If companies were valued by hype, then Facebook could certainly claim to be worth $100bn. But is it really worth that in cold, hard cash?
A report from CNBC overnight claims the site is preparing for an initial public offering early next year at an eye-watering valuation of at least $100bn.
A 2012 IPO has been expected for some time. CNBC said the company would be obliged to go public in the first quarter of the year because it is likely to reach the 500-shareholder limit in October, and would then be required to release financial results to the US Securities and Exchange Commission every quarter. The first of these would be due in April, prompting speculation of a first quarter IPO just ahead of that.
Further pressure may be coming from within, with some employees pushing for an IPO so that restrictions on cashing in on their stock will be lifted.
We asked Facebook about the report and they declined to comment. But this follows various remarks from chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg last month when asked about Facebook's IPO. In late May at the Reuters Global Technology Summit, Sandberg described the Facebook IPO as "a process that all companies go through. It's an inevitable process for us, the next thing that happens. No one is buying us, we're going public."
At the POLIS lecture, the Wall Street Journal's Ben Rooney described her answer as non-committal, but she referred to "the IPO" rather than "an IPO", which was seen as further confirmation. And though she joked she'd give out the date, she didn't.
Over the past six months, estimates of Facebook's value have rocketed from $50bn when Goldman Sachs invested $1.5bn in the firm, to $85bn based on trading through private markets such as SecondMarket.
One transaction in January, where a trader bought Facebook shares at $55 each, put the site's value at $124bn – that's 62 times greater than Facebook's estimated revenues of $2bn last year.
If more concrete evidence emerges of a slowdown in Facebook's growth that would confirm the company is peaking, it makes sense for the company to cash in soon. And it's definitely in the air, with LinkedIn's IPO at $4.3bn and Groupon recently filing for its IPO at a valuation of $750m.
From basic word search to now Human Language Understanding, IBM has traversed this journey starting with Mechanized Encoding and Searching of Literary Information (1957) to the ultimate performance of Human Language Understanding in the game show Jeopardy by the computer system named Watson (2011).
No - IBM is not going on the game show circuit, but IBM will make Watson's full human language understanding deep question and answer system (DeepQA) available to healthcare in the near future for many use cases benefitting providers and payers. So what about now?
With IBM Content Analytics and its healthcare-specific solution called Medical Records Text Analytics, the Natural Language Processing technologies used in Watson are available to unleash the content traditionally locked in doctor's notes, clinical records, journal articles, desk references, drug uses / interactions, and many other medical content sources.
By unleashing this information, biomedical informatics organization can leverage the information to enhance disease management research, improve clinical treatment effectiveness and automate performance and quality reporting and other uses today while taking advantage of Watson for Healthcare DeepQA when available in the near future.
City leaders agree to allow DTE to install two charging stations in parking lots downtown.
If you need to charge your Chevy Volt, your options in Rochester may soon be expanding.
City leaders approved on Monday night an agreement with DTE Energy that would put two electric vehicle supply equipment charging stations in downtown parking lots.
It's part of a Department of Energy grant the Detroit energy company received; according to Rochester City Manager Jaymes Vettraino, DTE was looking for "forward-edge communities" with downtowns to install two of the charging stations.
They chose Rochester.
"This would be, for the city, an opportunity to experiment with this type of technology," Vettraino said.
There are already two similar charging stations at the Royal Park Hotel.
The grant would cover the $25,000 installation of the charging stations; still unknown is which parking lots the charging stations would be located in.
Also unknown is how users would pay for the charging stations. According to the agreement between DTE and the city, users for these particular stations cannot be charged by kilowatt per hour, but they could be charged a flat fee or hourly rate for the use.
In suburban Ann Arbor, the Saline City Council agreed in January to allow DTE to install one of the charging stations in a city parking lot; still last week, leaders were debating whether to charge users, according to a story on Saline-Milan Patch.
According to the story, it would cost 71 cents an hour in energy costs; a credit card swipe machine would cost about $500, in addition to about $200 in yearly transaction fees. A group of anonymous donors had offered to cover the electricity costs for two years, though city council did not accept that request.
