Billion Dollar Bracket

from Greg

I love science prizes money to inspire innovation. Programs like X Prize Foundation, Fundamental Physics Prize, Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, and Yin could end up saving the world one day.

Quicken Loans will award $1,000,000 for a perfect bracket and each to the contest's 20 most accurate 'imperfect' brackets submitted by qualified entrants. Eligible contestants must be 21 years of age, a U.S. citizen and one of the first 10 million to register for the contest. The company will also be directly donating $1 million to inner-city Detroit and Cleveland non-profit organizations that are dedicated to improving the education.

Why the NCAA tournament? They are trying to find better predictive models tat crunch big data. Sport's data offers the easiest way to challenge future genius and is widely available.

Read the tablet certified Halftone 2 photo app HERE

from Quicken Loans

Quicken Loans' Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge Offers $1 Billion Grand Prize for Perfect College Basketball Bracket

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway insures grand prize while nation's fourth largest mortgage lender guarantees an additional $2 million in prizes for 20 most accurate brackets submitted nationwide and $1 million for funding of inner-city educational efforts.

Detroit-based Quicken Loans, the nation's fourth largest mortgage lender, has joined forces with Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway to offer a chance at a $1 billion prize for completing the perfect bracket in this March's men's college basketball championship tournament.

Any qualified entrant who correctly enters the contest and predicts the winners of every game in the tournament will share the total $1 billion prize paid in 40 annual installments of $25 million. Alternatively, the winner(s) may elect to receive an immediate $500 million lump sum payment or share in that lump sum payment if there is more than one perfect bracket submitted.

"We've seen a lot of contests offering a million dollars for putting together a good bracket, which got us thinking, what is the perfect bracket worth? We decided a billion dollars seems right for such an impressive feat," said Jay Farner, President and Chief Marketing Officer of Quicken Loans. "It is our mission to create amazing experiences for our clients. This contest, with the possibility of creating a billionaire, definitely fits that bill."

In addition to the potential grand prize, Quicken Loans will award $100,000 each to the contest's 20 most accurate 'imperfect' brackets submitted by qualified entrants in the contest to use toward buying, refinancing or remodeling a home. 

In conjunction with the 'Billion Dollar Bracket Challenge', Quicken Loans will also be directly donating $1 million to inner-city Detroit and Cleveland non-profit organizations that are dedicated to improving the education of young Detroit and Cleveland residents.

"Millions of people play brackets every March, so why not take a shot at becoming $1 billion richer for doing so," added Buffett, Chief Executive Officer of Berkshire Hathaway, who is insuring the contest's grand prize.  "While there is no simple path to success, it sure doesn't get much easier than filling out a bracket online.  To quote a commercial from one of my companies, I'd dare say it's so easy to enter that even a caveman can do it."

Free registration for the 'Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket' will begin on Monday, March 3rd, 2014 and runs until Wednesday, March 19th, 2014.  All participants registering prior to the tournament selection process will receive their brackets the evening of Sunday, March 16, 2014 when entrants can begin filling out their bracket.

To be eligible for the $1 billion grand prize, entrants must be 21 years of age, a U.S. citizen and one of the first 10 million to register for the contest. At its sole discretion, Quicken Loans reserves the right and option to expand the entry pool to a larger number of entrants. Submissions will be limited to a total of one per household. All qualified entrants are eligible for the 20 1st prize awards of $100,000 for selecting the competition's top 20 most accurate "imperfect" brackets. 

Full contest rules along with more information about 'Quicken Loans Billion Dollar Bracket' will be released and published in the days and weeks leading up to the men's collegiate March championship tournament.

For contest updates, and to share what you would do with a billion dollars, visit www.facebook.com/quickenloans and on Twitter using the hashtag #billionbracket.

About Quicken Loans

Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc. is the nation's fourth largest retail home mortgage lender. The company closed a record $80 billion of volume across all 50 states in 2013. Quicken Loans generates loan production from web centers located in Detroit, Cleveland and Scottsdale, Arizona. The company also operates a centralized loan processing facility in Detroit, as well as its San Diego-based One Reverse Mortgage unit. Quicken Loans ranked #1 in customer satisfaction among all home mortgage lenders in the United States by J.D. Power for four consecutive years in 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010.

Quicken Loans was named among the top-30 companies on FORTUNE magazine's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list for the last 11 consecutive years, ranking #5 in 2014. It ranked in the top-15 of Computerworld magazine's "100 Best Places to Work In Technology" for the past nine years, ranking #1 in 2013. The company moved its headquarters to downtown Detroit in 2010, and now more than 8,500 of its 10,000-plus team members work in the city's urban core. For more information about Quicken Loans, please visit www.quickenloans.com, on Twitter at @QLnews, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/QuickenLoans.

About Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire Hathaway and its subsidiaries engage in diverse business activities including property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, utilities and energy, freight rail transportation, finance, manufacturing, retailing and services. Common stock of the company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading symbols BRK.A and BRK.B.

Related articles

• Madness? Perfect bracket can net $1 billion
• Warren Buffett Will Give You $1 Billion If You Fill Out Perfect 'March Madness' Bracket
• Buffett's Berkshire Insures Billion Dollar NCAA Bracket Challenge
• Warren Buffett and Dan Gilbert Offer $1 Billion for Perfect March Madness Bracket

Add to Cart View detail

Digital Comics 1-15-14

from Greg
Great comics this week. The return of Marvelman, a comic that has been out of print for over 30 years. Ghost Rider joins the Thunderbolts working for General Thunderbolts Ross. Joe Hill tries to scare the pants off you. Enjoy! 

Comixology is a great comic reading app that has set the standard for graphic readers. Their guided view technology is amazing. Newly released comic books the same day they go to the comic shops.

Don't have a tablet go to your local comic shop. You can visit my local shop HERE.

Here are this weeks best of the best:

Miracleman: Parental Advisory Edition #1
Note: this issue is Rated 17+ Parental Advisory for strong language and content.


Kimota! With one magic word, a long-forgotten legend lives again! Freelance reporter Michael Moran always knew he was meant for something more -- now, a strange series of events leads him to reclaim his destiny!

Night of the Living Deadpool #1 (of 4)

Deadpool awakes from a food coma to find...The Zombie Apocalypse has occurred! Can the Merc with the Mouth avoid becoming the Merc in their Mouths?

Justice League of America (2013-) #11

A FOREVER EVIL tie-in! Survivors Martian Manhunter and Stargirl make a perilous trek across a Super-Villain occupied United States. Their first stop may be the last as they enter Gotham City and Clayface-occupied territory.

Constantine (2013-) #10

"Forever Evil: Blight" part 8, continued from TRINITY OF SIN: PHANTOM STRANGER (2012- ) #15. Brought low by the evil of Blight, Constantine struggles to rally his mystical allies and turn the tide of battle. Only one thing stands in his path: the righteous wrath of The Spectre. Continued in TRINITY OF SIN: PANDORA (2013- ) #7.

Joe Hill's Thumbprint

Private Mallory Grennan had done terrible things as an Abu Ghraib prison worker. After being discharged from the army, Mal thought she was leaving her sins behind to start a new life back home. But some things can't be left behind -- some things don't want to be left behind. By Joe Hill and Jason Ciaramella, the writing team that brought you the Eisner-award nominated one-shot, The Cape, with art by Vic Malhotra. Thumbprint will turn your guts inside out.

Thunderbolts Vol. 2 #20.NOW

Ghost Rider joins the Thunderbolts! General Ross's Thunderbolts were brought together to clean up problems no one else could...but what about when the problem is on the team?

Related articles

• Forever Evil Event: The Phantom Stranger 15
• Marvel Announces Deadpool's April Wedding to Die For
• COMICS: The Team Prepares To Welcome 'Ghost Rider' In THUNDERBOLTS #20.NOW Preview
• Deadpool: The Gauntlet #2
• Deadpool: The Gauntlet #1 On-Sale Today!



Cookie Monster Giant Cookie (Photo credits: Giphy)

• The Phantom Stranger #15 (Comics Review)

Add to Cart View detail

NSA meta data no help

from Greg
The Verge posted a story about NSA data collection programs producing no usable results according to the New America Foundation. I am no fan of the NSA meta data program. They have collected information on every phone call I have made since becoming a Verizon customer three years ago. You can have my meta data when you pry it from my cold dead iPhone.

Read the full story HERE

Read the report HERE

Get a PDF of the report HERE

from The Verge
Is NSA surveillance really necessary to defend against terrorist attacks? It's been a common claim by the agency's defenders as the programs come under scrutiny, but a report released today by the New America Foundation casts doubt on that logic. The report examines how NSA surveillance functioned in 225 counterterrorism cases since 9/11 and concludes that the agency wasn't as crucial as it would have you believe.

