Friday, October 31, 2014
Android co-founder Andy Rubin to leave Google
Google Inc said on Thursday that Andy Rubin, co-founder of its Android mobile business and head of its nascent robotics effort is leaving the company.
Rubin will start a company to support startups interested in building technology-hardware products, Google said in an emailed response for comment on a Wall Street Journal report about his move.
James Kuffner, a research scientist at Google and a member of the robotics group, will replace Rubin, the company added.
Last year, Google’s browser and applications chief Sundar Pichai replaced Rubin as head of the Android division, bringing the firm’s mobile software, applications and Chrome browser under one roof.
Rubin built Android into a free, open-source software platform now used by most of the world’s largest handset manufacturers, from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd to HTC Corp.
source: interaksyon.com
Starmobile products now available at 7-11 stores
MANILA, Philippines — Local smartphone brand Starmobile has now made their products available at select 7-Eleven convenience stores in Metro Manila.
“Mobile devices have become a commodity and Filipinos need a convenient place where they can purchase them,” Starmobile president Ulysees Lao said in a press statement.
According to the company, included in the initial rollout are 7-Eleven branches in Rotonda (Pasig City), One San Miguel Avenue (Mandaluyong), National University, Far Eastern University, University of the East, and University of Santo Tomas.
Starmobile said that over 60 more 7-Eleven stores in the country will offer their products before the year ends.
“We hope that having our products available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week will prove useful especially during times of emergency,” Lao said.
source: interaksyon.com
Bob Dylan to release new album in 2015
NEW YORK | Rock legend Bob Dylan will release a new album in 2015, he has confirmed, after he unexpectedly put out a cover of a Frank Sinatra song.
The announcement comes ahead of the commercial release on Tuesday of “The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series, Volume 11,” a six-CD set of restored recordings of Dylan’s 1967 sessions with his ensemble The Band.
A note in the boxed-set says simply: “‘Bob Dylan, Shadows in the Night,’ New album coming in 2015.”
There was no further word on the nature of the album, which would be the 36th studio recording for the now 73-year-old rocker who maintains an active touring schedule.
In May, Dylan hinted at the album by releasing on his website a picture of himself with the title, “Shadows in the Night,” behind blue bars in the style of a record cover.
Dylan also at the same time put out a cover of “Full Moon and Empty Arms,” a pop song based on a work by classical pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff that was most famously performed by Frank Sinatra in 1945.
The song drew speculation that “Shadows in the Night” would be an album of cover songs by Dylan.
Dylan’s last studio album, “Tempest,” was released in 2012. The musically ambitious title track is a 14-minute account of the sinking of the Titanic that uses traditional Irish melodies.
source: interaksyon.com
Transvestite singer Conchita Wurst to serenade UN chief
VIENNA | Austria’s transvestite Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst will serenade UN chief Ban Ki-moon during his visit to Vienna next week, the world body announced Thursday.
The singer, whose real name is Tom Neuwirth, will perform at the United Nations’ Vienna headquarters on Monday and, along with Ban, will deliver a speech on tolerance and the rights of homosexuals.
Ban is looking forward to meeting a “cultural icon”, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York.
The spokesman said meeting with the bearded singer would allow Ban “to reassert his support for LGBT people and for them to ensure that they enjoy the same human rights and protection that we all do.
“Conchita is a symbol in that sense and I think it’s good for them to meet,” he said.
Since the Eurovision victory, the 25-year-old drag queen has appeared at various events to urge greater tolerance and an end to discrimination.
Wurst appeared before the European Parliament earlier this month at the invitation of five euro-MPs from different factions.
source: interaksyon.com
Microsoft joins fitness bandwagon
NEW YORK — Microsoft unveiled its first fitness band Thursday, joining a crowded market of connected devices for tracking and analyzing personal health data.
The Microsoft Band, which went on sale Thursday in the US market, was released along with a new Microsoft Health software platform that includes a cloud service for consumers and the industry to store and combine health and fitness data.
“Today, we are taking our first steps with the industry to empower people to achieve more with their fitness and wellness,” Microsoft’s Todd Holmdahl said in a blog post.
The new fitness band has 10 smart sensors to monitor the heart rate around the clock, as well as measure the amount of calories burned, track sleep quality and provided guided workouts.
Holmdahl said “the Microsoft Band will keep you connected at a glance with helpful, smart notifications including incoming calls, emails, texts and social updates as well as access to Cortana,” Microsoft’s personal assistant software.
The device is selling online and in Microsoft stores for $199.
the software platform will also work with devices from rival makers, including UP by Jawbone, MapMyFitness, MyFitnessPal and RunKeeper.
“Soon, Microsoft Health will also allow you, at your choosing, to connect your Microsoft Health data to HealthVault to share with your medical provider,” Holmdahl said.
The platform works with Android and Apple’s iOS in addition to Windows Phone.
Holmdahl said the software includes an “intelligence engine” that will help people determine which exercises burned the most calories during a workout, the recommended recovery time from a workout and the amount of restful and restless sleep.
source: interaksyon.com
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Hugh Jackman treated for skin cancer, again
LOS ANGELES | Oscar-nominated Australian actor Hugh Jackman has been treated for skin cancer for a third time in a year, a spokesman said Tuesday.
The 46-year-old first had a basal cell carcinoma (BCC) removed last November, when he posted a picture on Twitter of himself with a plaster on his nose. He did the same in May.
His spokesman Alan Nierob confirmed to AFP that Jackman had been treated for a third time. He declined to give any other details, but E! News cited a representative as saying that the star is now “all good.”
BCC is the most common form of skin cancer, with over 2 million cases diagnosed in the United States every year, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD).
It usually develops on exposed skin such as the head, neck and back of hands, but is especially common on the face and nose. People who use tanning beds have a much higher risk of getting it.
Jackman, known for his roles in the “X-Men” blockbusters, was also nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for 2012′s musical adaptation of “Les Miserables.”
source: interaksyon.com
YouTube considers offering ad-free subscription
SAN FRANCISCO — YouTube viewers might get the option of paid subscriptions for ad-free access to the popular online video-sharing service.
Subscriptions and even a streaming music service are among new options that YouTube is considering offering its more than one billion users, YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki said at a technology conference in California late Monday.
“YouTube right now is ad-supported, which is really great in the sense that it has enabled us to scale to a billion users; anyone can access the content,” Wojcicki said in an online video clip of her on-stage conference chat.
“But there are going to be cases where people will say, ‘I don’t want to see the ads,’ or, ‘I want to have a different experience.’”
Wojcicki also confirmed rumors that YouTube is working on a streaming music and video service that could compete with the likes of Pandora and Spotify.
She did not provide many details, but Wojcicki said she is optimistic the music service will debut soon.
“We are thinking about how to give users options,” Wojcicki said.
source: interaksyon.com
How to Choose a Realtor
My husband and I have been saving for a down payment on a house for the past year. So like most young married couples looking to buy a house, we go to a lot of open houses on the weekends just to see what’s out there.
On one hand, you get a good sense of the real estate market. On the other hand, it’s like going to a bakery while you’re on a diet—you can look but you can’t buy.
One of the things we were concerned about when it came to buying a house was finding a realtor.
When we first went to get some information from our credit union about getting a mortgage, they automatically set us up with a realtor that had affiliations with the bank. That should have been our first indication not to go with that realtor.
However, since we were just happy to now have access to the MLS listings, we didn’t think anything of it. It wasn’t until we found a place in our price range that we emailed the realtor and told her we wanted to see the place.
