Effect of Donald Sterling’s Remarks On LA Clippers’ Playoff Performance

Now it is crystal clear exactly where the Clippers owner stands. Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers has had people wondering for years. His character was always in question the way he would hire models to flank him for parties and parade around the locker room before games pointing to players getting dressed as if they were his show ponies. Then came the remarks this week. However, a long time Clippers employee asked, “have you ever typed his name into Google? The first word that pops up next to his name is ‘racist.’ That didn’t happen this week. It’s been the first word that pops up after his name for years.” The fact that Sterling is a known racist has been public knowledge for sometime because he had to pay a record high $2.725 million in November of 2009 in order to settle a dispute that he discriminated against Black and Hispanic families, including children, in apartment buildings that he owns in the Los Angeles area.

Despite this disappointing past Donald Sterling was able to stay out of trouble for a few years by excusing himself from the limelight. He went without the parties and stopped parading through the locker room from about 2010 until last Friday. The release of his remarks on Friday was a shock because many had forgotten the ugly underbelly of the owner because he had laid low for so many years. On Friday, TMZ released audio of Sterling making some very racist remarks to his girlfriend, Stiviano. This is even more complicated because Sterling is married. His wife, Rochelle is always at the games by his side, however many knew about Stiviano, who also frequented the Clippers games. The TMZ audio confirms what many had heard about Sterling through anecdotes and first-hand experience over many years. In addition to putting up with his behavior, now players have to respond to the many fans who are livid about Sterling’s behavior. Many of the players have stated that they are just as outraged and have to defend staying with the team by saying they are not playing for Sterling.

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Pfizer Attempting to Buy AstraZeneca

The United States drug maker, Pfizer Inc. is working on a bid to buy the UK Company AstraZeneca Plc. So far two of their bids have been rejected and Pfizer is hoping that AstraZeneca will come around to the tune of $100 billion.

AstraZeneca stands as Pfizer’s rival in the UK so it would be a great help to the US Company to absorb their business. Additionally, it would increase their output of cancer drugs and cut costs for the company and give them tax savings. It makes sense why Pfizer is pushing so hard for the deal, despite AstraZeneca’s wriggling and evasions.

The potential of such a deal going through has boosted the stock of both companies. Shares in AstraZeneca have jumped 17 percent after news broke that Pfizer was pursuing them again. Pfizer’s stock also rose slightly, about 1.5 percent, in US premarket trading. If this deal were to go through it would be the largest foreign acquisition of any British firm. Additionally, it would mark the largest ever, pharmaceutical deal. The Chief Executive for Pfizer, Ian Read said that “society wants products faster, they want more products and they want value…Industry is responding to society’s request for increased efficiencies and productivity.” If the merger goes through Pfizer would be able to get more cancer medication through the pipeline, as well as other drugs to keep up with the reference ‘need of society’ to have lots of medication available quickly. Additionally, they may be able to drive down some of their cost so that they can keep up with the generic drug alternatives.

So far, AstraZeneca has been unwilling to talk to Pfizer about the deal, despite more money and repeated attempts from the US Company. However, Pfizer is not giving up hope because they really believe that this merger makes the most sense for both their company and AstraZeneca investors.

Google Joins Forces with SunPower to Fund Solar Homes

Today, Google and SunPower announced a partnership in the form of a $250 million fund designated for financing solar leases, in which homeowners pay for solar electricity rather than for the solar panels that are put on their rooftops. Google announced it would contribute roughly $100 million, while SunPower is on the hook for the remaining $150 million.

The deal is a boost for SunPower's residential leasing program, which it launched in 2011, and has seen some nice growth through its network of dealers that market those leases and installation services, though this business line has yet to significantly contribute to SunPower's revenues. Roughly 20,000 customers across the country have signed on with SunPower for home leases, which can run up to 20 years.

Google is hardly new to the solar power/housing markets. Google has set up other funds in the past of at least $355 million for residential leases through companies like SolarCity and Clean Power Finance.

Google is highly public in its support for renewable and sustainable energy projects. Google has inked deals in the form of wind power projects in the U.S. as well as abroad. Yesterday, Google had announced that it had signed a contract with MidAmerican Energy to buy up to 407 megawatts of wind energy in Iowa.

There has been considerable activity in the residential solar market, having outpaced the commercial and utility segments in 2013, and is starting to attract more conventional electric power companies that produce power with fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. Amongst these companies are Edison International and NextEra, and some of them are not just taking stakes in companies that sell solar services to customers. Some of these companies are actually buying solar companies so as to enter the market themselves.

Due to increased competition and activity in the residential market as well, there have been a series of acquisitions made by solar companies, such as SolarCity and Real Goods Solar, to improve their sales and marketing, as well as to increase market share and speed up installation speeds. However, analysts suspect that the industry growth is ready to hit a wall in the near future.

