shifting, social behaviour, IQ, EEG measurements, Meyer-Lindenberg, Power laws, self-organised criticality, "power law" distribution, epilepsy, "phase-locking", Global Development News, </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;color:black;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:8.0pt;color:black;"><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227141.200-disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives-the-brain.html?full=true" target="_blank">http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227141.200-disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives-the-brain.html?full=true</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/disorderly-genius-how-chaos-drives-the-brain-1">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-2524295685687769562009-08-13T06:18:00.001-07:002009-08-13T06:39:35.767-07:00A Reclusive Billionaire Gives Away His Fortune<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/HlF1vVTR44pBjtMlCAWYVSno6BLveXPpEt5p51Dc4TarUsL8I2lzie4A156J/Global_Best_Practice_-_Chuck_F.jpg" width="250" height="188" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">One by one, speakers rose to toast the elderly gent with baggy pants and a shy, gaptoothed smile.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"Of course, he didn't wear a tie tonight," teased one. Another called attention to the honoree's cheap watch and the plastic bag that serves as his briefcase. The joshing at a Manhattan gathering would have been nothing out of the ordinary except that the man pulling a worn blue blazer over his head in mock modesty was none other than the onetime billionaire, Chuck Feeney.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Never heard of him? No surprise there.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Over the years, the frugal 76-year-old has made a fetish out of anonymity. He declined to name his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, after himself, registering the $8-billion behemoth in Bermuda to avoid U.S. disclosure laws. He lavishes hundreds of millions of dollars on universities and hospitals but won't allow even a small plaque identifying him as a donor.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"We just didn't want to be blowing our horn," he explains in a rare interview at his daughter's Upper East Side apartment. The party was to celebrate a biography of the elusive tycoon by Irish journalist Conor O'Clery, titled "The Billionaire Who Wasn't: How Chuck Feeney Secretly Made and Gave Away a Fortune," published last fall.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Feeney said he cooperated with the book and submitted to an interview because he is driven by a new public mission: nudging hedge fund heavies and silicon scions into "giving while living." It is the latest trend in philanthropy and one that he, more than anyone, jump-started several years before billionaires like Bill Gates and Warren E. Buffett followed suit.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Feeney, a founder of the conglomerate Duty Free Shoppers, said he wants to "set an example" to address "that layer up there of people," the ones, as he puts it, who have "a jillion dollars. . . . I mean, honestly, if you ask them, 'Tell me what you're doing with your money this week?' they couldn't spend a fraction of what they're accruing." Most foundations, set up after the donor's death, dribble out barely more than 5% of their assets each year, the legal minimum.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">But Feeney, raised in a blue-collar Irish Catholic family in New Jersey, quietly transferred the bulk of his fortune to his foundation when he was 53. Then, eight years ago, he instructed his board to pay out every last dollar by 2016. So far: $4 billion down, $4 billion to go. Atlantic Philanthropies is spreading its wealth at the rate of more than $400 million a year, more than any U.S.-based family foundation apart from Bill & Melinda Gates and Ford.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">As Feeney sees it, there is too much misery in the world to justify delay. "I'm not going to die until I can spend it," he vows with a merry chuckle. Feeney's biggest beneficiary has been Cornell University, which he attended on the GI Bill, earning spending money by selling sandwiches to fraternities. Over four decades, he has donated an astonishing $588 million to the Ithaca, N.Y., campus, almost all of it anonymously.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Many of Feeney's grants are still directed to traditional bricks and mortar -- $60 million for a Stanford biomedical center and $125 million for a UC San Francisco cardiovascular complex. But others are iconoclastic: Fighting homophobia among South African Muslims. Lobbying against the death penalty in New Jersey. Buying medical supplies for Cuban-trained doctors. Funding a Washington office for Sinn Fein during the Irish peace negotiations.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Feeney built his global enterprise through cutthroat competition and uncanny business intuition. He speaks fluent French and Japanese. And he still hop-scotches from Dublin to Da Nang seeding new projects.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">But his demeanor is affable and unprepossessing and his conversational style is hesitant. He is allergic to introspection. Direct questions send him into vague digressions leavened with humorous asides. In the tiny world of stratospheric wealth, Feeney is a man of yin and yang: extravagant charity coupled with personal penny-pinching. "It's the intelligent thing to be frugal," says the erstwhile billionaire, who jokingly refers to himself as "the shabby philanthropist."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">He once owned six luxurious homes from the French Riviera to Mayfair to Park Avenue. These days, he owns none, instead hunkering down in a cramped one-bedroom rental in San Francisco with his second wife, Helga, his former secretary. He raked in billions selling duty-free cognac, perfume and designer labels. But you won't catch Feeney in a Hermes tie or Gucci loafers. He once met the prime minister of Ireland with his drugstore glasses held together by a paper clip.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Feeney doesn't own a car and prefers buses to taxis. Until he turned 75, he flew coach. Now, making excuses for wobbly knees, he upgrades with frequent flier miles. Fine dining? "There are restaurants you can go in and pay $100 a person for a meal," he muses. "I get as much satisfaction out of paying $25. I happen to enjoy grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Niall O'Dowd, a friend of Feeney and editor of Irish-America magazine, reflects: "The way he copes with his wealth is to never remove himself from his working-class persona. He keeps grounded by acting like it hasn't happened to him -- like basically he is still the same guy." At the book party, most of the guests were bused in from the Garden State: former classmates from St. Mary's of the Assumption High School and an extended clan of Feeney-Fitzpatricks, including two of his five children.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Feeney joked about his "rent-a-crowd" but, amid the toasts and roasts, seemed moved: "Who was it who said, 'My cup runneth over?' " He planted a kiss on the head of his 21-year old great-nephew, Dennis Fitzpatrick, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. He autographed copies of the book while seated at a small table with Dennis by his side.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"He'd send my parents $50,000 for our college educations," nephew Daniel Fitzpatrick, 50, recalled. "But if you went out to have a beer with him, he'd check the bar bill. . . . If I left the light on in a bedroom, he'd say, 'By the way, you left a light on.' And I knew I'd better go up and turn it off."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">O'Clery, former international business editor of the Irish Times, spent two years traveling with Feeney and investigating a financial empire that had been sheathed for decades in obsessive secrecy. He unfolds a story of ferocious entrepreneurship that operated, he concluded, "on the edge of legality but was never corrupt." Shortly after graduating from college, Feeney, who had served in the U.S. Air Force in Japan during the Korean War, moved to Europe. With a partner he knew from Cornell, Robert Miller, he began peddling duty-free liquor to sailors.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The two went on to sell cars to American soldiers based in Europe and Asia. Eventually, profiting from a postwar boom in tourism, they built Duty Free Shoppers into the biggest retailer of liquor and cigarettes in the world and a global purveyor of luxury goods. Their ingenious schemes stretched the limits of the duty-free concept. As O'Clery explains, Duty Free Shoppers allowed a tourist in Mexico, for instance, to peruse a catalog and choose a cashmere sweater to be shipped from Amsterdam to his home in the U.S. Leaving Mexico, he could declare the faraway sweater as "unaccompanied baggage" and avoid paying duty. Feeney and Miller operated with Swiss bank accounts and offshore headquarters in Lichtenstein, Monaco and the Netherlands Antilles. They registered assets in the names of Danielle, Feeney's French wife, and Miller's Ecuadorean wife, Chantal, as a precaution against the long arm of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Today, Feeney makes no apologies. "Most large companies structure their affairs so that they minimize their tax payments," he says, rocking back on an armchair in his daughter's apartment. "As long as you do it within the law, it's OK." For Duty Free Shoppers, publicity was to be avoided at all cost, to ward off not just tax collectors but also competitors. "If you had a machine to make money, you wouldn't blow your horn and say copy me, copy me," says Feeney, whose annual share of dividends from the business reached $155 million in 1988, making him richer at the time than Rupert Murdoch, David Rockefeller or Donald Trump.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Why did he decide to give it away, leaving himself with a net worth then that dipped below $1 million? "I'm an easygoing guy," he shrugs. "I like to eat my grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches quietly. I don't like people to say, 'Look over there; he's eating a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich.' " In 1990, Feeney had separated from Danielle. And, in the divorce, she retained their mansions and luxury apartments, along with $100 million. "The wealth got to him," recalls his nephew, Fitzpatrick. "He got disgusted by it, in my opinion. He said, 'This expensive heavy-duty lifestyle doesn't fit me.' "</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Feeney gave his children, friends and colleagues copies of Andrew Carnegie's 1889 essay "The Gospel of Wealth," in which the robber baron-turned-philanthropist admonishes rich men to use their fortunes to help others and "to set an example of modest unostentatious living, shunning display." In the realm of modesty, Feeney tended to extremes. For years, Atlantic Philanthropies staff couldn't tell their families where they worked. Beneficiaries, few of whom knew the origin of their grants, signed agreements acknowledging that the funding would halt if its source were revealed.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">It was only in 1997 that the existence of Atlantic Philanthropies became public during the sale of Duty Free Shoppers to French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault. Court papers revealed that Feeney's share of the company had been transferred to a foundation. The news that a huge donor had surfaced -- bigger than renowned charitable institutions founded by the Pew, Lilly, MacArthur, Rockefeller and Mellon families -- rocked the philanthropic world, although many had long suspected something was afoot.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Today, though Atlantic Philanthropies lists its grants on its website, it still won't issue news releases touting accomplishments. Black tie thank-you dinners, along with plaques, remain verboten. Feeney's practical reason for not plastering his moniker on buildings is to attract matching donors who would want naming rights -- as was the case at Stanford with high-tech tycoon Jim Clark and at a UC San Francisco cancer facility with venture capitalist Arthur Rock.