XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Friday, 12 August 2011

‘Angry Birds’ Maker May Seek Funds at $1.2B Valuation - plans to make a movie and sell stuffed animals and clothing -

Rovio Entertainment Oy, the Finnish creator of the “Angry Birds” mobile-phone game, is in talks to receive funding that would value the company at about $1.2 billion, two people with knowledge of the discussions said.

The Espoo, Finland-based game maker is considering taking a strategic investment from a company in the entertainment business, said the people, who asked not to be named because the talks are private. The name of the entertainment company couldn’t immediately be determined. Rovio has rejected similar offers from large institutional investors, the people said.

Rovio may use any new funds to fuel its expansion. The company plans to make an “Angry Birds” movie and open offices outside of Finland, and is seeking to capitalize on the popularity of its brand in countries such as China, where it aims to sell stuffed animals and clothing in 200 retail stores.

The most likely investors in Rovio include game developers Electronic Arts Inc. and Zynga Inc., and media giants News Corp. and Walt Disney Co., said Michael Pachter, managing director of research at Wedbush Securities Inc. These companies could help Rovio reach new audiences, he said.

“I can see how Disney would take ‘Angry Birds’ and turn them into a theme-park ride and a movie,” said Pachter, who is based in Los Angeles. “Zynga could take ‘Angry Birds’ and make it into ‘FarmVille.’”

Earlier Funding

In March, Rovio received $42 million in funding from investors including Skype Technologies SA co-founder Niklas Zennstrom’s Atomico as well as Facebook Inc. backer Accel Partners.

Sini Matikainen, a spokeswoman for Rovio, declined to comment on the company’s funding plans. Jeff Brown, a spokesman for Electronic Arts, declined to comment on potential investments. Dani Dudeck, a spokeswoman for Zynga, also declined to comment, as did Dan Berger, a spokesman for News Corp. in Los Angeles. Zenia Mucha, a spokeswoman for Disney, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Angry Birds” is one of several Web games to be offered on Google Inc.’s new social-networking site, the Mountain View, California-based company said in a blog post yesterday.

--With assistance from Ari Levy and Cliff Edwards in San Francisco and Andy Fixmer in Los Angeles and Diana ben-Aaron in Helsinki. Editors: Jillian Ward, Nick Turner

The blackest planet - Astronomers uncover alien world so 'extraordinarily dark' it makes coal look shiny -

The blackest planet - Astronomers uncover alien world so 'extraordinarily dark' it makes coal look shiny -
Black planet: This artist's impression shows TrES-2b, a planet so hot it glows red like embers, but is also officially the darkest known planet

Black planet: This artist's impression shows TrES-2b, a planet so hot it glows red like embers, but is also officially the darkest known planet

Astronomers have discovered the darkest known planet.
The exoplanet, known as TrES-2b, reflects less than 1 per cent of light, which makes it darker than any other planet or moon.
The discovery, detailed in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, was made by analysing data from Nasa's Kepler spacecraft, which provides extremely precise measurements on the brightnesses of faraway stars.

Black planet: This artist's impression shows TrES-2b, a planet so hot it glows red like embers, but is also officially the darkest known planet'TrES-2b is considerably less reflective than black acrylic paint, so it's truly an alien world,' David Kipping of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) told Science Daily.
TrES-2b, a gas exoplanet roughly the size of Jupiter, is around 750 light years away and was discovered in 2006 by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey; hence its less-than-catchy name.

The reason it differs from other similar-sized planets is that Jupiter, for example, is surrounded by ammonia clouds that reflect more than one third of its sunlight.TrES-2b has no ammonia clouds to reflect light because it is extremely hot.
It orbits its star - GSC 03549-02811 - at a relatively intimate five million kilometres, which means it exhibits temperatures of up to 1,000C.
Instead, it has an atmosphere made up of chemicals such as vaporized sodium, potassium and gaseous titanium oxide, which absorb light, but that still does not explain the planet's extreme blackness.