In Rochester, city officials plan to meet Wednesday with DTE representatives to discuss the user fees and placement of the charging stations.
"Aside from the cool factor, this is great," said councilmember Ben Giovanelli. "It appears we're being cutting-edge."
Selena Gomez was back onstage and appeared to be in much better health on Monday (June 13). The Disney star spent the weekend recovering after being hospitalized last Thursday in Los Angeles for a combination of food poisoning and exhaustion.
The 18-year-old singer/actress took the stage for a performance at the Santa Monica Place mall Monday afternoon, wearing a flowing, white blouse over a white tank top, black shorts, and black strappy heels. Gomez and her band, the Scene, played two of her hit songs, "Who Says" and "A Year Without Rain," to cheers from the crowd. Gomez thanked her fans profusely for coming out to see her and for their support, especially in the last few days. She also apologized for missing her original appearance, which had been scheduled for this past Friday.
"I want to thank you so much for coming. If you guys came on Friday, I'm so sorry that I couldn't be here," she said before the band struck up the first few notes of "Who Says." "I love you guys very much."
Although Gomez didn't do any crazy dance moves or flips, she performed each song with plenty of energy. Her voice sounded strong and steady. At the end of the second song, the teen star answered a few questions from fans in the audience, mostly pegged to her experience filming the upcoming movie "Monte Carlo," around which the event was organized.
Gomez did take a brief moment to assure her fans (and the throng of reporters also gathered) that she's feeling just fine. "I'm feeling much better, thank you," she said.
During a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Bill Gates revealed some startling information about Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
While explaining that Zuck--like Gates--has pledged to donate most of his fortune, Gates mentioned offhandedly that Zuck may be engaged to girlfriend Priscilla Chan.
"I didn't say to Mark, 'Give me all your money!' He was predisposed to do it and he came to me seeking advice," Gates began.
He continued thus:
His fiancée Priscilla thought about education and he gave money to Newark, New Jersey, and we did a co-grant so that some of our people who had some expertise in that field could help him out. He deserves credit. I started meaningful philanthropy in my forties. He's starting way earlier.
In May, Zuckerberg and Chan, who have been together since their college days, moved into a $7 million Palo Alto home, which sits on 5,000 square feet of property. Earlier this year, the couple also adopted a puppy named Beast.
On his Facebook profile, Zuckerberg's relationship status currently reads "in a relationship," rather than "engaged." The same goes for the relationship status listed on Chan's Facebook profile.
Did Gates simply misspeak, or did he spill a big secret?
[huffingtonpost]
A pair of earthquakes with magnitudes of at least 5.0 struck within 90 minutes of each other near Christchurch, New Zealand, on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, reviving vivid memories of a deadly quake that killed more than 180 people in February.
"Everyone is on edge here anyway," said Rhys Taylor, who said he could hear sirens and see helicopters flying over Christchurch. "Obviously, power's out -- sort of all over the city at the moment -- and phone lines are down."
Police evacuated sections of the city's central business district after reports of a possible gas leak, police said. Several bridges in the city were closed as a precaution.
"It was quite an exciting ride," Christchurch Police Acting Inspector Murray Hurst told CNN after the first quake, adding that there was some damage caused by the quake and a few injuries that were not life-threatening.
The first quake -- a magnitude 5.2 -- was centered 9 kilometers (5 miles) east-southeast of Christchurch at a depth of 11 kilometers (6.8 miles), according to USGS. The quake took place at 1 p.m. Monday.
A second quake -- a more powerful 6.0 tremor -- struck at 2:20 p.m., roughly 13 kilometers (8 miles) north-northeast of the city at a depth of 9 kilometers (5.6 miles).
And at least one smaller quake followed. A magnitude 4.6 quake struck at 2:40 p.m. about 11 kilometers (6 miles) east of Christchurch and at a depth of 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles), according to the USGS.
The quakes came nearly four months after a 6.3-magnitude temblor struck the same area, killing scores of people.
[cnn]
One of the many storylines in the NBA Finals won by the Dallas Mavericks Sunday night was Terry's bold tattoo. Terry said he had the Larry O'Brien championship trophy tattooed on his right bicep before the season began because he was confident the Mavs would clinch the title.
