Sunday, August 30, 2015

Taylor Swift leads winners but Miley Cyrus rules at MTV VMA show

LOS ANGELES | It was all about the shock factor on Sunday as the MTV Video Music Awards became the unofficial Miley Cyrus show, with the scantily clad singer cursing her way through her hosting duties.

“I’ve literally done everything on the VMA stage and none of it showed I was qualified to host, but here we are,” Cyrus, dressed in a plunging, sparkly rainbow jumpsuit, quipped as she opened the show.

Cyrus, 22, changed outfits numerous times throughout the show, each time coming out with less on, and starred in comedy sketches showing her cursing and smoking marijuana with actors such as Andy Samberg, musicians such as rapper Tyga, and her father, country musician Billy Ray Cyrus.

Viacom Inc-owned MTV’s annual VMAs, which draws the network’s youth audience coveted by advertisers, awards its Moonman statuettes to the year’s top achievements in music videos, but has become better known for delivering irreverent and unexpected moments.

Minaj opened the show singing “The Night Is Still Young,” dressed in an flamboyant red outfit with a feathered headdress, before being joined by Swift for her hit “Bad Blood,” one of the top nominated videos of the night.

The two came together to perform after a Twitter altercation last month when Minaj said the MTV VMA nominations only rewarded videos by “slim girls,” sparking a reaction from Swift. But the two showed no signs of “bad blood” on Sunday and ended their performance with a hug.

Minaj did call out Cyrus for criticizing her in a recent New York Times interview, to which Cyrus insinuated that the interview had been manipulated and congratulated the rapper.


Swift led the early winners on Sunday as “Blank Space” won best female video and best pop video, while Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson’s summer hit “Uptown Funk!” was named best male video and Minaj’s raunchy “Anaconda” won best hip hop video.

Ahead of the show, Fall Out Boy won best rock video for “Uma Thurman,” and the fan-voted song of the summer award went to Australian boy band 5 Seconds of Summer’s “She’s Kinda Hot,” which garnered more than 52 million votes.

source: interaksyon.com

Asian stocks set for worst monthly drop in three years on global rout


HONG KONG - Asian shares fell on Monday and looked set for their worst monthly performance in three years after top Federal Reserve officials kept the door open for an interest rate hike in September and Chinese stock markets took a fresh tumble.

Global markets are bracing for Chinese data on Tuesday which is expected to show the world's second-largest economy is continuing to lose momentum.

A Reuters poll showed China's official factory sector activity likely fell to a 3-year low.

U.S. business surveys, factory orders, trade data and non farm payrolls will also be released this week, keeping investors on edge after one of the wildest trading weeks of the year.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.8 percent and is set to fall 10 percent this month, its worst monthly drop since May 2012.

Japan's Nikkei was down more than 1 percent and South Korea's Kospi shed 0.6 percent. Australian shares lost 1.2 percent.

Selling intensified as China markets extended declines. By midmorning, Shanghai stocks, the epicenter of this month's whip-saw action, were down 3 percent. They have plunged more than 40 percent since mid-June.

U.S. stock futures shed 1 percent, pointing to weakness on Wall Street later in the day.

"Overall sentiment towards emerging markets continue to be quite cautious," said Frances Cheung, Asia strategist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong.

"Unless we see a decisive trend forward in the trajectory of U.S. interest rates, investors will continue to be wary of emerging market assets."

U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer, speaking at the central bank's conference in Wyoming, said recent volatility in global markets could ease and possibly pave the way for a rate hike.

"The release of U.S. ADP employment on Wednesday and non-farm payrolls on Friday will be key in analyzing the quantum of a September rate hike," Angus Nicholson, market analyst at trading services provider IG in Melbourne, wrote in a note to clients.

Prospects of higher interest rates and returns in the United States combined with China's slowdown have diminished the appeal of emerging markets as investors have dumped riskier assets.

Investors sold $5.9 billion of emerging market assets between Aug 20-26, a sharp increase from $1.5 billion the week earlier, according to Nomura fund flows data.

Credit markets, often a harbinger of things to come for equities, spelt further pain in store for emerging markets.

An index for Asian high-yield credit has fallen sharply compared to a relatively steady performance in the investment grade index, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The dollar eased 0.4 percent to 121.15 yen after rising to the week's high of 121.76 on Friday following the Fed officials' comments that kept prospects of a September hike alive.

The euro was up 0.5 percent at $1.12405  after touching an eight-day low of $1.1156 on Friday.

The market will watch Thursday's policy meeting to see if the European Central Bank will be inclined to ease monetary policy further in the wake of the recent global markets turmoil, though no imminent change is expected.

U.S. crude oil prices dipped early on Monday as their biggest two-day surge in quarter of a century ran its course.

U.S. crude was down 0.8 percent at $44.86 a barrel after jumping more than 6 percent on Friday on frenetic short-covering fueled by violence in Yemen, a storm in the Gulf of Mexico and refinery outages.

The contract was still down nearly 5 percent on the month, when it hit a 6-1/2-year low last week in the wake of China-led global growth fears.

source: interaksyon.com

Saturday, August 29, 2015

Flying the Breit skies


Aviation is about freedom, aviation is a lifestyle,” says Alexander Melchers, director of C. Melchers Singapore, at the viewing of Breitling’s Baselworld 2015 collection at the newly refurbished Breitling concept store in Greenbelt. Melchers’ company based in Singapore is the exclusive distributor of Breitling in Southeast Asia.

It’s how Europeans and Americans regard flying. In Asia, we mostly equate aviation with airports, connecting flights, miles, baggage allowance, inflight service, etc., but In Switzerland (where the brand heavily associated with aviation comes from) flying one’s own plane can be compared to, well, riding a Harley-Davidson, imagining Steppenwolf guitars chugging in the background, and easy-riding into the sunset.

“It’s about letting your hair down and putting on a leather jacket — whether you enjoy watching it or actually taking part in it,” shares Melchers. It’s the underlying message behind the Breitling name: freedom.

“And it’s liberating. The sky’s the limit. Notice that the blue in a Breitling watch is nicer than the others? It’s because of our pilots who get close to the sky.”


“Breitling’s DNA centers on aviation,” explains Lucerne managing director Emerson Yao.

In the early ‘30s, Breitling built on its reputation for precision and sturdiness, enriching its range with a “specialty” that would earn it worldwide fame: onboard chronographs intended for aircraft cockpits. These instruments — indispensable to secure piloting — enjoyed great success with the various armed forces, including the Royal Air Force (RAF), which used them to equip its famous World War II propeller-driven fighter planes.


During the ‘50s and ‘60s, Breitling played a key role in the boom of commercial aviation, as its onboard chronographs became standard equipment, first on the propeller-driven planes and later on the jet aircraft of many airplane manufacturers and airline companies. The brand thus quite naturally earned the status of “official supplier to world aviation.”

Yao says, “Today, the brand maintains its in-house set of jet planes.” The Breitling Jet Team — which competes in airshows such as the Reno Air Races and the Red Bull Air Race under the Breitling colors — put on an aerial show two years ago at Clark Air Base. Heck, brand ambassador John Travolta flies his own plane.



And that alliance with aviation is reflected in the luxury watch brand’s concept store in Greenbelt. The 31 square-meter store is decorated with aviation-themed Pop Art paintings by American artist Kevin T. Kelly to highlight Breitling’s aeronautical heritage, its technical vocation as a specialist in chronographs, and the brand’s instruments for professionals.

On view at the store is a comprehensive collection of Breitling timepieces, from the classic Navitimer and Chronomat collections to the Breitling for Bentley professional range. There are around 130 Breitling timepieces in numerous versions: from the classic to the more forward-thinking models — which may or may not be futuristic.

The Lucerne man has noticed how the latest models of watch brands such as Breitling are going the minimalist route. He says, “They’re characterized by simple lines, more classic. We hear terms such as ‘homage’ or ‘going back to one’s heritage,’ so I suppose that’s the next phase for the watch industry. Everybody going back to its historical pieces.”

Breitling sales director Peter Wong, who has been in the watch industry for 35 years, agrees. “At the end of the day, our platform is being a chronograph watch specialist.” The pillars of the brand, he adds, are about Breitling being the inventor of the modern chronograph and its authentic association with aviation.

