.:: Peter Verstegen's Ramblings ::.

Windows 8: Microsoft can do it fast, cheap, or right...

2011-12-08T19:30:00.001+10:30

Windows 8: TechRepublic By Debra Littlejohn Shinder

December 6, 2011. Takeaway: Deb Shinder doesn’t think Microsoft can afford to cut corners making Windows 8 for the sake of speed and/or cost and risk not getting it right.

Most of us - especially those of us who have worked on projects with set deliverables - have heard and used the saying that goes “Do you want it fast, do you want it cheap, or do you want it right? Pick two.” The implication is that you can’t have all three, and most of the time, that holds true.

Now Microsoft is faced with a dilemma as the company ramps up to deliver the drastically revamped next generation of Windows. They’re under pressure from some corners to do it fast, and there is always a contingent that clamors for them to do it cheaper, but can they afford to cut corners for the sake of speed and/or cost and risk not getting it right? I don’t think so.

Hurry or not?

On the one hand, there’s no big hurry to get a new desktop operating system out there. Many individuals and companies are just now in the process of upgrading from XP or Vista to Windows 7 and still getting to know the “new” OS. It was released just two years ago; folks who stuck with XP for a decade are hard pressed to see any good reason to trade in the current model anytime soon. IDC is already predicting that Windows 8 will be “largely irrelevant to users of traditional PCs.”

Windows 7 is a big hit. People like it - even many of those who swore their undying love for XP. They aren’t going to want to give it up without a compelling reason. The average consumer won’t mind at all if Microsoft takes its time coming out with a new version of the OS.

On the other hand, the pressure is on for Microsoft to get a Windows 8 tablet into the game. Following the release of a Forrester survey purporting to show that interest in a Windows-based tablet is shrinking, a number of pundits have opined that the window of opportunity is closing fast, or that it may already be too late for Microsoft to catch up in the tablet market.

Personally, I have issues with both the research and the conclusions. The survey samples (both in the case of the Q1 survey that showed 46% of respondents interested in a Windows tablet and the Q3 survey showing that number at 25%) were not particularly large. The first was based on 3835 respondents, the second on only 2299. Is that really an accurate representation of the millions of potential customers who will be purchasing tablets in the future?

In addition, who decides when a market is “sewn up?” At one point, it seemed “too late” for anyone to beat Apple in the smart phone market - but then along came Android. As I’ve mentioned many times before, Microsoft has always excelled at coming from behind to take over a market segment (web browsing, word processing, server systems). It’s not over ’til the queen-size female vocalizes some music, and I see no reason to assume there’s a cut-off date after which the iPad must be declared the official “winner” of the tablet war for the rest of time.

Nonetheless, those at Microsoft are undoubtedly at least a little worried by the numbers. They’ve been talking about Windows on ARM for quite a while now, and with a deluge of Android slates hitting the shelves this holiday season, you know they’re just chomping at the bit to get a horse in that race.

Is the price right?

Each time a new version of Windows is released, I hear complaints about the price. The full retail price of Windows 7 Home Premium is $199. Full retail price of Windows 95 was $209.95. Sure, the Pro and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 cost more, but Home Premium is the edition that most consumers (the people I hear complaining) use, and it’s the edition that’s directly comparable to Windows 95.

Of course, these days the comparisons are always with Apple, and we hear endlessly about how “Snow Leopard only cost $29.” The problem with that argument is that Snow Leopard wasn’t, even by the standards of many Mac fans, really a new version of OS X - it was more like a service pack. Well, guess what. Microsoft doesn’t charge anything for service packs. Just imagine the outpouring of protests if Microsoft had charged thirty bucks for XP SP2, even though it added new features.

Okay, what about the cost of OS X Lion, an actual new edition? You can buy it for $69 on a thumb drive. However, you can’t compare that to the full edition of Windows, because you can’t install it on a computer that didn’t already have OS X installed. You can only install it on a Mac, and you can’t buy a Mac that comes without an operating system. So you have to compare it to the upgrade pricing for Windows, which lists for $119.99 but can be found for less at some retailers.

Yes, you’ll probably still pay a little more for Windows, but for that price you get the ability to install it on the hardware of your choice, including hardware that’s much less expensive than the hardware you’re forced to buy to run OS X. Oh, and if you’re building your own computer, you can get the System Builder’s edition, which is the full edition with SP1, for $99.

Then there’s Linux, which you can get at no cost at all. You’d think, with pricing like that, everyone would have abandoned both Microsoft and Apple long ago - but Linux still has less than 2% of the market share, according to NetMarketShare’s November 2011 statistics. Sometimes there are hidden costs to “free” solutions, and given the number of people I know who have tried some iteration of Linux at one time or another and then came running back to Windows (or bought a Mac), it seems price isn’t the overriding factor for most, even in a tough economy.

The importance of getting it right...the first TIME.

Microsoft learned from their experience with Vista just how important it is to wait however long it takes to get the software right before releasing it. Or at least, I hope they did. True or not, there is a pervasive public perception that the problems users encountered with Vista (slow performance, lack of expected features such as a new file system) were caused by a rush to market. This is so even though there was five years between the release of XP and the release of Vista, which is the longest interval ever between Microsoft operating system releases.

Rumors are flying about when Windows 8 will be released. A few days ago, Robert Boland reported that unnamed “sources close to Microsoft” say to expect the first Windows 8 beta in February 2012. There has been recent speculation in the press (neither confirmed nor denied by Microsoft) that the final release may be delayed, with the expected 2012 general availability date pushed back to 2013.

On the other hand, eWeek reported that a leaked slide deck indicates that Asus is preparing Windows 8 tablets before the end of 2012. PCWorld says Nokia is planning to launch the first Windows 8 tablet by June. Could it be that the company is focusing its efforts on the tablet market first, the strategy being to fine-tune and release the touch-friendly Metro-based OS on slates significantly earlier than it starts to sell the OS for the desktop?

Personally, I think that’s a good idea. Microsoft already owns the desktop with Windows 7; the tablet market is where the company needs to make a mark. But even there, I hope they don’t get too caught up in the pressure to put something, anything, up against the iPad and Android devices. I’m as eager as anyone to get my hands on a real Windows tablet, but I’d prefer to wait and see it done right, than to see the first Windows 8 tablet suffer the same fate as Vista.

I believe coming out with a first Windows Phone that, despite its elegant UI, lacked so many of the features and functionality that the iPhone and Droids already had was one of many reasons (including the “carrier conspiracy” mentioned last week) that Windows Phone 7 posted such lukewarm sales figures. Even though Mango went a long way toward catching up, sales haven’t picked up much. Maybe with their flagship tablet, they should try a different tactic and wait until they have a really spectacular product that works flawlessly upon release - even if the wait frustrates people like me.

Funny Finnish bunny thinks he's a chicken ...

2011-12-02T09:02:00.001+10:30

Reuters

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Thu Dec 1, 2011. Otto would make the perfect chicken, except for a few hiccups.Hatching eggs, scratching around the coop and roosting on a beam with the rest of the hens are great habits for chickens, but rather unusual for an eight month old male rabbit.

The confused bunny came as a free gift to Ville Kuusinen's home, when he bought nine Silkie hens and a rooster from a farm.

The Kuusinens and their three children live on a small island in Velkua some 210 km (130 miles) northwest of Helsinki.

"When I went to the hen house, I noticed he was sitting on the eggs. Later I watched through the window how he jumped on the beam, failed, tried again and with a lot of practice eventually he stayed up there," Kuusinen told Reuters.

Otto does not like to sit on laps or eat carrots like most pet rabbits. The rabbit, who has lived with chickens all his life prefers chicken feed and runs with the chickens outdoors and sometimes plays with them by jumping over them.

"For the chickens he is one of them. He often sits on the beam between the hens and under their wings'," Kuusinen said.

But he said Otto's rabbity instincts still take over when a visitor steps into the hen house. He runs away and hides, but can be lured out with raisin buns.

(Reporting by Terhi Kinnunen, editing by Paul Casciato)

Woman gives birth at airport restroom...

2011-11-30T19:50:00.001+10:30

Reuters

Tue Nov 29, 2011. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A woman gave birth in a restroom at Baltimore's airport after arriving on a flight, an airport spokesman said on Monday.

The woman gave birth to a boy on Sunday afternoon at Concourse D of Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, the spokesman said.

Police and emergency medical personnel were called to the restroom and a Maryland Transportation Authority police officer assisted at the birth, he said.

The woman and the baby were transported to the Baltimore-Washington Medical Center and are in good condition, a hospital spokesman said.

The woman's identity was being withheld at her request. Other details, such as the origin of the flight, were not immediately available.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Greg McCune)

Rats help Colombia sniff out deadly landmines...

2011-11-24T15:45:00.002+10:30

Reuters

BOGOTA (Reuters) Wed Nov 23, 2011. - In a laboratory on the grounds of a police-guarded complex, 11 white-furred rats wait their turn to impress trainers and perhaps receive a bit of sugar as reward.

The rodents could play an important role in making conflict-wracked Colombia safer. They are in the final stages of a training program to find landmines that kill or injure hundreds of people each year in Colombia.

The government project, which began in 2006, trains specially bred rats to detect the metals used in landmines, thousands of which have been laid during the country's decades-long conflict with left-wing guerrillas.

Colombian scientists decided to use rats because, like the dogs more traditionally used in land mine detection, they have a highly developed sense of smell. But the rats are lightweight and unlikely to detonate mines.

The rats are first taught to recognize voice commands and the specific smells of metals used in landmines, and then to work in large, outdoor areas, where the rodents will sniff and scratch when they find mines, as watchful handlers who will be well-trained in demining stand close by.
It has taken government scientists five generations of rats to be confident their training program is thorough enough to begin sending rats out into the countryside.

In the laboratory, an element of instinct has been built into the training, with baby rats scurrying after their mothers in plastic mazes during practice sessions. The mothers show their young how finding the dead end containing the same wires and metal pieces used in landmines can earn you a treat.

"These rats will be a great help, and will provide great input to those trying to carry out demining," said Erick Guzman, the police official and former canine handler who now is responsible for much of the rats' outdoor training.

"We are hoping that this generation will be ready at the beginning of next year to be tested in a real environment," he added as his favorite rat Sophie perched on his shoulder.

LANDMINES A CONSTANT MENACE

Experts say it is impossible to estimate the number of undetonated mines which remain in Colombia, but their impact is horrifying real.

In the first half of 2011, for example, mines killed 40 people and injured another 247, government statistics show. That compared with 535 dead and injured throughout 2010.
Experts confirm that most mines are planted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), other guerrilla groups and criminal gangs to deter security forces. The government says 31 of the country's 32 provinces may contain mines.

"Contrary to what you see in other countries that have signed the Mine Ban Treaty, mines continue to be planted in our country ... while other countries continue to get the number of mines down, ours goes up," Luisa Fernanda Mendez, the scientific director of the rat program said.

Landmines are a pressing problem for security forces. More than half, or 63 percent, of land mine victims are military and police personnel, according to government figures.
Land mine clearance in Colombia is unusually slow-going because mines are sown in very close proximity to each other in rural areas only, making clearance operations treacherous.
The Colombian government cleared less than a tenth of a square mile in all of 2010, but uncovered a total of 194 explosive devices.

Non-government organizations (NGOs) in Colombia have until recently only been allowed to help land mine victims, not to mount demining operations themselves.

"Currently there is no humanitarian demining process except the one undertaken by the armed forces ... we have objections to that demining because, in our judgment, the process is not compatible with international standards for humanitarian demining," said Alvaro Jimenez, the national coordinator of the Colombian Campaign Against Mines.

"Demining should be a development carried out in service of the community, and the community should participate in all the steps."

The Organization of American States hopes to help NGOs expand their fledgling demining operations. They have mounted a program, to be completed by the end of the year, to train and accredit NGO demining teams to work in Colombia.

But despite any critiques of the government's current demining effort, rat project director Mendez has high hopes.

"If we do not begin to master the demining process, we will never complete the terms of the treaty, and moreover, we'll never have a free countryside," she said, while giving the rat crawling up the sleeve of her lab coat an affectionate pat.

The 25 worst passwords of 2011: ‘password,’ ‘123456′ | SmartPlanet

2011-11-23T13:20:00.000+10:30

SmartPlanet

Millions of escaped bees shut down highway...

2011-10-26T15:37:00.000+10:30

Reuters By James Nelson

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) Tue Oct 25, 2011. A flatbed truck carrying hundreds of beehives overturned near a construction zone on a Utah highway, freeing millions of bees and forcing authorities to temporarily close Interstate 15, officials said on Monday."

The driver lost control, hit the concrete barrier and rolled over. Of course, we then had bees everywhere," said Corporal Todd Johnson with the Utah Highway Patrol.

The highway in southern Utah was shut down for several hours on Sunday evening and Monday morning, officials said.

Local beekeepers worked through the night to gather the escaped bees. Officials said there was a net over the beehives but bees still managed to escape after the truck overturned.

The truck driver and two law enforcement officers responding to the accident were stung by bees but the stings were not life-threatening, Johnson said.

"There were about 450 colonies on the load and probably about 45,000 bees to the colony," said Richard Adee with Adee Honey Farms in Bruce, South Dakota.

That would translate to more than 20 million bees.

Adee said the bees were headed to Bakersfield, California for almond pollination next spring.

"We stacked the equipment back together, put them back on trucks and trailers and whatever we could find to move them out of there," said beekeeper Melvin Taylor of Santa Clara, Utah.

"Then we tried to move them as far out of the metropolitan area as we could. Because when those bees come alive today they are going to be mad that their house is all (broken) apart," Taylor added.

Taylor said bees not gathered and removed likely perished in the accident and cleanup.

(Editing by Will Dunham)

Gaddafi family demands body; NATO ends Libya war...

2011-10-24T09:55:00.001+10:30

Reuters By Rania El Gamal

MISRATA,Libya (Reuters)Fri Oct 21, 2011.

NATO called an end to its air war in Libya, and the clan of Muammar Gaddafi demanded a chance to bury the body that lay on display in a meat locker after a death as brutal and chaotic as his 42-year rule.

In a statement on a Syria-based pro-Gaddafi television station, the ousted dictator's family asked for the bodies of Gaddafi, his son Mo'tassim, and others who were killed on Thursday by fighters who overran his hometown Sirte.

"We call on the UN, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Amnesty International to force the Transitional Council to hand over the martyrs' bodies to our tribe in Sirte and to allow them to perform their burial ceremony in accordance with Islamic customs and rules," the statement said.

At an understated and sparsely-attended news conference late on Friday, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western alliance had taken a preliminary decision to call a halt to Operation Unified Protector on October 31.

Like other Western officials, Rasmussen expressed no regrets in public about the gruesome death of the deposed Libyan dictator, who was captured alive by the forces of the National Transitional Council but was brought dead to a hospital.

"We mounted a complex operation with unprecedented speed and conducted it with the greatest of care," Rasmussen said. "I'm very proud of what we have achieved."

The NATO operation, officially intended to protect civilians, effectively ended on Thursday with French warplanes blasting Gaddafi's convoy as he and others tried to escape a final stand in Sirte.

Gaddafi was captured wounded but alive hiding in a drain under a road. The world has since seen grainy film of him being roughed up by his captors while he pleads with them to respect his rights.

NTC officials have said Gaddafi later died of wounds in the ambulance, but the ambulance driver, Ali Jaghdoun, told Reuters that Gaddafi was already dead when he picked up the body.

"I didn't try to revive him because he was already dead," Jaghdoun said, in testimony that adds greater weight to the widespread assumption that Gaddafi was lynched.

The U.N. human rights arm said an investigation was needed to into whether he was summarily executed. The interim leaders have yet to decide what to do with the corpse.

BURIAL DISPUTE

In Misrata, a local commander, Addul-Salam Eleiwa, showed off the body, torso bare, on a mattress inside a metal-lined cold-store by a market on Friday. There was a bullet hole in his head.

"He will get his rights, like any Muslim. His body will be washed and treated with dignity. I expect he will be buried in a Muslim cemetery within 24 hours," he said.

Dozens of people, many with cellphone cameras, filed in to see that he was dead.

"There's something in our hearts we want to get out," said Abdullah al-Suweisi, 30, as he waited. "It is the injustice of 40 years. There is hatred inside. We want to see him."

In Tripoli, Gaddafi's death prompted a carnival-like celebration, with fireworks, a bouncy castle and candy floss for the children. "Muammar, bad," one small girl said to foreign journalists in English. "Boom boom."

"For some people from outside Libya it could look wrong that we are celebrating a death with our children," said one man with a child on his shoulders. "But it was 42 years with the devil."

RISKS OF DIVISION

Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son and heir-apparent remains at large, believed by NTC officials to have escaped from besieged Sirte and headed for a southern border.

Without the glue of hatred for Gaddafi and his tribe to unite the factions, some fear a descent into the kind of strife that bedevils Iraq after Saddam Hussein. Optimists say that so far Libya's new rulers have quarreled but not fought.

"Can an inclusive, effective national government be formed? Yes, if factions can avoid fighting," Jon Marks, chairman of Britain's Cross Border Information consultancy said.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the NTC had promised to explain how Gaddafi was killed.

"They're dealing with the death itself as well as the aftermath in as transparent a way as I think they can," he said. "They've fought bravely to liberate their country from this dictator. And, you know, he met an ignominious end yesterday."

(Additional reporting by Taha Zargoun and Tim Gaynor in Sirte, Barry Malone, Yasmine Saleh and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Brian Rohan in Benghazi, Jon Hemming and Andrew Hammond in Tunis, Samia Nakhoul in Amman, Christian Lowe in Algiers, Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo, Sami Aboudi in Dubai, Andrew Quinn in Islamabad, Paul Eckert in Washington and David Brunnstrom in Brussels; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Matthew Jones)

Gaddafi killed in hometown, Libya eyes future ...

2011-10-21T15:43:00.001+10:30

Reuters By Rania El Gamal and Tim Gaynor

<--Gaddafi captured, covered in blood

SIRTE, Libya (REUTERS Thu Oct 20, 2011. Muammar Gaddafi was killed after being captured by the Libyan fighters he once scorned as "rats," cornered and shot in the head after they overrun his last bastion of resistance in his hometown of Sirte.

His body, bloodied, half naked, Gaddafi's trademark long curls hanging limp around a rarely seen bald spot, was delivered, a prize of war, to Misrata, the city west of Sirte whose siege and months of suffering at the hands of Gaddafi's artillery and sniper made it a symbol of the rebel cause.

A quick and secret burial was due later on Friday.

"It's time to start a new Libya, a united Libya," Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril declared. "One people, one future."

A formal announcement of Libya's liberation, which will set the clock ticking on a timeline to elections, would be made on Saturday, Libyan officials said.

Two months after Western-backed rebels ended 42 years of eccentric one-man rule by capturing the capital Tripoli, his death ended a nervous hiatus for the new interim government.

U.S. President Barack Obama, in a veiled dig at the Syrian and other leaders resisting the democrats of the Arab Spring, declared "the rule of an iron fist inevitably comes to an end."

But Gaddafi's death is a setback to campaigners seeking the full truth about the 1988 bombing over Lockerbie in Scotland of Pan Am flight 103 which claimed 270 lives, mainly Americans, and for which one of Gaddafi's agents was convicted.

Jim Swire, the father of one of the Lockerbie victims, said: "There is much still to be resolved and we may now have lost an opportunity for getting nearer the truth."

"That's for Lockerbie," said the front-page headline in The Sun, Britain's best selling daily newspaper.

Confusion over Gaddafi's death was a reminder of the challenge for Libyans to now summon order out of the armed chaos that is the legacy of eight months of grinding conflict.

The killing or capture of senior aides, including possibly two sons, as an armored convoy braved NATO air strikes in a desperate bid to break out of Sirte, may ease fears of diehards regrouping elsewhere - though cellphone video, apparently of Gaddafi alive and being beaten, may inflame his sympathizers.

As news of Gaddafi's demise spread, people poured into the streets in jubilation. Joyous fighters fired their weapons in the air, shouting "Allahu Akbar."

Others wrote graffiti on the parapets of the highway outside Sirte. One said simply: "Gaddafi was captured here."

Jibril, reading what he said was a post-mortem report, said Gaddafi was hauled unresisting from a "sewage pipe." He was then shot in the arm and put in a truck which was "caught in crossfire" as it ferried the 69-year-old to hospital.

"He was hit by a bullet in the head," Jibril said, adding it was unclear which side had fired the fatal shot.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who spearheaded a Franco-British move in NATO to back the revolt against Gaddafi hailed a turn of events that few had expected so soon, since there had been little evidence that Gaddafi himself was in Sirte.

But he also alluded to fears that, without the glue of hatred for Gaddafi, the new Libya could descend, like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, into bloody factionalism: "The liberation of Sirte must signal ... the start of a process ... to establish a democratic system in which all groups in the country have their place and where fundamental freedoms are guaranteed," he said.

NATO, keen to portray the victory as that of the Libyans themselves, said it would wind down its military mission.

"KEEP HIM ALIVE"

The circumstances of the death of Gaddafi, who had vowed to go down fighting, remained obscure. Jerky video showed a man with Gaddafi's distinctive long, curly hair, bloodied and staggering under blows from armed men, apparently NTC fighters.

The brief footage showed him being hauled by his hair from the hood of a truck. To the shouts of someone saying "Keep him alive," he disappears from view and gunshots are heard.

"While he was being taken away, they beat him and then they killed him," a senior source in the NTC told Reuters before Jibril spoke of crossfire. "He might have been resisting."

Officials said Gaddafi's son Mo'tassim, also seen bleeding but alive in a video, had also died. Another son, heir-apparent Saif al-Islam, was variously reported to be surrounded, captured or killed as conflicting accounts of the day's events crackled around networks of NTC fighters rejoicing in Sirte.

In Benghazi, where in February Gaddafi disdainfully said he would hunt down the "rats" who had emulated their Tunisian and Egyptian neighbors by rising up against an unloved autocrat, thousands took to the streets, loosing off weapons and dancing under the old tricolor flag revived by Gaddafi's opponents.

Mansour el Ferjani, 49, a Benghazi bank clerk and father of five posed his 9-year-old son for a photograph holding a Kalashnikov rifle: "Don't think I will give this gun to my son," he said. "Now that the war is over we must give up our weapons and the children must go to school.

Accounts were hazy of his final hours, as befitted a man who retained an aura of mystery in the desert down the decades as he first tormented "colonial" Western powers by sponsoring militant bomb-makers from the IRA to the PLO and then embraced the likes of Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi in return for investment in Libya's extensive oil and gas fields.

There was no shortage of fighters willing to claim they saw Gaddafi, who long vowed to die in battle, cringing below ground, like Saddam eight years ago, and pleading for his life.

One description, pieced together from various sources, suggests Gaddafi tried to break out of his final redoubt at dawn in a convoy of vehicles after weeks of dogged resistance.

However, he was stopped by a French air strike and captured, possibly some hours later, after gun battles with NTC fighters who found him hiding in a drainage culvert.

NATO said its warplanes fired on a convoy near Sirte about 8:30 a.m. (2:30 a.m. ET), striking two military vehicles in the group, but could not confirm that Gaddafi had been a passenger. France later said its jets had halted the convoy.

(Additional reporting by Taha Zargoun in Sirte, Barry Malone, Yasmine Saleh and Jessica Donati in Tripoli, Brian Rohan in Benghazi, Jon Hemming in Tunis, Edmund Blair and Yasmine Saleh in Cairo, Samia Nakhoul in Amman, Christian Lowe in Algiers, Tim Castle, Peter Apps and William Maclean in London, David Brunnstrom in Brussels, Alister Bull, Jeff Mason and Laura MacInnis in Washington and Vicky Buffery in Paris; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Man-flu is real to a fifth of British women...

2011-10-21T15:37:00.000+10:30

Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) Thu Oct 20, 2011. One in five British women believe that the debilitating "man-flu" disease which temporarily leaves sufferers prostrate on the sofa watching televised sports is real, according to a new study.

The survey, which questioned 2,000 British adults about health and wellbeing, showed that misconceptions and old wives' tales, including the myth that eating carrots improves night vision, prevail among the population when it comes to beliefs about common illnesses.

"Unbelievably, there are still a lot of misconceptions around how minor illnesses and conditions are caused or prevented," study leader Mike Smith, said in a statement.

The top 10 health myths ranged from the theory that eating carrots will aid night vision to the belief that too much stress will turn your hair grey, both subscribed to by one in 10 of the population.

More than a third of people said that sugar makes children hyper, and 37 percent said they believed we lose most of our body heat through our heads -- the most popular misconception of the survey.

While the face, head and chest are more sensitive to temperature change than the rest of the body, covering one part of the body has as much effect as covering any other, researchers said.

