Gawker
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googleplex
Google Moves in with Founder's Wife's Company
Google's complicated relationship with its founder's wife just got more tangled. Anne Wojcicki's genetic-testing startup, 23andMe, not only took a second round of funding from the company — it's now cohabitating with the search giant. More »
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By Ryan TateComment by TouchedByAnOctopus: Anne had irritable bowel syndrome through the whole pregnancy. You would be in a conference room with her and she... 2 Responses | Other threads
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valley spawn
Google Founder Larry Page Has Impregnated Model-Ph.D. Wife
Larry Page, the dorkier half of Google's founding duo, has mastered at least one basic human function: His wife, former model and Stanford bioinformatics Ph.D. Lucy Southworth, is pregnant. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Widget Economist: She has been seeded. It's amazing how these guys choose ultra-petite snobby PhD's. Those woman are basically made to be bought... 7 Responses | Other threads
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23andme
Mrs. Google's Science Project Not So Scientific, Say Actual Scientists
23andMe, the Google-backed genetic-testing startup run by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google cofounder Sergey Brin, has everyone from Rupert Murdoch on down spitting into test tubes at parties. Too bad it's useless! More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by propertius: She looks more game than testy. 5 Responses | Other threads
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google
Google Venture Fund Run by Old Pal of Cofounder's Wife
Silicon Valley is a meritocracy. Yeah, right! Take a look at who's behind Google's new $100 million venture-capital fund, and you'll see how things really work in the cradle of technology. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Rock tha Hizzee: I'm assuming that they had a quota to fill: pasty white guy with a degree in Neuroscience from Middlebury College. He... 1 Responses | Other threads
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valley spawn
Google Founder Sacrifices Son, Last Shreds of Integrity to Science
Google cofounder Sergey Brin and wife Anne Wojcicki are so unconcerned with privacy that they're donating their newborn son's DNA to science. So surely they won't mind if we tell you the kid's name. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by tokenfemale: I have been told for over 10 years 'I could have parkinsons, but they can't test, so all they know... 3 Responses | Other threads
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Benji Brin
Google Billionaire's Baby Benji Already a Web Mogul
Some Google users feel lucky. And others are born lucky. Benji Brin, the baby son of Google cofounder Sergey Brin and biotech entrepreneur Anne Wojcicki, falls in the latter category. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by CHIC NOIR: That baby has hair like a Kennedy. Is that really the baby's face? Not trying to crack on a baby but... 5 Responses | Other threads
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google
Sergey Brin's Weird, Weird Baby Shower
Googlers do things differently. But Google's founders are quirkier than you might imagine. Take the diaper-fetish party Larry Page threw to celebrate the coming birth of Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki's first child.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Cocotte: A baby-themed party hardly a fetish makes. Sounds like goofy fun to me. 5 Responses | Other threads
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Ingrates of Silicon Valley
Lazy Michael J. Fox discovered disease too late
If only Michael J. Fox, the actor and professional Parkinson's disease victim, had been an Internet genius like Google cofounder Sergey Brin, think of the good he might have done.
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By Owen ThomasComment by MissNormaDesmond: Look, I pretty much adore Michael J. Fox, and maybe I'm totally a horrible human being, but I was raised... 12 Responses | Other threads
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caption contest
I'm born lucky
Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Sergey Brin, is exceedingly pregnant — and Brin himself has been spotted at the maternity ward. What will their baby look like? Wojcicki's genetic-testing startup, 23andMe, lets you spit into a vial and get a map to your genetic future. MakeMeBabies is not nearly as scientific, but we thought we'd run the couple's photos through to get a glimpse of their future progeny. Can you suggest a caption for the billionaire baby to be? The best will become the post's new headline. Yesterday's winner: "French blue shirt, khakis shortage hits Valley hard." (Image by MakeMeBabies) -
rumormonger
Google heir born? Sergey Brin spotted at maternity ward
What to expect when you're expecting a billionaire? A tipster reports seeing Google cofounder Sergey Brin running into a hospital, orange Crocs and all. Here's what that means: His wife, Anne Wojcicki, is nine months pregnant with the couple's first child — who will be born into a fortune still worth $10 billion or more, even with Google shares plummeting. The spot where Brin was sighted, El Camino Hospital, has one of the Bay Area's best childbirth practices, and is close to Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. When we last saw Wojcicki, she was on Oprah talking about 23andMe, her genetics-testing startup, with the TV host herself begging Wojcicki to give birth already. It's possible that Brin was just there to tour the hospital, a common practice before birth, but his haste suggested otherwise, our tipster claims: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by dingdongditch: El Camino Hospital, not Stanford Hospital? 4 Responses | Other threads
