Don't stomp on this little robot - not yet, anyway. VELOCIRoACH, a small cardboard hexapod modelled on a cockroach, can run at 2.7 metres per second, placing it among the fastest robots in the world.
Boston Dynamics' LS3, which can trot at up to 3.2 m/s, still holds the speed record for a self-powered robot. VELOCIRoACH ties for second with the company's six-legged RHex. But VELOCIRoACH is by far the fastest for its size: in 1 second, it can skitter 26 times the length of its body.
Duncan Haldane at the University of California, Berkeley, presented VELOCIRoACH this week at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in San Francisco. To maximise the robot's speed, Haldane and colleagues studied the anatomy of a cockroach, which can run at 1.5 m/s, and scaled its body plan up to a workable size.
The secret to VELOCIRoACH's speed is its thin, C-shaped legs. They mimic a roach's legs by acting as springs as they hit the ground 15 times per second. To stay stable as it runs, the robot has three legs on the ground at all times, forming tripods. Its approach to obstacles mimics a roach's as well - rather than trying to avoid them, it runs into them head first, then pops up onto its end and goes over the top.
Elsewhere at the meeting, Nick Kohut, who works with Haldane, presented a similar robot with an added tail. By swinging its tail to the side, TAYLRoACH, which looks more like a lizard than a roach, can make a 90-degree turn in less than a quarter of a second without slowing down from a run.
Haldane says he's now working to improve VELOCIRoACH's body plan so it can withstand an indoor insect's most deadly nemesis: the human foot. The robot can already carry four times its body weight, but Haldane plans to design its materials to pop back up after being flattened. But despite being faster and stronger than a real roach, Haldane says it's unlikely that the robot would outdo its namesake by surviving a nuclear blast.
Cox Communications continued to build on its investment in live TV streaming, unveiling its latest mobile app at a CES presser. Developed in partnership with Cisco, the yet unnamed app will feature 90 live channels, On Demand content and personalized video recommendations for up to eight household members. Folks who don't quite feel the recommendations they receive will also be able to "like," "dislike" or "suspend" them. Cox apparently plans to place its proverbial eggs into this one basket, eventually integrating all its mobile applications into the app. Cox has been busy releasing all sorts of digital offerings in the last few years, including the Cox TV Connect app in late 2011 as well as its Cox Mobile Connect apps. The new app is slated to debut on the iPad first but will be available on more devices by the end of the year. For more details, check out the PR after the break.
Napoli Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani celebrates after scoring, during a Serie A soccer match between Napoli and AS Roma, at the Naples San Paolo stadium, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
Napoli Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani celebrates after scoring, during a Serie A soccer match between Napoli and AS Roma, at the Naples San Paolo stadium, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
Napoli Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani celebrates after scoring, during a Serie A soccer match between Napoli and AS Roma, at the Naples San Paolo stadium, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
Napoli Uruguayan striker Edinson Cavani celebrates after scoring, during a Serie A soccer match between Napoli and AS Roma, at the Naples San Paolo stadium, Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. (AP Photo/FRancesco Pecoraro, Lapresse)
LONDON (AP) ? It took something very special to topple Lionel Messi from his position on top of the first AP Global Football rankings survey of 2013, and Edinson Cavani's perfect hat trick for Napoli did it.
Left foot, right foot and header, three goals from the Uruguayan that pushed the Serie A team to a 4-1 victory over Roma and into third place in the league.
"Cavani's perfect hat trick against Roma served only to heighten the speculation of a possible January move away from Napoli," panelist Will Tidey of the San Francisco-based Bleacher Report said.
Messi, who slipped from the leading position he has held since the AP rankings were launched in October, ended up sixth after managing only one goal in Barcelona's 4-0 victory over the weekend. The record-breaking Argentina forward did manage to pick up FIFA's Ballon d'Or on Monday night.
"Edinson Cavani ? with a hat trick in the key match of Serie A ? deserves the title of big gun of the week," Paolo Condo of Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport said.
Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo saved his team with two goals and was voted into second place by the 17 soccer journalists from around the world who give 10 points for their top players and teams, down to one point for 10th.
Ronaldo was awarded 122 points, 15 points behind Cavani's 137.
Manchester United striker Robin van Persie was third, one point behind Ronaldo.
Barcelona remains the clear leader of the team list with 152 points, 44 points ahead of Premier League leaders Manchester United. Napoli climbed into third in the AP rankings, as well as in Serie A, 10 points clear of Sampdoria. Four Italian teams are in the Top 10, although neither of the Milan teams nor Juventus made the grade.
Struggling Sampdoria and 19-year-old rising star Mauro Icardi were both fourth after the Argentine striker, who was born in the same city as Messi, scored both goals to beat league leader Juventus 2-1.
"Icardi's two goals at Juventus were also exceptional," Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said, "and it certainly justified him not being allowed to go home to play for Argentina's under-20 team."
Gazzetta dello Sport's Condo added: "Icardi, a young star, scored against the leaders in the Calcio. Look out for him in the future."
Messi was not even the top Barcelona player in this week's rankings. Pedro Rodriguez, who scored twice in the 4-0 victory over Espanyol, was fifth with 69 points, eight ahead of Messi.
Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was eighth, despite widespread anger in England for what appeared to be a deliberate handball that helped the Uruguayan score the second and winning goal against non-league Mansfield in the FA Cup.
New Chelsea striker Demba Ba also broke into the top 10 for the first time after scoring two goals on his debut for the London team.
Milan midfielder Kevin Prince Boateng was voted into 11th place, even though he barely played. Boateng was applauded by panelists for walking off the field during an exhibition when he was subjected to racist abuse.
"Milan ? Good for them. Change will never come about unless teams take drastic measures against racism. AC Milan was perfectly within their rights walking off the field against Pro Patria," Filip Bondy of The New York Daily News said. "It is really the one and only way to punish fans ? deprive them of their gladiatorial entertainment."
