Bill Gates triggered a media uproar with a 'disrespectful' one-handed shake upon meeting the new South Korean president. What should Bill Gates have done?
By David Clark Scott,?Staff writer / April 23, 2013
South Korean President Park Geun-hye, left, shakes hands with Microsoft founder Bill Gates before their meeting at the presidential Blue House in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, April 22, 2013. Gates has his left hand in his pocket.
(AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
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Global etiquette can be tricky. Just ask Bill Gates.
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The Microsoft chairman (who is also co-chair of one of the world's biggest charitable organizations)? is no stranger to international travel or meeting heads of state. But, on Monday, when he shook hands with South Korea's first female president, Park Geun-hye, Gates made a serious faux pas, which resulted in a cultural kerfuffle.
Gates shook her hand with just one hand. In South Korea, and much of Asia, that's only done in casual settings, with good friends. To top it off, Gates had his left hand in his pocket, signaling his superiority.
"How rude!" was the response in South Korea media. Almost every news organizations carried the photo on the front page.
The proper way to show respect would have been for Gates to clasp the South Korean leader's hand with both of his hands.
Was Gates sending a blunt signal of political disapproval to the new government leader? Was Gates ignorant of Asian etiquette??
There was enough media buzz that the South Korean president's office felt it needed to issue an official statement on the matter: "Bill Gates took a similar pose for a picture when he met former President Lee Myung-bak five years ago. Just think of it as an American style of greeting," according to Dong.com, the website of Dong-a Ilbo, a leading newspaper in Korea with daily circulation of more than 1.2 million.?
[Editor's note: Since publication, the president's office contacted The Christian Science Monitor to say that it had issued no official statement about the Bill Gates handshake.]
The first part of that statement is true. In fact, the Atlantic Wire compiled a series of Bill Gates One-Hand Shaking, One-Hand-in-Pocket photos from previous meetings with other world dignitaries, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, China's President Xi Jinping, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Apparently Gates is consistently casual about his handshakes ? with whomever he meets.
While the one-handed Western handshake has become more common in Asia, business etiquette also suggests that one never looks directly in the eyes of the person you're meeting. An exception to that rule is the Philippines. And in many places, a bow is also part of the greeting.
In Cambodia, for example, if you meet a prominent businessman, the proper way to show respect is to place your palms together at chest height and bow at your waist.
There's also a culturally correct way to exchange business cards in Asia, too. Each card should be in English on one side, and the recipient's native language on the other. You present your card with both hands, native language side up and readable to the recipient. When you receive a card, it's also a two-handed affair. Look at it, thank the person, and put in gently in a coat pocket.
For more tips on global etiquette, check out The Christian Science Monitor's quiz on the globally savvy traveler.
Based on last quarter's global PC shipment numbers, Microsoft continues to feel pain in making the case for Windows is a viable tablet operating system. Theoretically, the dual-identity (Windows 8/RT) operating system has everything it needs to be a contender, but the promise is ahead of the reality on three interdependent fronts: chip-level hardware, legacy support, and app software.
For example, if x86 chips were more competitive with ARM processors from a performance-per-watt perspective, then Microsoft wouldn't be as reliant on Metro-style apps for functionality. And if more developers were creating Metro-style apps, then consumers wouldn't have to go to the legacy desktop mode as much to get things done. (Until the company releases a Metro-style Office, Microsoft really can't wag its finger too much at third parties.)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? One of the architects of failed gun control legislation says he's bringing it back.
Sen. Joe Manchin on Sunday said he would re-introduce a measure that would require criminal and mental health background checks for gun buyers at shows and online. The West Virginia Democrat says that if lawmakers read the bill, they will support it.
Manchin sponsored a previous version of the measure with Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania. It failed.
Manchin says there was confusion over what was in the bill.
In the wake of last year's school shooting in Newtown, Conn., Congress took up gun control legislation, but it was blocked by supporters of the powerful pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.
New drug stimulates immune system to kill infected cells in animal model of hepatitis B infection
Monday, April 29, 2013
A novel drug developed by Gilead Sciences and tested in an animal model at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio suppresses hepatitis B virus infection by stimulating the immune system and inducing loss of infected cells.
In a study conducted at Texas Biomed's Southwest National Primate Research Center, researchers found that the immune modulator GS-9620, which targets a receptor on immune cells, reduced both the virus levels and the number of infected liver cells in chimpanzees chronically infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Chimpanzees are the only species other than humans that can be infected by HBV. Therefore, the results from this study were critical in moving the drug forward to human clinical trials which are now in progress.