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Does Feeney have no ego, then? "It doesn't matter who put the building up," he says. "The important thing is that it happens." In Vietnam, he recounts with a chuckle, "the people at the Da Nang General Hospital felt so bad that we wouldn't put our name on the hospital that they painted it green" -- shamrock green. He pauses, adding, "Which used up a lot of paint."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Although his parents were American-born, Feeney's attachment to the land of his ancestors runs deep. The Republic of Ireland in the 1980s was plagued by high unemployment, a brain drain and the festering guerrilla war to the north. Anonymously, Feeney began pouring money into renovating Ireland's seven universities, along with two in Northern Ireland.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">He offered $125 million for postgraduate research if the Irish government would match the amount, nearly 20 times what the Republic was spending a year. Soon, Ireland's best and brightest flocked to the new research institutes. In all, Atlantic Philanthropies has spent more than $1 billion in Ireland.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">In 1993, O'Dowd, who had worked with Feeney to promote U.S. naturalization for Irish immigrants, asked him to join in what would become the Connolly House Group, named after the Belfast headquarters of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the Irish Republican Army. The small, secret group of Irish Americans offered the newly elected Clinton administration a back-channel to negotiate a cease fire between Britain and the Irish Republican Army.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"At the time, it was risky business to be seen 'talking to terrorists'--that was the label," said former Rep. Bruce Morrison, one of the group. Feeney was intensely involved in the negotiations that led Clinton to grant a visa to Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, and he funded a Washington office for Sinn Fein to the tune of $750,000.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"It was New Jersey working class meets Belfast working class," O'Dowd recalled of a secret meeting between Feeney and Adams in a Dublin safe house. "These two guys understood each other right away." The peace process was ultimately successful, and Feeney has since funneled millions into reconciliation programs in Northern Ireland. "The only way you're going to solve things with your friends or enemies is to sit down and talk to them," he says today. "It didn't seem right to me that Irish people were killing Irish people."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">On the coffee table in his daughter's living room, Feeney opens Bill Clinton's recent bestseller "Giving." He turns to the chapter "How Much Should You Give and Why?" and reads from statistics derived from U.S. income tax data showing that if the top 14,400 taxpayers gave a third of their income, the total would be about $61 billion.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Feeney shakes his head. "People who wouldn't miss it," he muses. "Sixty-one billion in one year!" And why isn't it happening? "People traditionally collect money. I guess there is an attraction to be known as a wealthy person," he says. "It's not my role in life to tell them what they should be doing. . . . I'm just convinced if people gave money to things they've identified as being in the public interest, they'd get great satisfaction out of it."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Feeney mentions one of his favorite charities, Operation Smile, which sponsors surgeons to operate on children with cleft palates in developing countries. He tells of watching a little girl in a waiting room sitting with her hands covering her mouth. "I kept an eye on her," he recalls. "After she had the operation and she was smiling [like], 'It's not the ugly me you knew before. It's the new me.' "</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">On another occasion, he says, a man in a restaurant called him over and said, "Do you realize you educated me in this business? I had one of your scholarships . . . and here I am now, the general manager of this chain. " O'Clery, who hung out with Feeney for several years at P.J. Clarke's, the Manhattan pub, before broaching the topic of a book, attributes Feeney's generosity to growing up with charitable parents and in a neighborhood where people helped one another.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">He calls his subject an "enigma. . . . He likes to make money, but he doesn't like to have it. He travels all over the world, but in a way, he's never left Elizabeth, N.J." Feeney suggests with a cryptic smile, "There's a thin line between sanity and the other side. Some people might even say the idea of giving money away is crazy."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">For those folks, Feeney has a Gaelic proverb: "There are no pockets in a shroud."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/richard-branson-kiteboarding-with-naked.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/richard-branson-kiteboarding-with-naked.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/bill-clinton-debuts-as-new-un-special.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/bill-clinton-debuts-as-new-un-special.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/08/local/me-feeney8" target="_blank">http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/08/local/me-feeney8</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">LA Times, Atlantic Philanthropies, Duty Free Shoppers, Chuck Feeney, Bill Gates, Warren E. Buffett, founder of the conglomerate Duty Free Shoppers, Irish Catholic, Cornell University, Bernard Arnault, IRA, Sinn Fein, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Global Best Practice, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/a-reclusive-billionaire-gives-away-his-fortun">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-64539515853944540972009-08-11T07:23:00.001-07:002009-08-11T07:41:53.499-07:00Five More Search Tools You Should Know<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/0VhPXhn5leDxQW9Q8FMDrz9Fg3Z1AWhevMPpJ8KsPAxx8Qr7Gx9K5ImqCQtj/Global_IT_News_-_5_search_engi.jpg" width="300" height="341" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Have you ever needed to see the search results for another city — maybe because you want to see what PPC ads are shown somewhere else? </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Have you ever needed to see search results from a different country, or in a different language? Maybe you’re into real time search, and you’d love a place to find the latest photos and videos being shared on Twitter. Or perhaps you’re planning a vacation abroad, but you’re not sure when is the best time to visit Europe.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">It’s time again for another roundup of the latest and greatest search tools and search engines, and in this article, I’ll share five such sites that will answer the above questions (and more). This is the fourth in my occasional series profiling under-the-radar search tools. Links to the previous three are at the end of this article.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">SearchMuffin</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Look, I don’t name ‘em, I just use ‘em and write about ‘em if they’re cool. And this one is <a href="http://www.searchmuffin.com/" target="_blank">SearchMuffin</a> has a simple premise: Type in a keyword and choose a city from the dropdown menu, and it’ll show you the Google search results that match. Think of it as a sort of geo-targeted competitive research/PPC research tool. It’s about the easiest way I know of to see the PPC ads that appear in other cities. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">And best of all, it’s not just limited to major U.S. cities; at the moment, there are 262 choices in the dropdown menu, including such non-metropolises as Roseville, California, and Arvada, Colorado. (No disrespect intended to Rosevillites and Arvadians.)</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Glearch</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Let’s expand our horizons beyond 262 U.S. cities. What if you needed to quickly see some search results from other countries and/or other languages? <a href="http://www.glearch.com/" target="_blank">Glearch</a> (again, I don’t name ‘em) is an international meta search engine that lets you search by country, by language, and/or by search engine. You can take those three options and customize each to build just the query you want.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Roooby</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">We’ve written a fair amount about <a href="http://searchengineland.com/what-is-real-time-search-definitions-players-22172" target="_blank">real time search</a> in the past few months, but we haven’t focused too much on the visual element — people posting photos and videos of what they’re doing now. <a href="http://roooby.com/" target="_blank">Roooby</a> is one of several real time search engines that capture media, but one of the few that surface both photos and videos. (Although, to be frank, Roooby could do a better job of finding videos by scanning sites such as Qik.com, TwitVid.io, and others that host live video.)</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Roooby isn’t the only player in this space. <a href="http://twitcaps.com/" target="_blank">TwitCaps</a>, <a href="http://tweetgrid.com/twitpicgrid" target="_blank">TwitPicGrid</a>, <a href="http://pingwire.com/" target="_blank">Pingwire</a>, and <a href="http://twicsy.com/" target="_blank">Twicsy</a> offer similar real time image search engines.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Spezify</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Speaking of media and images, here’s the most visual search tool I’ve ever seen: <a href="http://spezify.com/" target="_blank">Spezify</a>. The best way I can describe it is a sort of visual meta search engine. It pulls in results from Yahoo, Bing, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and even eBay and Amazon to create a fairly stunning search results page.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">This is serious eye candy. There’s a settings page where you can choose the sources and types of content (images, text, video) you want included. But to be frank, the focus on visuals means the search results have no context whatsoever. You can move vertically and horizontally through the results, but you have no idea why you’re seeing what you’re seeing. It’s innovative to be sure, but for this searcher, it’s too lacking in functionality.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Joobili</span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Finally, here’s one for our readers in Europe, or for our readers traveling to Europe. It’s called <a href="http://joobili.com/" target="_blank">Joobili</a>, and it’s a travel/event search engine with a twist: Rather than telling the search engine what you want to do or where you want to go, you tell it when. There’s a cool date-based slider on the home page to get you started, and once you’re in the results, Joobili lets you see results based on categories (Arts, Sport, Nature, etc.), by country, or by keyword.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">If you create an account, Joobili will let you save events to a wish list or a “went” list. You can also rank events to help other users make decisions on what to do and where to go. It’s a clever approach, but as I hinted above, it only covers Europe.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related articles: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/technorati-to-launch-twittorati.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/technorati-to-launch-twittorati.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-unveils-new-search-features.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-unveils-new-search-features.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/twitter-search-to-index-pages-and.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/twitter-search-to-index-pages-and.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/yahoo-upgrades-search-engine.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/yahoo-upgrades-search-engine.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/search-sucks-and-microsoft-is-almost.