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anne wojcicki
Sergey Brin's very pregnant wife on Oprah
How long ago did we learn Anne Wojcicki, wife of Google cofounder Sergey Brin, was pregnant with the couple's first child? April, which was seven months ago. What a clever idea, to have a baby as a publicity stunt for her startup! It got her on Oprah. On the talk show, Wojcicki disclosed that she's nine months pregnant. "Please have the baby right now!" said the talk-show host. Wojcicki then jumped right into an infomercial for 23andMe's genetic-testing service and her nonprofit work on Parkinson's, a condition for which Brin is at risk. Free advertising for someone whose husband is worth billions of dollars: There is a reason the rich are rich.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Ted Dziuba: "There is a reason the rich are rich" ...because they married money? 1 Responses | Other threads
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great moments in journalism
Why Time gave 23andMe a prize
Time's Anita Hamilton is refreshingly honest about why the magazine has picked 23andMe, the mail-order DNA testing outfit, as one of its top innovations of 2008: Anne Wojcicki, the startup's cofounder, is married to Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Few outlets are as forthright in displaying their motivations for celebrating 23andMe, arguably the least innovative and least scientific of the retail DNA tests on the market. Give Anne Wojcicki a prize, and her loyal husband will attend the awards ceremony. It's a great way to get Googler star power on the cheap.
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By Owen ThomasComment by GenevaRam: This insider-love has been going on forever. It's only because of the transparency of the Web (and those willing to... more » | Other threads
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esther wojcicki
Google founder's journalist mother-in-law writes blimp infomercial
Esther Wojcicki, known as "Woj" at Palo Alto High School, where she teaches journalism, is a beloved figure on campus. She's also quite welcome at the Googleplex, as the mother of Anne Wojcicki, who's married to Google cofounder Sergey Brin, and Google executive Susan Wojcicki. I wonder if proximity to power and wealth has dulled Woj's reportorial instincts. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by VedetteLinglewood: I can also say that I was a former student of Woj's, and this article is at least offensive, if... 1 Responses | Other threads
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rumormonger
Google secretly investing in zeppelins?
Zeppelins went out of style when the Hindenburg went down in flames over New Jersey. But Airship Ventures, a startup backed by quirky angel investor Esther Dyson, is trying to bring them back. With a little help from Dyson's friends. Airship's Zeppelin NT, the first to fly over the U.S. in 70 years, has just completed a transatlantic journey and is scheduled to touch down this afternoon at the Nasa-operated Moffett Field, where it will be permanently stationed, operating aerial tours of the Bay Area. Curious — a private enterprise making use of public lands. Nasa's excuse for hosting the zeppelin: It will be used for scientific investigations and other public-spirited purposes. Where have we heard that before? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by WagCurious: Am I the first one to notice that the array of armaments that Google has assembled in Santa Clara could... 2 Responses | Other threads
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biotech
How Sergey Brin can avoid Parkinson's Disease
Google cofounder Sergey Brin has popped his blogging cherry, using his first post as an excuse to promote his wife Anne Wojcicki's personal genetic testing company 23andMe. Turns out Brin has a genetic mutation likely inherited from his mother that indicates a higher risk for Parkinson's Disease — a debilitating condition that affects movement, resulting in tremors and eventual paralysis. Which would certainly be a terrible fate for a gymnast who loves kite-surfing. Brin has "decades to prepare for it," though. My suggestion? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by blahblob: I have a hard time believing that too.blogspot.com has been available for all these years, I suspect Sergey used some... 1 Responses | Other threads
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real estate
Bargain $8 million condo just the latest favor from Sergey Brin's banker
The $8.5 million pied-à-terre that Google cofounder Sergey Brin and 23andMe cofounder Anne Wojcicki recently purchased in Manhattan's Greenwich Village? The previous owner, Bill Brady, paid $7 million for the condo around a year ago and was trying to move the unit for as much as $12 million after buying into a different building owned by art superstar Julian Schnabel. If you think it was the negotiating mastery of Brin and Wojcicki — who are expecting their first child together — think again. A tipster points out that besides helping with Google's IPO at Credit Suisse First Boston, Brady and former boss Frank Quattrone still advise the company: More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Mycroft8: Do no evil (exceptions to the rule: China, consumer privacy, private jets, wife's startup, real estate deals... more to be... more » | Other threads
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real estate
Sergey Brin buys $8 million duplex in Greenwich Village
A 23-foot balcony, 3,457 square feet of space, four bedrooms, and a limestone bath with heated floors are what Google cofounder Sergey Brin and his wife, 23andMe's Anne Wojcicki, are getting at 744 Greenwich Street for $8.5 million, reports New York's Cityfile blog. The place formerly belonged to Bill Brady, who heads Credit Suisse's Global Technology group in Palo Alto. It'll make a perfect site for more of 23andMe's genetic-testing spit parties.