The new report, co-authored by scientists from Texas Biomed and Gilead Sciences, appears in the May issue of Gastroenterology. Gilead researchers had previously demonstrated that the same therapy could induce a cure of hepatitis infection in woodchucks that were chronically infected with a virus similar to human HBV.
"This is an important proof-of-concept study demonstrating that the therapy stimulates the immune system to suppress the virus and eliminate infected liver cells," said co-author Robert E. Lanford, Ph.D., of Texas Biomed. "One of the key observations was that the therapy continued to suppress virus levels for months after therapy was stopped.
The current therapy for HBV infection targets the virus and works very well at suppressing viral replication and delaying progression of liver disease, but it is a lifelong therapy that does not provide a cure.
"This GS-9620 therapy represents the first conceptually new treatment for HBV in more than a decade, and combining it with the existing antiviral therapy could be transformative in dealing with this disease," stated Lanford.
The Gilead drug binds a receptor called Toll-Like Receptor 7 that is present in immune cells. The receptor normally recognizes invading viruses and triggers the immune system to suppress viral replication by the innate immune response and kill infected cells by the adaptive immune response, thus orchestrating both arms of the immune system.
HBV damages the liver, leading to cirrhosis and liver cancer. Liver cancer is the fifth most common cancer worldwide and the third most common cause of cancer death. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), up to 1.4 million Americans are chronically infected with HBV.
The World Health Organization estimates that two billion people have been infected with the hepatitis B virus, resulting in more than 240 million people with chronic infections and 620,000 deaths every year.
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Texas Biomedical Research Institute: http://txbiomed.org/
Thanks to Texas Biomedical Research Institute for this article.
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AAA??Apr. 29, 2013?4:17 PM ET Rod Stewart, T.I. set for 'Voice' performances AP
FILE - In this Saturday, April 27, 2013 file photo, singer Hillary Scott, left, and singer Charles Kelley of the band Lady Antebellum perform on Day 2 of the 2013 Stagecoach Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club, in Indio, Calif. NBC says it's lining up musical artists including Rod Stewart to perform on "The Voice" in May. The network said Monday, April 29, 2013, that Stewart, CeeLo Green, Lady Antebellum, Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. will take the stage on upcoming episodes of the hit singing contest. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, April 27, 2013 file photo, singer Hillary Scott, left, and singer Charles Kelley of the band Lady Antebellum perform on Day 2 of the 2013 Stagecoach Music Festival at the Empire Polo Club, in Indio, Calif. NBC says it's lining up musical artists including Rod Stewart to perform on "The Voice" in May. The network said Monday, April 29, 2013, that Stewart, CeeLo Green, Lady Antebellum, Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. will take the stage on upcoming episodes of the hit singing contest. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2012 file photo, musician Robin Thicke performs during Macy's Passport presents Glamorama 2012 at The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. NBC says it's lining up musical artists including Rod Stewart to perform on "The Voice" in May. The network said Monday, April 29, 2013, that Stewart, CeeLo Green, Lady Antebellum, Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. will take the stage on upcoming episodes of the hit singing contest. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? NBC says it's lining up musical artists including Rod Stewart to perform on "The Voice" in May.
The network said Monday that Stewart, CeeLo Green, Lady Antebellum, Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and T.I. will take the stage on upcoming episodes of the hit singing contest.
Stewart and Green are set to sing on the May 8 episode of "The Voice." Lady Antebellum, Thicke, Williams and T.I will perform May 14.
All of the artists have new material to showcase, including upcoming albums from Stewart, Green and Lady Antebellum. Thicke, Williams and T.I. collaborated on Thicke's latest single, "Blurred Lines." Williams has a single out, "Get Lucky," while T.I. has the album "Trouble Man: Heavy Is the Head."
Most of the guest stars have "Voice" connections, including former coach Green.
As advanced as "multitasking" gets on the latest smartphones, many times you're still left to completely switch between apps. Paranoid Android is looking to set things into overdrive with in-app multiple-window multitasking for its skin of Android, going beyond the similar, but limited, functionality seen in the likes of Samsung's basked-in Galaxy apps. PA's Paul Henschel recently posted a demo to YouTube highlighting the feature working with various apps on both an Android tablet and a Nexus smartphone, with a post to Google+ stating that it shows less than ten percent of the planned functionality. If that wasn't enough, the post further clarifies PA's drive to build out its version stating, "We think these [Samsung, Cyanogen & Cornerstone] implementations suck and we want to get it right this time." Thirsty for more info? Hit the source link and the video after the break for some quencher, while we eagerly wait to see more.
SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? Bangladesh rescuers on Sunday located nine people alive inside the rubble of a multi-story building that collapsed five days ago, as authorities announced they will now use heavy equipment to drill a central hole from the top to look for survivors and dead bodies.
At least 362 people are confirmed dead in the collapse of the 8-story building that housed five garment factories. The death toll is expected to rise further, but it is already the deadliest tragedy to hit Bangladesh's garment industry, which is worth $20 billion annually and a mainstay of the economy.
Wednesday's collapse and previous disasters in garment factories have focused attention on the poor working conditions of workers who toil for as little as $38 a month to produce clothing for top international brands.
Army Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the coordinator of the rescue operations, said they will try to save the nine people first by manually shifting concrete blocks with the help of light equipment such as pick axes and shovels.
"But if we fail we will start our next phase within hours," which would involve manual efforts as well as heavy equipment, including hydraulic cranes and cutters to bore a hole from the top of the collapsed building, he told reporters.
The purpose is to "continue the operation to recover both survivors and dead bodies. In this stage, we have no other choice but to use some heavy equipment. We will start it within a few hours. Manual operation and use of small equipment is not enough," he said.
The work will be carried out carefully so as not to mutilate bodies, he said. All the equipment is in place, "from a small blade to everything. We have engaged many private sector companies which supplied us equipment, even some heavy ones."
In rare good news, a female worker was pulled out alive on Sunday. Hasan Akbari, a rescuer, said when he tried to extricate a man next to the woman, "he said his body was being torn apart. So I had to let go. But God willing, we will be able to rescue him with more help very soon."
On Saturday, police took six people into custody, including three owners of two factories who were placed under arrest. Also under detention are the wife of the building owner who is on the run and two government engineers who were involved in giving approval for the building design. The owner had the approval to construct five floors but he added three more illegally.
A huge crack appeared in the building, Rana Plaza, on Tuesday, but the owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, assured tenants it was safe to go inside. A bank and some shops on the first floor shut their premises on Wednesday after police ordered an evacuation, but managers of the garment factories on the upper floor told workers to continue their shifts.
Hours later the Rana Plaza was reduced to rubble, and most victims were crushed by massive blocks of concrete and mortar falling on them. A garment manufacturers' group said the factories in the building employed 3,122 workers, but it was not clear how many were inside it when it collapsed. About 2,500 survivors have been accounted for.
Working round-the-clock, rescuers have used bare hands and shovels, passing chunks of brick and concrete down a human chain away from the collapsed structure. On the ground, mixed in the debris were several pairs of pink cotton pants, a mud-covered navy blue sock and a pile of green uncut fabric.
The badly decomposed bodies pulled out of the rubble were kept at a makeshift morgue at the nearby Adharchandra High School before being handed over to families. Many people milled around at the school, waving photos of their missing loved ones.
Among those arrested are Bazlus Samad, managing director of New Wave Apparels Ltd., and Mahmudur Rahman Tapash, the company chairman, and Aminul Islam, chairman of Phantom Apparels Ltd.
Rana, the building owner, was a local leader of ruling Awami League's youth front. His arrest, and that of the factory owners, was ordered by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is also the Awami League leader.
The disaster is the worst ever for the country's booming and powerful garment industry, surpassing a fire five months ago that killed 112 people and brought widespread pledges to improve worker-safety standards. But since then very little has changed in Bangladesh, where low wages have made it a magnet for numerous global brands.
Bangladesh's garment industry was the third largest in the world in 2011, after China and Italy, having grown rapidly in the past decade. The country's minimum wage is the equivalent of about $38 a month.
Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms. Altogether, they produced several million shirts, pants and other garments a year.
The New Wave companies, according to their website, make clothing for several major North American and European retailers.
Britain's Primark acknowledged it was using a factory in Rana Plaza, but many other retailers distanced themselves from the disaster, saying they were not involved with the factories at the time of the collapse or had not recently ordered garments from them.
Wal-Mart said none of its clothing had been authorized to be made in the facility, but it is investigating whether there was any unauthorized production.
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AP writers Farid Hossain and Gillian Wong in Dhaka contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama joked Saturday about his plans for a radical second-term evolution from a "strapping young Muslim Socialist" to retiree golfer, all with a new hairstyle like first lady Michelle's.
Obama used this year's annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner to poke fun at himself and some of his political adversaries, asking if it was still possible to be brought down a peg after 4? years as commander-in-chief.
