Roche makes $43.7bn Genentech bid

Swiss drugs firm Roche has offered to buy all outstanding shares in its US partner Genentech for $43.7bn(£22bn).

Roche – which makes the antiviral drug Tamiflu – acquired a majority stake in Genentech in 1990 and currently owns 55.9% of all outstanding shares.

It has offered $89 per share to buy up the remaining stake, a 8.8% premium to Genentech’s Friday closing share price.

BBC NEWS | Business | Roche makes $43.7bn Genentech bid.

I wish I had held onto my Genentech stocks from January!

Oxytocin: The Asocial Cure?

For centuries artists have tried to capture the essence of love, and now scientists may have found it in the brain. Known as oxytocin (from the Latin word for “quick birth”), the naturally occurring hormone is best known for controlling contractions during labor, but it also plays a key role in other fundamental human urges — including the desire to connect with others. “Somehow, the peptide increases trust, or alters the way individuals see each other,” says Tom Insel, director of the National Institute for Mental Health.

Without oxytocin people would be far less inclined to seek social interaction, let alone fall in love and mate for life (or, as scientists call it, “pair bond”). The brain releases gobs of it during orgasm, mothers are awash in it during breastfeeding and, in clinical trials, a spritz of oxytocin has been shown to reduce anxiety, increase feelings of generosity and even ease the symptoms of shyness. Conversely, researchers are beginning to discover that low levels of the hormone — or the body’s faulty response to it — may contribute to severe social dysfunctions like depression and autism.

Oxytocin: The Asocial Cure? – TIME.

Smaller PCs Cause Worry for Industry

SAN FRANCISCO — The personal computer industry is poised to sell tens of millions of small, energy-efficient Internet-centric devices. Curiously, some of the biggest companies in the business consider this bad news.

In a tale of sales success breeding resentment, computer companies are wary of the new breed of computers because their low price could threaten PC makers’ already thin profit margins.

The new computers, often called netbooks, have scant onboard memory. They use energy-sipping computer chips. They are intended largely for surfing Web sites and checking e-mail. The price is small too, with some selling for as little as $300.

Smaller PCs Cause Worry for Industry – NYTimes.com.

I don’t understand how this is at all bad for Intel (or Microsoft). Intel’s highly anticipated Atom processor, which just started shipping recently, is powering most of these netbooks. Either that, or it’s Celeron chip (a win-win either way). It isn’t surprising that Intel’s stock (INTC) has performed quite well recently. It was one of the few tech stocks not in the red during Friday’s tech selloff and up +7% for the week (hint, hint). Furthermore, most use these netbooks as a second laptop. If anything, it is adding to Intel’s revenue. In the same vain, it allows Microsoft to sell more Windows licenses.

Related: The Mini-Laptop Changing the Game (the more likely scenario).

My Son, the Blogger – An M.D. Trades Medicine for Apple Rumors

For eight years, Arnold Kim has been trading gossip, rumor and facts about Apple, the notoriously secretive computer company, on his Web site, MacRumors.com.

Arnold Kim, founder and senior editor of MacRumors.com.

It had been a hobby — albeit a time-consuming one — while Dr. Kim earned his medical degree. He kept at it as he completed his medical training and began diagnosing patients’ kidney problems. Dr. Kim’s Web site now attracts more than 4.4 million people and 40 million page views a month, according to Quantcast, making it one of the most popular technology Web sites.

It is enough to make Dr. Kim hang up his stethoscope. This month he stopped practicing medicine and started blogging full time.

My Son, the Blogger – An M.D. Trades Medicine for Apple Rumors – NYTimes.com.

Hey, it’s arn from MacRumors! I had no idea he was an MD. I just assumed it was his full time job. How the heck did he manage med school and the blog at the same time?! It seems like he’s constantly updating the front page (and he’s always in the forums).

Thanks to Olympics, Beijing gets its Eiffel Tower, of sorts

BEIJING — London has Big Ben, Paris has the Eiffel Tower , San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge and now Beijing has an iconic structure that’s likely to identify the city forever.

It’s an audacious monolith that looks like two drunken high-rise towers leaning over and holding each other up at the shoulders.

The eye-catching building, which is nearly finished, will be the headquarters of China Central Television, the staid propaganda arm of China’s ruling Communist Party , and it’s perhaps the boldest and most daring of several new buildings that have given Beijing a stunning new appearance for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games.