Read more -
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2025150/TrES-2b-The-blackest-planet-space-uncovered-astronomers.html#ixzz1UpBRBnVi

Gov't pays for empty flights to rural airports - airlines get subsidies through $200M Essential Air Service program -

On some days, the pilots with Great Lakes Airlines fire up a twin-engine Beechcraft 1900 at the Ely, Nev., airport and depart for Las Vegas without a single passenger on board. And the federal government pays them to do it.

Federal statistics reviewed by The Associated Press show that in 2010, just 227 passengers flew out of Ely while the airline got $1.8 million in subsidies. The travelers paid $70 to $90 for a one-way ticket. The cost to taxpayers for each ticket: $4,107.

Ely is one of 153 rural communities where airlines get subsidies through the $200 million Essential Air Service program, and one of 13 that critics say should be eliminated from it. Some call the spending a boondoggle, but others see it as a critical financial lifeline to ensure economic stability in rural areas.

Steve Smith, executive director of the Jackson, Tenn., airport authority, also has seen empty or near empty flights take off, since the airlines get paid per flight, not per passenger. The subsidy amounted to $244 for each of the 2,514 people who flew out of Smith's airport last year, though few if any passengers knew that.

"They fly the empty plane so they can still get the money," Smith said.

The fight over the subsidies was a key sticking point that led to the recent political standoff in Washington that temporarily shut down the Federal Aviation Administration, putting thousands out of work for nearly two weeks. There were other disputes as well, such as a GOP proposal that would make it more difficult for airline workers to unionize.

Republicans got the EAS cuts they were looking for in last week's agreement - but with a major caveat. Subsidies to Ely, Jackson and 11 other communities are set to end, but Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has the authority to continue them if he decides it's necessary.

Rep. David McKinley, a Republican who came into office with tea party support, sided on the issue with Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a fellow West Virginian who has used his position as chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to support the current funding.

Flights out of Morgantown, W.Va., were among those targeted by other Republicans. A $1 million subsidy amounted to about $52 for each of Morgantown's more than 10,000 passengers last year.

McKinley describes himself "as a small government, free-market focused owner of a small business," but said airports that receive subsidies "serve as crucial engines of job creation for many small towns and rural areas."

The EAS was created to ensure service on less profitable routes to remote communities when airlines were deregulated in 1978.

A spokesman for the Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment about the program, which has grown in scope and cost. In 1999 the EAS served 89 communities - 68 in the continental United States, one in Hawaii and 20 in Alaska. Today, it serves 45 in Alaska and 108 elsewhere, and over the last 10 years the budget quadrupled from $50 million to $200 million.

Japan to set up new nuclear watchdog - as Fukushima operators build massive tent to cover damaged reactor -

Japan is to establish a new nuclear watchdog under the country's Environment Ministry, as the fallout continues at the country's Fukushima No. 1 power plant.

Media reports in Japan say the government of Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Friday agreed the nuclear agency should fall under the remit of the Environment Ministry, and not the Cabinet.

According to The Japan Times, government sources said the Cabinet Office was dropped because it had close ties with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

Japan's existing Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) is part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which actively promotes nuclear power.

It has come under criticism following the March earthquake and tsunami that devastated eastern Japan for failures in correctly supervising the industry, and its slow response to the nuclear meltdown.

Agence France Presse reports that the new agency will consist of several hundred officials, and is expected to be active by April next year.

Meanwhile legislation allowing Japan's central government to remove debris from from affected areas was also enacted on Friday.

The law means that the central government will meet 95 percent of the costs, with local governments to shoulder the remaining costs, reports The Japan Daily.

Bert and Ernie are straight after all - now they will go after the seven dwarfs from Snow White?.... -

It’s the question every kid wonders from when they are five years old – are Bert and Ernie gay? Well Sesame Street has “come out” to say they are straight.

The show producers issued a statement saying, “They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.”

“Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics … they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”

This controversy became a hot topic after an online petition was started to marry the two characters. However the show creators insist that will not happen.

Bert and Ernie are straight? Well this video says otherwise. Ernie just seems to concerned about Bert’s exercising.

14,000 sun worshippers tried to order a "miracle" tanning cream, unaware it was a spoof product by a skin cancer charity -

More than 14,000 sun worshippers tried to order a "miracle" tanning cream, unaware that it was a spoof product by a British skin cancer charity, The Sun reported Friday.