"The Contagion study suggests that a large majority of the population are still under the illusion that they can, for example, get square eyes from watching too much television, or get better night vision from eating more carrots," Smith said.

"These are just not true, but do go to show that no matter how many millions are spent on health and education, some medical myths still prevail," he said.

When illness strikes, almost half of people agreed that men exaggerate their symptoms to get attention, with 38 percent also believing that men take longer to recover from illness than women.

Over half of respondents admitted to self-diagnosis, using the internet to research their symptoms.

"Old wives' tales are just that -- tales that should not be listened to or abided by. If the public are in any real doubt as to how to treat a condition, they should always refer to their GP (family doctor) or professional medical adviser," Smith said.

The study was specially commissioned to mark the release of Hollywood thriller "Contagion" starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

After the iPhone 4S, Android just feels wrong....!!

2011-10-19T13:37:00.001+10:30

ZDNet

Summary By James Kendrick October 18, 2011.

As a long-time happy Android phone user, it surprises me that it only took using the iPhone 4S for a few days to point out that using Android just feels wrong.

Like I usually do when new gadgets hit the tool kit, I have been using only the iPhone 4S for the past few days. I still have my Nexus S 4G Android phone running the current version of Gingerbread, but it remained on the charger while I carried the new iPhone everywhere. Last night I decided it was time to pick up the Nexus and get reacquainted with the phone that has served me well. It didn’t take me long to realize that after using the smooth, polished iPhone 4S that Android just feels wrong.

This realization hit me hard, as I found that as I used the Nexus, a phone I absolutely love, the user experience was jangling my nerves. The inconsistencies in the interface between apps and the occasional lag doing simple things like scrolling in windows just screamed at me. I hadn’t really noticed it before, but after using the iPhone these things jump out at me.

Don’t get me wrong, the Android Gingerbread interface isn’t bad, it’s just not always smooth. In just a few days with the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 I had come to expect operation to be fluid and consistent system-wide. That’s just not the case with Android, and every little interruption in smooth operation now accumulates into a feeling of frustration as I use the phone.

The biggest area of discontent is in web browsing, one of the primary things I do with a smartphone. I have long found stock Android browsers to be lacking, not in a major way but in fluid operation. That never bothered me as the strength of Android is the number of apps available, and third party browsers stepped in and served my needs just fine. Or so I thought.

After the totally flawless operation of Mobile Safari on the iPhone 4S, I realize that the browsing experience in Android just falls short. Sometimes pages stutter while loading, other times a page doesn’t load at all. Hitting the X to stop a stalled page and then refreshing the page to get the browser to load the page was something I had gotten used to doing to make it work. Now that seems like a jarring interruption to what I now know can be a fluid experience. And don’t get me started on pinching to zoom in or out on web pages and how terrible that is on Android compared to iOS.

The lack of fluid operation in Android may be due to the OS, or perhaps it is hardware related. It might be due to better apps on the iPhone, or tighter control by Apple over them. I really don’t care as a user, I want the best user experience I can get. The good one delivered by the iPhone 4S makes it clear to me how wanting the Android experience actually is. It just feels wrong.

Pastor accused of cashing dead teacher's pension checks...

2011-10-18T23:48:00.000+10:30

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) Fri Oct 14, 2011. A New York pastor has been arrested and accused of fraudulently cashing pension checks worth nearly a quarter-million dollars sent to a school teacher who died more than a decade ago, authorities said on Thursday.

Rev. Victor Rosa was accused of deceiving New York City's Teacher Retirement System into thinking that teacher Maria Sicardo was still alive and had her checks sent to a building he owns in the Bronx, investigators said.

He would cash the checks, which amounted to about $241,000, often at a local bank, investigators said. Investigators said they interviewed bank staff, who recalled Rosa often preached about God to other customers while waiting in line.

Sicardo died in April 2000 at age 75.

A report by the New York City's Department of Investigation said in the years after her death, someone sent fraudulently notarized documents to the Teacher Retirement System, purportedly signed by Sicardo, affirming that she was still alive.

In 2010, Rosa received a call from the Teacher Retirement System and told the caller that Sicardo had died three months earlier, in June 2010, in Puerto Rico, the report said.

He said he would return the checks for July, August and September, it said.

Investigators said they caught Rosa cashing the checks at a bank in the city's Bronx borough on security camera footage.

He was arrested last week in Orlando, Florida, where he now lives, and is slated to face prosecution by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen, editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Cynthia Johnston)

Artist can paint nude models only after dark...

2011-10-18T23:43:00.000+10:30

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) Fri Oct 14, 2011. An artist arrested for applying body paint to a nude model in New York's Times Square will have charges against him dropped if his models strip naked only after dark, according to a court agreement reached on Thursday.

Police arrested Andy Golub, 45, in July and charged him with violating public exposure and lewdness laws. He has been painting nude models for about three years.

Golub's lawyer, Ronald Kuby, argued that New York laws do not prohibit public nudity in the name of art, and a compromise was reached that was the basis of the court ruling.

Under the agreement, "he is permitted to paint bare breasts any time, anywhere, but the G-strings have to stay on until daylight goes out," Kuby said after a hearing in Manhattan criminal court.

State laws against public exposure exempt "any person entertaining or performing in a play, exhibition, show or entertainment," Kuby said. Municipalities are allowed to devise their own restrictions, but New York City generally does not do so, Kuby said.

Golub, of Nyack, New York, said he likes to paint nude models because their bodies have energy and dynamism that he finds lacking in canvas.

"I feel that when I do live body painting it's a good thing, a positive thing," he said.

Charges against Golub will be dropped in six months if he abides by the terms of the agreement and is not arrested again. Charges against Karla Storie, a model from Texas arrested with him, will be dismissed if she too is not arrested again in the next six months.

Golub said he was planning to return to criminal court on Friday and paint a nude model in a park near the courthouse.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jerry Norton)

Senators ditch pen and paper for iPads...

2011-10-08T13:44:00.001+10:30

Reuters By Roberta Cowan

AMSTERDAM (Reuters)- Fri Oct 7, 2011 10:01am EDT. Members of the Dutch Senate, or upper house of parliament, won't strain their backs or weigh down their bike panniers by carrying stacks of printed documents from work anymore, since they are all now expected to work on their Apple iPads.

When members of the Senate returned from the summer recess two weeks ago, they were told they had one week left of working with printed files: After that they must stop printing out documents and wasting paper, and learn how to use a new Senate app especially designed for their new iPads.

The Dutch Senate is the first in Europe to distribute digital documents through a tablet computer. Two weeks into the project the 75 senators are generally "delighted" with managing the reams of documents using their iPads, according to Secretary General of the Senate, Geert Jan Hamilton.

"We have had enormous piles of paper couriered to our houses every week, thick envelopes with planning and committee meeting documents, but now from 6 pm every Friday you just open the Senate app and find all the documents for the next week," Hamilton told Reuters on Thursday, a day after the man credited with inspiring the iPad's creation died.

Although printing the occasional document is permitted, it is expected that most of the senators will use the iPad exclusively once they are accustomed to using the tablet computer.

They can use their iPads to consult and manage information, including calendars, legislative bills, parliamentary correspondence, and meeting documents through an app developed especially for the Dutch Senate.

Creating the Senate app and buying the iPads, a plan which has been in the works for about a year, cost about 150,000 euros ($201,053) and according to Hamilton will save the Senate around 140,000 euros in printing and courier costs in the first year.

"I am very optimistic that this will reduce costs," said Hamilton, adding that after the first year, he expects the annual costs for the upkeep and occasional printing of some documents will be in the 35,000 euro range.

The iPads, considered an office tool and equipped only with various news-related approved apps, won't have any connectivity problems in the historic Dutch parliamentary buildings, since an extra 21 wifi transmitters were kitted out in the senate building in early September.

Security concerning the information stored on the app isn't a big concern, according to Hamilton who said that unlike other Dutch parliamentarians and government employees, senators normally handle documents which are already publicly available.

"I am very pleased with the reception, and many say they consider it a very well-organized way of providing all the necessary information they have to deal with as well as reducing the enormous amount of paper involved."

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs -- who inspired the Macintosh computer, iPod, iPhone and iPad -- died on Wednesday at age 56. ($1 = 0.746 Euros)

(Reporting By Roberta B. Cowan, editing by Paul Casciato).

Higher testosterone may equal lower heart risks...

2011-10-06T16:26:00.001+10:30

Reuters

Wed Oct 5, 2011 (Reuters) - Elderly men with naturally higher levels of testosterone may be less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke than those men with lower levels of the hormone, according to a study.

Findings published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology showed that of 2,400 Swedish men in their 70s and 80s, those with the highest testosterone levels were less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke over the next several years than men with the lowest levels.

But the results do not prove that testosterone itself deserves the credit, and it's too soon to recommend testosterone replacement to try to lower heart risks.

"What we can say is that elderly men with high testosterone levels are relatively protected against cardiovascular events, and therefore lower testosterone is a marker for increased cardiovascular risk," said Asa Tivesten, at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Goteborg, Sweden, who led the study.

It's known that any serious health condition can lower testosterone levels, as can obesity. But in the study, the researchers accounted for a number of health factors -- including the men's weight, blood pressure and any diagnoses of diabetes, heart disease or stroke at the outset.

Of 604 men in the bottom quarter for levels of the "male" hormone at the study's start, 21 percent had a heart attack, severe chest pain or stroke over roughly five years.

That compared with roughly 16 percent of the 606 men who started out with the highest testosterone levels.

Even accounting for health factors, men in the highest-testosterone group still showed a 30 percent lower risk of heart disease or stroke compared with the other three-quarters of the study group.

But that doesn't rule out the possibility that something other than testosterone may be at work, said JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who was not involved in the study.

"Low testosterone may be a marker of other health conditions that put men at higher risk of cardiovascular disease," she said.

Potential reasons for why higher natural testosterone levels may be good for the heart include the fact that higher testosterone generally means less body fat and more lean muscle.

What's needed, she added, is evidence from clinical trials that actually test whether testosterone replacement in older men cuts the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Those trials are ongoing and so far, she noted, the results are mixed on whether testosterone replacement improves "intermediate" outcomes like cholesterol or blood sugar levels.

No one yet knows if it affects the ultimate outcomes of cardiovascular disease and lifespan.

"There are many unanswered questions, and I don't think this means that men should be trying to boost their testosterone with testosterone replacement therapy," she said.

The experience with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) in women offers a cautionary tale.

Before 2002, many women used HRT in the hopes of warding off heart disease and osteoporosis. Then a large U.S. clinical trial found that women given pills containing estrogen and progesterone actually had higher risks of blood clots, heart attack, stroke and breast cancer than women given placebo pills.

Now HRT is largely used only for treating severe hot flashes -- and then, only at the lowest dose and for the shortest time possible.

"So there are concerns about the risks in men," Manson said.

Among those are the potential for testosterone to contribute to blood clots, liver damage or prostate cancer.

"This is a study of endogenous (natural) hormone production. It does not provide information about what is happening when hormones are given as a therapy," Tiveston said. SOURCE: bit.ly/oDvZxv

(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

Health

Drunk Dutch drivers must fit alcolocks to cars...

2011-10-06T16:13:00.000+10:30

Reuters

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Wed Oct 5, 2011. Dutch drivers caught operating a car while massively over the legal alcohol limit will be forced to fit their cars with "alcolocks" which automatically lock the engine if the driver is over the limit.

Convicted drunk drivers found in control of with blood alcohol levels over 1.3 mg/dl -- more than six times the legal limit of 0.2 mg/dl -- will be ordered to install alcolocks in their cars, the transport ministry said on Wednesday.

The new rules will come into effect on December 1, in time for the Christmas and New Year holidays.

The way the alcolock works is that the driver must first breathe into it to unlock the engine, and will have to repeat the same process at regular intervals during the journey.

If the mini-breathalyzer, which is fitted to the dashboard, indicates a blood alcohol level above the legal limit, the engine will not turn on.

The alcolocks will be installed for two years with a possible six-year extension if the driver continues to drink and drive. In the worst cases, the driver's license will be revoked, and the driver will have to wait five years before he or she can take a new test.

About 200 people die every year because of drink-driving, Dutch media reported.

The Netherlands, home to global beer brand Heineken, is famous for its beer industry, and ranks 14th among Europe's top beer consumers, lagging the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxemburg and Belgium.

Annual consumption of beer in the Netherlands is more than 1 billion liters.

Swiss speedster trapped by his own mobile phone...

2011-10-06T16:09:00.000+10:30

Reuters

GENEVA (Reuters) - Wed Oct 5, 2011. A Swiss motorist used his mobile phone to record himself driving on an autoroute near Geneva at 320 km an hour, nearly three times the speed limit, police said Wednesday.

But the offence was only uncovered six months later when the 28-year-old was questioned in another case and investigators found the images still on the phone.

Some shots were focused on the speedometer of his car, a Bentley Continental, according to a police spokesman.

Others showed the road, revealing where he was, and the phone's timer recorded the date and the time -- just before 3:30 in the morning local time last April.

Police said the driver, whom they declined to name, probably took the shots to impress his friends. His license was confiscated and he is free on bail awaiting trial.

(Reported by Robert Evans, editing by Paul Casciato)

Worrall died in jail from medical problem...

2011-09-22T14:25:00.001+09:30

<--Kathleen Worrall (left) stabbed her sister Susan.

Sydney - Thu Sep 22 2011 .A woman jailed for killing her sister after a row about a hair straightener died in her cell as a result of a medical condition, a coroner has found.

Deputy State Coroner Scott Mitchell said it would never be known whether 22-year-old Kathleen Worrall made up a story about being bashed by a prison officer after refusing his sexual advances.

He concluded on Thursday that she died of pulmonary thromboembolism with morbid obesity.

An inquest into her death heard Worrallhad long suffered from congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a genetic disorder that affects the adrenal glands.

At the time of her death she weighed 133kg, a side-effect of medications she was taking.

Worrall was found by fellow prisoners at Dillwynia Women's Correctional Centre on the morning of August 1, 2010.

Worrall was jailed on June 4 after being found guilty of stabbing her sister Susan more than 50 times with a knife.

She was serving six years for manslaughter, with a non-parole period of four years and three months.

The inquest, held at Parramatta Local Court, lasted less than two hours.

It heard her mother Maureen had reported to Corrective Services NSW that Kathleen had told her she had been bashed by a male prison officer after refusing his sexual advances.

Mrs Worrall made the complaint after receiving toxicology reports that showed bruising on her daughter's buttocks, back and lower neck.

Mr Mitchell said the truth about the allegations would never be known.

"If she did make it up, it's an indication of the degree of distress she was suffering," he said.

"If it did happen, all I can say is that police have tried and failed to clarify the matter."

Mr Mitchell said regardless, Worrall had seemed to be "happy, outgoing, loved, keen to get on with life, and as her father said, euphoric".

"That is something her parents can cling to," he said.

© AAP 2011

Windows 8: full details revealed...

2011-09-14T12:54:00.000+09:30

Tech Authority by Barry Collins in Los Angeles on Sep 14, 2011

Los Angeles, Sep 14, 2011. Traditional Windows desktop relegated, as Microsoft moves into the touchscreen era.Microsoft has revealed full details of Windows 8, with an all-or-nothing approach to touch technology, writes Barry Collins in Los Angeles.

Inside Windows 8: a visual tour

All versions of Windows 8 - whether used on a touchscreen device or not - will use the operating system's new Metro interface, which was first developed for Windows Phone 7 devices.

The familiar Windows desktop, which has been the cornerstone of the operating system since Windows 95, has been effectively demoted to an "app".

Microsoft insists that the touch-oriented interface is suitable for any device, regardless of whether it has a touchscreen or not. "We envision an OS that scales from small form-factor, keyboardless tablets, all the way up to servers," said Windows president Steven Sinofsky, at a special press preview of the new operating system.

What's more, the company believes that every device should have a touchcreen. "The UI is the same UI, whether you use a mouse, keyboard or touch," said Jensen Harris, director of program management for the Windows Experience. "Every screen needs to be touch. A monitor without touch feels dead."

New application model

The advent of Windows 8 sees Microsoft introduce a new style of application, dubbed Metro Style apps, and its own app Store. The Metro Style apps are run in full-screen mode, with no Windows taskbar or other menu items getting in the way.

"Every single pixel of your beautiful screen is for your app," said Harris. "You're just immersed in the content."

Metro Style apps have more in common with the lightweight web apps found in Google Chrome than traditional Windows software. They can be written in HTML, CSS and JavaScript, as well as the more traditional C and C++ programming languages.

Microsoft will automatically syncrhonise a user's Metro Style apps across their Windows 8 devices, and allow users to pick up an app from where they left off on another device.

The Metro Style apps will be downloadable for the Microsoft Store, which offers developers the chance to offer "free trials" of their applications to customers, automatically wiping the app from users' machines when the trial period expires. All software distributed through Microsoft's Store has to be vetted by the company first - a process that the company claims will take mere hours, not the days and weeks that developers wait for software to be approved by Apple.

Old-style desktop

There will still be a place for traditional, desktop-style applications. These will run from the Windows 7-style Desktop, which now appears as an app on the Windows 8 Start Screen. "The Desktop is just another app that you can launch when you want to," said Harris. "There are no compromises. When you want a mouse and keyboard you can have it."

Microsoft insisted it wasn't trying to phase out desktop software in favour of the Metro apps. "There's no new conspiracy here," said Steven Sinofsky, in a spiky exchange with journalists who questioned Microsoft's motives. "We don't think the Desktop is some old place that you will never want to go."

Traditional x86 software will also be sold in the Store alongside the Metro apps.

No version announcements

Microsoft hasn't announced a release date, price or even which versions of Windows 8 will be offered to consumers and businesses. Sinofsky did however suggest there will be an element of differentiation between the versions of Windows that run on traditional x86 processors and the version running on ARM-based chips.

Despite showing off versions of Microsoft Office running on ARM processors earlier this year, Sinofsky claimed the "vast library" of x86 software "is not an asset we're going to port to ARM."

New Metro Style apps coded in HTML/JavaScript will, however, run equally as well on ARM processors as x86, suggesting Microsoft views the ARM versions of Windows as a pure tablet play.

Comments in this discussion

"Not convinced either. I like the monitor at the far end of my table so I have space for my paperwork etc. Not great if I have to touch the screen regularly. Ok, I can use the traditional desktop ..." By P.Visser

Related Articles.

Windows 8 Explorer to get the ribbon treatment.

Microsoft shows Windows running on ARM.

Copyright © PC Pro, Dennis Publishing

And the most tolerant nation for sex scandals is...

2011-09-11T14:47:00.000+09:30

Reuters By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Thu Sep 8, 2011. When politician Dominique Strauss-Kahn arrived in France last week, cleared of a New York sex scandal, he returned home smiling despite facing a frosty reception. Maybe he should have gone to Mexico, instead.

Pay attention Anthony Weiner, Tiger Woods, Brett Favre and others caught up in public, sexual indiscretions.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday shows 57 percent of Mexicans would be either very likely or somewhat likely to tolerate the sexual indiscretions of stars and politicians.

They were followed by Belgians at 55 percent. In the United States, the tolerance factor was 48 percent. France, in fact, was way down the list at only 33 percent, while Japan was the least forgiving country at only 28 percent.

In total, 44 percent of some 18,700 respondents in more than 20 countries said they would likely tolerate a scandal.

The Reuters/Ipsos survey also asked if behavior exhibited in sex scandals was reflective of people's true personalities, or if fame and power led them to think they could get away with their acts.

In France, some 80 percent of respondents said fame was the root cause, while Mexico was about equally divided: 49 percent on the side of power and 51 percent on personality.

Throughout all the world, the decision was roughly split with 46 percent saying power and 54 percent citing personal characteristics. In the U.S. the percentages were 43 percent power, 57 personality.

"There is a Jekyll and Hyde issue here, and in some places the behavior is just more acceptable," said John Wright, managing director at Ipsos.

In recent months Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund and a presumed candidate for the French presidency, faced a possible trial in the United States for allegedly attempting to rape a hotel maid.

Last week, New York City prosecutors dropped charges, allowing him to return to France where he faced a mostly chilly public reception and unease among his political allies.

Former U.S. congressman Weiner, golfer Woods and football star Favre faced their own sex scandals in the last two years.

A slight majority of the respondents around the world, 51 percent, said women were just as likely as men to engage in sexual indiscretions but less apt to get caught in the act. Perhaps it's no surprise, Mexicans agreed, at 51 percent.

The full poll can be found at www.ipsos.com.

(Reporting and writing by Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Alex Dobuzinskis)

Ordinance would cover naked bottoms...

2011-09-11T14:24:00.000+09:30

Reuters By Laird Harrison

OAKLAND (Reuters) Fri Sep 9, 2011. In the San Francisco Bay area where tolerance is king, it is a rare politician willing to clamp down on citizens who let it all hang out.

San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener stepped into that position earlier this week when he introduced an ordinance that would require nudists to cover their seats in public places and wear clothes in restaurants.

Public nudity, he explains, is legal in San Francisco and in recent years a group known informally as Naked Guys have shown unbridled enthusiasm for appearing in the nude.

"I see it pretty regularly, and unfortunately there are nudists who are not doing what they should," Wiener told Reuters.

The nudists, who expose themselves most often in the city's famous gay neighborhood, the Castro District, have got Wiener and others worrying about public health.

"I'm not a health expert, but I believe sitting nude in a public place is not sanitary," he said. "Would you want to sit on a seat where someone had been sitting naked? I think most people would say, 'No.'"

Wiener, who represents the Castro neighborhood, said he hears from merchants who fear the public displays may drive away customers, hurting the business' bottom lines.

That's particularly true in restaurants. He acknowledged that he has not seen any research establishing a health risk. "But when you have your orifices exposed in an eating establishment, a lot of people don't like it," he said.

California does have legislation against indecent exposure. But the law is lenient enough that it has barely affected San Francisco's current coterie of flaunters.

Weiner's proposed ordinance will next be assigned to a committee, and Wiener expects a public hearing within months. Clothing required.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Cynthia Johnston)

Abandoned for two weeks, starving dogs eat owner...

2011-09-08T22:41:00.001+09:30

Reuters

JAKARTA Wed Sep 7, 2011.(Reuters) - Seven dogs starved of food and water for two weeks are suspected of eating their Indonesian owner after he returned to his hometown in Manado from a holiday, local media reported on Tuesday.

A neighborhood guard was curious when he saw luggage lined up at the front of Andre Lumboga's house, days after the 50-year old arrived back home. He approached the house, smelled something foul and called the police, according to a report.

"His skull was found in the kitchen, and his body was found in the front of his house," Eriyana, a local police chief in Batam, an island off Sumatra, told VIVAnews website.

Lumboga arrived home last Wednesday, but his body was just discovered on Monday.

"We suspect that the dogs were hungry, so they attacked Andre, because they had not been fed for 14 days," he said. Police also found bones of two other dogs, believed to have also been eaten by the hungry canines.

Lumboga was from northern Sulawesi island, a predominantly Christian area, where the local spicy diet is famous in Indonesia for including dogs, bats and forest rats.

(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu; Editing by Neil Chatterjee and Ed Lane)

Is chocolate good for your heart? It depends...

2011-08-30T18:26:00.002+09:30

Reuters By Ben Hirschler

PARIS (Reuters) Mon Aug 29, 2011. Chocolate may be good for the heart but cardiologists are not giving you a license to indulge.

New research presented at Europe's biggest medical meeting Monday suggested chocolate consumption might be associated with a one third reduction in the risk of developing heart disease.

Just why there should be such a link was unclear, the European Society of Cardiology congress was told.

There has been a string of scientific studies in recent years showing a potential health benefit from eating chocolate. Dark chocolate, in particular, contains compounds called flavanols thought to be good for the blood system.

In an attempt to paint a clearer picture, Oscar Franco and colleagues from the University of Cambridge pooled results from seven studies involving 100,000 people.

Five of the studies showed a beneficial link between eating chocolate and cardiovascular health, while two did not.

Overall, the findings showed the highest levels of chocolate consumption were associated with a 37 percent reduction in cardiovascular disease and a 29 percent reduction in stroke compared with the lowest levels.

Franco said there were limitations with the pooled analysis, which did not differentiate between dark and milk chocolate, and more research was needed to test whether chocolate actually caused better health outcomes or if it was due to some other confounding factor.

"Evidence does suggest chocolate might have some heart health benefits but we need to find out why that might be," said Victoria Taylor, of the British Heart Foundation, who was not involved in the research.

"If you want to reduce your heart disease risk, there are much better places to start than at the bottom of a box of chocolates."

Franco, whose findings were also published online in the British Medical Journal, said while it seemed chocolate had heart benefits, these could easily be outweighed by the unhealthy nature of much confectionery.

