Mediaboss Marketing

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Europe's leading space company, Astrium, is "generally interested" in acquiring one of two U.S. digital imagery providers, GeoEye Inc (GEOY.O) or DigitalGlobe Inc (DGI.N), and would look carefully at a deal if the price was affordable, a top Astrium executive told Reuters on Tuesday.

Evert Dudok, chief executive of Astrium Satellites, said the company's parent, Europe's EADS (EAD.PA), was actively looking for takeover targets in the United States, and either of the two companies would be a good fit with Astrium, which is ranked No. 3 -- behind them -- in the geospatial information market.

"We are generally interested, but we have to really see whether that makes any sense," Dudok told Reuters after a panel at the Satellite 2012 conference. "Should such an occasion arise at a price that is affordable, one would certainly look at it."

Dudok's comments came after Sean O'Keefe, chief executive of EADS North America, underscored the company's determination to pump up its U.S. revenues through acquisitions, alliances or mergers, especially in the services and satellites sectors.

Dudok noted that Astrium last year acquired Vizada, a Paris-based satellite communications firm, and was building a strong geo-information business that provides earth observation, radar and other data to customers around the world.

He said both GeoEye and DigitalGlobe did a great deal of work for the U.S. government, which could make an acquisition by the European company more difficult, but he said an acquisition in that area would allow Astrium to streamline market approaches and combine databases for expanded commercial sales.

GeoEye and DigitalGlobe shares have come under pressure in recent weeks amid reports that the U.S. government plans to halve or significantly scale back its expected procurement of $7.3 billion in digital imagery over the next decade.

GeoEye shares closed up $2.54, or 13 percent, at $22.34 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange on Tuesday after a conference call with top executives on the company's 2011 earnings.

That is up from a year low of $17.98, but still well below a 52-week high of $42.38.

Go here to see the original:
EADS' Astrium interested in U.S. digital imagery firms

BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire -03/13/12)- Digital Lumens today announced that it has been selected to participate in the Advanced Lighting Controls (ALC) Incentive Program, an initiative driven by the Sacramento Municipal District (SMUD) to reduce lighting energy costs by an estimated 50% - 75% for local businesses.

Effective now and running through February 2013, the program will offer rebates totaling $1 million in federal stimulus funds to help customers take advantage of wireless lighting controls for dramatically improved efficiency. With its Intelligent Lighting System, comprised of individually smart LED lighting fixtures that are wirelessly networked and centrally managed, Digital Lumens provides industrial customers with energy savings of up to 90% -- exceeding the program's estimates. Digital Lumens has the only solution on the qualified product list that is a fully integrated system of LED lighting fixtures and controls.

Digital Lumens is working with its network of Authorized Partners to identify and enable lighting upgrades for buildings that range from 20,000 to 100,000 square feet in size. Each eligible building may receive up to 80% of the project's total cost from SMUD, to a maximum of $100,000.

"This program has been the culmination of very thorough research and is designed to meet SMUD's ambitious energy efficiency goals set by our Board of Directors," said Dave Bisbee, program manager of SMUD's Customer Advanced Technologies group. "SMUD provides energy solutions for our customers that help them reduce usage and save money."

"The ALC Program provides a direct path to energy savings that customers might not have otherwise taken, and we commend SMUD for facilitating the adoption of energy-efficient industrial lighting," said Mike Feinstein, Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Digital Lumens. "While LED lighting is proven to reduce energy use, the Digital Lumens solution doubles the savings with a complete, wirelessly networked system allowing for highly customizable control. This complete solution, from LED lighting fixtures to controls, ensures interoperability and cost effectiveness. With support from progressive utilities like SMUD, there has never been a better time for facilities to upgrade to our Intelligent Lighting System -- a one-time project that will reap recurring operational savings."

Prospective customers who may be eligible for the ALC Program should contact info@digitallumens.com.

About Digital LumensDigital Lumens develops Intelligent LED Lighting Systems that are proven to reduce industrial customers' lighting-related electricity expenses by up to 90%. With this System -- smart LED lights, wirelessly networked together and centrally controlled -- the company is defining a new class of networked LED lighting that maximizes both delivered light and energy efficiency. Digital Lumens has been recognized as a 2011 World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer and a 2011 Global Cleantech 100 Company. For more information, please visit http://www.digitallumens.com.

About SMUDAs the nation's sixth largest community-owned electric service provider, SMUD has been providing low-cost, reliable electricity for more than 65 years to Sacramento County (and a small portion of Placer County). SMUD is a recognized industry leader and award winner for its innovative energy efficiency programs, renewable power technologies, and for its sustainable solutions for a healthier environment. SMUD is the first large California utility to receive more than 20 percent of its energy from renewable resources. For more information, visit smud.org.

Link:
Digital Lumens Chosen by Sacramento Municipal District to Help Boost Adoption of Advanced Lighting Controls

PHOENIX, AZ--(Marketwire -03/13/12)- Digital Caddies (Pinksheets: CADY.PK - News)

With the evolution of tablet technology and wireless connectivity, the landscape and opportunity to open up an advertising and social media channel to the golfer via the golf course has never been better.

