Supporting Innovation: Georgia Tech Edison Fund Provides Funding for Early-Stage Technology Companies
November 9, 2007

Thomas Edison often receives credit for inventing the electric light bulb, though his real accomplishment was in making the device -- as well as the phonograph and motion picture camera -- commercially successful. That focus on commercializing innovation is now providing the foundation for a new venture bearing Edison's name at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

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Stephen Fleming, Georgia Tech's chief commercialization officer, will manage the new Georgia Tech Edison Fund.
Launched by a multi-year grant from the Charles A. Edison Fund -- which is named for the inventor's son, a successful businessman and former governor of New Jersey -- the Georgia Tech Edison Fund will provide seed funding for early-stage technology companies that have a close association with Georgia Tech.

"We will focus on startups at the very early stage, because that's the hardest money for an entrepreneur to find," explained Stephen Fleming, Georgia Tech's chief commercialization officer and manager of the new fund. "Once companies have customers, a product and some traction in the marketplace, they can interest larger investors."

Early stage funding in Georgia.

Memestreams: hit this guy up for some cash to sell meme appliances to businesses.

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At the dawn of America's love affair with the automobile, cars and trucks leaving the nation's largest city were unceremoniously dumped out of the western end of the Holland Tunnel onto local roads wending their way through the New Jersey Meadowlands.

Jersey City mayor Frank Hague -- dictator of the Hudson County political machine and a national political player -- was a prime mover behind the building of the country's first "superhighway," designed to connect the hub of New York City to the United States of America. Hague's nemesis in this undertaking was union boss Teddy Brandle, and construction of the last three miles of Route 25, later dubbed the Pulaski Skyway, marked an epic battle between big labor and big politics, culminating in a murder and the creation of a motorway so flawed it soon became known as "Death Avenue" —now appropriately featured in the opening sequence of the hit HBO series The Sopranos.

A book in the tradition of Robert Caro's The Power Broker and Henry Petroski's Engineers of Dreams, The Last Three Miles brings to vivid life the riveting and bloodstained back story of a fascinating chapter in the heroic age of public works.

The Last Three Miles: Politics, Murder, and the Construction of America's First Superhighway

In another blow to the Motor City's tarnished image, Detroit pushed past St. Louis to become the nation's most dangerous city, according to a private research group's controversial analysis, released Sunday, of annual FBI crime statistics.

Here we go with this again..

Ranked Most Dangerous
1. Detroit, Michigan
2. St. Louis, Missouri
3. Flint, Michigan
4. Oakland, California
5. Camden, New Jersey
6. Birmingham, Alabama
7. North Charleston, South Carolina
8. Memphis, Tennessee
9. Richmond, California
10. Cleveland, Ohio

Jersey will always have Camden. It's never going away.

I've got a peeve to bitch about here... I am completely puzzled as to why no one yammers on about Michigan being a shithole, while Jersey is widely seen as America's armpit. They have _two_ cities entrenched in serious positions on that list... Screw Michigan, seriously..

Now that I've gotten that load off my chest, I would like to point out that the truly nefarious thing going on here is the "Safest Cities" list:

Ranked Safest
1. Mission Viejo, California
2. Clarkstown, New York
3. Brick Township, New Jersey
4. Amherst, New York
5. Sugar Land, Texas
6. Colonie, New York
7. Thousand Oaks, California
8. Newton, Massachusetts
9. Toms River Township, N.J.
10. Lake Forest, California

I know both Brick Township and Toms River really well. I went to high school in Toms River and I'm in Brick all the time. These may be very safe places, as compared to somewhere like Lebanon, but all the factors that make it work out that way also contribute greatly to why they are miserable places to actually reside.

Brick Township does not "feel" safe. I can't think of another place in the US that has such a high ratio of police to people, and I work in downtown Washington, where we bathe in a sea of constant high security.. Brick is scary, because there doesn't appear to be any reason why it's necessary for it to be a police state like environment. It feels like it's unsafe as hell, because there are always cops, everywhere. There is a constant feeling that something should be going really wrong, if for no other reason than to justify why there are so many damn cops.

Next time you find yourself in the great Garden State, I suggest putting on Police and Thieves by The Clash and taking a nice drive through one of these two lovely Jersey Shore communities. You will find yourself weaving through a sea of police cars much like you would taxis in NYC, and saying things like "They must be looking for someone..."

But you will be safe... Very safe.

Experts say 'most dangerous city' rankings twist numbers - CNN.com

Meantime, the fired duo is asking bloggers to complain and “Spread the word. Fight the power.” Oh yeah, and buy one of their “Fresh Beets” t-shirts. It’s a great country.

Ok I haven't figured out how to embed videos yet, but I heard this story on CNN this morning on the way to work and thought I'd share. It's pretty interesting, these two brothers, college students getting fired and later being sued $1 mil due to a complaint regarding this youtube video.

Two brothers may need to find means to 'produce' some green....