On our first open house tour, she was curt, unapproachable, and definitely not warm. I felt so uncomfortable around her. What had we gotten ourselves into?
Here are some tips on choosing a realtor and how we finally found a realtor we could trust.
Get Recommendations from Friends
If you have a friend you trust, or if your friends have recently gone through the home buying or selling process themselves, ask them for recommendations.
Most people actually like their realtor because they spend a lot of time with them, so recommendations should be easy to come by. One word of advice though: Always be attentive when you start mixing business with pleasure. Meaning, if you don’t end up liking the realtor your friend recommends, don’t blame it on them and don’t ruin a friendship over faulty advice.
Read reviews
These days you can read a ton of reviews online and see which realtor might make a good fit for you. Perhaps you don’t care so much about personality, and would prefer to just have the top expert in the neighborhood you’re looking for. It’s up to you to decide what’s most important in a realtor. Just remember: sometimes, you really get what you pay for.
Interview Them
You can choose to meet several different realtors to gather an idea of what you’re looking for and see whom you really click with.
We actually found our realtor at one of the open houses we visited. While we didn’t end up buying the house, we really loved the realtor. He seemed very matter-of-fact and down-to-earth.
We chose to go with him as our realtor because we really liked his personality and felt that he was very credible. He’s been a wealth of information as we look to buy our own home.
source: everythingfinanceblog.com
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Ebola vaccine trials to start in Switzerland this week
GENEVA - Ebola vaccine trials are set to start in Switzerland this week after receiving the green light from the country's authorities, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
Swiss regulators announced they would allow trials of an experimental vaccine made by Britain's GlaxoSmithKine, and tests on some 120 individuals were set to get under way at the CHUV hospital in Lausanne this week, the WHO said.
"This marks the latest step towards bringing safe and effective Ebola vaccines for testing and implementation as quickly as possible," the UN's health agency said in a statement.
There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the deadly Ebola virus, which has killed nearly 5,000 people in the outbreak centred in west Africa.
The experimental GSK vaccine is one of two considered particularly promising by WHO.
Called ChAd3, it is based on a genetically modified chimpanzee adenovirus and trials have already begun in Mali, Britain and the United States, the WHO said.
"The trial will test the safety of the vaccine and its capacity to induce an immune response," it said.
It added that results of the trials in Switzerland and elsewhere will "provide the basis for planning subsequent trials involving several thousand participants, and for choosing vaccine dose-level for efficacy trials".
A second experimental vaccine being fast-tracked on the WHO's recommendation, Canadian-discovered rVSV, is set to soon start trials at the University Hospital of Geneva.
Trials of that potential vaccine have already begun in the United States and are also set to soon start in Germany, Gabon and Kenya.
"If shown to be safe and effective, either of the vaccines could be scaled up for production during the first quarter of next year, with millions of doses produced for wide distribution in high-risk countries," WHO assistant director general Marie-Paule Kieny said in the statement.
source: interaksyon.com
France football legend Zidane sanctioned for lacking credentials to coach Real Madrid’s reserve squad
MADRID – Former France playing legend Zinedine Zidane and his club European champions Real Madrid were embroiled in an embarrassing dispute on Monday with the Spanish Football Federation who according to influential Madrid-based sports paper Marca handed him a three month coaching ban.
The 42-year-old — who inspired France to the 1998 World Cup trophy and was also a member of the Euro 2000 title winning side — has been coaching Real’s reserve side Castilla but the federation claims he does not possess the required coaching qualifications.
Real have said they will appeal against the punishment by ‘all legal avenues open to them’.
The reserve team’s assistant coach Santiago Sanchez was also punished.
Real issued a statement declaring their “total disagreement” with the decision taken against one of their former iconic players, who scored a wonder goal for the ‘meringues’ when they beat Bayer Leverkusen to win the 2002 Champions League trophy.
They pointed out that Zidane “has been authorized by the French Football Federation to work as a head coach in the category Real Madrid Castilla currently find themselves in”.
Zidane — who was linked with the head coach post at another of his former clubs Bordeaux in the close season — was elevated to reserve team coach at the beginning of this season following a single campaign as Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant which saw Real win a 10th European Cup in May.
Spanish coaching school, the Cenafe, has submitted a complaint to the Spanish Federation against Real, claiming they are using assistant Sanchez’s name on the teamsheet to bypass the regulations.
The case has sparked controversy in Spain with national team coach Vicente del Bosque telling Cope radio station that “everyone should have a coaching badge”.
Rayo Vallecano coach Paco Jemez used tougher language, describing Real’s actions as “shameful”.
However, both Ancelotti and Dutch football legend Johan Cruyff have spoken out in support of Zidane.
source: interaksyon.com
Salesforce to make big push into healthcare industry
SAN FRANCISCO — Salesforce Inc is betting big on healthcare, hiring key personnel and ramping up investment in hopes of replacing outmoded medical industry infrastructure and carving out a $1 billion annual business.
Its push into healthcare follows years of attempts by rival software providers, including Microsoft Corp, to break into healthcare with everything from personal health records to hospital information systems. They have had mixed results.
Now Salesforce aims to bring in $1 billion in yearly revenues in coming years – about a fifth of its current annual sales – from health contracts, two people briefed on its plans told Reuters. The company expects to make such inroads despite entrenched competition and its own false starts in the sector, these sources said.
Salesforce declined to comment on revenue targets or its planned investment in the business.
The company also would not say how many employees are in its health and life sciences unit, but a LinkedIn search shows it has recruited over a dozen people from the health and medical device sectors. Its healthcare head, Todd Pierce, was formerly chief information officer at biotech giant Genentech, a Roche subsidiary.
Salesforce is trying to sustain the red-hot growth that’s given it among the highest valuations in software with a price/earnings ratio of more than 100 times for its current fiscal year.
Salesforce executives and sources briefed on its plans say the company is already selling new software to the Department of Health and Human Services and insurers including Blue Shield of California. In April, it announced an alliance with Philips to develop medical applications.
Salesforce now wants to help customers pull data into one place and determine how it can be used to serve and talk to patients. This sales push has already begun.
The University of California at San Francisco, for instance, rolled out CareWeb Messenger, built on top of Salesforce’s technology, through which doctors, nurses and patients talk online and on mobile devices. UCSF and Salesforce have close ties: in April, CEO Marc Benioff donated $100 million to its children’s hospital.
Salesforce will reveal more about its plans in November, Pierce said.
He told Reuters the company sees a growth opportunity developing tools for professionals to care for patients once they leave the doctor’s office. The company is also developing analytics to crunch data about patients.
The healthcare industry has been resistant in the past to approaches from Silicon Valley. But federal legislation such as the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health – which sets aside billions of dollars in incentives to spur the adoption of electronic health systems – may turn the tide.
“Salesforce could really have some success in this area,” said Missy Krasner, managing director of healthcare and life sciences at online storage provider Box, which is exploring similar opportunities. Krasner said health systems are realizing that current systems are “ridiculously bad.”
Doubt
Others voice scepticism that Salesforce can make a dent in health, a sector overflowing with vendors such as Dell Inc and IBM. Microsoft may pose the most direct threat to Salesforce’s prospects.
“Salesforce versus Microsoft: It’s the battle to watch,” said Ray Wang, CEO of Constellation Research.
Microsoft has been building its healthcare business for over a decade. It claims 168,000 customers in the industry in some capacity.
It bought a hospital information system company seven years ago, hoping to create a commoditized product, but found clients demanded too much customization.
