News on the loose...!!

Here is the list of News I have been following this week:

1. "Merill gets its new CEO"-John Thain has formally taken over as the CEO of Merill Lynch with an astonishing package of $43.8 million dollars (I cud feel u gasping!!!!). He replaces Stanley O Neal who was asked to leave the firm after Merill Lynch reported the ever first quarterly loss in its history. A financial advisory firm like Merill cannot afford to!! Thain has a tough job ahead of him. Like other big financial firms that have also announced massive write downs, Merrill is saddled with asset-backed securities linked to troubled subprime mortgages. Determining how much these securities are worth has proved problematic, and experts say more big Wall Street writedowns are likely. All the best John!!
2. "Come on Google"-First let me make a confession. I am a Google fanatic. And I strongly believe that only Google can do it. Be it anything in technology. And they never let me down. And here they come to rock the world. Again. The much rumored “gphone” is well on track with Google announcing $10mn cash prize for developers who would make their open source software “Andriod” better. Gphone is pinned to work on Android. Google is also rumored to be in talk with AT&T and is considering foray into telecom business. This could very well signal the death bell for many existing telecom companies. Come on Google. You again did it!!
3. "You, again: Are we getting closer to cloning humans??"- Earlier this week a team in the U.S. led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Center, announced they had created the first cloned monkey embryo and extracted stem cells from it. Extending this to humans, if successful, the following scenario could happen- Your clone can attend the class and get you the participation marks, while you can sit back and do your assignments or even date with your girl friend!!
4. "World’s 4th fastest Super Computer"- Weather forecasting, detecting tsunami, seismic analysis or even advanced financial modeling for the stock markets can now be performed by an Indian company. Computational Research Laboratory (CRL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons has built the fastest supercomputer in Asia (according to top 500.org, an industry body that ranks performance of supercomputers globally) in Pune. Christened EKA, derived from the word one in Sanskrit, the computer, which can also be used in the areas of Neural and molecular simulation and computational fluid dynamics, was built at a cost of $30 million. Another feather in the TATA group’s crown!!