Very funny Article on Dow Jones Index without Apple

Great article in local SJ Mercury News on Dow Jones Index without Apple Inc. Loved thoughts of Mike.. Interesting analysis fact.. If Apple was Dow component, Dow would have crossed 14K long time back ;-)

I really can't think of any good reason on why Apple is not part of Dow. In fact, I was surprised to know that it is not. I had assumed that it must be.. If Intel, Cisco, HP can be part of Dow.. Apple should definitely be part of it.

Another funny part is "take out Mac & Cheese from Dow and put in just Mac!!!"

enjoy..

Without Apple, it’s just the D’oh Jones

So, are you pumped about the Dow closing above the 13,000 mark Tuesday for the first time since the economy collapsed in a heap? Yeah, me neither. But hey, it’s a milestone and there is nothing we like better in Silicon Valley than a milestone, particularly when it could be a sign that things are looking up.

OK, there is one thing we like better: Apple. And that’s what’s missing from this whole Dow watch. Apple, the most valuable, exciting, talked-about, written-about, dreamed-about company in the world has never been a part of the Dow. But had Apple been in the mix, we could have dispensed with this crossing the 13,000 barrier months ago, given Apple’s stock price.

As it is, the Dow is, well, boring.

Apple is not among the 30 companies that the threemember committee of Dow Jones representatives has ordained as the enterprises that provide a “measure of the entire U.S. market.”

But you know what is? Alcoa.

I mean, come on. You’re going to measure the entire U.S. market without measuring Apple? Apple is the entire U.S. market. The company is one of the most successful companies on the planet; and it’s sitting on a pile of cash equal to the GNP of Qatar. But it’s nowhere to be seen in the Dow Jones industrial average, which has bounced all the way back from 6,500 territory in early 2009. And chances are it never will be. The high-flying stock is just too much of an outlier. 

But had the Dow pickers included Apple in its average, the Dow would have long ago blown past its record high of 14,164. 

Greylock Partners’ executive in residence Adam Nash ran the numbers recently (“I’m a little weird with spreadsheets,” he says.) and pointed out the delicious possibility in a post on his personal blog. 

“How would the political discourse be different if we were talking about an all-time high for the Dow?” Nash says by phone. 

“These are just numbers, but when millions of people hear it talked about as ‘the market,’ it actually changes how people feel about the country.” 

So, the Dow committee has a patriotic duty to add Apple to its index. But it also owes it to Silicon Valley. Look, Apple is the coolest thing the valley has going. It is the valley’s hip factor. 

The Dow, on the other hand, is in need of hip replacement. It is everything the valley is not. It holds tight to tradition. It moves slowly. It favors industrial giants to technological gazelles. 

What companies do the Dow gods choose from the valley? 

Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel. No offense, but those stalwarts sound more like the Dowdy Jones average. Great companies, but dude, they’re either ancient or they exude all the sexiness of your weird uncle picking his teeth at the table. 

We need a DJIA rep that is all white ear buds, Feist and Siri (which can tell you youngsters that Feist is the singer who starred in Apple’s iPod Nano commercials). 

And the Dow itself could use a shot of 21st century. I mean, good move replacing Standard Rope & Twine back in 1899, but look who’s still listed: DuPont, Caterpillar, GE and Kraft. Kraft? How about dumping the mac and cheese and replacing it with just the Mac? 

Yes, the Dow folks have their reasons. For one thing, they say, the Dow, as it is, accurately reflects the general ups and downs of the market. 

“A lot of people say, ‘Gee, if Apple was in, the Dow would be a lot higher.’ But you see, that’s not our goal, to push the Dow higher and higher and higher,” says John Prestbo, chairman of the Dow Jones Index Oversight Committee. “Our goal is to show what the market is doing.” 

For another thing, the Dow pickers are not down with fasttwitch change. The last move they made was in 2009, when Cisco took GM’s spot and Travelers replaced Citigroup. 

“The Dow Jones industrial average is famously and hilariously behind the times,” says Fortune senior editor at large Adam Lashinsky, author of “Inside Apple: How America’s Most Admired — and Secretive — Company Really Works.” “They’ve always been late to change.” 

OK, so tradition is big. Beyond that, the Dow is weighted by stock price, which means highpriced stocks (like one trading above $500) exert an outsize influence on the average and screw everything up, to use the technical term. So, unless Apple’s shares hit something more like $50 — which would require an unlikely 10-for-one split or for the business to implode — the Dow pickers are likely to resist adding Apple. 

Which oddly means the Dow committee might well be in agreement with at least one major valley company: terminally hip and preternaturally unorthodox Apple. 

