NewsScan Daily, 30 April 2004 ("Above The Fold")

NewsScan Daily, 30 April 2004 ("Above The Fold")
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NewsScan Daily is underwritten by RLG, a world-class organization making
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"ABOVE THE FOLD"  
       Google IPO Changes the Rules
       Letter From Larry & Sergey
       Ban on Internet Access Tax Extended
       Musicians Surveyed by Pew Internet & American Life Project
       Rules to Change in 'Young Man's' IT Game

FEATURES        
       Flash Card
       Honorary Subscriber: Sir Arthur Eddington

GOOGLE IPO CHANGES THE RULES
     The waiting is over: Google, the leading company in the Internet-search
business, has filed for an initial public offering (IPO) through which it
will sell about $2.7 billion of shares through an online auction -- a method
chosen in order to put more shares into the hands of individual investors.
The use of an online auction will also restrain the frenzied first-day
trading activity that sometimes result in investment scandals, and will
minimize the key role that investment bankers usually play in deciding who
gets IPO shares. Google has been profitable since 2001. Last year it
generated net income of $106 million, on revenue of $962 million derived
mainly from ads placed on Google's Web site and sites of Google's partners.
(Wall Street Journal 30 Apr 2004)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108328345314098183,00.html?mod=2%5F1085%5
F1 (Sub Req'd)

LETTER FROM LARRY & SERGEY
     Here's the chatty, plain-English letter sent by Google founders Larry
Page and Sergey Brin (both of whom were Stanford University graduate
students when they created the company):
     "Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.
Throughout Google's evolution as a privately held company, we have managed
Google differently. We have also emphasized an atmosphere of creativity and
challenge, which has helped us provide unbiased, accurate and free access to
information for those who rely on us around the world.
     "Now the time has come for the company to move to public ownership.
This change will bring important benefits for our employees, for our present
and future shareholders, for our customers, and most of all for Google
users. But the standard structure of public ownership may jeopardize the
independence and focused objectivity that have been most important in
Google's past success and that we consider most fundamental for its future.
     "Therefore, we have designed a corporate structure that will protect
Google's ability to innovate and retain its most distinctive
characteristics. We are confident that, in the long run, this will bring
Google and its shareholders, old and new, the greatest economic returns. We
want to clearly explain our plans and the reasoning and values behind them.
We are delighted you are considering an investment in Google and are reading
this letter.
     "Sergey and I intend to write you a letter like this one every year in
our annual report. We'll take turns writing the letter so you'll hear
directly from each of us. We ask that you read this letter in conjunction
with the rest of this prospectus." (San Jose Mercury News 30 Apr 2004)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/8550928.htm

BAN ON INTERNET ACCESS TAX EXTENDED
     The Senate has voted 93-to-3 to extend the ban against taxes on
Internet access for another four years, in an agreement brokered by Senator
John McCain (R, AZ), chairman of the Commerce Committee. Senator Ron Wyden
(D, OR) says:  "This is a huge victory for those who want the Internet to be
healthy and vibrant in the years ahead." But Senator Lamar Alexander (R, TN)
cautions that "the debate should serve as a wake-up call to state and local
governments that they needed to make clear their views on what stages of the
Internet connection should be subject to taxes before the issue of the ban
came up again." Earlier in the week President Bush urged Congress to block
taxes on Internet access, because fast, affordable, and widely available
Internet service is key to the nation's  continued economic competitiveness.
(New York Times 30 Apr 2004)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/30/politics/30INTE.html

MUSICIANS SURVEYED BY PEW INTERNET & AMERICAN LIFE PROJECT
     The Pew Internet & American Life Project has conducted an online survey
of more than 2,700 musicians to learn their thoughts on music downloading
from the Internet. The musicians (a diverse group of both high-end and
garage-band performers) clearly don't think the campaign against online
music swappers by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) will
help musicians and songwriters. However, the musicians are deeply divided in
their views about the impact of online file-sharing on the music industry,
and they have differing views on current copyright laws. The survey results,
which will be shared this weekend at the Future of Music Coalition, are not
claimed by Pew to be a truly representative view of all the music makers in
America. (Pew Internet & American Life Project 30 Apr 2004)
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=113