"The high sugar and fat content of commercially available chocolate should be considered, and initiatives to reduce it might permit an improved exposure to the beneficial effect of chocolate," the research team wrote.

Health and Lifestyle

Funeral home accused of losing woman's body...

2011-08-25T13:00:00.000+09:30

Reuters

BIRMINGHAM, Ala (Reuters) Wed Aug 24, 2011. The daughters of an Alabama woman who died in 2010 sued the funeral home on Tuesday that handled her burial, saying it lost the body and couldn't find it even after digging up several graves. .

The three daughters of Jimmie Lee Scott said in their lawsuit filed in the Circuit Court of Montgomery County that after their mother died, her body was handed over to Ross-Clayton Funeral Home Inc.

The firm oversaw an April 2010 funeral service for Scott and her casket was taken to the Oakwood Cemetery Annex in Montgomery for burial, the lawsuit states.

The daughters and others in attendance left after a graveside service, where the casket was positioned over the plot where Scott was to be interred, court papers indicate.

Later, daughter Dakota Scott went to take flowers to her mother's grave, but found the tombstone was far away from where she remembered the service being held, the lawsuit said. Nevertheless, the funeral home is said to have assured her the site was correct.

A representative of the funeral home later contacted Scott and told her the funeral home would have to move her mother's casket and body, because another family owned the plot, the lawsuit states.

But when workers dug up the grave, no casket or body was found in the plot where Jimmie Lee Scott's headstone had been placed, the court papers said.

The same day, other graves were dug up in a vain search for Jimmie Lee Scott's body, which has still not been found, the lawsuit said.

"The plaintiffs have been forced to relive some of the saddest days of their lives -- the death and burial of their mother -- whom they deeply love and for whom they desire a peaceful and certain resting place," attorneys for the three women wrote in the lawsuit.

David Ross, the head of the funeral home, declined to comment on the suit when reached by phone on Tuesday night.

The lawsuit does not say how old Jimmie Lee Scott was when she died.

Also named as a defendant in the suit were the representative from the funeral home who is said to have handled the arrangements, and Forest Hills Memorial Park LLC, a cemetery company the plaintiffs say was contacted by the funeral home to deal with the burial.

Forest Hills had "a long history of problems, some of which are similar to the complaint in this case," the lawsuit said. A representative for Forest Hills could not be reached for comment.

Jimmie Lee Scott's daughters were seeking at least $2 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Verna Gates: Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Bull semen spill causes scare, closes highway...

2011-08-25T12:56:00.000+09:30

Reuters By Tim Ghianni

NASHVILLE, Tenn (Reuters) Wed Aug 24, 2011. A spill of frozen bull semen bound for a breeder in the state of Texas triggered a scare on Tuesday that temporarily shut down a U.S. interstate highway during the morning rush hour.

The incident began when the driver of a Greyhound bus carrying the freight alerted the fire department he had lost a part of his load while negotiating the ramp on a highway near Nashville.

"We didn't know what it was, but we were told (the canisters) were non-toxic," said Maggie Lawrence, a fire department spokeswoman.

When firefighters arrived on the ramp, they saw "four small propane-sized canisters (that) began to emit a light vapor," Lawrence said.

In addition to the vapor, the canisters also let off an unpleasant odor and the ramp was closed while emergency personnel tried to determine what was in the containers.

The bus driver turned around to retrieve the canisters. Once emergency personnel learned the smoking canisters were nothing hazardous and that they simply contained frozen bull semen that had been stored on dry ice, Tennessee Department of Transportation and fire department workers cleared the ramp.

"It was no different to us than if a mattress fell off a truck," said transportation spokeswoman B.J. Doughty.

(Editing by James B. Kelleher and Greg McCune)

Sprint to land Apple's iPhone: How wireless carrier dynamics will change...

2011-08-24T19:55:00.000+09:30

ZDNet

Sprint to land Apple's iPhone: How wireless carrier dynamics will change By Larry Dignan August 23, 2011.

Summary: Sprint lands the iPhone 5 and the wireless carrier competitive dynamic changes.

Sprint will reportedly get Apple’s iPhone 5 in October and the move has wide ramifications in the wireless carrier pecking order.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sprint will begin selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October. The move will put Sprint’s line-up on equal footing with both AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Sprint, the No. 3 carrier, has performed fairly well, improved customer service and landed new customers with a value-oriented pricing approach. The problem for Sprint: AT&T and Verizon had a lock on the iPhone.

Now all of that changes and Sprint is saved. Traffic into Sprint stores will improve and it’s possible that the three wireless providers will split iPhone sales. The fallout should be interesting to watch.

Also: CNET cell phone buying guide

Here’s a quick view of what this Sprint move means.

•Verizon Wireless’ aim to improve is smartphone mix is in jeopardy. Verizon didn’t get the pop from the iPhone 4 that it expected. Meanwhile, Apple’s iPhone 5, which was thought to turbocharge Verizon’s smartphone growth, will arrive late. As a result, Verizon’s smartphone mix isn’t likely to be 50-50 at the end of the year as planned in January. Sprint entering the iPhone picture changes the equation. Will Sprint split iPhone 5 sales with AT&T and Verizon? After all, AT&T fended off Verizon with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS sales. In other words, Verizon’s iPhone utopia isn’t going to happen.

•AT&T gets more competition. AT&T weathered the Verizon storm well, but Sprint is likely to change the carrier dynamic. The wild card in this competition is whether AT&T can maintain a lock on low-priced iPhones such as the 3GS.

•Pricing plans will matter more. If the big three carriers have the iPhone, customers will choose the best pricing plans and data caps as a differentiator. Network quality will also matter. Verizon, Sprint and AT&T are likely to move prices lower to grab share. Customer service will also matter. Verizon and Sprint are top dogs on customer service.

•Sprint becomes much more viable. With the iPhone, Sprint can keep customers, land more family plans and lower churn rates. There are serious questions about Sprint’s 4G network plans going forward as the company rolls out its network vision, but the iPhone puts the carrier on much better footing

Woman, 90, beats back burglars with cane...

2011-08-23T22:15:00.000+09:30

Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) Mon Aug 22, 2011. A feisty 90-year-old German woman chased away three would-be burglars from her rural farmhouse with her cane, police said on Monday.

The retired farmer was moving around her house with the help of a walking frame and spotted the intruders -- two men and one woman.

She grabbed her cane and started beating the burglars with it. The trio fled the house in a town outside Muenster.

"It was quite courageous of her," a police spokeswoman said. "But on the other hand it was also quite dangerous. She was quite fortunate that nothing serious happened."

(Reporting by Kalina Oroschakoff, editing by Mike Collett-White)

Vampire arrest sparks discussion on pop culture...

2011-08-20T15:11:00.001+09:30

Reuters By Deborah Quinn Hensel

HOUSTON(Reuters) Thu Aug 18, 2011. The arrest of an American man who broke into a woman's house and tried to suck her blood over the weekend has sparked discussion about the impact of vampire books and movies on youth culture.

Whether pop culture played a role in the attack remains to be seen, as 19-year-old Lyle Monroe Bensley awaits a psychiatric evaluation in jail on burglary charges in Galveston, Texas.

Found growling and hissing in a parking lot and wearing only boxer shorts, the pierced and tattooed Bensley claimed he was a 500-year-old vampire who needed to "feed," Galveston Police Capt. Jeff Heyse said.

Vampires have been a focal point of literature since Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, "Dracula". But fascination, particularly among young people, has peaked in recent years with the popularity of the "Twilight" books about teenage vampires and the television series, "True Blood."

"I think the vampire is a metaphor for the outsider and the predator in all of us," said author Anne Rice, whose Vampire Chronicles series has captured the imaginations of horror fans since the 1970s.

"We're all conscious at times of being alone, of being alienated, of being a secret self that fears exposure to the judgments of others. So we feel like vampires," she told Reuters.

Bensley is now being held in the Galveston County Jail on a $40,000 bond for home burglary with intent to commit a felony.

The woman, who lived near Bensley and did not know him, escaped the attack unharmed, Heyse said.

Kevin Petroff, chief of the Galveston County District Attorney's office, told Reuters no defense attorney has been appointed to date, and if Bensley had hired a lawyer privately, no notice had been filed.

YOUTHFUL FOR ETERNITY

Dr. Thomas Garza, who teaches a course in vampire lore at the University of Texas, said young people might aspire to be like vampires because they cheat death and are able to stay beautiful, powerful, and youthful for eternity.

The modern vampire in popular culture is more attractive, suave, and fashionably dressed than the Old World Slavic vampires, adding to the resurgence of their appeal, he added.

"I would say that it is the Twilight saga in particular that has brought out the younger teen fans. In that connection, Edward is a very 'safe' vampire, a kind of 'starter vamp' for beginners, if you will," Garza said.

"He's pretty, yes, so the seduction's there, but he's more than reluctant to act on his and Bella's sexual desires. He can go out in daylight - and even 'sparkles' in the sun, giving him a completely non-threatening character. He drives a Volvo, for goodness sake."

While Bensley's Texas antics have captured international attention, the delusion of actually being a vampire has been a contributing factor in other criminal cases as well.

In 1996, a 16-year-old Kentucky youth obsessed with the role-playing game, "Vampire, the Masquerade," enlisted three other teenagers to go with him to Florida to help kill the parents of his former girlfriend.

Two years later, a San Francisco man claiming to be a 2,000-year-old vampire was arrested for slashing the necks of four homeless people, one fatally. A serial killer arrested in England in 1949 allegedly drank a cup of blood from each of his six victims.

Rice has interacted with thousands of fans of her Vampire Chronicles novels, but said such intense personal identification with vampires was "quite beyond me."

"My readers are romantics. They're into the poetry and the romance of vampires; they don't think they themselves are vampires," Rice said. "I have never personally met anyone in all these years who claimed to be a vampire."

(Edited by Karen Brooks and Cynthia Johnston)

Mother's blood test reveals baby's sex...

2011-08-16T15:02:00.000+09:30

Reuters By Frederik Joelving

NEW YORK Tue Aug 9, 2011 (Reuters Health) - Blood drawn from expectant mothers could offer parents an earlier sneak peek at their baby's sex than methods currently used in the U.S., researchers said Tuesday.

The test may be particularly valuable for families that harbor sex-linked genetic disorders like hemophilia, they add.

Because such disorders mostly strike boys, knowing that the baby is a girl could spare the mother diagnostic procedures, such as amniocentesis, that carry a small risk of miscarriage.

"It could reduce the number of invasive procedures that are being performed for specific genetic conditions," said Dr. Diana Bianchi of Tufts University School of Medicine, who worked on the new study.

But other researchers voiced concerns, saying it could be misused to terminate a pregnancy if the baby isn't of the desired sex.

"What you have to consider is the ethics of this," said Dr. Mary Rosser, an obstetrician and gynecologist at the Montefiore Medical Center in New York.

"If parents are using it to determine gender and then terminate the pregnancy based on that, that could be a problem," she told Reuters Health. "Remember, gender is not a disease."

The test looks for small pieces of the male sex chromosome in the mother's blood, which would mean she is carrying a baby boy. Some European hospitals already rely on the method, called cell-free fetal DNA, although it's not available from doctors in the U.S.

"What they are finding in England is that many women are not going on to have the invasive tests," Bianchi told Reuters Health.

In those procedures, doctors either extract a small amount of the fluid that surrounds the fetus (amniocentesis) or they take a sample of the placenta (chorionic villus sampling). Between one in 100 and one in 600 mothers miscarry as a result, according to Bianchi.

In a fresh look at the medical evidence for the blood test, she and her colleagues analyzed 57 earlier studies that included more than 6,500 pregnancies.

They found parents could trust the test 98.8 percent of the time when it said they'd have a boy, and 94.8 percent of the time when it indicated a girl.

That leaves some room for error, which could be important if parents are making medical decisions based on the results -- such as whether or not to get an invasive procedure to look for genetic disorders.

However, the current non-invasive alternative -- an ultrasound done at the end of the first trimester -- isn't always good at spotting a baby's sex, Bianchi's team reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

And the blood test is reliable as early as seven weeks into the pregnancy, whereas ultrasound is not.

Bianchi said one study had estimated the blood test costs about 255 pounds in the UK (about $413), all included. While it's available over the Internet, she said her team had only looked at hospital-based test performance.

"I don't know why it is not being incorporated in the US," she said.

Rosser, however, chalked that up to the ethical issues it raises.

"It is a great test that can be part of our armamentarium of noninvasive testing that we use," she said. "But it should only be used by families that are at risk for sex-linked diseases."

Bianchi said she owns stock in Verinata Health, a company that is developing cell-free fetal DNA tests for Down syndrome, although that company had no role in the new study.

The American College of Medical Genetics did not respond to requests for comment on the DNA tests.

SOURCE: bit.ly/4HWZ7 Journal of the American Medical Association, August 10, 2011.

(This story has been corrected in paragraph 3 to show said disorders mostly strike boys, not only strike boys)

Police arrest EFTPOS skimmers...

2011-08-16T14:20:00.003+09:30

ZDNet Australia By Luke Hopewell, ZDNet.

<--Police arrest EFTPOS skimmers

August 15th, 2011. NSW Police yesterday raided homes and arrested five men in connection with an international EFTPOS-based skimming and fraud ring.

The five men aged between 25 and 45 were arrested in Sydney as part of what the police are alleging is a high-tech, international syndicate of financial fraudsters.

Police believe that the men arrested were working for the syndicate in Australia, which also has connections to Europe and the United States.

The five men are set to face Parramatta Local Court today, charged with an array of offences including conspiracy to cheat and defraud, possessing equipment to make identification documents, dealing with identification information and possession of false or misleading documents.

Police Strike Force Wigg, set up in 2008 to investigate EFTPOS skimming in the state, also executed search warrants across Sydney yesterday and discovered a bevy of electronic fraud equipment including EFTPOS terminals, PIN underlay, laptops and mobile phones. Police also seized fake travel documents, international credit cards and a sum of cash to the tune of $10,000.

Strike Force Wigg has racked up 25 arrests for EFTPOS fraud in NSW since 2008, seizing over 50 EFTPOS terminals and approximately 18,000 fake or blank transaction cards.

While the arrests are encouraging, police continued to encourage EFTPOS users to remain vigilant when using their cards.

Commander detective superintendent Colin Dyson said today that "the NSW Police Force is committed to targeting fraud-related crime and today's operation has resulted in the significantly disruption of an alleged international syndicate".

"The public are reminded, however, of the need to be vigilant when using their credit and debit cards, and when making EFTPOS transactions," Dyson added.

Dyson said several months ago at a security conference that some European criminals regard Australia as an easy target for card fraud, due to the fact that banks haven't deployed extensive chip card integration into ATMs.

"Romanian crooks have told us Australia is the laughing stock of the world because of the technology in the banks," Dyson said.

Frustrated Woods simply can't let it go, poor guy...

2011-08-12T11:17:00.001+09:30

Reuters By Simon Evans

Tiger Woods of the U.S. wipes sand from his eyes after hitting from a sand trap on the ninth hole during the first round of the 93rd PGA Championship golf tournament at the Atlanta Athletic Club in Johns Creek, Georgia, August 11, 2011.Credit: Reuters/Matt Sullivan

JOHNS CREEK, Georgia (Reuters) Thu Aug 11, 2011 - Tiger Woods offered a tantalizing glimpse of his old self at the PGA Championship on Thursday before the erratic play that has dogged him through the past, winless, two years returned to wreck his opening round.

"I'm not down, I'm angry right now," said a dejected Woods, a four-times PGA Championship winner who found himself down at the foot of the leaderboard alongside club professionals Mike Northern and Faber Jamerson.

After five holes, on the more challenging back nine, Woods was three under par and tied for the lead before his game unravelled to leave him with his worst first round score in a major -- a seven-over-par 77.

Birdies in glorious sunshine, warm applause from the gallery and Woods in contention for a major - for an hour it felt to those watching that the 35-year-old, whose career has been derailed by personal troubles and injuries, really was back.

Now the challenge for Woods becomes simply to play well enough on Friday to survive the cut and avoid another low point in a deeply disappointing season.

Woods, who had looked tidy and in control in ideal conditions, said that his old swing problems returned as he consciously loosened up following three birdies in the first five holes.

"Every shot I hit up to that point were all mechanical thoughts, I put the club in a certain position, and I was doing that and I said, 'You know what, I'm feeling good. Let's just let it go.' And it cost me the whole round," he said.

Before his three-month absence to resolve leg injuries, Woods, who has not won a tournament since 2009, had been working on a new swing with coach Sean Foley.

MECHANICAL PROCESS

Dealing with the mechanical process andre-adjusting so many parts of a game that once seemed to come so naturally to him clearly means that the 14-times major winner can no longer just let the shots flow.

Saying he had many elements of his technique to work on before returning for his second round, Woods was clearly frustrated that he could not lift his game for a major.

"I can't say just one (thing to work on), because it's a lot of different things," he said. "What causes the ball to shape more? It's a bunch of things. So it's just unfortunately I'm not at a point that I can let it go.

"I've been in this process before: I've been through it with (coach) Butch Harmon; I've been through it with Hank (Haney); and now I've been through it with Sean.

"I just thought, this is a major, and you peak for these events. And once you get to a major championship, you just let it fly, let it go. And I did and it cost me."

The downfall began with a double-bogey on the tricky, long par-three 15th where Woods struck his tee shot into the water hazard to the right of the green.

Another double came on the 18th and then the front nine, Woods' back nine, was a long and painful series of mistakes with four bogeys, a double-bogey on the sixth and just one birdie on the fifth to ease the pain.

It was a sorry end to his round but it was even sadder to hear Woods describe how he simply cannot do what he once produced to order.

"I'm in a major championship, it's time to score, time to play and time to let it go," he said. "And it cost me the round."

(Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)

Man allegedly stole, swallowed client's ring...

2011-08-12T11:10:00.000+09:30

Reuters

CHICAGO Wed Aug 10, 2011 (Reuters) - A Chicago-area home repairman was charged with felony theft on Tuesday after he allegedly tried to hide the evidence by gulping it down, presumably without chewing first.

Prosecutors say 30-year-old Wilfredo Gonzalez was helping remodel a home in Cicero, Illinois, last Friday when he allegedly stole a diamond ring the homeowner had left in her bathroom.

When she realized the ring was missing, the homeowner had her husband confront Gonzalez, according to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office.

The repairman at first denied taking the ring. But when the confrontation turned into a struggle, prosecutors say he pulled the ring out of the place he had hidden it and swallowed it.

Police were called and took Gonzalez to a hospital, where a stomach X-ray revealed the missing ring working its way down his gastrointestinal tract.

The officers subsequently retrieved the missing ring.

Gonzalez faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

(Reporting by James Kelleher; Editing by Xavier Briand)

Germans brew more beer for first time since 2007...

2011-07-30T16:39:00.002+09:30

Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) Thu Jul 28, 2011 - Warm weather and a strong export market in the first six months of the year have helped German brewers reverse a long decline in beer production.

The total volume of beer produced in Germany in the first half rose on an annual basis for the first time in four years, up 1.0 percent to 4.946 billion liters, government data showed Thursday.

"It's definitely down to the temperature," said Juergen Hammer, an official at the Federal Statistics Agency, pointing to an unusually warm April and May that had boosted demand.

The amount of beer produced for domestic consumption in the first six months rose from the first time since the hot summer when Germany hosted the soccer World Cup in 2006, edging up by 0.2 percent.

Although the average German of legal drinking age still puts away about 120 liters of beer a year -- roughly a glass a day -- consumption has fallen in recent years as Germans turn to wine and other beverages.

However, foreigners are developing an increasing taste for German beer -- the ingredients of which have been subject to strict government regulation since the 16th century.

The volume of beer produced for export, just over a tenth of national production, grew by an annual 5.3 percent in the first six months of 2011, with a marked 13.6 percent rise in beer destined for outside the European Union.

Most German brewers are relatively small, privately owned companies, although one of the best known international brands produced in Germany, Beck's, is owned by the world's largest brewer, Belgium's Anheuser-Busch InBev.

(Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Karolina Tagaris)

Elsevier.nl - Buitenland - Moeder Franse aanklaagster had seks met Strauss-Kahn

2011-07-19T19:30:00.001+09:30

Moeder Franse aanklaagster had seks met Strauss-Kahn.

Dinsdag 19 juli 2011. De moeder van de Franse schrijfster Tristane Banon, die oud-IMF-topman Dominique Strauss-Kahn beschuldigt van poging tot verkrachting, heeft zelf seks gehad met Strauss-Kahn. Anne Mansouret zou een 'ruige' nacht hebben beleefd met de Fransman.

De moeder heeft lange tijd verzwegen dat zij seks heeft gehad met Strauss-Kahn
'Zou Dominique Strauss-Kahn, of DSK zoals hij in Frankrijk zo liefdevol wordt genoemd, werkelijk een Oudkerkje hebben gedaan in die dure New Yorkse hotelsuite? Misschien is het een beroepsafwijking, maar ik voel de achterdocht gewoon onstuitbaar omhoog komen.'

Lees de weblog van Liesbeth Wytzes: Ik geloof voorlopig niets van Strauss-Kahn-verhaal
Dat onhult het Franse tijdschrift L'Express dinsdag. Mansouret is lid van de Socialistische Partij in Frankrijk en was bevriend met Brigitte Guillemette, de ex-vrouw van 'DSK' en peetmoeder van Banon.

Verzwegen

De twee zouden een keer seks hebben gehad in het OECD-gebouw in Parijs. Strauss-Kahn is daar in 2000 gaan werken als adviseur. In 2002 zou hij hebben geprobeerd Banon te verkrachten. Er heeft maar een jaar gezeten tussen de 'ruige nacht' met Mansouret en de poging tot verkrachting van Banon.

De moeder heeft lange tijd verzwegen dat zij seks heeft gehad met Strauss-Kahn, omdat het ging om de man van haar 'beste vriendin'. Toen zij in 2002 werd gebeld door haar dochter met het nieuws dat DSK had geprobeerd haar te verkrachten, heeft zij direct contact opgenomen met Guillemette.

Excuses

Volgens l'Express heeft Guillemette haar man geconfronteerd met de beschuldiging, waarop hij zou hebben toegegeven dat hij is vreemdgegaan met Mansouret, en achter haar dochter is aangegaan.

Banon besloot, op aanraden van haar moeder, geen aangifte te doen tegen Strauss-Kahn, maar Mansouret heeft hem wel duidelijk gemaakt boos te zijn. De oud-IMF-topman heeft zijn excuses aangeboden, maar hij maakte zich geen zorgen over een eventuele aanklacht. Inmiddels heeft de schrijfster alsnog aangifte gedaan.

Er wordt steeds meer bekend over Strauss-Kahn en zijn uitspattingen. Zo onthulde het Franse tijdschrift Le Point dat DSK seks heeft gehad met drie andere vrouwen voordat hij het New Yorkse kamermeisje zou hebben geprobeerd te verkrachten. Hij wilde voor het begin van zijn campagne voor de Franse presidentsverkiezingen 'stoom afblazen' in New York.

Door Shari Deira

Can Windows 8 finally vanquish the ghosts of XP and Vista?

2011-07-16T11:50:00.000+09:30

ZDNet

16 July, 2011. If you’re a Windows watcher, circle this date on your calendar: April 10, 2012. That’s the date when mainstream support for Windows Vista officially ends. And it cannot come soon enough for Microsoft, whose public image was badly damaged by the massively unliked Vista. If the rumors about a possible Windows 8 release in April 2012 are true, it will be an almost perfect changing of the guard.

But vanquishing the ghost of Windows Vista is the easy challenge for Microsoft. Windows XP is still hanging around on stage, bumping into scenery and generally interfering with Microsoft’s careful messaging about all the cool and useful stuff it’s doing today.

I thought about that date as I watched the keynote addresses from this week’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles. Some of the people I follow on Twitter were disappointed that Microsoft didn’t divulge more details about Windows 8 or even publicly release a platform preview.

That shouldn’t have been surprising. WPC is, after all, a show for partners who are out there selling Microsoft products every day. Yes, they want to know what’s coming up, but they’re far more interested in the present. And for their (mostly business) customers, there are only two Windows choices these days: the 10-year-old XP and the still-new Windows 7. It’s almost like Vista never happened.

Consider the words of Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner, who told a packed audience, “Windows XP, Office 2003, and Internet Explorer 6 deserve a standing ovation. We love those products.” As Turner noted, those products made Microsoft and its partners a lot of money. After a pause for dramatic effect, he added, “But they’re dead.”

Oh dear. I guess that means 300 million PCs still powered by Windows XP are zombies, and we all know how hard those are to kill. Which might explain why Corporate Vice President Tami Reller was practically pleading with partners to help them migrate customers away from XP “to a modern OS.”

