Reuters - Nvidia kicks off global search for start-ups

This article was sent to you from bombastic4000@yahoo.com, who uses Reuters Mobile Site to get news and information on the go. To access Reuters on your mobile phone, go to:
http://mobile.reuters.com

Nvidia kicks off global search for start-ups

Tuesday, Mar 10, 2009 4:39AM UTC

SAN FRANCISCO, March 10 Reuters) - Nvidia <NVDA.O> plans to launch a program to invest in and spur development of up-and-coming graphics technologies and start-ups globally, hoping to shore up the firm's lead in a highly competitive graphics card arena.

The firm's worldwide GPU Ventures Program will fund and advise start-ups developing businesses around graphics processing, said Jeff Herbst, Nvidia's vice president of business development.

Nvidia, which competes with Advanced Micro Devices <AMD.N> subsidiary ATI, has funded start-ups before. Now, executives say they want to formalize and expand the process with a full-scale program.

Nvidia said on Tuesday it will invest from $500,000 to $5 million in, and provide marketing support for, companies working on consumer and professional applications ranging from video and image enhancement to scientific discovery, financial analysis and three-dimensional interfaces.

In exchange, Nvidia will take minority stakes in the companies when appropriate, Herbst said. But, he stressed, the program's main goal is to spur uses of Nvidia's graphics processing units.

Executives said such investments will boost the number of applications running off the firm's stable of products, while potentially augmenting their own technology.

"Start-up companies need to be leaner and meaner in this new economic environment," Herbst said.

"The more applications there are in the world that support the GPU, the bigger the total market there's going to be for people like Nvidia."

There would be no cap on the number of companies that could participate in the program, but Herbst said it was likely to fall in the same range as last year, or about five companies.

Previous investments made by Nvidia included Keyhole Corp, which Google <GOOG.O> eventually acquired, and Mental Images, which Nvidia itself bought, the firm said in its statement.

To draw out potential start-ups, NVIDIA plans to host its second annual Emerging Companies Summit this fall.

(Reporting by Janet Kornblum; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

Reuters - Guantanamo detainees say they planned September 11: report

This article was sent to you from bombastic4000@yahoo.com, who uses Reuters Mobile Site to get news and information on the go. To access Reuters on your mobile phone, go to:
http://mobile.reuters.com

Guantanamo detainees say they planned September 11: report

Tuesday, Mar 10, 2009 4:29AM UTC

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The five detainees at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison camp charged with plotting the September 11 attacks have filed a document expressing pride at their accomplishment and accepting responsibility for the deaths of nearly 3,000 people, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The document, which the newspaper said may be released publicly on Tuesday, describes the five men as the "9/11 Shura Council," and says their actions were an offering to God, according to excerpts of the document read to a reporter by an unidentified government official, the report said.

"'To us,' the official read, 'they are not accusations. To us they are a badge of honor, which we carry with honor,'" the paper said.

The document is titled "The Islamic Response to the Government's Nine Accusations," the military judge at the U.S. Naval base said in a separate filing, obtained by the Times, that described the detainees' document.

The document was filed on behalf of the five men, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who has called himself the mastermind of the attacks.

Some of the men had said earlier that they planned the 2001 attacks and that they wanted to be martyrs. The reason for the new filing, which the report said reached the military court on March 5, was not clear. The brief court order describing the filing said the men sought no legal action.

(Writing by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Reuters - Common ingredient offers AIDS protection

This article was sent to you from bombastic4000@yahoo.com, who uses Reuters Mobile Site to get news and information on the go. To access Reuters on your mobile phone, go to:
http://mobile.reuters.com

Common ingredient offers AIDS protection

Wednesday, Mar 04, 2009 10:46PM UTC

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A cheap ingredient used in ice cream, cosmetics and found in breast milk helps protect monkeys against infection with a virus similar to AIDS and might work to protect women against the virus, researchers reported on Wednesday.

The compound, called glycerol monolaurate, or GML, appears to stop inflammation and helps keep away the cells the AIDS virus usually infects, the researchers said.

While it does not provide 100 percent protection, it might greatly reduce a woman's risk of being infected, and she could use it privately and without hurting her chances of pregnancy, the researchers reported in the journal Nature.

And it costs pennies a dose, Ashley Haase and Pat Schlievert of the University of Minnesota reported.