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By Paul BoutinComment by longtailwagsthevalley: nice timing - ny real estate is finally going to tank 1 Responses | Other threads
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biotech
23andMe geneticists want to knock off Fashion Week cheekbones
Google-backed startup 23andMe is working on fixing the Bay Area beauty gap by convincing the pretty people at New York's Fashion Week to submit genetic samples for the new, low cost of $399. As non-California residents, Manhattanites represent a genetic talent pool untouched by regulatory agencies in the startup's home state. 23andMe cofounders Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey, pictured here, see fashionistas as runway dilettantes, and therefore brick-dumb. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by omgiamcommentingonvalleywag: Actually 23andme has sorted out their regulatory hurdles in California but NOT in New York. more » | Other threads
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spy photos
Larry and Sergey brought wives to watch Google satellite launch
Google helped pay for this weekend's launch of a satellite which will take high-resolution imagery for its Google Earth service, and founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were on hand to watch the rocket lift off at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Serious business, right? Not when you see our spy photos of the billionaires. Brin wore bright orange Crocs and Page wore a red windbreaker. More tellingly, Brin brought Anne Wojcicki, his pregnant wife, and Page brought his wife Lucy. Both women also dressed informally. Wojcicki carried a plastic water bottle — funny, I thought Larry and Sergey had gotten rid of those at the Googleplex. It all looked like a lark for the billionaire couples, rather than a visit to a high-security military installation — paid for by Google's shareholders and U.S. taxpayers. At least Larry and Sergey seem to have flown their on their own dime — the photos show a Gulfstream V, one of the models in the Googlers' fleet of party planes. Admit it, you all wish you were Larry and Sergey, Crocs and all.
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caption contest
You know little boy, I have much I can teach you
At the Diane von Fürstenberg show at New York's Fashion Week, Google cofounder Sergey Brin and his 23andMe cofounder wife Anne Wojcicki were spotted front and center. Which is hilarious, since Brin is rarely seen in anything but a t-shirt and jeans — hopefully he wore more stylish footwear than Crocs. Here he's spotted in the usual ensemble with Barry Diller, CEO of IAC, who had the sense to wear actual fashion. Friday's winner was hmann with "No, it's $40 for one song. You have to buy your own drinks, and there's no touching." (Photo by Getty/Michael Tran)
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By Jackson WestComment by MosseyCade: Sergey's SHORTER than Barry Diller??!! more » | Other threads
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George Church
23andMe advisor bidding for Google-backed prize with Google's help
Genetics researcher George Church is a great believer in openness, according to a profile of him in Wired. So he shouldn't mind a bit if we disclose some facts about his business dealings that we find fascinating. To wit: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by BioBuddy: Google and its founders supporting the Personal Genome Project and the X-prize in genomics competition ARE GOOD things.... The fact... more » | Other threads
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job descriptions from the future
23andMe looking for designer comfortable with "vague" as directions
Designers, want to torture yourself in a contract position surrounded by smarmy, know-it-all PhDs who give you only the vaguest of instructions and expect you to master the intricacies of biotechnology overnight? Lured by the promise that you might one day get hired on full-time and get stock options at a company backed by Google and run by Google cofounder Sergey Brin's wife? Unbothered by the fact that the California Department of Public Health has just banned the company's service? Then, dear visual-thinking friends, this position for a graphic designer at 23andMe is for you! The job description: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by damnedfool: technically it's not "banned." if you ordered the test today, you'd have no problem getting the results. more » | Other threads
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23andme
23andMe told to cease and desist by California Department of Public Health
Not a good week for the Wojcicki family. Googler Susan Wojcicki has been caught making expensive demands on Google's daycare facilities. Meanwhile, her sister Anne, wife of Google cofounder Sergey Brin, is fending off cease-and-desist letters from pesky health regulators. Anne's company, Google-backed 23andMe, was told to stop offering the tests until officials could complete an investigation into whether sales to California residents were by doctor's orders, as required by state law. The genetics startup risks fines of up to $3,000 a day if it doesn't comply. More »
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By Jackson WestComment by sample032: @Ted Dziuba: I thought they had more important things to do... like balance the budget. Oh. Fuckers. more » | Other threads
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d6 live coverage
Facebook board member lunches with Mrs. Rupert Murdoch
CARLSBAD, CA — Who are those cool cats in sunglasses at D6? Why, it's Jim Breyer of Accel Partners, a board member at Facebook, lunching with Wendi Murdoch, wife of the News Corp. CEO and chairwoman of MySpace China. Also at the table: Martha Stewart, seen here to the left; Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures; and Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe. -
rumormonger
Anne Wojcicki and Sergey Brin begin baby-making beta test, results expected in 9 months
Google cofounder Sergey Brin and his wife of nearly a year, Anne Wojcicki are expecting their first child, the New York Post screams. We're confident Wojcicki's easy access to DNA materials at her biotech firm 23andme will assure the creation of a much more attractive child than the one we've imagined here.
