Starting with a slightly more local taste today, an NUS undergraduate is appalled by NUS Management’s decision to pull condoms off shelves in on-campus stores. Dell is finally bought out and is now a privately owned firm for a tidy sum while Superbowl 2013 sees a bumper amount spent on ads – which you can browse through quickly. Liverpool’s Champions League match is under match fixing allegations. Also, Obama has sweeping preemptive powers in case of a cyber war.
#1: NUS Stops Sale of Condoms
The National University of Singapore has been in the news for all the wrong reasons in 2012. The sex for grades scandal was followed quickly by an ASEAN scholar and his girlfriend making ‘sensitive’ photos public. It is not surprising that it is continuing its policy of making sure condoms cannot be bought on campus. Not sure if that actually helps. One down for Romancing Singapore. [via Facebook (Low Zoey)]
#2: Dell Goes Private for US$24.4bn
As Dell struggles under the onslaught of Lenovo, Asus and other Asian based OEMs, the troubled former tech giant has decided to go private, triggering a US$24.4bn buyout. It believes that doing so will allow it to change the company and position it for future success… or so Michael Dell thinks. [via The New York Times]
#3: Be Bowled Over by More Than US$78m Worth of Ads
How much would you pay for a 30 second video? Up to US$4m apparently if you ask one of the 39 companies that splurged big on advertising at the Superbowl. Make sure that is money well spent by taking a quick look at them. It’s pretty interesting how they are pitching themselves during the biggest sporting event in the United States. Still a ridiculous sum though. [via YouTube]
#4: Liverpool – Debrecen Match Under Match Fixing Cloud
After all that dope in cycling, European football is next after being hit with news of a massive scandal affecting over 300 matches both at international and club levels. One of them is the apparently the Liverpool – Debrecen match which Liverpool won 1-0 back in 2009. It is said that the Debrecen ‘keeper was bribed to allow 3 goals past him but the English club only managed to net one. [via BBC Sport & ESPNFC]
#5: Sweeping Cyber Powers for Obama
According to a secret legal review, U.S. President Obama has broad powers to order preemptive strikes if the country determines it is under a credible threat of a cyber attack. This is on the back of an increasing number of cyber attacks on both firms and public domain infrastructure in the past month. How this secret review hit the mass media is a mystery as well. [via The New York Times]