Month: May 2012

  • 2012 Preakeness

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  • Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another and jockey Mario Gutierrez. win the Preakeness, in second le

    Image: I'll Have Another, Bodemeister

     

    Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another and jockey Mario Gutierrez pass Bodemeister in the final strides to win the Preakness and keep their Triple Crown hopes alive. Full story  |    |    Owner, trainer have eyes set on making history

     

    NBC News.com Copyright 2012. All Rights Reserved

     

     

    NBC Sports

    6:04 PM  -  Public

     
    I’LL HAVE ANOTHER WINS THE 137TH PREAKNESS! WILL WE CROWN A TRIPLE CROWN WINNER AT THE BELMONT??

     

  • Facebook Builds Network of Friends in Washington

    Representative Bob Goodlatte, left, with Joel Kaplan, center, and Roddy Lindsay, both of Facebook, at a conference last year to teach lawmakers methods for using the site for their work.

     

    May 18, 2012
     

    Facebook Builds Network of Friends in Washington

    By 

    SAN FRANCISCO — For nearly five years, Facebook has quietly and deftly befriended the nation’s top lawmakers by giving them a little tech support.

    In a typical session behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, Facebook staff members have walked them through how best to use the site: what kinds of pictures to post on their profiles, how to distinguish between valuable constituents and the random gadfly, how to write compelling messages. Members of Congress have asked: How do I get more Facebook followers?

    The answers have come from familiar faces: former political aides from both Republican and Democratic quarters, now employed by Facebook. Patrick Bell, an aide to Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican from Washington, recalled a meeting last fall where a onetime Republican aide, Katie Harbath, counseled a room full of Republican lawmakers on how to use the site to communicate with voters. “We had a Republican from Facebook talking to Republicans. They love that,” he said.

    Facebook, whose long-awaited Nasdaq debut on Friday left it with a market value of nearly $105 billion, does much more in Washington than this kind of in-person hand-holding. It has hired a stable of seasoned, well-connected insiders from both parties, stepped up its lobbying and set up a political action committee. Its lobbying budget — $1.35 million in 2011 and $650,000 so far this year, according to figures from the Center for Responsive Politics — still pales in comparison to major companies in more established industries, like military and pharmaceuticals. But Facebook stands out for having staked out a Washington strategy so early in its history.

    This engagement with lawmakers is likely to matter much more to Facebook in coming months, as the company confronts the need to turn the data provided by its 901 million users into faster, greater returns for its new, hungry shareholders.

    It is likely to do so mostly through targeted advertising, so any legislation that restricts how it collects and uses data will be potentially damaging — and now that Facebook is a public company, potentially infuriating to investors.

    The training sessions, at least, seem to have been highly effective so far. A majority of lawmakers have embraced Facebook as a way to reach voters.

    “It’s smart advocacy 101,” said Rey Ramsey, chief executive of TechNet, an industry group that includes Facebook and other Internet companies. “It starts with giving people an education. Then you start explaining more of your business model. What you ultimately want is for a legislator to understand the consequences of their actions.”

    According to privacy advocates who follow Facebook’s lobbying efforts, the company will want to stave off legislation that could limit the use of location data from mobile devices, for instance, or restrict what information can be shared with advertisers. The company could be especially damaged by more aggressive scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, which has already subjected Facebook to a costly 20-year audit of its data use policies.

    Facebook cites government policy as a risk factor to prospective shareholders. “Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation and could harm our business,” it states in its offering document with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    A Democratic aide in the Senate, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak to reporters, said Facebook realized it needed to engage with lawmakers to protect its business. “It reflects an increased awareness that what the people’s representatives in Washington think matters, as opposed to a sole focus on what their user base thinks, or a sole focus on innovation without explanation.”

    Critics have questioned whether an embrace of Facebook as an increasingly vital political tool would make lawmakers go soft on the company on issues like privacy.

