Technology Slice Blog

NASA Astrobiology Findings - NASA will hold a news conference to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. The news conference will be held at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2 at the NASA Headquarters auditorium. The live broadcast of the conference will be available at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv . Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe. Though the science journal has embargoed details of the discoveries secret until the conference, it can be expected to be related with three fundamental questions from NASA's Astrobiology Program: How does life begin and evolve? Is there life beyond Earth and, if so, how can we detect it? What is the future of life on Earth and in the universe? NASA funded its first exobiology project in 1959 and established an Exobiology Program in 1960. NASA's Viking missions to Mars, launched in 1976, included three biology experiments ...

Gerson Lehrman In Probe - Federal Bureau of Investigation agents questioned a consultant for Gerson Lehrman Group in August as part of the probe, according to people familiar with the matter. The consultant, an employee of Marvell Technology Group Ltd., provided information about the technology industry to a Gerson client, Diamondback Capital Management LLC, a hedge fund the FBI raided last week, the people said. Gerson controls two-thirds of the market for expert networks, which set up meetings and calls with current and former managers from hundreds of companies for hedge-fund and other traders seeking an investing edge, according to Integrity Research Associates, a New York firm that tracks expert networks. A spokesman for Marvell, a Santa Clara, Calif., semiconductor company, declined to comment, as did representatives for the FBI and the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office. The development is part of an insider-trading investigation examining the activities of expert-netwo...

World Cup 2022 Voting - This past summer, I joined thousands of fans in the stands of the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg, South Africa, to watch as the United States faced a strong Ghana team during the round of 16 at the FIFA World Cup. I had changed my schedule to attend the game, following an exhilarating U.S. win over Algeria in the first round. Even though Ghana defeated the U.S., I was proud of our team. They played well and fought to the very end. I’m always amazed by the game’s powerful, unifying force. For 30 days, fans from all nations put aside their differences to embrace a shared love for a game that has been bringing people together for generations. In 1994, when I was president, it was a great thrill to sit in the stands at Soldier Field in Chicago with more than 67,000 enthusiastic fans, including German chancellor Helmut Kohl and the president of Bolivia, Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, in the opening game of the 1994 World Cup. It was the first time—and so f...

Fantino Vaughan Election - Early results in three federal byelections show former the Ontario Provincial Police Commissioner Julian Fantino, the Conservative candidate, neck-and-neck with his Liberal opponent in Vaughan, while the Liberals were hanging on to a narrow lead in Winnipeg North. With 220 polls of 284 reporting, Mr. Fantino had 49.3 per cent of the vote compared to 46.2 per cent for Liberal Tony Genco. Vaughan, a suburban district north of Toronto, has been a longtime Liberal stronghold under MP Maurizio Bevilacqua, who stepped down to become mayor. In Winnipeg North, where the Liberals also faced a tough race the party’s Kevin Lamoureux, had 44.5 per cent of the vote for a narrow lead over NDP candidate Kevin Chief, who had 43.0 per cent with 132 out of 153 polls reporting. The traditionally NDP riding was up for grabs after MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis, the NDP health critic who had represented the riding since 1997, vacated her seat for an unsuccessful run at the mayor...

Eurozone Banks - Jim O'Neill, probably the most influential thinker at Goldman Sachs (as current head of its asset management division and erstwhile chief economist), has this morning written that "European Monetary Union (EMU) will probably survive, but it is likely to remain very messy". Which is hardly a ringing endorsement by the world's most powerful investment bank of the most ambitious economic and financial project in Europe of our age. And, let us not forget, Goldman Sachs is not famous for issuing public statements that rile the world's most powerful governments - which tend to be its customers. For O'Neill, the issue is about the governance of the eurozone, not about the magnitude of the debts of Europe's financially stretched economies. He points out that the sovereign indebtedness of Greece, Ireland and Portugal is huge relative to the size of their respective economies but almost de minimis in relation to the size of the eurozone as a ...

Miami Coach Jon Gruden - All was quiet on the University of Miami coaching front Monday -- or at least it seemed that way in the midst of the Hurricanes' search to replace coach Randy Shannon. The speculation has centered on ESPN Monday Night Football analyst Jon Gruden, who won a Super Bowl in 2002 as coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has not coached since he was fired after the 2008 season (other than as a volunteer at Tampa Carrollwood High, where his son, Deuce, is a junior quarterback). Gruden brings the Wow! factor more than any other candidate, and some believe a deal is quietly brewing. But just in case they're dreaming, here are some other potential candidates (in no particular order): • Dan Mullen -- Former Gators offensive coordinator and Tim Tebow mentor, who now coaches Mississippi State. Mullen -- a spread offense guy -- led the Bulldogs to an 8-4 record this season after a 5-7 inaugural season. He makes $1.2 million and is one of the hot young coaches,...

Nancy Grace Cancer - HLN's Nancy Grace announced on her program Monday night that she had surgery to remove a solid mass that doctors had feared could be cancer. The operation last Tuesday, which Grace said took "hours and hours,'' revealed that the mass was not malignant, she said. Speaking by phone to substitute host Jean Casarez of In Session, Grace said she is recovering at home with her husband, David, and their 3-year-old twins, John David and Lucy Elizabeth. A nurse administering an ultrasound test to Grace during a routine gynecologist visit discovered the growth, Grace said. Grace had felt no symptoms and scheduled the appointment based on "a hunch,'' she said. During the ultrasound, the nurse called in the doctor who looked at the results and said he wanted to speak to Grace in his office. "He was very calm and very honest and he told me they had discovered a mass,'' Grace said. When the doctor said it could be cancer, Gra...