“I think it would cause great consternation at Apple,” Lashinsky says of a Dow nod, “because they would be exceedingly normal and institutionalized and fuddyduddy if they were to be added into something so old school as the Dow Jones industrial average.” 

Then again, a guy can dream. 

Right? 

Contact Mike Cassidy at mcassidy@mercurynews.com or 408-920-5536. 

Shame on you - Both Google and Indian Government!!

or justice system.. These is simply going back to stone ages.. all the progress made so far by humanity gets washed away by such news... All that freedom of press/Individuals is being compromised by these kind of acts.

I really can't understand what is wrong in people making fun of you?? You are you and will remain you!! nobody can change you instead of you yourself!!! You can stop say on Google.. there are thousands of other sites or search engines.. who all you will stop? by stopping them or I should say that trying to stop them, you are actually giving credibility to them. If any common sense prevails, you just ignore them and these things will be taken care by nature itself.. i.e. they will die themselves soon. By asking to stop such things you are just giving more fuel to such things and helping them withstand for more time. Wake up guys!!!! Respect is what you think of yourself.. not what you see from others!!


http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_19906208?source=rss

FREEDOM ON THE WEB

Google India bows to censors

New Delhi court orders Internet giants to pull ‘anti-social’ content


By Patrick May

pmay@mercurynews 

In the latest case of a government tightening the reins on the online flow of ideas and information, Google India has agreed to take down Web pages considered offensive by Indian political and religious leaders, stoking censorship fears in the world’s largest democracy.

The removal order announced Monday resulted from a court case and follows weeks of aggressive government pressure on 22 Internet giants to remove photographs, videos or text considered “anti-religious” or “anti-social.” Warning that their sites might be blocked “like in China,” a New Delhi judge gave Facebook, Google and the other sites two weeks to present further plans for policing their networks, according to Indian press reports.

A Google representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Monday that while the company recently declined a request by a government minister to pre-screen content considered politically or religiously offensive, Google now faced a court order and had no choice but to follow it. Google would not release details about what content it had taken down or explain how it planned to respond to the government’s demand for a selfpolicing action plan.

Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo did not respond to requests for comment.

Internet activists in the United States pointed to India’s action as just the latest example of attempts by political and religious leaders around the world to clamp down on the free flow of ideas on the Internet.

“We need a really serious conversation about what companies like Google and Twitter owe the democratic society that created them to ensure that those values are exported as these companies do business around the world,” said Holmes Wilson, cofounder of Fight for the Future, the advocacy group that recently led the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. 

That bill, now stalled in Congress, was aimed at stopping the spread of pirated copies of movies and other content by rogue websites overseas. Critics charged it would result in widespread censorship on the Internet. 

“Every company in this situation,” said Wilson, “should take the most aggressive stand possible in resisting attempts for governments to censor them.” 

In India, officials have been incensed by material insulting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and religious groups, including illustrations showing Singh and Gandhi in compromising positions and pigs running through Mecca, Islam’s holiest city. 

“There is no question of any censorship,” Communications Minister Sachin Pilot said. “They all have to operate within the laws of the country. There must be responsible behavior on both sides.” 

Anyone hurt by online content should be able to seek legal redress, he said. The government has warned it has evidence to prosecute the sites for offenses of “promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration.” 

According to press reports, Justice Suresh Kait told lawyers from Facebook India and Google last Thursday that “if a contraband is found in your house, it is your liability to take action against it. Like China, we can block all such websites” that don’t comply. “But let us not go to that situation.” 

The government has asked the sites to set a voluntary framework to keep offensive material off the Internet. Facebook India submitted a compliance report to the court Monday, but it also joined Yahoo and Microsoft in questioning its inclusion in the case, saying no specific complaints had been presented against them, the PTI news agency reported. 

Indian-born Silicon Valley entrepreneur Paul Singh said he has sympathy for the companies caught up in the court order and does not fault them for removing content. 

“Google and Facebook are businesses first and they have to figure out how to make money and live within the legal parameters of the countries they operate in,” said Singh, CEO of Social-Nuggets, which analyzes social-media data. “They have responsibilities to their shareholders and they can’t afford to miss a very large market like India. I don’t fault Google for doing this.” 

Prosecutors, who sued on behalf of a Muslim religious leader who accused companies of hosting pages that disparage Islam, said they would provide the companies with all relevant documents. The court gave the companies 15 more days to report back. 

“This is certainly one of the most over reaching content takedowns we’ve seen by a foreign government,” said Jillian York with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. “Google often gets requests from Indian law enforcement agencies to take down YouTube videos and they decline the majority of the time. And while they do take down ones that violate India law, they only take them down for Indian users, so the rest of the world can still see it. 

