Free Republic

On Friday, Nokia announced that they were adopting WP7 as their operating system. Although some open source advocates might see this as a set-back for Linux, Android is already the best-selling Linux OS of all times. Meanwhile, as a Ben Zander student, all I see is possibility and the the world of opportunities that this opens to developers. Although they will continue shipping Symbian for a while, they are effectively sun-setting it. Just like you can still purchase Itanium systems from HP, nobody really develops for those anymore. Nokia had this chart to offer on Friday: This is fascinating turn...

ORLANDO — If President Obama's performance during his first two years in office were a midterm exam, UCF students would assign him a grade of C+. That's the result of an informal survey conducted on the main campus Monday afternoon by a group of student journalists as part of a news reporting class project. On the eve of Obama's State of the Union address, the young journalists asked a random group of 57 UCF students who identified themselves as registered voters how they would grade the president. A tally of the grades resulted in an average of C+. Not a...

TAMPA - A new poll indicates that no-party candidate Gov. Charlie Crist has faded in the state's three-way Senate race, allowing Republican Marco Rubio to extend his lead. Meanwhile, Democrat Kendrick Meek, in third place, has gained on Crist. The change apparently happened because of Democrats swinging toward Meek and independent voters moving toward Meek and Rubio – all of them moving away from Crist, according to the Mason-Dixon Polling & Research survey

Just what Democrats need in West Virginia: More on the federal investigation of their Senate candidate, Gov. Joe Manchin. We now know a major target of the federal probe into Gov. Joe Manchin’s administration and the Department of Highways is a multi-million dollar road that runs through Fairmont. Subpoenas have been issued to the Department of Highways and the Office of Administration…The Attorney General’s office is refusing to release any information about the investigation, despite media law experts who say the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires the Attorney General to release the information… Larry Puccio, Manchin’s former chief of...

Vitamin C could be used to overcome hurdles in creating stem cells for treating human diseases, scientists believe. The vitamin boosts the reprogramming of adult cells to give them the properties of embryonic stem cells. Scientists who made the discovery believe it may help them overcome long-standing problems in creating the reprogrammed cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).

Big news for developers out there: Google has just announced the release of a new, open sourced programming language called Go. The company says that Go is experimental, and that it combines the performance and security benefits associated with using a compiled language like C++ with the speed of a dynamic language like Python. GoÂ’s official mascot is Gordon the gopher, seen here. HereÂ’s how Google describes Go in its blog post: Go attempts to combine the development speed of working in a dynamic language like Python with the performance and safety of a compiled language like C or C++....

Wall Street bankers once again are the target of populist outrage, this time over the news that Goldman Sachs (GS), Citigroup (C), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), and others are receiving limited doses of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine

One of the recurring thread-types we have chronicled here at the DUmmie FUnnies over the last five years is the "My Encounter With A Freeper" thread. In a MEWAF thread, the DUmmie recounts an incident in which he or she either 1) converted the Freeper, 2) put down the Freeper, or simply 3) experienced bizarre boorish behavior from the Freeper. This latter subtype--a "MEWAF-III," as we call it in the trade--is what we are dealing with here today, a Freeper Encounter of the Third Kind. It should be noted, MEWAF threads may be more or less fictionalized to make...

WASHINGTON -- Who will be the most regulated of them all? Under the Obama administration's proposed regulatory revamp, certain companies would be set aside for special scrutiny if they are seen as large and interconnected enough that their failure would send a shudder through the economy. The plan would require these companies, even if they aren't banks, to face much stricter oversight from the Federal Reserve. The central bank could examine everything from the company's domestic parent to its smallest foreign subsidiary.

“Based on historical revenue and expense rates, Citi’s projected earnings before taxes and one-time charges would be about $8.3 billion for the full quarter.” (emphasis added) http://www.politicallore.com/economy/the-citi-that-never-sleeps-on-spin/606

NEW YORK -- Most Republican governors have broken with their GOP colleagues in Congress and are pushing for passage of President Barack Obama's economic aid plan that would send billions to states for education, public works and health care. Their state treasuries drained by the financial crisis, governors would welcome the money from Capitol Hill, where GOP lawmakers are more skeptical of Obama's spending priorities.

