Billionaire denounces potential Rev. Wright ad

Billionaire Joe Ricketts on Thursday rejected an ad proposal by high-profile Republicans billed as a provocative campaign against President Barack Obama that would run around the Democratic National Convention.Earlier Thursday The New York Times reported Republican strategists were working with billionaire Ricketts to run commercials "linking Mr. Obama to incendiary comments by his former spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr."

The president of the super PAC supported by Ricketts said he neither authored nor funded the proposal and that it was one of "several submitted" to the PAC by third-party vendors.

"It reflects an approach to politics that Mr. Ricketts rejects and it was never a plan to be accepted but only a suggestion for a direction to take," Brian Baker said in a statement. "Mr. Ricketts intends to work hard to help elect a President this fall who shares his commitment to economic responsibility, but his efforts are and will continue to be focused entirely on questions of fiscal policy, not attacks that seek to divide us socially or culturally."

Strategic Perception, the ad company run by Fred Davis that was behind the Wright pitch, released a statement saying "The Ricketts family never approved it, and nothing has happened on it since the presentation."

Mitt Romney on Thursday renounced the potential ad strategy against President Barack Obama that would invoke Wright, in an interview and later at a press availability.

"I repudiate that effort. I think it's the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign," Romney told members of the press after a campaign stop in Jacksonville, Florida. "I hope that our campaigns can respectfully be about the future and about issues and about a vision for America."

Romney noted his campaign would soon be out with a positive television advertisement, saying it would contrast with recent attacks from Obama's team hitting Romney for his tenure as chief executive of Bain Capital.

"That will come up, I think, in a couple of days," Romney said of the ad. "It will be a positive ad about the things I would do if I were president. It's contrasting with the president's ad, which came out, again, as a character assassination ad. My own view is that, you know, we can talk about a lot of things, but the centerpiece of his campaign is quite clearly character assassination, and the centerpiece of my campaign is going to be my vision to get America working again and provide a better vision for our kids."

Asked what "character assassination" meant, Romney pointed to the Bain attacks, saying they were an attempt to "characterize me in a way that isn't accurate."

How common is flesh-eating bacteria?

wsbtv.com

Picture and money jar set up to collect funds for Aimee Copeland of Georgia, who lost her leg after she contracted a flesh-eating bacteria while zip-lining at the Little Tallapoosa River.

ATLANTA — Aimee Copeland, a Georgia grad student, is fighting for her life because of the flesh-eating bacteria that infected her after she gashed her leg in a river two weeks ago. One of her legs was amputated and her fingers will be too, her father says, because of the spreading infection.

She has a rare condition, called necrotizing fasciitis, in which marauding bacteria run rampant through tissue. Affected areas sometimes have to be surgically removed to save the patient's life.

 

HOW OFTEN DO PEOPLE GET THESE INFECTIONS?

 

The government estimates roughly 750 flesh-eating bacteria cases occur each year, usually caused by a type of strep germ.

 

However, Aimee Copeland's infection was caused by another type of bacteria, Aeromonas hydrophila. Those cases are even rarer. One expert knew of only a few reported over the past few decades.

 

DO MOST PEOPLE SURVIVE?

 

Yes, but about 1 in 5 people with the most common kind of flesh-eating strep bacteria die. There are few statistics on Aeromonas-caused cases like Copeland's.

 

HOW DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN?

 

The germs that can cause flesh-eating disease are common in warm and brackish waters like ponds, lakes and streams. They are not a threat to most people. An infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University, Dr. William Schaffner, said: "I could dive in that same stream, in the same place, and if I don't injure myself I'm going to be perfectly fine. It's not going to get on the surface of my skin and burrow in. It doesn't do that."

 

But a cut or gash — especially a deep one — opens the door for flesh-eating bacteria.

 

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN DO TO AVOID SUCH AN INFECTION?

 

Prompt and thorough medical care should stop the infection before it spreads. A wound can look clean, but if it's sutured or stapled up too soon it can create the kind of oxygen-deprived environment that helps these bacteria multiply and spread internally. Once established, these rare infections can be tricky to diagnose and treat.

 

Also, Aeromonas is resistant to some common antibiotics that work against strep and other infections, so it's important that doctors use the best medicines.

 

ARE SOME PEOPLE MORE AT RISK?

 

Yes, people with weakened immune systems are. Copeland's family has not said whether she had some type of medical condition that could have made her more vulnerable and relatives could not be reached for comment Monday. Her doctors, meanwhile, have refused interviews.

How To Buy Facebook Stock

Facebook goes public tomorrow. It could be worth well over $100 billion dollars. Want to get a piece of that? It's going to be very tricky for mere mortals to get Facebook stock in the IPO. If you want shares, here's what you have to do.

1. "First, get a ton of money. Like tons. I am talking gazillions."
   
   So says Peter Kupferberg, a principal at Chicago investment counseling firm Gofen and Glossberg. Most of the large online brokerage firms will at least take requests for Facebook shares, but they have rules. Some require existing balances of $500,000. Some will only consider people who already trade 30 times a day. Some even decide whether you're worthy on a case-by-case basis.
    
