Supposedly, housing (which includes rent and utilities) is supposed to account for 35-42% of my net income. Well. No wonder my finances are spread so thin at the beginning of the month. My "housing" takes a VERY healthy bite out of my monthly income -- approx 50%. Yikes.
Even more alarming ... I spend a TON on "eating out." So, I'm sorry for the folks at Subway, but I'm going to have to start bringing my lunch. It will literally save me about $200 a month. And probably a couple pounds, too. Maybe.
At any rate, I'm digging into my finances more these days (as so many of us are) and have been playing around with the budgeting tools at Mint.com. I have to say, I'm really loving what they've got there. Looking forward seeing how I do with the new monthly budget I set up. Wish me luck!
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
Emergent acquires manufacturing facility from MdBio and land from City of Baltimore for $8.2 million
ROCKVILLE, MD, November 13, 2009 – Emergent BioSolutions Inc. (NYSE:EBS) announced today that it has completed the acquisition of a 55,000 square foot manufacturing facility from MdBio Foundation and the land on which the facility stands from the City of Baltimore for a total purchase price of $8.2 million. The facility, located within the City of Baltimore, Maryland, previously operated as a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensed facility used by an experienced contract manufacturing organization (CMO) to produce a number of FDA approved products.
“Emergent is excited about this new facility in Baltimore because it houses several suites capable of manufacturing multiple products at the same time,” said Fuad El-Hibri, chairman and chief executive officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “Accordingly, this facility will provide the flexibility to conduct large-scale manufacturing of rPA while also producing other products in our pipeline.”
Emergent worked closely with the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED), MdBio, the City of Baltimore, Baltimore Development Corporation, and other related governmental agencies to complete this transaction.
“Maryland is continuing to strengthen its biotechnology prowess by helping to grow industry leaders like Emergent BioSolutions,” said Governor Martin O’Malley. “The transaction between MdBio and Emergent will maximize the value of the BioProcessing Center by maintaining a bio-manufacturing infrastructure for Maryland’s bioscience community, enabling additional investment to be made in the Center and ensuring that those high paying, highly skilled jobs are created and remain in Maryland.”
Emergent BioSolutions employs over 600 employees across the globe, with over 150 employees located in its corporate headquarters in Rockville and one of its product development sites in Gaithersburg.
“This acquisition reflects our commitment to both continually creating jobs and investing additional capital in the State of Maryland,” said Daniel J. Abdun-Nabi, president and chief operating officer of Emergent BioSolutions. “We extend our sincere appreciation to the state and local governments for their ongoing support of our efforts to develop our local manufacturing capabilities and look forward to growing Emergent’s presence in the state.”
Mayor Sheila Dixon, commenting on the announcement, said, “The City of Baltimore is excited about welcoming Emergent BioSolutions to the Baltimore biotech community. With great research institutions such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland as potential partners in the area, we know that Emergent will be a wonderful contributor in the future.”
“Emergent’s decision to expand in Maryland underscores not only our rich research and development environment, but also our mission to support the complete product development life cycle that includes bio manufacturing,” said Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development Secretary Christian S. Johansson. “The Department was pleased to work with MdBio Foundation and the Baltimore Development Corp. to bring this project to fruition.”
About Emergent BioSolutions Inc.
Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development, manufacture and commercialization of vaccines and therapeutics that assist the body’s immune system to prevent or treat disease. Emergent’s marketed product, BioThrax (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed), is the only vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the prevention of anthrax. Emergent’s development pipeline includes programs focused on anthrax, botulism, tuberculosis, typhoid, hepatitis B and chlamydia. Additional information may be found at www.emergentbiosolutions.com and www.biothrax.com.
About MdBio Foundation, Inc.
The MdBio Foundation, Inc. is a charitable and educational organization whose mission is to provide and support the State of Maryland’s bioscience community through bioscience awareness, education and workforce development programs including scholarships, post-doctoral conference and career expos, BioGENEius science competition and summer science camps. Since 2003, MdBio has operated the MdBioLab, an educational and well-known mobile bioscience laboratory that visits high schools throughout Maryland to educate youth on biosciences. Over the past six years, MdBioLab has held more than 2,800 classes with 55,000 students and 1,500 teachers. MdBio Foundation became an affiliate of the Tech Council of Maryland in 2006.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements, other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding our strategy, future operations, future financial position, future revenues, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management, including any potential future securities offering, our expected revenue growth and net earnings for 2009, and any other statements containing the words “believes”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “estimates” and similar expressions, are forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including our ability to obtain FDA approval to manufacture products or product candidates in the newly acquired facility; appropriations for BioThrax® procurement; our ability to obtain new BioThrax® sales contracts; our plans to pursue label expansions and improvements for BioThrax®; our plans to expand our manufacturing facilities and capabilities; the rate and degree of market acceptance and clinical utility of our products; the success of our ongoing and planned development programs, preclinical studies and clinical trials; our ability to identify and acquire or in license products and product candidates that satisfy our selection criteria; the potential benefits of our existing collaboration agreements and our ability to enter into selective additional collaboration arrangements; the timing of and our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approvals for our other product candidates; our commercialization, marketing and manufacturing capabilities and strategy; our estimates regarding expenses, future revenue, capital requirements and needs for additional financing; and other factors identified in the company’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2009 and subsequent reports filed with the SEC. The company disclaims any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release.
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Chris Abraham, Rachel Sterne, and Chris Card at Scholastic in NYC http://tinyurl.com/yhc553y
The rumors are true.... Motionbox is soon to be a featured Channel on the Roku digital video player. You'll be able to hook the player up to your television and enjoy instant access to all the videos you’ve uploaded to Motionbox. All you need is a TV, a high-speed Internet connection (wired or wireless), and a finger to click the remote!
As a special sneak preview, we're giving away a few brand new Roku players to people who become Motionbox members this month.
All you have to do is sign up for a FREE Motionbox account before November 30, 2009 then email offers@motionbox.com with subject line "Roku Giveaway" and we'll enter your name for a chance to win a Roku HD Player.
Read more: http://ping.fm/vvjDR