"For years, people have used the compound as an emulsifying agent in a variety of foods ... it is in breast milk," Schlievert told reporters in a telephone briefing.

GML is being considered as an additive to tampons because it interferes with bacteria, particularly those that can cause a potentially fatal infection called toxic shock syndrome.

If it can be shown to work safely in women, GML might provide the first easy route to a microbicide -- a gel or a cream that women could use vaginally to protect themselves from infection with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, which causes AIDS.

HIV infects 33 million people globally and has killed 25 million. It is transmitted sexually, in blood and breast milk. In Africa, it is most commonly passed during heterosexual contact.

PROTECTING WOMEN

AIDS experts say many victims are married women whose husbands will not use condoms and who are often trying to have children. They need a safe and private way to protect themselves.

A microbicide (pronounced my-CROW-buh-side) might also protect men who have sex with men.

Haase and Schlievert's team tested GML, carried in KY jelly, in macaque monkeys. They put the gel into the vaginas of the monkeys and then applied SIV, a monkey version of HIV.

Four out of five monkeys never became infected and tests showed GML affected the immune response.

HIV is particularly hard to fight because it infects the very immune cells the body uses to attack a virus. When HIV infects an area such as the vagina, the CD4 T-cells rush to defend against it. The body sends out signaling chemicals called cytokines to call in more T-cells.

HIV can then infect them all and spread through the body.

GML appears to stop the cytokine call for help and stops so many T-cells from rushing to the area, Haase and Schlievert said. This in turn reduces the opportunity for HIV to take hold.

"This result represents a highly encouraging new lead in the search for an effective microbicide to prevent HIV transmission that meets the criteria of safety, affordability and efficacy," they wrote.

Even if it was only 60 percent effective, such a gel could prevent 2.5 million HIV cases over three years, they said.

They said they plan to study their gel in more monkeys for longer periods of time to ensure the gel is not simply delaying infection rather than preventing it.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

CNN - Spacecraft to blast off in search of 'Earths'

Sent from bombastic4000@yahoo.com's mobile device from http://www.cnn.com.

Spacecraft to blast off in search of 'Earths'

Calling it a mission that may fundamentally change humanity's view of itself, NASA on Friday prepared to launch a telescope that will search our corner of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-like planets.

The Kepler spacecraft is scheduled to blast into space on top of a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida just before 11 p.m. ET.

"This is a historical mission. It's not just a science mission," NASA Associate Administrator Ed Weiler said during a pre-launch news conference.

"It really attacks some very basic human questions that have been part of our genetic code since that first man or woman looked up in the sky and asked the question: Are we alone?"

Kepler contains a special telescope that will stare at 100,000 stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way for more than three years as it trails Earth's orbit around the Sun.

The spacecraft will look for tiny dips in a star's brightness, which can mean an orbiting planet is passing in front of it -- an event called a transit.

The instrument is so precise that it can register changes in brightness of 20 parts per million in stars that are thousands of light years away.

"Being able to make that kind of a sensitive measurement over a very large number of stars was extremely challenging," Kepler project manager James Fanson said.

"So we're very proud of the vehicle we have built. This is a crowning achievement for NASA and a monumental step in our search for other worlds around other stars."

Are we alone?

The $600 million mission is named after Johannes Kepler, a 17th-century German astronomer who was the first to correctly explain planetary motion. His discoveries combined with modern technology may soon help to answer whether we are alone in the universe or whether Earth-like worlds inhabited by some type of life are common.

"We won't find E.T., but we might find E.T.'s home," said William Borucki, science principal investigator for the Kepler mission.

About 330 "exoplanets" -- those circling sun-like stars outside the solar system -- have been discovered since the first was confirmed in 1995.

Most are gas giants like Jupiter, but some have been classified as "super earths," or worlds several times the mass of our planet, said Alan Boss, an astronomer with the Carnegie Institution who serves on the Kepler Science Council. They are too hot to support life, he added, calling them "steam worlds."

Europe's COROT space telescope caused a stir last month when it spotted the smallest terrestrial exoplanet ever found. With a diameter less than twice that of Earth, the planet orbits very close to its star and has temperatures up to 1,500° Celsius (more than 2,700° Fahrenheit), according to the European Space Agency. It may be rocky and covered in lava.