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Comment by WillVille: Hopefully this story will be just like the GPhone... Purely speculative and never actually manufactured - hopefully. more » | Other threads
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biotech
Actual doctors urge skepticism of DNA-sequencing fad
Personal gene sequencing is all the rage among technophiles. But the medical establishment isn't necessarily on board — for starters, no insurance company will cover the cost, and doctors aren't always prepared to appropriately evaluate the results of a test. In an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers concluded that the time for personalized genetic testing is "Not now — ask again in a few years." 23andMe, which was cofounded by Sergey Brin's wife Anne Wojcicki and counts Google as an investor, offers a test for the low, low price of $1,000. New startup Navigenics will do the same for $2,500. But they will only sequence a few known genes, there are a lot of caveats in the fine print, and there are serious privacy concerns. So what's the upside? More »
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By Jackson WestComment by Adam Rock: There's also deCODE Genetics ([www.decodediagnostics.com]), which will give you more specific test results for $200-$500 depending on the test (glaucoma,... more » | Other threads
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geek love
Sergey Brin's weird wedding ring
A sharp-eyed type spotted Sergey Brin's wedding band in this photo: gold, with a red stone set in it. Most men, in the Valley as elsewhere, opt for a simple band. The Google cofounder married Anne Wojcicki of 23andMe last year. Does anyone know if the choice of ring represents Sergey's Russian heritage, Wojcicki's particular tastes, or just the geek couple's quirkiness? Here's a closeup shot: More »
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Comment by Fidel on the Roof: @tech2012: Yes, he is rich and can do whatever he wants. Guess what... so can we. Did you know that diamonds... more » | Other threads
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23andme
Genetic testing reveals Michael Arrington's chintzy nature
23andMe, the genetics startup cofounded by Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey, has outed TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington as a cheapskate. When Arrington discovered that 23andMe was handing out its $999 testing "Spit Kits" for free at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he hit up Wojcicki and Avey for a refund on the kit he'd already bought. They refused. Arrington nevertheless wrangled a free kit from the pair, which he's now giving away to TechCrunch readers. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Mary Jane Irwin: @well-seasoned: And I thought it was a clever Colbert reference. [www.comedycentral.com] more » | Other threads
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executive summary
Wired in 1,200 words
Wired 15.12 comes in at two pounds, half the weight of a September Vogue. Most of it's the water weight of ads and a shopping guide, and I've summarized the meat of the issue in 1,200 words, so now you don't need to pick it up and risk ergonomic injury. More » -
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Comment by googoobaby: Isn't Sergey more or less a cucumber with a billion bucks attached? more » | Other threads
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larry and sergey
Google boys seriously in love with biotech
What are Sergey Brin and Larry Page really obsessed about? Look no further than their choice in lifemates, says Attila Csordas. Sergey Brin married 23andMe cofounder Anne Wojcicki — and also lent the company $2.6 million, which Google repaid when it invested $3.9 million in the company. Larry Page's fiancée, Lucy Southworth, is close to earning her Ph.D. — a feat neither Page nor Brin has accomplished. Her field of study is biomedical informatics, a field which harnesses high-powered computing for biotech research. Larry and Sergey made their billions on online advertising, a business the pair openly despised when they created the Google search engine. The heart has its own code, and in Larry and Sergey's case, I think it's DNA base pairs.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Mcneri: I beg to differ....with hindsight. I recently caught Larry Page on an obscure wordpress dot com blog. While he could... more » | Other threads
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larry and sergey
Which Google founder has the best wedding site?
There's nothing like good-natured competition amongst cofounders. So which Google founder topped the other with the best wedding locale? Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki of 23AndMe conjoined their gene pools at magician David Copperfield's exclusive Musha Cay, and it's rumored that Larry Page and fiancée Lucy Southworth have reserved Richard Branson's Necker Island, pictured above, for a December 7 wedding. A complete comparison of the private islands after the jump. Who splurged the most? You decide. More »
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By Tim FaulknerComment by exclusive07: Yes, The wedding is on Necker Island on the 8th December. Guest are being flown in from as early as... more » | Other threads
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google
Esther Wojcicki, did your journalism degree teach you disclosure?