Iowa State computer, electrical engineers working to help biologists cope with big dataPublic release date: 8-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Srinivas Aluru aluru@iastate.edu 515-294-3539 Iowa State University
AMES, Iowa Liang Dong held up a clear plastic cube, an inch or so across, just big enough to hold 10 to 20 tiny seeds.
Using sophisticated sensors and software, researchers can precisely control the light, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide inside that cube.
Dong an Iowa State University assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, of chemical and biological engineering calls it a "microsystem instrument." Put hundreds of those cubes together and researchers can simultaneously grow thousands of seeds and seedlings in different conditions and see what happens. How, for example, do the plants react when it is hot and dry? Or carbon dioxide levels change? Or light intensity is adjusted very slightly?
The instrument designed and built by Dong's research group will keep track of all that by using a robotic arm to run a camera over the cubes and take thousands of images of the growing seeds and seedlings.
Plant scientists will use the images to analyze the plants' observable characteristics the leaf color, the root development, the shoot size. All those observations are considered a plant's phenotype. And while plant scientists understand plant genetics very well, Dong said they don't have a lot of data about how genetics and environment combine to influence phenotype.
Dong's instrument will provide researchers with lots of data too much for scientists to easily sort and analyze. That's a problem known as big data. And it's increasingly common in the biological sciences.
"We're seeing a proliferation of new instruments in the biological sciences," said Srinivas Aluru, the Ross Martin Mehl and Marylyne Munas Mehl Professor of Computer Engineering at Iowa State. "And the rate of data collection is increasing. So we have to have a solution to analyze all this data."
Aluru is leading a College of Engineering initiative to build research teams capable of solving big data problems in next-generation DNA sequencing, systems biology and phenomics. The researchers are developing computing solutions that take advantage of emerging technologies such as cloud computing and high performance computers. They're also building partnerships with technology companies such as IBM, Micron, NVIDIA, Illumina Inc., Life Technologies Corp., Monsanto Co. and Roche.
The project is one of the three Dean's Research Initiatives launched by Jonathan Wickert, former dean of the College of Engineering and currently Iowa State's senior vice president and provost. The initiatives in high throughput computational biology, wind energy and a carbon-negative economy were launched in March 2011 with $500,000 each over three years. That money is to build interdisciplinary, public-private research teams ready to compete for multi-million dollar grants and projects.
Patrick Schnable, Iowa State's Baker Professor of Agronomy and director of the centers for Plant Genomics and Carbon Capturing Crops, remembers when biologists had no interest in working with computer specialists. That was before they tried to work with billions of data points to, say, accurately predict harvests based on plant genotype, soil type and weather conditions.
"Now we're getting huge, absolutely huge, data sets," Schnable said. "There is no way to analyze these data sets without extraordinary computer resources. There's no way we could do this without the collaboration of engineers."
To date, the computational biology initiative has attracted $5.5 million for four major research projects. One of the latest grants is a three-year, $2 million award from the BIGDATA program of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. The grant will allow Aluru and researchers from Iowa State, Stanford University, Virginia Tech and the University of Michigan to work together to develop a computing toolbox that helps scientists manage all the data from today's DNA sequencing instruments.
Aluru said the research initiative helped prepare Iowa State researchers to go after that grant.
"When the BIGDATA call came in, we had the credibility to compete," he said. "We were already working on leading edge problems and had established relationships with companies."
The initiative, the grants and the industry partnerships are helping Iowa State faculty and students move to the front of the developing field.
"One computing company wanted to set up a life science research group and it came here for advice," Aluru said. "Iowa State is known as a big data leader in the biosciences."
###
Contacts:
Srinivas Aluru, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 515-294-3539, aluru@iastate.edu
Patrick Schnable, Agronomy, 515-294-0975, schnable@iastate.edu
Liang Dong, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 515-294-0388, ldong@iastate.edu
Mike Krapfl, News Service, 515-294-4917, mkrapfl@iastate.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Iowa State computer, electrical engineers working to help biologists cope with big dataPublic release date: 8-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Srinivas Aluru aluru@iastate.edu 515-294-3539 Iowa State University
AMES, Iowa Liang Dong held up a clear plastic cube, an inch or so across, just big enough to hold 10 to 20 tiny seeds.
Using sophisticated sensors and software, researchers can precisely control the light, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide inside that cube.
Dong an Iowa State University assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, of chemical and biological engineering calls it a "microsystem instrument." Put hundreds of those cubes together and researchers can simultaneously grow thousands of seeds and seedlings in different conditions and see what happens. How, for example, do the plants react when it is hot and dry? Or carbon dioxide levels change? Or light intensity is adjusted very slightly?
The instrument designed and built by Dong's research group will keep track of all that by using a robotic arm to run a camera over the cubes and take thousands of images of the growing seeds and seedlings.
Plant scientists will use the images to analyze the plants' observable characteristics the leaf color, the root development, the shoot size. All those observations are considered a plant's phenotype. And while plant scientists understand plant genetics very well, Dong said they don't have a lot of data about how genetics and environment combine to influence phenotype.
Dong's instrument will provide researchers with lots of data too much for scientists to easily sort and analyze. That's a problem known as big data. And it's increasingly common in the biological sciences.
"We're seeing a proliferation of new instruments in the biological sciences," said Srinivas Aluru, the Ross Martin Mehl and Marylyne Munas Mehl Professor of Computer Engineering at Iowa State. "And the rate of data collection is increasing. So we have to have a solution to analyze all this data."
Aluru is leading a College of Engineering initiative to build research teams capable of solving big data problems in next-generation DNA sequencing, systems biology and phenomics. The researchers are developing computing solutions that take advantage of emerging technologies such as cloud computing and high performance computers. They're also building partnerships with technology companies such as IBM, Micron, NVIDIA, Illumina Inc., Life Technologies Corp., Monsanto Co. and Roche.
The project is one of the three Dean's Research Initiatives launched by Jonathan Wickert, former dean of the College of Engineering and currently Iowa State's senior vice president and provost. The initiatives in high throughput computational biology, wind energy and a carbon-negative economy were launched in March 2011 with $500,000 each over three years. That money is to build interdisciplinary, public-private research teams ready to compete for multi-million dollar grants and projects.