Losing would've been painful for Terry, literally, as he said he would have the tattoo removed.
The 105-95 victory was sweet for many Mavericks, especially Terry, who led the team in scoring with 27 points.
"When you did something as crazy as I did, you have to back it up," Terry said, showing his tattoo to the television cameras. "This team never gave up when faced with adversity. We never gave up. Tonight we got vindication."
The Mavs used furious scoring barrages by Terry and weathered an uneven game by star forward Dirk Nowitzki to win the game.
"I still really can't believe it. The team worked so long and so hard. The team deserves this. The Mavs nation deserves this," Nowitzki said. "I could not get in a rhythm today but the team carried me to this win."
Despite a poor shooting night Nowitzki still had 21 points.
The Mavs held a slim 53-51 lead at halftime and was able to grow the lead. They led by 9 at the end of the third quarter. They pulled away in the fourth quarter helped by Miami's sloppy play and turnovers.
The loss was devastating for Miami, a team that seemed to be put together for a championship. Before the season the Heat added perennial all-star forward Chris Bosh and superstar forward LeBron James to a team that was headed by talented guard Dwayne Wade.
The win earns the first championship for star power forward Nowitzki. It also means his Mavericks avenged their crushing loss against the Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals.
Officials said the organisation, which is searching for a new head after Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York last month and accused of sexual assault, has been hit before but the latest attack was more significant and sophisticated.
A spokesman said that the incident was being investigated and the fund was "fully functional". It is believed the attack involved a method known as "spear phishing" in which an individual is tricked into clicking on a bogus Web link.
The IMF collects sensitive information about the financial systems of its 187 member nations. If leaked, some data in IMF computer systems could be used to manipulate or profit from bonds and currencies around the world.
Tom Kellermann, a former cybersecurity specialist at the World Bank who has been tracking the incident, told the "Wall Street Journal" that the infiltration involved significant reconnaissance before the actual attack and code written specifically to penetrate the IMF.
"This isn't malware you've seen before," he said. It was much more difficult to detect and the concern was hackers intended to gather information that could have moved markets. He added that attackers appeared to have broad access giving them sight of IMF plans relating to bailing out the economies of countries.
The IMF has been a central player in the bailout programmes for Ireland, Greece and Portugal and holds sensitive data on other countries that may be edging towards crisis. Its database contains details of negotiations with national leaders as they hammer out the terms of international bailouts.
Staff at the IMF were told of the attack in an internal memo last Wednesday from Jonathan Palmer, the IMF's Chief Information Officer. It said that suspicious file transfers had taken place and that an investigation had shown a desktop computer "had been compromised and used to access some Fund systems".
The memo stated: "At this point, we have no reason to believe that any personal information was sought for fraud purposes."
Mohan Koo, a cyber security specialist who is managing director of Dtex Systems (UK) said that a recent spate of attacks on large global organisations showed that hacking was carefully planned rather than opportunistic.
"Perhaps most frightening of all is the fact that these type of attacks could quite easily be directed towards Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) organisations, for example energy and water, where the impact of such a breach would have severe, immediate and potentially life-threatening consequences for everyday citizens."
Last week, Leon Panetta, the CIA director, told Congress on June 9 that the United States faced the "real possibility" of a devastating cyber attack on the electricity grid, security, financial and governmental systems.
Alternative vehicles are still "alternative" in part because fuel cell and battery technologies still have many hills to climb -- cost, efficiency, weight to name a few. A group of MIT researchers thinks they can pave the way. They recently combined the strongest aspects of traditional batteries and fuel cells to create a whole new kind of battery.
"It's a flowing electrode that's electrically conductive all of the time. That's the secret sauce," said Yet-Ming Chiang, the professor of material science and engineering at MIT who led the development. His interdisciplinary team included researchers Mihai Duduta, Bryan Ho, Pimpa Limthongkul, Vanessa Wood, Victor Brunini, MIT professors Craig Carter, Angela Belcher, Paula Hammond, and Rutgers University professor Glenn Amatucci.
The battery is similar to flow batteries that have been in existence for decades. However, unlike the low-energy batteries of the past, the new battery has a semi-solid flow system that relies on the flow of a concentrated energy-dense suspension of particles dubbed "Cambridge crude." Another key difference is that the battery separates the reactor from the reactants.