In keeping with the playful nature of the new buildings, all have weird popular names. There’s “the egg” and the “bird’s nest.” The “water cube” isn’t far away, and lastly there’s “short pants,” also known as the “twisted doughnut.”

The last of them is the new television building, the CCTV headquarters, and it can nearly make one dizzy standing on the ground and looking up at its odd, teetering 49-story towers connected by a multistory, cantilevered, jagged cross section over open space at a vertiginous 36 stories up in the air.

Thanks to Olympics, Beijing gets its Eiffel Tower, of sorts – Yahoo! News.

Zimbabwe introduces Z$100bn note

Zimbabwe is to introduce a bank-note worth Z$100bn in response to rampant inflation – but the note will barely cover the cost of a loaf of bread.

Some Zimbabweans are already calling for higher denominations in a country where the official annual inflation rate has exceeded 2,200,000%.

Independent economists believe the real rate is many times higher.

Zimbabwe’s meltdown has left at least 80% of the population in poverty, facing mass shortages of basic goods.

The country’s central bank has introduced several new notes already this year in response to the hyperinflation.

In January, a Z$10 million note was issued, followed by a Z$50 million. By June the denominations had reached tens of billions.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Zimbabwe introduces Z$100bn note.

How your behaviour can change your children’s DNA

For Beatrix Zwart being young means having fun. She works hard, and out of hours she plays hard — including plenty of nights on the town with her friends.

“I lead a similar lifestyle to a lot of young professionals in Britain and I don’t intend to have any children until I’m well into my thirties,” said Zwart, a 25-year-old Belgian who lives in London.

“I’ve never really thought my lifestyle now could have any effect on my future children or grandchildren.”

Until recently that would also have been the opinion of most scientists. Genes, it was thought, were highly resilient. Even if people did wreck their own DNA through bad diet, smoking and getting fat, that damage was unlikely to be passed to future generations.

Now, however, those assumptions are being re-examined. At the heart of this revolution is a simple but controversial idea: that DNA can be modified or imprinted with the experiences of your parents and grandparents.

How your behaviour can change your children’s DNA – Times Online .

We were just talking about epigenetics on my molecular genetics class. Does this imply that if someone were to have a child, say at the age of 16, and another at the age of 40, that these children would inherent different genes (assuming everything else is the same)?

Rare Twins Of Different Colors Born In Germany

Rare Twins Of Different Colors Born In Germany – Photos – KNTV | San Francisco

Student ‘Twitters’ his way out of Egyptian jail

(CNN) — James Karl Buck helped free himself from an Egyptian jail with a one-word blog post from his cell phone.

James Karl Buck sent a message using Twitter which helped get him out of an Egyptian jail.

Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator, Mohammed Maree, were arrested April 10.

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. “Arrested.”

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt — the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier — were alerted that he was being held.

Twitter is a social-networking blog site that allows users to send status updates, or “tweets,” from cell phones, instant messaging services and Facebook in less than 140 characters.

Student ‘Twitters’ his way out of Egyptian jail – CNN.com.

The story is from a couple months ago but I just stumbled onto it today.

Let me know if you use Twitter. I need more Twitter friends in case something like this happens to me in Europe!

Strongest Material Ever Tested

Materials scientists have been singing graphene’s praises since it was first isolated in 2005. The one-atom-thick sheets of carbon conduct electrons better than silicon and have been made into fast, low-power transistors. Now, for the first time, researchers have measured the intrinsic strength of graphene, and they’ve confirmed it to be the strongest material ever tested. The finding provides good evidence that graphene transistors could take the heat in future ultrafast microprocessors.

Hone compares his test to stretching a piece of plastic wrap over the top of a coffee cup, and measuring the force that it takes to puncture it with a pencil. If he could get a large enough piece of the material to lay over the top of a coffee cup, he says, graphene would be strong enough to support the weight of a car balanced atop the pencil.

Technology Review: Strongest Material Ever Tested.

Oil tumbles below $130 a barrel

NEW YORK — Oil prices fell below $130 (U.S.) a barrel for the first time in more than a month Thursday, as a dramatic slide entered a third day along with a sharp selloff in natural gas.

The declines accelerated amid growing concerns about the weakening U.S. economy.

“The entire buillish scenario … is starting to crack,” said James Cordier, president of Tampa, Fla.-based trading firms Liberty Trading Group and OptionSellers.com.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery dropped $5.31 to settle at $129.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices have fallen more than $15 in just the past three days.

reportonbusiness.com: Oil tumbles below $130 a barrel.