Patrick Schnable, Iowa State's Baker Professor of Agronomy and director of the centers for Plant Genomics and Carbon Capturing Crops, remembers when biologists had no interest in working with computer specialists. That was before they tried to work with billions of data points to, say, accurately predict harvests based on plant genotype, soil type and weather conditions.
"Now we're getting huge, absolutely huge, data sets," Schnable said. "There is no way to analyze these data sets without extraordinary computer resources. There's no way we could do this without the collaboration of engineers."
To date, the computational biology initiative has attracted $5.5 million for four major research projects. One of the latest grants is a three-year, $2 million award from the BIGDATA program of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. The grant will allow Aluru and researchers from Iowa State, Stanford University, Virginia Tech and the University of Michigan to work together to develop a computing toolbox that helps scientists manage all the data from today's DNA sequencing instruments.
Aluru said the research initiative helped prepare Iowa State researchers to go after that grant.
"When the BIGDATA call came in, we had the credibility to compete," he said. "We were already working on leading edge problems and had established relationships with companies."
The initiative, the grants and the industry partnerships are helping Iowa State faculty and students move to the front of the developing field.
"One computing company wanted to set up a life science research group and it came here for advice," Aluru said. "Iowa State is known as a big data leader in the biosciences."
###
Contacts:
Srinivas Aluru, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 515-294-3539, aluru@iastate.edu
Patrick Schnable, Agronomy, 515-294-0975, schnable@iastate.edu
Liang Dong, Electrical and Computer Engineering, 515-294-0388, ldong@iastate.edu
Mike Krapfl, News Service, 515-294-4917, mkrapfl@iastate.edu
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
In the areas that have four seasons, you will be needing home heating for the winter as well as air conditioner for summer. We are somehow becoming too dependent on these electronics to make our rooms more comfortable. Imagine just how you?re the temperature of your house would be without the heater to warm you during the snowy winter nights. You may need to use all the blankets you have in the house and as many jackets as you can wear just to keep you warm. Imagine if you need to do this, you will be very uncomfortable when moving, let alone sleeping.
As we need the heater and air conditioner to be working properly, we need to have the heater and air conditioning service regularly and not only when they are broken. This regular service will keep them in good condition. If you need help on you heating and cooling electronics, you can always count on the Fort Collings Heating. As their tag line goes, Big Enough to Serve but Small Enough to Care, they are ready to give the best service because they have the expertise, because they care for their customers and know just how important to have the cooling and heating electronics in their houses.
Jan. 8, 2013 ? Liang Dong held up a clear plastic cube, an inch or so across, just big enough to hold 10 to 20 tiny seeds.
Using sophisticated sensors and software, researchers can precisely control the light, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide inside that cube.
Dong -- an Iowa State University assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, of chemical and biological engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory -- calls it a "microsystem instrument." Put hundreds of those cubes together and researchers can simultaneously grow thousands of seeds and seedlings in different conditions and see what happens. How, for example, do the plants react when it is hot and dry? Or carbon dioxide levels change? Or light intensity is adjusted very slightly?
The instrument designed and built by Dong's research group will keep track of all that by using a robotic arm to run a camera over the cubes and take thousands of images of the growing seeds and seedlings.
Plant scientists will use the images to analyze the plants' observable characteristics -- the leaf color, the root development, the shoot size. All those observations are considered a plant's phenotype. And while plant scientists understand plant genetics very well, Dong said they don't have a lot of data about how genetics and environment combine to influence phenotype.
Dong's instrument will provide researchers with lots of data -- too much for scientists to easily sort and analyze. That's a problem known as big data. And it's increasingly common in the biological sciences.
"We're seeing a proliferation of new instruments in the biological sciences," said Srinivas Aluru, the Ross Martin Mehl and Marylyne Munas Mehl Professor of Computer Engineering at Iowa State. "And the rate of data collection is increasing. So we have to have a solution to analyze all this data."
Aluru is leading a College of Engineering initiative to build research teams capable of solving big data problems in next-generation DNA sequencing, systems biology and phenomics. The researchers are developing computing solutions that take advantage of emerging technologies such as cloud computing and high performance computers. They're also building partnerships with technology companies such as IBM, Micron, NVIDIA, Illumina Inc., Life Technologies Corp., Monsanto Co. and Roche.
The project is one of the three Dean's Research Initiatives launched by Jonathan Wickert, former dean of the College of Engineering and currently Iowa State's senior vice president and provost. The initiatives in high throughput computational biology, wind energy and a carbon-negative economy were launched in March 2011 with $500,000 each over three years. That money is to build interdisciplinary, public-private research teams ready to compete for multi-million dollar grants and projects.
Patrick Schnable, Iowa State's Baker Professor of Agronomy and director of the centers for Plant Genomics and Carbon Capturing Crops, remembers when biologists had no interest in working with computer specialists. That was before they tried to work with billions of data points to, say, accurately predict harvests based on plant genotype, soil type and weather conditions.
"Now we're getting huge, absolutely huge, data sets," Schnable said. "There is no way to analyze these data sets without extraordinary computer resources. There's no way we could do this without the collaboration of engineers."
To date, the computational biology initiative has attracted $5.5 million for four major research projects. One of the latest grants is a three-year, $2 million award from the BIGDATA program of the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. The grant will allow Aluru and researchers from Iowa State, Stanford University, Virginia Tech and the University of Michigan to work together to develop a computing toolbox that helps scientists manage all the data from today's DNA sequencing instruments.
Aluru said the research initiative helped prepare Iowa State researchers to go after that grant.
"When the BIGDATA call came in, we had the credibility to compete," he said. "We were already working on leading edge problems and had established relationships with companies."
The initiative, the grants and the industry partnerships are helping Iowa State faculty and students move to the front of the developing field.
"One computing company wanted to set up a life science research group and it came here for advice," Aluru said. "Iowa State is known as a big data leader in the biosciences."
