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All hail the new Googleplex. Er, rather, the Googleplex expansion.
According to a new article in Vanity Fair, Google is planning to launch a second campus neighboring its current Googleplex in Mountain View, California.
The 1.1-million-square-foot campus, dubbed "Bay View," will eat up around 42 acres of space with its nine different buildings. From the top, they look like a Tetris game gone awry ? buildings that would themselves be nice and rectangular were they not all featuring a dramatic bend roughly right in the middle. Or, to put it another way, they look like a giant Google gathering for the letter "J."
However, there's a method to Google's architectural madness. As Vanity Fair's Paul Goldberger reports, Google ? in typical Google fashion ? went on a data-collecting spree prior to deciding exactly what it wanted the shape and scale of its Bay View complex to look like. In essence, the company wanted to first figure out all the little nuances of how its employees work together, under the premise that its headquarters expansion should more closely bring together groups and workers who frequently interact.
The J-shaped buildings and overall design for Bay View that emerged allegedly ensures that every single employee working at Google's new complex will be, at most, a 2.5-minute walk from any other Bay View employee. Or, as civil engineer David Radcliffe puts it in Vanity Fair's article, "You can't schedule innovation."
"We want to create opportunities for people to have ideas and be able to turn to others right there and say, 'What do you think of this,'" Radcliffe added.
The nine Bay View buildings will all be interconnected with bridges and feature an assortment of cafes and other meeting spaces ? and green roofs, in some instances ? that will help the new campus align with the existing Googleplex's look and feel. Seattle-based architecture firm NBBJ is handling the project in total, which includes the fun fact that Bay View's proposed (and energy-efficient) radiant heating solution will be the nation's largest for an office complex.
"The existing buildings have a relaxed and casual, even whimsical, quality to their interiors, as if to say that pleasure is a part of efficiency; I'm not sure how Google quantifies this except by seeing how many workers like it, but here, too, the plan is to continue on the same track, even if the new buildings aren't likely to feel quite as improvised," Goldberger writes.
So, who wins the "coolest new campus" award? Google's Bay View or Apple's Spaceship?
?
For more tech tidbits from David Murphy, follow him on Facebook or Twitter (@thedavidmurphy).
Source: http://feeds.ziffdavis.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/breakingnews/~3/YULxrycw_Vs/0,2817,2415796,00.asp
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VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran appears to be advancing in its construction of a research reactor Western experts say could offer the Islamic state a second way of producing material for a nuclear bomb, if it decided to embark on such a course, a U.N. report showed.
Iran has almost completed installation of cooling and moderator circuit piping in the heavy water plant near the town of Arak, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a confidential report issued to member states late on Thursday.
Nuclear analysts say this type of reactor could yield plutonium for nuclear arms if the spent fuel is reprocessed, something Iran has said it has no intention of doing. Iran has said it "does not have reprocessing activities", the IAEA said.
In its previous report on Iran, in November, the Vienna-based U.N. agency said installation work at Arak was continuing, without giving any indication of how far advanced it was.
Iran rejects Western allegations it seeks to develop a capability to assemble nuclear weapons, saying its atomic program is entirely peaceful and that the Arak reactor will produce isotopes for medical and agricultural use.
Iran says it plans to begin operating the facility in the first quarter of 2014, the IAEA said. Tehran last year postponed the planned start-up from the third quarter of 2013, a target that Western experts said always had seemed unrealistic.
The Arms Control Association, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, said late last year that it was questionable whether Iran would be able to meet the new target date as well, in view of "significant delays and impeded access to necessary materials" because of international sanctions imposed on Iran.
Western worries about Iran are focused largely on uranium enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordow, as such material refined to a high level can provide the fissile core of an atomic bomb. But experts say Arak may also be a proliferation issue.
The Arak facility is a "growing source of concern", said Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the non-proliferation and disarmament program of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based think-tank.
Israel, believed to be the Middle East's only nuclear-armed state, sees Iran's nuclear program as a serious danger and has threatened to attack its atomic sites if diplomacy and sanctions fail to resolve the decade-old dispute.
If it does, the nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordow and Arak in central Iran are likely to be targets. Fitzpatrick said it could be Arak that triggers a conflict because attacking it after it is launched could cause an environmental disaster.
TESTING FUEL FOR ARAK REACTOR
Thursday's quarterly IAEA report showed Iran expanding its uranium enrichment program in defiance of tightening Western sanctions, installing advanced centrifuge machines at its main enrichment plant near the town of Natanz.
The report, issued just a few days before six world powers and Iran are due to resume negotiations after an eight-month hiatus, underlined the tough task facing the West in seeking to pressure Tehran to curb its nuclear activities.
Cliff Kupchan, Middle East director at the Eurasia consultancy, said Iran had adopted a defiant policy of pressing ahead with its nuclear program, despite harsh sanctions.
"As a result, Israel and the U.S. Congress will press a receptive U.S. administration to move forward with new and even harsher sanctions," he said in a research note.
