Facebook went NASDAQ, three years ago today, May 17, 2012

Happy 3rd Year on NASDAQ Facebook! Three years ago today (Friday, May 17th) Facebook listed with Nasdaq and sold 421.2 million shares at $38 per share.

The initial public offering raised $16 billion (60% more than the expected $10 billion). (source: bloomburg.com).

There was so much hype months before Facebook's IPO.

When Facebook finally went public on May 17, 2012 (NASDAQ:FB) it would become infamous for having the worst stock disaster ever in the history of the U.S. equities market.

There was a computer glitch which forced thousands of independent investors to sell their stocks at a loss. Big institutional investors were not impacted as they were able to sell quickly. Unfortunately, that was not the case for small retail investors (everyday folks like me and you) who were unable to put in sell orders. Instead they watched helplessly as their FB stock share prices plummeted.

Quoteable Quote about Facebook choosing Nasdaq:
“Facebook on NASDAQ due to cultural fit" ~~ Charles Gasparino, senior correspondent Fox Business Network, prior to FB's IPO in 2012


RESOURCES:
- FB: Summary for Facebook, Yahoo Finance http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=FB
- The Immaculate IPO: What Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) Did Differently From Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) During Their IPO, IB Times, http://www.ibtimes.com/immaculate-ipo-what-twitter-nysetwtr-did-differently-facebook-nasdaqfb-during-their-ipo-1461108
- Why the Facebook (Nasdaq FB) Stock Price Will Double by 2018, Money Morning; http://moneymorning.com/2015/03/05/why-the-facebook-nasdaq-fb-stock-price-will-double-by-2018/
- Facebook IPO Makes Zuckerberg Richer Than Google Founders, Bloomberg.com; http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-05-17/facebook-ipo-makes-zuckerberg-richer-than-google-founders

Google celebrates anthropologist Mary Leakey’s 100th with exploratory-inspired doodle

“I dug things up. I was curious. I liked to draw what I found” … “I had never passed a single school exam, and clearly never would.”
~~ Mary Leakey
(February 6, 1913 – December 9, 1996) British archaeologist and anthropologist, and world renown distinguished fossil hunter. Leakey discovered the first fossilized Proconsul skull, an extinct ape now believed to be ancestral to humans.

Today, would have been Leakey’s 100th birthday, and Google paid homage to her life and works with a lovely doodle, an exploratory-inspired theme representing one of her many achievements – the discovery of 3.5 million-year-old fossilised hominid footprints. She is also known as a “giant in the study of human origins.”

Happy 100th B-Day Mary Leakey! Leakey also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge. For much of her career she worked together with her husband, Louis Leakey, in Olduvai Gorge, uncovering the tools and fossils of ancient hominines.

She developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She also discovered the Laetoli footprints.


In 1960 she became director of excavation at Olduvai and subsequently took it over, building her own staff. After the death of her husband, she became a leading palaeoanthropologist, helping to establish the Leakey tradition by training her son, Richard, in the field.

Leakey, a renowned paleoanthropologist, had not only conducted significant research of her own, but had been invaluable to the research careers of her husband Louis Leakey and their sons Richard, Philip and Jonathan.

“Mother gave us every freedom to learn by experience as early as I can remember …This gave me tremendous self-confidence and taught me responsibility at an early age. As I grew I was able to take on more responsibility and in a way it always put us as children ahead of the pack. It encouraged and enhanced leadership skills.” ~~Philip Leakey , youngest of 3 sons to Mary and Louis Leakey (source: *Christian Science Monitor, see below)



Other Resources
♦ Mary Leakey 100th birthday: A son on her adventuresome parenting, Christian Science Monitor
♦ Leakey.com website
♦ Mary Leakey, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Leakey
♦ Mary Leakey 100th birthday: Google doodle honours famous Brithsh archaeologist and anthropologist, Mirror UK
♦ Mary Leakey’s 100th Birthday, National Geographic
♦ Leakey family discovers human ancestors, PBS http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/do59le.html
♦ The Leakey Collection, Jewelry natural, African-made, sustainable jewelry by Katy and Philip Leakey http://www.leakeycollection.com/


All photos courtesy of Wikimedia and screen shots taken from video and websites. All other photos will be credited as required.