“Still,” said York, “over the past year, India seems to be really cracking down.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Contact Patrick May at 408-920-5689 or follow him at Twitter.com/patmaymerc. 

Amazing desire for Freedom

by people of Russia/Moscow. This shows power of freedom and democracy very clearly. Only this power or desire to achieve it can make these guys march in this bitter cold against autocratic rule of Mr. Putin. I hope he will get the message and preserve whatever he has done for Russia so far and get out and leave it for next generations!!

Thousands rally against Putin

By Lynn Berry

Associated Press

MOSCOW — Their frozen breath rising in the brutally frigid air, tens of thousands of protesters marched through downtown Moscow on Saturday to keep up the pressure on Prime Minister Vladimir Putin one month before a presidential election that could extend his rule for six more years. The protesters have few illusions that they can drive Putin from power now, but for the first time in years Russians are challenging his control and demanding that their voices be heard. Wrapped in furs or dressed for the ski slope, as many as 120,000 people turned out for the third and perhaps largest mass demonstration since Putin’s party won a parliamentary election Dec. 4 with the help of what appeared to be widespread fraud. The election was the last straw for Russians increasingly unhappy with the creeping authoritarianism during his 12-year rule. Two protest rallies in December, which also drew tens of thousands, were the biggest in Russia since the demonstrations 20 years ago that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Thousands of police monitored the two-hour peaceful protest without intervening.

“There are now so many of us that they cannot arrest us all,” said 56-year-old protester Alexander Zelensky.

---

DMITRY LOVETSKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Protesters march against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s rule during a massive protest Saturday in St. Petersburg, Russia, in one of several dozen rallies across the country. 

Power of Silicon Valley's Innovation machinery

This news article shows clear power of Silicon Valley's Innovation Machinery.. Hopefully resulting around 600 Million USD one time tax gain this year for The State of California!! and 1.4 Billion USD for Federal Government and much more to continue in coming years!!

This very clearly shows another side of silicon valley.. Whatever criticism you make about higher cost of doing business or higher state/local tax.. Doesn't matter.. If you want to do something new/innovative thing.. this is "The Best" place on the face of earth.. as of now.. and hope that it will continue like this.. 

Now the hope is that it will be used for something useful to continue oiling this Innovation Machinery instead of sucking it out.. 

http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2012/02/03/mark-zuckerbergs-2-billion-tax-bill/

Mark Zuckerberg’s $2 Billion Tax Bill

By Robert Frank

Buried in the registration statement of Facebook’s IPO was this startling line:

“We expect that substantially all of the net proceeds Mr. Zuckerberg will receive upon such sale will be used to satisfy taxes that he will incur upon his exercise of an outstanding stock option to purchase 120,000,000 shares of our Class B common stock.”

What that means, in dollar terms, is that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg may face a tax bill this year of more than $2 billion. The Financial Times puts the figure at $1.5 billion. But if the IPO values the company at the hoped-for $100 billion, his bill could be higher.

Facebook declined comment. But here’s the math. Zuckberberg received the 120 million options in 2005, presumably for being CEO and being, well, Mark Zuckerberg. Those options will be treated as ordinary income, which means he would pay the top federal income tax rate of 35%.

The cost basis for those options is six cents a share. So if the company is valued at $100 billion, and the shares are valued at around $50 each, his gain from the sale would be up to $6 billion. Taxed at 35%, the tax bill would be more than $2 billion. The FT puts a more conservative value on the company for its $1.5 billion total.

What’s more, Zuckerberg would have to pay an additional 10.3 percent for California sate taxes, though he would likely be able to deduct those taxes from his federal bill.

It’s unclear whether the $2 billion would make him America’s biggest taxpayer, since the IRS doesn’t disclose such things. But given that the 400 top earners in the U.S. paid an average of $48 million each in taxes, chances are he’ll be at least one of the biggest taxpayers in 2012 or 2013.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s tax bill will also provide an important counter-point to the notion that the rich pay lower tax rates than the rest of America. That may be true for professional investors and private-equity chiefs, but not for dot-commers and many entrepreneurs.