Wong concludes, “We also have this obsession with quality. In every watch that we manufacture, every new model we come up, there are those tiny little details that we always look into.”

Precision, freedom… these are ideas you can fly with.

source: philstar.com

Treating lung cancer sans large incisions, risks


MANILA, Philippines — Lung cancer is responsible for the most number of malignancy-related deaths in the country, and is showing no signs of relenting, the Department of Health said.

While lung surgery has typically been performed using open procedures, the choice is increasingly becoming video-assisted thoracic surgery or VATS.

VATS is primarily utilized to treat conditions such as cancer, pneumothorax, infection, cysts and other thoracic disorders.

Research has shown that VATS provides patients with significant benefits that includes minimizing surgical and health risks, allowing a speedier recovery with less scarring, less pain, and less complications.

In line with its mission to provide quality health care through state-of-the-art facilities for Filipinos, the Lung Center of the Philippines hosted a symposium to discuss the state of the disease in the country, and the latest treatments available, such as VATS.

Benefits of VATS 


While conventional thoracic surgery makes use of a large incision and requires rib spreading or breastbone splitting, VATS requires only small incisions of normally 2 to 6 centimeters through the guidance of a high-resolution camera.


 Due to the minimal trauma, this procedure has shown to significantly reduce the complication rate during and after surgery, and blood loss volume. VATS-treated patients also showed a markedly reduced recovery time as compared to open thoracotomy—a one to two day hospital stay, where patients of a typical open thoracotomy require stays of 7 to 10 days.

Because VATS avoids the large chest incision and rib- spreading associated with a traditional thoracotomy, patients also rarely suffer from chronic and severe chest pains during and after surgery.

Given these benefits, VATS is finding an ever-increasing role in the diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of thoracic disorders, and not just in the field of lung cancer.

Is VATS is right for you?

The best candidates for the VATS procedure are individuals diagnosed with early stages of lung cancer. Patients with non-cancerous ailments of the lung are also considered for the procedure.

"All potential candidates are required to undergo thorough medical history screening and pre-operative tests in order to determine suitability for the VATS treatment," Dr. Jose Luis Danguilan said.

"All surgeries present risks and possibilities for complications. Only the surgeon can determine if a VATS procedure is right for a patient," he said.

Popularity of VATS


Surgery is considered as the only curative treatment for early-stage lung cancer patients today. VATS lobectomy has widely established itself as a viable–if not a more preferred–surgical approach to open lobectomy.

In many countries worldwide, VATS has been routinely performed for the majority of patients with early stage lung cancer since the mid-1990s.

Thr symposium included presentations from doctors Jose Luis Danguilan, Rey Desales, Guillermo Barroa Jr., Camilo Pada, Antonio Ramos, and  Edmund Villaroman, who founding members of the Philippine Association of Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgeons, and Jun Paul Castolo. — Alixandra Caole Vila

source: philstar.com

Friday, August 28, 2015

Lionel Messi named UEFA Best Player in Europe


Lionel Messi was Thursday voted UEFA’s best player in Europe for 2014-2015 with Germany’s Celia Sasic winning the women’s award.

The Argentina star, who won the Champions League, Spain’s La Liga and Spanish Cup with Barcelona, claimed the award for the second time ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez.

“I am happy to win the award. I thank all my teammates because they deserve part of it. I depend a lot on the team like everyone else,” the 28-year-old said.

Messi also won in 2010-2011 and succeeds Real Madrid rival Ronaldo who won last year.

FFC Frankfurt’s Sasic, 27, was voted the best women’s player ahead of France’s Amandine Henry and fellow German Dzsenifer Marozsan.

Sasic, who retired last month, was the top scorer in the Champions League which Frankfurt won, the Bundesliga and at the Women’s World Cup in Canada where she won the Golden Boot award.

source: interaksyon.com

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Australian state bans schools from showing gay film during class hours


SYDNEY, Australia -- A film about children with same-sex parents has been barred from being shown in public schools throughout Australia's most populous state, despite the documentary makers Thursday insisting students will benefit.

"Gayby Baby," which chronicles four children growing up with gay parents, was due to be shown in high schools in New South Wales as part of the student-led Wear it Purple initiative on Friday, which promotes diversity and inclusiveness.

But after front-page coverage in the Sydney Daily Telegraph this week, state Education Minister Andrew Piccoli pulled the plug, at least in school hours.

"I have directed the Department of Education to ensure the film is not shown during school hours," he said, in a move backed by state Premier Mike Baird.

"I understand the intent of that is to provide an example of tolerance and that's something I absolutely support," Baird told reporters.

"Should it be in class time? No, I don't think so. Should it be optional? Yes, I do think so."

The Telegraph reported some parents were angry their daughters had to watch the film, rated PG, or not recommended for under 15 years, but the documentary's director Maya Newell, a former student at one of the schools due to screen it, said the reaction was overblown.

"We firmly believe our film has positive benefits for all students and we're committed to supporting the schools who are celebrating Wear it Purple Day," she said on Facebook.

"Creating inclusive classroom and valuing family diversity promotes student wellbeing and acceptance of difference.

"There is no place for bullying, homophobia or discrimination in Australian public schools."

The largely crowd-funded film, which had two sold-out screenings at the Sydney Film Festival this year, is due to open in cinemas next week.

Wear it Purple Day founder Katherine Hudson told the Sydney Morning Herald she could understand the film being banned if it showed "grotesque sex scenes or violence."

"But this is a film about families. Even for conservatives, this stuff would be easy to swallow," she said.

Earlier this month, a bill to legalize same-sex marriage was introduced into the Australian parliament.

But it is doomed to fail, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott's government opposed to any changes despite growing support for marriage equality.

Same-sex couples can have civil unions or register their relationships in most states across Australia, but the government does not consider them married under national law.

source: interaksyon.com

'Human powder keg' in US journalists' killings haunted by racism, revenge


WASHINGTON -- Vester Flanagan, who killed two journalists Wednesday and appeared to have filmed the murders, drew a troubled portrait of himself in tweets after their deaths and a rambling 23-page manifesto sent to ABC news.

Also known on-air as Bryce Williams, the 41-year-old African American said he was seeking to avenge racial injustices and instances in which he believed himself to have been wronged, in documents that paint him as deeply troubled by racism and hungry for revenge.

Flanagan allegedly shot and killed at close range reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, in the middle of a live interview early Wednesday.

The pair worked for Roanoke, Virginia CBS affiliate WDBJ where Flanagan was once employed -- and fired.

Flanagan fled the scene near a local lake, and his car was later found run off the highway, apparently after he shot himself. He died at a hospital in northern Virginia outside Washington.

In a series of tweets, Flanagan offered a glimpse at his motivations, posting that "Alison made racist comments" and claiming that Ward had reported him to human resources.

Yet in a rambling manifesto received by ABC News, Flanagan said a recent deadly church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine black parishioners died, was what drove him over the edge.

"The church shooting was the tipping point ... but my anger has been building steadily," he said.

"Why did I do it? I put down a deposit for a gun on 6/19/15. The Church shooting in Charleston happened on 6/17/15 ..."

'Difficult to work with' 

Born in 1973, the San Francisco State University graduate and Oakland native said he had suffered throughout his career as a black, gay man.

In the manifesto, which Flanagan termed a "Suicide Note for Friends and Family," he complained of racial discrimination and bullying "for being a gay, black man."

Flanagan said in a tweet that he had filed a complaint against WDBJ's Parker, whom he shot.

"Vester was an unhappy man. We employed him as a reporter and he had some talent in that respect and some experience," WDBJ's general manager Jeffrey Marks said.

Flanagan joined the station in March 2012 and was dismissed in February 2013, escorted out the door by police.

"He quickly gathered a reputation of someone who was difficult to work with. He was sort of looking out for people to say things he could take offense to," Marks said.

"Eventually, after many incidents of his anger, we dismissed him. He did not take that well," he added.

Flanagan bounced in an out of jobs in journalism and other fields. Before being hired at WDBJ, he had spent eight years working outside of journalism.

