Poetic Cities

Cities and Thrones and Powers
By Rudyard Kipling

Cities and Thrones and Powers,
Stand in Time's eye,
Almost as long as flowers,
Which daily die:
But, as new buds put forth
To glad new men,
Out of the spent and unconsidered Earth,
The Cities rise again.

This season's Daffodil,
She never hears,
What change, what chance, what chill,
Cut down last year's;
But with bold countenance,
And knowledge small,
Esteems her seven days' continuance,
To be perpetual.

So Time that is o'er -kind,
To all that be,
Ordains us e'en as blind,
As bold as she:
That in our very death,
And burial sure,
Shadow to shadow, well persuaded, saith,
"See how our works endure!"

Glimpses of Chicago

Glimpses of Cleveland

More On UK-California Tech Economy Cooperation

In an effort to catalyze innovation between technology clusters in the US and UK, UC San Diego and UC Irvine have entered into an agreement with the SETsquared Partnership to link research and commercialization efforts. SETsquared, a UK-based business accelerator, was awarded a $2.6 million grant by the UK's Department of Trade and Industry. Grant funds will seed collaborative applied research projects in high-growth areas such as the life sciences, new materials, stem cells, and tissue engineering.

"The San Diego region has one of the highest concentrations of high-tech companies in the United States and the third largest concentration of biotech companies in the nation," said California State Senator Christine Kehoe. "The state of California, the sixth largest economy in the world with a gross state product of nearly $1.5 trillion, is committed to improve collaborations between universities such as the SETsquared Partnership to develop leading-edge research results that will lead to economic development and job creation."

The SETsquared Partnership is a collaboration among the UK Universities of Bath, Bristol, Southampton and Surrey, generating successful enterprise and entrepreneurship in southern England. With over 6,500 researchers and 8% of the UK's academic research funding, the Partnership represents the largest single source of academic knowledge transfer in the UK. The Partnership has listed four companies on the UK's Alternative Investment Market with a combined valuation of over $265 million, raised more than $53 million in follow-on funding for spinouts, and supported more than 170 successful tech start-ups.

You could do this too.

Read more here.

UK-San Diego Academic Bridges for Growth

The University of Southampton is set to share in one of four awards granted from the Department of Trade and Industry to expand its partnership work with top-ranked research and enterprise universities in southern California. The £1.5 million grant has been awarded to the SETsquared Partnership, the collaboration of the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Southampton and Surrey.

The Partnership is the largest university enterprise collaboration in the UK. Announced last year (2005) by Lord Sainsbury, the DTI's Science and Innovation Minister, the grant will facilitate greater cooperation between the Partnership and the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and the University of California Irvine (UCI) in technology transfer, covering the high-growth research and industry areas of telecommunications, life science, the environment and new energy, nanotechnology, and new materials.

Maybe your community can do the same.

Read more here.

U..S. Census Quarterly Services Survey Summary

Information The Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau announced today that the estimate of U.S. information sector revenue for the first calendar quarter of 2006, not adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading-day differences, or price changes, was $249.2 billion, a decrease of 3.8 percent (± 0.5%) from the fourth quarter of 2005 and up 4.4 percent (± 0.7%) from the first quarter of 2005. The third to fourth quarter percent change was revised from 4.9 percent (± 0.5%) to 4.7 percent (± 0.5%). The telecommunications industry estimate was $91.7 billion, a decrease of 0.5 percent (± 0.3%) from the fourth quarter of 2005 and up 2.1 percent (± 1.0%) from the first quarter of 2005. The publishing subsector estimate was $68.2 billion, a decrease of 7.9 percent (± 1.0%) from the fourth quarter of 2005 and up 6.3 percent (± 1.8%) from the first quarter of 2005.

Professional, scientific, and technical services The estimate of U.S. professional, scientific, and technical services revenue for the first quarter of 2006, not adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading-day differences, or price changes, was $275.9 billion, a decrease of 0.6 percent (± 2.0%)* from the fourth quarter of 2005 and up 10.0 percent (± 1.8%) from the first quarter of 2005. The third to fourth quarter percent change was revised from 8.3 percent (± 2.0%) to 8.7 percent (± 2.0%).

Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services The estimate of U.S. administrative and support and waste management and remediation services revenue for the first quarter of 2006, not adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading-day differences, or price changes, was $123.0 billion, a decrease of 1.0 percent (± 1.7%)* from the fourth quarter of 2005 and up 9.6 percent (± 2.3%) from the first quarter of 2005. The third to fourth quarter percent change was revised from 3.6 percent (± 1.7%) to 3.8 percent (± 1.7%).