That’s happening, slowly. XP has lost roughly 10 percent of its share over the past year and should be below the 50% mark by the time Vista support ends next year.

But the paradox for Microsoft is that businesses—notoriously conservative and slow to adopt new technology—are most likely to embrace Windows 7 when it’s old news. When it comes to Windows, businesses like being on the last version, not the current one. When Windows 8 is released, it will instantly make Windows 7 the safe choice for businesses. Not rational, I know, but that’s how the psychology works.

More than anything else, Microsoft is looking forward to shipping Windows 8 so it can finally get back on a regular cadence with its operating system releases: the current one for consumers and early-adopter businesses, the previous one for conservative businesses and cheapskate consumers. With Vista finally out of the mix, that proposition will finally make sense again.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

.Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications

Free online shopping briefly delights customers...

2011-07-13T14:57:00.001+09:30

Reuters

SYDNEY (Reuters) Mon Jul, 2011 - New Zealand customers at an online shopping site were happily shocked when they got expensive televisions and iPods for free Monday after a computer glitch charged them only postage and handling.

News of the error by Australia-based electronics retailer Dick Smith's New Zealand website, which failed to register the main items, quickly spread through the Twitter community.

"My order just went through. 27 inch iMac. Total price: $4.95'," @Steffen_, tweeted.

A 27-inch iMac would normally cost from A$1,500-A$1800 ($1,500-$1,800).

"There was actually a website issue this morning with a pricing error on the Dick Smith New Zealand website," a company representative said, after the company was tipped off by Twitter.

The firm took the site offline for maintenance, telling customers it was "to improve your shopping experience."

But all may not be completely lost.

An Australian radio station and Twitter users were reporting late Monday that people who had bought products on the New Zealand site for free might be offered a 10 percent discount. ($1 = 0.930 Australian Dollars)

(Reporting by Erin Forster, editing by Elaine Lies)

Scantily dressed visitors must cover up to see Rikers inmates...

2011-06-24T15:00:00.001+09:30

Reuters

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Thu Jun 23, 2011. An amateur soccer player fell foul of the referee, and could incur the wrath of his mother, after failing to prove he had removed a piece of jewelry from an intimate body piercing during a match in Melbourne.

Aaron Eccleston, who turned out for Old Hill Wanderers against Swinburne University reserves, was handed a second yellow card for the offence in the first half of last Sunday's match.
"During the first half, our player was struck in the groin by the ball, and left the field to receive attention," said a statement on the club website (www.oldhillwanderers.com).

"At this point the referee became aware that he had a body piercing.

"He subsequently received two yellow cards, firstly for re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission, and secondly for privacy reasons being unable to prove that he had removed the piercing."

The latter end of the incident was captured on amateur video and posted on the Internet.

Eccleston, who describes himself on his Twitter page as a "disillusioned Mansfield Town fan, down under," was shocked at how quickly the story had spread.

"I don't think my mum's going to be particularly happy!" he tweeted.

The club accepted the yellow cards had been issued "in accordance with the laws of football" and apologized to the referee for the "negative attention that may have been generated by this unfortunate event."

The laws of football forbid players from wearing "anything that is dangerous to himself or another player (including any kind of jewelry)."

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; editing by Peter Rutherford)

Intimate piercing earns Melbourne player red card...

2011-06-24T14:57:00.000+09:30

Reuters

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Thu Jun 23, 2011. An amateur soccer player fell foul of the referee, and could incur the wrath of his mother, after failing to prove he had removed a piece of jewelry from an intimate body piercing during a match in Melbourne.

Aaron Eccleston, who turned out for Old Hill Wanderers against Swinburne University reserves, was handed a second yellow card for the offence in the first half of last Sunday's match.

"During the first half, our player was struck in the groin by the ball, and left the field to receive attention," said a statement on the club website (www.oldhillwanderers.com).

"At this point the referee became aware that he had a body piercing.

"He subsequently received two yellow cards, firstly for re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission, and secondly for privacy reasons being unable to prove that he had removed the piercing."

The latter end of the incident was captured on amateur video and posted on the Internet.

Eccleston, who describes himself on his Twitter page as a "disillusioned Mansfield Town fan, down under," was shocked at how quickly the story had spread.

"I don't think my mum's going to be particularly happy!" he tweeted.

The club accepted the yellow cards had been issued "in accordance with the laws of football" and apologized to the referee for the "negative attention that may have been generated by this unfortunate event."

The laws of football forbid players from wearing "anything that is dangerous to himself or another player (including any kind of jewelry)."

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; editing by Peter Rutherford)

Americans rated most hilarious in global poll...

2011-06-10T12:37:00.001+09:30

Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) Wed Jun 8, 2011. The Germans have been voted the world's "least funny nationality" in a global poll, which names Americans the funniest overall and the Spanish the most amusing Europeans, ahead of the Italians and French.

The social network and dating website Badoo.com asked 30,000 people across 15 countries to name both the "funniest," or best at making people laugh," and "the least funny" nationality.

Americans took the funniest prize, followed by the Spanish in second and Italians in third.

The voting for "least funny" nationality confirmed the view of American novelist Mark Twain that "a German joke is no laughing matter."

The Germans won comfortably, ahead of the Russians and Turks.

Yet, the British -- whose "The Office" and Monty Python shows have become pillars of English-language humor -- learn from the Badoo poll that they are not as funny as they think. They placed just seventh out of 15 -- behind the Brazilians, French and Mexicans.

But they ranked higher when Badoo asked the opposite question: Which nationality do you find the least funny? Here, the British ranked fourth, just after the Turks.

"I'm afraid that we don't find some of the results very funny," said Badoo's Director of Marketing Lloyd Price, who is British.

The Americans topped the poll, as the folks who brought us TV sitcoms like Friends, The Simpsons, Frasier, Seinfeld and any number of comic greats from the Marx Brothers to Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Larry David, Ben Stiller or now Tina Fey.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, editing by Patricia Reaney)

Man accused of planting spyware to photograph women...

2011-06-10T12:31:00.001+09:30

Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Thu Jun 9, 2011. A 20-year-old California man was arrested on Wednesday, accused of planting spyware on dozens of computers to secretly photograph women in a state of undress, police said.

Trevor Harwell was taken into custody at his home in Fullerton, where detectives found hundreds of thousands of the pictures on his computer, Fullerton Police Spokesman Sgt. Andrew Goodrich said.

Harwell is accused of installing the program, which gave him remote access to the user's computer and webcam, while working as a technician for a local computer repair company, Goodrich said.

"Once he had access, he would take photographs of the users, usually women. Often, the female victims were undressed or changing clothes," Goodrich said.

Harwell then allegedly stored the photos on a remote server and eventually downloaded them to his own computer.

Police say they began investigating Harwell after a Fullerton resident contacted authorities over a suspicious message on his daughter's computer.

The message mimicked a system error advising her of a problem with an "internal sensor" and advised: "If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor."

Goodrich said many users who got a similar message took their laptops into the bathroom while they showered, where Harwell allegedly photographed them undressing or naked.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb. Edited by Peter Bohan)

Customs seize 451 turtles in suitcases...

2011-06-04T12:34:00.001+09:30

Reuters

BANGKOK (Reuters) Thu Jun 2, 2011. Thai customs has found 451 turtles worth 1 million baht ($33,000) stashed in suitcases offloaded from a passenger flight from Bangladesh, the latest seizure of live creatures at Bangkok's bustling Suvarnabhumi airport.

Turtles of varying sizes worth around 2,000 baht apiece in Thai markets, and seven false gavials, a type of freshwater crocodile worth 10,000 baht each, were found on Thursday in small bags packed into cases after authorities received a tip off that a known trafficker was on his way to Thailand.

The alleged trafficker, a Bangladeshi national, did not collect the luggage and fled on arrival in Bangkok, customs officials said.

The discovery was the biggest since September last year, when 1,140 turtles were found by customs on a single day. A further 218 were seized a month later.

Thailand, which borders four countries, has seen its fair share of illegal wildlife trafficking and customs officials at Suvarnabhumi often seize reptiles and small animals in luggage.

They found a two-month old tiger cub in a bag last August, which was concealed by stuffed tiger toys and bound for Iran.

Prasong Poontaneat, director-general of Thailand's customs department, said it was likely the turtles were destined for Bangkok's Chatujak Market, a sprawling mass of 11,000 stalls and shops that has a dedicated pet section where endangered species are sometimes sold.

The market, which operates on weekends only, generates as much as 1 billion baht ($33 million) a month from some 350,000 foreign and local shoppers, according to the State Railway of Thailand, which owns the land.

Although Thailand has been at the forefront of a regional effort to combat wildlife trafficking, the country's multiple airports, sea ports and road network make it a major transit point for other destinations.

(Reporting by Sinthana Kosolpradit; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Elaine Lies)

U.S. police shoot fake alligator...

2011-06-04T12:25:00.002+09:30

Reuters

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters Life!) Fri Jun 3, 2011.Police in a suburb in the state of Missouri recently encountered one tough alligator -- or so they thought.

Officers in Independence, a Kansas City suburb, responded to a call on a Saturday evening about a large alligator lurking on the embankment of a pond, police spokesman Tom Gentry said Thursday.

An officer called a state conservation agent, who advised him to shoot the alligator because there was little that conservation officials could do at that time, Gentry said.

As instructed an officer shot the alligator, not once but twice, but both times the bullets bounced off -- because the alligator was made of cement.

The property owner told police later that he placed the ornamental gator by the pond to keep children away. But residents had little to fear.

"There are no alligators around here, we are too far north, it's too cold," said Bill Graham, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Gentry acknowledged the incident is drawing a lot of attention.

"In hindsight, it's humorous," he said. "But we have to take every call seriously."

(Writing and reporting by Kevin Murphy; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune)

Microsoft reveals Windows 8 desktop: it's blocky...

2011-06-02T21:14:00.000+09:30

News - PC Tech Authority by William Maher on Jun 2, 2011

June 2-2011. New video showing the start screen for Windows 8 reveals the next official version of Windows will look drastically different.

Designing a new OS is always a difficult balancing act, but when it's the operating system used by millions of PCs around the world then it's no wonder you can't please everyone.

With Windows Vista fading into memory, and Windows 7 apparently a financial success, Microsoft has revealed a sneak peek at the next version of the OS, which they're calling Windows 8 for now.

What the video reveals is a starkly different Start screen. The first thing you notice is the desktop of tiny icons PC users have been familiar with for decades, has been replaced by big, blocky "tiles", as Microsoft calls them.

The idea is you'll be able to see information at a glance, without having to open up your email client, or calendar.

We've already commented how this live feed approach, instead of sifting through menus or a desktop sprawling with icons, is one of the key interface differences between Android, Windows Phone 7 and iOS.

On the phone, simplifying things with big, blocky icons, and reducing the need to open separate apps makes sense. You're not sitting in front of a phone; you want to glance at it, and get back to whatever you're doing. Time will tell whether the same approach makes sense on the PC or laptop.

To what extent users are locked into the new UI isn't clear. As the video shows, the Windows desktop interface today's users are familiar with still exists in Windows 8 - load Word or Excel and the interface reverts to something resembling Windows 7. As to whether users can toggle the new Start screen and live tiles on or off, Microsoft hasn't shed any light.

What is clear is that Windows 8, which will also run on devices running ARM chips, looks like being much easier to use on tablets than it is today. Users can switch between apps by dragging apps running in the background from the side of the screen. Internet Explorer 10 looks more finger-friendly, with a new touchscreen keyboard layout designed so you can use your thumbs.

It does appear that this new look isn't just for tablets. As Jensen Harris from Microsoft says in the video, it's going to run "on laptops, it's gonna run on desktops, it's gonna run on PCs with mouse and keyboard, it's gonna run on touch slates, it's gonna run on everything. Hundreds of millions of Windows PCs, powered by this new interface and new platform."

Copyright © Australian PC & Tech Authority. All rights reserved.

Brooding men, smiling women seen as sexy?

2011-05-31T19:01:00.001+09:30

Reuters By Allan Dowd

VANCOUVER (Reuters) Thu May 26, 2011. Guys, want to look sexy and get the girl? Don't smile too much. Look brooding or show a bit of shame instead. Women, ignore that advice.

Women find happy men less sexually attractive than those with expressions that show pride or hint that they have done wrong and know it, according to Canadian researchers.

The study published online Tuesday in the American Psychological Association journal Emotion showed pictures of the opposite sex to both men and women. Participants were then asked for their initial reactions on sexual attractiveness based the expressions they saw.

"Men who smile were considered fairly unattractive by women," said Jessica Tracy, a University of British Columbia psychology professor who directed the study.

"So to the extent that men think that smiling is a good thing to do if they want to be found sexually attractive our findings suggest that's not the case," Tracy said.

The men's reaction was just the opposite.

"Women who smile are absolutely very attractive. That was by far the most attractive expression women showed," Tracy said in an interview.

The researchers admit they are not sure why men and women reacted differently to smiles. In a man, a big smile may make him appear too feminine or more desperate for sex.

The study also adds fuel to the notion that women are attracted to bad boys.

"Women are attracted to guys like James Dean, Edward the vampire. The guys who are flawed, but who know it and are tortured by it," Tracy said.

A slightly downcast expression of shame is an appeasement gesture that hints at a need for sympathy.

Men also found sexual attractiveness in women whose expressions and body language hinted at shame.

The researchers stressed they looked only at initial reactions of sexual attractiveness, and were not recommending men adopt a no-smile policy for a long-term relationship.

"When people want a long-term relationship they take much more into account than sexual attractiveness. How nice a person is, is a big thing," Tracy said.

"So we're not saying, don't be a nice guy," she said.

(Reporting Allan Dowd; editing by Rob Wilson)

Police hunt for Goldilocks...

2011-05-29T11:20:00.001+09:30

Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) Fri May 27, 2011 - British police appealed for help Friday in tracing a suspected burglar they have dubbed "Goldilocks" because he breaks into houses, eats food and then has a sleep.

Essex detectives said they were trying to trace Jesse Dobinson who is suspected of carrying out two burglaries at a house in Wickford, northeast of London, in February and March.

"On both occasions beds in the property were slept in and food eaten before items, including electrical goods, were stolen," police said in a statement.

Unlike the fairytale character, Dobinson is also wanted in connection with an assault and a knifepoint robbery.

(Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Steve Addison)

Ex-teammate admits to doping, implicates Armstrong

2011-05-22T20:03:00.001+09:30

Olympic gold medal cyclist Tyler Hamilton admits in next Sunday’s CBS news program “60 Minutes” that he took performance-enhancing drugs and accuses other top cyclists, including seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, of doing the same. By News Wires (text)

REUTERS 20 May, 2011. Tyler Hamilton, who was allowed to keep his Athens Olympics gold medal despite failing a doping test, has finally confessed to cheating and accused other top cyclists, including Lance Armstrong, of doing the same.

In an interview to be aired by “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Hamilton ended years of denials by finally admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs, but insisted he was not alone. The 40-year-old said he witnessed his former teammate Armstrong inject himself with a blood-booster during the 1999 Tour de France, which Armstrong won.

“(Armstrong) took what we all took... there was EPO (erythropoietin)... testosterone... a blood transfusion,” Hamilton said in an excerpt released by the CBS television network.

“I saw (EPO) in his refrigerator. I saw him inject it more than one time, like we all did, like I did many, many times.”

TOUR DE DOPING

Armstrong, who won the Tour de France seven times, has always denied taking banned substances but has repeatedly had to fend off accusations despite never having failed a drugs test.

His lawyer, Mark Fabiani, told Reuters on Thursday that Hamilton’s accusations about Armstrong were untrue.

“Hamilton is actively seeking to make money by writing a book and now he has completely changed the story he has always told before so that he could get himself on “60 Minutes” and increase his chances with publishers,” Fabiani said.

“But greed and a hunger for publicity cannot change the facts: Lance Armstrong is the most tested athlete in the history of sports." Armstrong reiterated Fabiani’s view on his Twitter page.

“20+ year career. 500 drug controls worldwide, in and out of competition. Never a failed test. I rest my case,” he tweeted.

Hamilton said he had decided to come clean after he was subpoenaed by a grand injury currently investigating Armstrong after another of his former teammates pointed the finger at him.

In an open letter to his friends and family published by various media, Hamilton wrote: “Last summer, I received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury. Until that moment I walked into the courtroom, I hadn’t told a soul.

“My testimony went on for six hours. For me, it was like the Hoover Dam breaking. I opened up; I told the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And I felt a sense of relief I’d never felt before.”

Olympic controversy

Floyd Landis, who won the 2006 Tour de France but was stripped of his victory after failing a dope test, made similar accusations against Armstrong when he finally confessed to cheating after spending four years and $1 million protesting his innocence.

No charges have been laid against Armstrong, who retired in February after one of the most successful and controversial careers in professional cycling.

The Texan was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996 but recovered and returned to racing, winning the Tour de France an unprecedented seven consecutive years, from 1999 to 2005.

He quit when he was at the top, but made a comeback in 2009, at 37, saying he partly missed the thrill of competition but was driven by a greater cause, to help promote cancer awareness.

Hamilton was a support rider of Armstrong’s at the U.S. Postal Service team for his first three Tour de France victories.

In 2004, Hamilton won the time-trial at the Athens Olympics and was allowed to keep his medal after testing positive for blood doping because the laboratory accidently destroyed his B-sample by deep freezing it.

The following year, Hamilton tested positive for a blood transfusion and was banned for two years.

In 2006 he was linked to the Spanish doping scandal dubbed “Operation Puerto” before testing positive for steroids three years later. He was given an eight-year ban after he said he had taken an over-the-counter treatment for depression.

Silent victims thwart cybercops...

2011-05-18T12:11:00.001+09:30

Qld Police - Security - News By: Stilgherrian.

ZDNet.com.au on May 17th, 2011. Police could pursue more online criminals if more victims reported the crimes committed against them, according to one of Australia's highest-profile investigators.

"Probably less than 1 per cent of computer crimes are reported to police," said Detective Superintendent Brian Hay, head of the Fraud and Corporate Crime Group of the Queensland Police Service.

However, businesses are reluctant to become involved. "The last thing they want is the police taking their file servers away to perform a forensic analysis, to seize and examine the logs to find the intrusions or compromises for offenders in another country that may never even be brought to justice," he said.

Hay believes this reluctance goes back to the internet's historical roots. "It commenced as a science and military tool. They didn't want the coppers involved. Then it's exploited by academic institutions. They didn't want the coppers involved either. The commercial world saw the opportunities to make money from the internet. And they too didn't want the boys and girls in blue being involved," he said. "But when the internet became a place to make money, it wasn't just the commercial environment that piqued its interest. The organised criminal world also saw opportunities. And by the way, they didn't want to talk to the coppers either."

Hay's comments came during his entertaining presentation to the AusCERT information security conference. Entitled "Mythbusters", it ridiculed the fictional police work we see on TV.

"They're immediately accessing 47 different jurisdictional databases, constructed 12 offender suspect profiles, and found out that he's just bought a packet of Cheezels at the Baltimore 7-Eleven store earlier that morning, not yet finished, they do an online access to the local Baltimore council database, retrieve the recorded files for the CCTV footage across the road from the 7-Eleven store, play them back, and from a piece of blurry footage utilise photo-enhancement software to generate clear photo blow-ups that'll run through their special facial recognition systems and then, within 2.5 seconds, their suspect's criminal mugshot appears from nowhere. Magic," he said.

Hay said it's a myth that the police know how to investigate all computer crimes, that police share information with other law enforcement agencies, and that police will hunt down overseas offenders and bring them to account. "Reality? Generally speaking, our skill levels and knowledge are behind that of the criminals ... We do lack effective and efficient sharing mechanisms commensurate with the speed of the cyber environment," he said. "Australia is a victim country, and we do not have the necessary international treaties and legal frameworks in place to facilitate many overseas prosecutions."

Other myths busted included the idea that crimes are always solved in 43 minutes plus commercials without any paperwork, that detectives can "saunter into any premises without [a] warrant", and that warrants can be obtained in seconds rather than hours.

"You know when they're really onto something because out comes the trusty pen, which is used to infect the crime scene and cross-contaminate the evidence. That pen seems to have several uses except one: taking notes," Hay said. "Complicated crime scenes can take days to process. Detectives do not handle crime scene evidence, and extensive notes are taken."

'Sperma gevonden in hotelsuite IMF-baas Strauss-Kahn'...

2011-05-17T20:14:00.000+09:30

Elsevier.nl - Buitenland

Dinsdag 17 mei 2011 10:50. 'Sperma gevonden in hotelsuite IMF-baas Strauss-Kahn'. Op de borst van IMF-leider Dominique Strauss-Kahn zijn krassen aangetroffen, waarvan wordt vermoed dat ze afkomstig zijn van het kamermeisje dat hij in New York zou hebben geprobeerd te verkrachten. Ook is er sperma in de hotelkamer gevonden.

Lees het commentaar: Seksaffaire IMF probleem voor schuldencrisis.Lees ook de weblog Vrouw van de Wereld: Ik geloof voorlopig niets van Strauss-Kahn-verhaal. Dat schrijft de Franse website Atlantico.fr, die zegt zich te baseren op verslagen van Franse diplomaten en de New Yorkse politie.

De authenticiteit van de documenten is niet bevestigd. Opgemerkt moet worden dat Atlantico wordt gezien als een pro-Sarkozy-nieuwssite. De socialist Strauss-Kahn werd tot voor kort gezien als uitdager voor het Franse presidentschap.

Naakt.

Volgens de bestanden wordt er onderzoek gedaan om te kijken of de DNA-sporen van Strauss-Kahn afkomstig zijn. De uitkomsten hiervan worden binnen vijf dagen verwacht.

In het proces-verbaal dat door de New Yorkse politie is opgesteld, zou letterlijk staan: 'Toen de vrouw de kamer binnenliep, kwam Dominique Strauss-Kahn, een 62-jarige blanke man, naakt uit de badkamer gelopen.'

Bed

Vervolgens zou hij de vrouw op het bed hebben geduwd en hebben gedwongen hem oraal te bevredigen. Het kamermeisje is een 32-jarige vrouw van Afrikaanse of Portugese afkomst en wordt in diverse media beschreven als 'zeer knap'.

Op het bovenlichaam van Strauss-Kahn zijn krassen aangetroffen. De IMF-baas, die nu vastzit in de beruchte gevangenis op Rikers Island in New York, zou hebben ingestemd met aanvullend onderzoek.

Some feline fun with hi-tech headgear...

2011-05-17T19:52:00.001+09:30

Reuters By Chiaki Kawase

TOKYO (Reuters) Mon May 16, 2011 In Japan, they're all ears for the latest in hi-tech fashion.

The stylish headgear, a set of white ears that move according to the wearer's thoughts and emotions, is called "Necomimi" -- "cat's ears" in Japanese.

With two brain-wave sensors, Necomimi can detect and interpret the emotional state of the wearer, expressing it through four distinct movements.

The eats shoot up with the wearer is nervous or focused, but flatten when the person is relaxed.

During a specific activity like a game or reading a book, in which the user may be relaxed and focused at the same time, the ears swirl around in a circular motion. When brain activity is low, they flap gently back and forth.

The science of neuro-control is being developed in labs all over the world as a way to help the disabled or victims of 'locked-in' syndrome, where a patient is awake but unable to move or communicate, but Necomimi's creators at a firm called Neuroscience wanted something for all to enjoy.

The cat theme required some tinkering, though.

"For example, when cats are frightened or want to scare away an enemy, they flatten their ears. But with Necomimi, flat ears mean a relaxed state of mind," said Kana Nakano at Neurowave, one of Necomimi's creators.

"We have changed the meaning to suit human perceptions. To humans, it's kind of cute when cat ears are flat. So the most difficult bit was to fine tune cat ear movements."

In Switzerland, scientists are adapting neurowave technology for wheelchair users, while in Germany, it's being tested as a means for operating a car.

While the cat ears may seem like a trivial approach, the developers say the technology could be adapted as a communication tool for those who may be reclusive or shy around strangers.

For now, however, Necomimi is aimed at the curious and the fashion-conscious.

"I find it amusing that cat ears were moving in conjunction with my feelings," said Misa Tokuizumi, a dentist.

Neurowave says it plans to launch the Necomimi internationally later this year at a price of several hundred dollars per unit.

(Reporting by Reuters Television, editing by Elaine Lies)

MS hints at Skype's future, stresses cross-platform support - VoIP, telephony, Telecommunication, Skype, Phones, Microsoft, consumer electronics...

2011-05-12T20:01:00.000+09:30

MS hints at Skype's future Computerworld

11 May, 2011 Microsoft's Skype acquisition will result in voice and video calling blended into lots of existing Microsoft products, but the company also stressed that it'll keep building Skype across other platforms.

