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CCS, Henry Ford to show off new takes on Tin Lizzie
Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn has partnered with the College for Creative Studies to display new takes on the Model T. Eleven clay models representing Model Ts of the future will be on display throughout the summer. Challenged by Ford Motor Co. and channeling the spirit of Henry Ford, eleven students enrolled in the CCS Transportation Design program worked with Ford designers, historians and futurists, for 16 weeks forming concepts that add style, affordability, and improved sustainability to the boxy “Tin Lizzie.” The students created a Model T for the future that is more aerodynamic in shape, weighs less and uses environmentally friendly materials. More.
Mosaic depicting galaxy installed at UM-Dearborn
 The latest addition to the Science Learning and Research Center at the University of Michigan-Dearborn is a circular mosaic representing the “Cigar Galaxy” or M82, which is found in the constellation Ursa Major when observed from Earth. The mosaic was installed in the floor of the building’s atrium, directly under the astronomical dome three stories up. The actual photo involved was a combination of images from the Hubble Space Telescope and a telescope in London, taken by Ruth Dusenbery, director of the Science Learning Center. More.
MSHDA launches new cable TV show
"House Michigan!," a new cable show designed specifically for Michigan residents, will air on cable stations statewide beginning in July. The new program from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority will provide practical information for Michigan residents regarding home ownership, affordable rental housing, ending homelessness and creating vibrant cities and neighborhoods. House Michigan! has been released to more than 80 cable stations statewide and is expected to run multiple times throughout each month. New shows will be produced monthly. More.
THE WORLD IN TECH
Stats show seniors increasingly Web-savvy
If Sen. John McCain is really serious about becoming a Web-savvy citizen, perhaps Kathryn Robinson can help. Robinson is now 106 -- that's 35 years older than McCain -- and she began using the Internet at 98, at the Barclay Friends home in West Chester, Pa., where she lives. "I started to learn because I wanted to e-mail my family," she said -- in an e-mail, naturally. Blogs have been buzzing recently over McCain's admission that when it comes to the Internet, "I'm an illiterate who has to rely on his wife for any assistance he can get." And the 71-year-old presumptive Republican nominee, asked about his Web use last week by the New York Times, said that aides "go on for me. I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself." How unusual is it for a 71-year-old American to be unplugged? That depends how you look at the statistics. Only 35 percent of Americans over age 65 are online, according to data from April and May compiled by the Pew Internet Project. But when you account for factors like race, wealth and education, the picture changes dramatically. "About three-quarters of white, college-educated men age over 65 use the Internet," says Susannah Fox, director of the project. "John McCain is an outlier when you compare him to his peers." More.
Web networking photos come back to bite defendants
Two weeks after Joshua Lipton was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman, the 20-year-old college junior attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the party showed him in a black-and-white striped shirt and an orange jumpsuit labeled "Jail Bird." In the age of the Internet, it might not be hard to guess what happened to those pictures: Someone posted them on Facebook. And that offered remarkable evidence for Jay Sullivan, the prosecutor handling Lipton's drunken-driving case. Sullivan used the pictures to paint Lipton as an unrepentant partier who lived it up while his victim recovered in the hospital. A judge agreed, calling the pictures depraved when sentencing Lipton to two years in prison. Online hangouts like Facebook and MySpace have offered crime-solving help to detectives and become a resource for employers vetting job applicants. Now the sites are proving fruitful for prosecutors, who have used damaging Internet photos of defendants to cast doubt on their character during sentencing hearings and argue for harsher punishment. More.
iPhones hot even in places Apple has yet to reach
In the Soviet days, Russians asked their American friends to bring blue jeans, rock records and other Western goods into the country. Today Russians can buy almost anything they want here -- but they are still begging for one item: Apple Inc.'s slick iPhone. The new iPhone went on sale in 21 countries July 11 and will soon be released in 70 nations. Officially, Russia and China are still on hold -- neither last year's original iPhone nor the updated model have been launched in those countries because Apple is still negotiating with mobile service providers. And yet analysts estimate that only the U.S. has more iPhone users than Russia and China. In both countries, the device enjoys super-exclusive status, thanks to a thriving market for "unlocked" iPhones adapted for local use. Even Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has been seen using one. Moscow and Beijing have become an iPhone trader's paradise. Russian Web sites were offering the new 3G iPhone for about $1,200, six times the $199 base price in the U.S. More.
Big shareholder backs Yahoo board over Icahn
One of Yahoo Inc.'s largest shareholders is supporting the re-election of the Internet company's incumbent board, delivering a significant blow to an attempted coup being led by activist investor Carl Icahn. With Friday's announcement, Legg Mason Capital Management Inc. became the biggest major Yahoo shareholder to publicly declare it will vote for the nine current directors - a group that has been under fire since Microsoft withdrew a $47.5 billion takeover bid 2 1/2 months ago in a disagreement over price. Legg Mason, a mutual fund manager, owns 4.4 percent of Yahoo's stock. More.
Stocks: AMD, Google, Microsoft lead tech sector retreat
Technology stocks closed lower Friday led by some of the sector's biggest players including Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. AMD fell 12.3 percent after reporting another quarterly loss. Google sank 9.8 percent after its results fell short of Wall Street expectations. And Microsoft was down 6 percent on a weak outlook. The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP) fell 29.52 points or 1.3 percent to close at 2,282.78. Despite the technology retreat, the broader market managed to advance with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) rising 49.91 points, or 0.4 percent, to 11,496.57. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index ($SOX) fell 2.49 points or 0.7 percent to 365.87 and the Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index (MSH) fell 2.79 points or 0.5 percent to 554.18. The Amex Pharmaceutical Index ($DRG) rose 1.11 points or 0.4 percent to 306.47, while the Amex Biotech Index (BTK) fell 6.46 points or 0.8 percent to 795.43. The S&P 500 ($SPX) eked out a gain of 0.36 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,260.68. Telecommunication services led sector gains among the index's 10 industry groups, up 1.3 percent, followed by energy, up 1.1 percent, and financials, up 0.9 percent. Crude futures fell, extending losses into a fourth straight session, with the benchmark contract down more than 11 percent for the week. Crude for August delivery declined 41 cents, or 0.3%, to end at $128.88 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Elsewhere on the Nymex, gold futures fell more than 1 percent, as gains in the dollar prompted traders to sell the precious metal, with gold for August delivery dropping $12.70 to end at $958 an ounce.
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Matt's Favorites
Once again a production note: I'm taking a week's vacation starting Thursday night, so next week will see publication of a "GLITR Lite" of just a few top stories a day by my WWJ Newsradio 950 colleagues James Melton and Marisa Fusinski. Please be kind. On to a few local extras: the Society of Manufacturing Engineers has turned over an engineering certification program to another organization; and St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor is studying a possible connection between migraine headaches and a tiny heart defect. Elsewhere: venture capital investment held steady in the second quarter despite a wobbly economy; there will be no deal between mobile telephone companies in South Africa and India; profits tumbled at Sony Ericsson, and the company announced plans to cut 2,000 jobs; Google shares plunged Friday after the company's earnings failed to meet expectations; Purdue University researchers take a step toward low-cost LEDs for energy-efficient home lighting; researchers at Harvard are looking at new drugs that could replace heart surgery; a massive wind project of nearly $5 billion is planned for Texas; despite a Congressional ban, the Air Force spent terror-fighting funds on cushy flight 'capsules' for the top brass; Facebook is suing a German rival for copyright infringement; the advertiser list at a women's blogging conference shows just how mainstream it's become; and the tech giants are actually doing something about information overload.
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