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Willie McCoy, the legendary singer behind Chili's infamous "Baby Back Ribs" jingle, will be outlived by the legacy of that song for years to come. But apparently his love of BBQ went beyond the iconic tune, and his family decided to celebrate his affinity for the cuisine at McCoy's funeral.
According to the Huffington Post, the singer's funeral was televised on TLC's latest reality show, "Best Funeral Ever." The Golden Gate Funeral Home in Dallas, Texas, (where all episodes take place) took the BBQ theme extremely seriously. Not only did McCoy's pallbearers sing the jingle as they carried out the casket, but they were dressed as chefs and the casket itself was designed to resemble a BBQ Smoker.
More From Delish: Rule the 'Cue: 16 Sizzling Pork Rib Recipes
The funeral also included a huge prop of fake baby back ribs carried in by dancers, and possibly best of all a barbecue sauce fountain for dipping ribs as a tribute to the late jingle singer. Live pigs were also present, perhaps to bring the ceremony full circle.
More From Delish: Sweet and Spicy Sticky Goodness: 15 Rib Recipes
While the reality show itself might be questionable, McCoy's life and his song were certainly celebrated to the fullest. There's no question that guests and viewers alike won't forget the BBQ theatrics at his funeral or that iconic tune.
Thought I'd pen a quick roundup for you all this evening (or is it morning!?). Yesterday was a LONG but VERY enjoyable day here on the 2013 CES Experience. Long travels for many, a shorter distance for others? but we've all made it and we're all having a great time!
The day started for most of us by hopping on a plane (or 2 or 3), to make it to Vegas in time for a casual meet and greet with NVIDIA and Mobile Nations. As a special surprise, NVIDIA opened a box and handed each of the 'experience' participants a brand new Nexus 7... to keep! How cool is that!? After the excitement of a new tablet in-hand calmed down, we all took part in the NVIDIA press conference that took place at the RAIN Nightclub in the Palms Hotel and Casino. Front row seats were enjoyed by all, and the announcements (namely the Tegra 4 processor and Project Shield) blew the group away.
NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang announces the Tegra 4 processor with 4G LTE
Now that we've got day 1 under our belt, it's time to hit the town a little bit tomorrow. If you'd like to follow some of the great folks on the CES experience to check out their pictures, Rich Cermele (pkcable on CrackBerry), Martin Reisch (safesolvent on iMore) and Robert Brown have been hitting twitter hard thus far. You can find them @pkcable, @safesolvent and @SunofaBob. Give them a follow, as they'll be tweeting out lots of good stuff from Las Vegas and the CES show floor on Tuesday.
Michael, Rich and Marques enjoying their evening
I wonder what day 2 will have in store for us? Hmmmmmm, me thinks NVIDIA and Mobile Nations has much more in store. Check back tomorrow for another update!
A HUGE thanks to Will and everyone @NVIDIATegra for the front row seats and warm hospitality.
Graphics technology company Nvidia has unveiled Project Shield, an Android-based gaming handheld capable of streaming games from your PC.
It sounds like all games on your computer will be accessible, as well as all Google Play games you may already own. You can even use Steam's Big Picture mode on the device.
The clamshell-style portable will be available in the US in "Q2 2013", Forbes reports, for an as-yet unannounced price.
The device's top half boasts a five-inch flip-top display (1280x720 at 294 dpi), capable of 720p HD. Beneath this lies something similar to a standard home console gaming controller, complete with dual analogue sticks, D-pad and ABXY face buttons.
There's also an HDMI port for video output, plus micro USB and microSD slots.
"Project Shield was created by Nvidia engineers who love to game and imagined a new way to play," said Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO and co-founder of Nvidia. "We were inspired by a vision that the rise of mobile and cloud technologies will free us from our boxes, letting us game anywhere, on any screen.
"We imagined a device that would do for games what the iPod and Kindle have done for music and books, letting us play in a cool new way. We hope other gamers love Shield as much as we do."
Watch Nvidia demo the unit below, streaming Need for Speed: The Run onto a 4K display without any noticeable lag or performance issues.
Published in Home & Design Magazine, January 2012.
By Alisa Bowen Photography by Giovanni Photography
It is only natural that a couple who has lived in major international cities, including Paris and New York, would want to keep an elegant pied-?-terre in paradise together. Inspired to re-create a Pre-War style apartment, the owners wished to pay homage to fond memories of her grandmother?s apartment in New York?s Upper East Side, while expressing a love for the style and design aesthetic of Paris. Their further inspiration for this sophisticated vacation home included a beautiful collection of fine art and family antiques, but came with the challenge of downsizing. After three rounds of interviews with top interior design firms, they enlisted Kevin Steffanni, principal of Kevin Steffanni Design Group based in Naples, Florida and Rocky River, Ohio to help them create this dream-come-true apartment.
The enchanting space has been judiciously planned, and a neutral palette of grays and whites keeps the residents? collection of art and antique furnishings front and center. An eclectic mix of objects collected from their travels around the globe, and from family heirlooms and a vast European art collection, all present rich back stories steeped in the couple?s cherished history. As you enter the home, it is quickly apparent this is Old New York meets ?50s Paris. Classic wooden floors, rich area rugs, an elegant sparkling chandelier, and a gold-gilded mirror from the Parisian flea markets compliment a staircase foyer. The entrance is anchored by a sleek, lacquered chest from Joseph Anfuso.
Design fusion takes center stage in the main living room, where Steffanni listened carefully to the owner?s desire for a further infusion of Hollywood Regency Style. Two white vintage Barcelona chairs and matching ottomans all by Mies van der Rohe are matched effortlessly with a bubblegum-pink sofa designed by George Nelson for Herman Miller Design circa 1950. This seating arrangement sits atop an Art Nouveau, pink and coral, swirled rug which was sourced for the owners locally in Naples. More than anything, however, these homeowners are drawn to what?s ?cool,? yet offbeat. An old-English antique secretary, which was a wedding gift from him to her, is artfully paired with a mid-century modern Philippe Starck Ghost Chair. Seamlessly added to this is his personal collection of accolades from sports and business.
