The company is today announcing the final phase of its global project to create Silicon Valley-type networks of business creation, a project called BizSpark.

FORBES: Microsoft's War on Google's Terms

For example, Praveen Moman, co-founder and managing director of Volcanoes Safaris, which provides tours of Uganda and Rwanda, specializing in gorilla and chimpanzee safaris, talked about starting a luxury-type project in countries that are underdeveloped, impoverished and never having a tourism component.

FORBES: Travel Organizations Honored For Their Sustainable Practices

It's not quite a Batman-type science-bending project, but DARPA's apparently hush hush "Gandalf" initiative looks to be fairly ambitious nonetheless -- at least as far as we can tell from the rather vague statements that have been made about it.

ENGADGET: DARPA's "Gandalf" project aims to hone in on cellphones and track 'em

David Cordish, chairman of Cordish, acknowledges that fashion-type retailers have been hit harder than entertainment retail but maintains the project has met its contractual obligations, is a success and that more retail is still on tap, including a grocery store set to officially open in January.

WSJ: A Tale of Six Cities: How They Weathered Slump

The project is about the active making of a different type of public space and public arena (through radio, teach-ins, actions) in order to alter and fight from the inside the perverse dynamics that tend to ghettoize social sectors and their spaces and lives.

FORBES: La Salada: The Largest Informal Market In South America