Enriched uranium can fuel nuclear power plants, Iran's stated aim, but also provide the explosive core of a nuclear weapon if refined much further. Making plutonium from spent fuel is a second way of obtaining potential bomb material.
The Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), a U.S. think-tank, noted that Iran planned to use a medical research reactor in Tehran, known as TRR, to test fuel for Arak.
"The TRR is now more than a medical isotope production reactor, Iran's stated use for the reactor, and is necessary for the operation" of Arak, it said in a report.
If operated optimally, the heavy-water plant could produce about nine kilograms (20 pounds) of plutonium a year, or enough for about two nuclear bombs annually, ISIS has said previously.
"Before it could use any of the plutonium in a nuclear weapon, however, it would first have to separate the plutonium from the irradiated fuel," it added on its website.
Iran has repeatedly declared it has no plans to reprocess the spent fuel. But, "similarly sized reactors ostensibly built for research" have been used by India, Israel, North Korea and Pakistan to make plutonium for weapons, Fitzpatrick said.
(Editing by Mark Heinrich)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-appears-advance-construction-arak-nuclear-plant-115811924.html
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According to a report in the Financial Times, Goldman Sachs has completed the sale of 75% of its reinsurance operations, Ariel Re, to investors through a private placement. Goldman Sachs only bought Ariel Re last year in an effort to profit more from reinsurance premiums and diversify away from its core investment banking business, but its said that regulatory requirements such as Basel III capital requirements provided the trigger for the sale.
We wrote about this back in January when it became clear on its Q4 earnings call that Goldman Sachs planned to sell its reinsurance operations and we discussed some of the potential ways it could achieve that. According to the FT, Goldman has sold 75% of its reinsurance operations in a private placement to investors and put the operations into a new corporate vehicle which will be called Global Atlantic.
Goldman Sachs will retain a non-controlling 25% share of the reinsurance business, which must be a small enough share for it not to impact the bank under Basel III as a non-core business operation. The FT quotes a source as saying that Goldman will provide hedging and investment services to the newly established Global Atlantic reinsurance business. The FT suggests that the 75% stake which was sold to investors had an asking price of around $1 billion.
In our article in January on the sale we discussed the possibility that Goldman Sachs could use the sale as a way to get into the collateralized reinsurance business. We can?t confirm this but it seems like if that was the desired business model then it could be achieved, with investors and Goldman backing a cash collateralized reinsurance company in Global Atlantic and Goldman Sachs investment and hedging arm utilising the resulting premiums to maximise profits. In that way the investors would benefit with profits from both premium income and investment income while Goldman Sachs could also profit from a fee income due to its investment services provided to the investors as well.
Of course the actual strategy followed by Global Atlantic could be a mix of the above or simply a typical reinsurance business with access to investment and hedging strategies provided by Goldman Sachs. Depending on the motivations of the investors and Goldman Sachs, the new Global Atlantic reinsurance firm could be traditional, fully collateralized or follow a hedge fund backed reinsurer approach. There is also, perhaps, an opportunity for Goldman to operate reinsurance-linked funds, managing the investment operations while Global Atlantic manages the underwriting, as well.
You can read the full Financial Times article here, but may require a login.
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Dec 1, 2012; Atlanta, GA, USA; Dec 1, 2012; Atlanta, GA, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide wide receiver DeAndrew White (2) holds the SEC sign after winning the 2012 SEC Championship game against the Georgia Bulldogs at the Georgia Dome. Alabama won 32-28. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports
You have to go back to 2005 to find a BCS Championship game that was not won by a team in the SEC conference.
Since that BCS win by Texas over USC 41-38, Florida won two games, LSU and Auburn have each won one, and Alabama has captured three wins in the last four championships.
I?m only 18 years old, but I can barely remember a time when the Big Ten, Pac-12, and Big 12 were even relevant when it came to winning a national championship.
So why has the SEC become such a powerhouse in college football?
It starts with the very beginning of the SEC winning streak seven years ago, and possibly even a bit before. In 2006, The Florida Gators powered their way to a 41-14 destruction of the No. 1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes.
From then on, the SEC was in complete control. Or was it really?
You see, from 2005 through 2010, there were never more than two SEC teams ranked in the top 10 teams nationally. We saw plenty of space in those other spots taken up by teams in conferences such as the Big Ten. The difference is that in each of those years, an SEC team was ranked either No. 1 or No. 2.
It?s a matter of a small group of schools carrying over success to represent a conference for an extended period of time. Really, it isn?t the whole SEC that deserves the ton of hype that it receives. Or it wasn?t always like that. It was two or three teams that had repeated success.
Topics: Alabama Crimson Tide, Auburn, BCS, College Football, Florida Gators, LSU Tigers, NCAA College Football, SEC
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CHICAGO (AP) ? They elected a Harvard-educated Rhodes Scholar and ended up with a congressman who was convicted of having sex with an underage campaign worker. They voted for the son of a famous civil rights leader and got someone who illegally spent campaign funds on everything from furniture to Bruce Lee memorabilia.
