Funding Source: National Institutes of Health
Funding Type: Discretionary, Grant
Total Available: N/A
Award Ceiling: $200,000
Deadline: 01.07.13
Eligibility: Virtually Unrestricted

Description:
This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), encourages research applications from clinicians, epidemiologists, geneticists, statisticians, and translational researchers working in the field of cancer control and prevention to improve existing models for cancer risk and prognosis by developing innovative research projects that use existing data; develop new models for cancer risk and prognosis; and validate new models and evaluate their utility in research and clinic settings. To explore this opportunity, the NCI Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) and the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) encourage applications for research projects to develop, apply, and evaluate new and existing cancer risk and prognostic prediction models for use by researchers, clinicians, and the general public. This FOA is designed to provide a mechanism of support for investigators to address two major challenges in model development, which are: integrating diverse types of data (e.g., clinical, demographic, pathologic, environmental, epidemiologic, outcomes, and genetic data from varied data marts or warehouses); and ensuring adequate validation (i.e., using multiple separate populations to define sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values).

Here’s my early go at the January update predictions. I’ll release another prediction after the Christmas update. 2 WEEKS UNTIL ARAN!

Masteria Expansion (Krakia, Affluent Tower, etc.): 20%
Evan (New Class): 2%, anything is possible
UI Game Play Enhancements: 20%
Mushroom Castle: 5%
Monster Cleanup PQs: 2%, I guess it’s kinda possible
Ninja Castle: 20%
Ulu City: 20%
Other World Tour Area: 10%

There’s my sloppy predictions. Come back on Dec. 10 for the updated predictions.

Brave Prediction

Chiz will try to regain his credibility as a non-candidate and will give recommendation and effectively drive votes.

Chiz will then shed his yellow color in favor of the Anointed and Yellow will become infamous and hollow.

The Anointed would have then enjoyed the popularity that he was lacking and eventually tops all surveys of the land.

Because of Chiz, Yellow would have then conceded and shrunk his popularity rating.

The Anointed, already blazing with popularity driven partly by his celebrity mate would have then secured his post.

The groom who has secured his spot will make marital announcement and will fill the airwaves with such news regaining popularity after weeks of hiatus since the days of blessed vows.

The season ender would have the Anointed and the Groom swearing on a holy book.

Amazing show isn’t it? All seemed to have been perfectly scripted. Nevertheess, everyone will have a great show.

Girls behaving badly make for great TV and Oxygen has scored the biggest coup with The Bad Girls Club. This particular train wreck — which gives the network some of its highest ratings — brings together seven ladies with some sort of issues that they need work out. Said issues tend revolve around promiscuity, drug and alcohol abuse, and an incessant need to fight.

Hitting is a no-no in the girls’ swanky L.A. mansion and whoever takes a swipe first in an altercation is immediately ousted from the house. The show ends up regularly rotating its cast of characters thanks to the swing-happy household.

With all the strong personalities, “I do whatever I want” mantras and tough-girl attitudes that require proving, it’s inevitable that a few fists will fly during the fourth season of Bad Girls Club. The real question is when. Will the fights start on the first episode, which premieres on 12/1? 60% of voting Predicto Mobile members say yes!

See how this question struck a nerve with players!

What do you think will happen? You can find out by visiting Predicto.com and registering for the text message-based mobile game that has everyone predicting the outcome of sports, pop culture, news and entertainment events. Along with being able to vote on surveys, including this one, you’ll get updates when the answers are revealed.

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“Sorry old boy, washing my hair that night”. Am I talking here about Fiorentina’s fans not being bothered to travel to Anfield for a meaningless game with Liverpool but saving their cash for a more cheerful Christmas? No, not really.

What a difference two months can make. When UEFA Champions League group stage caravan was ready to go, at the end of september, there were inevitable mass-media comments based on false assumptions that the “predictability of outcomes” and “the same sense of inertia enveloping the bloated early rounds” will generate a lack of interest and subsequently empty seats around the grounds, “as there is no obvious reason to desert the shampoo anywhere on the continent” in these autumn evenings apart from some big old clashes such as Juventus – Bayern, AC Milan – Real Madrid or Barcelona – Inter. I’ve cited from an oppinion going on the lines of Michel Platini’s alleged misjudgement to mix Europe’s finest, the cream of the elite, with some no-hopers.

Never mind the sarcasm which peppered the comment, “You can imagine the look on Jose Mourinho’s face when Inter were drawn in the same group as Rubin Kazan”, but some might argue that the chance itself for lesser clubs to face giants of the game is a step up on the ladder. The minnows can improve only by playing against the best in the trade.

And others might not be so imaginative yet they’ve noticed Pep Guardiola’s face when the current UEFA Champions League holders were defeated on Camp Nou by Gokdeniz Karadeniz 73rd minute strike. It was 2-1 for Rubin in Barcelona. Actually, not that much of a shock, after a 0-0 draw in Kazan, when the Russian champion was already sprinting towards back to back domestic titles.

It’s well documented the fact that Russian clubs take advantage on their day from the unusual spring-autumn format of the season. Only on this basis and the champions of the EURO 2008 semifinalist shouldn’t have been taken for granted. Not to mention their clubs resurgence in UEFA Cup, which was won by CSKA Moscow and Zenit Sankt Petersburg in 2005 and 2008 respectivelly. That’s a harvest double the amount of England’s, triumphant in UEFA Cup in the last 25 years only through Liverpool, in 2001, but this record can be adjusted in may, in Hamburg, with The Reds derailed from glamorous  UEFA Champions League to its poorer renamed cousin, UEFA Europa League. 

The shampoo will be deserted on wednesday the 9th of december in favour of a journey to San Siro for an exciting Inter – Rubin Kazan decider, with Jose Mourinho’s men and Karadeniz et co equal on points. What can you ask for more? Goliath hosting David and not the other way round, another inconvenience for Europe’s finest, through the eyes of western commentators, to have to pull their alike extraterestrial buses in some “Eastern European backwater”. Although there are human beings living and buying football tickets even there, apparently it seems a stage not glitzy enough for the uber-entities.