This reminds me of India - Popularity of raw milk rises despite warnings

Come on guys.. India has such a thriving 1.2 Billion Plus populations.. I am sure that more than 70%  must be still drinking unpasteurized milk. Though they boil it themselves to pasteurize it but still majority population gets it unpasteurized condition and see.. we have such a great population growth.. ohhhh.. now I know reason for India's great population growth.. it is unpasteurized milk!!! and see.. people in Cites/Metros get pasteurized milk and population growth is so less ;-)

Generally, I am big proponent of choice.. all the citizens should have choice to choose their destiny. Food choice is among them.. It is up to citizens to choose what food they want to eat and how they eat.. as long as their medical insurance covers it.. I am if health insurance starts putting these clauses, people can make their own choice based on risks Vs rewards and matter will be resolved. You give freedom and at the same time take out some risk coverage based on those freedom.. You see.. nothing comes free.. not even freedom ;-)

But hey.. Government is also choice of people.. isn't it?? So if we want this to be major election issue.. let us make "Raw Party" and who so ever wants raw food as their legal choice, should vote for it..

Enough said.. here is the link and story from our mercury news on this..

http://www.mercurynews.com/health/ci_19890338

Popularity of raw milk rises despite warnings

Unp a s t e u r i z e d m i l k linked to East Coast illness outbreak

By Mary Clare Jalonick

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — An outbreak of bacterial infections on the East Coast illustrates the popularity of raw, unpasteurized milk despite strong warnings from public health officials about the potential danger. Even presidential candidate Ron Paul has joined the cause of consumers looking to buy unprocessed “real foods” straight from the farm, saying government shouldn’t deny them that choice. An outbreak of campylobacter illness is a reminder of the potential hazards, however. Raw milk from a dairy in Pennsylvania is now linked to 38 cases in four states, and the farm has temporarily suspended sales. Campylobacter can cause diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain, and fever and can be life-threatening if it spreads to the bloodstream.
Consumers who want unpasteurized milk have to work to find it. It’s against federal law to transport it across state lines, and most states don’t allow it to be sold in stores off the farm. Twenty states prohibit raw milk sales altogether.

The government says the milk is unsafe because of the pathogens cows may encounter on the farm.

A wide variety of pathogens besides campylobacter, can be found in raw milk — including salmonella, listeria, E. coli and others — and those sickened could suffer from stroke, kidney failure, paralysis or death, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The agency points out that raw milk killed many people — especially young children — before the onset of pasteurization, which kills disease-causing germs by heating milk to high temperatures for a specific period of time.

The CDC says pasteurized milk is rich in proteins, carbohydrates and other nutrients, and that heat only slightly decreases thiamine, vitamin B12, and vitamin C.

While the government contends that milk is a minor source of those nutrients, raw milk advocates say that’s proof that pasteurization makes milk less wholesome and pure.

The government doesn’t keep records of raw milk consumption or sales, but it’s clear that the product is popularized by a larger food movement that encourages less processing and more “real food.” Raw milk goes a step further than organic milk free of added growth hormones. Organic milk, too, has enjoyed a sales boost in recent years.

Advocates say far more illnesses are caused each year by leafy greens, deli meats and other products produced in much larger quantities than raw milk.

“To outlaw or ban any natural food because it could possibly make you sick is an extreme position, because there is no safe food,” Hartke said.

It is all about money.. money.. money..

Charity and all other nobler objectives come way too behind it.. All the principles and ideology is formed just to follow money.. Nothing can be a better example of this scenario of Komen's flip-flop around abortion/anti-abortion policy. It clearly shows height of this "Charity Business" and how powerful these big charitable organizations have become. I think it is time to tear down these big and powerful Charitable organizations. May be FTC should open another wing in their office to monitor and investigate monopolistic nature of these charitable organizations..

That is one big reason I am personally not supportive of this Charity Business anyhow.. If you really want to do Charity, help or help create one job which will sustain and enable one person/family to live on their own, rather than feed hundred families for a year or so.. Well it may seem radical initially.. but think of it and you will find rationale in it. Of course, this is my personal view not to endorse either side or any side..

Coming back to this issue of Komen's flip-flop around funding/donation to "Planned Parenthood" Organization.. If you look at it carefully, both the organization got huge amount of publicity.. both of them got more than 700K USD extra in first twenty four hours after this all started. Who know, it was well planned flip-flop to energize or ramp-up both sides. We all know that both proponent and opponent of this issue has tons of money and both sides are willing to spend millions or billions to settle it their way..

Lastly, it does shows the huge power of internet.. If used properly, how much damage or gain it can give it to you!! At the same time it is very easy to play with sentiments of masses especially in the matter of religion or close to religion or Cult I should say.. It gives feeling of kind of mob phycology.. This kind of mentality can easily produce seriously poor decision making and can make it very difficult for anti-populist or radical views which may be against our belief system..

I think enough said.. here is the link to this news clip in case you want to read more:

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_19888167

and copy in case it doesn't work..

BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION 

Social media credited with Komen shift

Planned Parenthood will be allowed to seek grants after group’s reversal

By Sandy Kleffman

skleffman@bayareanewsgroup.com 

The breast cancer advocacy organization that used the Internet to mobilize fundraising walks nationwide backed off Friday from its decision to eliminate grants for Planned Parenthood after many of its supporters ignited an online firestorm of protest. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation caved to the pressure. It announced that it would allow Planned Parenthood to continue applying for breast cancer screening grants.

The foundation gave the group $680,000 last year.

“We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women’s lives,” a Komen statement said.

Many questioned that commitment four days ago when Komen said it would exclude Planned Parenthood from grants because the organization had come under a government investigation. It cited an inquiry by a Florida congressman urged on by anti-abortion groups.

“We will amend the criteria to make clear that  disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political,” Komen said Friday. 

All seven of California’s Susan G. Komen affiliates opposed the group’s initial decision. So did 26 U.S. senators and many newspapers. 

The biggest influence may have been the deluge of criticism made through Twitter, Facebook and other social media. The progressive groupMoveOn.org launched an online petition supporting the grants and said 60,000 people signed it within hours. Some of the sharpest criticism came from participants in Komen’s benefit walks. 

“I feel Susan G. Komen acted foolishly and hastily, and maybe they didn’t realize the power of the Internet,” said Teresa Tirado, of Castro Valley, whose eldest daughter has raised funds for the organization in its Walk for the Cure. 

“It’s almost like Occupy Susan G. Komen,” she said. 

Tirado, who noted that she has donated a large amount of money to Komen, learned of its decision through Facebook. She posted comments on her Facebook page. 

“I was really upset, along with many, many other people — both male and female,” she said. 

She was pleased with Friday’s about-face, but said it’s not easy “to forgive and forget.” 

“It doesn’t make me feel that all of a sudden Susan G. Komen has this huge heart,” she said. “No. It makes me realize it’s affecting their pocketbook, and that’s why the decision was made.” 

Conservatives and antiabortion groups had supported the original decision and were unhappy about Friday’s development. 

A U.S. senator said he was extremely disappointed. 

“Unfortunately, it seems that Komen caved to political pressure from the pro-abortion movement and enforcers in the media,” Sen. David Vitter, R-La., wrote in a statement to The Washington Post. The depth of the national outpouring is not surprising in light of the many people touched by breast cancer, said Joanne Bamberger, the Washington, D.C.-based author of “Mothers of Intention: How Women and Social Media are Revolutionizing Politics in America.” 

“This is so personal to so many people, and using the tools of social media is so easy,” she said. “That really just lit the fire underneath it. 

“How many people do you know or I know who have done the Walk for the Cure because they have a mother or sister who had the disease?” she said. 

The network of supporters Komen organized became an accountability tool, noted Jamia Wilson, a vice president of programs for the Women’s Media Center in New York and a former Planned Parenthood staff member. 

“Because the tools are so interactive — constantly being a part of the conversation — it makes it so people have a much easier and quicker opportunity to frame an opinion,” Wilson said. 

With so many people supplying information through social media, however, it increased the possibility of inaccuracies and misunderstandings, said Maria Sousa, executive director of Komen’s Bay Area affiliate. 

She worried that the controversy could affect the Walk for the Cure in September. She said that she hopes people realize the organization will still support services for low-income women. 

The controversy unleashed a flood of financial donations, leaders on both sides reported. 

Planned Parenthood said it raised $650,000 in the 24 hours after the news broke. Komen leaders said its donations were up “100 percent,” but declined to give specifics. At centers in the Shasta Pacific chapter of Planned Parenthood, which covers 17 counties including Contra Costa and Solano, people walked in this week and delivered checks for several hundred dollars each, said president and CEO Heather Estes. She would not estimate the total raised. 

Estes noted that one in five women nationwide have used Planned Parenthood services in their lives. 

“Women health care advocates, particularly breast cancer survivors, have learned that they need to speak up for what’s important,” she said. On Friday, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Reps. Jackie Speier and Mike Honda, among others, praised Komen’s reversal. 

“The divisiveness caused by the original Komen decision did not reflect well on the foundation’s positive work,” Feinstein said in a statement. “This is a victory for women’s health and a huge win for all the men and women who made their voices heard this week.” 

The Associated Press and staff writers Bruce Newman, Angela Woodall and Josh Richman contributed to this report. Sandy Kleffman covers health. Contact her at 925-943-8249. Follow her at Twitter.com/skleffman. 

 

JANE TYSKA/STAFF 

Maria Sousa, the executive director of the Bay Area chapter of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, fears the controversy over the group’s grants for Planned Parenthood could imperil this year’s Walk for the Cure.