LION KING BEATING OUT THE COMPETITION

The long-running musical “The Lion King” is the first show to hit No. 1 in Broadway’s weekly box office grosses so late in the life of its run, earning $1,534,779 last week to edge out its closest competitors, “Wicked” and “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.” One likely factor was Disney Theatrical Productions’ decision to shift the show’s usual Tuesday evening performance to Monday evening, Feb. 14, to capitalize on date nights for Valentine’s Day. NYTIMES

ONLINE OPENNESS, A DOUBLE EDGED SWORD

Some people have undoubtedly forgotten that in the years before Facebook's fast ascent, social media was dominated by anonymity: handles worthy of CB radio, vintage AOL screen names trailed by strings of numbers, LiveJournal IDs bookended with the x's and o's of emo-kid culture. And there was a sense that in this odd and very public new medium, it wasn't safe to use your real, full name.


Thanks to Facebook, and founder Mark Zuckerberg's personal philosophy, that's changed. What Facebook did, with a policy that requires proper names and the initial restriction of access based on proven university or company affiliation, was bring the idea of "real identity" to the mainstream Internet. In general, that's been considered a good thing; but in the wake of widespread antigovernment protests across a number of Middle East and North African countries, the Facebook philosophy is facing a sharp challenge as critics suggest that a real-names-only policy could see pro-democracy activists targeted individually by autocratic governments. Cnet

WILL THE XOOM STEAL THE IPAD 2'S THUNDER?

SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY LAUNCH DETAILS

If all goes according to plan, a balloon with a student-oriented payload will photograph Space Shuttle Discovery as it climbs into space from an altitude of 100,000 feet. There will also be live streaming video from the balloon itself during the mission - sent back by two regular smartphones running Google's Android operating system.

Co-sponsored by Challenger Center for Space Science Education, this mission is one in a series of flights conducted by Quest for Stars, a California-based non-profit educational organization that uses off-the-shelf hardware and a little ingenuity to allow students to place experiments at the edge of space at exceptionally low cost.

Quest for Stars and Challenger Center for Space Science Education have now joined together to promote the use of these low cost delivery systems. This mission will be the first of what is hoped to be many future collaborations. CHALLENGER

RESEARCHERS TAKE A TRIP TO MARS

After 257 days in a locked, windowless steel capsule, researchers on a mock trip to Mars ventured from their cramped quarters in heavy space suits Monday, trudging into a sand-covered room to plant flags on a simulated Red Planet," the Associated Press reported Monday.

The image above is a still frame of video footage showing the researchers in 66-pound space suits during the February 14 simulation at the Mission Control Center in the city of Korolyov just outside Moscow.

"The all-male crew of three Russians, a Frenchman, an Italian-Colombian and a Chinese entered a network of modules at a Moscow space research center last June to imitate the 520-day flight and see how they cope with the constricted, isolating conditions of space travel - minus the weightlessness," according to the AP. COLUMBIA

HOME HOTEL IN BUENOS AIRES AMONG THE FIRST OF ITS KIND

Among the first of its kind in Buenos Aires, Home Hotel is a ‘green’ beacon leading the way in the Argentine hospitality industry. Opening over five years ago when the environmental movement was just a whisper in the city, the beautifully designed hotel reflects an air of tranquility and a calm space amid pollution and chaos. In a country where sourcing sustainable and environmentally-friendly goods can be problematic — or worse still a logistical disaster — co-owners Patricia O’Shea and Tom Rixton have persevered with their objectives of creating a hotel as green as the country will allow. INHABITAT

LAST CALL FOR PIFF

Attention all Seattleites: there’s still time to gas up the car and head south for the last week of Northwest Film Center’s 34th Portland International Film Festival (PIFF). And although the festival has been screening a steady stream of its more than 130 films over the past 12 days there’s still plenty to like as PIFF heads into the homestretch. 


As mentioned previously, there were several Oscar nominated films hitting the screen at PIFF in advance of the big showdown on awards night including Hermano - Venezuela’s submission for Best Foreign Language Film. Centered around their love for soccer Hermano explores the relationship between two brothers as their ideas of family and the bonds that bind them are thrown in flux as they chase their dreams with the Caracas Football Club. EXAMINER

RELIABLE TECH

If you’re a parent like me who works from home, then you know how crippling it can be when your computer breaks down. I nearly went insane the last two weeks waiting for Sony to fix my laptop. This is the second time I’ve had a big issue with my machine and couldn’t write my stories. I’m hoping my next purchase proves more reliable.


What will I buy next? I don’t know much about computers, so I decided to call Dean Gallea, Senior Program Leader at Consumer Reports, to see which brands the publication recommends. It turns out that every year the magazine runs an Annual Product Reliability Survey that asks 43,000 laptop owners about their experience. Here’s what Gallea and his team discovered: MONEYWATCH

NIKO STOCK GETS A BOOST AFTER DEAL WITH BP

CALGARY - Stock in Calgary-based Niko Resources Ltd. (TSX:NKO) continued its weeklong climb, jumping $1.45 to $84.89 on Tuesday morning after announcing it will be able to increase by 30 per cent its stake in three offshore Indian oil and gas fields.