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/search-sucks-and-microsoft-is-almost.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/searching-for-meaning-of-bing.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/searching-for-meaning-of-bing.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/microsoft-must-buy-twitter-msft.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/microsoft-must-buy-twitter-msft.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/ballmer-on-bing-economy-and-more.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/ballmer-on-bing-economy-and-more.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/china-google-and-pornography.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/china-google-and-pornography.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-they-might-be-little-evil.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/google-they-might-be-little-evil.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/wolfram-alpha-has-google-attention.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/wolfram-alpha-has-google-attention.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/26-people-who-mislead-you-on-twitter.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/26-people-who-mislead-you-on-twitter.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/ballmer-all-traditional-content-will-be.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/ballmer-all-traditional-content-will-be.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/rate-of-tweets-per-second-doubles.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/rate-of-tweets-per-second-doubles.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-unveils-sms-service-for-africa.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-unveils-sms-service-for-africa.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/yahoo-ceo-stop-comparing-us-to-google.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/yahoo-ceo-stop-comparing-us-to-google.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/future-of-facebook-usernames.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/future-of-facebook-usernames.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/googles-schmidt-rips-microsofts-bing.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/googles-schmidt-rips-microsofts-bing.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/history-and-future-of-computer-memory.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/history-and-future-of-computer-memory.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/kosmix-tries-to-avoid-google-search.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/kosmix-tries-to-avoid-google-search.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/dispute-finder-intel-program-finds.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/dispute-finder-intel-program-finds.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;color:black;"><a href="http://searchengineland.com/five-more-search-tools-july09-22766" target="_blank">http://searchengineland.com/five-more-search-tools-july09-22766</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><a href="http://twitcaps.com/" target="_blank">TwitCaps</a>, <a href="http://tweetgrid.com/twitpicgrid" target="_blank">TwitPicGrid</a>, <a href="http://pingwire.com/" target="_blank">Pingwire</a>, <a href="http://twicsy.com/" target="_blank">Twicsy</a>, real time image search engines, <b>Spezify, <span style=" font-weight: normal;font-family:arial;font-size:13px;"><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">SearchMuffin, Glearch, Joobili, Roooby, </span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">real-time Web search, Google, Twitter search, PageRank, Yahoo, Bing, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, eBay, Amazon, Qik.com, TwitVid.io, <span> </span></span></span></b></span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/five-more-search-tools-you-should-know">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-57624413373891184122009-08-10T07:18:00.001-07:002009-08-10T07:41:43.713-07:00What Can Replace Efficient Markets Theory?<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/Xl3Pa8r0MzxJrxYU79BrEk8Tl3xQzqO37JDkClFJkCF3AU0fDlJhFtAoN4Lr/Global_Economic_News_-_Efficie.jpg" width="260" height="253" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">The most interesting thing about the efficient markets hypothesis is not whether it is valid or not – clearly it is not – but how it has managed to remain so influential for so long. At a recent conference in London on the subject, organised by the CFA Institute, Professor Andrew Lo of Massachusetts Institute of Technology offered the audience a simple explanation: “physics envy”.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">This was a reference back to the early inspiration of the Nobel economics laureate Paul Samuelson, who set out to find for economics a set of fundamental laws that would do for the dismal science what Newton’s laws of thermodynamics had done for physics, and from which a rigorous general theory with practical uses could subsequently be developed.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Using such building blocks as utility theory, equilibrium and the principle of no arbitrage (“no free lunches”), this led Mr Samuelson and his many successors to develop what we have come to know as the discipline of microeconomics that is universally taught to every finance and economics student at university and business school. The efficient markets hypothesis and the notion that stock prices follow a random walk are offshoots of this approach.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The attempt to bring order and an overarching theoretical framework into analysis of the seemingly unruly behaviour of financial markets was a temptation that has for years proved too great for academics (and many market participants) to resist, but it has turned out to be a long and largely fruitless journey. The problem of course, as Prof Lo has helped to demonstrate with his empirical studies of the random walk, is that the financial markets simply don’t lend themselves to deductive theory as well as the physical world.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">If a theoretical approach is not firmly grounded, it is not surprising that the predicted consequences that flow from it should fail to show up consistently in the way that investors and markets actually behave. Behavioural finance has grown to become a popular alternative approach precisely because it does appear to explain more clearly how investors, individually and collectively, appear to act. In Prof Lo’s words: “Economic systems involve human interactions, which almost by definition are more complex than interactions of inanimate objects governed by fixed and known laws of motion.”</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The real beauty of the efficient markets hypothesis, and the explanation for its longevity in the face of consistent empirical evidence that it is invalid, surely lies in its beguiling simplicity. As the future is uncertain and many of the key variables that concern investors cannot be predicted with confidence, a theoretical structure that appears to offer a way to live with uncomfortable reality has obvious attractions.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Prof Lo’s own response has been to develop what he calls the adaptive market hypothesis, which seeks to draw on the insights of neuroscience and evolutionary biology. The hypothesis aims to create a framework that seeks to relate the behaviour of financial markets to a number of different factors, including the emotional condition of market participants at different points in time and the current balance of advantage between competing groups of market participants.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">“Market efficiency,” he says “cannot be evaluated in a vacuum, but is highly context-dependent and dynamic, just as insect populations advance and decline as a function of the seasons, the number of predators and prey they face, and their abilities to adapt to an ever-changing environment.”</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">What is at work in financial markets, he believes, is a Darwinian process of “survival of the richest”. The implications of this approach are interesting. One is that the relationship between risk and return will not be stable over time, which seems right both intuitively and empirically. Another is that, rather than markets becoming steadily more efficient over time, as early proponents of the EMH proclaimed, this world is one in which new profit opportunities will continue to emerge at a constant rate.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">This is the engine that provides the continuing incentive for active managers to remain in the market. But they will need to be innovative and adaptive to changing market conditions if they are to remain successful, Prof Lo argues. One-trick ponies risk going out of business before their kind of market next comes around. Most important of all, investors cannot rely on the comforting message of the efficient market hypothesis that all you need to do to obtain an expected return is to take the appropriate level of risk.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The biggest problem with this new approach, as with all alternatives to EMH, including behavioural finance, is that it doesn’t give investors a simple metric for understanding what to do. Its great merit, however, is that it appears to relate to the complex and uncertain world that we all actually inhabit, something the efficient markets hypothesis has never done.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/thriving-norway-offers-lesson-in.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/thriving-norway-offers-lesson-in.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/geithner-goes-to-china-hat-in-hand.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/geithner-goes-to-china-hat-in-hand.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/future-of-us-capitalism.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/future-of-us-capitalism.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-america-is-bank-owned-state.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/why-america-is-bank-owned-state.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/great-deficit-scare-returns.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/great-deficit-scare-returns.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/buy-china-policy-set-to-raise-tensions.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/buy-china-policy-set-to-raise-tensions.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/world-bank-cuts-2009-global-growth.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/world-bank-cuts-2009-global-growth.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/uk-economy-shrinks-most-in-50-years.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/uk-economy-shrinks-most-in-50-years.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/greenspan-fears-inflation.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/greenspan-fears-inflation.html</a></span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/good-news-in-music-business-no-really.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/good-news-in-music-business-no-really.html</a></span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"></span></p> <p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></p><p> <span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14pt;">Source:</span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10pt;"> <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cf6d096a-6d7a-11de-8b19-00144feabdc0.html" target="_blank">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cf6d096a-6d7a-11de-8b19-00144feabdc0.html</a></span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14pt;"></span></p> <p><br /></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Tags: </span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">CFA Institute, Professor Andrew Lo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, “physics envy”, behavioural finance, Global Economic News, Darwinian process, “survival of the richest”, “Market efficiency”, financial markets,</span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/what-can-replace-efficient-markets-theory">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-49218339101424732092009-08-09T10:41:00.001-07:002009-08-09T10:53:26.682-07:00Best Practices for Reputation Management in a Crisis<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/ziL5xThYyVNM3Alf3XOTFAfKAGhRzc2XjDpEcrSzX8KvFSIgEGKZoYFvqqsA/Global_Best_Practice_-_Best_Pr.gif" width="300" height="313" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Ok, so the proverbial cow-flap has hit the golden fan. Page 1 of Google-unpersonalized now sports damning rhetoric about you for searches related to brand and product categories. It could cost tens of millions in reputation damage. Take a deep breath, gather wits, drink some decaf’ and ride into town, let’s get started defending your brand.