Author Archives: Guest Post

Microsoft Appoints Satya Nadella as President of Server and Tools Business

*Nadella brings deep engineering and online services knowledge to $15 billion business*

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 9, 2011 — Microsoft Corp. today promoted Senior Vice President Satya Nadella to president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business.

“We’re already making strong traction across our Server and Tools Business by embracing cloud services,” said Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. “Satya has deep experience in both our server business and online services, which will help accelerate our momentum while setting the course to deliver the cloud computing scenarios of the future.” (more…)

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Study: Consumers Value Safer Food More Than Current Analyses Suggest

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Government regulators could more realistically assess the value of improving food safety if they considered the fact that consumers typically want to avoid getting sick – even if it means they have to pay a little extra for safer food, researchers say.

In the world of food regulation, cost-benefit analyses are a primary tool for assessing the societal benefits of mandating more stringent – and more expensive – processing practices. In most cases, regulators determine a dollar value associated with pursuing new rules by estimating how many illnesses and deaths the safer processing would prevent. (more…)

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Unexpected Exoskeleton Remnants Found in Paleozoic Fossils

Washington, D.C.— Surprising new research shows that, contrary to conventional belief, remains of chitin-protein complex—structural materials containing protein and polysaccharide—are present in abundance in fossils of arthropods from the Paleozoic era. Previously the oldest molecular signature of chitin-protein complex was discovered in 25 million year old Cenozoic fossils and remnants of structural protein have also been discovered in 80 million-year-old Mesozoic fossils. Carnegie’s George Cody and an international team of scientists discovered relicts of protein-chitin complex in fossils of arthropods from the Paleozoic era. Their findings, published online by Geology, could have major implications for our understanding of the organic fossil record. (more…)

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Universal Pictures Becomes First Major Studio to Use Microsoft Tag to Promote a Nationally Released Film

*Mobile tagging technology offers instant reader interaction with ads in national magazines for “Bridesmaids,” a new comedy from producer Judd Apatow and director Paul Feig*

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 8, 2011 — Microsoft Tag and Universal Pictures today announced a new campaign to promote “Bridesmaids,” the new comedy from producer Judd Apatow (“Knocked Up,” “Superbad”) and director Paul Feig (“Freaks and Geeks”).

Further establishing the studio as a market leader in mobile marketing, Universal, through the Tag campaign, will enable smartphone users to interact with full-page ads that will run in several magazines, including Cosmopolitan, InStyle, People StyleWatch and Us Weekly. When the Tags are scanned by the free Tag Reader app, users will be able to watch the “Bridesmaids” trailer and access additional movie information and content. With this campaign, Universal becomes the first major film studio to use Tag technology to promote a first-run, nationally released movie. (more…)

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Intelligence and Personality May Predict Illness and Death

Do smarter people live longer and better lives? Are certain personality types more prone to premature death than are others? As our population continues to age in dramatic numbers, these questions become increasingly relevant. A new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, provides an overview of research on possible associations between intelligence and personality traits and various health outcomes. 

Although there is not much evidence to date that links intelligence with cancer, low intelligence has been shown to be related to increased risk of hospital admission and death due to cardiovascular disease. In addition, lower intelligence is associated with a greater incidence of accidents and risk of death by homicide than is higher intelligence.   (more…)

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Argonne National Laboratory Selects IBM Supercomputer to Advance Research

*Based on next generation IBM Blue Gene, the 10 petaflop “Mira” supercomputer will fuel national innovation*

WASHINGTON – 08 Feb 2011: IBM today announced that the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory will use IBM’s next-generation Blue Gene supercomputer to enable significant advances in areas such as designing ultra-efficient electric car batteries, understanding global climate change and exploring the evolution of our universe.

The 10-petaflop IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputer, named “Mira”, will be operational in 2012 and made available to scientists from industry, academia and government research facilities around the world. (more…)

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Amazon.com Announces the Top 20 Most Romantic Cities in America

Alexandria, Va., knows how to keep the romance alive as America’s most romantic city for the second year in a row; Miami keeps it hot as the sexiest city in the U.S

SEATTLE, Feb 08, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Love is in the air. Amazon.com today announced its list of the Top 20 Most Romantic Cities in America. After compiling sales data of romance novels and relationship books (Kindle Books and print books), romantic comedy movies (digital movies and DVDs), Barry White albums (CDs and MP3s), along with sexual wellness products, since Jan. 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with over 100,000 residents, the Top 20 most romantic cities in the U.S. are:  (more…)

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