“We didn’t make it work,” said Neil Jordan, who runs Microsoft’s health business. “HealthVault,” a health data repository, has been its recent focus but that has not taken the market by storm.
“Just creating extra efficiencies … is not going to cut it any longer,” Jordan said. “We have to think about wholesale use of technology to transform the system.”
In recent years, Salesforce toyed with but dropped the idea of setting up a medical record service, the sources said. It later considered developing infrastructure to help hospitals share data, but decided a few years ago to rethink its approach, the people said.
With its new approach, Salesforce may have a tricky time convincing dominant health record vendors like Epic Systems and Cerner Corp to share information. Their cooperation would be vital in serving some major customers.
Such systems often don’t talk to each other, critics say.
“It’s fashionable to have a health initiative but it will hard for them to do something,” said Kevin Spain, an investor at Emergence Capital, which has invested in Salesforce and health startups. “You need to have a thriving ecosystem of applications.”
source: interaksyon.com
Monday, October 27, 2014
Thousands of Hungarians protest against tax on Internet traffic
BUDAPEST — Thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Sunday against a planned new tax on Internet data transfers, which they said would not only increase the tax burden but would also curb fundamental democratic rights and freedoms.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government, which has been widely accused of adopting anti-democratic policies, first unveiled plans for the new tax late on Tuesday in the draft 2015 tax bill submitted to parliament.
The draft tax bill contains a provision for Internet providers to pay a tax of 150 forints (0.38 pounds) per gigabyte of data traffic, though it would also let companies offset corporate income tax against the new levy.
The rally on Sunday was organised by a Facebook group which has over 210,000 supporters. The protesters, which some local websites estimated as numbering over 10,000, gathered in front of the Economy Ministry.
“The move… follows a wave of alarming anti-democratic measures by Orban that is pushing Hungary even further adrift from Europe,” the organisers of “100,000 against the Internet tax” said in a press release.
“The measure would impede equal access to the Internet, deepening the digital divide between Hungary’s lower economic groups, and limiting Internet access for cash-poor schools and universities,” they added.
At one point, protesters held up their mobile phones, lighting up the square in front of the ministry. Then they walked to the city’s historic Heroes Square. Some of them also went to the nearby headquarters of the ruling Fidesz party and threw outdated computer parts at the building, breaking some windows, local Internet website Index.hu reported.
The organisers gave the government 48 hours to withdraw the tax legislation and said there would be a fresh protest on Tuesday if this does not happen.
Fidesz said in a statement on Sunday that on Monday it would submit an amendment to the legislation in parliament, which would set a maximum level on the tax payable by individuals. It said monthly payments would be capped at 700 forints, and Internet providers would pay the tax.
But some protesters said the new tax was an epitome of the government’s mistaken economic policies.
“This would be a double tax on us, as I have already paid a sky-high VAT when I bought the gadgets, computer and router,” said Attila Sos, 43, who came to the protest with his family.
“This is a good occasion for a lot of people to come here to show that they are discontent with the government’s tax and economic policies. This was only the icing on the cake.”
“The Internet connects people and it should not be limited,” said Krisztina Nagy, 21, who wants to be a Web programmer, and fears that companies would push the costs of the new tax onto customers.
Orban’s government has in recent years imposed special taxes on the banking, retail and energy sectors as well as on telecommunications providers to keep the budget deficit in check, jeopardising profits in some sectors of the economy and unnerving international investors.
At the same time, it has cut personal income taxes.
The Association of IT, Telecommunications and Electronics Companies has said the tax would force them to raise prices.
source: interaksyon.com
Sunday, October 26, 2014
British-Brazilian film ‘Trash’ wins top prize at Rome filmfest
ROME | British director Stephen Daldry, of “Billy Elliot” and “The Reader” fame, won the Rome Film Festival’s top prize Saturday with his adventure thriller “Trash” set in Brazilian favelas.
The film about children who forage in landfills for a living until they come across a wallet and key sought after by a corrupt police officer edged out 17 other contenders at the ninth edition of the festival, with prizes decided for the first time by the viewing public.
Starring a trio of youngsters with no previous acting experience, the film sees the boys race to try and solve the riddle before the police can, helped along by an American priest and an aid worker, played by Martin Sheen and Rooney Mara.
Richard Curtis, the man behind “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill”, wrote the script, based on Andy Mulligan’s novel of the same name.
Chinese director Xu Ang scooped the People’s Choice Award for Cinema Today with his latest film “12 Citizens”, inspired by the 1957 Hollywood classic “Twelve Angry Men”.
The Genre Award went to “Haider”, a 2014 Hindi drama directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, who completes his Shakespearean trilogy with this flick, a modern-day adaptation of Hamlet, set against the Kashmir conflicts of 1995.
The annual festival this year hosted 51 feature-length films from 21 countries, 24 of them making their international premieres.
Festival-goers were asked to vote for the top awards for the first time this year in a bid to cut down the cash-strapped festival’s expenses.
source: interaksyon.com
Obama urges people to be guided by facts, avoid Ebola hysteria in weekly address
MOSCOW - In his weekly address on Saturday, US President Obama re-emphasized following his last week's address that Ebola-panic should be avoided and urged people to be guided by facts over fears, further commending New Yorkers for their calmness.
"We have to be guided by the science — we have to be guided by the facts, not fear," Obama was quoted as saying by the White House press release, while addressing the public.
"I want to leave you with some basic facts. First, you cannot get Ebola easily. You can't get it through casual contact with someone," he added.
Obama also applauded New Yorkers for evading the Ebola hysteria following the announcement of the first Ebola patient in the city on Friday.
"Yesterday, New Yorkers showed us the way. They did what they do every day — jumping on buses, riding the subway, crowding into elevators, heading into work, gathering in parks," Obama said.
Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old health worker who had been treating Ebola patients in Guinea, is being treated at an isolation unit at the Bellevue Hospital Center after being rushed to the Manhattan trauma center on Thursday when he reported a high fever and diarrhea, according to a report by USA Today.
The latest World Health Organization (WHO) case count, released Saturday, indicated that a total of 10,141 confirmed, probable and suspected cases have been reported so far. The Ebola virus has caused 4,922 deaths, with the hardest hit countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea accounting for 4,912 of the deaths.
Among the reported cases, 244 of the 450 infected healthcare workers have died; three in the United States.
According to the WHO, the virus is not air-borne and is only transmitted by direct contact with bodily fluids of an infected person. However, symptoms may take up to three weeks to show.
source: interaksyon.com
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Two dead in US school shooting after online warnings
LOS ANGELES - A US student who had issued chilling warnings on Twitter opened fire in a school cafeteria on Friday, killing at least one person and critically injuring three before taking his own life.
Terrified classmates dived for cover as the gunman, identified by media reports and fellow students as Jaylen Fryberg, launched his attack in a school in the northwestern state of Washington.
Police said the investigation was still ongoing and would likely continue into the early morning Saturday.
"This continues to be an active homicide investigation. We want to make sure we do this right and have all of the right answers," local police spokesman Robb Lamoureux told a press conference late Friday.
As with previous such shootings, the episode revived debate on gun control, even though the gun involved was legally acquired.
"I heard one loud bang and I was wondering what it was. Then I heard about four or five more. People started screaming and people started getting to the ground and going for the nearest exit," said a student identified as Jordan.
"So I hit the ground. But after he'd already put some bullets into the backs of students," he told CNN.
The shooting, just the latest in a long line of such rampages in the United States, erupted in Marysville, 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of Seattle.
Lamoureux declined to identify the shooter or comment on online suggestions, including on Fryberg's social media posts, that the attack might have been triggered by a failed romance.