Skype will be blended into lots of Microsoft products, but MS stressed it'll keep building Skype across other platforms

"Our vision is that products and services that Skype users know and love today will simply grow and be enhanced," Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said at a press conference Tuesday. "Part of that commitment is to continue investing and supporting Skype on non-Microsoft client platforms."

Skype chief executive Tony Bates said cross-platform support was "absolutely critical," and a fundamental part of the deal.

[ Get the latest IT news on the Australian government and businesses in Computerworld's Business & Government newsletter ]

Microsoft announced this morning that it will buy Skype for $8.5 billion in cash. At the press conference, Ballmer said the companies finalized that figure on April 18, and signed the deal Monday night.

For now, Microsoft isn't explaining its plans for Skype in detail. The product roadmap will come later, pending regulatory approval. But that didn't stop the companies from dropping hints, saying Skype will make its way to Kinect for Xbox 360, Windows phones, Outlook and the Lync communications client for businesses. It seems that Microsoft is keen on using Skype to have all of its services communicate through a single voice and video service.

"We want to stitch together the world, and we have big customer bases that we can connect in a way that will add value to, I think, all members of the community," Ballmer said.

Less clear is how Microsoft will approach wireless carriers, which have treated Skype with caution. Skype for Android, which launched for all carriers in October, didn't support 3G voice calls until last month. The iPhone version of Skype went through similar growing pains. "I've certainly already heard back this morning from some of our operator partners who've been enthusiastic, and I'm sure we'll have some work to do to also communicate clearly, to continue to support the broad set of operator partners," Ballmer said.

Bates also said that Skype is "just scratching the surface" with advertisements as a new revenue stream. Skype launched advertisements in March, and Bates talked of a "rich media" approach to ads in Skype software.

Bates has high hopes for Skype under Microsoft. "We think this (acquisition) allows us to extend from hundreds of millions to literally billions. We believe that this is a platform and a set of services that can reach everyone on the planet."

Follow Jared on Facebook and Twitter for even more tech news and commentary.

Should your home broadband connection be IPv6 ready right now? ...

2011-05-06T15:31:00.001+09:30

Tech Authority by Alex Kidman

May 6, 2011 -- Some ISPs are beginning to plug IPv6 home routers, but should you be concerned about it? Here's the situation for home routers and networking equipment in a nutshell.

In recent weeks there’s been more than the usual amount of noise surrounding IPv6; just yesterday Internode announced it was selling a couple of IPv6 ready routers and iiNet’s made the same claim of its upcoming Bob2 router. If you’re still a little hazy on IPv6, this rather dry YouTube video does a good job covering the basics.

With the pool of IPv4 addresses being technically exhausted, as a consumer should you be worrying about IPv6 right now, rushing out to upgrade routers, PCs and modems?

The short answer is no, not quite yet unless you fancy playing on the cutting edge. Of the major Australian ISPs, only Internode has a customer-facing IPv6 service up and running, and even that’s a trial with a limited feature set. It’s currently entirely an opt-in service, not something that Internode customers are being pushed into. Internode’s current modem offerings are all IPv6 compatible, so new customers (in theory) shouldn’t even notice the difference.

iiNet has recently indicated via its blog (http://blog.iinet.net.au/ipv4-shortage-sensational-sounds/) that a selection of its customer base may be invited to IPv6 trials in the coming months; other ISPs are considerably more coy on their IPv6 implementation plans.

Billion's 7800NL: IPv6 compatible

Even when IPv6 rollouts start across more ISPs, the other factor to keep in mind is that while there’s a number of new IPv6 compatible routers on the market right now, some older models may be firmware upgradeable to work with IPv6. That won’t cover every box (and some models “promised” future IPv6 compatibility may not get those upgrades), but it’s well worth checking with your hardware provider to see if there’s an IPv6 upgrade available or imminent. If your modem is capable of taking the OpenWRT firmware, there’s the possibility to enable IPv6 there as well.

Ultimately, your ISP should advise as to the time and need for IPv6 within the user base - that’s you - and the equipment and/or software modifications required. It’s more likely that we’ll see IPv4 in the Australian marketplace for the next couple of years - realistically the lifespan of most of today’s current consumer networking equipment - in any case.

"Windows XP SP2 and SP3, Windows Vista and Windows 7 all have TCP/IP v6 protocol stack drivers but they have to be installed manually in the network connection properties. Therefore, most users ..." Wanted: skilled ADSL users for upcoming Internode IPv6 broadband trial.

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Copyright © Australian PC & Tech Authority. All rights reserved

German mayor rescues man trapped in women's prison...

2011-05-05T14:48:00.001+09:30

Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) Wed May 4, 2011. - A mayor in Germany helped rescue a man who became trapped in a women's prison after mistaking it for a shortcut to a nearby park, police in the northern city of Hildesheim said on Wednesday.

Hildesheim Mayor Henning Blum heard the man's cries for help while passing by the prison near the city center and notified police who came and freed the 24-year-old.

The man told police he was strolling through town and did not immediately notice he had walked into a prison. By the time it dawned on him where he was, the gate to the jail had already closed, locking him inside.

Police said they are investigating why the prison gate was open, enabling the man to wander in.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Paul Casciato)

Westpac datacentre crashes ATMs online ...

2011-05-05T13:44:00.001+09:30

Westpac Business - News By Luke Hopewell, ZDNet.com.au

<--Westpac ATM tells users it's "closed".

ZDNet May 5th, 2011.Westpac has blamed the outage on an air-conditioning problem in Westpac's datacentre, according to Westpac spokesperson Jane Counsel.

"I can confirm and assure customers that this is something we're working on as an absolute priority," Counsel told ABC Radio this morning.

Counsel said that St George services had also been affected, but added that she wasn't aware of the full impact.

Hundreds of angry customers took to the social-networking service to protest.

"Yesterday #Westpac [announced] a $3.17bn profit. Today I can't even get $30 out of tier ATMs," said one user.

"If I cannot get my pay this week #Westpac will be on the wrong end of a #ClassActionSuit. Sorry for the inconvenience," remarked another, re-enforcing analyst views that customers will start voting with their feet when it comes to technology glitches.

The bank's outage has also affected CityRail payment services in NSW, with customers forced to pay with cash due to the crash.

Westpac's telephone banking is still operational.

Josh Taylor also contributed to this article.

Women march in Syria to demand jailed men be freed...

2011-05-04T09:51:00.002+09:30

Reuters

<--Women demonstrate on the Baida coastal highway April 13, 2011. By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) Wed Apr 13, 2011 - Hundreds of women from a Syrian town that has witnessed mass arrests of its men marched along Syria's main coastal highway on Wednesday to demand their release, human rights activists said.

Security forces, including secret police, stormed Baida on Tuesday, going into houses and arresting men aged up to 60, the activists said, after townsfolk joined unprecedented protests challenging the 11-year rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

The women from Baida were marching on the main highway leading to Turkey chanting slogans to demand the release of some 350 men, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"The women of Baida are on the highway. They want their men back," the organization said, adding that women also marched in support in the nearby Mediterranean city of Banias.

In Syria's northern city Aleppo, around 150 students marched in a protest demanding political freedoms on the campus of the main university, human rights defenders in contact with students said.

Baath Party irregulars quickly dispersed the students who chanted "We sacrifice our blood and our soul for you Deraa," in solidarity with the southern city where demonstrations against the Baath Party's iron rule started three-and a-half weeks ago.

With heavy secret police presence, preachers on the state payroll giving pro-Assad sermons and the Sunni merchant class staying on the sidelines, major protests have not spread to Damascus proper or to Aleppo, denying protesters the critical mass seen in the uprisings which swept Tunisia and Egypt.

"FORCED CHANTS"

A human rights lawyer earlier said security forces had arrested 200 residents in Baida, killing two people.

"They brought in a television crew and forced the men they arrested to shout 'We sacrifice our blood and our soul for you, Bashar' while filming them," the lawyer, who was in contact with residents of the town, told Reuters.

"Syria is the Arab police state par excellence. But the regime still watches international reaction, and as soon as it senses that it has weakened, it turns more bloody," said the lawyer, who did not want to be further identified.

Assad, who tried to position Syria as self-declared champion of "resistance" to Israel while seeking peace with the Jewish state and accepting offers for rehabilitation in the West, has responded to the protests with a blend of force and vague promises of reform.

A new cabinet will be announced on Thursday, a semi-official newspaper said, to replace the government which resigned last month.

Opposition leaders said any genuine move to lift severe restrictions on freedoms would require an effective executive branch and independent judiciary to replace a powerless government structure dominated by the Baath Party.

The Damascus Declaration, Syria's main rights group, said the death toll from the pro-democracy protests had reached 200.

Authorities have described the protests as part of a foreign conspiracy to sow sectarian strife, blaming unspecified armed groups and "infiltrators" for the violence, and denying a report by Human Rights Watch that security forces have prevented ambulances and medical supplies from reaching besieged areas.

"FANTASY SCENARIOS"

Montaha al-Atrash, board member of the Syrian human rights group Sawasieh, said the authorities "dream up more fantasy armed gang scenarios as soon as another region rises up to demand freedom and democracy."

"Shame on them. They are doing a disservice to their own president. Why do infiltrators and armed groups disappear when the authorities organize a 'popular' pro-Assad demonstrations?" Atrash said.

"As soon as an area like Baida stands up, they attack it and put out the usual film reel of members of the security forces who died defending stability and order," Atrash said.

Activists said Baida was targeted because its residents participated in a demonstration in Banias last week in which protesters shouted: "The people want the overthrow of the regime" -- the rallying cry of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions where the leaders were toppled.

One activist said some residents of Baida had weapons and it appeared that an armed confrontation had erupted.

But Sheikh Anas Airout, an imam in nearby Banias, said Baida residents were largely unarmed and that they were paying the price for their non-violent quest for freedom.

Irregular Assad loyalists, known as "al-shabbiha," killed four people in Banias on Sunday, a human rights defender in the city said, raising tensions in the mostly Sunni Muslim country ruled by minority Alawites, an offshoot sect of Shi'ite Islam.

The official state news agency said churches in Syria would oversee an austere Easter to honor the "martyrs" and "in an expression of national unity."

Not all young Australian men want more sex? | Reuters

2011-05-04T09:36:00.000+09:30

Reuters

SYDNEY (Reuters) Mon May 2, 2011 - Unbelievable as it may sound, not all young men want more sex. According to a survey of Australian men, 12 percent between the ages of 16 and 24 said they wanted less sex -- the highest proportion of any age group.

"Although it's a minority, it's still interesting that it's more of them (than any other age group), which is not that sort of myth, boys not getting enough sex and dying to get it," Juliet Richters, Associate Professor in Sexual Health, University of New South Wales, told Reuters.

Richters and a team of researchers from around Australia surveyed some 4,300 heterosexual men and 4,400 women between the ages of 16 and 64.

She said another survey five years ago showed similar results.

Only 31 percent of men in that age group said they wanted more sex, the lowest of any other age group as well.

"It may well be that they are being overwhelmed by girls of much the same age who are madly in love and very keen," she said.

"It also takes men of that age about a year or longer to commit to a relationship."

More predictably, the survey found that 57 percent of men between 35 and 44 wanted more sex compared with only 28 percent of women, while 14 percent of women said they wanted less.

Half of men aged 55 to 64 wanted more sex, while only 27 percent of women in the same age group felt the same.

"The evolutionary explanation is women are only keen on sex when they can conceive. A social explanation is a whole lot of stuff, including time, pressure, tiredness," Richter said.

"I mean, sex is a leisure activity after all."

(Reporting by Pauline Askin; editing by Elaine Lies)

TomTom GPS data used for speed traps...

2011-04-28T16:57:00.001+09:30

Security - News By Darren Pauli, ZDNet, April 28, 2011.

ZDNet.com.au April 28th, 2011. GPS manufacturer TomTom has apologised for sending its customers' user data to Dutch Police, which had used the information to set speed traps.

TomTom said that it was looking to shore-up failing demand for GPS units with services revenue, including selling data on its customer's driving habits to governments.

But its chief executive officer Harold Goddijn said he had no knowledge that Dutch police were using the data to set radar traps.

"We are now aware that the police have used traffic information that you have helped to create to place speed cameras at dangerous locations where the average speed is higher than the legally allowed speed limit," Goddijn said in a statement. "We are aware a lot of our customers do not like the idea and we will look at if we should allow this type of usage."

In the message to customers, Goddijn said, however, that the "vast majority" of users had granted the company permission to collect data that is used to help create traffic information. "We also make this information available to local governments and authorities. It helps them to better understand where congestion takes place, where to build new roads and how to make roads safer."

The company also said the data is anonymous and "can never" be traced to a device.

TomTom Australia has been contacted about whether the company also sells such services to Australian authorities, but the company had not responded at the time of writing.

Thousands to be stuck in NBN 'limbo' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

2011-04-27T08:32:00.002+09:30

By Geoff Thompson, ABC Online Investigative Unit

<--Tue Apr 26, 2011. Telstra's copper network will be replaced by NBN Co's fibre-optic cables. (AFP: David Hancock, file photo)

NBN rollout may lead to worse internet for some (AM) Related Story: ......

Government gets NBN bills through Parliament Thousands of Australians - many of them in regional areas - can expect years of worse, rather than better, internet services as the National Broadband Network (NBN) rolls out across the country.

A senior telecommunications industry executive, who does not wish to be named, says he expects "tens of thousands of Australians" to fall into a "limbo" of "interim solutions" each year as Telstra's copper network is replaced with optic fibre.

This is because Telstra is proving reluctant to install copper networks in smaller new housing estates where the company retains a universal service obligation (USO) to provide only basic telephone services.

Instead of installing copper in housing estates of fewer than 100 houses, Telstra is often providing residents with wireless phones that are unable to connect to the internet.

Telstra says only 200 such phones have so far been issued to premises around Australia, but telecommunications industry insiders say that number could increase to include tens of thousands of customers each year as more small new estates are developed in regional areas.

Since January 1 the government monopoly building the NBN, NBN Co, has become the "provider of last resort" of optic-fibre cable networks to all new housing developments of more than 100 premises.

This means that once developers dig the "pit and pipe" - the trenches and infrastructure for telecommunications systems - they can either employ contractors to lay optic fibre which is NBN-ready, or ask NBN Co to the lay optic-fibre cables.

NBN Co says it plans to connect 250,000 such new premises by June 2013.

However, in estates of fewer than 100 houses, Telstra retains the USO to provide basic telephone services.

In newly developed suburban and regional areas, where copper networks are not already prevalent, Telstra is proving reluctant to install copper, knowing it will eventually be ripped out and replaced by NBN Co's optic fibre.

On hold

Alec Downs moved into a new house in Berwick in suburban Melbourne last December. Telstra told him it was not laying any more copper, but to meet its universal service obligation, it gave him an interim wireless phone that cannot deliver internet.

Instead he has had to buy a wireless 'dongle' with very patchy reception, with no hope of a landline internet connection in the near future.

"Telstra told me that I can't get a copper connection so I have to stay on the interim phone until the National Broadband Network comes through," Mr Downs told the ABC News Online Investigative Unit.

"The NBN is set to roll out over a number of years, so I could be in this situation for two years or five years or more.

"I'm in the middle of suburban Melbourne and I was hoping to have full normal internet connections and do all the things people do, but I found myself in a kind of black spot with very limited access."

Mr Downs says his access to the internet is getting worse rather than better as he waits for the NBN roll out in his area.

"Oh, most definitely ... I've gone from a phone connection with ADSL to having just a wireless phone and unable to access internet in the same way."

In response to enquiries on this issue, the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has told the ABC: "Telstra is responsible as provider of last resort for infrastructure and services in new infill estates of fewer than 100 houses, pending NBN Co being ready to provide a fibre service in the area.

"Telstra will generally provide copper infrastructure. However, it can choose to provide fibre, and in some limited circumstances, for example because of the short timeframe between construction and the rollout of fibre, Telstra may provide high-quality wireless services as an interim solution."

The department says it expects only a small percentage of the 1.9 million new premises expected to be built over the period of the NBN roll-out to be in smaller new estates in which interim solutions are necessary.

The Urban Development Institute of Australia's chief executive, Stephen Albin, says he expects developers will increasingly work together to ensure new projects have more than 100 premises and will therefore be eligible for fibre-optic installation by NBN Co.

"There's more likelihood of having developments of less than 100 in regional areas than you actually have in the major capital cities, so the incidence of some of these issues may be felt more in regional areas", Mr Albin said.

"You could also find that NBN does something to fix this up, but from what we can see at the moment, it's the lots under 100 that will be in the most difficulty."

Temporary fix

Telstra spokesman Craig Middleton says the wireless service is an interim measure.

"It's a temporary measure to ensure customers in this situation have access to a phone service while the necessary works are completed to provide a permanent service," he said.

"Telstra may provide high-quality wireless services as an interim solution. However, our preference is to deploy fixed infrastructure in new estates wherever it is feasible to do so."

The problem is that it is up to Telstra's discretion to decide whether fixed infrastructure in new estates is feasible.

With Telstra's copper network being replaced by NBN Co's fibre-optic cables, the company has little commercial incentive to install new copper networks in remote new estates far from existing infrastructure.

The experience of 'Dave', who lives near Canningvale in Western Australia and asked that the ABC not use his real name, suggests Telstra is reluctant to lay copper unless it comes under political pressure.

"When I contacted (Telstra) they basically told me that sorry, we don't have any copper line going through your new estate and there are no plans for Telstra to invest in any copper," he said.

"That's because NBN has got plans to put fibre through all this area.

"I contacted NBN; NBN told me that it's going to take anywhere between six and eight years and they told me that it's not actually even planned in the initial phases, so it could be anything between six and eight years."

'Dave' says Telstra's attitude slowly changed when he enlisted the help of his local MP and contacted the office of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy.

Eventually Telstra rolled out copper to all the new premises in his housing estate.

"It was not just me ... I was just facing the issue first because I was the first person to move into the new release. There were about 100 houses that were going to be in the same boat a little bit later on," he said.

Julia Gillard's Government secured power after last year's election with the support of key independents Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, reportedly based on their belief that the NBN would close the digital divide between urban and regional Australia.

But for many regional Australians who will be forced into "interim solutions", access to quality internet services may actually get worse before it gets better.

Additional reporting by Tom Hancock

Stents: How new technology drives health costs...

2011-04-27T08:29:00.000+09:30

Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) Mon Apr 25, 2011 - Heart devices known as drug-eluting stents have added as much as $1.57 billion to U.S. health costs since their introduction in 2003, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

The study offers an illustration of how new technology can drive health costs, the researchers said in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Stents, made by companies such as Boston Scientific, Abbott Laboratories, Medtronic Inc and Johnson & Johnson, are wire-mesh coils used to prop open arteries narrowed by fatty deposits called plaque.

Many models release drugs over time that help prevent scar tissue from building up and blocking the artery.

When they were first introduced to the U.S. market, they were approved mostly for use in previously untreated blood vessels, but their use quickly expanded.

Now, according to some estimates, more than half of all drug-eluting stents are used in so-called off-label indications -- uses beyond the scope of their original approval.

Dr. Peter Groeneveld of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and colleagues wanted to see what kind of impact the introduction of a new medical technology such as drug-eluting stents could have on health spending.

They studied data from more than 2,000 people covered by the federal Medicare insurance program for the elderly between 2002 and 2006. The team looked at both direct procedure costs and indirect costs associated with the treatment.

They found that drug-eluting stents may have added $1.57 billion in annual Medicare expenditures.

Dr. Rita Redberg, editor of the journal, called the increase "staggering."

"It is time to clearly define what the value of this extraordinary investment has been in terms of patient benefits and study the harms and determine if we are getting good value for this outlay," she wrote.

Several studies have shown that adding the drug coating to stents helps reduce the need for repeat procedures that were common with earlier, bare metal stents.

The study did not account for increased drug costs, which may have added to the overall increase. Sanofi-Aventis' anti-clotting drug clopidogrel or Plavix is typically prescribed after a stent is implanted to keep patients from developing blood clots.

"This analysis contributes to understanding the cost-increasing effects of technology because the cost effects of drug-eluting stents were measured beyond the price of the new technology itself," the researchers wrote.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen in Chicago; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Elsevier.nl - Nederland - Man schiet Turks vriendje van kleindochter dood

2011-04-26T20:47:00.000+09:30

Elsevier.nl - Netherlands

Dinsdag 26 april 2011 07:21 Een 65-jarige man heeft maandag de 24-jarige vriend van zijn 20-jarige kleindochter doodgeschoten in Den Haag. De man, zijn vrouw en de vader van het meisje zijn gearresteerd.

Een man werd maandagochtend in Den Haag doodgeschoten. Dat meldt De Telegraaf.

Waarschijnlijk kon de familie het niet verkroppen dat het meisje Gusta een relatie had met de Turkse Atilla.

Bedreiging

Volgens De Telegraaf heeft het slachtoffer de opa van zijn vriendin, autohandelaar Henk W., eerder bedreigd en stenen door zijn ruit gegooid. Gusta moest van haar familie kiezen tussen hen en haar vriend. Ze koos haar vriendje.

Toen Atilla maandag rond zes uur ’s morgens na het uitgaan nog langsging bij zijn schoonfamilie, werd hij doodgeschoten. De 64-jarige vrouw van W. heeft de politie gealarmeerd, maar reanimatie mocht niet meer baten. W. en zijn vrouw werden net als de 45-jarige Karel, vader van Gusta, aangehouden. De schietpartij had plaats op het Stuyvesantplein in Den Haag. By Marlou Visser

Kyrgyz MPs sacrifice rams to banish evil spirits...

2011-04-26T12:16:00.001+09:30

Reuters By Olga Dzyubenko

BISHKEK (Reuters) Thu Apr 21, 2011 - Members of Kyrgyzstan's divided parliament slaughtered seven rams before their morning session on Thursday, in a sacrifice they hope will banish "evil spirits" disrupting their work.

Kyrgyzstan elected a new legislature in October in a bid to build the first parliamentary democracy in former Soviet Central Asia, a region otherwise run by authoritarian presidents.

But the fragile governing coalition has come under threat after weeks of bitter recriminations and disputes in parliament, leading a senior government member to resign temporarily.

Kyrgyzstan, which lies on a drug trafficking route out of Afghanistan and hosts both Russian and U.S. military air bases, saw its president toppled by a violent revolt last April. More than 400 people were killed in ethnic riots in June.

"We decided to resort to popular customs, in order for this building not to see bloodshed anymore," member of parliament Myktybek Abdyldayev told Reuters after the rams were sacrificed on a green lawn in front of the government headquarters.

Besides hosting the legislature, the Soviet-era white-marble building in the center of the Kyrgyz capital is the official seat of the president and government. Two presidents fled this building to escape violent popular uprisings in 2005 and 2010.

"We acted like those who light candles or fumigate their homes in order to banish an evil spirit from their conscience," Abdyldayev said.

The ritual of making a sacrifice is widespread in the impoverished, predominantly Muslim nation of 5.4 million. It is practiced mainly during funeral repasts and at solemn ceremonies of reconciliation.

"This is a popular ancient tradition, carried out in order to avoid a repeat of last year's tragic events and for peace and harmony to triumph," said parliamentarian Kurmanbek Osmonov.

But Ondorush Toktonasyrov, one of those who led last year's protests that toppled President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, scoffed at the ritual as "a sign of backward mentality."

"Deputies have no idea about parliamentary culture," he told Reuters. "This is an official building where the president works, and the parliament slaughters rams!"

(Reporting by Olga Dzyubenko; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov, editing by Paul Casciato)

Top executive demoted after booze binge...

2011-04-26T11:53:00.001+09:30

Reuters

Wine is poured into a glass at the Chateau Malartic Lagraviere in Leognan, southwestern France, during the start of a week of wine tasting at the chateaux in the Bordeaux region April 4, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Regis Duvignau

BEIJING (Reuters) Mon Apr 25, 2011 - Chinese oil refining giant Sinopec has demoted a top executive who bought 1.6 million yuan ($245,900) of wine and spirits after details of the purchase leaked onto the Internet and sparked an uproar over extravagance at the state-owned firm.

Sinopec, which is Asia's top refiner, said Monday that it had demoted Lu Guangyu, who was general manager at the company's operations in the southern province of Guangdong, for "seriously harming Sinopec's image."

The company also fined Lu an unspecified sum and ordered him to pay back 130,000 yuan for alcohol he and his associates had already drunk, it said in a statement on its website (www.sinopecgroup.com).

His purchases included 480 bottles of Moutai, an expensive Chinese liquor traditionally drunk at state banquets, Sinopec said, adding it had re-sold bottles which had not already been drunk.

Some of the bottles cost almost 12,000 yuan each -- far more than the average Chinese earns in a month.