From 1993 to 2005, he worked at KPIX, San Francisco's local CBS affiliate.

On his LinkedIn profile -- registered under the name Bryce Williams -- Flanagan wrote that he had worked at several television stations across the country since the mid-1990s as well as in marketing and customer relations.

'A human powder keg'

Co-workers at NBC affiliate WTWC in Tallahassee, Florida began noticing Flanagan's strange behavior when he worked there around 2000.

"He was a good on-air performer, a pretty good reporter. And then things started getting a little strange," journalist Don Shafer told a San Diego news station where he is now news director.

Flanagan took WTWC to court for discrimination, claiming to have been called a monkey.

In his manifesto, Flanagan said that his anger had been a long time coming.

"My anger has been building steadily ... I've been a human powder keg for a while ... just waiting to go BOOM!!!!"

source: interaksyon.com

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Dementia cases to nearly triple by 2050 - report


PARIS, France - The number of people with dementia worldwide will nearly triple from 47 million today to 132 million in 2050, a report said Tuesday.

Dementia is an umbrella term for degenerative diseases of the brain characterised by a gradual decline in the ability to think and remember.

Accounting for well over half of cases, Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia.

As the world gets older, the number of people with dementia is set to increase exponentially, notes the World Alzheimer Report 2015, produced by Alzheimer's Disease International.

Today there are 900 million people 60 or older. Over the next 35 years, that age group will grow by 65 percent in rich countries, 185 percent in lower-middle income nations, and 239 percent in poor countries.

In 2015 alone, there will be about 10 million new cases, one every few seconds and nearly 30 percent more than in 2010.

The risk increases dramatically as we age.

Fewer than four out of every 1,000 people aged 60 to 64 are afflicted with some form of what used to be called senility. But from the age of 90, that ratio jumps to 105 for every 1,000 people, more than 10 percent.

The global cost burden of dementia is likewise increasing sharply, having risen by more than 35 percent over the last five years to $818 billion (709 billion euros) in 2015.

Sixty percent of the cost was for medical and institutional care.

"Population ageing alone drives the projected increases," said the report.

source: interaksyon.com

Monday, August 24, 2015

One Direction ‘to go separate ways’ next year


LONDON | British pop phenomenon One Direction are to take an indefinite break from next year, according to a media report Monday which has left fans devastated.

The four-piece boy band will separate for at least a year from March to pursue solo projects, according to The Sun newspaper, citing a “1D source”.

The band, who enjoy a massive global teenage following, did not comment when contacted by AFP and have not commented on the tabloid report on their various Twitter accounts.

“The guys have been together for five years, which is an incredible run for any boy band,” said The Sun’s source.

“They fully deserve to have at least a year to work on their own projects. There is absolutely no bad blood between them and they are all 100 percent behind the decision.

“It is definitely not a split and they fully intend to get back together at some time in the future.”

They are due to release their fifth album before Christmas, and fulfil promotional commitments by the end of February, the report said.

There will be no tour for the new album.

The band’s last scheduled concerts are at the Sheffield Arena in northern England on October 29, 30, 31.

They are currently touring North America and are due to perform in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Tuesday.

Put together for a British television singing contest in 2010, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson swiftly developed a giant, fiercely loyal following of young girls worldwide.

The chart-toppers have sold more than 50 million records around the globe.

Malik quit the band in March, shortly after being signed off with stress.

“I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight,” he said at the time.

The Sun’s report said the split would have happened regardless of Malik’s departure.

The Sunday Times newspaper’s Rich List 2015 reckoned the band members were worth £25 million each.

source: interaksyon.com

China fears, global growth doubts grip markets


MADRID - Markets are watching for China's next move as signs of a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy stack up, raising expectations it will act to stoke growth.

A looming snap election in Greece and a closely watched conference hosted by the Federal Reserve in the United States are also likely to keep investors on their toes in the coming week, in particular as they look for hints on when the U.S. will raise interest rates.

Fears that Chinese growth is weakening, dragging down the global economy with it, are hammering commodities and stocks.

Alarm bells rang out across world markets on Monday as a 9 percent dive in Chinese shares and a sharp drop in the dollar and major commodities panicked investors.

On Friday, a survey showed Chinese manufacturing slowed the most since the global financial crisis in 2009 - adding to other worrying clues about the country's health, including its falling exports.

China devalued the yuan earlier in August by pushing its official guidance rate down 2 percent. The central bank has said there was no reason for the currency to fall further, but investors are also bracing for further interest rate cuts.

"It will be all eyes on the Chinese authorities for any further policy support steps, alongside the People's Bank of China yuan fixings and trading swings," analysts at Investec Economics said in a note to clients.

China is also widely expected to relax reserve requirements ratios for its banks again in the coming months, a measure intended to spur lending by reducing the cash they need to hold. It is trying to keep its economy on course to grow 7 percent in 2015 - its slowest pace in a quarter of a century.

"We continue to expect a total of 100 basis points of reserve requirement ratio cuts by end-2015, with the first cut likely to take place within the next two weeks," economists at Standard Chartered said.

The cash reserves ratio has already been cut three times this year.

Eyes on Fed, Greece

By the end of the coming week, attention may shift away to the Rocky Mountains, where policymakers are due to gather from Aug. 27-29 for the Fed's conference of central bankers, finance ministers, academics and financial market participants in Jackson Hole.

Fed chair Janet Yellen is not expected to attend, raising the prospect that other Fed officials may be more tight-lipped about the likelihood of the first rate increase in almost a decade, some analysts said.

The prospect of an increase as soon as September is receding, however.

Last week the Fed released minutes of its July meeting, giving no clear signals as to the timing of such a move - which would affect markets across the world and could cause more pain for emerging market assets, already being hit by China's woes.

Though they were more confident about U.S. growth prospects, the minutes showed, Fed policymakers are concerned about weakness in the global economy - fears likely to have been heightened by Monday's market rout in which the dollar also fell sharply.

Further clues on both matters should be gleaned from data releases in the coming week, including second-quarter U.S. gross domestic product figures due on Thursday.

Quarter-on-quarter growth in the period is expected to be revised upwards to 3.2 percent from 2.3 percent, according to a Reuters poll.

In the euro zone, investors will be looking at an German economic sentiment survey due on Tuesday for a better idea of the scope of the bloc's recovery.

Preliminary August consumer price readings for Germany and Spain on Friday will provide further insight into how effective the European Central Bank's bond-buying efforts have been at warding off deflation.

But the spotlight will mainly fall once again on Greece, where Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has resigned. That opens the way for early elections after he secured much-needed funds in the country's third international bailout program.

The current Greek government aims to strengthen its position in the election after accepting a rescue deal it once opposed. But that creates more uncertainty for markets already on edge over whether Greece will deliver on promised reforms and get its economy and banks back on track.

source: interaksyon.com

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Daimler CEO mulls joint ventures with Apple, Google — magazine


BERLIN — Daimler’s chief executive said “different types” of cooperation with Apple and Google are possible as carmakers realize next-generation autos cannot be built without greater input from telecoms and software experts.

“Many things are conceivable,” Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said in an interview with quarterly magazine Deutsche Unternehmerboerse published on Friday.

The emergence of self-driving and connected cars has made software a key component in future cars, opening the market to new entrants like the U.S.-based technology giants.

“Google and Apple want to provide system software for cars and bring this entire ecosystem around Apple and Google into the vehicle,” Zetsche said. “That can be interesting for both sides.”

His comments echoed those of German rival Volkswagen, whose chief executive Martin Winterkorn has urged collaboration with technology firms to make future cars safer and more intelligent.

One option could be for Daimler to build cars as part of a joint venture by using the digital expertise of its U.S. partners, Zetsche said, but added that his comments were “purely theoretical”.

Zetsche said Daimler would not allow itself to be demoted to the role of dumb supplier, simply producing cars for the Silicon Valley giants.

“We don’t want to become contractors who have no direct content with customers any more and supply hardware to third parties,” he said.

source: interaksyon.com

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Actress Shannen Doherty battling breast cancer: report


LOS ANGELES | U.S. television actress Shannen Doherty, best known for her roles in “Beverly Hills, 90210″ and “Charmed,” is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer, celebrity publication People magazine said Wednesday.