"The shooter died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound," he said earlier in the day.
Television footage showed swarms of police descending on the Marysville-Pilchuck High School as students, some with hands on heads, came out of the sprawling campus, which has some 2,500 students.
A student identified as Austin told KING 5 television how the gunman was initially "quiet" before opening fire on fellow diners.
"There was just a big group of kids... He was quiet. He was just sitting there. Everyone was talking. All of a sudden I see him stand up, pull something out of his pocket," he said.
"At first I thought it was just someone making a really loud noise with like a bag, like a pretty loud pop until I heard four more after that, and I saw three kids just fall from the table like they were falling to the ground dead."
source: interaksyon.com
Friday, October 24, 2014
Some US hospitals weigh withholding care to Ebola patients
CHICAGO/NEW YORK - The Ebola crisis is forcing the American healthcare system to consider the previously unthinkable: withholding some medical interventions because they are too dangerous to doctors and nurses and unlikely to help a patient.
US hospitals have over the years come under criticism for undertaking measures that prolong dying rather than improve patients' quality of life.
But the care of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, who received dialysis and intubation and infected two nurses caring for him, is spurring hospitals and medical associations to develop the first guidelines for what can reasonably be done and what should be withheld.
Officials from at least three hospital systems interviewed by Reuters said they were considering whether to withhold individual procedures or leave it up to individual doctors to determine whether an intervention would be performed.
Ethics experts say they are also fielding more calls from doctors asking what their professional obligations are to patients if healthcare workers could be at risk.
US health officials meanwhile are trying to establish a network of about 20 hospitals nationwide that would be fully equipped to handle all aspects of Ebola care.
Their concern is that poorly trained or poorly equipped hospitals that perform invasive procedures will expose staff to bodily fluids of a patient when they are most infectious. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with kidney specialists on clinical guidelines for delivering dialysis to Ebola patients. The recommendations could come as early as this week.
The possibility of withholding care represents a departure from the "do everything" philosophy in most American hospitals and a return to a view that held sway a century ago, when doctors were at greater risk of becoming infected by treating dying patients.
"This is another example of how this 21st century viral threat has pulled us back into the 19th century," said medical historian Dr. Howard Markel of the University of Michigan.
Some ethicists and physicians take issue with the shift.
Because the world has almost no experience treating Ebola patients in state-of-the-art facilities rather than the rudimentary ones in Africa, there are no reliable data on when someone truly is beyond help, whether dialysis can make the difference between life and death, or even whether cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be done safely with proper protective equipment and protocols.
Such procedures "may have diminishing effectiveness as the severity of the disease increases, but we simply have no data on that," said Dr. G. Kevin Donovan, director of the bioethics center at Georgetown University.
Donovan said he had received inquiries from fellow physicians about whether hospitals should draw up lists of procedures that would not be performed on an Ebola patient. "To have a blanket refusal to offer these procedures is not ethically acceptable,” he said he told the doctors.
New guidelines
Nevertheless, discussions about adopting policies to withhold care in Ebola cases are under way at places like Geisinger Health System, which operates hospitals in Pennsylvania, and Intermountain Healthcare, which runs facilities in Utah, according to their spokesmen.
Dr Nancy Kass, a bioethicist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said healthcare workers should not hesitate to perform a medically necessary procedure so long as they have robust personal protective gear.
So far, only two US hospitals have used kidney dialysis: Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas, which treated Liberian patient Thomas Duncan and where two nurses became infected, and Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which has treated four Ebola patients at its biocontainment unit without any healthcare workers becoming infected.
Although it is not yet clear how the Dallas nurses became infected, health officials have questioned both the lack of adequate training in the use of protective gear and the decision to perform invasive procedures.
The American Society of Nephrology and CDC are now working on new dialysis guidelines for Ebola patients, whose kidneys often fail. In some cases, dialysis can help a patient get through the worst of the illness until their own immune system can fend off the virus.
Nephrologist Dr. Harold Franch said the new guidelines will consider both whether the procedure is medically necessary and whether the hospital can do it safely.
"Most academic medical centers and many good private tertiary care hospitals will be able to do this," he said. Yet he thinks many hospitals may not offer the service, since “it takes a lot of money and time to train people.”
Treat, or flee?
Throughout the history of medicine some doctors have declined to treat infectious patients or fled epidemics, said Michigan's Markel. Greek physician and philosopher Galen fled Rome during the bubonic plague 1,800 years ago, doctors deserted European cities stricken by the Black Death of the Middle Ages, and some health workers refused to treat HIV/AIDS patients in the 1980s.
"The idea that a doctor would stick to his post to the last during an epidemic, that's not part of the Hippocratic Oath," Markel said. "If you feel your life is at risk you don't have to stay and provide care."
At University of Chicago Medicine, questions of taking last-ditch measures were discussed early in the hospital's Ebola planning, said Dr. Emily Landon, a bioethicist and epidemiologist.
Decisions about offering services such as dialysis or inserting a breathing tube are made in advance by the hospital's care team in consultation with patients. But if a doctor on the team feels in the moment that she cannot provide the service, another may step in and do the procedure.
Landon views dialysis as a "no brainer" for Ebola patients, and believes the risks are fairly low to the well-trained nursing staff who have volunteered for the hospital's isolation ward.
But putting in a breathing tube and putting them on a ventilator is more controversial.
"We have very little experience with that except for Mr Duncan, who didn't do well," she said. The hospital plans to consult with patients before the need arises and plans to insert a breathing tube at the earliest sign that it might be needed.
CPR, which is performed when a patient's breathing or heart stops, also poses risks. It can involve chest compressions, inserting breathing tubes and other invasive procedures.
If a patient goes into cardiac or respiratory arrest, a team would have to don protective gear. Rushing could leave them without proper protection, but a delay could make the procedure ineffective.
That represents too great a risk for caregivers for what could be "a futile act," said Dr. Joseph Fins, chief of medical ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City.
source: interaksyon.com
‘Anti-Facebook’ social network gets fresh funding
SAN FRANCISCO — Flush with a reported $5.5 million in fresh funding, upstart social network Ello on Thursday legally changed its corporate standing to back a promise to remain ad-free.
Ello converted to a public benefit corporation, which it described as “a new kind of for-profit company in the USA that exists to produce a benefit for society as a whole – not just to make money for its investors.”
The announcement posted at Ello’s website came as word spread that venture capitalists pumped $5.5 million into the company in a fresh funding round.
That money will be used in part to beef up capacity so the social network can be opened to more users.
Ello, described as the “anti-Facebook” for its stand on privacy and advertising, has become a hot ticket on the Internet.
Created last year as a “private” social network, Ello (www.ello.co) recently opened its doors on an invitation-only basis.
Ello appears to have caught on with its simple message which seems to take aim at frustrations of Facebook users.
Facebook has been criticized by some users over its privacy policies and ads that use personal information.
“Ello doesn’t sell ads. Nor do we sell data about you to third parties,” the company says.
Its “manifesto” states: “We believe a social network can be a tool for empowerment. Not a tool to deceive, coerce, and manipulate — but a place to connect, create, and celebrate life. You are not a product.”
Ello’s policy states that the practice of collecting and selling personal data and mapping your social connections for profit “is both creepy and unethical.”
“Under the guise of offering a ‘free’ service, users pay a high price in intrusive advertising and lack of privacy.”
Based in Vermont, Ello was launched by a group of artists and programmers led by Paul Budnitz, whose previous experience includes designing bicycles and toys.