Huffington Post's Esther Wojcicki gushes over Google's Lunar X Prize. It's not the $30 million those nice Google boys, Larry and Sergey, are offering whomever can successfully land a rover on the moon. This Palo Alto schoolmarm is keen on all the teaching tools the Lunar X Prize is providing educators. She writes, "The team at the Lunar Xprize has prepared free learning guides, videos and other resources to help stimulate student interest not only in space but in math, science and technology as well." She sees this as an effort to rectify the "anti-science trend in schools." Google's efforts are all well and good, but there's another reason why this journalism teacher is so sweet on Larry Page and Sergey Brin — she's Brin's mother-in-law. Her daughter Anne married him in May. But the Google ties go even deeper. Her daughter Susan Wojcicki is Google's VP of product managementand Susan's garage in Menlo Park served as the search engine's first headquarters. Even daughter Janet is married to a former Googler.
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Comment by colparker: I was going to say something sassy about Mrs. Wojcicki, but I think I got a D- in her class... more » | Other threads
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biotech
Haha, I saw your mom's genes
Say what you want about the alleged nepotism behind 23andme, but this genetics startup founded by Anne Wojcicki (recently married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin) sounds sweet. According to Forbes, clients send in a cheek swab, get back info on their DNA, including information on their ancestry and even distant relatives. I bet that sensitive information is behind a lot of security, right? More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by bkkpartyboy: This is an amazingly novel concept. They are really on to something. I mean, with national geographic [www.nationalgeographic.com] I only... more » | Other threads
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conflicts of interest
Arrogant Googlers tempt the gods
Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad. I'm not sure if Euripides, the Greek playwright, had Google's management team in mind when he wrote that, but it sure fits. Google, despite the occasional lost deal, billion-dollar lawsuit, and PR black eye, continues to succeed spectacularly as a business. "Somehow they continue shitting more money than you or i could realistically comprehend," writes one Valleywag reader. Indeed. And that money is driving the people who run Google insane. CEO Eric Schmidt's cosseting of girlfriend Marcy Simon with a plum PR job is just the latest, most blatant sign of that madness. More » -
geek love
It's a good thing
As new husband Sergey Brin stands watch, 23andMe's Anne Wojcicki, recently married to the Google cofounder, shows photos from her recent wedding to home-style guru Martha Stewart, at this weekend's Science Foo Camp nerdfest. No wedding bells, at the moment, for Stewart, who's merely going steady with early Microsoft employee Charles Simonyi. More »
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Comment by Valleygrrl: Each of them could buy and sell the commenters on this thread a few times over, including me. I'd take... more » | Other threads
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how-to
Want to be the next Anne Wojcicki? Money Magazine has a helpful guide to landing a billionaire spouse. [Money] -
wedding announcements
A gay venture capitalist ties the knot
The Valley styles itself as gay-friendly. But how many queer venture capitalists can you think of? Here's a sign, in the month of gay pride, of change in the wind: NEA's Patrick Chung recently held a commitment ceremony with partner Matthew Burt, a church choir director. After the jump, more on Chung and Burt's Valley links, and a photo of the wedding party. More » -
23 and me
Buffett not related to Buffett
TIM FAULKNER — Fortune reports that Anne Wojcicki's 23 And Me, a genetic genealogy startup, is getting press attention for something other than her billionaire husband, Sergey Brin, and connections to his company, Google. The firm has determined that Warren Buffett, billionaire investor and philanthropist, and Jimmy Buffett, beach bum singer and restaurateur, are not related as they had long suspected... at least not in the last 10,000 years. Considering how Sergey has been wielding his power and influence, one wonders if the Brins are trying to wedge their way between the Buffett-Gates friendship or if they were trying to get Jimmy to host their recent wedding at an island locale more exclusive than the Bahamas. [Photo Credit: Fortune.] -
inappropriate
Richard Branson moves in on Google girl
A disturbing moment from the TED conference captured by eBayer Pierre Omidyar's Flickr stream. Sergey Brin's fiancée Anne Wojcicki canoodling with the rebel billionaire himself, Sir Richard Branson. Such unseemly public head-rubbing.
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By Chris MohneyComment by sanctuarylove: I wonder why she still has no Wikipedia page too. I'd love to hear more nice stories from her. I... more » | Other threads
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