The traditional understanding of DNA has recently been transformed beyond recognition. DNA does not, as we thought, carry a linear, one-dimensional, one-way, sequential code—like the lines of letters and words on this page. And the 97% in humans that does not carry protein-coding genes is not, as many people thought, fossilized ‘junk’ left over from our evolutionary ancestors. DNA information is overlapping-multi-layered and multi-dimensional; it reads both backwards and forwards; and the ‘junk’ is far more functional than the protein code, so there is no fossilized history of evolution. No human engineer has ever even imagined, let alone designed an...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Treasury Department opened the door Friday to using a Citigroup-style rescue package to help other troubled financial institutions. The financial lifeline thrown to Citigroup Inc. (C) in late November involved backing billions in risky assets and providing the banking giant with a fresh capital infusion. Treasury said participation by other companies in such a program would be weighed on a case-by-case basis. Treasury said it would consider, among other things, whether the "destabilization" of a financial institution could threaten the viability of creditors and others. It also would weigh the extent to which the institution faced...

Keeping track of the ever mutating bailout debate is becoming increasingly difficult. With the Federal money spigots now thrown wide open, and with no one of influence advising restraint, the only debate is where to direct the torrent. During the past week, the talk began with Detroit and Citigroup, but by Friday had shifted to a massive "stimulus package" to bail out consumers. The early buzz includes some very large figures. But first, a bit of a recap: On Monday, the $300 billion Citigroup bailout took center stage. Once again Henry Paulson decided to throw taxpayer funds into a bottomless...

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The rocket-propelled Canadian dollar flew past $1.07 (U.S.) Friday, fuelled by strong economic data that have many forecasters wondering whether the economy is decoupling from its troubled southern neighbour. Canada churned out five times more jobs than expected last month, a stellar showing that sparked a number of forecasts that the loonie is on its way to $1.10, as the greenback continues to dive. While that's good news for Canadians who are planning to travel to the United States this holiday season, it will likely mean more pain for manufacturers, exporters and the tourist industry on this side of the...

Four tales of city dwellers who fled New York More New Yorkers leave the city every year than move here, a trend highlighted in a population study released last week. The report showed that in 2005, 300,000 people left New York, and only 200,000 arrived from across the U.S. and other countries to replace them. The results prompted the Daily News to ask: Why did you say goodbye to New York? Here are the stories we heard: He's getting more bang for his bucks Carlos Thompson and his wife owned a house in Brooklyn and made a decent living as...

By John Whitesides, Political Correspondent Fri Mar 2, 4:36 PM ET Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani acknowledged his differences with the party's conservative base on Friday but said bigger principles should be at stake in the race for the White House. The former New York mayor led a parade of six Republican White House contenders who wooed frustrated conservatives at an annual convention. He asked the activists to look past his support for abortion rights, gay rights and gun control. Giuliani, dubbed "America's Mayor" for his leadership after the September 11 attacks, touted his New York record of reducing crime,...

Minorities are starting to fight employers over the use of credit history in hiring. Lisa Bailey worked for five months at Harvard University as a temp entering donations into a database. When the university made the job a salaried position, Ms. Bailey, who is black, saw a chance to lift herself out of dead-end jobs. Bailey's superiors encouraged her to apply, she says, but turned her down after discovering her bad credit history. Bailey, with her lawyer, has lodged a complaint against Harvard charging racial discrimination. The reason: Studies show that minorities are more likely to have bad credit, but...

U.S. Army Capt. Kathlen Stornelli (left), physician’s assistant, Company C, 204th Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, wraps a bandage over the ankle of Spc. Silas Brown, a combat medic assigned to Company C, at Forward Operating Base Duke, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Edgar Reyes Company C Aid Station Soldiers On Call 24/7 Despite long workdays and details at Forward Operating Base Duke, Company C personnel stand ready to treat injured soldiers. By U.S. Army Pfc. Edgar Reyes2nd Brigade Combat Team4th Infantry Division FORWARD OPERATING BASE DUKE, Iraq, April 12, 2006 — When U.S....