It was often the case – and a repeat scenario won’t be any surprise - that the bigger clubs prevailed despite a stuttering start or a poor form altogether in the group stage. The smart money will be on Jose Mourinho’s coat and hairstyle to be admired on the glamorous stage as well in spring but it has to be pointed out that no team is by any means qualified yet from this supposedly inbalanced group. And that says a lot about minnows’ progress. A 2-2 draw as Inter made in Milano against Dinamo Kiyv will do though for the Italian champions.   

 And who would have imagined that Fiorentina Firenze will go through the group stage for the first time in its history at the expense of a seasoned Liverpool side? Or who would have thought that unknown Unirea Urziceni will shatter Glasgow Rangers on Ibrox Park with a 4-1 which contributed to the elimination of Scotland’s champions before the last group games were played?

These are some questions to ponder about. The shampoo will be in use in Glasgow when Gers will travel to Seville for an academic outing against the top of the group Andalucians. Full credit to Dan Petrescu, once a versatile player not only for Chelsea, now a capable manager providing an answer in his own way to another ironic arrow targeting Michel Platini. The commentator was asking if the name of Urziceni is the acceptable contraction…

Well, it’s just a name and nothing else, no better or worse than Stuttgart. Urzica is a plant, a stinging nettle, and has therapeutic values. While Platini’s ideals, to evolve the game on the virtues of solidarity and universality, mentioned when he took helm of UEFA in january 2007, seem already to bear fruit. Or may be some observers discomfort is coming from the president’s suggestion that 4 representatives for England or Spain might be a bit too much and that indebted clubs might end one day thrown out of the competition.

Some might say that I’m very harsh and punitive on some wrong predictions. But I’ll argue that it’s not about some wild results that unexpectedly occured, say AC Milan – Zurich 0-1, Atletico Madrid – Apoel Nicosia 0-0, Bayern Munich – Bordeaux 0-2 or even Manchester United – CSKA Moscow 3-3, given that just an owngoal in the 93rd minute have undone the 2005 UEFA Cup winners at Old Trafford, where Besiktas has won as well, but it’s about the concept of rightly mixing in the group stage the mighty and powerful with some new faces.

Enough knock-out stages will then follow for the big clubs to grace the loftier stratospheres of the competition. But as New Zealand, Honduras or North Korea sneaked through in the group stages of 2010 World Cup final, so UEFA Champions League can do with a few underdogs. No harm but – as it was proved – some excitement.

And isn’t it ironic that it went full circle, if it is to quote again the commentary: “[...] another fixture to get hearts pumping; Unirea Urziceni, of Romania, versus, VFB Stuttgart”. You bet it is. Nothing else than a win will do for Die Schwaben to go through. And by the way, the club’s name is correctly spelled with f and not F. Verein fur Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e.V.

Some minnows proved that Platini’s competition format has its merits and it’s just fair to point out that a former European champion both at club and national level, with Juventus Torino and France, who won as well both domestic competitions in Italy and his native country, winning Cup Winners’ Cup, UEFA Supercup and Intercontinental Cup among other trophees, might be more of a visionary with the game’s best interests at heart than some pundits can imagine.

Will Jose Mourinho succeed against Rubin? Or will he find the going as tough as Rafael Benitez did with Liverpool?

While being here and casting an eye on the backwater of Eastern Europe, just one more point to make. It’s surprising to say and admit that for all their travel, some football writers must lack some geography knowledge.  Why I’m saying this? The same error is repeated for decades, mistakingly including footballing nations as say Czech Republic or Hungary, you name them, in… Eastern Europe.

Well, it’s a well known fact even at kindergarten in mainland Europe that the continent’s eastern border consists of Ural Mountains, at meridian 60 E, which splits the Russian Federation into two: the European Russia and the Asian Russia. Take any map and you’ll notice that European Russian Federation is extremely wide, occupying the whole eastern front of the continent. That’s Eastern Europe…

Which leaves the lot, Czech Republic et all, nowhere else but in Central Europe. The meridians are giving an even more accurate view of what’s what in terms of positioning on our continent’s map, be it a footballing one or not. The 60 degrees E meridian is roughly where Urals are stretching from north to south, while the 30 degrees E meridian cuts across eastern Finland, Belarus and Ukraine. Meridian O passes Greenwich.

So how comes that Slavia or Sparta Prague, bang on the western side of 15 degrees E meridian, so much closer to London than to Moscow, are… eastern European clubs? It defies everything: maps, geography, logic, truth…

To emphasise the aforementioned point about the imbalance of power in the elitist Champions League, the columnist choose poor Unirea Urziceni as a perfect “example”, comparing David with mighty Real Madrid. Well, geographically wise, the same error… Urziceni, the town surprisingly holding the current domestic national title in Romania, even being in eastern Romania, is actually bang in central Europe, whichever way you want to study the map of real Europe, known at kindergarten. Somewhere at mid distance between the western points of say Ireland and Portugal and the Urals.

Unirea Urziceni, this unknown quantity with an unpronouncable name, was deemed as an unworthy opponent for the big and powerful, with the stroke of a keyboard. It took decades for minor Romanian outfits to break the horrendous state controlled hijacking of national football, with Steaua and Dinamo the big bullies on the scene. CFR Cluj made history last year by winning the title, despite all the machinations of Steaua. Cluj-Napoca, a provincial city from Transylvania, have defied the structures of power.

Unirea Urziceni followed the trend and, from nowhere, finished on top, due to Dan Petrescu’s managerial knowhow. His skills honed in Poland, at Wisla Krakow, the former Sheffield Wednesday and Chelsea London full back hit the jackpot by bringing the title in a place the size of Slough. Actually, I’m exaggerating, as Slough is quite big.