This intimate home opens out to a sunny enclosed sitting room which was converted with Steffanni?s expertise from a classic, Floridian outdoor lanai. Just when you thought you were back in old New York, the expansive views of the golf course remind you of your tropical whereabouts. Framing the entrance to this alcove is a pair of antique, farmhouse corner brackets perched like quotation marks in the upper corners. A rustic writing desk, circa 1880 from Ireland, provides a tucked-in space for quiet correspondence, while the orange armchairs by Ralph Lauren Home at Webster & Company add a vibrant burst of color.? An iron, Barbara Barry end table topped with stone, provides a charming accent. Illustrating the home?s eclectic style perfectly, the wooden antique farm bench ? a coveted family piece ? completes the space.
Steffanni truly excels at space planning. He helped his clients achieve their goal of downsizing, while still maintaining the look and livability of a much larger space. A glass and steel Knoll dining table designed by Warren Platner is crowned with a breathtaking Baccarat crystal chandelier. This charming breakfast nook provides a stylish space for a quiet meal or a more intimate dinner with guests. A classic, Pre-War, New?York-style kitchen was constructed with expert direction from Steffanni, complete with glass cabinetry, white Carrara marble, silver finishes, and antique culinary and cocktail trinkets. It is a 21st century design, including state-of-the-art stainless steel appliances, punctuated with whimsical antique accessories.
Steffanni cleverly reinvented a nook off the main living room into an ad hoc library complete with an old English smoker?s table from London. This created the perfect vignette in which to showcase the owner?s cherished antique English writing desk from the 1860s. The cozy space is complete with a rich cigar chair by Hans Wagner, a magnificent leather club chair, and a steamer trunk recommended by home lifestyle specialist Mark Fanta of Ralph Lauren Home at Webster & Company. ?The distressed leather on the Ralph Lauren club chair has hints of gold and is magnificent when the light shines on it,? shares Fanta. It offers a comfortable spot for quiet contemplation beneath the beautiful, blue and white, still life paintings displayed on the wall.
A guest bedroom suite outfitted with beds from Switzerland provides visiting grandchildren and friends a tranquil, yet elegant retreat. Every detail in this room shows a diversity of origin. Throw pillows were purchased from a trip to the Far East. The mirror is from the Paris Flea Market that Steffanni picked up on his visit to France this past fall, and the rug was procured by the husband during his travels. The art pieces were purchased at a local gallery on 5th Avenue in Naples, and the mirrored chest is from F. Schumacher & Company. The chairs, from the Charles Faudre private collection acquired during a buying trip to the south of France, hit just the right note.
Clearly there is a compelling backstory and sentiment attached to each piece thoughtfully selected and displayed in this home. Steffanni modeled the master bedroom suite after the couple?s favorite hotel in Paris where they both once lived. Armed with inspiration, Steffanni worked with Fanta to select a bed from the Le Grand Hotel collection to compliment the owner?s existing Barbara Barry pieces. This Louis XV-inspired bed in an Indian Cove Lodge gilt finish allows Steffanni to carry the mix of metal finishes that are found throughout the residence. The silver-leaf, gilded, Adrianna crystal chandelier from Ralph Lauren Lighting glimmers beautifully. The silver-embroidered beading on the Ralph Lauren pillows and the brushed-gold nail heads on the Noble Estate bench dramatically reflect the light. Steffanni grouped the Cannes Ralph Lauren chaise lounge with the Noble Estate crystal lamp and three-tiered, Daniella table lamp to create an area for restful repose and that certain je ne sais quoi.
Hues of coral are imbued in the Schumacher upholstered slipper chair, in the rich Tibetan carpet that Steffanni sourced in Naples, and in the romantic arrangements of fresh tangerine roses on the night table. Steffanni placed artful and meaningful touches throughout the room, such as a framed, vintage, Hanae Mori butterfly scarf. The two, 24-karat gold, gilded twig mirrors, which remind the couple of their Carolina Mountain top estate, are from Webster & Company Antiques and Accessories. A sophisticated Barbara Barry dresser sits under a dramatic starburst mirror from Baker. Steffanni continues the juxtaposition by using the owners existing, dark wood Barbara Barry pieces (favorites of the homeowners), complemented by the light, silk and linen fabrics found on the bed, chaise, and bench. This bedroom is reminiscent of the chic, urban hotels the couple have enjoyed while traveling the globe.
Inspired by the grandeur of Parisian bedroom suites, Steffanni installed French doors with crystal doorknobs that open into the master bath. Dramatic elegance is obtained upon entry, with an antique English china cabinet, the starting point around which the entire room was planned. The cabinet is flanked by two, ?Madame et Monsieur? Waterworks pedestal sinks. The wooden English china cabinet is crowned with an antique, German mantle clock, a piece which was lovingly handed down within the family. European sophistication with a timeless sense of chic is reiterated with a pair of stunning Baccarat crystal candelabras found in Brighton, England circa 1820. These fixtures flank the One Fifth, silver-leaf mirror, also by Ralph Lauren, which hangs over a European slipper tub.
The design fusion works well here in Steffanni?s capable hands. The finished project not only transports the owners back to their memories of Paris and old New York, but delights guests as they completely forget that they are vacationing in a tropical paradise. This lovely pied-a-terre is a veritable jewel box of personal history, the perfect culmination of a chic and stylish lifetime of shared memories.
BeeWi may not be a well-known name in the audio world, but the company's bringing some innovation to the space with its new Bluetooth headphones. Called Ghost Bee, the cans have capacitive buttons on the right earpiece that serve as music and phone call controls. The Ghost Bee also comes with a base station that connects to the headphones via micro-USB and hooks up to any home stereo's 3.5mm audio-in jack. That base station is what really sets the Ghost Bee apart from other wireless headphones on the market. You see, using the free BeeWi iOS or Android companion app, you can dock the headphones and stream both locally and cloud-sourced tunes from your phone wirelessly to the stereo speakers.