    “That’s clearly something they do to curry favor with members of Congress,” said Bill Allison, editorial director at the Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan group that advocates for greater government transparency. “Clearly Facebook has something members of Congress want. They are taking advantage of a product they have to get closer to members of Congress.”

    Representative Mary Bono Mack, a California Republican who oversees a subcommittee responsible for online privacy, dismissed that criticism, arguing instead that familiarity breeds a deeper understanding of consumer privacy issues. Ms. Bono Mack has 5,000 friends on her personal Facebook page, she said, and uses it to post things ranging from pictures of her dog to legislation proposed on the Hill.

    “If anything, having an understanding of it, I have a keen awareness of the issues, I have a keen awareness of my own privacy,” she said, adding that she planned to watch whether Facebook’s approach to privacy would change as it faced extra pressures to make money. “Now that they are a public company, there will be an opportunity to watch what happens.”

    Joel Kaplan, vice president for United States public policy at Facebook, said in an e-mail that the company’s efforts in Washington “reflect our commitment to explaining how our service works, the actions we take to protect the more than 900 million people who use our service, the importance of preserving an open Internet and the value of innovation to our economy.”

    That Facebook is a global business, with more than half of its users outside the United States, complicates matters. The European Commission, based in Brussels, has already proposed new rules that would constrain how Internet companies use personal information. They would allow consumers to transport their data from one site to another and ask Web site owners to delete their personal data forever — provisions that several Internet companies, including Facebook, have described as burdensome. And there would be hefty fines for noncompliance.

    “The fight will eventually be in Washington and Brussels about what they’ll be allowed to do,” said David Eastman, chief executive for North America for the advertising agency JWT and its worldwide digital director. Facebook, in many ways, has profited from the experience of the technology companies that came before it. Microsoft eschewed Washington until it got in trouble over antitrust matters; Google set up a Washington office after going public in 2004.

    Facebook established a foothold in Washington in 2007, first by hiring a young political aide, Adam Conner, to work out of his apartment, and then by plucking several well-known Washington insiders. It invested early in educating lawmakers on the advantages of using its site. Lately it has been encouraging them to humanize their pages by posting photos of personal milestones. Several, including House Speaker John A. Boehner, have uploaded childhood photos.

    Representative McMorris Rodgers, Republican of Washington, credited the company with ensuring that 85 percent of House Republicans had Facebook pages. “A key driver of that growth is Facebook’s D.C. team, which has been eager to explain how their platform works and quick to suggest innovative ways for members to stay more connected to the constituents we represent,” the congresswoman said.

    Facebook has hired well-connected political aides with access to top leaders in both parties. They include Mr. Kaplan, who was a White House deputy chief of staff under President George W. Bush; Marne Levine, a former Obama administration economic adviser; and Erin M. Egan, one of the capital’s most influential privacy lawyers.

    Even beyond Washington, Facebook is peppered with politicos. President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, Erskine Bowles, sits on its board. A former Clinton press secretary, Joe Lockhart, is part of its communications team. Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, served under President Clinton, too, as a chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers. And its general counsel, Ted Ulyot, was chief of staff in the Justice Department under President Bush.

    This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

    Correction: May 19, 2012

     

    An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misidentified Bob Goodlatte and Joel Kaplan.

     

  • Facebooks Elite Cash In But Other Insiders Must Wait

     

     

    5/17/2012 @ 9:45AM |10,899 views

    Facebooks Elite Cash In But Other Insiders Must Wait

    Facebook CEo Mark Zuckerberg

    Mark Zuckerberg and other elite Facebook insiders are cashing in on their shares while demand for the social network  is at a frenzy. This week we discovered that bankers will unleash Facebook shares at a higher price ($34 to $38 a share) than previously planned and that smart money insiders intend to sell more shares.

    Yesterday Facebook announced in a S-1 that it had upped the amount of equity it could sell on its Friday IPO to a possible total of 484,418,657 shares. Executive officers and directors (which includes Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Marc Andreessen, Jim Breyer,Peter Thiel and others ) could sell a total of 189,369,144 (or $7.2 billion if it goes off at the top of the price range).

