Google may eventually solve the problem of finding data on the web. Too bad its first effort reports the wrong numbers for unemployment. Since leaving public service, I have occasionally pondered whether to start a company / organization to transform the way that data are made available on the web. The data are out there, but they remain a nuisance to find, a nuisance to manipulate, and a nuisance to display.

You don't always need to write obsessively correct English. I've written tips on how some grammar rules can be broken elsewhere in this series. However, there are serious mistakes which are best avoided if you want to appear professional and intelligent.

This is a film about maths boffins. Yet there is nary a sign to be had of a calculator, a square-lined jotter, or even a humble pair of thick-lens glasses held together by sticky tape. Instead, the opening scene introduces us to three simpering girls listening to some hip-looking bloke explain how he is about to unveil a proof to a problem that has defied mathematicians for centuries. He then tries to turn the girls on with an overacted demonstration of his calculating prowess. Yikes to that!

While US media outlets have lead daily news coverage with President Obama's visit to Russia, including several days of special coverage by the Newshour and front page, above the fold articles in the New York Times, Russian media, and especially Russian TV, have almost completely ignored Obama's visit.

Should this film be indicative of reality, there would appear to be a shortage of virile youngsters of both sexes in Lyon. On the one hand, there are several middle-aged men with their tongues hanging out when it comes to the vapid Gabrielle Deneige (Ludivine Sagnier), as if she was Botticelli's Venus come to life.

By requiring auditors to opine on the effectiveness of a client's internal controls over financial reporting, the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) creates a new pressure point for management. Reports of material weaknesses in internal controls can indirectly affect a firm's cost of equity capital and chief financial officers are often replaced within six months after these reports. This new regulatory environment provides a strong incentive for managers to attempt to persuade auditors that observed internal control deviations are not deficiencies.

The post discusses the recently disclosed bids in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's May 2009 auction of BankUnited Financial Corp. The bids show that the "highest" bidder did not necessarily win the auction, and that the FDIC's decision making process is less formulaic than might be expected.

China's efforts to limit access to information about ethnic violence in the country, which has resulted in over 150 deaths, shows that the Internet is more difficult than traditional media to control, but not impossible.

This is one of those books that sits with you long after you've finished it. The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins, the renowned war correspondent from the New York Times, was a fascinating read chronicling the author's time spent in Afghanistan before and after 9/11/2001, and his three plus years in Iraq after war was declared in March 2003.

On April 10, 2009, Delaware's governor signed into law legislation that has the potential to impact significantly the election of directors. These changes are effective August 1, 2009, but generally would not affect companies until the 2010 proxy season.

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