2. "Then open a brokerage account at Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, but only open the account if they promise you Facebook stock."
   
   Kupferberg says the deal stock goes first to the preferred customers of the banks underwriting the deal. Then it goes to the people with brokerage accounts who pass all the tests in Step 1. The scarce remainder goes to small investors to whom we wish the best of luck. If you make it that far, don't expect the current estimated share price of $40 to last long. Add scarcity of shares and stratospheric hype, stir, and you'll get what Kupferberg expects to be "a frenzy like we haven't seen in a while that will drive the price up to ridiculous levels." 

Basically, if you want Facebook IPO shares, you have to be rich and powerful in order to be taken seriously.

Is Facebook A Good Investment?
"Long, long term, this could turn out to be a very good investment," Kupferberg says. "Do you see people not using it anytime soon?"
Kupferberg says that his firm's model thinks that Facebook is still reasonably valued around $40 per share. But in the very short term, it will be almost impossible for most people to get a piece of Facebook's IPO, and those who do will pay a high price for it. We're not investment counselors at ReadWriteWeb, but if you really want a piece of the Facebook action and didn't buy one on the private market five years ago, it seems like it couldn't hurt to wait a little while for the hype to burn off.

IIT-JEE 2012 result to be declared on May 18

The wait for over 5.6 lakh engineering aspirants who took the IIT-JEE on April 8 will get over on Friday when the results for the most prestigious engineering entrance exams are announced. The maximum number of applications are for IIT-JEE 2012 came from Kanpur zone followed by Madras zone. The exams were held at 1,067 centres across the country for admission to nearly 9,600 undergraduate seats in the 15 IITs.

The 15 IITs are IIT-Bhubaneshwar, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Delhi, IIT-Gandhinagar, IIT-Guwahati, IIT-Hyderabad, IIT-Indore, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Madras, IIT-Mandi, IIT-Patna, IIT-Rajasthan, IIT-Roorkee, IIT-Ropar. Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad along with Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Rae Bareli, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Bhopal, Kolkata, Mohali, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and Indian Maritime University (TS Chanakya, Navi Mumbai, Mumbai campus, Marine Engineering & Research Institute, Kolkata, National Maritime Academy, Chennai, Marine Engineering and Research Institute, Mumbai and Visakhapatnam) also take in students on the basis of JEE results.

The IIT-JEE 2012 was not without controversy with the IITs admitting that two questions in the question paper were incorrect. The examination committee gave zero marks to the candidates for the two questions.

Candidates will get to know their All India Ranks (AIR)/Category ranks through IIT-JEE 2012 websites/SMS/IVRS on or after May 18, 2012.

Only those candidates who attempted both Paper 1 and Paper 2 will be considered for the ranking. Marks in Physics in IIT-JEE 2012 will be equal to marks in Physics section of Paper 1 plus marks in Physics section of Paper 2. Similar procedure will be followed for Chemistry and Mathematics. The sum of the marks obtained in the individual subjects in IIT-JEE 2012 will be the aggregate marks for the candidate.

In order to qualify a candidate needs to score at least 10 per cent marks in each of the three subjects and a minimum of 35 per cent to get a rank.

Is Shahrukh Khan avoiding the IPL final because of Salman Khan?

Shahrukh Khan will not attend the grand closing ceremony of the IPL 5. Though many believe that he doesn’t want to bump into Salman Khan at the event, the real reason behind SRK’s absence is completely different

We missed Shahrukh Khan at the opening ceremony of the ongoing IPL-5. Apparently, Baadshah Khan wanted to avoid bumping into his arch-rival Salman Khan, who was performing at the ceremony. And now we hear that SRK will not be attending the grand finale of the popular cricket tournament either, perhaps because Salman Khan is going to perform then. So even if his team Kolkata Knight Riders wins, Shahrukh in all probability will miss the closing ceremony.

Now this news has set many tongues a-wagging. The long-time rivalry between SRK and Sallu bhai has come to the fore once again, but we think the real reason why SRK is shying away from the ceremony is not just Salman Khan’s act! There’s one more individual SRK would hesitate to see or be seen with.

The IPL finale will feature performances from biggies like Amitabh Bachchan, Beyonce, Salman Khan and Priyanka Chopra! Yes you got that right. Priyanka too will shake a leg at the event. SRK can manage meeting face to face with Salman Khan and handle the situation deftly. But we hear it is Priyanka’s presence that can make things difficult for the RA. One star.

Piggy Chops’ growing closeness to her Don co-star had irked Shahrukh’s wife Gauri. And now if SRK is seen with PC at the same event, the situation could get a bit awkward. It’s better for Shahrukh if people believe that he’s afraid of meeting Salman rather than encountering PC at the do and then face the music at home!

By the way, anyone seen Gauri Khan with her husband lately? Or even without him? It could of course be her interior design project in Pune that is keeping her busy – and invisible – but is there more to that story? We wonder….