Doherty, 44, told People that she is focusing on her recovery. The magazine also cited legal documents from a recent lawsuit filed by the actress that disclosed her illness, saying she was first diagnosed with the cancer in March this year.

A representative for the actress could not be reached by Reuters for comment.

Doherty is best known for playing Brenda Walsh in the early 1990s series “90210,” which followed the lives of Southern California teens, and Prue Halliwell on late 1990s series “Charmed,” which followed three sisters with magical abilities.

source: interaksyon.com

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

US FDA approves 'female Viagra' with strong warning


WASHINGTON -- A controversial drug to treat low sexual desire in women won approval from US health regulators on Tuesday, but with a warning about potentially dangerous low blood pressure and fainting when taken with alcohol.

Moreover, the US Food and Drug Administration said the first approved drug for the condition, to be sold under the brand name Addyi, will only be available through certified health care professionals and pharmacies due to its safety issues.

The FDA has twice rejected the drug, flibanserin, made by privately held Sprout Pharmaceuticals. Its latest decision comes after an advisory panel concluded in June it should be approved with strict measures in place to ensure patients are fully aware of the risks.

Shares of rival Palatin Technologies rose 29 percent to $1.21 in extended trade.

The drug has been nicknamed "female Viagra" in media reports, even though it does not work like Pfizer Inc.'s blockbuster Viagra pill for men that in 1998 became the first approved drug for erectile dysfunction.

Flibanserin needs to be taken every day.

Unlike Viagra, which affects blood flow to the genitals, flibanserin works on the brain. It is similar to a class of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRI's, that include antidepressants such as Prozac.

Originally developed by Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim, flibanserin was first rejected by the FDA in 2010 after an advisory panel said the benefits did not outweigh the risks. Sprout acquired the drug, conducted additional studies and resubmitted the application. In 2013, the FDA rejected it again.

The rejection sparked a lobbying campaign by Sprout, aided by some women's groups who accused the FDA of gender bias because it had approved Viagra for men - a charge the FDA vigorously rejected.

Flibanserin is designed for premenopausal women whose lack of sexual desire causes distress. Women who took the drug in a clinical study had an increase of about 1.0 sexually satisfying event per month compared with those taking a placebo.

Advocates claim that increase is meaningful. Critics say the small benefit is outweighed by the drug’s risks.

source: interaksyon.com

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Mystery of Saturn's 'F ring' cracked, says study


PARIS - An enigmatic ring of icy particles circling Saturn, herded into a narrow ribbon by two tiny moons, was probably born of a cosmic collision, according to a study published Monday.

The so-called F ring, some 140,000 kilometers (87,000 miles) beyond the sixth planet from the Sun, orbits at the border between Saturn's other rings and several moons.

Further toward Saturn, millions of ice blocks populating the planet's haunting halos are prevented from cohering into moons by its powerful tidal forces.

Further out are Saturn's main moons, distant enough to have cohered into spheres with their own gravity: Mimas, Enceladus and Titan, which is the only moon in our Solar System with a substantial atmosphere.

And in the boundary zone F ring's icy particles whirl around the planet in a band barely 100 kilometers (60 miles) across, itself orbited by moons Prometheus and Pandora.     

Scientists have long known that these so-called shepherd moons were partly responsible for keeping the F ring in tight formation.

What they did not know was how this unusual configuration came into being.

Ryuki Hyodo and Keiji Ohtsuki, astronomers from Kobe University in Japan, used computer simulations to show that Prometheus and Pandora are likely the by-product of a collision at the outer edge of Saturn's ring system.

Previous speculation along these lines concluded that two icy mini-moons crashing head-on would have simply disintegrated, adding yet another ring to Saturn's collection.

But what if the objects were made of something less fragile, and hit each other at an angle?

In that case, "such an impact results in only partial disruption" of the mini-moons as opposed to their total destruction, the authors conclude.

The collision would also produce "the formation of a narrow ring of particles" which becomes a new ring.

Hyodo and Ohtsuki further speculate that this sort of process might not be a once-off oddity but rather the "natural outcome" of ring formation under certain conditions for giant gas planets.

This "may explain not only Saturn's F ring, but also features of the Uranian system," Aurelien Crida, a scientist at France's National Centre for Scientific Research wrote in a comment, also in Nature Geoscience.

Saturn is the second largest planet in our Solar System after Jupiter, and has a radius about nine times greater than Earth.

Its spectacular ring system has nine complete rings and several discontinuous arcs, all of them mainly made of ice particles, with lesser amounts of rocky debris and dust.

Some 60 moons circle Saturn, not including hundreds of "moonlets" such as the F ring's Prometheus and Pandora.

Much of the data and high-resolution images we have from Saturn and its rings was collected by the Cassini space probe, which arrived near the giant planet in 2004.

source: interaksyon.com

IBM launches Linux-only mainframe system LinuxONE


International Business Machines Corp said on Monday it launched Linux-only mainframe servers called LinuxONE.

The severs include LinuxONE Emperor for large enterprises and Rockhopper for mid-size businesses.

IBM said LinuxONE Emperor can scale up to 8,000 virtual machines or thousands of containers, which would be the most for any single Linux system.


The Linux One Emperor system will be based on IBM’s z13 mainframe computer, which had been designed for high-volume mobile transactions.

IBM said the LinuxOne system will work with open software such as Apache Spark, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and Chef.

The company also said it partnered with UK-based Canonical Ltd to distribute its Ubuntu open source software on LinuxONE and z systems.

source: interaksyon.com

Monday, August 17, 2015

FEATURE | Turning cow poo into power is profitable for US farm


PLYMOUTH, United States - For most farms, manure is a pungent problem. At Homestead Dairy, it smells like money.

The family-run American farm invested in a biogas recovery system which transforms cow poo and other waste into electricity.

Enough electricity, in fact, to power 1,000 homes, a service which the local utility company pays for handsomely.

But that's just a side benefit.

"It works economically, but one of the main reasons we did it was to try to help take care of the odor control for the neighbors," said Floyd Houin, whose family has owned the farm in Plymouth, Indiana since 1945.

"The land's important to us also because we produce a crop for feeding cows. So we want to do everything we can to take care of the land and the water. We drink the same water as everyone else."

Livestock farms typically store their effluent in open lagoons and the stench does not make them very popular with the neighbors.

The lagoons also have a significant environmental impact because they emit methane and carbon dioxide -- major contributors to climate change -- and can sully the groundwater if they leak or overflow during heavy rains.

Setting up an anaerobic digester -- essentially a giant shed that uses heat to speed up decomposition -- captures both the smell and the greenhouse gases.

Power one million homes

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than three million tons of greenhouse gas emissions were eliminated last year by Homestead and the 246 other US livestock farms which have installed biogas recovery systems.

That's equivalent to taking more than 630,000 cars off the road.

There are about 8,000 dairy and hog farms in the United States which are large enough to make a biogas recovery system viable.

The EPA estimates they could generate enough electricity to power over a million homes and cut emissions by the equivalent of taking nearly four million cars off the road.

Biogas recovery is also being used to capture methane from landfills and sewage treatment plants and even at craft beer companies.

"The federal government is really committed to seeing progress in this sector," said Allison Costa, program manager for the EPA's AgStar unit.

"Widespread investment and adoption could help us make significant inroads in helping us address some of our environmental and energy challenges."

The problem is the financing, Costa said. There's a huge upfront cost and most utility companies in the United States won't pay enough for the electricity to make the project appealing to a bank loan officer.

It also requires a lot of maintenance, which many farms don't have the manpower to manage. But when it works, Costa said, it really works.

"We've seen a lot of farms expand and build a second one," she told AFP.

"You just have to have someone willing to love that digester and take care of it."

Ryan Rogers, 31, loves his digester.

"There's so many (good) things, you forget them all," said Rogers, who married into the Homestead family and spends about four hours a day on digester maintenance and management.

Controlling the smell from the 70,000 gallons of manure and urine produced every day by the dairy's 3,400 cows clearly tops the list.

Then of course, there's the crops. The digester does a much better job of turning the manure into fertilizer, which means a better yield from the farm's 4,500 acres of corn.