    Who’s taking more chips off the table? My colleague Eric Savitz broke it downfor us:

    • Tiger Global upped the  number of shares it will sell to 23.4 million, from 3.4 million.
    • Mail.ru upped its planned sale to 19.6 million from 11.3 million.
    • Accel Partners now plans to sell 49 million shares, up from 38.2 million.
    • DST Group will sell 45.7 million shares, up from 26.3 million.
    • Goldman Sachs will sell 28.7 million shares, up from 13.2 million.
    • Greylock will sell 7.6 million shares, up from 7 million.
    • Peter Thiel will sell 16.8 million shares, up from 7.7 million.

    These investors can turn their paper gains into hard cash. But insiders who don’t sell on Friday–and rich investors who bought shares of Facebook on secondary markets (like SecondMarket and SharesPost) have to wait a lot longer to cash out.

    As I wrote on March 29th, current stock holders who aren’t selling this Friday will be locked in for an additional 180 days before they can unload shares.

    An insider pointed out that if you buy Facebook shares on the private market, you’ll have to hold them for 180 days after the IPO date–that’s everyone, not just employees. It says so here on page 145 of the March 27, 2012 S-1. It’s a mess of legalese (I included it at the bottom of the post*) but a source tells me it basically means no selling allowed until six months after the IPO.

    It could be along wait. The hype is hot and the bar is high. Current Facebook shareholders will have to endure at least one quarterly report before they get liquid. If Facebook disappoints many paper gains (especially for accredited  investors who bought shares on private markets for about $40 a pop) could turn into real losses.

    (Follow me on Twitter at @StevenBertoni)

    *Lock-Up Agreements and Market Standoff Provisions

    Our officers, directors, employees, and substantially all of our stockholders have agreed with the underwriters or us, not to dispose of any of our common stock or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of our common stock for specified periods of time after the date of this prospectus, except with the prior written consent of Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC or us, as applicable. Under the terms of their lock-up agreements with the underwriters, the selling stockholders, other than Mr. Zuckerberg, are eligible to sell up to                      shares of our common stock in the aggregate on the date that is 91 days after the date of this prospectus, up to                      shares of our common stock in the aggregate on the date that is 181 days after the date of this prospectus, and the remaining shares of our common stock held by them 211 days after the date of this prospectus. Under the terms of their lock-up agreement with the underwriters, our directors, our executive officers, and certain stockholders not selling shares in this offering are eligible to sell shares of our common stock 181 days after the date of this prospectus. All other holders of our common stock, RSUs and options have previously entered into market standoff agreements with us not to sell or otherwise transfer any of their common stock or securities convertible into or exchangeable for shares of common stock for a period that extends through 180 days after the date of this prospectus. In addition, Mail.ru Group Limited and DST Global Limited and their respective affiliates have entered into an agreement with us to not sell their shares for certain periods of time ranging from six to 18 months following the date of this prospectus. See “Related Party Transactions—Conversion Agreement” for additional information about this agreement.

  • When You Text Till You Drop

     

    May 12, 2012
     

    When You Text Till You Drop

    By BRYAN BURROUGH

    I DON’T know about you, but I’ve always found the debate about what our mobile devices are doing to us — to our behaviors, our manners, our minds — at least as interesting as reports about what we’re doing with these devices.

    What about that gent who was talking loudly into his Android phone on the Metro-North train this morning? Was he really that obnoxious before we all went wireless — or did the device somehow change him? And what about all those young people who spend hours upon hours texting and sexting and Facebooking? What kinds of adults will they become?

    Is the casual anonymity of Internet discussion turning us into boors? What did we once do with all the hours we now spend obsessively checking e-mail and texts? Smoke?

