NEW YORK (Billboard) – In the wee hours of the morning on Monday, September 14, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne was signing autographs after his band performed at upstate New York’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival when a burly young fan approached him with a length of industrial strap. Coyne recognized it as one of his own, used for tying down equipment like the large cannons that shoot confetti into the crowd throughout the band’s stage show. The fan told Coyne the strap had been shot out of the cannon and hit him in the chest, but he calmly handed it…
Business
Flaming Lips dial down the whimsy on “Embryonic”
Business
Brad Pitt honored for humanitarian work in New Orleans
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actor Brad Pitt was honored on Thursday for his humanitarian work in helping rebuild hurricane-ravaged New Orleans at former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s philanthropic summit, the Clinton Global Initiative.Pitt was presented with a plaque from the U.S. Green Building Council which said the actor and his foundation “Make It Right” had created the “largest and greenest single-family community in the world.”"‘Make It Right’ has exceeded my expectations,” said Pitt who set up the foundation in 2007.”Our criteria from the beginning were at odds, to say the least. We demanded that these homes be sustainable, that they…
Business
AT&T looks to flip net rules debate on Google
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – AT&T Inc said any new “net neutrality” rules imposed by U.S. regulators need to apply to Web companies like Google Inc as much as to phone companies to ensure a level playing field.In a letter Friday to the head of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau, the biggest U.S. telephone company argued that Google would have an unfair advantage if its Voice service is not subject to the same rules proposed by the FCC on phone operators.”To the extent ‘net neutrality’ is animated by a concern about ostensible Internet ‘gatekeepers,’ that concern must necessarily…
Internet
Attracting Extra Web Hosting Customers By Targeting Cities, i.e.
Web hosting companies are constantly on the lookout to find newways to attract visitors to their websites. One avenue that manyweb hosts miss is targeting visitors who are searching for webhosting by city, such as New York Web Hosting, by state, such asCalifornia Web Hosting, or by country, such as Canada WebHosting. These pages show examples of pages that review andprovide information on web hosting companies in those cities.These searchers are looking for a hosting company in aparticular city, state, or country, but given the proper messagethey can often be convinced to try your hosting company.Afterall, given the nature of…
Business
BofA-SEC bonus settlement rejected
NEW YORK: A federal judge on Monday rejected Bank of America Corp’s and the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s $33 million settlement over Top 20 Global Financial Brands 200919 Indian banks/financial institutions in Top 500 Global Financial Brands 2009 Merrill Lynch & Co bonuses as a contrivance that deprives shareholders of the truth. In rejecting the settlement for a third time, saying it “cannot remotely be called fair,” US District Judge Jed Rakoff ordered the SEC and the largest US bank to prepare for a trial by next February 1. He said he had a “distinct impression” that the…
Business
Minogue thanks Abba for the music
The 41-year-old took to the stage towards the end of the three-hour event in London’s Hyde Park to sing the Swedish group’s 1980 hit Super Trouper. She later returned to perform When All Is Said And Done with Abba songwriter Benny Andersson. Minogue said it was “a dream come true” to appear on stage with the Scandinavian musician. Chaka Khan, Jason Donovan and Lulu were among the other music stars to sing songs from the Abba back catalogue. Hosted by DJ Chris Evans with lyricist Sir Tim Rice and Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard, the concert was broadcast live on BBC…
Business
China Discusses Taking Stake in AES
The Chinese government’s investment arm is in talks on taking a minority stake in Virginia-based power-plant developer AES Corp., according to people familiar with the matter. The possible purchase is part of a wide-ranging discussion aimed at building an alliance between AES and China Investment Corp., the country’s sovereign wealth fund, with some $300 billion in assets. The discussions could result in CIC taking a significant stake in AES, which has a market capitalization of about $9.5 billion. A joint venture between the two parties also is under discussion, in which CIC would contribute capital to AES’s plans to develop…
Business
Obama tries to reinvigorate Wall Street reform
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama will try on Monday to revive a stalled push for stricter oversight of Wall Street, using the anniversary of Lehman Brothers’ collapse to argue for sweeping regulatory changes. Obama’s wide-ranging economic address in New York will also discuss plans to unwind the government’s involvement in the financial sector and call upon Wall Street firms to take responsibility and avoid reckless behavior. He is to speak at 12:10 EDT (1610 GMT). Gaps in the regulation of U.S. banks and capital markets have been blamed for the subprime mortgage crisis and global financial chaos triggered…
Business
ANALYSIS – Easy money fuels all markets, but not forever
NEW YORK (Reuters) – General investment theory holds that investors should diversify, buying one asset class on expectations of profit as they avoid others on fears of a loss for any given set of economic circumstances. But with gold at 18-month highs, U.S. stocks rising off recessionary lows and a rally in U.S. bonds sending yields on some debt to the lowest since July, the investment climate is anything but typical. The worst global economic contraction in decades prompted low interest rates around the world and central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve, to take the extraordinary precaution of…
Business
SAP exec: Business ByDesign will be smash success
A top SAP executive said Wednesday that the vendor’s Business ByDesign on-demand ERP (enterprise resource planning) suite for SMBs will take “the world by storm” one day, but declined to reveal when a long-anticipated broader release will occur. SAP initially announced the suite in late 2007, and predicted it would generate US$1 billion in revenue by 2010. But it subsequently limited the rollout to a handful of markets while working to make sure the SaaS (software as a service) application will be profitable enough at scale. In remarks at the Citigroup Global Technology Conference in New York Wednesday, SAP executive…
Business
Failure of Corus Bank puts condo loans up for sale
Author : jigneshChicago’s Corus Bank, which made a disastrous bet on condo towers in South Florida, was closed by federal regulators on Friday. MB Financial Bank of Chicago is assuming Corus Bank’s 11 branches and $3 billion in cash and marketable securities. That would leave about $4 billion more in assets, which the FDIC plans to sell within 30 days in a private placement. Corus has about $1 billion of loans in South Florida. There has been speculation that Miami Dolphins owner Stephen M. Ross might be interested in acquiring the Corus property. Ross is CEO of New York real…
Hack
Create a temporary phone number with inumbr
Maybe you don’t want that one person that has barged into your life to know your private phone number? Could be a salesperson or a co-worker who you aren’t that impressed with, but have to get in contact with. Check out inumbr.
inumbr is a free online service that gives US users the ability to set up a unique phone number, have it forwarded to any number within the US and then have it set to expire without a trace when finished with it. The unique inumbr’s are never reused, and can be extended if longer terms are required.…