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">First here’s a word about fancy reputation monitoring tools. We love em’. However know that they’re potentially awesome and ruinous all at the same time. It’s just too easy to feel safe when paying 7K a year for a catch-all tool.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The coverage doesn’t mean anything if one doesn’t monitor the appropriate grid of keyword threats. Automated aggregation while essential, sometimes empowers under-trained users to be more efficient mechanisms to miss critical buzz. To be fair, sometimes specialized filtering available on high-end tools catches some “finds” from amidst the noise which otherwise might have been missed. We don’t mean to minimize the importance of advanced monitoring tools.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The method prescribed herein is essential, at minimum as a free check-sum to paid tools. The keyword grid concept is critical no matter how one monitors. No matter the monitoring method, ultimately we only trust humans to filter inbound alert feeds so we’d never give this “hand” method up. Since fancy tools for the most part depend on the same sources as free alerts, often we receive notifications faster.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Ok, there’s quick work to be done. Here’s 8 crucial steps we suggest clients take immediately when reputation management disaster triage is called for:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">1-Define Filtered KW Monitoring Grid</span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><br />Even if you’ve already got a <a href="http://www.aimclearblog.com/2009/03/16/how-to-build-a-reputation-monitoring-dashboard/" target="_blank">comprehensive monitoring grid</a> overall, it’s important to set up segmented alerts which filter from day-to-day brand buzz noise. We assume that someone is already monitoring alerts along the lines of ["brand sucks"] ["hate brand"], etc…</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The starting point for any reputation defense is <span> </span>knowing what keyword searches to monitor and defend. Look for basic associations. Say the matter at hand is an FDA recall of chocolates which concerns your brand. Assume that there is 1 common misspelling of your brand and 2 of chocolate. In reality there are several other common misspellings for chocolate.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">We’re looking for filtered trigger-phrases. The specialized keyword monitoring grid might look like for a chocolate recall scenario: ["brand recall"] ["brandMisspelling recall"] ["brand FDA"] ["brandMisspelling FDA"]</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">["brand chocolate"] ["brandMisspelling chocolate"] ["brand chocolates"] ["brandMisspelling chocolates"] ["chocolate recall" ["chocolates recall"]</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">["brand chocolat"] ["brandMisspelling chocolat"] ["brand chocolats"] ["brandMisspelling chocolats"] ["chocolat recall" ["chocolats recall"]</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">["brand chocolate"] ["brandMisspelling chocolate"] ["brand chocolates"] ["brandMisspelling chocolates"] ["chocolate recall" ["chocolates recall"].</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">["brand choclate"] ["brandMisspelling choclate"] ["brand choclates"] ["brandMisspelling choclates"] ["choclates recall" ["choclates recall"].</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Since keyword associations are a big part of SEO, your in-house or agency <a href="http://www.aimclear.com/" target="_blank">SEO company</a> can help you formulate the grid. Also use these keywords to set up fancy tools.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">2-Set Up Nearly Real-time Alerts By Email<br /></span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Start with <a href="http://www.google.com/alerts" target="_blank">Google.com/alerts</a> and set up your monitoring grid. Put each keyword praise in quotation marks, which means that all words in comprising the keyphrase must be present on a page’s ranking attributes. Choose “As they happen” and “comprehensive,” which means alerts come nearly real-time across all verticals (blogs, news, images, etc…) Google indexes.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">For Twitter aimClear uses the paid version of <a href="http://www.tweetbeep.com/" target="_blank">TweetBeep</a>, which offers a 15 minute email alerts when any keywords are tweeted. There is no need to use quotes because the setup admin has recall great match type options (All of these words, Any of these words, None of these words, None of these words) There’s also other sweet demographic targeting features for nearly real-time Twitter alerts.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Facebook, LinkedIn, Forums and other <a href="http://www.aimclearblog.com/2008/09/04/ear-to-the-pavement-walled-garden-forum-rat-avatars/" title="walled garden" target="_blank">walled gardens</a> present different and difficult challenges. Such communities only allow selective content nodes of their sites to index in Google. This means you can incur lots of damage amongst hundreds of millions of users–and never see it in Google.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">We suggest a daily hand-monitoring protocol in each walled garden community, where an actual user has a look at whatever internal SERPs, chatter and other bad talk can occur amongst users. Specific methods vary. Some communities can successfully be scraped and reduced to a feed by a bot after feigned login. Be careful not to violate any terms of service.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">3-Setup Real-Time Alerts<br /></span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">For Twitter use <a href="http://www.tweetdeck.com/" target="_blank">TweetDeck</a>, which is real-time after a minimal amount of transient API delays. After all the Twitter API at this writing is free, which means they don’t offer any quality of service guarantee.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">With real-time alerts comes the need for real-time monitoring. During the teeth of any crises, where a 15 minute TweetBeep alert by email just wont do, have a smart marketing employee watch TweetDeck for main associations. For other walled garden communities, have a user logged in and watching.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">4-Take Inventory of Web Assets<br /></span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Reputation management is all about <a href="http://www.aimclearblog.com/category/universal-search/" target="_blank">Universal SERPs</a> that are friendly. You’ll want to leverage (potentially re-optimize) all available assets you control or own including YouTube videos, images wherever they are posted, blogs, feeds accepted into GoogleNews, sites, pages, <a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-profiles-online-reputation-management/11544/" target="_blank">social media profiles</a> like Digg & Twitter, existing <a href="http://www.aimclearblog.com/2008/09/04/ear-to-the-pavement-walled-garden-forum-rat-avatars/" target="_blank">walled garden</a> profiles, .pdfs, anything online you control or own. Organize them for your search team to evaluate and utilize.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">5- Take Inventory of Other <a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/07/assessing-seo-readiness-for-digital-asset-optimization/" target="_blank">Digital Assets</a></span></b></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Got any print-only owner’s manuals, white papers, spreadsheets, docs or technical specifications? How about videos from the last sales convention? Perhaps there is an offline archive of this year’s press releases. Ask “Is there any offline content whatsoever which could be leveraged in the SERPs online?” Organize them for your search team to evaluate and utilize.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">6-Implement Daily SERPs Hand Monitoring<br /></span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Create a daily SERPs Hand monitoring worksheet and watch it at least 2X a day. It does not take long to cycle though the filtered keyword grid. don’t forget to search unpersonalized so the SERPs you see don’t reflect your personal preferences.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Watch for threatening content, including any opportunistic PPC predators like ambulance chasing attorneys or competitors attempting to capitalize on misfortune. Though some news results might hurt, some or most of them will drop off in time. Watch for permanent artifacts like NY Times, Washington Post or FDA.gov, content likely to remain after the event is over.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">7- Start Daily Buzz & Content Log</span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><br />Any new content should be reviewed and logged. Watch for and flag misinformation, predatory content network ads and bad editorial content. Walled garden content goes here as does a summary of Tweets, bloggers and threatening users.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">8- Define Stakeholders Who Gets Notified Under What Circumstances<br /></span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Many projects have multiple in-house and consultant agencies which include PR, legal, marketing, C-level executives, advertising, etc…Each party is charged with protecting a certain aspect of the mother ship’s well being. Create a list of clearly defined boundaries for who gets called at 3AM on Thursday morning, who can wait until the next work day, what reports are weekly and every applicable in-between. This is best accomplished by a council meeting of stakeholders.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Forewarned is Forearmed</span></b><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">There is every kind of crackpot on the Internet, real loonies. Also bad things happen to great companies. It’s best to have your defense in place before the crises hits, a social media security system if you will.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">When push comes to shove and you’re exposed, take these 8 steps as a starting place to empower your search and social teams. The 9th crucial priority is “response and management,” an entirely different animal than monitoring. The way a each individual company responds to PR danger is highly personal to the entity at risk. Take a deep breath, don’t panic and set gird your loins for best brand defense.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/twitter-best-practices.html" target="_blank">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/twitter-best-practices.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/first-twitter-arrest.html" target="_blank">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/first-twitter-arrest.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/dell-is-monetizing-twitter.html" target="_blank">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/dell-is-monetizing-twitter.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-asks-twitter-to-stay-online-because.html" target="_blank">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-asks-twitter-to-stay-online-because.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/san-francisco-links-311-call-center-to.html" target="_blank">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/san-francisco-links-311-call-center-to.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/norway-central-bank-to-twitter-interest.html" target="_blank">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/norway-central-bank-to-twitter-interest.