Budnitz says on his page that Ello was designed to be “simple, beautiful and ad-free.”
It remains unclear if Ello can develop a profitable business plan without advertisements.
Ello states it plans to remain “completely free to use,” but that it could start offering some premium features for a fee.
source: interaksyon.com
Christian Bale to play Apple’s Steve Jobs
LOS ANGELES | Oscar-winner Christian Bale — best known for his star turn as Batman in the blockbuster “Dark Knight” films — will play Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in an upcoming biopic.
“We needed the best actor on the board in a certain age range and that’s Chris Bale,” the film’s screenwriter Aaron Sorkin said, in an interview with Bloomberg Television posted online Thursday.
Sorkin, who won an Academy Award for his screenplay for “The Social Network” about Facebook and its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, said giving the lead role to Bale was an easy call.
“He didn’t have to audition,” said Sorkin, although the writer said “there was a meeting” before the British-born actor was given the part.
“He has more words to say in this movie than most people have in three movies combined,” said Sorkin, who is writing the script for Sony Pictures based on the 2011 biography “Steve Jobs,” by Walter Isaacson.
“There isn’t a scene or a frame that he’s not in. So it’s an extremely difficult part and he is going to crush it,” Sorkin said.
The Apple inventor’s storied life already has been rendered on the big screen in last year’s drama “Jobs” starring Ashton Kutcher, which received lukewarm reviews.
Bale received a best supporting actor Oscar in 2011 for his role in the “The Fighter,” in which he plays the older brother of a washed-up boxer struggling to revive his career.
The actor had a breakout performance as the lead actor in the 2000 movie “American Psycho,” and also earned a lead actor Oscar nomination for his turn in last year’s “American Hustle.”
source: interaksyon.com
Thursday, October 23, 2014
EU summit tackles climate change, Ebola
BRUSSELS - European Union leaders meet at a summit in Brussels Thursday aimed at clinching a high-stakes deal on combating climate change and boosting efforts to fight the deadly Ebola virus.
The heads of state and government from the 28-member EU will also search during the two-day meeting for ways to foster economic growth and jobs amid fears of a triple-dip recession.
The main focus on Thursday will be on an ambitious package of climate change targets for 2030, but the leaders face 11th-hour differences over how member states share the burden.
Draft conclusions for the summit seen by AFP call for cutting greenhouse gases by 40 percent over 1990 levels, making renewables account for 27 percent of energy use and setting an energy savings target of 30 percent.
But there are objections all round the table, especially from coal-reliant Poland, which says the cost of updating its power plants is too high, and from Portugal, which wants closer cross-border energy infrastructure.
"There are still difficult issues which need to be resolved. We will see if we manage to do that," a German government source told reporters on condition of anonymity.
But other European sources were more upbeat.
"There is no agreement yet but I think the differences of opinion have been narrowed down to a couple of outstanding issues which will be settled by the leaders on Thursday night," said one source.
Ebola fight
Agreement is likely to be simpler on action to tackle the Ebola outbreak in west Africa, which has claimed nearly 4,900 lives, and prevent it from becoming a global threat, although money will again be an issue.
EU foreign and health ministers met on the subject over the past week.
"Our leaders will discuss the question on what more can be done to scale up our financial support and our medical care and equipment on the ground," an EU source told reporters.
EU member states and the European Commission have already pledged nearly 600 million euros ($750 million) to fight Ebola.
British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to call on fellow EU leaders to boost that amount to one billion euros, British government sources said.
A Spanish nurse who was the first person to catch Ebola outside Africa has been cured of the deadly virus, doctors confirmed Tuesday, easing fears of it spreading in Europe.
The leaders will also discuss Ukraine although any progress is unlikely as an EU review on the ceasefire between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels is not due until next Tuesday.
They may also discuss the threat from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, particularly the threat of foreign fighters returning to carry out attacks at home.
The EU economic talks on Friday will be joined by European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi. A eurozone summit will also be held Friday.
The climate debate is likely to be the toughest, coming against a backdrop of energy security worries in the EU, which is at odds with its biggest gas supplier Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.
EU sources said poorer fossil-fuel dependent states like Poland and others in eastern Europe are at loggerheads with richer northern nations over "who pays and how much" for modernizing power plants and cutting emissions.
Meanwhile, countries like Spain and Portugal are at odds with France over their desire to build more cross-border cables to export surplus electricity produced by wind power.
The EU wants to have an agreement on the climate change targets, among the world's toughest, in place ahead of a summit in Paris in 2015 at which a new UN-backed global treaty on climate change is to be agreed.
Climate negotiators have been meeting this week in Luxembourg and are likely to stay down to the wire, a Polish diplomat said.
"The balloon of expectation is pumped up so high that if we don't have a deal (at the summit) it will be perceived in a bad way," the diplomat said.
source: interaksyon.com
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
New iPhones deliver big profits for Apple
SAN FRANCISCO — New big-screen iPhones helped propel Apple’s profit and revenue in the last quarter, as the California tech giant smashed earnings expectations.
The company reported on Monday that profit rose 13 percent to $8.5 billion, as revenues jumped to $42.1 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter ending September 27.
Apple said it sold more than 39 million iPhones in the quarter, boosted by last month’s launch of the large-screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which hit some markets on September 19. That compared with 33.8 million in the same period a year ago.
The iPhone accounted for more than $23 billion in revenue, over half of Apple’s overall earnings for the quarter.
Sales of iPads — which may have been lower ahead of the October launch of new models — fell from a year earlier to 12.3 million, producing some $5.3 billion in revenues.
“I view it as a speed bump, not a huge issue,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said of the decline in iPad sales during a conference call with analysts.
“I know there is a popular view the (tablet) market is saturated, we don’t see that.”
As appetites for tablet have diminished, Apple’s market share has slipped to 25 percent, compared to 70 percent for the rival Android platform, according to Strategy Analytics.
People are holding onto iPads longer than they do iPhones, and Apple is still researching when consumers typically upgrade to new tablets, according to Cook.
He saw some promising developments for iPad sales, including a recent alliance with IBM to improve tablet capabilities for businesses.
“I am very bullish on where we can take iPad over time,” Cook said.
Blow-away quarter
Apple sold 5.5 million Mac computers and 2.6 million iPods in the quarter.
Growing Mac sales came as the overall personal computer market shrank.
“On the Mac, it was just an absolutely blow-away quarter,” Cook said. “The back-to-school season voted, and the Mac won.”
The financial results were the best ever for a September quarter, and the fiscal year that just ended “was one for the record books,” Cook said earlier in a statement.
Apple, the world’s biggest firm by market value, closed its fiscal year with a profit of $39.5 billion on revenues of nearly $183 billion.
Trip Chowdhry at Global Equities Research said Apple’s quarterly report “handsomely beats (expectations) on both top line and bottom line.
“These results validate our investment thesis Apple is a multi-year, multi-product, multi-service and multi-geography growth company.”
Apple shares rose 1.47 percent to $101.23 in after-hours trading following the results.
“Apple continues to hit it out of the park,” independent analyst Jeff Kagan said.
“Apple was showing strong growth, year after year, until a couple years ago. That’s when they fell and that lasted for a while. However, Apple now appears to be back.”
The rise of the ‘phablet’
Amit Daryanani at RBC Capital Markets said Apple’s guidance for the key upcoming holiday season was also ahead of most predictions.
Apple forecast revenue between $63.5 billion and $66.5 billion and gross profit margins between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent.
“The big upside driver in the quarter was iPhone units,” Daryanani said, adding that Apple’s forecast “leaves plenty for upside surprises.”
