Homeowners now have handy ways to install heating systems beneath their floors, enhancing their homes’ value while pampering themselves.

Compared with the late-’90s technology boom, there are few initial public offerings, making it harder to determine when an Internet downturn has begun.

Dogs are receiving groundbreaking drugs or other treatments for cancer, a leading cause of death in older dogs.

Ratings are down about 9 percent from already depressed levels of 2005, and not one new Fox series ranks among the top 55 shows in television.

Home haircutters are getting one break: these days, they can easily get their hands on the same tools that professionals wield.

GOING PUBLIC Among this week’s more noteworthy public offerings is one for Hertz Global Holdings, below, the car rental company that became private less than a year ago. The private equity firms that bought Hertz from the Ford Motor Company for $15 billion in cash and debt are planning to sell 88.2 million shares for $16 to $18 apiece. Another — and more unusual — offering that is expected is one for Nymex Holdings, which operates the futures exchange and clearinghouse, specializing in futures contracts for commodities like energy and metals. The plan is to offer 6.5 million shares for $48 to $52 a share.

Merck & Company will pay $1.1 billion to acquire Sirna Therapeutics, one of the leading companies pursuing technology to inactivate particular genes.

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, said last night that it had cut ties with a prominent Republican strategist who helped create a provocative advertisement.