    Larry D. Rosen, a California psychologist, is less concerned with techno-boorishness than with the very real possibility that all these new personal gadgets may be making some of us mentally ill — especially those who are prone to narcissism, for example, or to depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

    In “iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession With Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us” (Palgrave Macmillan), Dr. Rosen surveys the existing research, throws in a bit of his own and suggests ways that users of new technologies can avoid behavioral pitfalls.

    As much as the topic interests me, I was initially skeptical of this book. For one thing, it’s a little proud of itself. The word “iDisorder,” which Dr. Rosen repeats throughout, suggests an author trying very hard to coin a term. He is among the few authors I’ve seen who refers to his own book as “groundbreaking.”

    Yet “iDisorder” is a pleasant surprise — lean, thoughtful, clearly written and full of ideas and data you’ll want to throw into dinner-party conversation. Did you know that psychologistsdivide Twitter users into “informers,” those who pass along interesting facts, and “meformers,” those who pass along interesting facts about only themselves? Or that 70 percent of those who report heavily using mobile devices experience “phantom vibration syndrome,” which is what happens when your pocket buzzes and there’s no phone in your pocket? (I thought I was the only one.) Or that heavy use of Facebook has been linked to mood swings among some teenagers? Researchers are calling this “Facebook depression.” (And I thought that my children were just having a lot of bad days.)

    One strength of “iDisorder” is Dr. Rosen’s cleareyed view of technology and its uses. He doesn’t oppose it. In fact, his view is quite the opposite. What we need, he says, is a sense of restorative balance and self-awareness. It is unavoidable that many of us will fall prey to an iDisorder, he says, but “it is not fatal and we are not doomed to spend time in a mental institution or a rehab center.” By using a few simple strategies, he says, “we can safely emerge from our TechnoCocoons and rejoin the world of the healthy.”

    The book’s chapters focus on mental health challenges linked to heavy technology use. They include how social media sites may spawn narcissism (no surprise there) and how constantly checking our wireless mobile devices (he calls them W.M.D.’s, a great acronym) can lead to obsessive-compulsive disorder. Others look at how technology addiction can lead to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and at how all that medical data available online has created a class of people known as “cyberchondriacs.” Perhaps most interesting of all, Dr. Rosen examines how the constant use of technology may be rewiring our brains. One study he cites calls the impact on memory the “Google effect,” that is, an inability to remember facts brought on by the realization that they are all available in a few keystrokes via Google.

    AT the end of each chapter, Dr. Rosen details a list of things that can be done to combat each techno-disorder. These tend to be a bit repetitive and common-sensical, but that doesn’t make them any less useful. One often-suggested solution is to take a “tech break.” In other words, if overusing your iPad is making you crazy, maybe you should stop using it so much. I know: duh. But still.

    For those combating some form of techno-addiction, Dr. Rosen advises regularly stepping away from the computer for a few minutes and connecting with nature; just standing in your driveway and staring at the bushes, research shows, has a way of resetting our brains.

    Parents will find this book particularly helpful. Dr. Rosen suggests a whole set of remedies for children’s techno-addiction. Two popular methods are to make sure your child gets a full night’s sleep, and to convene regular family dinners where technology is forbidden at the table. This is especially useful, it appears, in reintroducing children to normal interaction after hours spent in cyberconversation.

    For those worried about their own heavy use of technology, or their family’s, this book could be a helpful starting point for understanding the consequences, and for overcoming them.

     

    Copyright. 2012. The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved

  • A Dozen Writers Put Down Their Pens to Prove the Might of a March

     

    Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times

    Thousands of protesters joined a march organized by Russian writers in Moscow on Sunday. Poet and critic Dmitry L. Bykov, with mustache, is at right.

     

    May 13, 2012
     

    A Dozen Writers Put Down Their Pens to Prove the Might of a March

    By 

    MOSCOW — There were no opposition leaders at the head of the vast column of people that peacefully wound its way through central Moscow on Sunday.