Apple last month increased the screen size for its new iPhones, yielding to consumer preference and following a trend started by rivals, including Samsung.
The iPhone 6 Plus is Apple’s first product in the growing market for “phablet” phones, which are increasingly replacing tablets.
Apple’s smartphone market share is strong in the United States but globally was less than 12 percent in the second quarter, before the latest launch, according to research firm IDC.
iPhone sales climbed in China despite the new models not being released there until last week, and sales of Mac computers soared even though the overall market for personal computers there contracted, according to Apple.
“It is just an incredible market where people want the latest technology,” Cook said of China, adding that the California company is investing heavily there.
source: interaksyon.com
US urges air bag repairs as Toyota expands recall
WASHINGTON — US authorities on Monday urged owners of vehicles with potentially deadly defective Takata air bags to seek repairs as Toyota recalled about 247,000 vehicles over the parts flaw.
The Transportation Department’s safety agency issued a bulletin to owners of 4.7 million vehicles made by Toyota and five other automakers, highlighting an apparently higher level of danger from the faulty air bags for car owners in areas with high humidity.
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration urges owners of certain Toyota, Honda, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, and General Motors vehicles to act immediately on recall notices to replace defective Takata air bags,” the NHTSA said.
“The message comes with urgency, especially for owners of vehicles affected by the regional recalls in the following areas: Florida, Puerto Rico, Guam, Saipan, American Samoa, Virgin Islands and Hawaii.”
The air bag could improperly inflate and rupture, potentially sending shrapnel into the car’s occupants.
Honda has the highest number of vehicles covered by the recall at roughly 2.8 million. Toyota is second at 778,000, followed by BMW at 574,000.
The high-profile alert came as Toyota Motor Sales USA said it was recalling Toyota Corolla, Matrix, Sequoia, Tundra and Lexus cars, sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks produced from 2001 to 2004 to replace the air bag inflator for the front passenger seat.
Toyota expanded on an earlier airbag-related recall especially to include vehicles in high humidity areas, including southern Florida, Gulf Coast states, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, where the vehicles “appear to warrant immediate action” based on testing by Takata.
According to Toyota, Takata is still testing whether high humidity is an important factor in the airbag problem.
Toyota said it had received no reports yet of injuries or fatalities related to the airbag problem.
Still, the seriousness of the risk to occupants of the front seat was underscored in the company’s details on the recall process .
If a replacement inflator part is not available when the vehicle is brought in for servicing, the dealer will temporarily disable the front passenger air bag.
In that case, the dealer will install a warning that the front passenger seat should not be occupied until the repair has been completed.
Toyota’s US-traded shares were up 3.1 percent at $113.24 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
source: interaksyon.com
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source: cashforsettlementpayments.com
Transgender troops seek end to US military taboo
WASHINGTON DC - For Donna Harding, joining the Australian army was a bid to try to suppress what she had known from an early age -- she was a girl trapped in a boy's body.
"It's quite a common pathway for people who are gender conflicted, trying to fix what we see is wrong with us, and see the military as the way of doing that," Major Harding said.
She was speaking at an unprecedented gathering of transgender troops from foreign armies in Washington, sharing their experiences in the hopes of persuading the Pentagon and the US administration to break perhaps the last taboo -- openly integrating members of their community into the military's ranks.
Eighteen countries around the world expressly allow transgender personnel to serve, including major US allies like Australia, Britain, Canada, Sweden, and New Zealand.
But in the United States, despite the 2011 repeal of the divisive "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law, which banned gays from serving openly, there is little talk of extending the same rights to transgender people.
There are an estimated 15,500 transgender people believed to be serving in the US armed forces, but, under the current rules, if they are discovered the military is required to dismiss them.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said earlier this year he was open to reconsidering the current ban. But as yet no review is underway, and any move to incorporate transgender people openly into the ranks is likely to stir controversy.
Harding joined the Australian reserve forces in 2000 before entering the regular army in 2004. She said she had "lived under the constant anxiety and fear that someone would find out my secret."
"I've lost count of the number of times it would have been so easy to drive into that oncoming truck," Harding told the audience at the event organized by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), noting that 80 percent of transgender people have contemplated suicide, and some 40 percent have tried it.
Now after transitioning to become a woman, Harding works with the Royal Australian Nursing Corps and says that being "open and authentic is the key to being able to perform your job."
Major Alexandra Larsson, an intelligence officer with the Swedish Air Force, insisted she had been very lucky to receive good support once she plucked up the courage to become a woman, saying she has "the best job in the world."
"The problem today is that it depends on who you are and where you are. And it shouldn't be like that. Everybody should have the same opportunity ... but hopefully people can look at me and say at least 'for her it was possible.'"
Being true to yourself
Key to ensuring that transgender people can be embraced by the army is education, and working so those who undertake the difficult decision can do so with dignity and security.
There is little to suggest that including them has any effect on a military's operational effectiveness.
"Without doubt, the more mature our inclusive policies become, the better our operational delivery becomes, because we have got people who are being themselves, they are being authentic in the workplace, without having to have personal challenges alongside that," said Squadron Leader Sarah Maskell, who promotes equality and diversity in the British Royal Air Force.
Issues such as sharing showers or medical costs and care should be relatively easy to deal with by applying some common sense, the panelists argued.
Sergeant Lucy Jordan, the first person in the New Zealand Defense Forces to become a woman while serving, praised the support she had been given by her commanding officers.
"What my organization gave me, and what we are doing here, is primarily about investing in the most important thing that an organization has: its people."
source: interaksyon.com
Mara Lopez on Laude slay, other advocacies: ‘I’m not afraid to give people a piece of my mind’
At the launch of an alliance to monitor the legal proceedings in the murder of Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude, who was killed allegedly by US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton in a motel in Olongapo City on October 11, it was not a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community whose sentiments hit hard the most.
Rather, it was indie actress and LGBT supporter Mara Lopez whose opinions captured the sense of outrage one ought to feel when faced with the murder of a person, whose skin bore cuts and bruises, a testament to the brutality the victim endured beforehand at the hands of the perpetrator of the crime.
“Why do we even have to dwell on that?” Mara asked in reference to the fact that Jennifer was a transwoman, a detail that has many Filipinos spouting off hateful comments about the victim. “The point is she was tortured, she was killed.”
“The only one who has a right to take away life is God. Even ants ‘di ko kayang patayin. Ang kaya ko lang patayin talaga, lamok, and even then I feel guilty. I’m vegan kasi, and an animal activist. Eh kung galit ako sa pumapatay ng hayop, ano pa sa pumapatay ng tao ‘di ba?” she told InterAksyon.com in an interview Monday at a press conference held by the newly christened Justice for Jennifer Watch.
The Filipino-Japanese daughter of former Bb. Pilipinas-Universe and Gabriela advocate Maria Isabel Lopez is the star of Ida Anita Del Mundo’s Cinemalaya film “K’na The Dreamweaver.” Here Mara plays, in her own words, a T’boli princess torn between saving her village and being with her one true love.
This is her second Cinemalaya movie, last year acting opposite Paulo Avelino in Alvin Yapan’s religious Bicolano film “Debosyon.”
She had to learn different languages for these films: T’boli for the first and Bicolano for the second.
Mara debuts her next two films, Cinema One Originals both, on November 9.
In Alec Figuracion’s “Bitukang Manok,” her character gets stuck in the winding road in Quezon, unable to get out for ten days.
She plays one of four friends in Malay Javier’s “Hindi Sila Tatanda,” a film shot using anamorphic lens, to panoramic effect.