NEW YORK -- As first reported by NewsChannel4's Jonathan Dienst, three people were arrested and one other was being sought Saturday in connection to a plot to blow up jet-fuel lines at John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said.

Four people have been charged. Three suspects are in custody: Russell Defreitas, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir. Another suspect, Abdul Nur is still at large.

Defreitas is to be arrainged Saturday in Brooklyn on terror conspiracy charges.

Sources said Defreitas, a former cargo worker at JFK allegedly began to plot attacking the US last July or August. Defeitas sought help in carrying out a plan and went to an FBI informant, who gathered information about the plot.

U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf called it "one of the most chilling plots imaginable."

"The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable," she said at a news conference.

Defreitas is a U.S. citizen with roots in Guyana.

Kadir, a former member of Parliament in Guyana, was arrested in Trinidad for attempting to secure money for "terrorist operations," according to a Guyanese police commander who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kadir, a Muslim, left his position in Parliament last year. Muslims make up about 9 percent of the former Dutch and British colony's 770,000 population, mostly from the Sunni sect.

Sources said counter-terrorism officials have been following the plot for a little less than one year.

BREAKING NEWS: Terror Plot Thwarted At Kennedy Airport

Sources said the plot involved a plan to blow up a BuckEye jet-fuel pipeline at JFK setting off a potential massive explosion. BuckEye provides fuel to all three NYC-area airports.

Sources said the plot involved putting explosives inside the fuel pipeline but realized that "it was not technically feasible."

Officials said the plot may also have included plans to hit the JFK terminal buildings and aircraft, in addition to the fuel lines.

Sources said the planning stages of the plot involved surveillance of JFK airport as well as scouting out US properties in Guyana for possible attacks.

Aviation officials said there is no major threat to air travel related to this plot since it was caught in the developmental stages.

One law enforcement official said: "[There was] credible intent to commit violence but it was not operational."

Officials said the suspects never got hold of explosive devices.

"This was the ultimate hand-and-glove operation between NYPD and FBI," said U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Republican from Long Island.

The arrests mark the latest in a series of alleged homegrown terrorism plots targeting high-profile American landmarks.

A year ago, seven men were arrested in what officials called the early stages of a plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and destroy FBI offices and other buildings.

A month later, authorities broke up a plot to bomb underwater New York City train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan.

And six people were arrested a month ago in an alleged plot to unleash a bloody rampage on Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Welcome to FutureCrime.

I understand we want to be as "safe" as possible, but at this point we're arresting people for intent to commit an impossible crime.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm on drugs because reality is just getting too absurd for me.

Terror Plot @ JFK

"We are working very hard to go after the rogue elements or extremists of any flavor."

"Basically, it's turn-based, but we put some real-time flavor to it."

The organization [SCIRI] also intends to drop the word "revolution" from its name and hopes to ascribe to a name with a "bigger Iraqi flavor" to it.

The showdown in Finland today will have an Eastern European flavor after former communist bloc countries scored a near clean-sweep in the semifinal that ended in the early hours Friday.

"This training gives paratroopers a flavor of the task before they deploy so they don't lose the flavor if they have to do it later on," added Sgt. 1st Class V.K. Graf, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Brigade Combat Team.

Wolfowitz instead maneuvered and wheedled and stormed and generally distracted everyone from, you know, giving loans to poor countries. He negotiated a sweetheart deal for his sweetheart. When caught, he resorted to legal arguments that had a definite "that depends on what the meaning of 'is' is" flavor to them. What a maroon.

For Halliburton and other oilfield-services providers, it’s imperative to have more than just a local flavor, said Dan Pickering, an analyst at Pickering Energy Partners in Houston.

All of what's mentioned here, and there's a thick book of examples one could use with this Administration, seems to have a strong "One flew over the cuckoo's nest" flavor to it.

Brown's best hope is to build a very good and loyal team. But that means he must cut down the "ego" flavor in his words and begin talking more about "we" rather than "I."

The Turkish people filled the streets in protest when it appeared the religious fundamentalists were about to gain control. They understand something that the majority in America does not understand: that religious fundamentalist -- of all and any flavor -- are anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-democratic morons.

While the daily senseless killings ... [ Read More (1.0k in body) ]

Welcome to the Jersey Shore! Have a great time, but please don't dig too deeply in the sand in Surf City (you could get blown up), feed the seagulls in Ocean City (you could catch a disease), or draw dirty pictures in the sand in Belmar (it's rude).

If you have tummy trouble, don't even think of going to Sea Bright, and if you come to Spring Lake, leave your spear gun at home. Other beaches won't let you eat, pick flowers, fly a kite, gamble or ride a camel.

Many of the beach towns on Long Beach Island, one of New Jersey's most popular summer vacation spots, have laws prohibiting people from digging deeper than 12 inches in the sand. They stem from an accident several years ago in which a teenager died when a deep hole he was digging collapsed, burying him.