Once that nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer is extracted, what's left makes for some nice soft bedding for the cows.

And instead of spending money to manage the manure, soon they'll be making money off it.

Recover cost in five years

The family managed to get a grant to help cover some of the cost of the facility and a favorable contact with the local power company which was looking to expand its renewable energy supplies.

They bring in extra income -- and fuel for the generators -- by charging restaurants and food processing plants a lower rate to dump their waste than the local landfill.

It will probably only take about five years until the initial investment is fully paid off, Rogers said. And it's working so well they're planning to build a second facility.

"It's definitely a growing field within the United States," said Mike Fenton of Michigan CAT, which sold the Caterpillar generators used by Homestead and helps them to maintain the system.

The European market is much more advanced because there are so many more subsidies available and the cost of electricity is so much higher, he said.

While US farmers may balk at the initial cost -- a system like the one at Homestead would run around $6 million -- Fenton said it's a good investment. Most farms can pay it off and start making a profit within three to five years.

"It's a proven technology that works really well," he told AFP.

source: interaksyon.com

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Openly gay Michael Sam ‘steps away’ from football


Michael Sam, who last year became the first openly gay player drafted by a National Football League team, said on Friday he was stepping away from football, citing concerns over his mental health.

The Canadian Football League’s Montreal Alouettes, with whom he signed a contract in May, said on its team website that Sam had left the team for personal reasons and as a result had been placed on the team’s suspended list.

“The last 12 months have been very difficult for me, to the point where I became concerned with my mental health,” Sam wrote on Twitter. “Because of this I am going to step away from the game at this time.”

“Thank you all for your understanding and support,” he added.

Sam also thanked the Alouettes, and said he hoped to be back on the field soon. The defensive lineman was suspended by the Alouettes in June after he left the team’s training camp for unexplained personal reasons.

The National Football League’s St. Louis Rams selected Sam in the seventh round of the 2014 draft but waived him in the final round of cuts. He was picked up by the Dallas Cowboys but they released him from their practice squad in October.

Sam was the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a senior at the University of Missouri before graduating in December 2013.

The following February, before the NFL Draft, he announced he was gay.

ESPN reported that Sam agreed to a two-year deal with the Alouettes this summer. It also reported that he sat out the team’s first five games and that he failed to record a tackle during his team debut on August 7.

Sam’s supporters have said that his sexuality is irrelevant to his performance and have dismissed suggestions that an openly gay player would be a distraction for a professional football team.

source: interaksyon.com

Saturday, August 15, 2015

2 jumbo phones from Samsung ahead of expected new iPhone


NEW YORK — Samsung has unveiled two new Android smartphones with jumbo screens as it seeks to recapture some of the sales lost to Apple after larger iPhones came out last year.

Samsung said Thursday that the new Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge Plus will start shipping Aug. 21 in the U.S. and Canada. Usually, Note phones don't come out until well after Apple's new iPhone models in September.

The timing reflects a shift in fortunes for a company that pioneered jumbo phones with the original Note in 2011. Now, Samsung needs to beat Apple to the punch, or risk seeing its products drowned out by all the attention on the iPhone, IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said.

The new phones from Samsung have screens measuring 5.7 inches diagonally, the same as last year's Note 4, yet both are lighter and thinner. They are comparable to Apple's 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, the larger of the two new iPhones. Samsung's Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge phones, which are closer in size to the regular iPhone 6, came out in April.

The Note 5 will cost $696 to $740 without a contract, depending on the carrier. The Edge Plus will cost about $75 more. The iPhone 6 Plus sells for about $750. T-Mobile is throwing in a year of Netflix with both phones, while Sprint is giving away a low-end Samsung tablet with a two-year contract. Advance orders begin in the U.S. on Thursday.

Samsung Electronics Co. also said its Samsung Pay mobile payment service will debut in its home country of South Korea on Aug. 20. Testing in the U.S. will begin Aug. 25, with a formal launch on Sept. 28.

Although there's competition from Apple Pay and Google's upcoming Android Pay, Samsung is hoping its payments system will catch on with the inclusion of a technology that mimics the old-school, magnetic signals from credit-card swipes. That allows it to work with a wider range of merchants, though it still won't work everywhere cards are accepted.

Samsung also teased an upcoming smartwatch, the Gear S2. It will have a round face, rather than the rectangular design in Apple Watch and previous Samsung watches. A video from Samsung suggests snazzy graphics to rival Apple Watch. More details will come at the IFA tech show in Berlin next month.

As for the phones, Samsung is looking to play to its strengths.

___

GALAXY NOTE 5

Though it appeals to a niche audience, the Note is popular for including a stylus to take notes and annotate images on the screen. The update provides quicker access to apps and features that use the stylus. A clicking mechanism makes the stylus easier to pull out.

One new feature ends the need to print out and rescan electronic forms to sign or fill out. Just write on the PDF document directly before saving and sending.

Screenshots can get annoying when you're just snapping what's visible on the screen. An article or list of directions you're trying to save might take four or five shots. A new feature called scroll capture combines all those shots into one image, though you still need to snap them one section at a time.

___

GALAXY S6 EDGE PLUS

The screens on Samsung's Edge phones are curved on both sides. The feature proved popular in this spring's S6 Edge, which used one of those sides for quick access to friends and other frequent contacts. Now, you can use it for quick access to favorite apps, too.

There won't be a stylus, though, as last year's Note Edge phone had.

___

COMMON TO BOTH PHONES

The new phones incorporate the improved camera technology found in this spring's S6 phones. Added is live streaming of video you're capturing, a practice made popular by Meerkat and Twitter's Periscope apps. Samsung's video will appear on YouTube. The front cameras take sharper selfies, at 5 megapixels rather than 3.7.

The new phones also borrow design elements from the S6. They sport aluminum frames and glass backs rather than plastic. The back of the Note 5 is slightly curved for a better grip, while the Edge gets its curve on the front. Either way, it doesn't feel as boxy as the regular S6.

Borrowing another page from Apple's playbook, the phones are coming out just a week after they are announced. It used to take Samsung a month or longer.

___

THE LANDSCAPE

After the larger iPhones came out, Samsung could no longer proclaim to have "The Next Big Thing."

The S6 phones this spring emphasized design instead, but sales fell below expectations, as Apple dominated the high-end market. Meanwhile, rival Android phone makers have been able to offer decent cameras, displays and speeds for less money than Samsung phones. Although it's still the leading smartphone maker, Samsung has reported five consecutive quarters of profit decline.

"There's an urgency to show that Samsung can still stand up to the challenge that is Apple and everybody else out there," Llamas said. "For a while, Samsung was the 'be all and end all' of Android devices. Now, it's a different market."

source: philstar.com

A home designed for young professionals


MANILA, Philippines - Robinsons Residences’ Sapphire Bloc was particularly designed for active professionals whose demanding careers require a home that’s in sync with their dynamic lifestyles. Y Diseño Interior principal designer Cecile Narvaez was tapped to execute The Sapphire Bloc’s aspirational home interior that appeals to career-driven individuals in their late 20s to early 30s. The Sapphire Bloc upholds Robinsons Residences’ mantra of city living done right. For inquiries, call  636-0888, SMS 0925-3333333, or visit www.robinsonsresidences.com and www.facebook.com/RobResidences.

source: philstar.com

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Former US president Jimmy Carter says he has cancer


Former US President Jimmy Carter said on Wednesday that recent liver surgery revealed he had cancer that had spread to other parts of his body.

"I will be rearranging my schedule as necessary so I can undergo treatment by physicians at Emory Healthcare," Carter, 90, said in a statement. "A more complete public statement will be made when facts are known, possibly next week."

Carter, a Democrat, served as the 39th president from 1977 to 1981 after defeating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford. He was defeated for re-election in 1980 by Republican Ronald Reagan.

The Carter family has a history of pancreatic cancer, including his parents, two sisters and younger brother Billy Carter.

Carter told the New York Times in 2007 that he and other relatives had given blood for genetic studies seeking to help doctors diagnose the disease.

Asked why he has escaped cancer for so long while it devastated the rest of his family he blamed smoking. "The only difference between me and my father and my siblings was that I never smoked a cigarette," said Carter, former governor of Georgia and a state senator. "My daddy smoked regularly. All of them smoked."