Instead of recognizing the amazing shift of power in Romanian football, where it seems that truth starts to prevail and Steaua and Dinamo find it harder and harder to control through corruption, sleaze and influence, some are questioning, placing in imaginary boxes and taking the mickey out of the newborn stars. And I say stars but they might be only comets, shining just for a while. It’s their moment, so why to pick them as “examples” in this infinite talk about the Champions League format moulded by Platini!? Because it’s convenient for some…

The simple truth is that Urziceni is not in eastern Europe, whateversome Western Europeans want to believe, and that Unirea did a wonderful job in following the footsteps of another minnow, CFR Cluj Napoca. A few more like them and we’ll escape the plague of associating Romanian football with the names of Steaua and Dinamo. 

I just assume that if Steaua would have won the title and represent Romania in Champions League, it wouldn’t have been picked as an “example” in the explanation about the imbalance of power in the group stages of the European elite.  Just because Steaua won the old European Cup in ‘86 with players cherrypicked from various minnows, some are assuming that it must be a powerful enough entity to be worthy of a home and away double with Real Madrid. Well, Olympique Lyonnais visited Bucharest recently and showed the real difference in power.

And if one day Steaua will pay even without interest the unpaid transfer sums for players… recruited in those days in the Army, then the mighty and powerful of the Iron Curtain block will be bankrupt and buried, while the “minnows” derided now will empower themselves at least for the merit of bringing talents to the footballing world.

And please don’t show to anybody at Steaua or Dinamo the UEFA Champions League group table with Urziceni in second place, with 8 points. Spare them of blushing for the 5 points gathered all together, with 3 goals scored and 12 conceded, in the eight games played in UEFA Europa League groups, scratching the bottom…

Predicto TV heads out to the streets of Chelsea and finds out just what are the fun family traditions of Thanksgiving. Is it a loving family around the dinner table? Or will you head out to a restaurant and order pizza? Plus, we get the latest predictions on everything from Balloon Boy to Mariah Carey!

Check out Episode 52 of Predicto TV now!

Here’s 2009 precictions for 2010.

Here’s 2008’s predictions for 2009.

Here’s 2007’s predictions for 2008.

And here’s some past predictions. 

And here’s some more past predictions.

Any conclusions on what was predicted, and what is actually happening?

What do you think about global warming ? don’t you feel that everywhere feels hotter than 10 years ago  ?
in my place , the temperature rise around 3 or 5 C from last 5 -10 years .

this is a picture that i get from a website . i think this is how earth looks like if human always destroying nature .
about this photo ” A dramatic picture taken by Michael Nolan has been dubbed the face of Mother Nature crying on a canvas of melting ice and cascading water on a Norwegian Glacier. Randy Schutt discovered this amazing photo which shows a crying face in an ice cap located on Nordaustlandet, in the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. The tears of this natural sculpture were created by a waterfall of glacial water cascading from one of the face’s eyes, thus painting an alarming picture warning the world about the effects of global warming. Michael Nolan is a marine photographer and environmental lecturer. He has captured this picture while on an annual voyage to observe the glacier and surrounding wildlife.”

this is a quote from Michael Nolan

This is how one would imagine mother nature would express her sentiments about our inability to reduce global warming. It seemed an obvious place for her to appear, on a retreating ice shelf, crying.

because we are talking about human and nature , i just wonder how can we prevent or erase global warming in our world ?
do you think if we plant a tree in our house , can we help earth to prevent global warming ? how about reducing our car usage ?
yeah may be it can help a little bit , but i don’t think we can erase global warming in our world if we still have a factory that always have a ton of waste everyday , or a man who always cutting a tree for his living .

about earth future , which one of these choice is the most appropriate for earth?

1. space colonization
2. computer will be decision maker
3. full of humanoid
4. a computer implanted in human brains
5. speed above light speed
6. back to nature
7. time travel
8. mass extinction

Everyone has a crystal ball/prediction that tells the future for all of us in the real estate market. The only problem is that each one tells us something different.

On just about any given day I can read three conflicting reports on the current & future real estate market.

A very big problem is that even within a single state, what is going on in one town and what’s going on in a town less than 50 miles away can be very different. The home prices in one town may not have fluctuated as high or low like many others. In one town prices may be on the rise and in another not so much.

To top it off, these reports are reported after the fact. What happened any particular quarter or month can obviously not be reported until that quarter or month is over and all the data is collected. By the time the reports are out the real estate market can and often has changed or is well into changing.

Lender guidelines are changing so fast it’s hard to keep up. The prices have been going up but they may come back down. You qualified for a loan but by the time you are able to get an offer accepted you no longer qualify for that same loan. Interest rates are up. Interest rates are down. Interest rates are projected to go up 1% over the next 9 months if…

The only facts I care about are what’s happening in the Riverside area today. In three weeks from now things could be very different. But I do know what I am in the midst of now. I am seeing it, feeling it, and experiencing todays market – today. Waiting until a report for the State or County comes out that includes other areas so is not very accurate for us and is weeks old will not help either of us.

Forget about what may or may not happen (I will go into that more in a future blog). Forget about conflicting reports of recent history. Just give me a call and we will join up together and as members of the same team we’ll get your goals accomplished.

951-756-4051

Predicto awarded a lucky subscriber our $50,000 Grand Prize. This is the largest Grand Prize Predicto Mobile has offered since our launch in 2007. We gave the award to Danielle Thomas, a self-described “native Arizona gal” who joined the Predicto community in August 2008.

“I wish I could find the words to describe how grateful I am for this good fortune and the awesome people at Predicto,” says Ms. Thomas. As someone who loves entertaining at her home with family and friends, she already has major plans for her prize money. “One of the first things I am planning on spending the money on is my front yard,” she says. “Trust me, our landscaping is way overdue!”

Check out Episode 51 of Predicto TV now!

It’s official: Oprah Winfrey will end her long-running talk show in September 2011.

“Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit,” the Queen of Day Time said on Friday. “It’s the perfect number — the exact right time. So I hope that you will take this 18-month ride with me right through to the final show.”