“As an actress, I’m not afraid to be different from everyone,” Mara said. True enough, she has been making waves in the indie circuit for the roles she chooses to portray. “I’m at that stage that I want to make films that are good.”
As a newcomer, she played the wife of a shop employee who was forced to give spy-cam videos of herself to his employer in Ato Bautista’s “Palitan”. The film, which included scenes with Mara in the nude, earned her a Best Actress award at the Cinema One Originals film festival in 2012.
“I’m very open to doing many things, but there has to be trust with the people I’m working with, trust in the material. ‘Cause I’m such a liberal person. I’d want to explore so many things as an actress.”
She has the same attitude when it comes to the advocacies she supports.
“I’m not afraid to give people a piece of my mind,” Mara said. “Sometimes it can be risky. Some people, to protect me, will say, ‘Don’t be too vocal, don’t be too aggressive.’ But no, if I believe in something, I’m going to have to be vocal about it, I’m going to have to fight for it.”
She was 12 when she started joining her mom, with the rest of the Gabriela supporters, in protest rallies that tackled violence against women.
Mara last took to the streets when news of the pork barrel scam exploded last year.
Also an environmentalist, simply looking at a comic book (which she nevertheless loves to collect) makes her wonder why trees have to be cut for paper, instead of manufacturers finding a more sustainable way of producing such materials. She used to volunteer for PAWS, as well.
With her mom, Mara also supports Narcotics Anonymous events to help people battle their addictions.
Through her Instagram posts, she enjoys spreading the word (or in this case, the photos) about healthy eating. The surfer has strong convictions as well with regards to the need for awareness among people from her generation.
“Ayokong ma-trap sa generation na ‘pag gising, Instagram na agad. But I think I can use that in a positive way to promote causes like this. I want people to be aware of what’s going on. ‘Di ba sobrang lungkot na the witnesses are back in the States?!” the 23-year-old ranted, referring to the witnesses to Laude’s murder, believed to be members of the US Marines.
The Department of Foreign Affairs on Monday said that they were not informed “by the US side” beforehand.
“I am affected about what happened to her,” Mara said. “And it’s not something I want to be around. And in the future, my children, I don’t want them to be around that. Although we live in an evil world and it’s inevitable, I’m not going to sit around and do nothing in my house. I’m probably just one person, but my voice matters.”
source: interaksyon.com
Sunday, October 19, 2014
Indonesia inaugurates outsider Widodo as president
JAKARTA - Joko Widodo, Indonesia's first leader without deep roots in the era of dictator Suharto, was sworn in as president Monday but faces huge challenges to enact a bold reform agenda.
The inauguration, which was attended by foreign dignitaries including US Secretary of State John Kerry and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, capped a remarkable rise for a softly-spoken politician who was brought up in a riverside slum.
Widodo, known by his nickname Jokowi, worked his way up through local politics before securing the presidency in July following a close race against controversial ex-general Prabowo Subianto.
He is the country's first president from outside an ageing band of political and military figures who have ruled the world's third-biggest democracy since the end of the three-decade Suharto dictatorship in 1998.
But fears are growing that a hostile parliament dominated by parties that opposed Widodo at the election, and the new leader's status as a novice in national politics, could make it impossible for him to push through reforms aimed at reviving Southeast Asia's top economy and helping society's poorest.
At a ceremony in parliament, Widodo, wearing a black suit and traditional cap, stood for the national anthem alongside outgoing president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, before taking the oath.
"In the name of God, I swear that I will fulfil my obligation as the president of Indonesia as best as I can and as fairly as possible," he said.
Lawmakers and visiting dignitaries packed out the parliament for the ceremony, and there was applause when Prabowo walked in after speculation he would not attend, the latest sign of a thaw after weeks of political tensions.
Crowds had gathered across Jakarta to celebrate the inauguration of Widodo, a 53-year-old former furniture exporter who won legions of fans with his man of the people image during his time as Jakarta governor.
"I am proud of him. I don't mind spending money to travel here to watch this first-hand," said Sunti, who like many Indonesians goes by one name and had travelled a long distance from her hometown for the inauguration.
After the ceremony, Widodo and his new vice president, Jusuf Kalla, will travel in a horse-drawn carriage accompanied by a parade to the presidential palace.
In the evening the new leader, a heavy metal fan, is expected to join rock bands on stage at an outdoor concert.
About 24,000 police and military personnel were deployed to secure the day's events.
Critical moment for economy
But the euphoria of the inauguration is likely to be short-lived, analysts warn, as Widodo faces up to the task of leading the world's fourth most populous country, with 250 million people spread over more than 17,000 islands, at a critical moment.
Growth in Southeast Asia's top economy is at five-year lows, corruption remains rampant, and fears are mounting that support for the Islamic State group could spawn a new generation of radicals in the world's most populous Muslim-majority country.
Widodo has set out an ambitious reform agenda to tackle the country's many problems, but there is concern the notoriously fractious parliament could prove a hindrance.
However Prabowo's appearance at the inauguration was the second sign of easing tensions in just a few days after he unexpectedly met Widodo Friday for the first time since the election and pledged support, and raises hopes for the new leader's prospects.
In recent weeks, Prabowo's supporters in parliament had used their majority to abolish the direct election of local leaders, a move opposed by Widodo, and win key posts in the legislature.
But analysts cautioned it was too early to say if the reconciliation would last or help Widodo.
Widodo's first test will be to reduce the huge fuel subsidies that eat up about a fifth of the budget, a move economists say is urgently needed but which risks sparking large street protests.
He is also expected to announce his new cabinet later in the week.
Kerry's attendance was in part aimed at seeking support from Southeast Asian nations in the fight against the Islamic State group, which has taken over vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.
source: interaksyon.com
Iconic ‘Easy Rider’ motorbike sells for $1.35 million
LOS ANGELES | The iconic Harley-Davidson chopper-style motorbike ridden by Peter Fonda in the 1969 classic “Easy Rider” film sold for $1.35 million at auction this weekend.
The “Captain America” bike, complete with authenticating documents including a letter from Fonda, was sold late Saturday at entertainment industry auction house Profiles in History, said spokeswoman Sabrina Propper.
The red, white and blue stars-and-stripes panhead chopper was designed and built by two African-American bike builders, Cliff Vaughs and Ben Hardy, based on design suggestions from Fonda.
“After fierce bidding, we are so pleased that the buyer values this for the cultural icon that it is,” said the seller, Mike Eisenberg.
There were two “Captain America” bikes built for “Easy Rider,” so shooting would not be disrupted if one of them broke down. The bike sold Saturday was used in the crash scene at the end of the film.
It was sold as part of a sale of Hollywood memorabilia at Profiles in History’s auction rooms in Calabasas, northwest of Los Angeles. Bids were taken online and by phone, as well as in person.
Auctioneers’ boss Joseph Maddalena described the chopper before the sale as “one of the most iconic images in American film,” adding: “The bike evokes powerful emotions even in non-bikers.
“It personifies the 60s, all of the good and the bad that decade brought,” he said.
source: interaksyon.com
Microsoft plans to launch smartwatch within weeks – Forbes
NEW YORK — Microsoft Corp is preparing to launch a smartwatch within the next few weeks that will passively track a user’s heart rate and work across different mobile platforms, Forbes reported on Sunday.