Jimmy Carter's health became a matter of concern in recent months after he cut short a trip to Guyana in May to observe national elections. At the time, the Carter Center in Atlanta said only that he had returned to his home state of Georgia after "not feeling well."

The Carter Center said last week that he had undergone elective surgery at Emory University Hospital to remove a small mass in his liver and his prognosis was excellent.

The White House issued a statement saying that Democratic President Barack Obama and the first lady sent their "best wishes to President Carter for a fast and full recovery."

It added: "Jimmy, you're as resilient as they come, and along with the rest of America, we are rooting for you."

Republican Georgia Governor Nathan Deal and his wife issued a statement saying Carter was "in their prayers as he goes through treatment."

Carter also received words of sympathy via Twitter from Reverend Jesse Jackson Sr, who said the former president "raised the moral chin bar for public service."

A Nobel Peace Prize winner and activist on a range of issues from global democracy to women and children's rights, as well as affordable housing, Carter published his latest book last month, titled "A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety."

In July, he gave a wide-ranging interview to Reuters Editor-at-Large Sir Harold Evans on his life from his childhood on a Georgia peanut farm to his presidency.

Carter recalled growing up in a home without running water or electricity, at a time when he said the daily wage was $1 for a man, 75 cents for a woman, and a loaf of bread cost 5 cents.

He said the civil rights movement led to important progress toward racial equality in the United States, but lamented "there’s still a great prejudice in police forces against black people and obviously some remnants of extreme racism.”

source: interaksyon.com

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Zac Efron says new ‘Baywatch’ movie to be raunchy comedy


LONDON | Former teen idol Zac Efron, who rose to fame in the Disney “High School Musical” franchise, says the upcoming “Baywatch” movie in which he will co-star with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will be almost nothing like the 1990s TV series about lifeguards.

Although the movie is in preliminary stages, Efron said he was looking forward to it departing from the TV show that starred David Hasselhoff and Pamela Anderson and almost always featured a rescue at sea, no matter how tangential to the plot.

“It’s going to be R-rated and it’s going to be badass,” Efron told Reuters, referring to the Hollywood classification for movies containing adult material.

Efron, who was in London for the European premiere on Tuesday of his new movie “We Are Your Friends”, in which he plays a DJ who gets caught up in the drug-and-booze-fuelled world of the California party and club scene, said the evolving “Baywatch” movie would skew towards comedy and raunch.

“I think we’re going like pretty big with it and I don’t think it’s going to be much like the old ‘Baywatch’ to be honest. I think we’re going to kind of reinvent it in a big way, and he (Johnson) has big plans for it. I know he’s very ambitious.”

Efron also responded to a tweet sent by Johnson, who doubles as a producer for the film, which read: “BIG NEWS: Welcoming my dude @ZacEfron to #BAYWATCH. Our movie will be big, fun and RATED R… Like me when I drink.”

Efron replied saying: “So stoked brother – baby oil for 2 plz.”

source: interaksyon.com

Monday, August 10, 2015

Stinking mats of seaweed piling up on Caribbean beaches


KINGSTON, Jamaica — The picture-perfect beaches and turquoise waters that people expect on their visits to the Caribbean are increasingly being fouled by mats of decaying seaweed that attract biting sand fleas and smell like rotten eggs.

Clumps of the brownish seaweed known as sargassum have long washed up on Caribbean coastlines, but researchers say the algae blooms have exploded in extent and frequency in recent years. The 2015 seaweed invasion appears to be a bumper crop, with a number of shorelines so severely hit that some tourists have canceled summer trips and lawmakers on Tobago have termed it a "natural disaster."

From the Dominican Republic in the north, to Barbados in the east, and Mexico's Caribbean resorts to the west, officials are authorizing emergency money to fund cleanup efforts and clear stinking mounds of seaweed that in some cases have piled up nearly 10 feet high on beaches, choked scenic coves and cut off moored boats.

With the start of the region's high tourism season a few months away, some officials are calling for an emergency meeting of the 15-nation Caribbean Community, worried that the worsening seaweed influx could become a chronic dilemma for the globe's most tourism-dependent region.

"This has been the worst year we've seen so far. We really need to have a regional effort on this because this unsightly seaweed could end up affecting the image of the Caribbean," said Christopher James, chairman of the Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association.

There are various ideas about what is causing the seaweed boom that scientists say started in 2011, including warming ocean temperatures and changes in the ocean currents due to climate change. Some researchers believe it is primarily due to increased land-based nutrients and pollutants washing into the water, including nitrogen-heavy fertilizers and sewage waste that fuel the blooms.


Brian Lapointe, a sargassum expert at Florida Atlantic University, says that while the sargassum washing up in normal amounts has long been good for the Caribbean, severe influxes like those seen lately are "harmful algal blooms" because they can cause fish kills, beach fouling, tourism losses and even coastal dead zones.

"Considering that these events have been happening since 2011, this could be the 'new normal.' Time will tell," Lapointe said by email.

The mats of drifting sargassum covered with berry-like sacs have become so numerous in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean they are even drifting as far away as to West Africa, where they've been piling up fast in Sierre Leone and Ghana.

Sargassum, which gets its name from the Portuguese word for grape, is a floating brownish algae that generally blooms in the Sargasso Sea, a 2 million-square-mile (3 million-square-kilometer) body of warm water in the North Atlantic that is a major habitat and nursery for numerous marine species. Like coral reefs, the algae mats are critical habitats and mahi-mahi, tuna, billfish, eels, shrimp, crabs and sea turtles all use the algae to spawn, feed or hide from predators.

But some scientists believe the sargassum besieging a growing number of beaches may actually be due to blooms in the Atlantic's equatorial region, perhaps because of a high flow of nutrients from South America's Amazon and Orinoco Rivers mixing with warmer ocean temperatures.

"We think this is an ongoing equatorial regional event and our research has found no direct connection with the Sargasso Sea," said Jim Franks, senior research scientist at the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory.

Whatever the reason, the massive sargassum flow is becoming a major challenge for tourism-dependent countries. In large doses, the algae harms coastal environments, even causing the deaths of endangered sea turtle hatchlings after they wriggle out of the sand where their eggs were buried. Cleanup efforts by work crews may also worsen beach erosion.

"We have heard reports of recently hatched sea turtles getting caught in the seaweed. If removal of seaweed involves large machinery that will also obviously cause impacts to the beaches and the ecosystems there," said Faith Bulger, program officer at the Washington-based Sargasso Sea Commission.

Mexican authorities recently said they will spend about $9.1 million and hire 4,600 temporary workers to clean up seaweed mounds accumulating along that country's Caribbean coast. Part of the money will be used to test whether the sargassum can be collected at sea before it reaches shore.

Some tourists in hard-hit areas are trying to prevent their summer vacations from being ruined by the stinking algae.

"The smell of seaweed is terrible, but I'm enjoying the sun," German tourist Oliver Pahlke said during a visit to Cancun, Mexico.

Sitting at a picnic table on the south coast of Barbados, Canadian vacationer Anne Alma said reports of the rotting seaweed mounds she'd heard from friends did not dissuade her from visiting the Eastern Caribbean island.

"I just wonder where the seaweed is going to go," the Toronto resident said one recent morning, watching more of mats drift to shore even after crews had already trucked away big piles to use as mulch and fertilizers.

source: philstar.com

Man charged after 8 found shot dead in Texas home


WASHINGTON -- A man who engaged police in a standoff at a Texas home has been charged with capital murder after the bullet-riddled bodies of six children and two adults were found inside, officials said Sunday.

The eight people were discovered Saturday by deputies performing a welfare check at the Houston-area residence after a concerned relative requested the search, officials with the Harris County Sheriff's Office said.

The victims were found in each of the house's three bedrooms. They had been shot, some multiple times, and many were restrained with metal handcuffs, lead investigator Sergeant Craig Clopton told reporters.

The deputies initially tried to contact residents inside the home before spotting a child's body through a window, Chief Deputy Tim Cannon told reporters.

They then forced their way in and were peppered with gunfire and withdrew. Negotiators from a high-risk operations unit later convinced the alleged assailant to surrender, Cannon said.