O’s built a billion-dollar empire that includes a magazine, movies and television projects and has been fueled by years of tears and celebrity name shouting. Having conquered broadcast and syndication, Winfrey now has her sites set on OWN, The Oprah Winfrey Network, which is a cable channel that will launch in 2011.

Though she’ll still be busy, we speculate that without the day-to-day filming of her eponymous show that she’ll need something — or someone — to help occupy her time.

Will this be the moment in history when the 55-year-old personality finally weds her long-time beau, Steadman? Of the thousands of voting Predicto Mobile players, 56% of them say no!

“She is the world’s richest woman. She could be satisfied with her value and just wants to relax or take a break. I don’t think she is done publicly,” says member “uwtk6566.”

“Maybe Steadman didn’t want to marry her until she quit the show. Now that that’s almost over, Oprah might be ready to commit herself to something other then fame,” says “bift6651.”

“Oprah and Steadman had a chance to get married. It has nothing to do with the show! She does not want to give him her money,” says “lfzp7531.”

“I can’t see hosting her show as preventing her from marrying if she wanted to. Ending her show wouldn’t make the wedding less of a media target,” says “idjp6724.”

Do you think there will be wedding bells in Oprah’s future? You can find out by visiting Predicto.com and registering for the text message-based mobile game that has everyone predicting the outcome of sports, pop culture, news and entertainment events. Along with being able to vote on surveys, including this one, you’ll get updates when the answers are revealed.

Sign up today — and get more Predicto by becoming a fan on Facebook!

Mayweather-Pacquiao: it's gotta be done

The fans want it.  HBO’s president Ross Greenburg promises it.  Top Rank chief Bob Arum says he would be an idiot to not make it.  Freddie Roach has been wanting it for some time (and thinks Pacquiao will definitely KO Mayweather).  Rugged Man demands it**.  The fighters?  Well, they haven’t really said they don’t want it.

Pacquiao will always espouse that crappy ‘I let my promoter decide who I fight’ line, but at least he has said he’s willing to fight anybody and when asked point blank in a recent interview he said for the record that he wants to fight Mayweather.  And besides, if both Arum and Roach are determined to make it happen, then that effectively equates to Manny wanting the fight.

Therefore, the way I see it, whether the ultimate boxing match between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr will happen may depend on which of Floyd’s two nicknames he wants to adopt: ‘Money’ or ‘Pretty Boy’.

If Floyd is all about the ‘Money’ (as he claims to be), then there’s no way this fight won’t get done.  Initial reports indicate that a fight between the two biggest names in boxing at the moment who also happen to be the top 2 pound-for-pound fighters in the world (how rare is that?), would surely challenge if not smash the PPV record set by De La Hoya-Mayweather in May 2007 (2.44 million PPV buys).  There is not a single fight out there between any two living fighters that would generate anywhere close to the type of money that Pacquiao-Mayweather would make.  Even with a 50-50 purse split (discussed further below), Mayweather would make more than double what he could make going 70-30 with any other fighter in the world.

On the other hand, if Floyd wants to remain a ‘Pretty Boy’, he can keep on ranting about how boxing ‘is a business’ or ‘doesn’t work like that’ and that he won’t do business with Bob Arum (his former promoter with whom he had a difficult falling out).  Or, as Freddie Roach best put it: “When [Mayweather] says he wants 65 percent of the revenue, that’s like saying he doesn’t want to fight.”  Not saying that Floyd can’t get the ‘Money’ and remain a ‘Pretty Boy’ by outclassing Pacquiao without taking a beating, but there’s no way Floyd thinks that it will be a walk in the park for him.  He’s seen Diaz, De La Hoya, Hatton and Cotto.  All of them (except Hatton who went out too early) looked like they had been through meat grinders after the fight.  His father, Floyd Sr, is so traumatised by Pacquiao’s dominance that he has accused the Filipino superstar of being on performance-enhancing drugs.

So does Mayweather even want the fight?

I think he does, even if it’s just for the money.  As made abundantly clear on his heated interview with Rugged Man, Mayweather doesn’t care about his legacy.  Actually, he already believes that his legacy (as one of the greatest of all time) is set in stone.  Perhaps, but if he doesn’t end up fighting Pacquiao or (to a lesser extent) Shane Mosley, that legacy will be tarnished forever.  Mayweather has already carved out a reputation as a dodger of dangerous opponents (regardless of whether the reputation has merit).  A single bout against Pacquiao which Mayweather says he can easily win will go a long way towards erasing that reputation, and more importantly, will make Floyd more money than he’s ever seen.  No one doubts that Mayweather has the ability to beat Pacquiao, which is what makes his reluctance so frustrating.

Maybe it’s just posturing to put himself in the best position when the time comes to talk about the purse split.  Maybe he just wants to stir up more controversy and paint himself as the ‘bad guy’ for more publicity for the fight.  Maybe’s he’s genuinely afraid of Pacquiao.  Or maybe he’s just a douche.  Regardless, Floyd Mayweather Jr has been mouthing off about Manny Pacquiao since the Filipino’s impressive victory over Miguel Cotto.

“I’m in a no-win situation,” Mayweather said.  “If I beat Manny Pacquiao you know what they are going to say?  ‘You are supposed to beat him, you are Floyd Mayweather, you are the bigger man.’  If I knock him out they’ll say, ‘You’re supposed to knock him out [because] he’s been knocked out before.’  I’m in a no-win situation and when I beat him no one is going to be surprised because he’s been beaten before.  Whatever I do to Pacquiao has been done before.  He’s been beaten on three occasions.  And if I knock him out I don’t want the world shouting because he’s been knocked out twice before.”

When Floyd Mayweather Jr says fighting Pacquiao is a “no-win situation” for him, all it is doing is make him look like he is looking for a way out.