Scientists have marveled how strange some of the alien worlds are.

"The density of these planets has been astounding," Borucki said. "We're finding planets that float like a piece of foam on water, [with] very, very low densities. We're finding some planets where the densities are heavier than that of lead."

The Kepler telescope, however, is seeking something much more familiar: Earth-like planets with rocky surfaces, orbiting in their stars' habitable, or "Goldilocks," zones -- not too hot or too cold, but just right for liquid water to exist.

Quest for a 'pale blue dot'

Once Kepler spots a planet, scientists will be able to calculate its size, mass, orbital period, distance from star and surface temperature, Boss said. He called the mission a "step one" that will tell astronomers how hard it is to find nearby habitable worlds.

"Once we know how many there really are ... then NASA will be able to build space telescopes that can actually go out and take a picture of that nearby 'Earth' and measure the elements and compounds in its atmosphere of the planet and give us some hint as to whether or not it's got life," Boss said.

Boss believes that there may be 100 billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way, or one for every sun-type star in the galaxy. He said scientists should know by 2013 -- the end of Kepler's mission -- whether life in the universe could be widespread.

The 20-year goal is to someday take a picture of a pale blue dot orbiting a nearby star, said Debra Fischer, an astronomy professor at San Francisco State University, during a NASA news conference.

Boss called it a potentially unprecedented time of discovery for scientists.

"Sometimes, people call this the golden age of astronomy. I think it's more like the platinum age of astronomy. It's beyond gold," Boss said.

NYTimes.com: White House Names First Chief Information Officer

This page was sent to you by:  bombastic4000@gmail.com   | March 05, 2009 The Caucus:  White House Names First Chief Information Officer By BRIAN KNOWLTON Vivek Kundra, 34, the chief technology officer for the District of Columbia, will be expected to oversee a push by the federal government to expand uses of cutting-edge technology. 1. Timothy Egan: Fears of a Clown 2. Basics: An Empty In-Box, or With Just a Few E-Mail Messages? Read On 3. Phish’s Breakup? That Was Then. But Tough Times Call for a Reunion. 4. It’s Organic, but Does That Mean It’s Safer? 5. U.S. Sets Big Incentives to Head Off Foreclosures »  Go to Complete List Copyright 2009  The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy

Reuters - "Watchmen" is treasure trove for philosophers

This article was sent to you from bombastic4000@yahoo.com, who uses Reuters Mobile Site to get news and information on the go. To access Reuters on your mobile phone, go to:
http://mobile.reuters.com

"Watchmen" is treasure trove for philosophers

Thursday, Mar 05, 2009 6:58PM UTC

By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Superheroes don't just make fun characters for comic books and movies.

Their powers, and how they choose to use them, are philosophical treasure troves, and few are as rich and complicated as the protagonists in "Watchmen," which opens in movie theaters around the world this week.

"'Watchmen' is an embarrassment of riches to the comics-obsessed philosopher," said Mark D. White, editor of the book "Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test."

The book is one of a series that uses pop culture as an entry point to the sometimes abstract subject of philosophy.

Years in the making, "Watchmen" is the big-screen adaptation of the acclaimed 12-issue comic book series by Britons Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons published between 1986 and 1987.

Like the books, the movie is set in an alternative 1985 when the United States and the Soviet Union are on the brink of nuclear war. It features costumed vigilantes who have become so unpopular they are now outlawed.

But "Watchmen" is far from just popcorn entertainment. Its twisted superhero archetypes, like the tortured do-gooder Rorschach and brainy businessman Ozymandias, take time out from performing death-defying acts to muse on subjects like free will, savior figures and the politics of fear.

"In 'Watchmen,' the philosophy is so explicit that you don't have to dig very hard to find it," said White, an associate professor in the department of political science, economics and philosophy at the College of Staten Island.

ROMAN ROOTS

The original series took the name from the phrase "Who watches the Watchmen?" which dates back to the 1st century Roman poet Juvenal and has been the subject of philosophical debate for centuries.

The essays by academics in "Watchmen and Philosophy" look at how Rorschach justifies his often brutal actions, and tackles subjects like the legitimacy of authority.

The mother and daughter Silk Spectres provide a window into the feminist thinking of French author Simone de Beauvoir. Another chapter is devoted to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's thoughts on the "Ubermensch" (superman).