State media and China's spirited internet users said the purchase of the alcohol, which was meant for internal company use, was especially galling considering how much gasoline and diesel prices had risen recently.

Many Chinese are also struggling to make ends meet as inflation climbs. Consumer prices rose 5.4 percent in the year to March.

Sinopec Corp is the company's listed arm. ($1 = 6.507 Chinese Yuan)

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Zhou Xin; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Investor blows fuse at arms boss's weaker sex jibe...

2011-04-22T18:47:00.001+09:30

Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) Thu Apr 21, 2011 - The chairman of French defense company Safran hailed the arrival of the "weaker sex" on the company's board Thursday -- triggering accusations of sexism from France's best-known shareholder activist.

Francis Mer, 71, chairman of the state-controlled firm whose engines power French nuclear missiles and the Rafale warplane, dropped the bombshell at a shareholder meeting which agreed to modernize the company's governance rules.

"It will not have escaped your attention that ... we will be in a situation where the so-called weaker sex will be making a deafening entry into our board," Mer told shareholders.

The changes, creating a normal board out of a complex structure inherited from a merger in 2004, will increase the number of female board members from one to five, a figure Mer described as "close to the record."

"Breaking records ... in this area is easier and less dangerous than in aviation or safety matters," he said.

Mer, 71, is a blunt-spoken former steelmaking CEO and finance minister best known for his blustery approach to full-time politicians and the press. His comments drew immediate flak from a staunch campaigner for investor rights in France.

"I completely reject these terms, the mere use of which says a lot about attitudes to women," Colette Neuville, president of the ADAM association of minority shareholders, told Reuters.

"Coming from the head of a company which insists on equality, they are completely unacceptable," she added.

France has long been criticized for lagging its neighbors in the number of women reaching the top of major business. Its parliament voted last year to order many companies to have 40 percent of board posts occupied by women within six years.

"You can be for or against quotas - personally I am against them -- but it is regrettable that this should be turned into a joke, and one in very poor taste," Neuveille said.

Safran declined to comment.

Mer was recruited from a steel firm to be France's finance minister between 2002 and 2004, but got off on the wrong foot by calling his cabinet colleagues "you politicians," a gaffe he later made the title of a book.

He is expected to be named vice-chairman under a new Safran board to be led by chief executive Jean-Paul Herteman.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher, Cyril Altmeyer; Editing by Christian Plumb)

Apple crushes forecasts again, iPad backlogged...

2011-04-21T20:52:00.002+09:30

Reuters

A staff member holds the new Apple iPad2 at the Apple store in London March 25, 2011.Credit: Reuters/Luke MacGregor

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) Wed Apr 20, 2011- Apple Inc's results smashed Wall Street's expectations after iPhone and Mac sales scaled new heights while iPad supplies could not keep up with roaring global demand.

Shares of the world's most valuable technology corporation rose 3 percent after it said a record 18.65 million units of the category-defining iPhone -- its flagship product -- moved in the March quarter, outpacing the 16 million or so expected.

Apple sold just 4.69 million iPads -- which command an 80 percent share of a burgeoning tablet market in which Motorola Inc and Samsung Electronics also compete -- but investors argued that would not detract from strong long-term demand.

But investors largely ignored the lower-than-expected sales for iPads during the quarter as company executives said they were scrambling to meet "staggering" demand and were heavily backlogged for now.

"I'm not going to predict when supply and demand will come into balance," Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said. "I can only be confident on supply side."

Apple's iPad 2 dominated the nascent market for tablets with competing products like Research In Motion's PlayBook receiving poor reviews from customers and experts.

The stellar results on Wednesday came as concern is growing over how component supply constraints after Japan's earthquake and tsunami would squeeze margins and restrain iPhone and iPad sales in coming months.

"Dynamite numbers across the board. The only hiccup is lower than expected iPad numbers," said Capital Advisors Growth Fund portfolio manager Channing Smith.

"We can attribute some of the weakness to stocking issues at some of the retail outlets and obviously the supply chain issue in Japan. Unfortunately, the supply chain issue will likely persist for the coming months but once we get past summer and the supply chain issues are resolved it's all systems go again for Apple."

Apple executives told analysts on a conference call they foresaw a hit to revenue this quarter of about $200 million -- less than 1 percent of projected global quarterly sales -- but expected no cost impact.

The company, known for its tight relationship with Asian suppliers, stands at the head of the queue for electronics components even if the supply crunch continues. Japan accounts for an estimated 6 percent of overall revenue.

"We source hundreds, literally hundreds, of items from Japan, and they range from components such as LCDs, optical drives, NAND flash and DRAM, to base materials such as resins, coatings," Cook said.

Apple did see some revenue impact from the crisis during the second quarter but it was not material to the results, Cook said, adding that he does not see any unsolvable problems related to the disaster.

On rising prices for memory chips, Cook said he felt "good" for the third quarter as the company does not typically buy in the spot market.

"Beyond Q3, I'm saying I'm not sure because it's tough to see that far," he said.

IPAD SALES MISS TARGETS

The March quarterly report was Apple's first under the stewardship of Cook after Chief Executive Steve Jobs went on his third medical leave in January.

Cook, who is known as an operations and supply chain maven, said his boss -- who has undergone a liver transplant and survived a rare form of pancreatic cancer -- still played an active role in important decisions.

"He is still on medical leave but we do see him on a regular basis. He continues to be involved in major strategic decisions. I know he wants to be back full time as soon as he can," Cook told analysts.

Apple's iPad sales in the quarter fell well short of Wall Street's expectations: some analysts had projected shipments of closer to or even more than 6 million for the tablet computer launched on March 11.

But the lower-than-expected number could be attributed to the fact that Apple recognizes revenue from its stores when its customers receive the products. The initial wait time for the iPad 2 was four to five weeks.

"We sold every iPad 2 we could make and the demand was stunning," Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer told Reuters in an interview.

Apple's results come as it prepares to build the next iPhone model with a faster processor, which will begin shipping in September, three people with direct knowledge of the company's supply chain said on Wednesday.

Cook declined to comment on launch plans for the next iPhone.

It reported a net profit of $5.99 billion, or $6.40 a share, while revenue surged 83 percent to $24.67 billion. That surpassed expectations for $5.37 in earnings and $23.4 billion of revenue.

A large spike in sales of Mac computers, driven by the refreshed MacBook Pro, beefed up March-quarter earnings. Apple said it sold 3.76 million Macs, up 28 percent from a year ago.

Gross margins in the fiscal second quarter came to 41.4 percent, above Wall Street's average forecast of 39.03 percent.

Apple, which generally provides an ultra-conservative forecast, said it expected June quarter earnings of $5.03 a share on revenue of about $23 billion.

"IPad shipments were significantly lower than my estimates I think because of supply constraints," said Gabelli & Co analyst Hendi Susanto. "What impressed me was the gross margin."

Shares of Apple rose 3 percent to $353.67 after hours, from a regular session close of $342.41 on Nasdaq. They had fallen about 3 percent since Japan's quake.

The company's stock -- which is trading at roughly 18 times forward earnings, versus 19 times for Google and 10 times for Microsoft -- is considered a must-have in any technology portfolio.

(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba and Yinka Adegoke in New York, writing by Edwin Chan; Editing by Edwin Chan and Richard Chang)

By Poornima Gupta and Noel Randewich

Reuters

IE9 puts Microsoft back in the game...

2011-04-13T08:54:00.006+09:30

IE9 puts Microsoft back in the game By Laura Cucullu Senior features editor. Wed 13 April 2011. Back in the 1990s, Microsoft's browser competed fiercely with Netscape's and won, but then the company sat back and left the innovation to others. Even though Internet Explorer remains the most-used browser on the Net today, convincing one of our reporters that the latest, IE9, is a real browser was quite an accomplishment. Find out what made Stephen Shankland decide that Microsoft is back in the browser game. For those of you fond of SMS payments, don't forget to think about security because some evil-minded folks have found ways to take the profit themselves. There's a new twist with the appearance of some fake antivirus scareware that accepts payment via SMS. Of course, a payment does nothing to "fix" a system and means criminals now have your money and possibly your credit card information. And in happier news, it's almost time to gorge on massive amounts of chocolate bunnies. While you're waiting, check out six awesome Easter apps. Read more:IE9 puts Microsoft back in the game

Electronic stores in two states offer free guns | Reuters

2011-04-08T11:21:00.003+09:30

Reuters By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) Thu Apr 7, 2011 - A chain of electronic stores in parts of the states of Idaho and Montana are offering free guns to first-time subscribers of satellite TV services.

The new promotions by combination RadioShack and Dish Network dealerships in western Montana and another in southwest Idaho have attracted crowds that range from the merely curious to the firearm-friendly.

John Marshall, owner of a RadioShack store in Mountain Home, Idaho near Boise, said the flagging economy was behind the program he began advertising this week. "There's no problem with it here; this isn't New York City," he said about a gun giveaway that has sparked criticism on blogs by gun-control advocates elsewhere.

Under the arrangement, new subscribers to a Dish Network package are given a coupon for $135 to purchase a single-shot shotgun at a local sporting goods store. The guns-for-subscriptions offer is the brainchild of Steve Strand, owner of a RadioShack store in Montana's Bitterroot Valley.

Strand said the promotional campaign he crafted last fall has proved a sure-fire strategy to target satellite subscribers in a region that favors firearms. Subscriptions for Dish Network packages have increased threefold since he began offering freebies on pistols or shotguns. Strand said women make up the majority of his growing customer base.

"All I can tell you is, grandma is packing a gun in Montana," he said. A RadioShack official questioned the promotion but the corporation has not prohibited it by franchise owners like Strand. "I might not even consider such a program if I were in Detroit city but we have a different demographic out here," Strand said.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Tim Gaynor)

Oregon thief with good taste nips $2,300 cognac...

2011-04-07T12:51:00.001+09:30

Reuters

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) Tue Apr 5, 2011 - A masked, quick-moving thief smashed a liquor store window early on Monday in suburban Portland and walked off with a bottle of cognac valued at more than $2,300.

"He has good taste," said Lt. Mike Rouches a spokesman for the Hillsboro police. "He knew exactly what he was after."

The robber took the $2,363.45 bottle of Remy Martin Louis XIII cognac, 11 fine -- but cheaper -- bottles of cognac and 12 packs of menthol cigarettes at about 3:15 a.m. local time on Monday, Rouches said.

"I've not seen a theft like this. Usually they grab whatever they can," Rouches said.

The police arrived quickly and the posh pilferer had already disappeared, another indication that he knew what he was after, Rouches said.

Hillsboro police have surveillance tape of the masked thief and are searching for the apparently classy crook.

The suspect could face charges of second-degree burglary, first-degree burglary and second-degree criminal mischief, Rouches said. (Reporting by Teresa Carson, Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

Exhibition: Filthy London show digs up the dirt...

2011-03-29T19:32:00.001+10:30

Reuters By Michelle Martin LONDON (Reuters) Fri Mar 25, 2011 - Filth, fecal matter and grime in all its forms are the subject of a new exhibition in London. "Dirt: the Filthy Reality of Everyday Life" features around 200 exhibits ranging from vials of urine to air samples and a floor pattern made from dust found in homes, all of which are used to examine humanity's ambivalent relationship with dirt through the ages. "Dirt is everywhere and periodically we get very worried about it. But we have also discovered that we need bits of it and, guiltily, secretly, we are sometimes drawn to it," said Ken Arnold, Director of Public Program at the Wellcome Collection, where the exhibition is being held. The exhibition takes anthropologist Mary Douglas' view that dirt is "matter out of place" as a cue to investigate human attitudes toward cleanliness. Exhibits include a blue and white Delft Dutch chamber pot decorated with delicate depictions of country life, a sewer worker's iron pick which dates back to 1890 and five large grey blocks sculpted from human feces collected by Dalits -- scavengers who remove waste from India's sewers by hand. Other highlights include an 18th century book containing remedies for various ailments like scurvy, which it suggests should be treated using "cow stale" (urine); footage of bacteria found in dental plaque and a broom which lies inconspicuously in a corner but proves to be a masterpiece encrusted with diamonds and pearls on closer inspection. "I want people to leave with an expanded awareness of dirt," Kate Forde, curator of the exhibition, told Reuters. "Dirt is something that's in flux all of the time and it has also powered our economy," she said, noting that London's muck was taken beyond the city's walls to fertilize crops in the medieval ages, while over half of human waste is incinerated to create energy for London's homes and business nowadays. Serena Korda's "Laid to Rest" -- a stack of red bricks made from clay combined with dust given by members of the public -- is one exhibit which engages with the idea of using waste creatively, by evoking the idea that cities are built from dirt, Forde said. The bricks, which are engraved with the initials of the dust donors, are set to become a focal point in the exhibition -- choral incantations will be sung over them ahead of the burial that will return them to the earth from which they came. Creative solutions to the problem of dirt are also the subject of films and photographs in an exhibit about Staten Island's Fresh Kills, which was once the world's largest municipal landfill site but will be transformed into a public park by 2030. Another of the "Dirt" exhibition's six rooms packed with visitors is dedicated to a street in London where an outbreak of cholera killed 500 people in 10 days in 1854. The room includes a vial containing a human excretion known as "rice water" -- a cloudy whitish liquid secreted by cholera victims when the disease drained their bodies of nutrients, dehydrated them and caused their kidneys to fail. The sinister exhibit includes a 19th century etching of a man in a "cholera preventive costume" -- an outfit made from rubber, flannel, copper and a sandbag; a vial of vinegar suspended from the nose; flasks of water dangling from the legs; a hat containing a bowl of soup and brass soles constantly filled with warm water. "Dirt" also documents the Dutch devotion to cleaning in the 17th century, as depicted in Pieter de Hooch's paintings of women sweeping the streets and their homes, while medical equipment from a Glaswegian hospital in the 1860s is also on display. The exhibition is open until August 31. (Editing by Steve Addison)

Do vitamins stop cancer, heart attacks? ....

2011-03-25T11:01:00.001+10:30

Reuters By Leigh Krietsch Boerner

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Wed Mar 23, 2011 - Will taking multivitamins protect you from dying of cancer or heart disease? The answer is no, according to new research.

In a study of more than 180,000 people, scientists saw the same number of deaths from cancer and heart disease among multivitamin-takers and those who did not take the supplements.

"People need to understand that just taking these multivitamins is not sufficient to prevent disease," said Jennifer Hsiang-Ling Lin, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, who did not work on the study.

Multiple past studies have shown no link between multivitamins and reduced risk of cancer or heart disease. Other recent research couldn't prove that multivitamins protect against diabetes, either.

Some small studies in the past have shown that specific vitamins, not multivitamins, may be protective against heart disease or cancer later in life. However these studies looked at undernourished people, not generally healthy adults like the U.S. population, said co-author Song-Yi Park, assistant professor of epidemiology at University of Hawaii Cancer Center in Honolulu.

On its web site, the U.S. National Institutes of Health advise that doctors should prescribe multivitamins only "for patients who need extra vitamins, who cannot eat enough food to obtain the required vitamins, or who cannot receive the full benefit of the vitamins contained in the food they eat."

Past studies have mostly involved Caucasians, Lin said. The current one, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, included large numbers of Latino and Japanese-American people. This shows that the lack of association held up for different racial groups as well, she said.

The best way to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, according to Lin? Exercise and eat a healthy diet.But more than half of U.S. adults choose to take multivitamins, according to Lin.

Many do because they think it will prevent chronic disease, said Ross Prentice, director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle, who also did not work on the new study.

Altogether, Park's team looked at the vitamin-popping habits of more than 82,000 men and nearly 100,000 women, who were an average of 60 years old. Then they tracked how many died, and the causes, over the next 11 years.

Overall, about six in 100 multivitamin users and non-users died from heart disease. Cancer claimed about five in 100 from both groups, and four in 100 died from other causes. In total, almost 29,000 people died in the 11 years of follow-up.

The multivitamins didn't seem to protect users from cancer in general, or from cancers of the lung, colon, rectum, prostate, or breast.

Each year in the U.S. about 616,000 people die from heart disease and about 560,000 die from cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

The researchers did not find that taking multivitamins hurts anyone, Lin noted.

However, they can be expensive. According to Consumer Reports, Americans spent almost $4.7 billion on multivitamins in 2008. Depending on the type, supplements range from $3 to $16 a month.

This study could not prove that multivitamins do or don't affect people's risks for heart disease and cancer. A large clinical trial -- one that can show cause and effect, if it exists -- is underway but the results aren't available yet.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology,

Four arrested in Air Cocaine investigation...

2011-03-25T10:53:00.000+10:30

Reuters

BAMAKO (Reuters) Thu Mar 24, 2011 - Authorities in Mali have arrested four people after an aircraft loaded with 10 tonnes of cocaine crashed in the country in 2009, a source close to the probe said Thursday.

Malian authorities suspect the aircraft was part of a larger drugs trafficking network linked to Colombia.

French pilot Eric Vernay, whose company chartered the Boeing plane, was arrested last week. A CEO of a local company "Go Voyage," and two other people have been arrested since, also in connection with the so-called "Air Cocaine" probe.

"The investigation is progressing, due to good cooperation between security services of other countries, including Morocco. Four people are now under arrest, and are under investigation," the source told Reuters.

Authorities suspect a growing fleet of rogue aircraft are regularly crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean with drugs from the cocaine-producing areas of South America, transiting through some of West Africa's most unstable countries into Europe.

(Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Bate Felix)

Yes, sex can kill you, U.S. study shows...

2011-03-24T21:12:00.000+10:30

TO ALL MY REGULAR AND IRREGULAR READERS

I wish to apologize for the very slow release of my articles of last few months. My wife Dixie and I, are about to move out of our current abode. We are recognizing the fact that over a long period, a very long period is more appropriate, TIME CATCHES UP WITH YOU!
We are down-sizing from 3 to 2 bedrooms. No more gardening, etc., thus no more sore backs.
Our new home is an apartment on the 17th floor with a great view across a bay, busy with boats, small and large, and many other things, too many to describe.
We are moving after 10 years, from the pleasant surroundings of Hope Island and its golf course, to the city of SOUTHPORT.
Of course I shall do my best to slip in an article 2 or more....
Peter Verstegen

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Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) Tue Mar 22, 2011. Sudden bursts of moderate to intense physical activity -- such as jogging or having sex -- significantly increase the risk of having a heart attack, especially in people who do not get regular exercise, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Doctors have long known that physical activity can cause serious heart problems, but the new study helps to quantify that risk, Dr. Issa Dahabreh of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The team analyzed data from 14 studies looking at the link between exercise, sex and the risk of heart attacks or sudden cardiac death -- a lethal heart rhythm that causes the heart to stop circulating blood.

They found people are 3.5 times more likely to get a heart attack or have sudden cardiac death when they are exercising compared to when they are not.

And they are 2.7 times more likely to get a heart attack when they are having sex or immediately afterward compared with when they are not. (These findings do not apply to sudden cardiac death because there were no studies looking at the link between sex and cardiac death.)

Jessica Paulus, another Tufts researcher who worked on the study, said the risk is fairly high as such studies go. But the period of increased risk is brief.

"These elevated risks are only for a short period of time (1 to 2 hours) during and after the physical or sexual activity," Paulus said in a telephone interview.

Because of that, the risk to individuals over the course of a year is still quite small, she said.

"If you take 10,000 people, each individual session of physical or sexual activity per week can be associated with an increase of 1 to 2 cases of heart attack or sudden cardiac death per year," Paulus said.

She said it is important to balance the findings with other studies showing that regular physical activity reduces the risk of heart attacks and sudden cardiac death by 30 percent.

"What we really don't want to do is for the public to walk away from this and think exercise is bad," she said.

What it does mean is that people who do not exercise regularly need to start any exercise program slowly, gradually increasing the intensity of the workout over time.

(Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Patch Tuesday: Gaping security hole in Windows Media Player ...

2011-03-09T16:16:00.000+10:30

ZDNet By Ryan Naraine.

March 8, 2011. Microsoft today warned that the Windows Media Player that ships with every copy of its Windows operating system contains a critical vulnerability that could allow remote code execution if a user is tricked into opening a video file.

Microsoft today warned that the Windows Media Player that ships with every copy of its Windows operating system contains a critical vulnerability that could allow remote code execution if a user is tricked into opening a video file.

The disclosure forms part of this month’s Patch Tuesday release where Microsoft shipped three bulletins with patches for security holes in Windows and Microsoft Office.

The most serious of the three bulletins is MS11-015 and Microsoft is urging all Windows users to apply this update immediately because of the severity and the likelihood of working attack code within 30 days.

This security update resolves one publicly disclosed vulnerability in DirectShow and one privately reported vulnerability in Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user opens a specially crafted Microsoft Digital Video Recording (.dvr-ms) file. In all cases, a user cannot be forced to open the file; for an attack to be successful, a user must be convinced to do so.

The Windows Media update is rated “critical” for affected editions of Windows XP (including Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005); all supported editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7; and Windows Media Center TV Pack for Windows Vista.

The biggest problem exists in the way that Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center handle .dvr-ms files.

This vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code if the attacker convinces a user to open a specially crafted .dvr-ms file. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or delete data; or create new accounts with full user rights.

For businesses using the Microsoft Groove workspace sharing product, pay special attention to MS11-016, which covers a remote code execution issue in Groove.

This security update resolves a publicly disclosed vulnerability in Microsoft Groove that could allow remote code execution if a user opens a legitimate Groove-related file that is located in the same network directory as a specially crafted library file.

The vulnerability exists in the way that Microsoft Groove 2007 handles the loading of DLL files. “An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could take complete control of an affected system,” Microsoft warned.

This month’s Patch Tuesday batch also includes MS11-017, an “important” bulletin covering a code execution flaw in the Windows Remote Desktop Client.

The vulnerability could allow remote code execution if a user opens a legitimate Remote Desktop configuration (.rdp) file located in the same network folder as a specially crafted library file.

It’s important to note that there are several outstanding issues that were not patched this month.

.Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

(Ryan Naraine is a journalist and social media enthusiast specializing in Internet and computer security issues.)

University to investigate live sex demonstration...

2011-03-08T15:16:00.000+10:30

Reuters

CHICAGO (Reuters) Fri Mar 4, 2011.The president of an American university said on Thursday he was launching an investigation into an on-campus presentation of a live sex act performed for students at an after class event.

President Morton Schapiro of Northwestern University, which is of Chicago in Evanston, said he was "troubled and disappointed" after hearing about the use of a sex toy on a naked woman by her fiancé in front of more than 100 students.

The demonstration was performed as part of an after-class event for a popular human sexuality course, at the prestigious private university, according to The Daily Northwestern.

The February 21 incident took place in a session which students were not required to attend and they were advised in advance of the explicit nature of the activity.

"I feel it represented extremely poor judgment on the part of our faculty member," Schapiro said in a statement. "I simply do not believe this was appropriate, necessary, or in keeping with Northwestern University's academic mission."

Schapiro said he has directed that the incident be fully investigated.

"Many members of the Northwestern community are disturbed by what took place on our campus," Schapiro said. "So am I."

Psychology Prof. J. Michael Bailey, who teaches the class, could not be reached for comment.

In an email to his students, published in The Daily Northwestern, he wrote that he organizes optional after-class events which feature speakers addressing interesting aspects of sexuality.

Bailey wrote that "some experiences are educational and interesting in non-traditional ways" and that student feedback has been "uniformly positive."

He wrote that it was "too early to say" if he had any regrets.

(Writing by Mary Wisniewski, Editing by Greg McCune)

Man speeds with wife on hood of minivan?

2011-03-04T08:58:00.000+10:30

Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) Thu Mar 3, 2011. A U.S. man high on methamphetamine drove with his wife on the hood of their minivan for more than 40 miles, hitting speeds of 100 mph, according to police.

The woman climbed onto the hood early on Saturday morning, outside the couple's home in Manteca, California, because she wanted to keep her husband from driving off, said the city's police spokesman, Rex Osborn.

But instead of stopping, Christopher Carroll, 36, sped away with his wife clinging to the hood, Osborn said.

Police said they would not identify the woman because she is the victim of domestic violence, but Osborn said she is in her 30s and a mother.

In Pleasanton, the woman rolled off the hood when Carroll slowed down, police said.

Carroll was arrested back at his Manteca home, and charged with attempted murder and domestic violence, Osborn said.

No charges were filed tied to Carroll's methamphetamine use, which the woman described, he said.

"Her big message is this meth has ruined her life, affected her husband's family, his children, just because of poor choices," Osborn said.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Peter Bohan)

Internet Explorer gains Web browser market share from Firefox...

2011-03-03T14:56:00.001+10:30

ZDNet By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Internet Explorer gains Web browser market share from Firefox
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols March 2, 2011. But, at first glance it appears IE 6 (!) that gains the most, while Firefox loses the most. A closer look reveals the truth.