Entering to the rap track "All I Do Is Win" by DJ Khaled, Obama joked about how re-election would allow him to unleash a radical agenda. But then he showed a picture of himself golfing on a mock magazine cover of "Senior Leisure."
"I'm not the strapping young Muslim Socialist that I used to be," the president remarked, and then recounted his recent 2-for-22 basketball shooting performance at the White House Easter Egg hunt.
But Obama's most dramatic shift for the next four years appeared to be aesthetic. He presented a montage of shots featuring him with bangs similar to those sometimes sported by his wife.
Obama closed by noting the nation's recent tragedies in Massachusetts and Texas, praising Americans of all stripes from first responders to local journalists for serving the public good.
Saturday night's banquet not far from the White House attracted the usual assortment of stars from Hollywood and beyond. Actors Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Claire Danes, who play government characters on series, were among the attendees, as was Korean entertainer Psy. Several Cabinet members, governors and members of Congress were present.
And despite coming at a somber time, nearly two weeks after the deadly Boston Marathon bombing and 10 days after a devastating fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, the president and political allies and rivals alike took the opportunity to enjoy some humor. Late-night talk-show host Conan O'Brien headlined the event.
Some of Obama's jokes came at his Republican rivals' expense. He asked that the GOP's minority outreach begin with him as a "trial run" and said he'd take his recent charm offensive with Republicans on the road, including to a book-burning event with Rep. Michele Bachmann.
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson would have had better success getting Obama out of office if he simply offered the president $100 million to drop out of last year's race, Obama quipped.
And on the 2016 election, the president noted in self-referential irony that potential Republican candidate Sen. Marco Rubio wasn't qualified because he hasn't even served a full term in the Senate. Obama served less than four years of his six-year Senate term before he was elected president in 2008.
The gala also was an opportunity for six journalists, including Associated Press White House Correspondent Julie Pace, to be honored for their coverage of the presidency and national issues.
The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza won the Aldo Beckman Award, which recognizes excellence in the coverage of the presidency.
Pace won the Merriman Smith Award for a print journalist for coverage on deadline.
ABC's Terry Moran was the winner of the broadcast Merriman Smith Award for deadline reporting.
Reporters Jim Morris, Chris Hamby and Ronnie Greene of the Center for Public Integrity won the Edgar A. Poe Award for coverage of issues of national significance.
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) ? The father of the two Boston bombing suspects said Sunday that he has postponed a trip from Russia to the United States because of poor health.
"I am really sick," Anzor Tsarnaev, 46, told The Associated Press. He said his blood pressure had spiked to dangerous levels.
Tsarnaev said at a news conference Thursday that he planned to leave that day or the next for the U.S. with the hope of seeing his younger son, who is under arrest, and burying his elder son, who was killed. His family, however, indicated later Thursday that the trip could be pushed back because he was not feeling well.
Tsarnaev confirmed on Sunday that he is staying in Chechnya, a province in southern Russia, but did not specify whether he was hospitalized. He is an ethnic Chechen and has relatives in Chechnya, although he and his family spent little time in Chechnya or anywhere else in Russia before moving to the U.S. a decade ago.
He and the suspects' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, returned to Russia last year and settled in Makhachkala, the capital of neighboring Dagestan, where Tsarnaeva's relatives live.
During the past week, they were both questioned extensively by U.S. investigators who had traveled to Makhachkala from Moscow. They also were besieged by journalists who staked out their home.
Tsarnaev's family said last week that he intended to get to the U.S. by flying from Grozny, the Chechen capital, to Moscow. He and Tsarnaeva left Dagestan on Friday, but their whereabouts were unclear.
New health insurance survey: 84 million people were uninsured for a time or underinsured in 2012
Biennial health insurance survey finds 75 million people struggled with medical debt and 80 million were unable to afford the health care they need Published on Apr 26, 2013 - 7:35:57 AM
By: Commonwealth Fund
NEW YORK, NY, April 26, 2013 - Eighty-four million people?nearly half of all working-age U.S. adults?went without health insurance for a time last year or had out-of-pocket costs that were so high relative to their income they were considered underinsured, according to the Commonwealth Fund 2012 Biennial Health Insurance Survey. The survey also found that the proportion of young adults ages 19?25 who were uninsured during the year fell from 48 percent to 41 percent between 2010 and 2012, reversing a nearly decade-long trend of rising uninsured rates in that age group. This reversal is likely due to a provision in the 2010 Affordable Care Act allowing young adults to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26, the authors say.