RULES TO CHANGE IN 'YOUNG MAN'S' IT GAME
     A new report by Australia's Swinburne University researchers has
highlighted the under-representation of older people working in the IT
industry, with figures showing that workers aged 45 years and over made up
only 23% of the IT workforce in 2001. The study shows that only 5% of IT
workers were aged between 55 and 64 (compared with 21% in the business and
property services industry), and that younger males were the most likely
group to work full-time in permanent employment, while women aged over 45
years were the least likely. Libby Brooke of Swinburne thinks that the
dramatic drop-off in the number of people in the IT industry after the age
of 45 could be attributable to a range of issues (including the recent soft
jobs market and the "constantly changing skills base" within the IT
industry) and says that the main question is: "How can older workers
continue to be skilled and supported in the workplace?" (The Age, 28 Apr
2004)
http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/26/1082831476098.html (Rec'd from John
Lamp, Deakin U)

*****  

FLASH CARD 
     "Love is metaphysical gravity." (R. Buckminster Fuller)

HONORARY SUBSCRIBER: SIR ARTHUR EDDINGTON
     Today's Honorary Subscriber is the British astronomer Sir Arthur
Stanley Eddington (1882-1944), who was a pioneer investigator into the
internal structure of stars.
     Eddington showed that a star is prevented from collapsing inward under
its own gravitational pressure by the outward pressure produced by the
internal pressure proceeding from the light and other electromagnetic
radiation inside the star, and by the gas of which the star is composed. He
was an early supporter of Einstein's general theory of relativity, which
dealt with the physical laws that govern time, space, mass, motion, and
gravitation. During the 1919 solar eclipse, it was Eddington's observation
team that detected the bending aside of the sun's starlight that Einstein's
theory predicted would occur in the sun's gravitational field. In 1924,
Eddington demonstrated that the brightness of a star is directly related to
its mass. He was a gifted writer who made astronomy come alive for a wide
readership.
     Eddington was born at Kendal in Northwest England, where his father was
headmaster of a Quaker school. When his father died of typhoid in 1884, the
family moved to the Somerset area. His early schooling completed, Eddington
entered Owens College, Manchester, in October 1898, and Trinity College,
Cambridge, in October 1902. At Cambridge he was a prize-winning
mathematician, and fellowship recipient. From 1906 to 1913 he was chief
assistant at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, learning how to use
astronomical instruments and becoming proficient in the practical work of an
astronomer. In 1914 he began what turned out to be his lifelong career as
director of the Cambridge University Observatory and Plumian professor of
astronomy of Cambridge.
     Sir Arthur was among the first to understand the revolutionary
implications of Einstein's theory of general relativity, which he presented
to the English speaking community in his 1920 book, "Space, Time, and
Gravitation." His subsequent treatise, "The Mathematical Theory of
Relativity" (1923), was praised by Einstein himself as the finest
presentation of the subject in any language. Previously, in 1919 he had
organized the eclipse expedition to Africa that confirmed the prediction of
the relativistic bending of light in a strong gravitational field.
      Eddington was a highly honored scientist, receiving no less that 12
honorary degrees from prestigious universities. He was president of the
Royal Astronomical Society (1921-23), the Physical Society (1930-32), the
Mathematical Association (1932), and the International Astronomical Union
(1938-44). He was knighted in 1930 and received the Order of Merit in 1938.
Eddington enjoyed athletics and in his later years he still engaged in
cycling, swimming, and golf. He also had his playful side, displayed when he
penned the following stanza:
                Oh leave the Wise our measures to collate
                One thing at least is certain, light has weight
                One thing is certain and the rest debate
                Light rays, when near the Sun, do not go straight.

See 
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521337097/newsscancom/ref=nos
im for Eddington's "Space, Time and Gravitation: An Outline of the General
Relativity Theory" -- or look for it in your favorite library. (We donate
all revenue from our book recommendations to adult literacy programs.)

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