] The largest of those groups, the College of American
] Pathologists, said it had sent 3,747 kits to various labs
] starting last year and ending in February.
]
] Dr. Jared Schwartz, an official with the pathology
] college, said Meridian was told to pick an influenza
] sample and chose from its stockpile the deadly 1957
] strain, which it had received from a "germ library" in
] 2000.

Wired News: Containing a Killer Flu Virus

] But the unexpected appearance of the pre-event Burning
] Man construction is hardly the only surprise in Google's
] database of satellite images. And other satellite imagery
] companies say that they, too, are often startled by what
] they find when they analyze the hundreds of shots they
] take daily.

fun satellite pictures

Wired News: Surprises Lurk in Satellite Snaps

] The difference between court justice and what I'd like to
] call "sublime justice" is not a difficult concept. But
] it's a bit nuanced, so here's an example. It seems that
] Kenneth L. Lay, the former Enron chairman who faces trial
] next January on fraud charges, has paid Google, the
] online search service, to place ads next to or above
] searches about Enron and related topics and direct people
] to a site that gives his side of the story. (According to
] this Web site, he's not a crook.)

Ah, the joys of Pay Per Click. I suspect after this story appeared in the business section of the NYTimes, Mr. Lay's ad budget and costs per click rose with the traffic.

Update. Indeed, he is gone from the search results now. Back tomorrow?

The New York Times | Business | Mutual Funds | Essay: Never Mind Justice. How About Just Deserts?

] Of all these industries which have seen their business
] models damaged by newer media, why are only one or two
] suing their clients?

The Big Picture: The ongoing shift from Analog to Digital

] The Recording Industry Association of America will file
] 405 lawsuits on Wednesday against individuals at 18
] colleges across the country. The RIAA is targeting those
] who use a file sharing application called i2hub to
] distribute music on a "massive scale," said RIAA
] president Cary Sherman.

The subpoenas and presidential letter hit campus last week. Maybe we can find someone sued to interview on our show this week?

Wired News: Music Biz Sues High-Speed Traders

] Anyone who finds a date with a potential romantic partner
] to be a minefield of unspoken rules should consider the
] man date, a rendezvous between two straight men that is
] even more socially perilous.

What a silly little article. Many men are uncomfortable around other men, film at 11. Is it that hard to see through the rituals of "grabbing a beer" or only male-bonding around sports as obvious insecurities?

It is only weird if you let it be.

The New York Times : Fashion & Style : The Man Date

] Question: Who in their right minds wants to buy a piece
] of Warner Music Group?
]
] Answer: Somebody must, because next month, a $4 billion
] IPO is going to occur.
]
...
] Think about this: A huge IPO goes out, the public puts
] money to work, and a mere $7 million dollars gos to
] towards operations, while insiders cash out 50 fold times
] more. And, its happening as Warner Music Group is under
] investigation (they just received another Subpoena from
] Eliot Spitzer's office). I find that simply astounding.

The Big Picture: Warner Music IPO ?

] A friend points out that this is an unfair comparison:
] DVDs are a secondary market, while CDs are a primary
] market. He states that DVDs come out after theatrical
] release, pay-per-view, then Cable and Satellite. This
] allows DVD producers to be more flexible in pricing than
] CDs.
]
]
] I have two problems with that argument: First, the
] economics should be such that pricing attempts to
] maximize unit sales and therefore profits. Second, the
] business model of selling CDs as a primary revenue
] producer is definitely not true from the Artist's
] perspective.

The Big Picture: File Sharing, CD and Video Pricing

] The California data establish just how dissimilarly black
] and white parents have named their children over the past
] 25 years or so -- a remnant, it seems, of the Black
] Power movement. The typical baby girl born in a black
] neighborhood in 1970 was given a name that was twice as
] common among blacks than whites. By 1980, she received a
] name that was 20 times more common among blacks. (Boys'
] names moved in the same direction but less
] aggressively -- likely because parents of all races are
] less adventurous with boys' names than girls'.) Today,
] more than 40 percent of the black girls born in
] California in a given year receive a name that not one of
] the roughly 100,000 baby white girls received that year.
] Even more remarkably, nearly 30 percent of the black
] girls are given a name that is unique among every baby,
] white and black, born that year in California. (There
] were also 228 babies named Unique during the 1990s alone,
] and one each of Uneek, Uneque, and Uneqqee; virtually all
] of them were black.)

A Roshanda by Any Other Name - How do babies with super-black names fare? By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

] "There can be no reason for the board to support an offer
] to MCI owners that is substantially inferior to what
] Verizon has just agreed to pay for a non-control block of
] stock," Miller said in the letter, which was made public
] late Saturday. "Shareholders would be outraged if the
] Board did less than insist that the identical terms be
] made available to all other owners. That, of course,
] implies a higher value than the $25.72 cash price Mr.
] Slim will receive, since he will have the use of that
] cash shortly, while other MCI owners would have to wait
] until closing if Verizon offered the same price,
] including the same effective call option on Verizon's
] stock. Our rough calculation of the present value of what
] Verizon agreed to pay Mr. Slim, including the call, is in
] excess of $27.00."

How crazy this all is.

Brief recap:
* Qwest makes generous offer to buy MCI. MCI says No.
* Verizon makes low offer to buy MCI. MCI says Yes.
* Shareholders say Qwest. MCI says No. Shareholders say "lawsuit".
* Verizon makes a slightly better offer ($23.10/share). MCI says Yes.
* Qwest makes more generous offer ($27.50/share). MCI says No. Shareholders say WTF
* Verizon makes deal to buy 13% stake from prominent billionare investor (make the takeover easier). Offers $25.72 plus an option. MCI says... nothing. Shareholders say WTF.

Why is this significant? This is MCI executives probably behaving badly. MCI, the company known as Worldcom. What a shock. Here are the forces in motion: MCI shareholders, post bankruptcy, are value players who saw a buyout as inevitable and lucrative. They are looking for the best price. Qwest wants to buy MCI for its customer list -- and needs to have it to survive, so it will pay whatever it takes. Verizon sees big market assets cheap. MCI execs see themselves without jobs if Qwest buys, and sweet offers of something from Verizon. So, 20% premium be damned.

I think it was in really bad taste for Verizon to make this side offer. They want a voting block (13% is as big as they can get before the poison pills) to help the merger. But they can't sweet talk an investor out of an equity position -- not someone who lost in the debt-equity conversion post-scandal. So they had to make a reasonably attractive offer. Not like the one for the rest of the company.

It will be fun to watch the justifications for why they have a higher price for a non-majority share than the company. Or how the MCI people continue to say it is the best deal they could get for the company, despite the obvious evidence that they are selling it cheaper than the buyer is willing to pay. Gross.

Verizon's Slim Deal