6:03 PM
Defense Secretary Gates responded to growing pressure to cut military spending by ordering the closing of a major Pentagon headquarters (Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, VA), reducing by 10% the military spending on contractors who provide support services to the military, and reducing the number of generals and admirals:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pentagon-cuts-20100810,0,483030.story
DOD investigators found that the number of counterfeit parts is growing significantly, potentially jeopardizing the lives of US soldiers. They found that 39% of companies that supply the DOD used counterfeit electronics, with incidents growing from 3,868 in 2005 to 9,356 in 2008:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/surge-counterfeit-items-pentagons-supplies
The Chicago Police Department is using predictive analytics to predict where crime will occur. Law enforcement agencies have noticed that some types of crime follow patterns that can be predicted by software, with the Memphis Police Department crediting their 30% crime reduction to IBM predictive analytics technology. Police in places such as LA and San Jose are also using this technology:
http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/767663
Boston police are using Twitter to catch criminals:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=133459
The woman involved with HP's former (and currently married) CEO earned up to $5,000 per event to greet people and make introductions among executives attending HP events, had $1,000 private dinners with the CEO (he falsified his expense reports by claiming other people were there), and received a payment from the former CEO to settle her harassment claims...no, that doesn't look fishy at all:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Woman-in-HP-scandal-saddened-apf-2930421160.html?x=0
Business Insider says that HP is claiming to be firing Hurd for cause over falsified expense reports, but if that was the case they wouldn't be giving him a $40 million severance! They also pointed out that HP's board investigated the sexual harassment claim and found nothing:
http://www.businessinsider.com/backlash-against-hewlett-packard-grows-it-seems-mark-hurd-fired-because-company-scared-of-bad-pr-over-bogus-sexual-harassment-allegation-2010-8
Survey of smartphone owners found that iPhone owners have the most sexual partners, BlackBerry owners have 20% or so less sexual partners than iPhone owners, and Android owners have about 45% less sexual partners than iPhone owners. Women had more sexual partners than men for all smartphone platforms:
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/dont-be-ugly-by-accident/
The Droid 2 phone will have a special edition R2-D2 version with a lot of Star Wars-related content:
http://www.droiddoes.com/r2d2/
It appears that Best Buy is making an Android-based tablet computer:
http://androinica.com/2010/08/09/yes-best-buy-is-making-an-android-tablet/
Netflix will pay Epix about $1 billion to have online rights to films from 3 movie studios for a 5-year period. Paramount, Lions Gate and MGM movies will become available for Netflix streaming 90 days after Epix gains the rights (typically a few months after the DVD comes out). The article states that Netflix is positioning themselves to be a competitor to HBO:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/08/netflix-and-epix-working-on-major-digital-partnership-to-shake-up-pay-tv-landscape.html
Coffee houses used to offer WiFi to attract customers...now, there are a growing number of coffee houses that are attracting customers by *not* offering WiFi:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/08/business/la-fi-cafe-wifi-20100808
Forbes released their list of the Coolest cities in the US, with NY and Vegas tied for #1, San Diego #7, and LA #8. However, *Oakland* is rated #5 (Oakland is more cool than San Diego, LA and Miami?) so I'm not sure how much I can agree with this list:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/02/coolest-cities-metros-lifestyle-real-estate-cool_slide.html
I found this list of what TV actors will be paid this year interesting. Remember that a season normally has about 22 episodes (some have 24, some less popular shows have 13), so Charlie Sheen is getting about $30 million and the actor who plays the kid on his show is getting about $6 million this season while Jane Lynch from Glee is getting about $1 million (Kate Gosselin makes 5x what Jane Lynch makes):
http://tonightontv.blogspot.com/2010/08/whos-being-paid-big-2010-edition.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pentagon-cuts-20100810,0,483030.story
DOD investigators found that the number of counterfeit parts is growing significantly, potentially jeopardizing the lives of US soldiers. They found that 39% of companies that supply the DOD used counterfeit electronics, with incidents growing from 3,868 in 2005 to 9,356 in 2008:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/surge-counterfeit-items-pentagons-supplies
The Chicago Police Department is using predictive analytics to predict where crime will occur. Law enforcement agencies have noticed that some types of crime follow patterns that can be predicted by software, with the Memphis Police Department crediting their 30% crime reduction to IBM predictive analytics technology. Police in places such as LA and San Jose are also using this technology:
http://www.govtech.com/gt/articles/767663
Boston police are using Twitter to catch criminals:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=133459
The woman involved with HP's former (and currently married) CEO earned up to $5,000 per event to greet people and make introductions among executives attending HP events, had $1,000 private dinners with the CEO (he falsified his expense reports by claiming other people were there), and received a payment from the former CEO to settle her harassment claims...no, that doesn't look fishy at all:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Woman-in-HP-scandal-saddened-apf-2930421160.html?x=0
Business Insider says that HP is claiming to be firing Hurd for cause over falsified expense reports, but if that was the case they wouldn't be giving him a $40 million severance! They also pointed out that HP's board investigated the sexual harassment claim and found nothing:
http://www.businessinsider.com/backlash-against-hewlett-packard-grows-it-seems-mark-hurd-fired-because-company-scared-of-bad-pr-over-bogus-sexual-harassment-allegation-2010-8
Survey of smartphone owners found that iPhone owners have the most sexual partners, BlackBerry owners have 20% or so less sexual partners than iPhone owners, and Android owners have about 45% less sexual partners than iPhone owners. Women had more sexual partners than men for all smartphone platforms:
http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php/dont-be-ugly-by-accident/
The Droid 2 phone will have a special edition R2-D2 version with a lot of Star Wars-related content:
http://www.droiddoes.com/r2d2/
It appears that Best Buy is making an Android-based tablet computer:
http://androinica.com/2010/08/09/yes-best-buy-is-making-an-android-tablet/
Netflix will pay Epix about $1 billion to have online rights to films from 3 movie studios for a 5-year period. Paramount, Lions Gate and MGM movies will become available for Netflix streaming 90 days after Epix gains the rights (typically a few months after the DVD comes out). The article states that Netflix is positioning themselves to be a competitor to HBO:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2010/08/netflix-and-epix-working-on-major-digital-partnership-to-shake-up-pay-tv-landscape.html
Coffee houses used to offer WiFi to attract customers...now, there are a growing number of coffee houses that are attracting customers by *not* offering WiFi:
http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/08/business/la-fi-cafe-wifi-20100808
Forbes released their list of the Coolest cities in the US, with NY and Vegas tied for #1, San Diego #7, and LA #8. However, *Oakland* is rated #5 (Oakland is more cool than San Diego, LA and Miami?) so I'm not sure how much I can agree with this list:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/02/coolest-cities-metros-lifestyle-real-estate-cool_slide.html
I found this list of what TV actors will be paid this year interesting. Remember that a season normally has about 22 episodes (some have 24, some less popular shows have 13), so Charlie Sheen is getting about $30 million and the actor who plays the kid on his show is getting about $6 million this season while Jane Lynch from Glee is getting about $1 million (Kate Gosselin makes 5x what Jane Lynch makes):
http://tonightontv.blogspot.com/2010/08/whos-being-paid-big-2010-edition.html