Siri - AI Assistant Startup

We have met our share of secretive startups over the years, but few have been as secretive about their plans as Siri, which was founded in December 2007 and did not even have an official name until today. Siri was spun out of SRI International and its core technology is based on the highly ambitious CALO artificial intelligence project. Today, Siri announced that it has raised an $8.5 million Series A financing round, led by Menlo Ventures and Morgenthaler Ventures.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_stealth_startup_siric.php

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22117/

See also other Major Talmadge posts:

http://majorbenjamintalmadge.blogspot.com/2009/04/siri-assistant-origins-in-calo.html

http://majorbenjamintalmadge.blogspot.com/2009/04/siri-assistant-founder-on-linkedin.html

GENGHIS KHAN: WAS HE A MISUNDERSTOOD DEMOCRAT?

A new museum exhibition on Genghis (Chingiz) Khan is opening in Houston.

Weatherford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Weatherford) of author of Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world is responsible for much of the new found interest in the Mongols.

http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav022709a.shtml

North Korea Fund Seeks $50 Million After Terror Label Removed

Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A U.K. businessman is seeking to raise $50 million to invest in North Korea, reviving a 2005 plan after the U.S. government removed the communist regime from its list of countries that support terrorism.

ChosunFund Pte. Ltd. will join with North Korean partners for mining and energy projects, Colin McAskill, founder of the Singapore-incorporated fund, said in an interview.

“The country holds huge natural resources but is capital starved and lacks the technology and management skills with which to develop them,” McAskill said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJ6sP0GRnSA0&refer=home

(I was lead to the article by North Korea Economy Watch: http://www.nkeconwatch.com/2009/02/24/mcaskill-seeing-investors-for-chosun-fund/)

The ChosunFund website has an interesting investor presentation: http://www.pdfdownload.org/pdf2html/pdf2html.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chosunfund.com%2Fuploads%2Fedocs%2F00-ChosunFundInvestorPresentationFeb2009.pdf&images=yes
or http://www.chosunfund.com/pages/chosun/about.aspx

Policymaker's Guide to Central Asia (in PDF)

Central Asia Resources for Policymakers

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Humanities world natural

Biological Machines

Scientists have created a living machine whose flight can be wirelessly controlled.

http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22111/

Also, see more of the 10 emerging technologies of 2009: http://www.technologyreview.com/specialreports/specialreport.aspx?id=37

A Guide to Central Asia Resources for Policymakers

Online Resources & RSS Feeds
Eurasianet.org http://www.eurasianet.org/index.shtml
Foreign Policy Association http://centralasia.foreignpolicyblogs.com
Jamestown Eurasia Daily Monitor http://www.jamestown.org/programs/edm
Uzbekistan Daily http://www.uzdaily.com

Online Reports
CRS Reports http://digital.library.unt.edu/govdocs/crs/search/?q=central+asia&t=fulltext
U. S. Congress Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?
FuseAction=Home.Home

Books
Allison, Roy. Central Asian Security. http://www.amazon.com/Central-Asian-Security-International-
Context/dp/0815701055/ref=pd_sim_b_21
Olcott, Martha Brill. Kazakhstan: Unfulfilled Promise. http://www.amazon.com/Kazakhstan-Unfulfilled-Martha-Brill-
Olcott/dp/0870031880/ref=pd_sim_b_32
Mayhew, Bradley. Lonely Planet's Guide to Central Asia. http://www.amazon.com/Central-Lonely-Planet-Travel-Guides/dp/
1741046149/ref=pd_sim_b_14
Tsygankov, Andrei. Russia's Foreign Policy. http://www.amazon.com/Russias-Foreign-Policy-Continuity-
International/dp/074252650X/ref=pd_sim_b_34

Academic Centers
Central Asia-Caucus Institute (CACI) at Johns Hopkins http://www.cacianalyst.org
Center for Languages of Central Asia at Indiana University http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar/media/project/project.html
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/people/grad_stud_assoc.html

Top Experts
Lubin, Nancy http://www.afpc.org/expert_listings/view/12
Olcott, Martha Brill http://www.carnegieendowment.org/experts/index.cfm?fa=expert_view&expert_id=23
Starr, S. Frederick. http://www.silkroadstudies.org/new/inside/staff/staff_web/frederick_starr.htm

China's Dollar Dilemma

Basically the Chinese are pissed that the government is wasting their money, i.e. investing in dollars...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/299e404c-011b-11de-8f6e-000077b07658.html