The wearable gadget’s battery life will exceed two days of regular use, Forbes reported, citing unnamed sources close to the project. It will arrive in stores soon after being unveiled in an effort to capture the holiday season, Forbes reported.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Apple Inc unveiled a smartwatch on Sept. 9 that will combine health and fitness tracking with communications and will go on sale in early 2015, while Samsung Electronics Co unveiled its Galaxy Gear smartwatch in September 2013.
source: interaksyon.com
Asian shares, dollar cheered by upbeat U.S. data
TOKYO - Asian stocks started the week on a brighter note on Monday, after solid U.S. data and earnings calmed tumult in global financial markets and reassured investors worried about the health of the world economy.
The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index of consumer sentiment was surprisingly strong in early October, rising to more than a seven-year high. Other data also showed new housing starts rose more than expected last month, suggesting U.S. economic growth was solid.
The upbeat U.S. data has brought some calm to markets after a week of turbulence as signs of softening global growth rattled investors, sending volatility spiking to levels not seen in years.
"Sentiment has seemingly been unaffected by the market volatility," strategists at Barclays said in a note to clients.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up about 0.6 percent in early trade, and Japan's Nikkei stock average surged about 2.6 percent, retaking some of the 5 percent it shed in the previous week.
On Wall Street on Friday, all major stock indexes climbed more than 1 percent, though the S&P 500 posted its fourth straight weekly decline, its longest streak in more than three years.
U.S. earnings will remain in the spotlight this week, with results due from 128 S&P 500 companies, including six Dow components.
Out of the 81 S&P 500 component companies that have already reported third-quarter results, 64.2 percent have beaten expectations, a rate slightly below the average over the past four quarters but better than the past 20 years.
Asian investors will also pay attention to developments in Hong Kong, where pro-democracy protests entered their fourth week and demonstrators appeared increasingly willing to confront police.
U.S. Treasuries posted their second straight day of declines on Friday, and their rising yields added to the dollar's appeal.
The yield on benchmark 10-year notes stood at 2.198 percent in Asian trade, steady from Friday's U.S. close of 2.199 percent and well above 17-month lows plumbed last week.
Speculators boosted their bullish bets on the dollar in the week ended Oct. 14 to their largest since late May last year, still showing optimism for U.S. economic prospects, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission showed on Friday.
The value of the dollar's net long position increased to $43.04 billion from $40.91 billion the previous week. Net dollar-long positions notched their fourth straight week of rises, and totaled at least $30 billion for the ninth straight week.
The euro was last down about 0.1 percent at $1.2748, while the dollar added 0.2 percent against the yen to 107.12 yen.
The yen's drop to a six-year low against the dollar of 110.09 on Oct. 1 followed a rapid decline of 8 percent over three months, and sparked fears at some Japanese companies. Nearly half of Japanese firms think the government should start defending the yen at this month's dollar high of 110, according to a Reuters survey released on Monday.
In commodities trading, Brent crude rose about 0.3 percent to $86.44 a barrel, bouncing from last week's nearly four-year lows as investors bought back into a market they said was oversold. U.S. crude rose about 0.8 percent after logging its third weekly decline.
Spot gold inched down abut 0.1 percent to $1,235.90 an ounce, after marking its second straight weekly gain.
source: interaksyon.com
More than half of world's wildlife population lost: WWF
MOSCOW -- The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) released a statement Saturday following the 12th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, highlighting that the world has lost more than half of the planet's wildlife population.
"At a time when the world has seen the loss of more than half of the planet's wildlife populations, countries are neither moving fast enough nor doing enough to prevent further decline," the statement reads.
Species populations worldwide have declined 52 percent since 1970, with a 76 percent decline in freshwater species and a 39 and 40 percent decline in marine and terrestrial species decline respectively, according to findings revealed at the convention that was concluded on Friday in South Korea.
The findings compiled in the WWF Living Planet 2014 report also states that global freshwater demand is projected to exceed current supply by more than 40 percent by 2030.
While urging governments to "supercharge" their efforts in conserving the environment, the WWF statement noted that forest ecosystems alone contribute $720 billion to the global economy.
"The COP [convention] urges Parties to take comprehensive and urgent measures necessary to ensure the full implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and corresponding national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs)," the statement says, adding that it urges the relevant parties to do so by October 2015.
The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, also known as the Aichi targets, and a main theme at the convention, is a 10-year framework for action by all countries and stakeholders to save biodiversity and enhance its benefits for people, as explained on the Convention on Biological Diversity website.
Among the strategies are getting the governments and society more involved, promoting sustainable use, safeguarding ecosystems and promoting the benefits of conserving biodiversity.
The WWF, formerly the World Wildlife Fund, was founded in 1961 in Switzerland and has been active in issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment. It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries.
source: interaksyon.com
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Stocks rally as global selloff abates, bonds fall
NEW YORK - World equity markets rallied, with European stocks surging the most in more than two years, and bond prices slid on Friday as investors poured back into beaten-down markets on solid U.S. corporate earnings and rising consumer sentiment.
Wall Street followed Europe's lead, with all major stock indexes climbing more than 1 percent after earnings reports eased concerns about the impact of weak global demand on U.S. growth and businesses.
Expectations among some investors that the European Central Bank will increase stimulus also buoyed sentiment.
Results at General Electric, Honeywell International Inc and Morgan Stanley topped expectations. GE rose 2.4 percent, Honeywell gained 4.2 percent and Morgan Stanley advanced 2.1 percent.
With 81 companies in the S&P 500 already reporting third-quarter results, 64.2 percent have beaten expectations, a rate slightly below the average over the past four quarters but better than the past 20 years.
U.S. housing starts and permits rose in September, a sign the market's modest recovery is supporting a growing economy, while U.S. consumer sentiment rose in October to the highest in more than seven years.
Despite the rally, the S&P 500 posted a fourth straight weekly decline, its longest streak in more than three years. The U.S. benchmark is down more than 6 percent from a record high in September as concerns about the global economy, a resurgent European debt crisis and the Ebola virus sparked the downturn.
"The reaction the market has had over the past couple of weeks is a bit overdone," said David Lafferty, chief market strategist at Natixis Global Asset Management, which oversees $930 billion in assets.
"The overall trend of the market is to grind higher on earnings but the real flashpoint for risk assets is going to be the ECB," Lafferty said, referring to whether it can increase its stimulus.
MSCI's all-country world index rose 1.22 percent while the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares closed up 2.76 percent at 1,280.17, its biggest single-day percentage gain since June 2012.
The Euro STOXX 50 index of 50 European companies rose 3.1 percent in the biggest jump in almost 18 months, shy two-hundredths of a percentage point of being the biggest single-day jump since September 2012.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 263.17 points, or 1.63 percent, to 16,380.41. The S&P 500 rose 24.00 points, or 1.29 percent, to 1,886.76 and the Nasdaq Composite added 41.05 points, or 0.97 percent, to 4,258.44.
For the week, the Dow and S&P 500 both fell 1 percent while the Nasdaq lost 0.4 percent.
The U.S. dollar edged higher. The euro was last down 0.37 percent at $1.2759, just off a session low of $1.2755. The dollar was up 0.54 percent against the yen at 106.89 yen.
Brent crude rose above $86 a barrel, bouncing from near four-year lows as investors bought back into a market they said was oversold, and as fighting in Iraq increased political risk.
Brent for December rose 34 cents to settle at $86.16 a barrel. U.S. November crude settled up 5 cents at $82.75, posting its third weekly decline.
U.S. Treasuries prices posted their second straight day of declines.
Benchmark 10-year notes, up as much as three points on Wednesday on fears over the global economy, were off 12/32 in price on Friday to yield 2.1971 percent.
source: interaksyon.com
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