Floyd has also been trying to shift the blame to Pacquaio in case the fight doesn’t happen.  As quoted in Dan Rafael’s blog at ESPN, Mayweather says that Pacquiao doesn’t want to fight him because Manny knows he can’t beat Floyd.  Despite not having said once that he wants to fight Pacquiao, Mayweather is now saying that Manny has not come out and said publicly he wants a piece of Floyd.  This may be true, but Pacquiao doesn’t need to.  Arum makes Pacquiao’s fights and Arum has made it unequivocally clear that he will do everything he can to make the Mayweather bout happen.  In contrast, according his own words, Mayweather is his “own boss”, speaks for himself and “tell it like it is.”  This actually makes Floyd look worse because it just means it has been his own personal choice to dodge all the top, prime welterweights, and that if a fight with Pacquiao doesn’t happen, it’s because Floyd doesn’t want it to.

In response, Bob Arum simply said: “All I want to say is that my guy [Pacquiao] has said, ‘We’re here, we’re ready to fight Mayweather.’ “  This was confirmed in the link above to the video interview.

In the end, I don’t think Floyd really has a choice.  Neither does Manny for that matter.  If either one of them backs out from this fight to take on another boxer (or retire), especially when all the stars are seemingly aligned, there will be so much public backlash and animosity against that man that it will have a permanent impact on his reputation and career.

Purse and weight negotiations

The logical purse split for a fight of this magnitude is 50-50.  Most commentators are now of the opinion that this will not be difficult to achieve given the amount of money that is at stake.

From Pacquaio’s side, the man doing the negotiating is obviously Top Rank’s Bob Arum.  And on Mayweather’s side, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy will represent Floyd (as Floyd has signed a 5-fight deal with them).  Al Haymon and Leonard Ellerbe are Floyd’s advisers who will liaise closely with Schaefer to ensure the negotiations reflect Floyd’s intentions.

There will probably be a bit of back and forth with both sides arguing that they should get he lion’s share of the purse.  Mayweather’s camp will argue that he is undefeated and that his PPV numbers against their common opponents (De La Hoya, Hatton and Marquez) were better than Pacquiao’s.  On the other hand, Pacquiao’s camp will argue that Manny’s most recent PPV numbers (the Cotto fight did at least 1.25 million buys) are more impressive than Floyd’s (the Marquez fight did 1.05 million PPV buys) and that when Mayweather fought De La Hoya and Hatton, the global financial crisis hadn’t struck yet.  Plus, Marquez really only made a name for himself because he was in two very tight contests against Pacquiao.

I believe they will settle on 50-50 in the end.  Both Mayweather and Arum’s egos are too big to allow the other to get even a couple of percentage points on them.  And honestly, I think 50-50 is a fair result.  There is no doubt that Pacquiao is the bigger international superstar at the moment and is by far the more exciting fighter, but Floyd is an equally big draw because he’s also a crossover star and people would pay to see him lose.

As for the weight, there shouldn’t be much controversy.  147 pounds.  Pacquiao may try to seek a Cotto-esque weight of 145, but as we have seen Mayweather’s fight with Marquez, Floyd doesn’t really care about the contracted weight restrictions.  The weight should be a big advantage for Mayweather as we know that Manny maxes out at around 148 on fight night whereas Floyd, who refused to be re-weighed for the Marquez fight, should be at least 155.

Preliminary prediction

So assuming this megafight will happen some time around May 2010, it’s time to make a preliminary prediction.

I just want to preface this by saying that there is no point comparing the Manny Pacquaio of the past to the Manny Pacquiao of now.  Too often I see people downplaying Pacquiao’s chances in this fight based on what happened to him more than 10 years ago (when he suffered 2 KO losses and a draw as a weight-drained Flyweight or Bantamweight) , against Erik Morales (who won their first encounter via decision but was knocked out in the 2 rematches), and against Juan Manuel Marquez (with whom Pacquiao had a draw and split decision win over, though both were questionable).  Morales was Pacquiao’s last loss and it was more than 4 years ago when Pacquiao was at super featherweight (130 pounds).  The two fights against Marquez were at featherweight (126 pounds) and super featherweight (130 pounds).  Pacquiao is a true 140-147 pounder now, and he is much better at this weight.  He has somehow managed to increase his speed, power and endurance, and he is now significantly more experienced, patient, and obedient when it comes to following Freddie Roach’s game plans.  There’s just no comparison.  If he fought the fat, old Marquez we saw against Mayweather now…well, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.

As for the Pacquiao-Mayweather, it’s a tough call, but I see three possible scenarios.  The first is that Floyd Mayweather Jr is simply too big and too skilled, and just outboxes Pacquiao with his superior reach and defense to claim an easy points decision victory, kind of in the same mould as the Marquez fight.  Floyd has a 5 inch reach advantage (72-67) on Pacquiao, and is the naturally bigger man with phenomenal speed and an awkwardness that will frustrate any fighter.  Pacquiao has never fought someone as quick, skilled and big as Mayweather, and it could prove to be a gap too wide.

However, I cannot see Floyd knocking out Pacquiao unless Manny loses his cool and is tagged by a big counter (like when Mayweather KO’ed Hatton).  In his last few fights, Pacquiao has demonstrated a vastly improved defense and plenty of caution and discipline.  He no longer jumps in recklessly and rarely leaves himself wide open, so the chances of a counter-punch KO are slim.  Besides, Pacquiao showed in the Cotto fight that he can take a punch at welterweight.  I have since watched the Cotto fight a couple more times, and Manny really got tagged with some nasty shots.  Stiff jabs, jolting uppercuts, ripping body blows.  And he took them all.  Pacquiao had a busted ear drum to go with bad swelling from the fight.  He could have used his trademark in-and-out style all night to beat Cotto but instead chose to stand his ground and take the shots head on.  As he said, he wanted to test Cotto’s power, and he passed the test with flying colours.  There is no way Mayweather hits harder than Cotto.  With Floyd’s brittle hands, there’s just no way.