The provision was triggered when its Indian partner, Reliance Industries, which owns 90 per cent of the exploration blocks it shares with Niko, announced Monday it would bring in BP PLC as a 30 per cent partner in 23 oil and gas blocks in a deal valued at $7.2 billion US. VANCOUVERSUN

A SCIENTIFIC FIRST FOR PHOTONS

Photons in the microwave frequency range are important in quantum research - for quantum information processors, for example. Now, for the first time, researchers have achieved the controlled production of single photons in the microwave region and successfully detected them with highly sensitive measuring instruments - although they are 100,000 times weaker than the photons emitted by an electric light bulb.

When photons released by a conventional light or radiation source hit a detector, they trigger an electrical signal comparable to a single “click” of a Geiger counter, which rattles when radioactive particles strike it. However, unlike optical photons, until now there have been no detectors that can detect single photons at particularly low frequencies, such as the microwave frequency range. The intensity of these microwave photons is much too weak for this. The research group led by ETH Zurich Professor Andreas Wallraff from the Department of Physics has now been able to characterise such low-intensity photons even without any “clicking” detectors by using a special apparatus and method. Physicists need techniques of this kind, for example to research the fundamental principles of quantum mechanics or to enable efficient information transmission in optical data communication. PHYSORG

HIGHEST CLOSE FOR OIL SINCE 2008

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures on Tuesday settled at their highest in 28 months as violence in Libya continued and some companies announced a production halt in the country, a top African oil producer and a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. MARKETWATCH

QUOTE OF THE DAY

You can always tell whether a lion was born in captivity or the wild by the look in his eyes. 

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS GET SMART

Featured Guest: Andrew Waldeck, partner at Innosight and coauthor of the HBR article The New M&A Playbook.

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Libya reacts to Gaddafi speech

CAIRO — Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi vows to fight on and die a "martyr," calling on his supporters to take back the streets from protesters demanding his ouster, shouting and pounding his fist in a furious speech Tuesday on state TV.


(Scroll down for latest updates)
Gadhafi, swathed in brown robes and turban, spoke from a podium set up in the entrance of a bombed out building that appeared to be his Tripoli residence hit by U.S. airstrikes in the 1980s and left unrepaired as a monument of defiance. The speech, which appeared to have been taped earlier, was aired on a screen to hundreds of supporters. HUFFPO

NAM JUNE PAIK

Early in the 1960s, avant-garde composer Nam June Paik began experimenting with the wiring inside his TV. He learned how to manipulate the picture on his screen, bending and warping network broadcasts like free jazz.



In 1963, after accumulating and tweaking a dozen more televisions, Paik organised a gallery show in which people were invited to interact one-on-one with his contraptions - an unprecedented experience in an era before video cameras and cable stations. NEWSCIENTIST

THE WRONG WAY TO LEVERAGE SOCIAL NETWORKS

When fashion icon and marketing provocateur Kenneth Cole unleashed this infamous tweet earlier this month on the heels of the uprisings in Cairo, all hell broke loose in the digerati. The digital equivalent of "off with his head!" could be heard for days as people on Twitter, in blog postsand Tumblr updates, and — perhaps most embarrassingly to Cole — on his company's Facebook page, expressed their grievances over his ill-timed remark.

But, in retrospect, was he really to blame? Or do social networks themselves share responsibility for such shameless online marketing and advertising? At the very least, one has to question whether some social networks actively encourage this type of provocative brand messaging, all in the name of increasing ad revenue and driving coveted "buzz" for a brand. HBR

FORECASTING THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM

The near meltdown of the financial system and the ensuing Great Recession have been, and will remain, the defining issue for the current generation of executives. Now that the worst seems to be behind us, it’s tempting to feel deep relief—and a strong desire to return to the comfort of business as usual. But that is simply not an option. In the past three years we’ve already seen a dramatic acceleration in the shifting balance of power between the developed West and the emerging East, a rise in populist politics and social stresses in a number of countries, and significant strains on global governance systems. As the fallout from the crisis continues, we’re likely to see increased geopolitical rivalries, new international security challenges, and rising tensions from trade, migration, and resource competition. For business leaders, however, the most consequential outcome of the crisis is the challenge to capitalism itself. HBR

TELEPRESENCE ROBOTS SET TO REPLACE FACE TO FACE MEETINGS

Face-to face meetings are important. According to Harvard Business Review, they help management teams root out negligence, increase productivity, provide a positive competitiveness, and deepen relationships with colleagues.


So it's not surprising that Americans took 427 million business trips last year.  According to the Global Business Travel Assn., the bill for all this traveling to provide face-to-face contact between clients and companies was $228 billion. WARROOM

JOHN O'CONNOR

John O’Connor’s work is the result of his immersion in processes, systems, and subjects, both real and invented. He transforms seemingly unrelated and often idiosyncratic systems into highly intricate and nuanced visual manifestations; the result is quirky, complex, and often large-scale drawings on paper rendered primarily in colored pencil and graphite.


Through idiosyncratic and entirely invented systems, he converts what is ordinarily invisible—spoken and written language, chance events, chaos theory—into visual representations that reveal patterns of speech and events. ESCAPEINTOLIFE

SARAH MORRIS

Painter and Filmmaker (b. London, England 1967)


Sarah Morris is a painter and filmmaker who has always been interested in exploring means of communication. Architecture is just one such vehicle. Morris’s films operate between documentary, the biography of a city, non-narrative fiction and sites of production and leisure. Also known as a painter, Morris views her paintings as a parallel activity to her films. Her paintings convey an ambivalent impression, hanging somewhere between the facades of corporate architecture and pure abstraction, critique and power, and are inspired by cinematic architecture, industrial design and urban theater. ESCAPEINTOLIFE