We got a chance to see the thing in action, and it works quite well. Once you've paired the headphones to your phone, it's simply a matter of spooling up some tunes in the app, and you're good to go -- return the Ghost Bee to its cradle and the music starts coming out of the speakers. Easy peasy. Unfortunately, given the cacophony of the show floor, we can't speak to the sonic quality of the headphones, but the system did work well in our brief time with it. Though its functionality is quite clever, we weren't enamored with the Ghost Bee's glossy plastic exterior. Aside from giving it a smudgy look when handled, the plasticky build lends it a cheap appearance -- not good considering the $180 asking price. The Ghost Bee is set to go on sale in the next month or so at retailers nationwide, so you'll be able to see (and hear) it for yourself soon.
Except in the simplest cases, one cannot expect observation alone to reveal the effect of the use of an aspect of economics. One cannot assume, just because one can observe economics being used in an economic process, that the process is thereby altered significantly. It might be that the use of economics is epiphenomenal?an empty gloss on a process that would have had essentially the same outcomes without it, as Mirowski and Nik-Khah (2004) in effect suggest was the case for the celebrated use of ?game theory? from economics in the auctions of the communications spectrum in the United States.
? Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets1
By now, many of you may have already read Frank Partnoy and Jesse Eisinger?s lengthy, outrage-y article in The Atlantic about the ongoing horror that is bank accounting, and/or one of many, many responses and reactions to it. I will not try your patience (or mine) by addressing their each and every substantive argument, but I thought it might be useful to lay out in summary form here why I think the entire premise of their screed is wrongheaded.
First, I will take the liberty of condensing and paraphrasing Messrs. Partnoy and Eisinger?s 9,500 word confection for the benefit of those among you with limited time and attention spans:
Banks are opaque and hard to understand! This is scary! Even big, sophisticated investors don?t understand the risks big banks take! Financial reporting for banks is scary and complex and mystifying! To calm ourselves, we tried to understand stodgy, prudent Wells Fargo?s financial statements. What did we find? Wells Fargo is big, opaque, complex, and scary!! Even their friendly investors relations person could not or would not answer our questions! We are scared! What should we do? We should send more bank executives to jail for scaring us! Oh, and come up with better, more understandable financial disclosure! Otherwise no-one will ever, ever, ever invest in publicly traded banks again! And then, disaster!!
Sigh.
* * *
Before I begin, I think it is fair to concede our Cassandras? contention that large commercial, investment, and universal banks2 are highly complex, risky, and opaque institutions. It is also fair to say that most of the bad or downright naughty things which have occurred in the financial sector over the past several years (although not all; viz., Bernie Madoff) have bubbled up from the bowels of large, complex, opaque banks and their brethren. But the notion that there is some sort of magical accounting regime which could simultaneously shine sunlight into the deepest reaches of multi-trillion-dollar global financial institutions, clearly convey the actual and potential risks these institutions face or create in their daily operations, and therefore usher everybody into a new era of financial transparency, trust, and mint juleps on the sun porch is simply ludicrous. It completely misunderstands what accounting is and what accounting is for.
It is a rookie mistake.
First, accounting is?as Donald MacKenzie characterizes (academic) economics in the quote above? an epiphenomenon to the actual day-to-day activities which any business conducts. It is a way to keep track of the financial outcomes of a firm?s true activity, which is conducting business. It is passive, it is backward looking, and properly used under normal circumstances it drives none of the important business decisions or activities which firm executives pursue. When accounting consequences do drive decisionmaking, as in tax avoidance strategies or manipulating earnings, it introduces distortions into the underlying business which can lead to all sorts of economic inefficiences, up to and including fraud.
Accordingly, reading a set of financial statements can tell you very little about how to run an actual business. That is why every business of even modest complexity runs its own internal management information systems which provide the people running the show with real time, targeted information which they can use to make decisions. These systems have very little, if anything, to do with generally accepted accounting principles. The daily trading book and profit and loss statement for a Wall Street trading desk will bear little resemblance to the balance sheet and income statement of its investment bank parent. Of course at year and quarter end each desk?s results do get rolled up and reconciled into its parent?s consolidated financial results, but this process by necessity compresses and distorts the actual real-time, granular information used to run a business into standard, pre-approved accounting categories. In addition, the backward looking nature of accounting for the period just ended means the more dynamic and changeable an underlying business process is?for example, sales and trading at a securities firm?the more out of date and potentially misleading the reported numbers can be to the current state of the business.
And it is not a matter of simply providing more, more detailed information more frequently. Put aside the common tension that most businesses compete with others, and detailing too much information in publicly available accounts would undermine their competitive position. (This is particularly important for market-making investment banks.) No, such a strategy would increase the complexity of a firm?s accounts, which seems exactly contrary to Messrs. Partnoy and Eisinger?s stated objectives of greater transparency and shorter financial reports. Not to mention still not get at the idiosyncratic risk and business practices of each such firm, because it is the entire point of public accounting to standardize reporting to enable comparability across firms.
And this last gets directly at a critical point which seems to have eluded our intrepid reporters: what accounting is for.
* * *
For that is what public accounting is: a public accounting of the financial results of a firm for the benefit of external stakeholders of various stripes, including lenders, creditors, business counterparties, regulators, and investors. It is meant to be an intermittent report on the health and progress of a firm to potentially interested parties, filtered, standardized, and formatted into a presentation which can allow those parties to compare the firm to its peers and competitors both within and outside its industry. It is not meant to be a real-time profile of the actual business operations of an individual firm; nor is it meant to give outsiders such operational knowledge of the firm that they completely understand and perhaps could even run the business themselves. It is a report card, not a class curriculum or even lecture notes.
And you should not think that regulators?who we might indeed prefer to have much more detailed, real-time operational knowledge of systemically important risky financial institutions?are hobbled in any way by the limitations of their regulatees? public financial reports. Securities and bank regulators always have intimate access to the current operations and results of firms under their supervision and, arguably, should have much more. But this is true whether a firm files public reports or not.