Sunny-3's hoax website boasts that the lotion "triples the power of the sun" and claims that it is especially helpful for people with fair skin.

Videos online show fake customers frolicking at "night tanning" parties on light summer evenings. More than 250,000 people saw the ads and visited the cream's website.

Set up just a week ago, it offers free samples as well as larger amounts for $12.93 -- but customers will instead get e-mails revealing the hoax and giving skin cancer information.

The charity Skcin, which is based in Nottingham, central England, and advertising firm McCann Worldgroup wanted to raise awareness of the soaring rates of the potentially-fatal disease, especially in the young. Skin cancer numbers doubled over the past 10 years.

"It was designed to engage those most at risk and those most difficult to talk to via conventional advertising," Simon Hill of McCann said.

Family Fined $300 For Having Apple, Tomato, Cucumber In Child's Backpack At Airport... -

A family of four from Florida visiting relatives in New Jersey got an unwelcome surprise at the Customs gate — all because of some forgotten fruit and vegetables.

The oversight was an expensive one that has the family fuming, reports CBS 2’s Sean Hennessey.

“I don’t have to be traumatized like this. Nobody should have to be traumatized,” Suri Steinberger said.

Suri and Peter Steinberger are livid after what they call an over-reaction by customs agents at Newark Liberty Airport. They were told they had violated a federal crime — forgetting about an apple, a tomato and three cucumbers in their son’s backpack.

“For me it was like, you know, what you see on TV. I thought I was going to get handcuffed, they have my kids. So I just started to cry,” Suri Steinberger said.

The run-in with Customs agents happened Thursday at the end of a long trip from Israel. Suri packed the vegetables as snack for her boys.

“Let them eat it on the plane instead of eating garbage,” Suri said.

The problem was she didn’t sit with her husband and two boys on the flight and Peter didn’t know the produce was in the bag.

Thursday, 11 August 2011

Hypersonic Military Planes: $320M to Zero in Minutes -

About $320 million in U.S. taxpayer dollars has gone into two hypersonic aircraft designed and built by a defense research agency -- which launched each experimental vehicle in separate tests and then promptly lost contact with them, as they barreled into the Pacific Ocean.

The latest unmanned Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 -- a test rocket designed to fly at Mach 20, or around 13,000 miles per hour -- successfully launched at approximately 7:45 a.m. PDT Thursday and separated properly from the Minotaur IV rocket that carried it to the edge of space. But after 2,700 seconds of flight, the agency lost contact with the vehicle, which presumably sank in the blue waters of the Pacific Ocean.

In a statement on the mission, Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) HTV-2 program manager, said the agency had learned from the flight. But he also acknowledged that the mission was shy of perfection.

"It’s vexing; I’m confident there is a solution. We have to find it,” the statement read.

The fate of the test on Thursday is reminiscent of the April 2010 initial test flight, which also ended with the military losing contact with the vehicle after 9 minutes. It too went down in the Pacific.

The military research group began the hypersonic test program began in 2003. It has cost a whopping $320 million, Eric Mazzacone, a DARPA public affairs officer, told FoxNews.com.

Lt. Gen. Tom McInerey, former U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, told Fox News that the project is designed to let military strikes occur anywhere within minutes. But superfast weapons may simply be too expensive to be practical, he said.

"It costs about 1 billion dollars if we wanted to field about 10 or 20 of them per target ... and that's just not affordable," he said.

DARPA defended the costly test missions, declaring that valuable information was collected while the aircraft was in flight -- despite the unsuccessful end.

"We know how to boost the aircraft to near space. We know how to insert the aircraft into atmospheric hypersonic flight. We do now know how to achieve the desired control during the aerodynamic phase of flight," Schulz said.

At first, the launch seemed to go off successfully, despite the dense Central Coast fog making it hard to see the glider take-off -- only the sounds of the launch resonated through the air. No light from the "Falcon" craft was visible, all that was seen was a whiteout from fog and green hills in the foreground.