This goo system has several advantages over fuel cell and regular lithium-ion battery technology, Chiang said. For one, it allows a larger percentage of the battery to store energy. "We can go directly from the electrodes and entirely bypass the cell-making part," he said.
Chiang also expects their battery will lower costs because its structure is simpler to manufacture and reduces the expensive components that don't carry energy. "We can produce the flowing electrodes in a mixing operation and then simply use them to fill a device that's basically bolted together," he said.
The electro-chemical fuel can be reused so drivers could feasibly swap out a spent tank of for one that's been charged. Since the batteries decouple energy and power, fueling stations could offer different types of electro-chemical fuel.
"If you would like high-power fuel, we could give you high-power fuel. If you would like longer-range fuel: 'premium range,'" Chiang said. This would give drivers the ability to get electro-chemical fuel tailored to their operating conditions -- as well as the season. Electrolyte chemists usually design for the broadest range of temperatures, giving up performance at the high and low ends.
"The sweet spot we're aiming for is a battery with enough power for any vehicle application but with the longest run-time possible," Chiang said
Dan Steingart is an assistant professor in chemical engineering at the City College of New York who works on developing batteries for grid-scale applications.
"This battery is a sort of a hybrid of the best parts of a traditional battery and a fuel cell," he said of the semi-solid flow battery design. Being able to recharge the waste stream is one of the main advantages, he added. "It's as if you had a way of capturing the carbon and water and turning it back into gasoline at the gas station."
But Steingart cautions that significant challenges remain. Making sure the slurry flows reliably without clogging lines is going to be one of them, he said. Another will be getting the "Cambridge crude" in and out of the battery safely, and then scaling that up.
"How do you come up with a plumbing solution to get around that?" he asked. "That will make these guys a lot of money, or ultimately sink them."
Chiang and 24M Technologies aim to have a first commercial prototype ready within two years and, if all goes well, the first commercial systems could be in production during the later part of this decade.
"People talk about 'range anxiety,'" Chiang said. "Our goal is to provide 'range euphoria.'"
[discovery]
I understand that when married couples decide they don't like each other any more, they sometimes opt for extreme feelings and gestures.
No wife, though, has perhaps expressed herself in quite as socially networked way as Angela Voelkert.
Voelkert, according to court records obtained by the Smoking Gun, decided to use Facebook to see if she could find out what was really in her husband's mind.
She created a Facebook profile for a superficially attention-grabbing teenage girl called Jessica Studebaker. Her first step was for her creation to friend her estranged husband. Her next step was to persuade a trusted friend to be Studebaker's typing fingers and to entice her husband, David, into communication.
This allegedly worked better than many might imagine. Soon, the court papers declare, David Voelkert was e-mailing his newfound Ms. Studebaker and revealing details of plans to disappear with his children.
It seems that Voelkert might be technically inclined, given that he owns a South Bend, Ind., business called Secured Alarms, some of whose customers are allegedly police departments.
So a Facebook message he allegedly wrote to Studebaker might just have tipped the balance in the eyes of the FBI. It is said to have read: "O.K. Here is the deal. I had a GPS tracker on my van and I took it off earlier, it was just installed on my ex-wife's van so I can track her and know where she goes."
He then allegedly made suggestions that he would find someone to "take care of" his ex-wife.
Oddly, the FBI allegations in these court papers suggest that David Voelkert then believed he could leave for another state and that Studebaker, whom he'd never met (given that she didn't exist), would come with him.
David Voelkert has been charged (and appeared in court yesterday) with installing a listening device into his wife's car. He has not been charged with threats towards his wife.
It is not clear where the picture of the invented Ms. Studebaker came from, but the profile is currently still up on Facebook.
It's not easy to get a mental picture of the world's largest building. But tour guides at Boeing Co.'s aircraft assembly plant in Everett do their best by using some mind-blowing imagery. At 98 acres, its footprint is as big as 75 football fields — which makes it larger than Disneyland.