More Evidence of Link Between Periodontal Disease and Cardiovascular Risk

There has long been evidence that periodontal issues and gingivitis have had links to issues with cardiovascular health, even cardiovascular disease. A new, large multicentre study drives this point home. The report was released on April 9, 2014 and used over 15,000 patients with chronic coronary heart disease and information about their dental health.

The results showed that many of the 15,000 showed indicators of periodontal disease like very few remaining teeth or gum bleeding. These symptoms went along with cardiovascular disease and were also accompanied by socioeconomic risk factors. One the other hand those patients who had fewer risk factors of CVD like lower glucose levels, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, systolic blood pressure, and waist circumference had more teeth and few dental issues. In these, more cardiovascular healthy, patients they were also less likely to smoke and have Diabetes and had more teeth. These patients usually had achieved a higher level of education, used more alcohol and had more stress at work.

This report was published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology. They asked those in the study to report how many teeth they had (non, 1-14, 15-20, 21-25, or 26-32 ALL). They also asked them to report on whether their gums bled when they brushed their teeth. 16% of those in the study reported that they had no teeth, a very high number. 41% said they had less than 15 teeth remaining, and just over a quarter of those surveyed said they had experienced gum bleeding when brushing their teeth. There were some differences when it came to different ethnic groups. The highest rate of both tooth loss and gum bleeding came from Eastern Europe. Of everyone questioned, nearly 70% claimed to be smokers.

The facts cannot be ignored. Cardiovascular disease is greatly affected by gum and mouth health. The only way to stop this is to increase education, try to fight poverty, and convince people that for their own self interest they need to stop smoking and to brush and floss. Cardiovascular disease is one of the biggest killers on the planet and anything we can do to prevent more people from dying is worthwhile.

The Interworking of the Facebook New Feed

Have you ever wondered how facebook decides what goes on your news feed? Is everything that someone posts on your account? Turns out the answer is no. Not all of your friends activities pop up on your newsfeed because there is a limited amount that they can post on your news feed per day because there isn’t enough room to post everything, plain and simple. The problem is that the competition for news feed space is getting more and competitive, as there is more traffic on facebook. Last year, the number of pages that people “liked” went up by over 50%.

So as traffic increases, facebook makes decisions about how to filter what they are going to put on your news feed, but they don’t usually communicate this to their customers, which as resulted in some criticism of the social media giant. This is especially upsetting to small businesses that have encouraged fans/consumers to “like” their page and who pay for facebook ads only to have their reach and advertising power filtered, seemingly randomly, by facebook. Facebook claims that with the amount of likes and friends that people have, the posts flooding into their news feed could be up to 15,000 per day. To help readers handle this, they do not treat each post equally and therefore filter some out. Facebook aims to show the most engaging posts to the viewer. It is in their best interest to keep the viewer entertained, so they don’t want to fill your news feed with things you do not want to see.

To filter your news feed, facebook uses an algorithm, known as EdgeRank. This analyzes relevance to the users using over 100,000 different indicators of importance. Some of the most powerful factors are how popular a post is (how many likes), how popular past posts have been by the same creator, what kind of post it is (photo, status update, video, etc.), and how recently it was posted. It comes down to the more successful and popular you are on facebook the more you earn space on friend’s news feeds. In some ways it feels like going back to high school.







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Technology Increases Cosmetic Surgery for Men

The tech industry is booming and as a result, more and more men in Silicon Valley are utilizing cosmetic dentistry (i.e. veneers) and minor plastic surgery like liposculpture. The surge in technology means more competition for high-powered jobs in these companies and men seem to feel like they have an extra boost if they improve their appearance. At Vistnes Plastic Surgery in Palo Alto, CA, Dr. Dean Vitnes said he’s definitely noticed more men coming into his practice for some non-surgical treatments like botox and Ulthera or some small, simply surgeries like eyelifts or liposculpture. Dr. Hartley, who specializes in veneers says the uptick in male patients definitely has to do with competition at work. Hartley says, “You have five or six guys vying for the same job and one looks handsome, has a nice smile, dresses well and looks sharp- he’s going to have an edge.” Dr. Hartley also points to a change in social values. Now it’s not just women who are judged for their looks, it’s men too. Hartley attributes this to living in an era where people in companies have to create social media profiles with pictures, conduct videoconferences and deliver keynote addresses. Appearance matters.

Dr. Hartley touts his product, veneers, as necessary because your smile is the first thing people look at. Just four veneers cost $8,000-$10,000 but many men are making the investment to help their careers and improve their looks when they are up on the big screen delivering a speech at conferences.

In the last generation men would never consider going under the knife, but now it is more socially acceptable and men are trying to appear younger to stay competitive in their fields. Dr. Vistnes says, “the whole paradigm for how we’re looking at the aging process is changing.”







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