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/26-people-who-mislead-you-on-twitter.html" target="_blank">http://globalitnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/26-people-who-mislead-you-on-twitter.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/hedge-funds-betting-twitter-will-give.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/hedge-funds-betting-twitter-will-give.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Source</span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;">: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.aimclearblog.com/2009/07/13/reputation-management-crises-8-crucial-priorities/" target="_blank">http://www.aimclearblog.com/2009/07/13/reputation-management-crises-8-crucial-priorities/</a></span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tweets, press, bloggers, keywords, seo, Twitter, aimClear, <a href="http://www.tweetbeep.com/" target="_blank">TweetBeep</a>, Google alerts, SERP’s, Facebook, LinkedIn, Forums, <a href="http://www.aimclearblog.com/2008/09/04/ear-to-the-pavement-walled-garden-forum-rat-avatars/" title="walled garden" target="_blank">walled gardens</a>, Global Best Practice Technology, TweetBeep alert, TweetDeck, <b>Web Assets, </b><a href="http://www.aimclearblog.com/category/universal-search/" target="_blank">Universal SERPs</a>, YouTube, blogs, feeds, GoogleNews, sites, pages, <a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/social-media-profiles-online-reputation-management/11544/" target="_blank">social media profiles</a>, Digg, <b><a href="http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/07/assessing-seo-readiness-for-digital-asset-optimization/" target="_blank">Digital Assets</a>,</b></span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/best-practices-for-reputation-management-in-a">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-46945946010044235312009-08-08T10:43:00.001-07:002009-08-08T10:53:43.383-07:00The New Great Game: Iran, China and the New Silk Road<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/wmVrHoZGTXdiB6bHVNCUfCbfsTm27of7AaMPti3JDduZrAhXfkMDpCfeH4DT/Global_Development_News_-_The_.jpg" width="500" height="307" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Does it make sense to talk about a Beijing-Tehran axis? Apparently no, when one learns that Iran's application to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was flatly denied at the 2008 summit in Tajikistan. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Apparently yes, when one sees how the military dictatorship of the mullahtariat in Tehran and the collective leadership in Beijing have dealt with their recent turmoil - the "green revolution" in Tehran and the Uighur riots in Urumqi - reawakening in the West the ghostly mythology of "Asian despotism". </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The Iran-China relationship is like a game of Chinese boxes. Amid the turbulence, glorious or terrifying, of their equally millenarian histories, when one sees an Islamic Republic that now reveals itself as a militarized theocracy and a Popular Republic that is in fact a capitalist oligarchy, things are not what they seem to be. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">No matter what recently happened in Iran, consolidating the power the Khamenei-Ahmadinejad-IRGC axis, the relationship will continue to develop within the framework of a clash between US hyperpower - declining as it may be - and the aspiring Chinese big power, allied with the re-emergent Russian big power.<br /><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><b>On the road</b><br />Iran and China are all about the New <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad02.html#%23" target="_blank">Silk Road</a> - or routes - in Eurasia. Both are among the most venerable and ancient of (on the road) partners. The first encounter between the Parthian empire and the Han dynasty was in 140 BC, when Zhang Qian was sent to Bactria (in today's Afghanistan) to strike deals with nomad populations. This eventually led to Chinese expansion in <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad02.html#%23" target="_blank">Central Asia</a> and interchange with India.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Trading exploded via the fabled Silk Road - silk, porcelain, horses, amber, ivory, incense. As a serial <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad02.html#%23" target="_blank">traveler</a> across the Silk Road over the years, I ended up learning on the spot how the Persians controlled the Silk Road by mastering the art of making oases, thus becoming in the process the middlemen between China, India and the West.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Parallel to the land route there was also a naval route - from the Persian Gulf to Canton (today's Guangzhou). And there was of course a religious route - with Persians translating Buddhist texts and with Persian villages in the desert serving as springboards to Chinese pilgrims visiting India.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Zoroastrianism - the official religion of the Sassanid empire - was imported to China by Persians at the end of the 6th century, and Manichaeism during the 7th. Diplomacy followed: the son of the last Sassanid emperor - fleeing the Arabs in 670 AD - found refuge in the Tang court. During the Mongol period, Islam spread into China. </span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><br />Iran has never been colonized. But it was a privileged theater of the original Great Game between the British Empire and Russia in the 19th century and then during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union in the 20th. The Islamic Revolution may at first imply Khomeini's official policy of "neither East nor West". In fact, Iran dreams of bridging both. </span></p><p> That brings us to Iran's key, inescapable geopolitical role at the epicenter of Eurasia. The New Silk Road translates into an energy corridor - the Asian Energy Security Grid - in which the Caspian Sea is an essential node, linked to the Persian Gulf, from where oil is to be transported to Asia. And as far as gas is concerned, the name of the game is Pipelineistan - as in the recently agreed Iran-Pakistan (IP) pipeline and the interconnection between Iran and Turkmenistan, whose end result is a direct link between Iran and China. </p><p> Then there's the hyper-ambitious, so-called "North-South corridor" - a projected road and rail link between <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad02.html#%23" target="_blank">Europe</a> and India, through Russia, Central Asia, Iran and the Persian Gulf. And the ultimate New Silk Road dream - an actual land route between China and the Persian Gulf via Central Asia (Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan). </p><p> <b> The width of the circle</b></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><b></b>As the bastion of Shi'ite faith, encircled by Sunnis, Iran under what is now a de facto theocratic dictatorship still desperately needs to break out from its isolation. Talk about a turbulent environment: Iraq still under US occupation to the west, the ultra-unstable Caucasus in the northwest, fragile Central Asian "stans" in the northeast, basket cases Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, not to mention the nuclear neighborhood -Israel, Russia, China, Pakistan and India. </span></p><p> Technological advancement for Iran means fully mastering a civilian nuclear program - which contains the added benefit of turning it into a sanctuary via the possibility of building a nuclear device. Officially, Tehran has declared ad infinitum it has no intention of possessing an "un-Islamic" bomb. Beijing understands Tehran's delicate position and supports its right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Beijing would have loved to see Tehran adopt the plan proposed by Russia, the US, Western Europe and, of course, China. Carefully evaluating its vital energy and national security interests, the last thing Beijing wants is for <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad02.html#%23" target="_blank">Washington</a> to clench its fist again. </p><p> What happened to the George W Bush-declared, post-9/11 "global war on terror" (GWOT), now remixed by Obama as "overseas contingency operations" (OCO)? GWOT's key, shadowy aim was for Washington to firmly plant the flag in Central Asia. For those sorry neo-cons, China was the ultimate geopolitical enemy, so nothing was more enticing than to try to sway a batch of Asian countries against China. Easier dreamed of than done. </p><p> China's counter-power was to turn the whole game around in Central Asia, with Iran as its key peon. Beijing was quick to grasp that Iran is a matter of national security, in terms of assuring its vast energy needs. </p><p> Of course China also needs Russia - for energy and technology. This is arguably more of an alliance of circumstance - for all the ambitious targets embodied by the SCO - than a long-term strategic partnership. Russia, invoking a series of geopolitical reasons, considers its relationship with Iran as exclusive. China says slow down, we're also in the picture. And as Iran remains under pressure at different levels from both the US and Russia, what better "savior" than China? </p><p> Enter Pipelineistan. At first sight, Iranian energy and Chinese technology is a match made in heaven. But it's more complicated than that. </p><p> Still the victim of US sanctions, Iran has turned to China to modernize itself. Once again, the Bush/Dick Cheney years and the invasion of Iraq sent an unmistakable message to the collective leadership in Beijing. A push to control Iraq oil plus troops in Afghanistan, a stone's throw from the Caspian, added to the Pentagon's self-defined "arc of instability" from the Middle East to Central Asia - this was more than enough to imprint the message: the less dependent China is on US-subjugated Arab Middle East energy, the better. </p><p> The Arab Middle East used to account for 50% of China's oil imports. Soon China became the second-largest oil importer from Iran, after Japan. And since fateful 2003, China also has mastered the full cycle of prospection/exploitation/refining - thus Chinese companies are investing heavily in Iran's oil sector, whose refining capacity, for instance, is risible. Without urgent investment, some projections point to Iran possibly cutting off oil exports by 2020. Iran also needs everything else China can provide in areas like transportation systems, telecom, electricity and naval construction. </p><p> Iran needs China to develop its gas production in the gigantic north Pars and south Pars fields - which it shares with <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad02.html#%23" target="_blank">Qatar</a> - in the Persian Gulf. So no wonder a "stable" Iran had to become a matter of Chinese national security. </p><p> <b> Multipolar we go</b><br />So why the stalemate at the SCO? As China is always meticulously seeking to improve its global credibility, it had to be considering the pros and cons of admitting Iran, for which the SCO and its slogan of mutual cooperation for the stability of Central Asia, as well as economic and security benefits, are priceless. The SCO fights against Islamic terrorism and "separatism" in general - but now has also developed as an economic body, with a development fund and a multilateral economic council. The whole idea of it is to curb American influence in Central Asia. </p><p> Iran has been an observer since 2005. Next year may be crucial. The race is on to beat the clock, before a desperate Israeli strike, and have Iran accepted by the SCO while negotiating some sort of stability pact with the Barack Obama administration. For all this to happen relatively smoothly, Iran needs China - that is, to sell as much oil and gas as China needs below market prices, while accepting Chinese - and Russian - investment in the exploration and production of Caspian oil. </p><p> All this while Iran also courts India. Both Iran and India are focused on Central Asia. In Afghanistan, India is financing the construction of a US$250 million road between Zaranj, at the Iranian border, and Delaram - which is in the Afghan ring road linking Kabul, Kandahar, Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif. New Delhi sees in Iran a very important market. India is actively involved in the construction of a deep water port in Chabahar - that would be a twin for the Gwadar port built in southern Balochistan by China, and would be very helpful to landlocked Afghanistan (freeing it from Pakistani interference). </p><p> Iran also needs its doors