It costs what?! Calculating the CPI requires a lot of shopping around

The consumer price index, used to gauge inflation, has jumped 5% since June 2007. Figuring it out means the Bureau of Labor Statistics staff must collect prices for items such as pizza, laptops and ca

Kim Gomory treks more than 850 miles each month, stopping by more than 120 grocers, gas stations, restaurants, stores, health clubs and other businesses.

But Gomory, a Honda Civic hybrid owner in her 40s, isn’t a soccer mom drawing a bead on bargains. Trace a line from her calculating consumerism in Claremont, Walnut and other communities and you’ll see how national economic policy gets made.

Shielding a tablet computer with skill worthy of a CIA operative, Gomory is among 400 Bureau of Labor Statistics staffers, including about 13 in the Los Angeles area, who compile data used to calculate the consumer price index, the best-known gauge of U.S. inflation.

The latest survey, released Wednesday, calculated that the consumer price indexrose 1.1% in June — the second-largest increase since 1982 — and jumped 5% compared with June 2007. Prices in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties rose 1.1% in June and 5.4% compared with a year earlier. 

To the consternation of critics who say the index fails to reflect Americans’ struggles to make ends meet, the CPI is holy writ for bankers, economists, policymakers and politicians as they set mortgage and credit card interest rates, wages and government benefits programs such as food stamps and Social Security.

It costs what?! Calculating the CPI requires a lot of shopping around – Los Angeles Times

I’ve always wondered how they calculate the CPI. I didn’t realize that they actually send out individuals to shop around for these things. It’s absurdly time consuming and very subjective.

Pasties, Pasties Everywhere

Last week, I learned two important things. They both happened as the result of a post I wrote about various errors, typographical and otherwise. I noted that the excellent Economist magazine dropped an “r” from the word “pastries,” inadvertently rendering it “pasties.”

Well, The Economist was not wrong but I sure was. Many readers informed me that a pasty (pl.: pasties) is a small Cornish pie often filled with meat and vegetables.

The other thing I learned is perhaps even more valuable. In the comments section of the pasties post, a reader named Petréa Mitchell informed me that “You’ve just encountered Muphry’s Law (no, not Murphy’s).” According to this site, Muphry’s law states that “if you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.”

Pasties, Pasties Everywhere – Freakonomics – Opinion – New York Times Blog

The Economist has a great sense of humor (and fantastic writers too).

John McCain Was A ‘D’ Student Video | Admits He Graduated 894th of 899

President Bush has already proven to the world that you can still be a dumbass and gain political support. Those who think that McCain is Bush part two may just have their proof in this video.

“I graduated fifth from the bottom of my class,” he admits.

While president Bush admitted he was a ‘C’ student, McCain’s confession doesn’t translate nearly as well. By today’s grading scale, he would have been a ‘D’ student. Not that good grades in school reflect how successful you are as a president.

I doubt this video would hurt his feelings, seeing that he also happens to be computer illiterate.

Sure, president Lincoln never graduated from public school, yet there’s no doubt that he was one of the greatest U.S. presidents. I’m a firm believer that it takes both book smarts and street smarts to be a good leader.

Still, the way McCain stumbles over the subject makes me wonder if he has either. I doubt this video would hurt his feelings, seeing that he also happens to be computer illiterate.

John McCain Was A ‘D’ Student Video | Admits He Graduated 894th of 899 » Web TV & Video

Apple Admits MobileMe Snags, Gives Free 30-Day Extension

Apple’s MobileMe service hit so many snags during its launch period that Apple have just issued an email apology to members. Saying “The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was a lot rockier than we had hoped,” Apple’s apologizing with a 30-day membership extension for free to anyone who was a .Mac member with an active account as of July 9, 2008 and new MobileMe members who created accounts on or before July 15, 7:00 PM PDT. Details can be found on the Apple support page here. The email also apologizes for the controversy over the speediness of “push” services, and says that Apple’s not using the term until it really is “near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.”

MobileMe: Apple Admits MobileMe Snags, Gives Free 30-Day Extension

This is why Apple customers are so loyal. Apple has consistently shown outstanding customer service and goes out of their to show a little appreciation.

The MobileMe issue was really quite minor so this was a bit unexpected. As for push, it works between iPhone/iPod touch to MobileMe (and back) and MobileMe to Mac/PC (but not back, 15min delay), so proper push implementation would be nice. I didn’t get this email (yet) though!