Police have identified the man as David Conley, 48, a former domestic partner of Valerie Jackson, who died in the attack.

Jackson, 40, also lived in the house where she, her husband and children were killed.

"There was a prior relationship" between Conley and Jackson and at least one of the dead children, the oldest, could be Conley's, Clopton said.

"The killer's motives appear to be related to the dispute with Valerie," Cannon said.

"It's obvious he had some distaste for what was going on within his personal life and his family life," he added.

A prior warrant was already outstanding for Conley related to assault of family members, the police said.

Conley's rap sheet of domestic violence dates back to at least 2000, the Houston Chronicle reported, and he had previously threatened and attacked Jackson.

Conley has been charged with three counts of murder, with some of the counts covering multiple killings. He is being held without bond.

"We do not, and cannot, fully comprehend the motive of someone who would take the lives of so many innocent people, especially the lives of the young ones," Cannon said, adding that police would conduct a thorough investigation into the grisly killings.

"This case is in its initial stages, we have a long way to go," he said.

The children ranged in age from six to 13. Three of the victims were female and five were male. All are believed to have died on Saturday, Clopton said.

Earlier, police reports stated that five children and three adults had died, and that Conley was 49.

A man who said he was Jackson's brother set up a fundraising page to appeal for donations to cover funeral costs and to pay to have his relatives' remains brought to the US state of Wisconsin.

"Unfortunately we have limited income for this heinous tragedy. The onset of people expressing sympathy has been wonderful and our family appreciates it immensely," said the appeal on Go Fund Me, which set a target of $50,000.

source: interaksyon.com

DEFCON 2015 | Aerial Assault drone is armed with hacking weapons


LAS VEGAS, Nevada — Hackers’ arsenal on Sunday was beefed up with a drone armed with weapons to crack into wireless computer networks at close range, whether they be in skyscrapers or walled compounds.

David Jordan of US-based Aerial Assault was at an infamous Def Con hacker gathering showing off a drone that could be dispatched on missions to land atop buildings or hover outside walls and probe for cracks in computer networks.

“There has never been this capability before,” Jordan said as he showed the drone to AFP.

The drone was equipped with software tools used to perform the kind of “penetration testing” done by hackers or computer security professionals who seek vulnerabilities in computer networks.

As with drones previously launched by hackers, the Aerial Assault model scans for unsecured wireless connections to networks, according to Jordan.

Along with assessing weaknesses of networks, the drone logs precise GPS coordinates of a target and takes all the information back to its handler, he said.

Aerial Assault drones were for sale, at a price of $2,500 each.

Hackers at Def Con early on turned to drones for sniffing out unprotected wireless Internet networks, but capabilities Jordan said were built into the Aerial Assault drone raised the ante with automated tools that could be flown past physical defenses

source: interaksyon.com

Asian stocks on defensive on weak China data, Fed rate view


TOKYO - Asian shares were on the defensive on Monday after new indications of a slowdown in the Chinese economy strained the nerves of markets already unsettled by the prospect of a U.S. interest rate hike in September.

Japan's Nikkei fell 0.4 percent and South Korean shares dropped 0.3 percent. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan stood near its 1 1/2-year low hit last month and stood flat.

"The markets are beginning to price in structurally lower growth in China and an end to the so-called commodity super-cycle," said Yoshinori Shigemi, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.

Chinese exports tumbled 8.3 percent in July, their biggest drop in four months and far worse than economists' forecast of a 1.0 percent fall, data showed on Saturday.

Producer price deflation deepened to 5.4 percent, sending wholesale prices to their lowest since late 2009.

The data came as many emerging currencies came under pressure from expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will end nearly a decade of its zero interest rates.

The U.S. Department of Labor said on Friday employers added 215,000 jobs in July, only slightly below a Reuters poll of 223,000 jobs. The unemployment rate held at a seven-year low of 5.3 percent and there were signs that wages were beginning to pick up.

Taken together, the figures promoted traders to ratchet up expectations that the Fed would raise interest rates in September, even though money market futures pricing suggest it remained a close call.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3 percent, hitting a six-month low. The S&P 500 shed also about 0.3 percent.

Emerging market shares were beaten harder, with MSCI's emerging market index falling to a two-year low on Friday.

The prospect of higher U.S. interest rates has made the dollar more attractive to investors in the past year, which in turn has lowered demand for commodities and crimped U.S. corporate earnings from exports.

The U.S. dollar index, which tracks the greenback versus a basket of euro, yen and four other currencies, reached 98.334, its highest since late April after the U.S. job data, before turning lower. On Monday, it stood at 97.670.

The euro traded at $1.0957 while the yen was 124.35 to the dollar.

Oil prices kept sliding on the global slowdown, a U.S. gasoline glut and a rise in the U.S. oil rig count.

Crude futures prices fell to fresh multi-month lows early on Monday. Brent fell to $48.26 per barrel, not far from a six-year low of $45.19 hit in January.

source: interaksyon.com

Sunday, August 9, 2015

8 people found dead in Texas home: media


WASHINGTON - Police found the bodies of five children and three adults in a Texas home after a standoff that ended with a man's surrender, US media reported Sunday.

The eight people were found in a Houston-area house after deputies from the Harris County Sheriff's Office were called to the residence at about 9:00 pm on Saturday, spokesman Thomas Gilliland told the KHOU news channel.

A 49-year-old man inside the house began shooting after deputies forced their way into the home, KHOU reported.

The officers pulled back and began negotiating with the man, who eventually surrendered.

KHOU reported that a man in the home was wanted on a warrant for aggravated assault on a family member.

No additional information was immediately available and a call to the sheriff's office early Sunday went unanswered.

source: interaksyon.com

Friday, August 7, 2015

Jennifer Aniston weds Justin Theroux in LA: reports


LOS ANGELES | Former “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston has married her longtime boyfriend Justin Theroux at their Los Angeles-area home in a secret ceremony that took the media and many of the couple’s guests by surprise, celebrity media reported on Thursday.

People magazine and Us Weekly, citing unidentified sources, said the couple, who have been dating for four years, exchanged vows in front of some 70 family members and friends at their Bel-Air home on Wednesday.

Representatives of the couple did not return requests for comment. But celebrity news website TMZ.com posted photos of a stage, an outdoor dance floor, dining tables and a large cake being brought into the house that Aniston and Theroux share in Bel-Air, a posh hilltop neighborhood of Los Angeles.

“Guests were told it was a birthday party for Justin. Jen and Justin wanted to surprise guests and guests were certainly surprised,” People magazine reported, citing a source.

“Jen has been very good at keeping her wedding planning secret. Only her closest confidants knew that the party was actually a surprise wedding.”

Aniston, 46, whose first marriage to actor Brad Pitt ended in divorce 10 years ago, met actor and “Tropic Thunder” screenwriter Theroux, who turns 44 next week, in 2008, and the couple announced their engagement in 2012.

People and Us Weekly said guests at the wedding included Aniston’s “Friends” costar Lisa Kudrow, comedians Ellen DeGeneres and Chelsea Handler, TV’s “America’s Got Talent” judge Howard Stern and British actress Emily Blunt.

Aniston has forged a lucrative film career in romantic comedies such as “Marley & Me” and “Just Go with It,” since the hit TV comedy “Friends” ended in 2004, having made her a global star.

Her love life, including romances with musician John Mayer and actor Vince Vaughn, has been the focus of intense celebrity media speculation since the split with Pitt, who went on to strike up a relationship with Angelina Jolie. Pitt and Jolie married quietly in France in August 2014.

source: interaksyon.com

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Stress may sabotage diets by short-circuiting self-control


People are less likely to resist tasty, unhealthy foods when they’re under stress because the promise of immediate reward trumps longer-term goals to eat well, a Swiss study suggests.

Using brain scans, researchers found that circuits in the brain associated with reward are amped up and those linked to self-control are dialed down in participants under stress. The more stressed people felt themselves to be, the stronger the effect.

“We find that stress increases reward signaling and thus may boost a craving for getting the instantaneously rewarding option,” which ties in with earlier studies of stress and decision circuits in the brain, said lead author Silvia U. Maier at the University of Zurich.