to the north - the Caucasus and Turkey - to channel its energy production towards Europe. It's an uphill struggle. Iran has to fight fierce regional competition in the Caucasus; the US-Turkey alliance framed by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; the perpetual US-Russian Cold War in the region; and last but not least Russia's own energy policy, which simply does not contemplate sharing the European energy market with Iran. </p><p> But energy agreements with Turkey are now part of the picture - after the moderate Islamists of the AKP took power in <a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad02.html#%23" target="_blank">Ankara</a> in 2002. Now it's not that far-fetched to imagine the possibility of Iran in the near future supplying much-needed gas for the ultra-expensive, US-supported Turkey-to-Austria Nabucco pipeline. </p><p> But the fact remains that for both Tehran and Beijing, the American thrust in the "arc of instability" from the Middle East to Central Asia is anathema. They're both anti-US hegemony and US unilateralism, Bush/Cheney style. As emerging powers, they're both pro multipolar. And as they're not Western-style liberal democracies, the empathy is even stronger. </p><p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p> <span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Few failed to notice the stark similarities in the degree of repression of the "green revolution" in Tehran and the Uighurs in Xinjiang. For China, a strategic alliance with Iran is above all about Pipelineistan, the Asian Energy Security Grid and the New Silk Road. For China, a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear dossier is imperative. This would lead to Iran being fully opened to (eager) European investment. Washington may be reluctant to admit it, but in the New Great Game in Eurasia, the Tehran-Beijing axis spells out the future: multipolarity. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles</span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;">: <a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/bloody-china-crackdown-on-muslim.html" target="_blank"><br />http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/bloody-china-crackdown-on-muslim.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/scramble-for-iraq-sweet-oil.html" target="_blank">http://globaldevelopmentnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/scramble-for-iraq-sweet-oil.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/high-tech-plan-to-seal-saudi-border.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/high-tech-plan-to-seal-saudi-border.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/jakarta-hotels-rocked-by-explosions.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/jakarta-hotels-rocked-by-explosions.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/bin-laden-attacks-obama-policies.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/bin-laden-attacks-obama-policies.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-offers-change-to-muslim-world.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-offers-change-to-muslim-world.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/mideast-hanging-on-every-text-and-tweet.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/mideast-hanging-on-every-text-and-tweet.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-wins-election-in-middle-east.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/obama-wins-election-in-middle-east.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/misreading-map.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/misreading-map.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/opec-set-to-leave-output-unchanged.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/opec-set-to-leave-output-unchanged.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/dangers-of.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/dangers-of.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad02.html" target="_blank">http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KG26Ad02.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags: <span> </span></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Beijing-Tehran axis, Iran's application, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), 2008 summit in Tajikistan, Uighur riots in Urumqi , mythology of "Asian despotism", Eurasia, Bactria, silk, porcelain, horses, amber, ivory, incense, Asian Energy Security Grid, Caspian Sea, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/the-new-great-game-iran-china-and-the-new-sil">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-88654626476653101552009-08-06T08:10:00.001-07:002009-08-06T08:18:57.878-07:00Rock Band Network Lets Anyone Upload Their Music<p> </p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><a href="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/R4y3vECvtQcyih8eCLDXO8fCkAZlpSNzl9bI099ziFEsYmOlGQWN4ZcdcKYo/Global_IT_and_Business_News_-_.jpg"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/VOjfVr9wZuyZZPo8XFOqz90FB0vRpARuJ6JtRBQWg2ZmWKP6C6TtkiUk0nNH/Global_IT_and_Business_News_-_.jpg.scaled.500.jpg" width="500" height="281" /></a> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:x-large;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">MTV Games and Harmonix are opening up the <a href="http://kotaku.com/tag/rock-band/" title="Click here to read more posts tagged ROCK BAND" target="_blank">Rock Band</a> music store to everyone later this year. The <a href="http://kotaku.com/tag/rock-band-network/" title="Click here to read more posts tagged ROCK BAND NETWORK" target="_blank">Rock Band Network</a> allows any artist to upload and price their own tracks for users to download from the game's music store.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">According to a report from <a href="http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i4d0b1b4303c83997ea8bf1f3ea673d95" target="_blank">Billboard</a>, that service will launch sometime this year for the Xbox 360 versions of <a href="http://kotaku.com/tag/rock-band/" title="Click here to read more posts tagged ROCK BAND" target="_blank">Rock Band</a>, with plans to bring those "popular tracks" to the PlayStation 3 and Wii versions "eventually." Artists can submit their songs to a group of "Harmonix-trained freelance game developers" who will prep the tracks for use in game.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Artists can price their songs between 50 cents and $3, netting 30% of track sales. Rock Band owners will be able to preview Rock Band Network songs before they purchase.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">MTV Games senior VP Paul DeGooyer says the <a href="http://kotaku.com/tag/rock-band/" title="Click here to read more posts tagged ROCK BAND" target="_blank">Rock Band</a> Network features a "set of serious professional tools to allow people on the front line of writing and recording songs to completely control their destiny with respect to interactive products and then giving them direct access to the download store."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Those tools are expected to enter a public beta program in August. A <a href="http://creators.rockband.com/" target="_blank">preview web site for creators</a> has just been launched. There's a good reason the Rock Band Network will be initially available only to Xbox 360 users. Harmonix and MTV Games are relying on Microsoft's Creators Club and the company's XNA development platform to handle the development of artist uploaded track to something that's playable in Rock Band.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The new artist network is Harmonix's answer to Activision's "GH Tunes," the music creation and marketplace tools that launched with Guitar Hero World Tour. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos said that his company would take a "<a href="http://kotaku.com/5021652/rock-band-music-creation-to-be-radically-different-says-ceo" target="_blank">radically different approach</a>" to user song uploads. It's different, that's for sure. And it'll likely go a long way to helping Harmonix reach those <a href="http://kotaku.com/5141232/rock-band-dlc-catalogue-could-reach-5000-songs-this-year-%5Bupdate-no%5D" target="_blank">5,000 downloadable tracks in Rock Band this year</a>... or eventually.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/mobile-internet-makes-its-way-into-cars.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/mobile-internet-makes-its-way-into-cars.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/crowdsourcing-next-game-design-solution.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/crowdsourcing-next-game-design-solution.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/blogger-sentenced-for-leaking-g-n-album.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/blogger-sentenced-for-leaking-g-n-album.html</a><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-media-seek-21st-century-business.html" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/internet-service-providers-not-keeping.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/internet-service-providers-not-keeping.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/ballmer-all-traditional-content-will-be.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/ballmer-all-traditional-content-will-be.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/drug-war-on-another-border-canada.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/drug-war-on-another-border-canada.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/microsoft-and-publicis-strike-deal.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/microsoft-and-publicis-strike-deal.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/virgin-universal-launch-music-download.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/virgin-universal-launch-music-download.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/medium-is-still-message.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/medium-is-still-message.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/internet-service-providers-not-keeping.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/internet-service-providers-not-keeping.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/sony-lifts-curtain-on-new-psp.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/sony-lifts-curtain-on-new-psp.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/microsoft-to-eliminate-need-for-game.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/microsoft-to-eliminate-need-for-game.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><span style="font-size:13px;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-media-seek-21st-century-business.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/big-media-seek-21st-century-business.html</a></span> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:x-large;"><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://kotaku.com/5317012/rock-band-network-lets-anyone-upload-their-music-launches-this-year" target="_blank">http://kotaku.com/5317012/rock-band-network-lets-anyone-upload-their-music-launches-this-year</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Rock Band, MTV Games, Harmonix, Xbox 360, Billboard, Playstation 3, Wii, Rock Band Network, XNA development platform, Activision's "GH Tunes", Guitar Hero World Tour, Global IT and Business News, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/rock-band-network-lets-anyone-upload-their-mu">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-51806860192857149372009-08-05T07:13:00.001-07:002009-08-05T07:22:01.652-07:00Russia and the US: An Uncertain Reset<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/V8qsihAkK3CNiR8YvAJJbfGImoUXut69zDR3h3899gIIL7FDx6qy7KXThzK2/Global_Development_News_-_Russ.jpg" width="300" height="225" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Predictably, both Russia and the United States have portrayed the recent summit in Moscow as a success. Indeed, the summit did produce some positive signs: a resumption of serious arms control negotiations after years of neglect, an agreement on U.S. military overflights of Russian territory to Afghanistan, and the creation of the U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, a structure that could give the relationship a high-level institutional focus.