On the other hand, the second and third scenarios I see both have Manny Pacquiao emerging as the victor – either by unanimous decision or KO.  Pacquiao has comparable hand speed to Mayweather and possibly better foot speed, and definitely more power.  Floyd may be a defensive specialist, but Manny is an offensive specialist.  I can see a situation where Pacquiao utilises his seemingly endless energy to pressure Mayweather all night and keep raining rapid combos down on him.  Floyd may bob and weave and shoulder roll and block, but every blow that connects will count.  Floyd may be fantastic at toying with guys that can only throw 1 or 2 punches at a time from orthodox angles, but it remains to be seen how he can handle someone like Pacquiao – a tireless freak with speed and power in both hands that attacks in 3, 4, 5, 6 punch combinations from angles you just don’t expect and don’t see coming (just ask Miguel Cotto).

This assessment is somewhat similar to what Freddie Roach said on ESPN:  “Whatever Floyd gives us, we’ll take.  Manny will [hit] him on the arms, the shoulders, wherever he can, and Mayweather will feel it.  There’s no way Mayweather can win the fight running, and that’s what he does best.”

Zab Judah was probably the closest thing to Pacquiao that Mayweather has fought, but he was too undisciplined and has a soft jaw.  And let’s not forget, Judah hit Mayweather with quite a few shots early on in that fight (including a genuine knockdown that wasn’t counted), but didn’t have the resiliency or stamina to carry it through to the end.

Jose Luis Castillo, who lost 2 decisions to Mayweather (the first of which some thought he won – though Mayweather had a shoulder injury at the time), sparred with Pacquiao in the lead up to the Cotto fight, and said that Pacquiao is faster and hits way harder than Mayweather.  And this is the Pacquiao at 144 pounds compared to the Mayweather at lightweight (135 pounds).  Maybe he’s still bitter about his first fight with Mayweather, but if there’s any truth to what Castillo said, then Mayweather could be in for a long night.

Accordingly, in my Pacquiao-wins scenario, if Floyd runs, I see him losing a decision.  If he stands his ground, I see him getting knocked out.

So which of the 3 scenarios is most likely?  At this stage I have to go what would appear to be the most unlikely – Pacquiao by KO!  People may say that Mayweather’s style will give Pacquiao fits but the same could be said the other way around.  If Pacquiao stays patient and keeps the pressure on and is disciplined with his approach, I think he can win.  Otherwise it just means Floyd Mayweather Jr is really that good.  And after watching some of Floyd’s past fights on YouTube, I would not be surprised if he is.  The guy is truly amazing.

At the end of the day, I have a feeling that the Cotto fight will be the reason Pacquiao will win.  Floyd took an easy fight in ‘lightweight’ Marquez, and Pacquiao took the hard fight in Cotto, and I believe that will ultimately be the difference.

** For those who don’t already know, Rugged Man is an emcee who recently OWNED Mayweather on radio for 20 minutes.  Essentially, he took it right to Mayweather from the start about avoiding the big fights and said what has been on every non-Mayweather-ballhugger’s mind for years.  YouTube ‘Rugged Man’ and ‘Mayweather’ and listen to it.  It’s not only revealing but also extraordinarily hilarious.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt breaks down the future of his search engine and speaks about his views on the Future of Technology

Need a job? Watch closely that health care is moving from 15% of our economy to 21% investment pushing the hiring expansion here, so get your education in medical related fields…

Google Health is Confidential: How it Works?

Ergonomidesign

Access Images and news archives on this futuristic firm.

If the names Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and The Count don’t bring back memories that make you smile, you must have missed out on Sesame Street, the beloved children’s show. Either that or you didn’t have a TV when you were a child.

Created by the Sesame Workshop (or more fondly remembered as the Children’s Television Workshop) back in 1969, the show was built on the idea that television — long believed to be an entertainment device — could actually serve as an educational tool. Within years, the show would become a worldwide cultural phenomenon. It would be lauded for its ability to teach young people the basics of reading and mathematics, and promote good values among children.

The belief, as author Malcolm Gladwell wrote about was that “if you could hold the attention of a child, you can educate them.” That theory seems to hold water and a big part of the massive popularity of Sesame Street has been the characters in the show. Sesame Street is famous for the Muppets characters on the show, all created by Jim Henson. These puppets are a large part of the success of Sesame Street and characters such as Ernie, Bert, Grover, Kermit the Frog and more all have their own place in the collective memories of people everywhere.

This popularity has led to spin-off merchandising. Toys, clothes, lunch boxes, shoes and other accoutrement for children were all licensed and made money. This even extended to the world of video games, beginning with games such as Big Bird’s Egg Catch for the Atari 2600, and continued with Sesame Street: Big Bird’s Hide and Speak for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and Elmo’s Number Journey for the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo 64.

Formerly an entertainment medium for children, the video games industry now caters to older demographics. In recent times, video games were said to carry a certain social stigma, following high-profile media discussions about them exposing children to violence, sex and other mature themes. Games for children have floundered critically, not just because of the more mature tastes of players, but also because most games for children have been criticized as inferior gaming experiences.

As Sesame Street celebrates its 40th Anniversary, will the beloved children’s show make a return to the video game world by December 2009? Predicto.com’s users have weighed in and, as of today, 68% of respondents have voted with a resounding Yes!

What do you think? Visit Predicto.com, speak up and be part of the Predicto Mobile community now!

THIS IS A SERIES OF VIDEO’S ON TRANSHUMANISM

In honor of FM2030 my UCLA professor and friend.

The Blue Brain Project is the first comprehensive attempt to reverse-engineer the mammalian brain, in order to understand brain function and dysfunction through detailed simulations.

About the Blue Brain Project

The cerebral cortex, the convoluted “grey matter” that makes up 80% of the human brain, is responsible for our ability to remember, think, reflect, empathize, communicate, adapt to new situations and plan for the future. The cortex first appeared in mammals, and it has a fundamentally simple repetitive structure that is the same across all mammalian species.

The brain is populated with billions of neurons, each connected to thousands of its neighbors by dendrites and axons, a kind of biological “wiring”. The brain processes information by sending electrical signals from neuron to neuron along these wires. In the cortex, neurons are organized into basic functional units, cylindrical volumes 0.5 mm wide by 2 mm high, each containing about 10,000 neurons that are connected in an intricate but consistent way. These units operate much like microcircuits in a computer. This microcircuit, known as the neocortical column (NCC), is repeated millions of times across the cortex. The difference between the brain of a mouse and the brain of a human is basically just volume – humans have many more neocortical columns and thus neurons than mice.