When the aircraft was in flight, the latest status reports were broadcast across the Air Force base from a loudspeaker where attendees watched the launch. Over that Countdown Network, the Range Launch Conductor said that it had lost optical site of the HTV-2 at approximately 8:15 a.m. PDT.

“Range assets have lost telemetry with #HTV2," the agency announced via Twitter shortly after the flight. "Downrange assets did not reacquire tracking or telemetry. #HTV2 has an autonomous flight termination capability. More to follow,” the agency wrote about an hour later.

After 2,700 seconds of flight, the launch ended.

A Vandenberg Air Force Base spokesman called the launch a success nevertheless. McInerney told Fox News the latest incident cast a pall over the program.

Illinois Shutting Down Ice Cream Makers for Crime of Using Fresh Fruit -

The State of Illinois is shutting down local, artisan ice cream makers for such terrible offenses as using fresh fruit instead of fruit syrup and fresh cream instead of pre-packaged soft serve mix. What, you say? How can this be? Health officials in this state are known for being overzealous when it comes to making sure that small, independent businesses follow obscure rules – and when I say small and independent, I’m talking about businesses that are often owned and run by 1-2 people renting space in a shared, licensed commercial kitchen. These are not corporations with large amounts of money who have the capital to hire lawyers or contribute significant sums to political campaigns. No, these are real people, individuals who do their best to follow labyrinthine food regulations based on the information that they’re given by governmental agencies who don’t always agree on what the rules should be.

Illinois health regulators seem to hate anything that isn’t incredibly processed. Last year, they destroyed thousands of dollars worth of local fruit that had no health issues. Why? Monica Eng from the Chicago Tribune put it this way: “At best it was a victim of paper work confusion among city bureaucrats who couldn’t agree on a policy.” One woman was put out of business for six months.

Now, the health department is saying that Nice Cream, a local maker (read: primarily one woman, Kris Swanberg) that I’ve followed since reading this 2009 profile from the Chicago Reader, is being forced to shut down because she lacks a dairy permit. Nevermind that she and others in her field have been creating artisan ice creams for years without ever hearing that such a permit existed – or that they needed one. Nevermind that the office that issued their business licenses (the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection) failed to inform any of them that they needed one in order to operate. IDPH has spoken, and now Swanberg and others will need to use sub-par ingredients or cough up around $40,000 for a pasteurizing machine.

Processed ingredients would mean that Nice Cream – which built its reputation by using fresh, organic ingredients that are sourced from local farms – would be allowed operate without needing the dairy license. The problem with the dairy license is that in order to pass inspection, you have to make sure your bacteria levels are so low that using real ingredients simply doesn’t work.

Technically, using fresh strawberries is legal. However, IDPH does not recommend using them, because “when you try and clean a strawberry to make sure it doesn’t have any bacteria, it kind of deteriorates.” Irradiated strawberries apparently look fine but are somewhat lacking in the taste department. So IDPH explicitly suggests “strawberry syrup.” Fresh cream requires the dairy license, so the alternative would be to use premade ice cream mix, the kind of stuff that is full of stabilizers and additives and usually found at places like Dairy Queen. (If you’ve never done it, read the label of your grocery store ice cream sometime – if you’re not buying Häagen-Dazs, Ben and Jerry’s, or Breyers, you’ll probably be reading a long list of ingredients, half of which are near unpronounceable.) Clearly, the results of these changes would turn Nice Cream into a generic brand that’s barely worth mentioning, rather than the wizards who made me realize for the first time that strawberry ice cream could actually taste good. Better than good. Amazing.

Which brings us back to the pasteurizing machine and its $40,000 price tag. That’s a lot of money for a small business to find. But it’s not a lot of money for a large corporation, and that’s the type of organization that the rules were invented for. In fact, the rules about dairy licenses apply to the mega-corporation and the one-man show equally in the eyes of the state. Something’s wrong with that. Something’s wrong with the fact that Cargill can stay in business after having to recall 36 million pounds of salmonella-tainted turkey, but Nice Cream may not be able to stay in business after keeping a clean record. Something’s wrong with the fact that health departments are pushing businesses to produce processed food rather than fresh, locally-sourced food, which is much healthier. Something’s wrong here, and local ice cream may be a casualty of it.