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">But much more is needed for the "reset" to be real. Most important, the United States must overcome what I first described in an <a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/63008/dimitri-k-simes/losing-russia" target="_blank">essay</a> from October/November 2007 as "the unmistakable impression that making Russia a strategic partner has never been a major priority." This will require not only new vocabulary -- such as "reset" -- but a new sense of priority toward Russia from the Obama administration.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Such an approach need not come at a cost to U.S. interests or values. But it will require an honest recognition that, since U.S. and Russian interests are not identical, Moscow is unlikely to accommodate Washington's concerns unless it sees something for itself in return.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The United States' priorities with respect to Russia are Afghanistan, Iran, and North Korea. Regarding Iran, neither Washington nor Moscow wants to see the clerical regime develop nuclear weapons. However, Iran is a major Russian trading partner and -- unlike Turkey, a U.S. ally -- offered no encouragement to separatist movements in the North Caucasus or support for pipelines that bypass Russia. Some in the Russian government fear that a Western rapprochement with Iran could disadvantage Moscow if Iranian gas were to become available for export to Europe. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Although Russian officials strongly oppose any military strike against Iran's nuclear installations, they privately acknowledge that such an attack could benefit Russia by increasing energy prices and creating a global backlash against the United States.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">As for Afghanistan, Russia does not want to see the Taliban defeat U.S. and NATO forces and the country descend into chaos. Nevertheless, it is frustrated at being shut out of the Afghanistan after then President Vladimir Putin supported U.S. military intervention and encouraged the Northern Alliance to provide muscle to unseat the Taliban in 2001.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Moscow</span><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">'s priorities are different from Washington's: curbing NATO expansion, preventing the establishment of U.S. missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, and maintaining and enhancing Russia's influence in the post-Soviet region. At times, Moscow can sound like its own worst enemy, when, for example, it makes inflated claims that any expansion of NATO is unacceptable or demands privileged interests in its "near abroad."</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">However, notwithstanding the August 2008 war against Georgia, Moscow's practical ambitions are fairly limited -- especially in comparison with suspicions that Russia is seeking to reestablish the Soviet Union by coercion and force. It is hard to take Russian statements about dominance in the post-Soviet space seriously when even Russia's closest allies in the region -- Armenia and, particularly, Belarus -- are regularly defiant of Moscow's wishes. As for the Caucasus, although Russia did invade Georgia proper, it did so after its own forces in South Ossetia came under attack by Georgian troops. The Russian army then ultimately stopped short of entering Tbilisi and directly challenging the rule of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. Even after the war, most of Russia's neighbors feel free to ignore its preferences and have not expressed fear of a Russian attack.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The United States would be wise, therefore, to make a distinction between Russia's nostalgia and bravado, on the one hand, and its actions and capabilities on the other. This would leave several options for developing common ground. The United States already recognizes that neither Georgia nor Ukraine is ready for NATO membership. (This will not change anytime soon, and few NATO members support accelerating the process.) On the question of missile defense in Europe, President Barack Obama and his advisers do not share the almost religious commitment of the Bush administration -- suggesting that a joint system may be possible, as is providing Russia with guarantees that if the Polish and Czech sites are eventually operational, they could not be used against Russian interests.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Given all this, Russia's immediate concerns can be addressed fairly easily without sacrificing anything of real importance to the United States. The modest results of the summit are less a function of U.S. interests or even Russian conduct -- which too often is counterproductive and provides good cause for those skeptical of cooperation -- and more due to the Obama administration's failure to make the "reset" a priority. In this respect, U.S. policy has not changed much since the Bush and Clinton administrations.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Before the summit, Washington promised a "reset" but sent a series of mixed messages. In May, NATO conducted military maneuvers in Georgia despite strong objections from Russia. Although there were good reasons to proceed with the exercises -- they were small-scale, planned before Russia's war with Georgia, and included an invitation to Russia to participate -- the Obama administration could have made a stronger effort to convince the Russians that the maneuvers were not directed against them. A good use of Obama's political capital would have been a presidential or cabinet-level conversation with Moscow to discuss U.S. motives and interests.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Then, days before the summit, Obama criticized Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for having "one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new." Considering that Putin continues to influence Russian national security, it was predictable that Russia's political elite would interpret Obama's statement as endorsing the allegedly more liberal Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, against Putin. This could hardly have been helpful to Medvedev, whose political legitimacy still depends on Putin's support and approval. </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Meanwhile, Russian questions about Obama's intent only intensified when Michael McFaul, a top Russia specialist at the National Security Council, said, "We're not going to reassure or give or trade, you know, anything with the Russians regarding NATO expansion or missile defense." He went on to align U.S. "national interest" on these questions with "the interests of our allies in Europe." This statement was seen within Russia as a sign that the Obama administration was not prepared to negotiate on the issues most important to Russia and would instead settle these questions without regard to Russia's perspective and with input from new NATO member states considered antagonistic toward Russia.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">In Moscow, however, this is not quite how Obama acted. All issues were on the table and -- to Russia's satisfaction -- the two presidents signed a statement affirming the link between strategic offensive and defensive weapons. This linkage was vague, but Medvedev cited it as an acknowledgement that Russian views counted. Then, to compensate for his earlier criticism of Putin, Obama praised the prime minister's "extraordinary work" while president. Still, this did not overcome the resentment of some on the Russian side over Obama choosing to spend one of his two nights in Moscow at a nightclub with his family rather than with his Russian hosts.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">From Moscow's perspective, Russia offered a significant goodwill gesture in allowing U.S. military planes to fly over Russian territory on their way to Afghanistan -- but it did not receive a goodwill gesture in return. In fact, on the question of repealing the Jackson-Vanik amendment -- a move promised by the Obama administration and three preceding administrations -- U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke said in Moscow that Russia must remove restrictions on U.S. poultry and pork imports as "a significant first step" toward persuading Congress to repeal the act.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The Moscow summit was a useful step and certainly did no damage. However, it did not send a clear signal that Obama has decided to make the U.S.-Russian relationship a personal priority. Without such clarity about the president's commitment, the relationship is unlikely to progress significantly. The Bilateral Presidential Commission is helpful as an expression of presidential commitment but cannot be a substitute for it.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">More fundamentally, the United States needs to think more strategically about what is required to turn Russia into a responsible stakeholder in international security. Early last century, the Treaty of Versailles excluded Germany and Russia from European security architecture and thereby contributed to a chain of events that led to the outbreak of World War II. Now, more than 20 years after the end of the Cold War, Russia remains outside this NATO-dominated structure.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Most officials in the United States and Europe were dismissive of Medvedev's call for a new European security treaty that would include Russia as a full partner. It is understandable that Western leaders are reluctant to do anything that might weaken NATO's mandate, especially when the alliance continues to play a role in providing security in places such as Afghanistan and Kosovo, but this should not obscure the fact that marginalizing a great power such as Russia could push it into seeking partners outside Europe, such as in China or Iran, to the detriment of U.S. interests.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Estrangement from the West would cost Russia dearly, but it would not be without costs to the United States either. An isolated Russia could make it harder to use such international institutions as the UN to advance U.S. interests, as well as provide the hint of an alternative to U.S. primacy, potentially emboldening other U.S. competitors and rivals. Pursuing a partnership with Moscow is difficult and frustrating, but neglecting Russia could severely compromise the pursuit of vital U.S. national interests tomorrow and in the years to come.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Related Articles: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/misreading-map.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/misreading-map.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/opec-set-to-leave-output-unchanged.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/opec-set-to-leave-output-unchanged.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/dangers-of.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/dangers-of.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/russia-considers-bail-out-for-banks.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/russia-considers-bail-out-for-banks.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/putin-urges-innovation-to-revive-russia.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/putin-urges-innovation-to-revive-russia.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/america-snubbed-as-china-india-and.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/america-snubbed-as-china-india-and.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-eu-summit-ends-with-differences.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-eu-summit-ends-with-differences.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-stockpiles-diamonds.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-stockpiles-diamonds.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-parades-new-missile-defense.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russia-parades-new-missile-defense.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/kremlin-crisis.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/kremlin-crisis.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/admiral-mullen-calls-for-new-us-russian.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/admiral-mullen-calls-for-new-us-russian.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russian-economy-declines-faster-than.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/russian-economy-declines-faster-than.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/world-undiscovered-gas-and-oil-is.