This structure lends itself to a systematic modeling approach. And indeed, the first step of the Blue Brain project is to re-create this fundamental microcircuit, down to the level of biologically accurate individual neurons. The microcircuit can then be used in simulations.

The singularity approaches us quickly and we should embrace it. Trends are increasing exponentially and at some point in time, a singularity will inevitably occur. These are some very cool future projects: X seed 4000, ultima tower, space elevator, nanotechnology, bug spies, Dubai s underwater hotel, world sports center, UAVs, solar sails, future ziggurats, moon and mars base, the Illinois, mega city pyramid and many many more..

Source

How long was the depression? 24 months, 3 times as long and 3 times as deep then any for the past 60 years…

Deflationary trends are predictable due to the over supply from the previous period of easing credit allowing for over production and unsold inventories prior to the decline, as that inventory will continue to depress pricing until sold.

G20 will provide tripling of investments capital to head off the global collapse. Contraction not as bad as last year yet lingering onward, with many financial institutions becoming insolvent more bad news to come as a number of countries currencies collapse, as the bottom is not to be seen until the end of the 2011…

No one predicted the current crisis as accurately as Nouriel Roubini. His frequently bleak forecasts have earned him the nickname Dr. Doom. In his speech at Osec’s Forum for Swiss Foreign Trade and Investment, Roubini fully lived up to his name.

Source: Credit Suisse Group AG

Its opening weekend, the movie 2012 topped the box office charts by pulling in $65 million. In the film, Jackson Curtis and his family attempt to survive the catastrophic events taking place all around the world–from earthquakes in California, to erupting volcanoes in Yellowstone, to overwhelming tsunamis in Washington, D.C., the world falls apart around the ears of the Curtis family, and in front of our eyes.

But the movie 2012 is only one prediction in a slew of other prophecies regarding the events of December 21, 2012–the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar and the date of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. Author Jim DeKorne of The Cracking Tower: A Strategy for Transcending 2012, explains:

Within the past twenty years a growing body of literature has emerged to advise us of a major cosmic alignment focused around the date of December 21, 2012. Many of these prophecies are deduced from the Mayan calendar, others from shamanic vision quests using psychedelic drugs. Some groups imply this date will mark the end of the world [Filmmakers of 2012: Raise your hands]; a few declare that humanity will ascend (apparently en masse) to a higher level of awareness; still another asserts that we’ll either be absorbed or destroyed by a computerized ‘Artificial Intelligence.’

So what’s the answer? Jim DeKorne has a piece of advice: whatever happens on in 2012, “it is totally irrelevant to your private welfare.” The world’s future is not in your hands, but your own future is. The major refrain of the book–”Do the Work in the space in which you find yourself”–is one of the many times when DeKorne begins with a overwhelming topic–The End of the World–and zooms in to the reader. And even though The Cracking Tower delves into a discussion about the end of the world later on, it first sets up a framework for us to evaluate its meaning.

Applying the principles of Perennial Philosophy—concepts that appear in every world religion and correspond to the paradigm of human awareness—Jim DeKorne urges us to “Wake up, Turn inward, Meet Essence, Do the Work in the space in which you find yourself.” He explains:

‘Wake up’ means to extract your focus from the prevailing consensus trance. ‘Turn inward’ means to become acquainted with your personal sector of hyperspace…’Meet Essence should be self-explanatory. ‘Do the Work in the space in which you find yourself’ is the mantra my own Essence gave me many years ago. For me, it means to work from the center f the Cube of Space…It’s where the ego and the Self meet….The first phase of the Work is to determine your dharma (duty). After that, you can just do it to the best of your ability. It’s really all you came to do here anyway.

The world may very well end on December 21, 2012, but those who have read The Cracking Tower know that the world within is more valuable, more precious, and more rewarding than the world outside.

What is your Work? How are you accomplishing it in the space in which you are finding yourself?

The Evan race is now in KMST! It’s the second in what seems to be a group of 5 new classes in development over there at Nexon Korea. Evan seems to use a dragon as its main mode of attack, and does NOT use the combo system that Aran uses.

Evan is expected to come to the official KMS server in December, and we’ll have to wait and see where it will go from there.

If I must predict a release date for Evan, I’d say around June or July. We have lots of content to go before Evan!

I’ve just recently sat through director Roland Emmerich’s latest opus, 2012, and thought I’d review it on here. I’d like to say that I was amazed and overawed by the spectacle of it all, but sadly that’s not the case. At the end of the film I felt similar to when I’d sat through ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ in Newcastle in 2004. Both films were big on action and had so many special effects crammed into them they were virtually just one big special effect. However, both left a rather unsatisfied feeling and that’s how I felt as the credits to 2012 rolled. For anyone who hasn’t yet seen it, the plot is, divorced dad and limo driver to wealthy Russian oligarch John Cusack finds out that the world, as we know it, is about to end. Dragging his ex wife and kids along, plus her new husband, they set out to make sure they survive this new planetary catastrophe. Which, unsurprisingly, they do. The problem I have is, in addition to having to suspend your disbelief 350,000 feet above the floor, the story just isn’t there. The idea that the Mayans predicted the world will end in 2012 (and that could be a whole other post in itself) is, in my opinion, interesting enough to sustain a better plot than the one that is unravelled in 2012, which ends in a much similar way to The Day after Tomorrow and Independence Day, with humanity living to fight another day and blah, blah, blah. Aside from the plot having more cheesy scenes than a block of wensleydale, it’s a film straight out of a tired old Hollywood that’s relying more and more on CGI and special effects to bring it box office returns rather than plot and story. But don’t get me wrong, it has its good points. In addition to Cusack, Woody Harrelson and Danny Glover also star in it and all turn in good, decent, performances. Also, it’s over 2 and a half hours long but this does fly by. Go see it if you like your films big on effects and like the actors starring in it. It is entertaining, it’s just not that spectacular. Thanks for reading.