    There was, instead, a corpulent poet, whose admirers thrust lilac boughs at him. A bespectacled detective novelist was autographing everything at hand — books, of course, but also scratch paper, identification cards and, once, a middle-aged woman in a white T-shirt. People mobbed a diminutive grandmother who has won many of Russia’s literary prizes and who acknowledged to a reporter that “crowds drive me crazy and make me want to hide somewhere.”

    It was only four days ago when 12 prominent authors, disturbed by the crackdown on dissent that accompanied President Vladimir V. Putin’s inauguration, announced an experiment. They called it a “test stroll,” which aimed to determine whether it was possible to spend an afternoon walking en masse from one city park to another “without being blocked, beaten, poisoned with gas, detained, arrested or at least subjected to stupid molestation with questions.”

    No one knew quite what to expect on Sunday. But when the 12 writers left Pushkin Square at lunchtime, they were trailed by a crowd that swelled to an estimated 10,000 people, stopping traffic and filling boulevards for 1.2 miles. Many wore the white ribbons that are a symbol of opposition to Mr. Putin’s government. The police did not interfere, although the organizers had not received a permit to march.

    “We see by the number of people that literature still has authority in our society because no one called these people — they came themselves,” said Lev Rubinstein, 65, a poet and one of the organizers. “We thought this would be a modest stroll of several literary colleagues, and this is what happened. You can see it yourself.”

    “I don’t know how this will all end, but I can say that no one will forget it,” he said.

    Russian history is full of confrontations between leaders and writers, whom Stalin once described as the “engineers of the human soul.” Sunday’s march alluded to this, beginning at a statue of the poet Aleksandr S. Pushkin — who was sent into exile by Czar Alexander I — and ending at a statue of Aleksandr S. Griboyedov, a playwright whose sendup of the Moscow aristocracy was not released by czarist censors until after his death.

    Though writers can no longer be said to guide public opinion, they can still prompt near-delirium among their fans, and several of the writers strolled with great difficulty on Sunday because of the press of well-wishers. Valentina V. Zimilova, 73, a retired teacher, was overcome with emotion when Dmitri L. Bykov, a poet and critic, signed a copy of one of his books for her.

    “I am enraptured by his courage, his bravery, his wit,” she said. “I wrote down no less than 20 words that were new for me. It’s a wonderful book. You can’t tear yourself away, even though it is very thick. It has 900 pages.”

    A week ago, when a large demonstration near the Kremlin ended in violent clashes between demonstrators and the police, the authorities signaled that they would hesitate to grant further permits for opposition marches. By evening on Monday, the day of Mr. Putin’s inauguration, the police had detained more than 700 people, some of them simply because they wore white ribbons.

    In response, activists embraced a new set of tactics, including an encampment in a Moscow park that is modeled on Occupy Wall Street. The spot has been occupied without police interference, and the dread has given way to a surreal holiday atmosphere, including countless repetitions of the song “Katyusha” accompanied by acoustic guitar. On Thursday, the police detained eight young women in pig costumes. A cow appeared over the weekend, evidently to protest Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization.

    Olga Romanova, a longtime opposition activist, said she had given up trying to explain the situation in letters to her husband, who is in prison.

    “I started to write, ‘There’s a wedding taking place here right now, and now a cow has come,’ ” Ms. Romanova said. “Then I understood that I have to cross it all out because he’ll think that I’ve gone crazy with grief or something is happening with me. How will they explain to Putin? There was a wedding. A cow came. How will they explain that?”

    Organizers dispersed triumphantly on Sunday, though it was unclear what would come next in the cycle of action and reaction between the authorities and protesters.

    Russia’s Parliament is considering a draft law that would increase fines for causing unrest at demonstrations to 1.5 million rubles, or about $50,000, and introduce a penalty of up to 240 hours of compulsory labor, according to the Interfax news service. The opposition leaders Sergei Udaltsov and Aleksei Navalny are serving 15-day sentences and could face stiffer penalties; meanwhile, the opposition encampment may be cleared at any moment.