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/world-undiscovered-gas-and-oil-is.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/facebooks-new-russian-shareholder.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/facebooks-new-russian-shareholder.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicpulse.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-final-report-card.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicpulse.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-final-report-card.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globaleconomicpulse.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-reaches-seminal-climate-change.html" target="_blank">http://globaleconomicpulse.blogspot.com/2009/07/g8-reaches-seminal-climate-change.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Source: </span></p> <p><span style="font-family:Perpetua;"><a href="http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65203/dimitri-k-simes/an-uncertain-reset" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:small;">http://www.foreignaffairs.com/</span><span style="font-size:small;">articles/65203/dimitri-k-</span><span style="font-size:small;">simes/an-uncertain-reset</span></a> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Russia, USA, Medvedev, Putin, Obama, Russia-US Summit, U.S.-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, Treaty of Versailles, NATO, Taliban, Iran, North Korea, Georgia, UN, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Germany, Global Development News, Europe, Ukraine, CFR, Armenia, Belarus, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/russia-and-the-us-an-uncertain-reset">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-73355751637889093842009-07-31T07:15:00.001-07:002009-07-31T07:24:46.384-07:00Corruption Arrests Shock American Jewish Community<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/abE1E35WbHrgRYS4NSddrf3M2cc0LYI282zezVZKpBLayxuaWecCbcWvLVj7/Global_Development_News_-_Amer.jpg" width="270" height="320" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The arrests of more than 40 prominent politicians and Jewish leaders in New Jersey and New York on corruption and money laundering charges have sent shockwaves through the close-knit Syrian Jewish community there. </span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Federal investigators in New Jersey announced Thursday they had arrested more than 40 people, including public officials charged with corruption. Charges against others included international money laundering, selling counterfeit goods, and the black-market sale of human organs. In addition to three mayors, officials arrested five influential rabbis from New Jersey and the New York borough of Brooklyn.<br /> </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> "They used purported charities, entities supposedly set up to do good works, as vehicles for laundering millions of dollars in illicit funds. The rings were international in scope, connected to the city of Deal, New Jersey, Brooklyn, New York, Israel and Switzerland," said Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra about the money-laundering scheme. </span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">The rabbis are accused of using their congregations' charitable organizations to launder about $3 million by passing money from alleged illicit activity through their charities' bank accounts. The FBI said the rabbis then kept about 10 percent for themselves. All of the rabbis come from the close-knit and wealthy Sephardic Jewish communities of southern New Jersey and Brooklyn - and the arrests have put the spotlight on a usually quiet community.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">One of the rabbis arrested, Saul Kassin, is considered the leading cleric of the U.S. Sephardic community, comprised of families that emigrated mostly from the Middle East, Syria in particular, following the formation of the state of Israel in 1948. Rabbi Kassin leads the largest Sephardic synagogue in the United States, Shaare Zion in Brooklyn, and has written books on Jewish law. Members of the community have expressed shock and disbelief over the allegations against Rabbi Kassin. Many have been reluctant to speak publicly. One member of Shaare Zion, Ezra Kassin, told reporters he did not believe the charges. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"><br /> He's just a very honorable person. I can't believe it, I don't believe it. Whatever they want to say, it's hogwash," he said. Authorities said an FBI "cooperating witness" helped federal investigators gather evidence in the case. Media reports said he was arrested in 2006 for bank fraud. FBI agent Weysan Dun said the probe seeks to root out corruption in New Jersey, wherever it is found.</span></p><p> <br /> </p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">"This case is not about politics. It is certainly not about religion. It is about crime, corruption, arrogance. It is about a shocking betrayal of the public trust," he said. The FBI said the two-year probe is part of a wider investigation into political corruption and money laundering that started 10 years ago.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/pervasive-nature-of-corruption.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/07/pervasive-nature-of-corruption.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/first-twitter-arrest.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/first-twitter-arrest.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/bush-is-gone-but-halliburton-keeps.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/bush-is-gone-but-halliburton-keeps.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/mexican-state-bans-cops-from-carrying.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/mexican-state-bans-cops-from-carrying.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/former-south-korean-president-roh-dead.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/former-south-korean-president-roh-dead.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Source:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-07-24-voa36.cfm" target="_blank">http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-07-24-voa36.cfm</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags: </span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Syrian Jews, American jews, FBI, Rabbi Kassin, Shaare Zion, Ezra Kassin, political corruption, money laundering, Global Development News, U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, 40 prominent politicians, Jewish leaders in New Jersey, New York, Sephardic synagogue, </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/corruption-arrests-shock-american-jewish-comm">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-556713479555791348.post-1193186375431121102009-07-30T07:16:00.001-07:002009-07-30T07:39:33.453-07:00Bill Gates' Name Surfaces On Patent Applications<p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;"><img src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/globalbusinessnews/Md9e3LWZpMlBg0vOY0iMefxHQJkCZ5DyKgEFapU6K13HM0cdKvVxkKoYBHSZ/Global_IT_and_Business_News_-_.jpg" width="479" height="327" /> </span></p> <p><span style="font-size:19px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was one of several names that surfaced last week on five patents filed by Searete, which is associated with a Bellevue, Wash. company called Intellectual Ventures formed by former Microsoft executives as a factory for new inventions.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Critics have complained that Intellectual Ventures will raise patent litigation costs, but the company claims to be working with more than 500 scientists and technicians in addition to universities, research labs and Fortune 500 companies.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Intellectual Ventures co-founder Nathan Myhrvold advised Gates for years as Microsoft's chief technology officer and in 1991 founded Microsoft Research. The idea behind some of these patents is to create equipment that would lower the force of hurricanes by cooling the water, altering its surface tension, and shifting it away from recreational areas.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">They're not the only Searete patents attached to Gates. Since he stepped down last year as Microsoft's CEO, he has been freer to focus on the <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org%20/" target="_blank">Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</a>, which aims to improve global health and education and reduce poverty, and pursue a variety of other interests.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Some of these interests are reflected in Searete's patents. Gates' name has been on patents for an electromagnetic engine and a method of delivering medication.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Gates and Myhrvold have also filed a series of patents for a temperature-controlled keg to store medicine -- and, separately, beer and wine -- at optimal temperatures. The keg would come with sensors and an electronic <a href="http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=display&x=&y=" target="_blank">display</a> that would allow people to <a href="http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.jhtml?term=monitor&x=&y=" target="_blank">monitor</a> the liquids without having to open the container.</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;">Related Articles:</span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/web-that-speaks-your-language.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/05/web-that-speaks-your-language.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-inquiry-into-hiring-at-high-tech.html" target="_blank">http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-inquiry-into-hiring-at-high-tech.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/ballmer-all-traditional-content-will-be.html" target="_blank">http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/ballmer-all-traditional-content-will-be.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-attacks-heart-of-microsoft.html" target="_blank">http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/07/google-attacks-heart-of-microsoft.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/bing-meaning-but-it-not-google.html" target="_blank">http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/bing-meaning-but-it-not-google.html</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/googles-schmidt-rips-microsofts-bing.html" target="_blank">http://globalitandbusinessnews.blogspot.com/2009/06/googles-schmidt-rips-microsofts-bing.html</a></span></p> <p></p><p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:10.0pt;"><a href="http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/microsoft-to-eliminate-need-for-game.html" target="_blank">http://globalblognetwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/microsoft-to-eliminate-need-for-game.html</a></span></p> <p></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:19px;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Source: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:8.0pt;"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/legal/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218500495&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News" target="_blank">http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/legal/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218500495&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News</a></span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Tags: </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;">Intellectual Ventures co-founder, Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's chief technology officer, Microsoft Research, <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org%20/" target="_blank">Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</a>, Searete, Fortune 500 companies, electromagnetic engine, a method of delivering medication, temperature-controlled keg to store medicine, </span></p> <p><span style=" ;font-family:Perpetua;font-size:14.0pt;"> </span></p><p style="font-size: 10px;"> <a href="http://posterous.com/">Posted via email</a> from <a href="http://globalbusinessnews.posterous.com/bill-gates-name-surfaces-on-patent-applicatio">Global Business News</a> </p>MetaPorthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15663351746304129389noreply@blogger.com0