"Going Postal" The Sequel: US Postal Service To Cut 120,000 Jobs To Avoid Bankruptcy -

That the US postal service is on the verge of bankruptcy is well-known by now and was discussed by Zero Hedge long before it became mainstream news. Furthermore, as we previously noted, the key sticking point in cost reduction negotiations is the labor force compensation (80% of all costs), which is paid an average of $41.15 an hour, and which is over 60% unionized. As of today, we finally welcome the USPS to reality which has announced that, in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy, it is now seeking to reduce its total overhead by 20%, or a whopping 120,000 workers (a number which would amount to roughly an increase of 0.1% in the national unemployment rate). Ah yes, but this is prohibited by existing union contracts. Furthermore, WaPo writes that "SPS also wants to withdraw its employees from the health and retirement plans that cover federal staffers and create its own benefit programs for postal employees." Good luck trying to convince a labor union that cutting an ungodly amount of jobs is for the greater good. Alas, what happened in Greece (and what is about to happen in Italy) will be nothing compared to what will happen when the entire post office goes, well, postal.

This major restructuring of the Postal Service’s relationship with its workforce would need congressional approval and would face fierce opposition from postal unions. But if approved, eliminating contract provisions that prevent layoffs and quitting the federal employee health and retirement programs could have ramifications for workers across the government and throughout the national’s labor movement.

In a notice to employees informing them of its proposals, with the headline “Financial crisis calls for significant actions,” the Postal Service said “we will be insolvent next month due to significant declines in mail volume and retiree health benefit prefunding costs imposed by Congress.”

The Postal Service plan is described in two draft documents obtained by The Washington Post. A “Workforce Optimization” paper acknowledges “that asking Congress to eliminate the layoff protections in our collective bargaining agreements is an extraordinary request by the Postal Service, and we do not make this request lightly. However, exceptional circumstances require exceptional remedies.

“The Postal Service is facing dire economic challenges that threaten its very existence. . . . If the Postal Service was a private sector business, it would have filed for bankruptcy and utilized the reorganization process to restructure its labor agreements to reflect the new financial reality.”

And here are the number that will shortly be repeated ad nauseam on every talk show over the next week:

The USPS says it needs to reduce its workforce by 120,000 career positions by 2015, in addition to the 100,000 it expects through regular attrition. Some of the 120,000 could come through buyouts and other programs, but a significant number likely would be the result of layoffs, if Congress allows the agency to circumvent union contracts.

But what is a labor loving president to do (recall how in the Detroit-3 restructurings, labor unions just incidentally took precedence over secured debt holders):

“Unfortunately, the collective bargaining agreements between the Postal Service and our unionized employees contain layoff restrictions that make it impossible to reduce the size of our workforce by the amount required by 2015,” according to the postal document. “Therefore, a legislative change is needed to eliminate the layoff protections in our collective bargaining agreements.”

Those most likely to suffer yet another political whiplash as a result of this huge dilemma (massive layoffs or no more snail mail) is the democratic party:

How Congress will respond to the postal proposals remains to be seen. Many Republicans, including those who have sponsored legislation that labor considers anti-union, may support the plan. Some Democrats probably would back union opposition. But the Postal Service’s critical financial situation could make Democrats have second thoughts.

Sure enough, the unions wasted no time to craft a response:

American Postal Workers Union President Cliff Guffey said, “The APWU will vehemently oppose any attempt to destroy the collective bargaining rights of postal employees or tamper with our recently-negotiated contract — whether by postal management or members of Congress.”

National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association President Don Cantriel: “We are absolutely opposed” to the layoff proposal. “We are opposed to pulling out of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Our advisers are not advising us at all to even consider it.”

National Association of Letter Carriers President Fredric V. Rolando: “The issues of lay-off protection and health benefits are specifically covered by our contract. . . . The Congress of the United States does not engage in contract negotiations with unions and we do not believe they are about to do so.”

Unfortunately, about 30 years after its inception, the USPS is about to remind America what the source of the "going postal" phrase really is.