Digital Caddies provides golf courses an end to end solution utilizing tablet technology and wireless connectivity to provide rich golf-related content that is valuable to both the golfer and the golf course. The content for the golfer is specifically designed to promote interaction between the golfer and device such as valuable playing information, real-time distance information, scorekeeping and much, much more. This keeps the golfer engaged for over 4 hours at the average golf course and thus provides an excellent opportunity for advertisers to interact directly with golfers in ways that have not been possible before.

Investment Highlights:

Advertising Opportunity

Market Pricing for Online Ads

The Golfer Demographic According to the National Golf Foundation, the most trusted source of information and insights on the golf business, there are almost 30 million golfers in the United States and they play an estimated 500 million rounds of golf. They comprise a highly affluent demographic:

DIGITAL CADDIES BUSINESS TO BUSINESS MODEL Digital Caddies will provide qualifying golf courses a FREE end-to-end solution utilizing tablet technology installed in the golf cart and wireless connectivity to provide rich golf related content that is valuable to both the golfer and the golf course. The content is specifically designed to promote interaction between the golfer and device while they play their round of golf keeping them engaged for over 4 hours. This provides an excellent opportunity for advertisers to interact directly with golfers in ways that have not been possible before.

Key Statistics

ABOUT DIGITAL CADDIES Digital Caddies (www.digitalcaddies.net) provides various golf-related content and services. The primary service is a tablet-based system installed on golf carts at golf courses. The interaction between the golfer and the device provides the unprecedented opportunity to collect valuable player information and utilize web- and mobile-based advertising to reach the affluent golfer directly while they play the game.

Read more:
Digital Caddies to Leverage Lucrative Online Ad Market

"The man in the moon came down too soon, and asked his way to Norwich, They sent him south and he burnt his mouth By eating cold pease-porridge."

-- Traditional nursery rhyme

It's human nature to see shapes and patterns all around us, and ascribe a meaning to what is actually just a random coincidence. The phenomenon is called pareidolia, and includes things like seeing the Virgin Mary in a piece of burnt toast, for example.

But some examples are more persistent than others -- like the Man in the Moon. It's not a real face, of course, just a quirk of how the dark areas (the lunar maria, or "seas") and lighter highlands of the lunar surface are arranged. Yet the illusion is powerful enough to have a Western mythology dating back thousands of years, inspiring all manner of nursery rhymes and literary references.

ANALYSIS: Did the Moon Conspire To Bring Down Titanic?

And there's some interesting physics at work here as well, at least according to a new paper in the journal Icarus. See, the Man in Moon is always staring at us here on Earth -- or, if you want to be all science-y about it, those particular features of the lunar surface always face Earth.

It happens because the moon is locked in what's known as a "synchronous orbit": for every orbit it completes around the Earth, the moon also rotates exactly one time. So we always see that face.

But it didn't necessarily have to be that way; why is this side of the moon, and not the other, the one that faces Earth? There had to be a 50/50 chance of it being one way or the other. Or so astronomers have thought -- until now.

Two Caltech astronomers, along with an Israeli colleague, think that there's a perfectly good explanation why the Man in the Moon always faces us -- and it's not due to the proverbial coin toss. Rather, Oded Aharanson, Peter Goldreich, and Re'em Sari propose that it's due to the fact that the Moon spun around its axis much faster in the past than it does today. And the rate at which it gradually slowed its pace could explain why it eventually became locked in the current orientation.

Read the rest here:
Why the Man in the Moon is Always 'Looking' at Earth

Want to be sure you have the perfect March Madness bracket this year? Not possible.

If you were to stack the amount of paper it would take to fill in every bracket with every possibility among the 68 teams who will play 67 games over the next three weeks, it would not fit inside the universe.

So says Michael Weimerskirch, a math professor at Augsburg College who gets paid to think about numbers and the way they affect the Kentuckys, Butlers and VCUs of the world.

But there's this small glimmer of hope. Weimerskirch says you could simply start flipping coins. The odds of finding perfection that way by flipping a coin to pick the winner of every game: 1-in-100,000,000,000,000,000,000. For those keeping score at home, that's 1-in-100 million trillion.

Or, to put it another way: "You're just as likely to win Powerball three consecutive times as you are to picking a perfect bracket by flipping a coin," Weimerskirch says.

Of course, the NCAA tournament is all about making the impossible seem possible. Butler, a school with only 4,000 kids, made it to the finals two years in a row. VCU started the tournament last year as a No. 11 seed and wound up playing in the Final Four.

For those setting their sights on winning their friendly office pool, there are, in fact, ways to improve your odds.

Weimerskirch suggests looking at the number of people in the pool. The more people in the pool, the more you must stray from picking a slate of straight-line favorites. Kentucky, by the way, is the odds-on pick at 2-1, followed by North Carolina at 6-1.

"It's one thing to pick favorites to win the whole thing, but you have to know others are picking the favorites to win the whole thing, too," he said. "So, if you're in an office pool with 1,000 people in it, you need to do something a little bit unusual."

He recommends selecting a No. 14 seed to make it to the Sweet 16. Or an 11 to go to the Final Four, a la VCU.

Continued here:
Picking perfect bracket a tough numbers game