    Late Sunday, televisions in whole sections of Moscow cut to black in the middle of a news broadcast that covered the day’s protests. The cause of the cutoff was not clear.

    Irina Yasina, one of the action’s organizers, said events like the one on Sunday confronted the government with a new and vexing dilemma because, as she put it, “writers are moral people, and the demand for morality is huge.”

    “Moral people came out, and they don’t know what to do with this,” Ms. Yasina said. “They know what to do with Udaltsov — force against force. They know what to do with Navalny — force against force. They don’t know what to do with civic protest. They won’t be able to come up with anything. It’s impossible.”

    Sophia Kishkovsky contributed reporting.

     

     

  • Neon Museum, Las Vegas

    Neon Museum, Las Vegas

    Ever wonder what happens to all those neon signs that line the Las Vegas Strip when they’re taken down? They end up at the Neon Museum! The Neon Museum is a non-profit in Las Vegas dedicating to preserving Las Vegas’s iconic art form, and it’s a must-visit spot for great Instagram photos!

     

     

    Photos by @logos728, @sv1, @40_in, @karaannbanana, @petitserif, @rockstarmomlv, @labeaufrand, @alphabetarm, @cshimala, @robgwilson, @toomuchfire, @apocryphanow, @mygulrealsun & @li150girl.

     

    Copyright.2012.Instagram.com All Rights Reserved

  • Race winner Pastor Maldonado (VEN) Williams celebrates in parc ferme. Formula One World Championship

    Race winner Pastor Maldonado (VEN) Williams celebrates in parc ferme. Formula One World Championship, Rd5, Spanish Grand Prix, Race Day, Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, 13 May 2012

     

     

    Copyright. 2012. F1.com. All Rights Reserved.

  • Maldonado says race was under control after taking maiden Formula 1 win in Spain

    Maldonado says race was under control after taking maiden Formula 1 win in Spain

    By Jonathan Noble and Matt Beer Sunday, May 13th 2012, 14:16 GMT
     

    Spanish Grand Prix winner Pastor Maldonado said he always felt like he had the race under control even as Fernando Alonso closed in after the final pitstops.

    Maldonado gave Williams its first Formula 1 victory since the 2004 Brazilian GP as he resisted pressure from Ferrari driver Alonso at various stages to win at Catalunya.

    “It was so close. We were looking to manage the tyre degradation so I couldn’t push that hard, just to keep the tyres alive for the end of the race and Fernando got very close,” said Maldonado.

    “There were some moments where he was so close especially at end of the straight, but I was managing the gap and controlling everything.

    “Our pace today was very strong, the car was fantastic, so was the team. We did a small mistake at the last pitstop but it did not affect our performance.”

    Maldonado said the car underlined how much progress had made since last season, when it endured its worst ever campaign and scored a mere five points.

    “I think it’s a wonderful day, unbelievable for me and all the team,” he said. “We have been pushing so hard since last year to improve race by race and here we are.

    “It was a tough race because of the strategy as well, it was hard especially because of rear tyres, after a couple of laps we were struggling with them, but I need to say I am pretty happy because car was so competitive since the first lap.”

    The Venezuelan has been strong in Monte Carlo – venue for the next grand prix in a fortnight – throughout his career, and acknowledged that expectations for the next race would now be high.

    “It will be a great opportunity for us to be strong again,” said Maldonado. “We need to keep continuing like that to develop it as soon as possible. Consistency will be the most important thing in this championship.”

     

    Copyright.2012. Autosport.com All Rights Resreved

  • Maldonado Victory in 2012 Grand Prix of Spain.

    Pos   Driver Stops
    1 0 Maldonado 3
    2 0 Alonso 3
    3 1 Räikkönen 3
    4 -1 Grosjean 3
    5 4 Kobayashi 3
    6 1 Vettel 4
    7 -1 Rosberg 3
    8 16 Hamilton 2
    9 1 Button 3
    10 3 Hülkenberg

    2012 Grand Prix of Spain. Finishing Order.