March 2, 2011. Rumor has it that by the time the South by SouthWest (SXSW) conference rolls around in a few weeks, all the major Web browsers-Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE), Opera, and Safari–will have come out with new versions. So, why, is the oldest, and the most insecure of the lot, IE 6, making the single biggest browser version gain according to Net Applications‘ latest Web browser survey?

Well you can blame the CIA. No, seriously.

As Net Applications explained, “All of our global usage share reports are weighted based on C.I.A. data on how many Internet users per country there are. For example, we have more data on the U.S. than China so we weight the Chinese data proportionally higher according to the research provided by the C.I.A.”

In February, the C.I.A. released new data on how many Internet users per country there are. It shows a large increase in the global percentage of Chinese users and a decrease in the global percentage of users from the U.S., U.K, Germany, France and other developed countries.

These geographic shifts in Internet usage have a significant impact on the global usage share numbers starting in February. This adjustment corrects an increasing inaccuracy over time as population shifts occur and reflects reality more closely than unadjusted numbers.

The net result is that between January 2011, with the old way of counting, and February 2011, with the CIA-adjusted numbers, IE 6–the browser that even Microsoft wants to kill, kill, kill–gained .7%. Fortunately, for the sake of the sanity of all Web security gurus everywhere, IE 6 adjusted numbers still shows the bad browser from pre-history still dropping.

So, how did IE 6 even show a gain of any sort by any kind of measurement? The answer is in that “large increase in the global percentage of Chinese users.” In China, many, perhaps most, Windows users are using pirated copies of XP. Even though Microsoft has made it possible for pirate XP users to get IE 7 without proving they had legal copies with Windows Genuine Advantage, most such users don’t appear to have taken advantage of the offer.

Net Applications doesn’t have that much hard data from China, but it weights its Chinese data higher because it has a greater percentage of the world’s Internet users than other countries. So it is, Net Applications reports that “Firefox loses global share since many of the countries it is most popular in (Western European, in particular) now have a lower percentage of global Internet users. Internet Explorer gains as browser usage shifts to countries with higher percentages of Internet Explorer users.” Indeed in Europe, Firefox is still the number one browser.

That said, IE, for the first time in months, actually did show real gains. As Roger Capriotti, Microsoft’s director of Internet Explorer Product Marketing, wrote, “We saw share of both Internet Explorer 8 and 9 grow.” Specifically, “When adjusted using the older weighting, IE8 and 9 actually show even stronger growth on Windows: up 1.31% (versus 1.13% using the new February weighting) - or over three times Chrome’s 0.42% growth. We continue to measure our share progress relative to our addressable base, and in this case our addressable base is Windows.”

Even if you take into account Mac OS X, Linux and other users, IE did show smaller, but real, growth. This growth came at the expense of Firefox. I strongly suspect this was because of the growing popularity of IE 9, which is now at the release candidate stage; the continued rise of Chrome; and, it must be said, the continued delays in getting Firefox 4 out the door.

This spring and summer, after IE 9, which runs only on Windows 7, and Firefox 4 are rolled out and Chrome 9 has had a chance to establish itself, will tell the real story of which program will end up being the top Web browser for 2011 here, in Europe, and in China.

.Kick off your day with ZDNet By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Half of men may have HPV infections: study | Reuters

2011-03-02T13:24:00.001+10:30

Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) Tue Mar 1, 2011 - Half of men in the general population may be infected with human papillomavirus or HPV, the human wart virus that causes cervical and other cancers, strengthening the case for vaccinating boys against HPV, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

U.S. vaccine advisers have been weighing whether boys and young men should be vaccinated against the human papillomavirus, as they already recommend for girls and young women, but some worry the vaccine is too costly to justify its use.

HPV infection is best known as the primary cause of cervical cancer, the second most common cancer in women worldwide. But various strains of HPV also cause anal, penile, head and neck cancers. Vaccinating men and boys would prevent some of these cancers.

Anna Giuliano of the H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, and colleagues studied infection rates among more than 1,100 men aged 18 to 70 in the United States, Brazil and Mexico to get a snapshot of the natural progression of HPV infection in men.

"We found that there is a high proportion of men who have genital HPV infections. At enrollment, it was 50 percent," said Giuliano, whose study appears online in the journal Lancet.

The team also found that the rate at which men acquire new HPV infections is very similar to women.

And they found that about 6 percent of men per year will get a new HPV 16 infection, the strain that is known for causing cervical cancer in women and other cancers in men.

"It must surely strengthen the argument for vaccination of men, both for their own protection, and that of their partners."

In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Merck's Gardasil HPV vaccine for prevention of anal cancers in both men and women, based on studies showing Gardasil was effective in men who have sex with men, a group that has a higher incidence of anal cancer.

Anal cancer is one of the less common types of cancer, with an estimated 5,300 new U.S. cases diagnosed each year, but the incidence is increasing. (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Vaccines made by Merck & Co and GlaxoSmithKline both offer protection against this strain of HPV.

"The biology seems to be very similar (to women)," Giuliano said in a telephone interview.

"What is different is men seem to have high prevalence of genital HPV infections throughout their lifespans."

She said it appears that women are better able to clear an HPV infection, especially as they age, but men do not appear to have this same ability.

Vaccine experts said the study builds momentum for widespread HPV vaccination among boys.

Currently, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends Gardasil vaccinations for girls and women between the ages of 11 and 26. Gardasil had sales of more than $1 billion last year.

And while doctors are free to use the vaccine in boys and men ages 9 through 26, U.S. health officials so far have declined to recommend routine vaccination for males.

"This study highlights the high incidence of HPV infection in men, which emphasizes their role in transmission of HPV to women," Dr. Anne Szarewski of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine in London said in a statement.

"It must surely strengthen the argument for vaccination of men, both for their own protection, and that of their partners."

In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Merck's Gardasil HPV vaccine for prevention of anal cancers in both men and women, based on studies showing Gardasil was effective in men who have sex with men, a group that has a higher incidence of anal cancer.

Anal cancer is one of the less common types of cancer, with an estimated 5,300 new U.S. cases diagnosed each year, but the incidence is increasing. (Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

CNET | Download Dispatch - Windows...

2011-03-02T13:00:00.001+10:30

CNET Download Dispatch

March 1 0011. What's your favorite free antivirus app? Plus, Windows 7 SP1 Jasmine France Senior associate editor

Microsoft made Windows 7's first service pack available to consumers last week. The service pack doesn't bring any new whiz-bang features for consumers, but it includes two important back-end additions that promise to improve performance in Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2. Also included in SP1 are a number of fixes for bugs and security holes, which may be useful for those who don't use the auto-update feature.

On the security side, with Avast 6 fresh out of the gate and CNET's opinion on record, it's time to ask you which of the many free security suites available is your favorite. The big three on Download.com are AVG, Avast, and Avira, although it will be interesting to see if the download counts are reflected in popularity. We aimed to have all the major players represented. Vote now in our poll and tell us your favorite.

And for the Firefox fans out there, it looks as though Firefox 4 may be in its last beta. The company hopes beta 12 will be its last for the browser's next generation, according to an updated roadmap.

Man has 39 wives, nearly 100 children | Reuters

2011-02-25T14:29:00.001+10:30

Reuters

GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) Tue Feb 22, 2011 - The more, the merrier is certainly true for Ziona Chana, a 66-year-old man in India's remote northeast who has 39 wives, 94 children and 33 grandchildren -- and wouldn't mind having more.

They all live in a four storied building with 100 rooms in a mountainous village in Mizoram state, sharing borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh, media reports said.

"I once married 10 women in one year," he was quoted as saying.

His wives share a dormitory near Ziona's private bedroom and locals said he likes to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times.

The sons and their wives, and all their children, live in different rooms in the same building, but share a common kitchen.

The wives take turns cooking, while his daughters clean the house and do washing. The men do outdoor jobs like farming and taking care of livestock.

The family, all 167 of them, consumes around 91 kg (200 pounds) of rice and more than 59 kg (130 pounds) of potatoes a day. They are supported by their own resources and occasional donations from followers.

"Even today, I am ready to expand my family and willing to go to any extent to marry," Ziona said.

"I have so many people to care (for) and look after, and I consider myself a lucky man."

Ziona met his oldest wife, who is three years older than he is, when he was 17.

He heads a local Christian religious sect, called the "Chana," which allows polygamy. Formed in June 1942, the sect believes it will soon be ruling the world with Christ and has a membership of around 400 families.

(Reporting by Biswajyoti Das, editing by Elaine Lies)

Work At Home Mom Makes $6,795/Month Part-Time...

2011-02-18T14:46:00.002+10:30

News1Reports.com By Jacqueline Douglas

Can $47 Really Turn Into $6795? We, NEWS1 REPORT1, Investigated...

News 1 Reports Investigates Online Work at Home Programs...

!8 Feb. 2011. We investigate the Story about a Mom who Makes over $6,700/Month. Are There Any Legit Work At Home Programs?

With unemployment numbers extremely high, everybody is looking to make a few extra bucks these days. Many people are turning to work at home programs... But, which ones are REAL and which ones are SCAMS?

We just had to find out... So we set out to do some research ourselves. We came across a blog by Jessica Holcomb of D'aguilar, 04.

Like many, curiosity got the best of Jessica and she filled out a simple online form and put out just a little money to try a program she came across. Before she knew it, she discovered her secret to beating the recession, and being able to provide for her family while at home with her three children."

I read Jessica's blog last month and decided to feature her story in our weekly investigative report. In our phone interview she told me her amazing story. "I actually make $6,000-$7,000 a month online which is enough to comfortably replace my old jobs income, especially considering I only work about 10-13 hours a week from home.

Online work has been a financial windfall for Jessica, who struggled for months to find a decent job but kept hitting dead ends. "I lost my job shortly after the recession hit, I needed reliable income, I was not interested in the "get rich quick" scams you see all over the internet. Those are all pyramid scams or stuff where you have to sell to your friends and family. I just needed a legitimate way to earn a living for me and my family. The best part of working online is that I am always home with the kids, I save a lot of money."

"I actually make $6,000 to $7,000 a month working from home."
By Jessica Holcomb

I asked her about how she started her remarkable journey. "It was pretty easy, I actually received an email that sparked my interest, so I went to the site, filled out a short form and signed up for a work at home program where I got instant access to everything! They actually were giving a limited-time $100 instant rebate, which last time I checked, they were still doing. And since they offered a 365 Day Money Back Guarantee - I figured I really had nothing to lose. So, I started the program and within four weeks I was making over $5,000 a month. It's really simple, I am not a computer whiz, but I can use the internet. I followed the instructions, and I don't even have to sell anything and nobody has to buy anything. This is a very stable system and they are recruiting, you should try it."

Consumers purchase Billions and Billions of dollars worth of products each year online. Every time people use the internet, go on facebook or do a search, someone is making money. This program will teach you how to get a piece of this money and free yourself from the 9-5. The internet economy has grown by leaps and bounds in the recession, so why not take advantage of the goldrush? There are plenty of scams on the internet claiming you can make $50,000 a month, but that is exactly what they are... scams. From my conversation with Jessica, "I am making a good salary from home, which is amazing, under a year ago I was jobless in a horrible economy. I thank God every day that I signed up for this program."

Quickly, Jessica Holcomb was able to use the simple "Online Revenue Solution" Refer ome page link, to make it out of the recession.

New York City launches app for free condoms...

2011-02-17T21:22:00.000+10:30

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) Tue Feb 15, 2011. Need a condom? There's an app for that. The New York City Health Department on Monday unveiled a smartphone application that will help users locate the nearest place in the area giving out free condoms.

"We want New York City to be the safest city in the world to have sex," said Dr. Monica Sweeney, the city's assistant health commissioner. "A lot of people come here for that, so we want them to practice safer sex."

The application, available for download on the iPhone and Android phones, taps into the city's database of over 1,000 different locations which offer free condoms.

It uses GPS technology or an address input to give users directions to the nearest five places in the city that are giving out free condoms.

The city is rolling out the application on Valentine's Day. For the past five years, the city has been giving out free condoms at an average of 3 million a month.

New York City has come under criticism in the past for its condom distribution program, especially from parents of younger children who claim the program encourages people to have sex.

"We're not promoting sex, we're promoting safer sex," Sweeney said. "In New York City and around the country, adolescents and pre-adolescents have sex whether you give them condoms or not."

(Reporting by Aman Ali; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)

Gene tests inadvertently exposing cases of incest...

2011-02-13T11:56:00.001+10:30

Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) Thu Feb 10, 2011. New gene-based tests that map out a person's entire genetic code can help explain why a child has birth defects or developmental delays, but they are also exposing some dark family secrets.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston recently started using such tests and have uncovered several cases of likely incest, says Dr. Arthur Beaudet, chairman of molecular and human genetics at Baylor, who wrote about the problem on Thursday in the journal Lancet.

The tests, called single nucleotide polymorphism-based arrays, allow doctors to scan a child's genome for extra or missing copies of genes that could explain their disability.

But they can also show large, identical chunks of DNA that a child might have inherited from two closely related relatives, such as a father and daughter, raising social and legal issues that institutions and the scientific community must address, Beaudet said in a telephone interview.

"The concern mainly stems from the possibility of children being sexually abused in the home, most often girls between 12 and 16 years of age," he said.

Disabilities are frequent in children born of incestuous liaisons. In the past, doctors may have suspected a child was the product of incest, Beaudet said. "Now we have a routine test that we do in children with disabilities that makes it obvious."

U.S. doctors are legally and ethically bound to disclose cases of suspected child abuse to authorities.

"Most often we don't really suspect it and the lab result come as a surprise," Beaudet said.

'A LITTLE AGONY'

Nancy Spinner, a professor of pathology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, said her team had encountered two cases of incest since it began using SNP-based arrays from gene sequencing company Illumina Inc in May 2008.

"In both cases, you see it and it causes you a little agony because you realize it could be a big problem. But when we contacted the physician to learn more about the case, in both cases it was known," Spinner said in a telephone interview.

"In one case, the father was incarcerated for rape. In the other case, there was a known product of incest," she said.

Spinner said her lab had yet to see a case in which the incest was not known by the referring physician, but she knows it could happen.

"We have discussed this with our medical ethics committee."

Beaudet and colleagues are calling on professional groups to establish guidelines to help in such cases.

Incest cases found in such tests are what researchers call an "incidental finding" and Spinner says they are likely to occur more frequently as scientists begin to explore the power of genomic technology.

Ten years after the first sequencing of the Human Genome, gene tests are finally coming of age as sequencing technology becomes more affordable.

Only a handful of U.S. labs now use the SNP-based arrays routinely. Spinner's lab uses them because they can explain disorders that previously went undiagnosed, and she said many more labs were interested.

"We recognize we will make observations that were not necessarily what we were looking for." But Spinner says it is important information to have.

"Putting your head in the sand does not seem an answer to me, but it does mean we have a lot of work to do to be sure we don't do any harm with these technologies."

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

Think a kiss is just a kiss? New book tells all..

2011-02-13T11:44:00.000+10:30

Reuters By Elaine Lies

TOKYO Fri Feb 11, 2011 (Reuters) - Ever wondered about the political uses of a kiss, the kiss's changing status or legendary movie kisses? Do you find yourself needing to say the word in Albanian, Icelandic or even, perchance, Maori?

Fear not. "A Compendium of Kisses," the guide to everything oscular -- that's "of or pertaining to kissing" for the unenlightened -- tells all about one of the world's most universal gestures, whether simple greeting or sublime.

"When I came to look at the kiss, the romantic side is such a small part of it," said British novelist and actress Lana Citron, who compiled the book.

"I love how when you're born, the first thing is, you're kissed, you're welcomed into the world. It's this little gesture that follows you throughout life, through all the most important parts of your life."

Citron's interest in kisses began with a short story she wrote a decade ago about a lonely woman who collected kisses in jars -- such as one for the lover who spurned her, one that was full of yearning -- and labeled them.

That led to her invitation to do an installation of kisses in jars, all labeled, as part of an art exhibition. The response of viewers sent her to the internet, searching out books on kisses and deciding to write her own when nothing seemed just right.

"It was almost like opening a Pandora's chest and just being overwhelmed by all the different ways a kiss is expressed, the meanings attached to it and the things it symbolizes," she said.

"I fell in love with it, I really did. I was submerged in the world of kisses for a year and came out of it with a book."

Her compendium mingles brief kiss anecdotes with kiss factoids and scraps of poetry to cover evolutionary kisses, bonding kisses, artful kisses, screen kisses, bike shed kisses or first kisses, passionate kisses, Kama Sutra kisses, animal kisses and even The Death Kiss, to name just a few.

She also traces the evolution of kissing through history, from its use in Christian religious ceremonies -- "greet ye one another with a kiss" -- to its social role as a greeting on many levels, including between kings and the vassals they ruled.

"Then the kiss suddenly becomes eroticized, also compounded by advances made in dentistry. Once it becomes eroticized, it also becomes highly contentious socially," she said.

While she finds it difficult to pick one favorite fact about kisses, Citron does acknowledge being fascinated about the use of kisses in politics and history, from its involvement in accusations about witchcraft down to the present day.

"Superficially, you have sex scandals, kiss and tell scandals, which many politicians fall prey to," she said.

Though most of the book is written in a tongue-in-cheek style, Citron becomes practical when asked for kissing advice.

"Basic hygiene, I think, is the only thing I'd say."

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; editing by Paul Casciato)

Barking dogs can land owner in jail...

2011-02-13T09:46:00.002+10:30

Reuters

--->A dog walks across the snow covered Saint Mark's square in Venice December 19, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Manuel Silvestri

ROME(Reuters) Thu Feb 10, 2011 If you live in Italy and if the barking of your dogs keeps the neighbors up at night, it's you who might wind up caged -- in a jail cell.

The top appeals court sentenced four people in Sicily to two months in jail because they refused to keep their 10 dogs quiet at night despite complaints from neighbors who had repeatedly picked a bone with the owners over lost sleep.

The four were also ordered to pay court charges and a fine of 500 euros ($684) each.

(Editing by Paul Casciato )

Obesity epidemic risks heart disease tsunami...

2011-02-05T13:24:00.001+10:30

Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen and Kate Kelland

CHICAGO/LONDON (Reuters) Fri Feb 4, 2011 - More than half a billion people, or one in 10 adults worldwide, are obese -- more than double the number in 1980 -- as the obesity epidemic spills over from wealthy into poorer nations, researchers said on Thursday.

And while rich nations made big strides in cutting rates of high cholesterol and hypertension, or high blood pressure, the overall number of people with high blood pressure rose from 600 million in 1980 to nearly 1 billion in 2008, fueled by an aging and expanding global population.

"Overweight and obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol are no longer Western problems or problems of wealthy nations," said Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London and Harvard University, who led the studies published in the Lancet journal.

The research, conducted with the World Health Organization, benchmarks changes in key risk factors that affect heart health.

Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of people in the industrialized world, and billions of dollars are spent every year on medical devices and drugs to treat it. Thursday's study showed progress in some areas, but also areas of major concern.

In North America, for example, there have been big advances in reducing rates of uncontrolled high blood pressure in men. In Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea, rates of hypertension in women have also improved.

Ezzati said it was "heartening" that many countries had successfully reduced blood pressure and cholesterol despite rising levels of BMI, and said steps to get people to eat less salt and healthier, unsaturated fats, had helped -- as well as improved screening and treatment.

A special meeting of the United Nations General Assembly is scheduled for September to talk about the rising threat of so-called non-communicable, or chronic, diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes, particularly in poorer countries.

GLOBAL 'TSUNAMI' OF HEART DISEASE

But body mass index, a key measure of obesity, has risen broadly. "The world is getting more and more overweight and obese," Ezzati said in a telephone interview.

Being overweight or obese raises the risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and arthritis. Hypertension, another key risk factor for heart disease, is the world's biggest killer.

Obesity-related diseases account for nearly 10 percent of U.S. medical spending or an estimated $147 billion a year. In Europe, more than half of adults are overweight or obese, piling pressure on already stretched healthcare budgets.

But the studies showed that major heart risks are no longer just an affliction of wealthy, western nations.

"When you put aside two or three countries -- the U.S., Australia and New Zealand -- it's a lot more middle income countries where obesity is the highest," Ezzati said.

Average levels of total blood cholesterol fell in North America, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and Europe, but increased in East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, the studies found.

Blood pressure levels are highest in the Baltic countries, and in East and West Africa.

Commenting on the findings in the Lancet, Sonia Anand and Salim Yusuf from McMaster University in Canada said they showed a global "tsunami of cardiovascular disease" which needed to be met with population-wide efforts to cut intake of bad fats and salt, and increased levels of exercise.

These lessons should be implemented more widely in nations of all levels of economic development, he said.

(Editing by Eric Beech)

BBC defends Top Gear jokes about Mexico | Reuters

2011-02-05T13:12:00.000+10:30

Reuters By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) Fri Feb 4, 2011. The BBC apologized to Mexico's London ambassador on Friday after presenters on the popular motoring show "Top Gear" said he would be too sleepy to protest as they described Mexicans as lazy and feckless.

But it defended the original remarks, saying jokes centered on national stereotypes were part of the humor both of the show and of Britain in general.

The publicly funded broadcaster said the show's executive producer had written to Ambassador Eduardo Medina Mora and apologized for the comments made about him.

The diplomat had said he was infuriated by "offensive and xenophobic" remarks made by hosts Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson and James May during Sunday's edition of the cult show, which has been sold to television channels around the world.

The BBC said it was sorry if the presenters' comments had offended some people, but defended the comic use of a stereotype as a "robust part" of British humor.

It said its guidelines allowed comedy based on national stereotypes in shows like Top Gear where the audience would be expecting it.

"When we do it, we are being rude, yes, and mischievous, but there is no vindictiveness behind the comments," the BBC said in a statement.

"Whilst it may appear offensive to those who have not watched the program or who are unfamiliar with its humor, the executive producer has made it clear to the ambassador that that was absolutely not the show's intention," it added.

Top Gear presenter Hammond had asked why anyone would buy a Mexican car during a discussion of a Mexican sports model, the Mastretta.

"Cars reflect national characteristics don't they?," he said. "Mexican cars are just going to be lazy, feckless, flatulent, overweight, leaning against a fence asleep looking at a cactus with a blanket with a hole in the middle on as a coat."

The trio then described Mexican food as "refried sick" before suggesting Mexicans spent all day asleep.

"That's why we won't get any complaints about this because at the Mexican embassy the ambassador's going to be sitting there with a remote control like this," said Clarkson, pretending to slump in a chair, snoring.

Top Gear is well-known for its edgy banter and its hosts are no strangers to controversy. Hundreds of viewers complained in 2008 about a joke made by Clarkson about murdering prostitutes.

Ad banned for simulating drug use...

2011-02-04T12:32:00.001+10:30

Reuters

LONDON(Reuters) Wed Feb 2, 2011 - Britain's advertising watchdog banned an Yves St Laurent perfume advert on Wednesday, which showed a woman appearing to simulate injecting drugs.

A total of 13 viewers complained about the TV commercial for the perfume "Belle D'Opium," which shows a woman dancing to a drum beat before pointing to her inner elbow and running her finger along the inside of her forearm.

The woman was then shown lying on the floor as a voice-over said: "I am your addiction. I am Belle D'Opium. The new fragrance by Yves St Laurent."

YSL said the name Belle D'Opium was meant to suggest the addictive qualities of the women who wear the fragrance rather than the addictive effects of drugs.

They said the advert had been carefully choreographed to allow Belle to seduce the viewer and display the intense and powerful qualities of the perfume.

However the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the frantic atmosphere of the shortened television version could be misinterpreted by viewers as the effects of drug use rather than an expression of femininity and bewitchment.

"We were concerned that in the context of the ad, Belle running her finger down her inner arm could be seen to simulate the injection of opiates into the body," the ASA said in its ruling.

"Following that scene, Belle was shown moving in a series of short, rapid scenes, before the ad concluded with her body seizing upwards while lying on the floor, an action we considered could be seen to simulate the effect of drugs on the body," the ASA added.

(Writing by Caroline Copley; Editing by Steve Addison)

Senator moves to ban drug sold as bath salts...

2011-02-02T12:59:00.001+10:30

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) Mon Jan 31, 2011. - Two drugs that produce a "meth-like" high and are being sold under the guise of "bath salts" would be banned as federally controlled substances under a bill unveiled by U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York.

"These so-called bath salts contain ingredients that are nothing more than legally sanctioned narcotics, and they are being sold cheaply to all comers, with no questions asked, at store counters around the country," said Schumer, a Democrat.

Schumer said he will introduce a bill to outlaw the two synthetic drugs -- mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV. The drugs come in powder and tablet form and are ingested by snorting, injection, smoking and, less often, by use of an atomizer.