But there are no whirling teacups here. The massive hangar, which rises 11 stories, is where Boeing builds its wide-body jets, including the new 787 Dreamliner. Airlines are expected to begin taking delivery of the new planes later this year.
To accommodate 32,000 employees, the plant has seven restaurants, a fitness center, a store for DVD rentals and even a dry cleaner. The walk from the parking lot to a work station can be as much as three-quarters of a mile.
Visitors also get a workout on the 2/3-mile, 90-minute tour of the plant. (Electric carts are available for people with disabilities.) Given the unique experience — this is the only place on the continent where people can watch giant jets being built — it's well worth the price of admission, plus a little shoe leather.
Tours of the facility depart hourly from the Future of Flight Aviation Center in the neighboring town of Mukilteo. After viewing a short film about the assembly plant's history, visitors clamber aboard buses for the short ride to Paine Field Airport and the largest building on Earth.
Parked outside are several assembled 787s with the logos of their owners: Air India, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways. The new Dreamliners are of particular interest to many visitors, for whom the tour provides a sneak preview of the future of aviation.
"This is the first aircraft to use 50% composite materials. Composites are very durable and also very light," said guide Mike Murray. Replacing aluminum with the porous composite saves 20% on fuel, he pointed out. And because the new materials don't rust, the 787s will be able to circulate air with a higher humidity level during flight.
"Maybe we will arrive at our destinations more refreshed," Murray said.
Guests also learn about other features as they watch the planes being assembled: The overhead storage bins are bigger, as are the windows. Shades are gone, replaced by technology that darkens the glass with the push of a button. LED lighting can create various scenes in the cabin, such as a soothing sunset. The 787s also have distinctive curved wingtips.
In another part of the plant, visitors look down on an assembly line where the latest version of Boeing's original jumbo jet, the 747-8 Intercontinental, is being built.
Slightly larger than its older siblings, the plane is also quieter and more fuel efficient. Tour guides boast that the 747-8 is a big improvement over its European competition, the Airbus A380. Of course, travelers will make up their own minds once the newest 747s take flight within a few months.
In April, people across the USA and the world celebrated the beauty of nature, our rivers and mountains, and wildlife. The original Earth Day was inspired by founder Gaylord Nelson, former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the devastation of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. In that era of protests against war and social Injustice, millions rallied across the US to the first Earth Day to demand change. Rivers burning, mountains clear-cut and vanishing species enraged our citizens and they gathered en masse across the nation and demanded change. This public demonstration of love for nature led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.
Forty years later the rivers are cleaner, millions of acres have been established as national parks and wilderness areas and over all the air quality has improved. But what about the other 71%? Over half our oxygen comes from the ocean. Fish feed millions and the beauty and complexity of marine life leave us in awe. Yet today, a year after the ravages in the Gulf from the BP Oil spill, 90% of large pelagic shark species are going extinct from overfishing and for their fins. Whales and seals have been hunted to a genetic bottle neck and are hunted still. The wolves of the sea, the bluefin tuna, are being fished to the vanishing point. While a thousand other insults are being inflicted on Mother Ocean, where is our outrage?
New oil wells are being considered along our coast while nuclear power plants hum along our shorelines vulnerable to Tsunami and earthquakes. Recent die-offs of sardines in southern California; emaciated and sickly sea lions along the coast, vanishing salmon and stranded leopard sharks in the San Francisco Bay are bellwethers reminding us that the ocean is sick.
The ocean needs our help.
After a week of celebrating the Earth, it's time to celebrate our ocean with World Oceans Day. This day had been unofficially celebrated every June 8 since its original proposal in 1992 by Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2008. Since then, WOD has been coordinated internationally by The Ocean Project and the World Ocean Network with greater success and global participation each year. World Oceans Day is an opportunity every year to honor the world's ocean, to celebrate the all marine life.
It's time to motivate change and let our leaders know that marine life and ecosystem are worth protecting, and they need our protection now. This summer, celebrate World Oceans Day and tell our representatives we need a sea change. With our partners from The Ocean Project, Sea Stewards will be coordinating a World Ocean Day Celebration at Crissy Field in San Francisco on June 11. We will be celebrating all marine life, especially sharks, and motivate people to protect the ocean and ocean life we love.