Hospitals and nursing and residential care facilities The estimate of U.S. hospitals and nursing and residential care facilities revenue for the first quarter of 2006, not adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday or trading-day differences, or price changes, was $203.0 billion, an increase of 2.9 percent (± 0.7%) from the fourth quarter of 2005 and up 5.4 percent (± 1.5%) from the first quarter of 2005. The third to fourth quarter percent change was revised from 1.0 percent (± 0.8%) to 0.8 percent (± 0.7%).

Read more here.

Latest on the U.S. Economy

U.S. consumer prices excluding food and energy rose more than forecast for a third consecutive month, increasing speculation the Federal Reserve will keep raising interest rates beyond this month.

The 0.3 percent jump in the so-called core consumer price index reported by the Labor Department in Washington today exceeded the median forecast of a 0.2 percent increase by economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Core inflation over the last three months was the highest since 1995. Including food and fuel, prices climbed 0.4 percent.

More here.

Airbus Update

Shares of Airbus' parent company plummeted Wednesday after new delays in the delivery of the A-380 superjumbo raised questions about the company's management and strategy.

The European planemaker said that the A-380's safety certification and delivery to its launch customer, Singapore Airlines, will occur later this year as scheduled. But, because of production troubles, Airbus now projects nine deliveries in 2007, down from the 20 to 25 previously projected. The 70 jets the company now expects to deliver in 2008 and 2009 are about 10 fewer than previously expected.

Read more here.

Baja, Mexico on the Rise

According to Area Development Magazine: "Baja California, one of 33 states in the republic of Mexico, is located in the Northwest quadrant of Mexico, immediately south of California. The events of September 11, and the subsequent consolidation in the North American economy, created a shakeout that resulted in portions of several industrial sectors transferring production from Mexico to China. Consumer electronics was particularly impacted. Since 2004, however, a system of global production sharing has emerged with many firms establishing manufacturing platforms in both China and Baja California.

The biggest manufacturing turnaround in Baja California’s history is being driven by:

• logistics proximity to the U.S.;
• rising fuel costs; and
• high productivity in Mexico."

Source: Area Development Magazine

New Downtown LA Development Plan Announced

Developers recently unveiled plans for a $750 million, 1,000-room hotel complex near the Los Angeles Convention Center.

KB Urban, a subsidiary of publicly traded KB Home, and Anschutz Entertainment Group, the developer of Staples Center, will team up with Marriott International Inc. to build a five-star Ritz-Carlton and a four-star Marriott Marquis in a 54-story, 2-million-square-foot project topped by 216 luxury condominiums.

The project, scheduled to open in 2010, would anchor L.A. Live, the 27-acre sports-entertainment complex considered the linchpin of downtown's redevelopment.

Read more here.

Barging into the Casino Business

Now the Houston-based subsidiary of McDermott International Inc. is betting on a new revenue stream from casino operators. The company's Morgan City, La., fabrication yard has begun construction on two specialty barges for Harrah's Entertainment Inc.

Read more here.

At times, light within...

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Immigrants' Role in Entrepreneurship

Immigrants far outpaced native-born Americans in entrepreneurial activity last year while African Americans were the only major ethnic or racial group to experience a year-to-year increase in the rate of entrepreneurship, according to a national assessment of entrepreneurial activity by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The rate of entrepreneurial activity for immigrants in 2005 was 0.35 percent compared to 0.28 percent for native-born Americans, according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. In other words, approximately 350 out of 100,000 immigrants started a business per month in 2005 compared to 280 out of 100,000 native-born Americans. These rates represent approximately 85,000 immigrants creating new businesses per month and 379,000 native-born individuals creating new businesses per month.

Source: Kauffman Foundation

Create a New Ending

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."

--Maria Robinson

Is a U.S. Recession Ahead?

"Wall Street's latest scare about the U.S. economic outlook may simply be a healthy, if sobering, reality check, but many experts doubt the United States is on the verge of its first recession in five years.

Financial markets' tendency to discount either feast or famine is a major factor in the recent wild swings which have seen stock markets go from betting on a never-ending boom just one month ago, to fearing a hard economic landing this week."

Source: Reuters

The Economist on the World Outlook

Click here to listen to a series of podcasts on world economic outlook.

Good one!

The Economist on Japan

"Junichiro Koizumi, the prime minister and head of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), will have a hard time implementing any major policy changes before he leaves office in September. The focus will shift to Mr Koizumi’s potential successors and whether they can repair deteriorating relations with South Korea and China. The next prime minister may also face pressure to pull Japan’s self-defence forces out of their helping role in Iraq. Japan’s economic recovery should continue, though investors may be shaken if the Bank of Japan abandons its ultra-loose monetary policy too abruptly. A group of forecasters polled by The Economist predict that GDP will rise by 3% in 2006 and 2.4% in 2007, with prices rising by 0.4% in 2006 and 0.6% in 2007."

Source: The Economist