This year, the prohibition is for a different reason: More than 1,000 pieces of unexploded World War I-era military munitions were unwittingly pumped ashore during a winter beach replenishment project decades after being dumped at sea. Authorities say they've removed everything they could, but can't guarantee more munitions don't remain hidden.

"How can you tell a kid not to dig in the sand?" asked Faith O'Dell, who lives near the beach in Surf City, where most of the fuses were found. "It's their nature, it's what kids do. And when your kid says, `Why, Mommy, why can't I dig in the sand?' what do you tell them, that they could blow themselves up?"

N.J. beach rules target seagulls, camels, dirty pictures - CNN.com

Now that you mention it ... It's a deceptively powerful phrase, that off-hand remark. It suggests permission to proceed, subject broached, time to take off the gloves.

NOW THAT I think about it, there was something noteworthy that occurred at last week's Republican presidential debate.

"From the beginning, there has been evil in the world."

He added: "Pornography and violence poison our music and movies and TV and video games. The Virginia Tech shooter, like the Columbine shooters before him, had drunk from this cesspool."

Now that I think about it, we'll probably hear it from just about anyone who gets the nod.

In the Jersey City Salvation Army Home John J. Daggett walked in his sleep, walked through a second story window, fell to the ground, awoke. He walked upstairs, reported the accident, lit a cigaret. An ambulance surgeon saw smoke escaping from John Daggett's neck, found his windpipe had been nearly severed. Said Smoker Daggett: "Now that you mention it, I noticed I wasn't getting much out of this cigaret."

The central, vexing paradox of smoking: that in return for death, cigarettes give pleasure. Justifiable pleasure? Of course not. What Kant deemed "negative pleasure"? Perhaps. But pleasure nonetheless.

"I am really tired of the way red heads are portrayed, in literature, in movies, in advertising. Now that I think about it, every off beat, quirky, venal, sadistic, bad-tempered and lascivious character is a red head."

Gillian Anderson hates TV. I mean, she really hates it. Oh, to be good at something you hate. Wait: Now that I think about it, maybe Gillian is on to something.

"Now that I think about it, it might be good with peaches," she said.

"It's a colloquialism." She compared it to a figure of speech: "Like asking someone, 'Are you high?' when you're actually saying, 'Are you serious?' "
When the term's connection to spousal abuse was pointed out, she seemed surprised. "Now that you mention it, ... [ Read More (0.9k in body) ]

About 15 percent of Iraqis have left their homes. Since the upsurge of violence following the bombing of a Shiite holy site in Samarra 14 months ago, the flight has been large and constant. It now reaches a rate of up to 50,000 people per month.

... withstanding the surge of Pentecostal Protestantism in Latin America ...

"The government is doing more slogans than action."

Afghan patience is wearing dangerously thin, officials warn.

"I had the support of the guys in the S&M and leather bars ..." he said. The objections came from other sectors of the gay population ... "It was like Sunnis and Shiites," he said.

"If your focus is on how faith-based organizations are getting earmarks, I’m your guy."

As for whether people will think he has a fetish, he said he can’t help that. "I just have no way of dealing with that," he said with a laugh. "People will think what they’re going to think. I understand that."

"This is the destiny of traitors," the gunmen yelled as they shot their victims.

"The number of threats is not decreasing. They are only transforming and changing the guise. As during the Third Reich era, these new threats show the same contempt for human life and claims to world exclusiveness and diktat."

The danger of not understanding the lessons of history is matched by the danger of using simplistic historical analogies.

"You’ve got these two basic liberal values on a kind of collision course."

"Let other federal agencies, as more than a dozen already do, cover the ‘bugs and bunnies.’ But let our spies be spies," Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, wrote Thursday in a Wall Street Journal op-ed article.

The idea that ... [ Read More (1.0k in body) ]

You can't get to the end of the day without hearing somebody say "back in the day."

Back in the day, there were boards. Bulletin Board Systems. BBS's. No Net, no Web, no cyberspace, nothing.

Back in the day, I was in Jersey. I don't know if it was the center of the BBS world; it was probably the ass-end of it, like it was of everything else. But it felt like the center.

He should know. Back in the day, when he was struggling to make it as an actor in New York, he did it for $3 an hour.

After graduation, he left town and spent several years in Nashville.

Back in the day, it was a tent city.

Along the way it lost that status, but back in the day it was a biggie.

"I used to party with him back in the day, apparently," said Tom.

Back in the day, he was literally "the man with the plan" ...

The great thing about Nashville back in the day was that the old guys hung out where the young guys were.

"It used to be a pretty good organization back in the day. We're going to start putting things back together," he remarked.

"I don't want a bunch of old heads talking about how great things were back in the day."

Back in the day 2600 hertz was the frequency that AT&T put on all of their long distance lines ...

I'm not saying it was better back in the day when Ma Bell was our only choice. Wel... [ Read More (1.0k in body) ]