The report found that the NSA was responsible for 7.5 percent of counterterrorism investigations, and there was only one case out of the 225 that was initiated by NSA evidence. The case involved a cab driver named Basaaly Moalin who was convicted of sending money to Somalian terrorist groups. While successful, the case did not involve any direct threat of attack, and took more than two months between the initial tip and the eventual action by the FBI. Far more common were cases initiated by traditional tools like informants or suspicious-activity reports, which helped law enforcement focus their attention on particular targets. "The overall problem for US counterterrorism officials is not that they need vaster amounts of information from the bulk surveillance programs," the report says, "but that they don’t sufficiently understand or widely share the information they already possess."

from the New America Foundation
By PetervBergen, David Sterman, Emily Schneider, Bailey Cahall

January 13, 2014

On June 5, 2013, the Guardian broke the first story in what would become a flood of revelations regarding the extent and nature of the NSA’s surveillance programs.  Facing an uproar over the threat such programs posed to privacy, the Obama administration scrambled to defend them as legal and essential to U.S. national security and counterterrorism. Two weeks after the first leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden were published, President Obama defended the NSA surveillance programs during a visit to Berlin, saying: “We know of at least 50 threats that have been averted because of this information not just in the United States, but, in some cases, threats here in Germany. So lives have been saved.”  Gen. Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, testified before Congress that: “the information gathered from these programs provided the U.S. government with critical leads to help prevent over 50 potential terrorist events in more than 20 countries around the world.”  Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on the House floor in July that “54 times [the NSA programs] stopped and thwarted terrorist attacks both here and in Europe – saving real lives.”  

However, our review of the government’s claims about the role that NSA “bulk” surveillance of phone and email communications records has had in keeping the United States safe from terrorism shows that these claims are overblown and even misleading.  An in-depth analysis of 225 individuals recruited by al-Qaeda or a like-minded group or inspired by al-Qaeda’s ideology, and charged in the United States with an act of terrorism since 9/11, demonstrates that traditional investigative methods, such as the use of informants, tips from local communities, and targeted intelligence operations, provided the initial impetus for investigations in the majority of cases, while the contribution of NSA’s bulk surveillance programs to these cases was minimal. Indeed, the controversial bulk collection of American telephone metadata, which includes the telephone numbers that originate and receive calls, as well as the time and date of those calls but not their content, under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, appears to have played an identifiable role in initiating, at most, 1.8 percent of these cases. NSA programs involving the surveillance of non-U.S. persons outside of the United States under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act played a role in 4.4 percent of the terrorism cases we examined, and NSA surveillance under an unidentified authority played a role in 1.3 percent of the cases we examined. 

Regular FISA warrants not issued in connection with Section 215 or Section 702, which are the traditional means for investigating foreign persons, were used in at least 48 (21 percent) of the cases we looked at, although it’s unclear whether these warrants played an initiating role or were used at a later point in the investigation. (Click on the link to go to a database of all 225 individuals, complete with additional details about them and the government’s investigations of these cases: http://natsec.newamerica.net/nsa/analysis).

Surveillance of American phone metadata has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism and only the most marginal of impacts on preventing terrorist-related activity, such as fundraising for a terrorist group. Furthermore, our examination of the role of the database of U.S. citizens’ telephone metadata in the single plot the government uses to justify the importance of the program – that of Basaaly Moalin, a San Diego cabdriver who in 2007 and 2008 provided $8,500 to al-Shabaab, al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia – calls into question the necessity of the Section 215 bulk collection program.  According to the government, the database of American phone metadata allows intelligence authorities to quickly circumvent the traditional burden of proof associated with criminal warrants, thus allowing them to “connect the dots” faster and prevent future 9/11-scale attacks. Yet in the Moalin case, after using the NSA’s phone database to link a number in Somalia to Moalin, the FBI waited two months to begin an investigation and wiretap his phone. Although it’s unclear why there was a delay between the NSA tip and the FBI wiretapping, court documents show there was a two-month period in which the FBI was not monitoring Moalin’s calls, despite official statements that the bureau had Moalin’s phone number and had identified him. ,  This undercuts the government’s theory that the database of Americans’ telephone metadata is necessary to expedite the investigative process, since it clearly didn’t expedite the process in the single case the government uses to extol its virtues. 

Additionally, a careful review of three of the key terrorism cases the government has cited to defend NSA bulk surveillance programs reveals that government officials have exaggerated the role of the NSA in the cases against David Coleman Headley and Najibullah Zazi, and the significance of the threat posed by a notional plot to bomb the New York Stock Exchange. 

Related articles

• Study Shows NSA Metadata Collection Doesn't Prevent Terrorist Attacks
• Nsa Snooping Fails to Prevent Terrorist Attacks, Watchdog Group Says
• New America Foundation Report: "Do NSA's Bulk Surveillance Programs Stop Terrorists?" Nope
• NSA Bulk Collection of Americans' Phone Data Had "No Discernible Impact" on Preventing Terrorism, Says New Study

Add to Cart View detail