Bayesian Analysis just published on-line a paper by Hongmei Zhang and Hal Stern on a (new) Bayesian analysis of the problem of estimating the number of unseen species within a population. This problem has always fascinated me, as it seems at first sight to be an impossible problem, how can you estimate the number of species you do not know?! The approach relates to capture-recapture models, with an extra hierarchical layer for the species. The Bayesian analysis of the model obviously makes a lot of sense, with the prior modelling being quite influential. Zhang and Stern use a hierarchical Dirichlet prior on the capture probabilities, , when the captures follow a multinomial model

where the total number of observed individuals,

and

forcing the coefficients of the Dirichlet prior towards zero. The paper also covers predictive design, analysing the capture effort corresponding to a given recovery rate of species. The overall approach is not immensely innovative in its methodology, the MCMC part being rather straightforward, but the predictive abilities of the model are nonetheless interesting.

The previously accepted paper in Bayesian Analysis is a note by Ron Christensen about an inconsistent Bayes estimator that you may want to use in an advanced Bayesian class. For all practical purposes, it should not overly worry you, since the example involves a sampling distribution that is normal when its parameter is irrational and is Cauchy otherwise. (The prior is assumed to be absolutely continuous wrt the Lebesgue measure and it thus gives mass zero to the set of rational numbers . The fact that is dense in is irrelevant from a measure-theoretic viewpoint.)

When it comes to cooking, few culinary contenders can compete with Martha Stewart. Classically trained and ever the appreciator of fine ingredients, Stewart has cornered the market of making the perfect meal — and of homemaking in general, with her books, TV shows and radio programming.

Not equipped (or energetic enough) to hang on Martha’s level? Lucky for you there’s an alternative in the form of Rachael Ray. The bubbly personality lends her touch to her trademark 30-minute meals, as well as a continually growing empire that also includes books and a slew of TV shows.

Usually cool and cordial, Stewart recently gave an interview to Nightline that has some in the blogosphere calling her an ice queen. During the gabfest, the interviewer goads Martha until she reveals her less-than-stellar appreciation for Rachael’s cuisine and her inability to bake.

The scathing review continued, with Stewart saying that Ray is a much better personality than a chef.

Martha’s recognition, no matter how negative, might be the only consolation in this one-sided back-and-forth, but nonetheless, Ray remains positive and even says she’d rather have on of Stewart’s meals instead of her own.

Yikes!

Martha is quick on the uptake, though, and we’re wondering how long it will be before she apologizes to Rachael. Will she show up on Ray’s show to say she’s sorry and do it in person by 2/20? 53% of voting Predicto Mobile members say yes!

See what voters had to say about the possibility of seeing Martha apologize to Rachael on TV!

What do you think will happen? Well, you could watch the show, but there’s one fun way to find out … make sure you visit Predicto.com and register for the text message-based mobile game that has everyone predicting the outcome of sports, pop culture, news and entertainment events. Along with being able to vote on surveys, including this one, you’ll get updates when the answers are revealed.

Sign up today — and get more Predicto by becoming a fan on Facebook!

21 December 2012 is the only date in history yet which is signicant to so many cultures and religions as the prediction of the end of world. If you just bring your fingers on your keyboard and type ” End of world 2012″ on your homepage, the search will end up in umpteen results as compared to any other searches. This issue has gained utmost importance in a really short lapse of time. The internet has been filled with this content. The question remain now ” Is the world really going to end on 21 December 2012?” This question remains without any answer for some while others try to justify it.

First and foremost, the Mayan calendar ends on the Gregorian calendar date of December 21, 2012, which most people believe is the total end of civilization, as we know it, while others believe it is simply a change of enlightenment in this current time. Many theories have sprung up about this end date, ranging from the laughable, to the religious, to the scientific.

The real cause of climate changes, volcanoes activity, intensification of the seismic activity etc., is the planet Eris’s getting closer to our solar system, intermediary named 2003 – UB – 313, and known in Antiquity under various names as: Nibiru, Marduk, Nemesis, Hercolubus, the Gods Planet, the Planet of the Empire, the Planet of the Cross or the Red Planet.

Biblical prophets as well as Catholic and other Christians scholars have for a long time written about the “End Times” and the second coming of Jesus Christ (Quetzalcoatl) to establish the New Jerusalem. What is not generally known is that many of the Old and New Testament Biblical prophecies of the “End Times” correlate amazingly with the religious beliefs of the Mayas and other Indigenous civilizations of the Western Hemisphere. These similarities are more apparent when one analyses the “End Times” account of St. John in the last chapter of the Bible called Revelation and the account of the “Fin de los Tiempos” in the Popol Vuh which is considered to be the Mayan (as well as the Mexica/Aztec) Bible.

Albert Einstein once said : “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

Apocalyptic for sure. We haven’t reached that point yet, but some worrisome indicators suggest dramatic drops in the bee population of the US are likely to impact crop production. This is not a small agricultural sector that is being impacted either. In the US bees pollinate more than $14 billion worth of seeds and crops each year.

The disappearing bee phenomena isn’t restricted to the US. In Europe countries are experiencing varying degrees of what investigators describe as “colony collapse disorder” (or CCD). Countries effected include Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. However the most serious losses have occurred in the US. On the West Coast keepers have seen bee population losses in the 30 to 60 percent range. On the East Coast and Texas it gets as high as 70%. These are catastrophic drops for an industry that considers around a 20% population decline to be an off-season norm.

The numerous theories on the end of world 2012 all give an indication about the probability of the cataclysmic events on Earth on 21 December 2012. To believe it or not depends on you and your research. This issue is demanding serious attention. Open your web browser and embark on this exciting adventure. Watch out for the video clips on this prediction and be amazed to see the numerous theories on this predicted doomsday. It’s your turn to decide whether it is a myth for you or a reality.

May God bless our planet with a long and healthy life.