Although "Watchmen" raises more philosophical questions than most, hit TV shows like medical drama "House" and animated series "The Simpsons" also contain thought-provoking material for those who believe the unexamined life is not worth living.

"Philosophy has had a public relations problem for a couple of centuries. People mistakenly think that philosophy is some dusty academic subject that is irrelevant," said William Irwin, editor of the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series.

"The mission is to see what the general public like in pop culture and use it as jumping off point for philosophical discussion," said Irwin, professor of philosophy at Kings College, Pennsylvania.

More than 1 million books have been published in the Philosophy and Pop Culture series. Almost all the titles have been translated into Portuguese, mostly for the Brazilian market where Irwin says philosophy plays an important part in culture.

White, who has also written on Batman, says superheroes are fascinating territory for moral philosophers like him.

"They have taken on this extraordinary responsibility, but given that you want to save the world, what should you do first? Catch crooks or cure hunger?" White said.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

Reuters - YouTube and Universal talk on music video site: sources

This article was sent to you from bombastic4000@yahoo.com, who uses Reuters Mobile Site to get news and information on the go. To access Reuters on your mobile phone, go to:
http://mobile.reuters.com

YouTube and Universal talk on music video site: sources

Thursday, Mar 05, 2009 2:18PM UTC

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc's YouTube and Universal Music Group are in talks to create a premium online music video service, sources familiar with the situation said on Wednesday.

If they reach a deal, the service could mark a significant step forward in Google's attempt to generate revenue from YouTube, which it acquired for $1.65 billion in 2006.

A deal would also represent a broadening of the sometimes fractious ties between YouTube and the media industry, which has on occasion ordered the popular video-sharing site to pull down clips of TV shows or music videos uploaded by users without the media companies' permission.

Universal, the world's largest music label, and YouTube, the No. 1 U.S. video website, are in talks to create a stand-alone site to showcase music videos by Universal artists, according to three sources who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The deal would ideally be broadened out to include videos by artists at the other major music labels -- Sony Music, EMI Group and Warner Music Group -- in a concept similar to the TV shows available on NBC Universal and News Corp's Hulu.com.

Many of the details, such as financial terms and whether the service would be run as a joint venture, are still being worked out, the sources said.

"UMG CEO Doug Morris came up with this idea to do a Hulu for music but only with premium music content," said one of the persons familiar with the matter, adding that other music companies have expressed interest. "We literally just started negotiations."

VEVO

Referred to by the placeholder name of "Vevo," the site would carry premium music videos and music-related content designed to garner higher advertising rates than now available through YouTube.

Music companies typically get paid a share of any advertising revenue associated with a video on YouTube as well as a per-play payment for every video viewed.

YouTube, which also offers a treasure trove of user-generated home videos along with professionally produced content, is the No. 1 video site in the United States with more than 100 million viewers in January, according to market research firm comScore. Hulu has also rapidly become popular, ranking sixth in the United States in January with 24.4 million viewers.

Vevo could also tap other revenue streams through sales of items like concert tickets and merchandise, the sources said.

The talks between YouTube and Universal Music -- whose artists include Kanye West, U2 and Amy Winehouse -- for a service backed by all the major labels have been held up by the video site's fallout with Warner Music, one of the sources said.

Warner in December ordered YouTube to pull down all music videos on the site featuring Warner artists, after contract negotiations between the two sides broke down.

Universal's current licensing deal with YouTube expires at the end of March, and a new deal is expected for April. EMI is also in contract renewal talks with YouTube. Sony Music renewed its contract with YouTube last month.

YouTube said in a statement, "We are always working with our partners to find creative ways to connect music, musicians, and fans."

Universal declined to comment.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Additional reporting by Alexei Oreskovic in San Francisco; Editing by Tiffany Wu, Richard Chang)

Reuters - Bernanke defends AIG rescue, says U.S. had no choice

This article was sent to you from bombastic4000@yahoo.com, who uses Reuters Mobile Site to get news and information on the go. To access Reuters on your mobile phone, go to:
http://mobile.reuters.com

Bernanke defends AIG rescue, says U.S. had no choice

Tuesday, Mar 03, 2009 7:3PM UTC

By Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday defended the government's latest bailout of embattled insurer AIG, telling irate lawmakers that he was also angry, but that the failure to act could have triggered an economic disaster.