Lastly, Messrs. Eisinger and Partnoy?s concern for the confidence of equity investors in banks is completely ass-backwards. A quick peek at the balance sheet of their subject Wells Fargo reveals that it derives only 10.4% of its outside funding from equity investors: the vast bulk is in the form of retail and other deposits, and the balance comes from other debt and preferred investors. Show me a retail depositor who decides whether to keep her money at Wells Fargo based on the footnote disclosure in its annual report and I?after I pick my lower jaw up off the floor?will show you a hot January. Likewise, equity investors were not the funders first to the lifeboats when Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers ran aground. Stock investors were not the parties who cratered failing banks in the financial crisis.
That is because banks and investment banks do not rely on equity investors for daily funding or liquidity. They rely on trading counterparties, repo suppliers, short-term lenders, and prime brokerage hedge fund customers to roll over constantly maturing short term debt (often funded overnight) and keep their trading balances and assets at their firm. When these institutional investors lose confidence, a bank is toast. They refuse to roll over short-term funding, they yank their assets on deposit, and they may even put on a nice, juicy short against the beleaguered bank?s stock just for good measure. And you can bet your bottom dollar they are not going to wait for the quarterly 10-Q report to be filed 45 days after period end to make their decision.
* * *
Even the much maligned (by me) Securities and Exchange Commission understands the proper relationship of public accounts to equity investors. Remember that the SEC?s objective for public reporting is not to help you fully understand a business. It is to disclose all pertinent and relevant facts and risks about a business so an investor can make her own informed decision. Banks are big, opaque, risky, and complex. What do bank financial statements tell us? They tell us banks are big, opaque, risky, and complex. That sounds pretty accurate to me. The kind of disclosure our doughty duo proposes, including ludicrously simplistic ?worst-case scenarios,? would not increase investors? understanding of the real risks inherent in the mind-bogglingly complex business of global finance. In point of fact, these are only poorly or dimly understood by the very bankers undertaking them. Instead, it would promote a sort of unwarranted confidence that would be both dangerous and misleading.
Equity investors should be terrified of banks. After all, they are the last capital providers in line in famously and ineluctably evanescent institutions, firms whose very existence can wink out over a weekend if the depositors, counterparties, and institutional investors ahead of shareholders decide to take a powder. That is the nature of banks, then, now, and always. Banks are structurally short liquidity. When liquidity dries up, or becomes prohibitively expensive, banks fail, and they fail fast. It?s as simple as that.
And yet, notwithstanding all of poor Bill Ackman?s axe grinding, retail and institutional investors still seem to want to own bank stocks.3 Why is that? Well, notwithstanding the good money to be made owning them in good times, it seems the prices of bank stocks, whether measured by historical prices, P/E ratios, or price to tangible book value, have dropped to a level where investors feel fairly compensated for the risk they are assuming. You know: the risk disclosed in the banks? public financial statements that they are big, opaque, risky, and complex.
Nowhere is it written that bank stocks should trade at a specific multiple of book value, no matter how accurate or believable book value is. Investors may be paying lower than historical multiples of book for bank stocks because they do not trust banks to have properly marked assets to market, they may not trust management not to destroy value by making stupid errors (or errors unavoidable in today?s volatile and unpredictable markets), or they simply fear more unanticipated systemic disruptions will sink even the best-managed, most conservatively-accounted-for banks (including threatened regulatory changes). Investors are paying lower prices for bank stocks because they require higher risk-adjusted expected returns.
This does not sound like a crisis of confidence to me. This sounds like sensible, prudent investing in an uncertain world.
Related reading: Frank Partnoy and Jesse Eisinger, What?s Inside America?s Banks? (The Atlantic, January/February 2013) Matt Levine, Turns Out Wells Fargo Doesn?t Just Keep Your Deposits In A Stagecoach Full Of Gold Ingots (Dealbreaker, January 3, 2013) Felix Salmon, You can?t regulate with nostalgia (Reuters, January 3, 2013)
1 Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2008, p. 18. 2 For the novitiates, simply, a ?commercial? (or retail) bank is primarily a lending bank: they take in retail customer deposits and lend them out in the form of mortgages, commercial loans to businesses, and other retail loans. An investment bank acts as a market intermediary, buying and selling securities and derivatives on behalf of clients and itself and advising on mergers and acquisitions. A universal bank is a combination of commercial and investment bank. Most big banks you read about nowadays, including, e.g., Wells Fargo, are universal banks. Not enough for you? Want to go deeper down the rabbit hole? Start here. 3 How do I know this? Well, the trading volume and price of public banks and investment banks is not zero, that?s how. By the way, the price to tangible book value ratio for terrible, awful, scary Wells Fargo is currently 1.7x, or almost twice book value. Perhaps that?s because equity investors take great comfort from all those information-insensitive depositors ahead of them in the capital structure.
? 2012 The Epicurean Dealmaker. All rights reserved.
Welcome back and happy new year! Our second interview from our online business advice blog is an exciting one, with domain name investor and online entrepreneur, Frank Paul.
Frank was a relatively late entry into the domain name industry and only registered his first domain name in 2006. In the following six years he has built up a premium domain name portfolio, which is both admired and envied by respected veteran domain name investors who had been involved in the domain industry 10 years before Frank even started!
Since that day in 2006, Frank has never looked back and has been involved in literally thousands of domain name transactions on behalf of himself, his clients and even household brand names such as Mastercard. His most recent high profile sale of CheapCruises.co.uk which sold in July of this year for ?50,000 is the second highest value publically reported .co.uk domain name sale of 2012.
So Frank, thanks for taking the time to sit down with us, let?s start off with an easy one?tell us about you in no more than 150 words:
I am Frank Paul and I am an online entrepreneur. I specialise in premium generic domain name investment, generic domain name leasing and creating profitable online businesses. I am a firm believer in the harder you work the more successful you become and it is better to try something and fail then forever wonder if it would have worked.
What was your first Internet venture?
My first internet venture was a community website for my local town. It was monetised by local businesses paying to advertise on the website to give them more exposure to the public and therefore generate more sales for them. It was a huge learning curve for me in numerous ways, and little did I know at the time, it was actually going to pave the way forward to where I am now.