Call it Chicago corruption at its worst or simply uncanny coincidence, but residents of Illinois' 2nd Congressional District haven't been represented in Congress in more than three decades by someone who didn't end up in serious ethical or legal trouble. That hangs over them as they go to the polls Tuesday for a special primary to begin picking a replacement for disgraced former U.S. Rep Jesse Jackson Jr.
It began with Gus Savage, who took office in 1981 and was defeated a decade later after allegations of sexual misconduct with a Peace Corps worker while on a congressional visit abroad. Then there was Mel Reynolds, who won office in 1992 and was convicted of fraud and having sex with a minor. This past week, after 17 years in office, Jackson pleaded guilty to spending $750,000 in campaign money on personal expenses.
"They all drank from the same cup," said Charles Hill, an unemployed father of five. The Chicago resident once supported Jackson, but the legal drama has left him so drained he's not even paying attention to the batch of nearly 20 candidates vying for the spot. "It's a sad commentary."
Even by Illinois' corruption standards ? where four of the last seven governors were sent to jail ? troubles in the district are astonishing. The attempts to explain it ? among voters, experts and the most recent candidates vying for the seat ? range from a culture of corruption to pure coincidence.
Corruption in Chicago politics dates back to at least 1869, when city commissioners were snagged in a scheme over City Hall paint contracts. More than 1,000 Illinois public officials, most in the Chicago area, have been convicted of corruption since the 1970s, according to Dick Simpson, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor. In a study, he ranked Chicago as the No. 1 in corruption among U.S. metropolitan areas.
Jackson's grip on the 2nd District seat ? winning each election since 1995 in a landslide ? created conditions ripe for wrongdoing, Simpson said. Even so, he's slightly baffled by why more problems seem to exist in this district than in others with similar demographics and longtime congressmen.
"Unfortunately, the 2nd Congressional District seems to be an epicenter for these mistakes by public officials," he said.
The district includes part of Chicago's South Side, south suburbs and some rural areas.
Talk of ethics has been a secondary issue among the candidates after jobs and guns, as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's political action committee has poured money into ads criticizing candidates it deems too weak on gun control. The candidates include 14 Democrats and four Republicans. The district is largely Democratic, and the winner of Tuesday's Democratic primary is widely expected to sail through the April 9 election.
The only hint of an ethics scandal has involved former state Rep. Robin Kelly, a front-runner who's been attacked by other candidates over accusations that she misrepresented hours she worked as a top aide to former Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias in 2010. The Chicago Tribune obtained a report by the chief investigator in the treasurer's office through an open records request. No action was taken against Kelly because she had already left state government.
Kelly has denied wrongdoing and dismissed the allegations as "political silly season."
As for the region's troubles with ethics?
"I think it's coincidental," she said. "I don't think the district has any whammy over it."
Those who agree with her include Reynolds, who's running for the seat again. He says the corruption issue has been blown out of proportion, and his campaign signs read, "REDEMPTION."
"An aberration is what happened in my life," he said. "It was not a determination of my character."
That hasn't kept the issue from the headlines, especially with Jackson's legal proceedings playing out in federal court. Jackson and his wife, former Alderman Sandi Jackson, both pleaded guilty Wednesday in the scheme.
Another candidate, former U.S. Rep. Debbie Halvorson, has emphasized the issue, saying it's a time for a clean slate. She unsuccessfully challenged Jackson in last year's primary, even as he was plagued by questions over ties to imprisoned ex.-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and reports of an extramarital affair. Blagojevich was convicted on corruption charges that included trying to sell President Barack Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat.
"People want to close this door to unethical behavior," she said. "We've had enough. This district has been plagued for far too long."
The third front-runner, Anthony Beale, a Chicago alderman whose ward overlaps with the district, said the fact that neither Reynolds nor Jackson held public office before Congress was likely a factor in their ethical problems.
"They were not homegrown to know what the district needs," Beale said.
Savage was defeated by Reynolds after the House Ethics Committee determined he made improper sexual advances to a female volunteer. Then Reynolds was convicted in the sex case and sent to prison. Later, while still behind bars, he was convicted of federal wire and bank fraud charges. President Bill Clinton commuted his sentence in 2001.
The district's history has fueled cynicism among some voters.
Grocery store worker Pnakara Nealy, 32, of Calumet Park, supported Jackson in the past, but now she's disillusioned with politics.
"He's not the only one doing it," she said of Jackson. "He just got caught."
___
Sophia Tareen can be reached at http://twitter.com/sophiatareen
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jackson-jr-district-history-corruption-170730679--election.html
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According to the official release notes, the new Lync build comes with buttons to provide faster access to Back, Search, Mute and End Call features, but also with enhanced ink capabilities in IM conversations.
What?s more, the update brings additional language support, plus the aforementioned bug fixes and performance improvements.
The new Lync version is available to users running any of the available Windows 8 builds, including x86, x64 and ARM flavors, so Surface RT owners can deploy it too. As usual, the update is being distributed via the integrated Windows Store, so you don?t need to manually download the new version.
Click here to view the Windows Store page of the updated Lync for Windows 8 app.
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