“The more stressed you feel, the less likely you become to override your own taste preferences when we present you with a really tricky challenge, say: your favorite chocolate bar versus a portion of broccoli,” Maier told Reuters Health by email.

“You could say it’s almost like stress is turning up the dial on signals about taste, and turning down the signal on health goals,” she said.

For the study, the researchers recruited 51 young adult men who reported making an effort to eat a healthy diet and exercise regularly, but also still enjoyed junk foods with some frequency.

First, each participant used a computer questionnaire to rate images of 180 food items for healthiness, tastiness and their overall appeal.

Then 29 of the men were randomly selected to undergo the stress induction procedure, in which they immersed a hand in an ice bath for three minutes while they were videotaped and monitored. Social evaluation is one of the most potent human stressors, Maier noted.

All the participants were put in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner, which measures brain activity by mapping blood flow changes in the brain, and asked to complete several seven-minute computer-based decision trials, selecting from pairs of the foods they had previously rated on healthiness and taste.

In addition to the fMRI measures, the researchers also collected saliva samples from the men to measure the stress hormone cortisol.

As reported in Neuron, the researchers found that men who had undergone the stressful situation were more likely to favor taste rather than health in their food choices, compared to the men who had not been stressed.

“What's exciting about this work is that it identifies specific mechanisms for how stress affects self control: by amplifying the influence of short-term rewards on choices, and by impairing the influence of a brain region known to be important for self-control,” said Molly Crockett, an expert in neuropsychology at University College London in the U.K.

“When you're faced with an unhealthy food that's not very tempting, stress won't affect your self control much,” Crockett, who was not part of the new research, told Reuters Health by email. “But when you're faced with your most favorite tempting foods, stress will make it more difficult to resist those temptations.”

In studies of rats, a high-fat diet appears to blunt the stress response, and some researchers speculate that humans may change their diets to “self-medicate” the stress response in the brain, although that is still a hypothesis, Maier said.

“One very stressful day will most likely not sabotage your diet completely if the stress ends after this day and you return back to your routine of eating a healthy, balanced diet,” she said. “However, we find that even moderately stressful events may promote these lapses of self-control, and moderate stress may occur more often during your day or week.”

One way to combat this effect is to use pre-commitment, removing temptations before they occur, for example removing snacks, cigarettes or alcohol from the home if you know you will have trouble resisting later, Maier said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/1P6Cr0S Neuron, online August 5, 2015.

source: interaksyon.com

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Taylor Swift lets Aussie seniors ‘shake it off’


SYDNEY | Pop star Taylor Swift has leapt to the aid of a Sydney theater company suffering an “artistic emergency” by giving the cast of 70-somethings permission to dance to her chart-topper “Shake it Off”.

Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre took to Twitter with the hashtag “greygrey4taytay” to appeal to the American singer for permission to use the song in a play due to open Wednesday night.

“I’m facing an artistic emergency I hope you can help with,” theater director Anne-Louise Sarks tweeted to the singer on Tuesday morning.

She was referring to the play “Seventeen” about 17-year-olds on their last night of high school but played by actors in their 70s.

In the production’s show-stopper scene, the cast dance to “Shake it Off” — and they had learned all the word to the song — yet at the last minute they had been denied permission to use it, reportedly by the song’s publishers.

“Is there anything at all you can do?!!” Sarks pleaded.

The response was quick with the singer giving the green light via Twitter: “Permission granted. Good luck with your opening night.”

Swift is a global superstar with more than 61.5 million followers on Twitter but her work was largely unknown to the cast of “Seventeen” until they began rehearsing the play, which was written specifically for them.

“These actors weren’t, until these rehearsals, familiar with Taylor Swift — or much pop music — so we introduced them to this track, they learned all the words — it was kind of a big process,” Sarks told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“So it was quite a big deal to get denied those rights at the last minute.”

She later said on Twitter that Taylor’s support for artists was “a thing to behold”.

source: interaksyon.com

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Singers Gwen Stefani, Gavin Rossdale to divorce: reports


LOS ANGELES | Singer Gwen Stefani has filed for divorce from rockstar husband Gavin Rossdale after 13 years of marriage, several news reports said on Monday.

In her divorce petition, Stefani, 45, cited irreconcilable differences and asked for joint custody of the couple’s three children, 9-year-old Kingston, 6-year-old Zuma and 1-year-old Apollo, celebrity websites TMZ and People.com said.

Rossdale, 49, filed his response at the same time and also asked for joint custody, TMZ reported.

Neither Stefani nor Rossdale’s attorneys immediately responded to emails seeking comment.

The couple has been together for about two decades, meeting when Stefani’s band No Doubt toured with Rossdale’s band Bush in 1995, People.com reported. They dated for six years before they wed in 2002.

“While the two of us have come to the mutual decision that we will no longer be partners in marriage, we remain partners in parenthood and are committed to jointly raising our three sons in a happy and healthy environment,” the couple told the website in a statement.

source: interaksyon.com

Monday, August 3, 2015

Asian stocks near 2015 lows on China economy worry, dollar strong


HONG KONG - An index of Asian shares outside Japan fell close to this year's lows thanks to a deepening selloff in commodities and concerns over slowing growth in China, while the dollar held its ground against a basket of currencies.

China's factory activity shrank more than initially estimated in July, contracting by the most in two years as new orders fell, according to a private survey that dashed hopes that the economy may be steadying.

"We believe the stock market panic in early July chilled economic activity, which is what the manufacturing PMIs picked up," ING economist Tim Condon said in a research note ahead of the Caixin PMI release.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell more than 1 percent before paring losses to be down 0.9 percent. The biggest losers were financials and cyclicals. The index's low for this year was on July 8.

Stock markets across the region declined with Japan's Nikkei down 0.5 percent and South Korea's Kospi falling 0.9 percent.

"We believe the macro environment remains challenging for emerging market assets amid headwinds of low commodity prices, concerns over China and a looming Fed tightening cycle," Barclays strategists wrote in a daily note in clients.

Recent flows data confirm that trend. Net foreign selling from emerging Asia has reached nearly $10 billion over the past two months with only India seeing some tiny inflows.

Although outflows have pummeled stock markets from Korea to Taiwan, valuations suggest more downside is likely.

While recent weakness in stocks has made emerging market valuations more attractive than those of developed market counterparts, they are twice as expensive as Asian financial crisis lows, according to research from Julius Baer.

On Wall Street on Friday, the Dow lost 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 shed 0.2 percent, due to a drop in energy shares.

In currencies, the dollar on Monday held broadly steady at 123.97 yen. The euro was steady at $1.1097.

While recent dollar moves have been buffeted by U.S. economic data, the broader trend was on the upside after the Federal Reserve last week left the door open for a possible interest rate increase in September.

The U.S. dollar has rallied 7.75 percent so far this year against the world's main trading currencies, after a 12.8 percent rise last year.

And "the dollar's recent rally may just be getting started," according to research from the BlackRock Investment Institute.

"Since the 1970s when the Bretton Woods fixed-currency regime ended and currencies began floating, a typical dollar rally has lasted roughly six to seven years," according to Russ Koesterich, BlackRock global investment strategist, who noted dollar rallies tend to be self-reinforcing, leading to greater inflows into U.S. assets in expectation of further dollar appreciation.

That traditionally is also a headwind for emerging markets, which have an inverse relationship to the dollar.

Commodities too are singing the emerging market blues.

Crude oil continued to flounder after posting its biggest monthly drop since 2008 in July on China's stock market slump and signs that top Middle East producers were pumping out crude at record levels.

U.S. crude was down 0.7 percent at $46.81 a barrel after losing 21 percent in July.

Copper prices fell 10 percent in July, the worst month since January and are now at their lowest levels since June 2009.

Overall the Reuters commodity index fell 10.8 percent in July, its biggest monthly fall since September 2011.

Reflecting the economic slowdown in China and sluggish growth in Europe and the Americas, international trade is also slowing.

Bonds were the sole bright spot.

The benchmark 10-year note yield held firm at 2.21 percent while 10-year Japanese bond yields stabilized at 0.41 percent.

source: interaksyon.com