The News Corporation, making one of its largest bets on the Internet, announced today that it is paying $580 million in cash to acquire Intermix Media Inc., a Los Angeles-based company whose chief asset is MySpace.com, a Web site that is enjoying surging popularity with young audiences.

News Corporation to Acquire Intermix for $580 Million - New York Times

AFTER giving its Internet competitors a huge head start, Clear Channel is ready to play catch-up.

The radio industry's dominant company, with more than 1,200 stations, has begun introducing its first meaningful online strategy after what could be the most protracted example of Internet indifference among major media businesses. At long last, Clear Channel is building more original programming and other features into its stations' Web sites to lure listeners and, it hopes, a new stable of advertisers.

As Clear Channel Enters the Fray, Online Radio Looks to Be Coming of Age

From the outside, Willy Wonka's factory is a grim, imposing industrial edifice towering over rows of red-brick shops and houses - something out of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" planted in the landscape of Charles Dickens's "Hard Times."

I saw it last night and rather liked it. The more I've thought back on the 1971 film starring Gene Wilder, the more I remember how disappointed I was when I first saw it (on video) as a kid, having read the novels. According to
Wikipedia's article, Roald Dahl hated it.

Looking for the Candy, Finding a Back Story

An organization that lobbies for increased regulation of the food and drug industries called on Wednesday for cigarette-style warnings on soft drinks to alert consumers that too much of the beverages can cause obesity and other health problems.

Heh.

Group Calls for Soft Drink Warnings

China should use nuclear weapons against the United States if the American military intervenes in any conflict over Taiwan, a senior Chinese military official said Thursday.

Yikes! Someone needs to rein this guy in!

Chinese General Threatens Use of A-Bombs if U.S. Intrudes

President Bush said today that his nominee for the Supreme Court may be someone who has never sat on the bench before.

"Would I be willing to consider people who had never been a judge?" Mr. Bush said. "And the answer is, 'You bet.' "

Bush Says He Might Consider Judicial Newcomers for High Court

The shuttle Discovery will not be launched today because of a malfunctioning fuel sensor, NASA said, delaying the return to space for a fleet grounded since the Columbia disaster in February 2003.

Shuttle's Liftoff Canceled by Fuel Sensor Problem

SERS is our latest venture - a mobile space technology showcase, centered around the Space Elevator concept, that will visit airshows, schools and universities, science fairs and other public gatherings.

SERS will be a sight to behold - more details here, but suffice it to say that it will easily be the tallest and brightest exhibit in any such gathering, and will attract plenty of positive attention - an ideal platform for your corporate message.

They have some kind of x-prize-like thing for developing Space Elevator technologies -- primarily climbers and tether materials -- by 2010.

The Space Elevator - Elevator:2010

, also known as a space bridge, is a fixed structure from the Earth's surface into space for carrying payloads.

Wikipedia has a very detailed article on the subject.

Space elevator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

janelane wrote:
Seems asinine to develop a pill for which fully 10% of the target consumers cannot afford. And then, in recognition of this fact, to make a complicated pricing system by which some people have to pay the full price and others nothing at all. I'd be interested to see the specifics of what determines who pays. I agree with the graduated pricing structure for drugs, but in the end it only serves to reinforce the overarching top-level problem that drugs are too expensive to begin with.

Drugs really are fantastically expensive (~$1B) to develop and test. Companies must be incented to make this investment. For better or worse, our government is in the business of redistributing wealth and as such, it makes a certain degree of sense that in situations like this where what you're really paying for is an intangible, i.e. patent license, the rich are made to subsidize the poor.

RE: Maker of Heart Drug Intended for Blacks Bases Price on Patients' Wealth