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Family and friends celebrate centennial birthday gala of President Richard Nixon's 100th birthday, January 9, 2013

“Life isn't meant to be easy. It's hard to take being on the top - or on the bottom. I guess I'm something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things... Life is one crisis after another.”
~~ President Richard Nixon
(January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) The 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974

Happy 100th B-Day to Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974, when he became the only president to resign the office. Nixon had previously served as a Republican U.S. representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. Kickoff celebration began today (Sunday, January 6th) at his boyhood home in Yorba Linda, CA.

Born to Francis A. Nixon and Hannah (Milhous) Nixon on January 9, 1913, in a house his father built in Yorba Linda, California. Nixon had four brothers: Harold (1909–33), Donald (1914–87), Arthur (1918–25), and Edward (born 1930). Four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in historical or legendary England; Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart.

Nixon graduated from Whittier College in 1934 and Duke University School of Law in 1937, returning to California to practice law. He and his wife, Pat Nixon, moved to Washington to work for the federal government in 1942.


“We were poor, but the glory of it was, we didn't know it.” ~~ President Richard Nixon
Nixon quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood and early life hardship



He subsequently served in the United States Navy during World War II. Nixon was elected in California to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. His pursuit of the Alger Hiss case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election.

Nixon served for eight years as vice president and waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, losing to John F. Kennedy by a narrow margin.

Photo left: President Nixon with his family at Airport - Richard and Pat Nixon introduce General Dwight D. Eisenhower—Richard Nixon's running mate—to their daughters Tricia (standing) and Julie (carried by her father), Washington National Airport, September 10, 1952.

Although there was much controversy especially during the height of Watergate, the legacy of Nixon will be his foreign relations particularly with China (1971 – 1972) – Nixon’s amazing brilliance coaxed China out of the Cold War, initiated détente and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Soviet Union, and he also brought our troops out of VietNam.

Nixon’s actions were very similar to what appears to be going on in the United States today with Afghanistan, Iran and North VietNam. So the saying goes "history repeats itself," and political histories do the same. This is an excellent example of how we can learn from lessons of the past.

Domestically, his administration generally embraced policies that transferred power from Washington to the states.

Among other things, he initiated initiatives to fight cancer and illegal drugs, imposed wage and price controls, enforced desegregation of some Southern schools, and established the Environmental Protection Agency.

Though he presided over the lunar landings beginning with Apollo 11, he scaled back manned space exploration. He was re-elected by a landslide in 1972.

Today, January 9, 2013 would have been Nixon’s 100th birthday, and many who worked with him will be celebrating his life on his centennial celebration at the Yorba Linda Library in Yorba Linda, California.

Also a pre-celebration of the Nixon Centennial kicked off today (Sunday, January 6th at 11 a.m. PT) at his boyhood home in Yorba Linda, CA.



All photos courtesy of Wikimedia and screen shots taken from video and websites. All other photos will be credited as required.

Additional resources:
♦YouTube Video of Richard Nixon, “I’m not a crook”
♦ The Nixon Foundation
♦ President Richard Nixon’s Centennial Birthday Celebration
♦ President Richard Nixon Library, Yorba Linda, CA
♦ Public invited to free centennial celebration of President Nixon's 100th birthday


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Facebook goes NASDAQ

“Facebook on NASDAQ due to cultural fit" ~~ Charles Gasparino, senior correspondent Fox Business Network


Facebook will list with Nasdaq and could raise $10 billion according to many people familiar with the IPO

