TOKYO — Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday the company isn’t pursuing other deals following the withdrawal of its $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo. He said in Tokyo that the company put ‘a lot of effort’ in the talks with Yahoo and has decided the two should pursue ‘independent paths.’ Over the weekend, Microsoft withdrew its 3-month-old unsolicited bid for Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) after seeing the impasse with Yahoo’s board over a mutually acceptable sales price. ‘Now at this point Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy,’ Gates told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo. (AP) Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Wednesday, May 7, 2008…. Full Image Those comments seemed to set a different tone than on Tuesday in South Korea, where he said the company wasn’t ruling out alternative partnerships after the failure to buy Yahoo. Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer had orally offered to pay $33 per share, or $47.5 billion, for Yahoo, up from an initial bid valued at $44.6 billion, or $31 per share. At the time the negotiations collapsed, the value of Microsoft’s original offer had fallen to $42.3 billion, or $29.40 […]
The Bluetooth wireless technology that allows people to use a hands-free earpiece while making a mobile telephone call could soon alert the emergency services when someone has a heart attack, Ofcom predicts. The communications regulator said that sensors could be implanted into people at risk of heart attack or diabetic collapse that would allow doctors to monitor them remotely. If the ‘in-body network’ recorded that the person had suddenly collapsed, it would send an alert, via a nearby base station at their home, to a surgery or hospital. However, Ofcom also gave warning in its report, Tomorrow’s Wireless World, that the impact of such technology on personal privacy would require more debate. The technology, which is being tested now in Portsmouth, could also be used if a patient failed to take his or her medicines. A pill dispenser would send an automatic reminder and, if the pills were not taken within a certain time, an alarm would sound and a message would be sent to the patient’s family or carers. However, health experts say that they are sceptical about the level of take-up of ‘in-body’ sensors while research into the possible radiation impact of wi-fi […]
If it has a bill and webbed feet like a duck, lays eggs like a bird or a reptile but also produces milk and has a coat of fur like a mammal, what could the genetics of the duck-billed platypus possibly be like? Well, just as peculiar: an amalgam of genes reflecting significant branching and transitions in evolution. An international scientific team, which announced the first decoding of the platypus genome on Wednesday, said the findings provided ‘many clues to the function and evolution of all mammalian genomes,’ including that of humans, and should ‘inspire rapid advances in other investigations of mammalian biology and evolution.’ The research is described in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature by a group of almost 100 scientists led by Wesley C. Warren, a geneticist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The single subject of the study was a female platypus named Glennie, a resident of Glenrock Station in New South Wales, Australia, whose DNA was collected and analyzed. The platypus, native to Australia, is so odd that when the first specimens were sent to Europe in the 19th century, scientists suspected a hoax. It was classified as a […]
WASHINGTON — Hospital trauma centers in seven major cities do not have the capacity to handle even a modest terrorist attack, according to findings released Monday from a House committee investigation. Lawmakers looked into hospitals’ ability to deal with a sudden influx of victims in the five cities considered at highest risk for terrorist attack and in the two cities hosting this summer’s political conventions. The 34 hospitals surveyed in New York City, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Denver and Minneapolis had no space in their emergency rooms to treat a sudden surge of victims, had few available beds in their intensive care units and too few regular beds to handle even those with less serious injuries. Hospitals in Washington and Los Angeles were particularly overburdened, said Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He called the inquiry’s results ‘truly alarming.’ The survey was taken March 25 at 4:30 p.m. local time in each city. The date was chosen at random; the time was chosen because it was neither the busiest nor slowest time of day in emergency rooms. ‘If a terrorist attack had occurred on March 25 when […]
The oil age began in 1860. By 2006 the world’s oil rigs pumped oil at a rate of 85 million barrels a day. They haven’t come close since, even as prices have risen to more than $100 per barrel. Breaking our fossil fuel dependency will require plugging into the grid instead of pulling up to the pump. And there are some interesting energy options - and others are doing a lot more about developing them than Americans. Germany leads the world in its installed capacity of renewable energy sources (25 percent), and is the third largest producer of solar panels after China and Japan. The share of electricity generated from renewable sources exceeded 14 percent in 2007, an increase from 11 percent in 2006. This means that Germany has already met the European Union’s target that 12.5 percent of electricity should come from renewable sources by 2010. Enercon, a major wind equipment maker, claims that the renewable-energy business will become a major part of the country’s manufacturing business, alongside cars and machine tools. Employment in the renewables industry is now 250,000 ands expected to double by 2020. Throughout Germany, around 160 technical institutions are doing research […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