What pitfalls did you encounter?
Overestimating the uptake of the service we were offering and not realising how much hard work it would be to convince people it was a good thing for their business. Businesses could not understand how we could possibly increase their number of customers by advertising with us. It was a hard slog to convert them and this lesson in business taught me there were easier ways to make money on the internet, and the actual idea was ?before it?s time? for the town where I was targeting.
What is the biggest change you have noticed in online marketing since you started?
In a word ? Google. Google has evolved ever since it was first created 14 years ago, but I would say it has changed more in 2012 than the previous 14 years combined. The future is all about the creating a brand and authority, as opposed to the early days (aka good old days) of marketing where you could make money online from having knowing a tiny bit of internet knowledge. Twitter has also been a huge change in online marketing and it is an excellent source of free traffic if used correctly.
How did 34.co.uk start?
34.co.uk started due to my interest and passion of domain names. I had been investing in domain names for a number of years, but never actually had an official outlet to showcase my domain investments to offer them for sale, lease or possible joint venture opportunities. It was always something I had intended to create, but never seemed to get around to doing it, as I was too busy creating businesses and acquiring domains names as opposed to actually showing what names I had to offer.
What challenges do you find within your industry, online, today?
There are three main challenges for me today ? The first is turning a domain name into a successful authoritative website which can make money in the easiest and least time consuming way possible, whilst being able to rank in the search engines and also be a useful resource that people want to actually use. By this I mean there is no point in trying to put together a very thin website on a domain such as underwear.co.uk (another great site of Frank?s) and expecting it to make money on its own. It is easy to manage a single quality resourceful website, but when you are trying to building a few of them, it becomes difficult without incurring additional costs (staff / content / marketing etc)
The second challenge is ensuring when I make an investment into a domain name, it has to have numerous ways to make money ? whether that is from development, selling or leasing. If a name has plenty of potential uses and has various ways to monetise, then it becomes attractive to me. It is too easy to fall into the trap of thinking a domain name is really good, when realistically it isn?t.
And the third and the one which is the most important, is diversifying away from Google as a free traffic source. It can be all too easy to become complacent on Google to send you free traffic to your websites, and I have been guilty of that myself on numerous occasions until one day in early 2011 when I woke up to find a big earning website of mine had vanished from the Google search results. I started a recovery plan for the website which I obtained satisfactory success with, but it wasn?t until this happened that I realised I was very vulnerable and Google ?owned? me and I then started to concentrate much harder on other marketing methods.
What successes are you having?
I have success in all three fields (developing, selling and leasing) but my most notable public sale of 2012 is CheapCruises.co.uk which went to a very switched on cruise company AdoreCruises.co.uk who fully realised the potential and value of owning the best domain name for their niche.
My favourite online acquisition method is SEO, however that is getting harder all the time with how much Google is changing. I also pursue a number of offline techniques which work quite well depending on the niche, and Twitter marketing will become huge in 2013 as more and more companies realise just how powerful it can be.
Next big thing for the web?
It may seem but quite obvious but in a word ? Mobile. Mobile internet/web is growing at a huge rate month after month and as the growth of smart phones is increasing, more and more people are using the internet than ever before. With the introduction of mobile internet, there are literally 1000?s of new opportunities that didn?t exist before and with the barrier to entry much lower than any most other businesses, there is nothing stopping Joe Bloggs becoming the next ?Angry Birds? creator.
Favourite online success story?
Without any hesitation, it has to be MyVoucherCodes.co.uk which was started by Mark Pearson back in 2006. Mark identified a key element of what makes online shoppers tick (saving money) and exploited it in such a way that everyone was a winner. The initial website cost him just ?300 to build and he ran it from his bedroom. In his first year of the website being live, he had already turned over ?1m and in 2012 he is on course to turnover ?12m. He is living proof that if you have a good idea and pursue it, you don?t need millions to make a success of it, you just need dedication and perseverance coupled with knowledge and a little bit of luck.
What advice would you give someone starting an online business today?
First and foremost, get a good domain name, as it will form part of your brand and help your customers to remember you and your company which is vital for any businesses success. Do your research, assess your competitors and identify what you could do better. Get involved with Twitter and Facebook as you can build your online business and a good following without costing you a penny if you put the effort in.
Do you have any big plans in 2013 for any of your premium domain names?
2013 is going to be a very busy year for me in numerous ways. I am already involved in a new business with a well known celebrity and this is going to be finally launched, I am also currently developing a new ecommerce website which will evolve into a subscription based model business, and as well as both of those mammoth projects, my book will be finished, published and available in shops in 2013. The one thing all three of those projects have in common is they were businesses / ideas which were born out of the domain names themselves as opposed to the other way around, which makes them even more exciting for me.
You can follow Frank on Twitter and view his domain investments at 34.co.uk.
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An Interview With Frank Paul, 4.0 out of 5 based on 11 ratings
Tags: business advice, domain name investing, entrepreneur, frank paul, interviews
Jason's experience in the domain name industry dates back to 1997 when he co-founded what was to become Namesco Ltd - the 4th largest domain registration and hosting provider in the UK. After selling Namesco in 2007, Jason set about creating Siteopia based on the same, exacting fundamentals of outstanding customer services and simple, easy to use solutions. Following a series of domain company acquisitions in 2012, Siteopia is expanding and gaining a loyal following of consumers, businesses and domainers. Jason enjoys travelling, eating out and property development. You can follow him on Twitter and Linked In
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Public release date: 8-Jan-2013
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Willie McCoy, the legendary singer behind Chili's infamous "Baby Back Ribs" jingle, will be outlived by the legacy of that song for years to come. But apparently his love of BBQ went beyond the iconic tune, and his family decided to celebrate his affinity for the cuisine at McCoy's funeral.
I am Frank Paul and I am an online entrepreneur. I specialise in premium generic domain name investment, generic domain name leasing and creating profitable online businesses. I am a firm believer in the harder you work the more successful you become and it is better to try something and fail then forever wonder if it would have worked.