Nasdaq, has been competing with NYSE Euronext Inc., for many IPO’s. According to senior correspondent for the Fox Business Network, Charles Gasparino, the NASDAQ win is due to a "cultural fit" and the fact that Facebook board members have connections to NASDAQ. Today's online article at A Wall Street Journal article titled “Facebook Tags the Nasdaq” mentions how many believe that Facebook’s offering (IPO set for May 2012) could raise $10 billion -- the biggest U.S. Internet IPO since Google in 2004

Google Enhances Organic Search Semantically

          "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog."
                              ~~Peter Steiner, author, cartoonist and contributor to The New Yorker

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Technology section (today, 3/15/2012), within the next few months, Google will be enhancing its search algorithm and providing more relevant information to organic search results. Semantically, search results issues are due to the arbitrary nature of language/keywords and the barrage of irrelevancy arising from this.

This latest enhancement purports to provide a more humanly-intuitive Web world for searchers including answering questions instead of receiving more links thus avoiding arbitrary irrelevancy … "we cross our fingers and hope there's a Web page out there with the answer," says Mr. Singhal, a top Google search executive (see WSJ article by Amir Efrati). More information can be found online at Wall Street Journal, Google Gives Search a Refresh.

Will this Impact Privacy? According to an earlier WSJ interview back in 2010 with Google CEO, Eric Schmidt on the issue of privacy, "I actually think most people don't want Google to answer their questions, they want Google to tell them what they should be doing next," said Schmidt (WSJ, Google and the Search for the Future, August 14, 2010 by Holman W. Jenkins Jr.) Would this be contradictory? Privacy issues do not matter to Google, but what about the rest of the Web world? Incidentally, Privacy International ranked Google as "Hostile to Privacy", its lowest rating on its report, making Google the only company on the list to receive the lowest ranking.

On a higher note, The Doodle 4 Google 2012 competition is now open to all K-12 students in U.S. schools (including home-schoolers). Completed entry forms must be received by March 23rd, and pre-registration is no longer required! Google is asking students to exercise their creative imaginations in real "Dr. Suessesque style" around the theme, "If I could travel in time, I'd visit…" and I might add "Oh the Places You'll Go..."

The Doodle 4 Google Competition (the “Contest”) is designed to encourage eligible U.S. school students (“Entrant(s)” or “You”) to use their creativity to create their own interpretation of the Google logo. Judges will choose the winning entries, and prizes will be awarded in accordance with these Official Rules (the “Rules”). Spread the news by sharing this Doodle 4 Google 2012 competition link.

This year, The New York Public Library and Crayola are partnering with Google for this year's Doodle 4 Google contest.

The one lucky student artist will see his/her artwork appear on the Google homepage and take home some prizes--and as a special bonus, the winning artwork will appear on a limited edition of Crayola's iconic 64 box!

Happy 100th B-Day Mary Blair!

Happy 100th B-Day to Mary Blair, American artist known for producing art and animation for The Walt Disney Company, and drawing concept art for such films as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Song of the South and Cinderella.


After the completion of Peter Pan, Mary resigned from Disney and worked as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, creating advertising campaigns for companies such as Nabisco, Pepsodent, Maxwell House, Beatrice Foods and others. She also illustrated several Golden Books for publisher Simon & Schuster, some of which remain in print today, and designed Christmas and Easter sets for Radio City Music Hall. Several of her illustrated children's books from the 1950s remain in print, such as “I Can Fly” by Ruth Krauss. Blair was honored as a Disney Legend in 1991.

Born Mary Browne Robinson on October 21, 1911, in McAlester, Oklahoma, her family moved to Texas while she was a small child, and later to California. In 1934, she married another artist, Lee Everett Blair (October 1, 1911 – April 19, 1993).


She was the sister-in-law of animator Preston Blair (1908–1994). Mary Blair died of a cerebral hemorrhage on July 26, 1978 at the age of 67.

Today, October 21, 2011 would have been Blair’s 100th birthday, Google paid homage to Blair's life and works with a doodle themed with colorful patterns.

Click here for more information about Mary Blair.