XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: 11/11/10

Thursday, 11 November 2010

Obama panel probes stimulus waste -- at Ritz Carlton - to consider ways to prevent "fraud, waste, and abuse -

Members of a key panel created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus bill, have scheduled a meeting on November 22 to consider ways to prevent "fraud, waste, and abuse of Recovery Act funds." The meeting will be held at the super-luxe Ritz Carlton Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.

The group is the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, a sub-committee of the larger Recovery Accountability and Transparency board (sometimes known as the RAT board). The stimulus bill set up the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, or RIAP, to make recommendations to identify and prevent waste of the bill's $814 billion in stimulus spending.

"The purpose of the November 22, 2010 meeting is to allow the RIAP to have an open dialogue, with input from the public, on issues relating to fraud, waste, and abuse of Recovery Act funds," says a notice in the Federal Register. Specifically, participants in the meeting will discuss various techniques to detect and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse, as well as larger issues of transparency and public awareness. Portions of the meeting will be open to the public, while other parts will be closed.

The Ritz-Carlton is located "in the midst of the picturesque Camelback Corridor, the city's premier shopping, dining and financial district," according the hotel's website. Hungry waste-and-abuse hunters can dine in the "casual elegance, relaxed atmosphere and uniquely inviting ambiance of the European-inspired bistro 24." Or they can enjoy Afternoon Tea in the "uniquely warm and inviting" Lobby Lounge. And at any time, waste-and-abuse watchdogs who also enjoy golf will be "just minutes from some of the best courses in the world," including the Tournament Players Club, the Arizona Biltmore, and several others.

And of course, there's one other element to the story: The board is holding a meeting in Arizona, home of the immigration law that President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have condemned and are challenging in court, and a state that is also the target of boycotts by a number of left-leaning groups and local governments around the country.

Eighty-four-year-old Mary Poppins star Dick Van Dyke says he was once rescued by porpoises -

Eighty-four-year-old Mary Poppins star Dick Van Dyke says he was once rescued by porpoises.

“I went out once and fell asleep on (a long) board. I did. And I woke up out of sight of land, and I looked around and I started paddling with the swells and I start seeing fins swimming around me, and I thought, ‘I’m dead’,” Van Dyke told Craig Ferguson on The Late Late Show. “They turned out to be porpoises. They pushed me all the way to shore. I’m not kidding.”

Van Dyke is doing the rounds promoting the Blu-Ray release of another of his twee classics,Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

He was famously a heavy drinker, who quit in the mid-70s. Van Dyke didn’t say when the porpoise rescue took place

Google pours another $3.2M into genetics startup - offers testing for what diseases you might B genetically predisposed 2 -

Google Inc.'s venture capital arm, Google Ventures, invested $3.2 million in a genetics startup run by Google CEO Sergey Brin's wife in November, bringing the Web search leader's total investments in 23andMe Inc. to $10.2 million.

In a Securities and Exchange filing, Google said it participated in a Series C preferred financing round and continues to hold a minority stake in 23andMe. In a separate SEC filing, 23andMe reported it raised a total of $22.2 million in the round.

Google said its audit committee approved the investment. A new lead investor determined the valuation of the Series C investment, and not Google, according to the Web search company. It did not name the new lead investor.

Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe, is married to Brin, who personally invested about $3.4 million in the financing.

The startup offers genetic testing for people interested in what diseases they might be genetically predisposed to, or for people who want to learn more about their ancestry. The tests cost between $400 and $500.