14number of days the cable network stalemate went on
3Mnumber of customers affected by the cable stalemate
eightMLB playoff games (and two weeks of football) went off the air source
» Why did the stalemate last so long? Well, Cablevision wanted regulatory intervention from the government, who wanted the two companies to decide things for themselves. Usually, these things last two days, tops. And it’s possible that the long stalemate has hurt Fox’s overall ratings, which are down 17 percent from a year ago. To both of these companies: Who benefits from this?
NOthey think that genes are part of nature and shouldn’t be source
» Why this is a big deal: Well, among other things, this is a change of policy for them, one that could make it harder for the biotechnology and medicine industries to keep innovations unique. We wish that the government would make this distinction on software patents over trivial things. See, that’s where a change in decision is necessary.
Halliburton does not believe that the foam cement design used on the Macondo well was the cause of the incident.
A statement from Halliburton • Responding to the Senate committee report that suggested that their handiwork was a cause of the Gulf Oil Spill. Their take? While Halliburton admits that they didn’t do a key stability test, BP was to blame for a poor design process (an angle they’ve held onto since the spill first happened). And, worse, BP didn’t perform a critical cement bond log test. Also, both BP and Transocean misinterpreted the results of a negative pressure test – a misinterpretation that proved deadly for the workers on the rig. There are a lot of complicated details here, but the point you should take from this is that everyone is blaming everyone else. Which is understandable. Have you seen the rage caused by this oil spill? source
The fact that BP and Halliburton knew this cement job could fail only solidifies their liability and responsibility for this disaster. We now know what BP and Halliburton knew, and when they knew it. And now we know they did absolutely nothing about it.
Rep. Edward J. Markey • Sounding incredibly pissed (for understandable reasons) about the whole situation with the Gulf Oil Spill. Why, you ask? Well, it seems our friends at both BP and Halliburton knew weeks before that the cement mixture they were using to seal the well was unstable and didn’t work particularly well. But, in a brilliant decision which had amazing effects on the Gulf region, they used it anyway. And by “brilliant” we mean awful. And by “amazing” we me disastrous. Heckuva job, BP and Halliburton. Heckuva job. source
$750million GlaxoSmithKline will no longer have after this
$150Mthe amount in fines and forfeiture the company will have to pay to the U.S. government
$600Mthe amount of the settlement that GlaxoSmithKline will have to pay out
$94Mthe amount of the settlement the whistleblower, Cheryl D. Eckard, gets source
» The lesson of the day, guys? It pays to be a lawyer. Or a whistleblower. One thing that doesn’t pay is selling products on the market that don’t do what they purport to do, or are tainted during the manufacturing process.