Users experience an intense high, euphoria, extreme energy, hallucinations, insomnia and are easily provoked to anger, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is currently investigating the drugs.

They have emerged as legal alternatives to cocaine and methamphetamines, and one or both have already been banned in the European Union, Australia, Canada, and Israel. In the United States, Florida, Louisiana and North Dakota have all recently banned the substances.

"The longer we wait to ban the substance, the greater risk we put our kids in," Schumer said.

Media reports over the last year describe the drugs as becoming increasingly popular, particularly among young people attending nightclubs, although the actual number of individuals using the drugs is unknown.

"These products are readily available at convenience stores, discount tobacco outlets, gas stations, pawnshops, tattoo parlors, truck stops and other locations," said an alert issued by the DEA.

"Prices range from $25 to $50 per 50-milligram packet," the DEA alert said.

The European Union banned mephedrone in December, saying the drug was directly linked to the deaths of two people, and may have been tied to 37 other cases of death.

The European Union's report said there was limited scientific evidence on the effects of the drug -- believed to be mostly manufactured in Asia before being packaged in the West -- but that there was sufficient evidence of its health risks to support a ban.

Schumer has also asked the health commissioner of New York State, Nirav Shah, to ban the two substances.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)

Smugglers with medieval catapult nabbed at border ...

2011-01-28T09:48:00.000+10:30

Reuters

PHOENIX (Reuters) Thu Jan 27, 2011 - In a brazen attempt reminiscent of a medieval siege, Mexican smugglers tried to use a hefty catapult to hurl drugs north over the U.S. Border, authorities said..

The Mexican military seized 45 pounds of marijuana, a sports utility vehicle and a metal-framed catapult just south of the Arizona border near the small town of Naco last Friday, following a tip-off from the U.S. Border Patrol.

Surveillance video taken by National Guard troops deployed to support the Border Patrol caught a group of men apparently attempting to pull down a metal beam and load or test the catapult, which was powered by powerful elastic and mounted on a trailer close to the metal border fence.

"It looks like a medieval catapult that was used back in the day," Tucson sector Border Patrol spokesman David Jimarez told Reuters.

Arizona straddles a furiously trafficked corridor for human and drug smugglers from Mexico.

The U.S. Border Patrol seize hundreds of tons of marijuana and other drugs each year, smuggled over or under the line using a variety of means, including trucks, clandestine tunnels, horseback and even micro-light aircraft -- although the catapult was new, Jimarez said.

"I have not seen anything like that in my time before as a Border Patrol agent ... although we are trained to handle any kind of a threat that comes over that border," he added.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor, editing by Peter Bohan)

SPLATNAV! UK pensioners drive into German church...

2011-01-26T09:10:00.001+10:30

Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) Mon Jan 24, 2011. - Two British pensioners landed in hospital in southern Germany after their car's global positioning system directed them to drive into a church.

While driving their Renault in the evening on a back road near the Austrian border, the navigation system instructed the couple to turn right where there was no road.

"They were confused and didn't notice that the navigation system was faulty," a police spokeswoman said.

The 76-year-old driver then plowed into the side of the village church, writing off the car, knocking a picture off the wall and damaging the building's foundations. Total damages were some 25,000 euros, police in the nearby town of Immenstadt said.

The couple, who were traveling to France, spent the evening in hospital recuperating from minor injuries.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Paul Casciato)

Burglars snort man's ashes, thought it was cocaine | Reuters

2011-01-22T13:35:00.001+10:30

Reuters

MIAMI (Reuters) Wed Jan 19, 2011. Burglars snorted the cremated remains of a man and two dogs in the mistaken belief that they had stolen illegal drugs, Florida sheriff's deputies said on Wednesday.

The ashes were taken from a woman's home in the central Florida town of Silver Springs Shores on December 15. The thieves took an urn containing the ashes of her father and another container with the ashes of her two Great Danes, along with electronic equipment and jewelry, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said.

Investigators learned what happened to the ashes after they arrested five teens in connection with another burglary attempt at a nearby home last week.

"The suspects mistook the ashes for either cocaine or heroin. It was soon discovered that the suspects snorted some of the ashes believing they were snorting cocaine," the sheriff's report said.

Once they realized their error, the suspects discussed returning the remaining ashes but threw them in a lake instead because they thought their fingerprints were on the containers, sheriff's spokesman Judge Cochran said.

Police divers were trying to recover the ashes. The suspects were jailed on numerous burglary and other charges.

(Reporting by Jane Sutton; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Semen allergy suspected in rare post-orgasm illness...

2011-01-19T06:33:00.000+10:30

Reuters By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) Mon Jan 17, 2011 - A mysterious syndrome in which men come down with a flu-like illness after an orgasm may be caused by an allergy to semen, Dutch scientists said on Monday.

Men with the condition, known as post orgasmic illness syndrome or POIS and documented in medical journals since 2002, get flu-like symptoms such as feverishness, runny nose, extreme fatigue and burning eyes immediately after they ejaculate. Symptoms can last for up to week.

Marcel Waldinger, a professor of sexual psychopharmacology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, published two studies in the Journal of Sexual Medicine which suggest that men with POIS have an allergy to their own semen, and that a treatment known as hyposensitization therapy can help reduce its impact.

"These results are a very important breakthrough in the research of this syndrome," Waldinger said in a telephone interview. He said the findings "contradict the idea that the complaints have a psychological cause" and show that an auto-allergic reaction to semen is the most likely cause.

Although it has been documented in scientific papers since 2002, post orgasmic illness syndrome is largely unknown among family doctors and experts say many men who suffer the condition feel ashamed about it and confused about what is wrong.

Waldinger said while the syndrome is probably rare, it is likely that many men who suffer with it do not know it is a recognized condition and so do not come forward to doctors.

For these studies, Waldinger and colleagues analyzed 45 Dutch men who were diagnosed with the illness.

"They didn't feel ill when they masturbated without ejaculating, but as soon as the semen came from the testes...after that they became ill, sometimes within just a few minutes," Waldinger said.

Thirty-three of them agreed to undergo a standard skin-prick allergy test using a diluted form of their own semen. Of those, 29, or 88 percent, had a positive skin reaction indicating an auto-immune response, or allergic reaction.

In a second study in the same journal, Waldinger's team decided to try treating two of the volunteers with hyposensitization therapy -- a well-known technique for treating allergies, also called allergen immunotherapy, which repeatedly exposes the body to small but gradually increasing amounts of the allergen over several years.

In the POIS therapy, the men were given skin injections containing their own semen, at first in an extremely dilute form, and then in gradually less diluted forms. The study's results showed that after one and three years respectively, the men showed a significant reduction in their POIS symptoms.

"It's a very slow process. It is used for all sorts of allergies and can sometimes take up to 5 years," Waldinger said. In the light of the first results, his team have now started several more POIS patients on hyposensitization therapy.

(Editing by Ben Hirschler and Peter Graff)

Thieves make BMW hottest car at auto show...

2011-01-18T17:58:00.001+10:30

Reuters

DETROIT (Reuters) Fri Jan 14, 2011 - When carmakers like BMW say they hope people find their next car at auto shows like the one in Detroit this week, this wasn't exactly what they meant.

Two thieves drove away in a brand new $94,000 BMW 750i xDrive Sedan on Wednesday night that was left idling outside the Westin Book Cadillac, one of Detroit's major hotels.

The car was one of more than a dozen BMW sedans used to ferry executives and guests around town during the show.

On Thursday morning, police said they were still looking for the gray four-door BMW.

Police said the car was dropped off by a valet to be loaded onto a transport truck to take it back to BMW's North American headquarters in New Jersey when two men jumped into the car and drove away.

BMW, which featured its glitzy 650i convertible at the Detroit auto show, said it remains committed to the event.

"It's just an unfortunate incident," BMW spokeswoman Stacy Morris said.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall. Editing by Peter Bohan)

Trapped burglars call police for help...

2011-01-16T10:44:00.000+10:30

Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) Thu Jan 13, 2011. Two would-be thieves called in their own crime to police in Germany after they could not escape from a broken-down elevator over the weekend, police said in a statement.

"This sounds really dumb," one of the thieves told police in Cologne over the elevator's emergency phone, "But I'm afraid that we wanted to break in and the elevator has gotten stuck."

When police arrived they found the two thieves aged 31 and 37 stuck in the elevator of an office building.

The thieves allegedly broke into the building and were attempting to reach a higher floor when the elevator became stuck, the police said.

They decided to phone for help when one thief injured his hand attempting to pry open the door.

Firemen eventually freed the men and they were arrested.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by Paul Casciato)

Penguin in zoo strolls into lions' den...

2011-01-07T09:54:00.004+10:30

Reuters

A foraging Emperor penguin preens on snow-covered sea ice around the base of the active volcano Mount Erebus, near McMurdo Station, the largest U.S. Science base in Antarctica, December 9, 2006. Credit: Reuters/Deborah Zabarenko

BERLIN (Reuters) Thu Jan 6, 2011. A resourceful baby penguin took advantage of Germany's wintry weather to give her minders the slip and embark on a tour of the zoo before waddling into the lions' den.

A visitor spotted the African penguin, born in September, taking a stroll in the lion enclosure but the animal was lucky as the lions were asleep inside rather than braving the icy weather outside, Muenster zoo said on its website.

It took keepers a day to get the penguin out of the den, luring her out with a trail of herrings, the statement said.

The escape gave the penguin, up to then only known as number 459, a name. Her minder now calls her Leona, the zoo said.

(Reporting by Annika Breidthardt, editing by Paul Casciato)

Skype could be designated illegal in China...

2011-01-01T23:36:00.003+10:30

Reuters By Terril Yue Jones and Jennifer Saba

BEIJING/NEW YORK (Reuters) Fri Dec 31, 2010 - The popular Internet telephone service Skype could be dealt a major setback in one of the world's largest markets as the Chinese government cracks down on what it called illegal Internet telephone providers.

A Chinese government circular from the powerful Ministry of Information and Industry Technology called for a crackdown "on illegal VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) telephone services" and said it was collecting evidence for legal cases against them. It did not name any phone companies.

Skype was still available in China on Friday evening through its joint venture partner TOM Online.

Skype had not yet been contacted by Chinese government officials, a Skype spokesman said on Friday in the United States.

The timing of a ban in one of the world's fastest growing markets could dampen investor enthusiasm for Skype as it prepares a 2011 initial public offering. The Luxembourg-based company, which has about 124 million users worldwide, is expected to be valued at about $1 billion in the IPO.

The Chinese move appeared to be aimed at protecting three government-controlled phone carriers -- China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile -- that provide the bulk of China's telephone services.

The South China Morning Post quoted an unidentified ministry official on Thursday as saying VoIP services could only be provided by the big three Chinese operators.

China has been known to play hardball with foreign businesses. After a months-long stand-off over censorship, China finally gave Google approval in July to keep operating its Chinese search page.

Skype has 20 million users in Asia Pacific, or 16 percent of the company's total users as of the end of June, according to a U.S. regulatory filing. The filing did not break out China's user numbers and a Skype spokesman in the United States said he did not know how many Chinese users it had.

No single country other than the United States represented more than 7 percent of Skype's average monthly user, according to the filing.

The latest news is another setback after Skype's global service outage last week, which cast doubts on the reliability of the service.

In 2005, Skype was blocked in parts of China as the government sought to ban phone calls made over the Internet.

Skype, partly owned by Web retailer eBay Inc, has been growing in popularity among Chinese users and businesses to make cheap or free international phone calls over the Internet.

"Nearly 1 in 6 people in the world live in China, and a great many of them rely on Skype to connect with families and friends, run businesses, and call people around the world," wrote Skype's Josh Silverman in an October blog post about Chinese privacy.

The Chinese circular, dated December 10, did not say what amounted to illegal services and did not name any VoIP providers it considered to be breaking the law.

Continue with this article by clicking: Reuters (By Terril Yue Jones and Jennifer Saba)

Microsoft co-founder relaunches tech patent suit...

2010-12-31T11:39:00.000+10:30

Reuters By Bill Rigby

SEATTLE (Reuters) Wed Dec 29, 2010 - Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen relaunched a wide-ranging patent lawsuit against Apple Inc, Google Inc, Facebook and others with specific allegations that the companies are illegally using technology owned by his company.

Interval Licensing LLC, a small research company set up by Allen in 1992, originally filed a broad patent suit in federal court in Seattle in August, but Judge Marsha Pechman dismissed it on the grounds that it did not specify any actual products or devices. The revised suit was filed by Interval on Tuesday.

Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, claims Interval was central to research and development of technology in the Internet arena in the 1990s, amassing more than 300 patents and providing research assistance to Google.

In the suit, Allen's company claims four of its patents -- chiefly related to the way Web data is sorted and presented -- have been infringed by a number of successful companies.

MULTIPLE CLAIMS

The first patent concerns the generation of data related to information being browsed. Interval claims Google uses this technology to match advertisements from third parties to content being displayed, while AOL's sites use it to suggest items related to news stories.

Interval claims Apple's iTunes service uses the technology to suggest music based on a user's searches, and that eBay Inc, Facebook, Netflix, Yahoo Inc and Office Depot's sites have also infringed the patent in the way they direct users to related content.

The second and third patents concern relaying information on a computer screen in a peripheral, unobtrusive manner, such as in an instant messaging box or overlay.

Interval claims its patent has been infringed by features in AOL's Instant Messenger, Apple's Dashboard, Google Talk and Gmail Notifier, Google's Android phone system and Yahoo Widgets.

The fourth patent concerns alerting Web browsers to new items of interest based on activity of other users. Interval claims AOL uses this technology on its shopping sites, while Apple's iTunes uses it to recommend music.

Interval claims eBay, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Office Depot, Staples Inc, Yahoo and Google's YouTube all have infringed the patent in the way they suggest content to users.

NO MICROSOFT

The suit makes no mention of Microsoft as a patent holder or infringer, even though Allen's former company offers products similar to some described in the suit. A spokesman for Allen declined to comment on the suit.

Allen, 57, is the world's 37th richest person, according to Forbes magazine. He resigned as a Microsoft executive in 1983. Since then, he has funded scientific and medical research through his Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and invested in many projects in his native Seattle and Pacific Northwest region.

Interval has asked the court for damages and a ban on products that use the disputed patents. It is unclear how seriously the court, or the companies he has targeted, will take Allen's legal charges.

To be continued at: Reuters By Bill Rigby

Confessions of a Windows 7 pirate...

2010-12-30T12:10:00.000+10:30

ZDNet By Ed Bott

March 3, 2010. In the interest of research, I’ve been digging into message boards and forums run by unabashed Windows enthusiasts who are intent on breaking Microsoft’s activation technology. I’ve had these forums bookmarked for years and stop in every once in a while just to see what’s new. This time I decided to drop by and actually try some of tools and utilities to see if I could become a pirate, too.

Unfortunately, I succeeded.

In this post, I’ll share my experiences, including close encounters with some very nasty malware and some analysis on how the latest showdown between Microsoft and the pirates is likely to play out.

You won’t find names or direct links here—although these guys seem like genuine enthusiasts, I have no intention of giving them any free publicity. But if you’re interested in tracking down the tools I tested you should have no trouble finding them using the clues available in screenshots and descriptions here.

If you do intend to try this stuff out for yourself, I recommend extreme caution. My hunt for utilities that bypass Windows 7 activation technologies led me to some very seedy corners of the Internet. First, I did what any red-blooded wannabe pirate would do and tried some Google searches. Of the first 10 hits, six were inactive or had been taken down. After downloading files from the remaining four sites, I submitted them to Virustotal.com, where three of the four samples came back positive for nasty, difficult-to-remove Windows 7 rootkits. Here’s one example: Open ZDNet By Ed Bott

And that experience is borne out by at least one real-world experience, which was reported, ironically, in the Talkback section of this blog. After I wrote about Microsoft’s most recent anti-piracy initiative last week, one commenter (a loud, proud Linux advocate) insisted that the update opened a secret back-channel, probably as part of a plot by Microsoft to covertly gain access to its customers’ PCs. A day or so later, after checking with his Windows-using friend, he returned with this sheepish admission:Refer ZDNet By Ed Bott

It turns out his iso was not a bona fide purchased copy [of Windows 7], but rather a cracked version off of the net. In all likelihood the iso was trojaned…

Indeed. Which is why I exercised extraordinary caution. For my hands-on tests, I used a fresh copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, installed without a product key. I then looked at two widely distributed tools that work in completely different ways.

Page 2: Disabling Windows activation completely A clever little tool called RemoveWAT not only disables Microsoft’s activation subsystem, it also installs the latest anti-piracy update from Microsoft and then disables it, too!

Page 3: Fooling Windows by tinkering with the BIOS Big PC makers get to install copies of Windows that don’t require activation. Naturally, pirates soon figured out how to make any PC look like it came from one of those big factories.

Page 4: Microsoft versus the pirates Pirates are clever and fast. Microsoft is highly motivated to keep its lucrative Windows revenue stream intact. Are customers going to get caught in the crossfire?

More details and screenshots begin on the next page refer: ZDNet By Ed Bott

Is that really Kate? UK royal coin raises eyebrows...

2010-12-28T09:13:00.002+10:30

Reuters

The commemorative coin to mark the engagement of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton is seen in this undated photograph released in London December 23, 2010.Credit: Reuters/The Royal Mint/Handout

LONDON (Reuters Life!)Thu Dec 23, 2010 - The design for an official commemorative coin to mark the engagement of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton was unveiled on Thursday, but not everyone might recognize the bride-to-be.

The depiction, based on photographs of the couple at a sporting event, bears some resemblance to William but less so his fiancee.

Royal watchers said she appears much fuller in the face on the coin than she is in real life.

"This coin is of historical importance -- to get it so wrong seems ridiculous," Editor-in-Chief of Majesty magazine, Ingrid Seward, was quoted on the Sky News website as saying.

The design was approved by the 28-year-old couple and by William's grandmother Queen Elizabeth.

The Royal Mint, which produced the collectors' item, said it had no intention of changing the design.

"It is quite a subjective issue," a spokesman for the Mint, based in Llantrisant, south Wales, told Reuters.

"It is always challenging to engrave profiles and features onto something as small as a coin, particularly the features of young people."

Prince William, second-in-line to the throne after his father Prince Charles, announced his engagement to his long-term girlfriend in November, and the couple will marry on April 29.

The coin depicts him in profile -- an allusion to his royal status -- with Middleton looking at him face-on in a more informal pose, the Mint said.

It bears her full name, Catherine.

She is likely to become one of the most photographed women in the world, just like William's mother, the late Princess Diana.

Production of the coin has yet to begin, and it is not clear how many will be struck, but orders have been taken.

The Royal Mint has created many commemorative medals and coins to mark special occasions, including the 2012 London Olympics as well as other royal events, but this is the first time it has created a commemorative royal engagement coin.

"The Royal Mint has been recording historical events for over 1,100 years and we're fortunate to be in a role that allows us to add to that legacy," Dave Knight, director of Commemorative Coin at the Royal Mint, said in a statement.

The coin comes in silver and gold, and its various models cost from 9.99 to 1,550 pounds ($2,400).

(Writing by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Steve Addison)

Traffic tip for Santa: reflective reindeer collars | Reuters

2010-12-23T22:55:00.001+10:30

Reuters

OSLO (Reuters) Tue Dec 21, 2010. Norwegian reindeer owners have a Christmas safety tip for Santa -- put reflectors on his fleet-footed animals so they won't get hit by cars.
About 2,000 reindeer have been fitted this month with reflective yellow collars or small antler tags to cut down on the car crashes that now kill 500 reindeer a year and pose a danger to motorists across Arctic Norway.

"It really works," Kristian Oevernes, the leader of the project at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, told Reuters of the project in Finnmark, where the sun does not rise in mid-winter.

A test drive on a snowmobile showed that marked reindeer were far more visible in the dark than others. Several people are injured every year in car accidents involving reindeer, and one recent accident in Finland was fatal.

"I guess so," Oevernes said, when asked if Santa might take up the safety tip.

"This is the first time it (reindeer marking) has happened on this scale."

Sami herders had tried small experiments to attach reflective tape to the animals but the glue failed in the cold. Finnish herders had also tried a reflective spray, but it reduced the fur's ability to keep out the chill.

About 200,000 reindeer live in Norway, mostly owned by Sami indigenous people who raise them for meat, skins and antlers, according to the International Center for Reindeer Husbandry.
If the new project is successful, supporters say, reindeer owners or vehicle

(Editing by Paul Casci

Squeaky-clean Singapore in toilet manners campaign...

2010-12-23T11:29:00.002+10:30

Reuters

SINGAPORE Reuters Fri Dec 17, 2010. Squeaky-clean Singapore needs cleaner toilets and public awareness is one way to achieve this, a civic group said at the launch of the latest stage of its LOO campaign -- Let's Observe Ourselves.

But a survey by the Restroom Association (Singapore) (RAS) found that only some 500 of the island's public toilets overall were up to its standards of working facilities, lack of litter and odor, and the provision of basic amenities such as hand soap and toilet paper.

"For us, toilet etiquette reflects Singaporeans' culture. It tells people how civilized we are," RAS President Tan Puay Hoon told reporters on Thursday, when the association unveiled its 70-page report on public restrooms as part of a campaign to improve island-wide toilet cleanliness.

"We are a First World country and we want a gracious society to reflect that."

Under the RAS Happy Toilet Programme, toilets are rated from three to five stars. A four-star toilet should have a diaper changing station or urinal for children and a five-star should have eco-friendly features such as water-saving taps.

To call attention to its 3-year blueprint on public restroom and a public awareness program urging users to adopt proper restroom etiquette in the Heartlands area, site of many government-built apartment blocks, the RAS launched LOO@Heartlands -- the first coffee shop with a five-star toilet.

The RAS said it would also distribute packets of pocket tissues with restroom etiquette messages only to toilet visitors during peak hours at shops nearby.

"Singapore's effort in branding itself as one of the most liveable cities in Asia is exemplary," the association said in its report, which was submitted to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in September.

"Unfortunately, the cleanliness of our public restrooms has not been in tandem," the report added.

The RAS was founded in 1998 as a non-profit organization and says it is dedicated to promoting the cleanliness, design and functionality of public toilets in Singapore.

The LOO Campaign began in 2008. The RAS has also conducted the Happy Toilet School Education program and is a founding member of the World Toilet Organization and the Keep Singapore Beautiful Movement.

(Reporting by Nopporn Wong-Anan; Editing by Elaine Lies)

Oddly Enough

Gambling nun accused of embezzling $850,000...

2010-12-15T20:07:00.000+10:30

Reuters

NEW YORK Mon Dec 13, 2010(Reuters) - A Catholic nun with a reputation for gambling trips to Atlantic City was accused of embezzling more than $850,000 from a college where she oversaw the school's finances, officials said on Friday.

Sister Marie Thornton, former vice president of finance at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, is charged with sending phony invoices to the school to pay off personal credit card bills and expenses, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

The thefts occurred between 1999 and 2009, when Thornton resigned from the Catholic college, court documents said. She entered a plea of not guilty to a federal embezzlement charge.

The college of some 5,000 students has come under fire from alumni and donors for never reporting the missing money to authorities and only mentioning the theft in its 2009 tax filing sent in February to the Internal Revenue Service.

Iona officials issued a statement saying the school has implemented new financial oversight controls and recovered most of the missing funds.

The nun had a reputation for visiting casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey, according to former Iona basketball coach Jeff Ruland.

The U.S. Attorney's office originally said the theft was more than $1.2 million but on Friday revised the amount to more than $850,000, saying it had originally miscalculated.

Thornton's lawyer Sam Talkin said: "We think the case will be resolved in a manner fair to all the parties involved."

(Reporting by Aman Ali; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Greg McCu

Wisconsin woman accused of biting off husband's tongue...

2010-12-11T16:58:00.000+10:30

Reuters

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) Tue Dec 7, 2010 - A Wisconsin woman bit off half her husband's tongue during a kiss and has been arrested, authorities said on Tuesday.

The bitten piece of the husband's tongue was recovered, and he was taken to a hospital following the incident late on Monday, Sheboygan, Wisconsin police said in a statement.

The woman, 57, told emergency workers she had "bit her husband's tongue off," police said in a statement. She had blood on her clothing, they said.

The 79-year-old victim said his wife bit his tongue while he was kissing her, police said.

The woman was singing Christmas carols and blowing a New Year's horn when police arrested her on charges of felony mayhem. She was being held pending formal charges by the District Attorney's Office.

The victim was transported to an area hospital where doctors were trying to reattach his tongue, police said. About half his tongue was bit off, they said.

The victim said his wife had been acting strangely in recent days, said the police in Sheboygan, roughly 50 miles north of Milwaukee.

(Reporting by John Rondy; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Greg McCune)