Bernanke, in testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, gave a grim view of U.S. economic prospects, saying labor market conditions may have worsened in recent weeks. His comments helped drive the stock market briefly lower.

Pressed by the Senate committee to justify the latest in an expanding series of bailouts for American International Group, Bernanke said there was no alternative, even though the company had been irresponsible.

"We know that failure of major financial firms in a financial crisis can be disastrous for the economy. We really had no choice," he told the panel.

The U.S. government threw a fresh $30 billion lifeline to AIG on Monday, as part of a restructured bailout that had earlier swelled to about $150 billion.

AIG, which reported a record $61.7 billion quarterly loss on Monday, has been slammed by losses on its credit default swaps that guarantee mortgage-linked securities.

Lawmakers told the Fed chairman that public patience has worn thin over the generous support for the foundering insurer even as smaller firms and households are taking heavy hits from the slumping economy.

"Right now, small businesses across the country, who played by the rules, paid their bills on time, can't get a line of credit, while AIG seems to have an open spigot for taxpayer money," said Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat.

Bernanke said AIG's extensive relationships with banks around the globe presented the risk of "contagion" should the company fail, and said authorities were working hard to try to neutralize dangerous positions.

"We have been doing what we can to break the company up, to get it into a saleable position and to try to defang it," he said. "If there's a single episode in this entire 18 months that has made me more angry, I can't think of one (other than) AIG," Bernanke added, equating the company's financial services division with an unregulated hedge fund.

WIDER BUDGET GAP A NECESSARY EVIL

Bernanke told the committee that restoring stability to the battered financial sector was a prerequisite to a recovery from the deep U.S. recession, and said a surge in U.S. government debt was unavoidable.

"We are better off moving aggressively today to solve our economic problems," he said. "The alternative could be a prolonged episode of economic stagnation that would not only contribute to further deterioration in the fiscal situation, but would also imply lower output, employment and incomes for an extended period."

In addition to the likelihood of a worsening jobs market, Bernanke said many businesses are burdened with excess inventories and are likely to cut production further in the months ahead.

The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average, which closed below 7,000 for the first time in 12 years on Monday, dipped following Bernanke's comments before rebounding as U.S. President Barack Obama spoke separately.

The collapse of the U.S. housing market bubble has set off a chain reaction tipping economies around the world into recession, and heaping fiscal strain on governments.

A budget proposal released by the White House last week envisioned a record budget deficit of $1.8 trillion this year, and a rise in the ratio of debt to gross domestic product to about 60 percent from 40 percent -- the highest level since the early 1950s.

"All else equal, this is a development that all of us would have preferred to avoid," Bernanke said.

He said a decision on whether the government needs to increase the size of a $700 billion bank rescue package would depend on bank "stress tests" being conducted by regulators and the direction of the economy.

The president's budget plan included a $750 billion "placeholder" to take into account the possibility the administration could go back to Congress for more money to clean up the banking sector.

i'm mad

i'm mad y'all. spending, spending, spending. spending is the new subprime. economy is in a tailspin and we through money at it. can't we get anybody to do a good job in this country. whart's your dirty little secret aig? why is the federal government throwing money at your dead carcass as wind tosses oxegen on filthy carrion? i'm mad. we need to volunteer y'all. we need to organize. we need to mobilize. we can't sit back and get beaten. come on. let us fight back!

NYTimes.com: Software System's Fans Gather to Talk Code

This page was sent to you by:  bombastic4000@gmail.com NYREGION   | March 02, 2009 Software System's Fans Gather to Talk Code By COLIN MOYNIHAN Users of Drupal, an open-source software system used to run Web sites, gathered in Downtown Brooklyn for Drupal Camp. 1. Good or Useless, Medical Scans Cost the Same 2. Op-Ed Columnist: The Ecstasy and the Agony 3. Op-Ed Contributor: One Ride Forward, Two Steps Back 4. Heads Up: Outside Atlanta, a Utopia Rises 5. Op-Ed Columnist: Revenge of the Glut »  Go to Complete List Advertisement Slumdog Millionaire Winner Of 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture And Best Director - Danny Boyle Now Playing Everywhere! Click here to view trailer Copyright 2009  The New York Times Company | Privacy Policy