The report, Insuring the Future: Current Trends in Health Coverage and the Effects of Implementing the Affordable Care Act, finds that the percentage of Americans who were uninsured, underinsured, or had gaps in their health coverage grew steadily between 2003 and 2010, with the number of underinsured nearly doubling from 16 million in 2003 to 29 million in 2010. However, between 2010 and 2012, the numbers of underinsured adults leveled off, growing to 30 million. The authors say that this is partly a result of slower health care cost growth and lower overall health spending by consumers, combined with declining household incomes. But provisions in the health reform law?such as requiring insurers to cover recommended preventive care without any cost to patients?also are beginning to make health care more affordable for many consumers.
"The early provisions of the Affordable Care Act are helping young adults gain coverage and improving the affordability of health care during difficult economic times for American families," said Sara Collins, Ph.D., a Commonwealth Fund vice president and the study's lead author. "It will be critical to continue to monitor the effects of the law as the major provisions go into effect in 2014 and beyond to ensure it achieves its goal of near-universal, comprehensive health insurance."
Millions Are Struggling to Afford Health Care and Falling into Medical Debt
According to the survey, people are increasingly skipping needed health care because they can't afford it. In 2012, 80 million people reported that, during the past year, they did not go to the doctor when they were sick or did not fill a prescription due to cost. Reports of skipping needed care rose substantially from 2003, when 63 million people did not get care because of cost.
Medical debt also continues to burden U.S. households. According to the report, in 2012, 41 percent of working-age adults, or 75 million people, had problems paying their medical bills or were paying off medical bills over time, up from 58 million in 2005. Nearly one of five (18%) adults were contacted by a collections agency over unpaid bills, and 16 percent had to change their way of life because of medical bills. The report finds that medical debt has substantial consequences: 42 percent of survey respondents who reported having trouble with medical bills, or an estimated 32 million people, had a lower credit rating because of unpaid bills and 6 percent, or an estimated 4 million, had to declare bankruptcy because of their bills.
Impact of the Affordable Care Act
The health reform law has already helped millions of young adults gain insurance coverage and protected people from insurance company practices like cancelling policies retroactively when a subscriber becomes sick, or putting a limit on how much they will pay out in a given year or lifetime. But the bulk of the law's effects will not be felt until 2014, when the health insurance reforms are fully implemented and the new state insurance marketplaces are up and running. Using the survey findings to determine how the Affordable Care Act will impact Americans currently uninsured or underinsured, the report finds that:
? Eighty-seven percent of the 55 million people who were uninsured for some time during the year in 2012 have incomes that would make them eligible for subsidized health insurance through the insurance marketplaces or expanded Medicaid under the law, though coverage is limited to those legally present in the U.S.
? Up to eighty-five percent of the 30 million underinsured adults might be eligible for either Medicaid or subsidized health insurance plans with reduced out-of-pocket costs under the law.
The authors say it is critical that the federal government and the states continue to implement the Affordable Care Act, cautioning that if states don't expand Medicaid as the law originally intended, millions of low-income families will be at risk for being uninsured even after the law takes full effect in 2014.
"The costs of health care and health coverage in the United States have been on an unsustainable trajectory, straining family and government budgets," said Commonwealth Fund president David Blumenthal, M.D. "It is important that lawmakers and regulators across the country take the steps necessary to ensure that all Americans can benefit fully from the law's improvements to the quality, efficiency, and affordability of our health care system."
Additional Report Findings:
? In 2012, about three-fourths of working-age adults with low incomes (less than $14,856 a year for an individual or $30,657 for a family of four)?an estimated 40 million people?were uninsured or underinsured.
? Fifty-nine percent of adults with moderate incomes (between $14,856 and $27,925 for an individual or between $30,657 and $57,625 for a family of four)?or 21 million people ?were uninsured or underinsured.
? Adults who were uninsured were less likely to receive recommended preventive care in 2012. For example, only 48 percent of women who were uninsured during the year received a mammogram within the recommended period, compared to 77 percent of those who were well insured all year.
The report will be available at http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Publications.aspx. An interactive graphic will be available at http://www.commonwealthfund.org/Resources.
Study Methodology
The Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International from April 26 to August 19, 2012. The survey consisted of 25-minute telephone interviews in either English or Spanish and was conducted among a random, nationally representative sample of 4,432 adults ages 19 and older living in the continental United States. The sample was drawn from a combination of landline and cell phone random-digit dial (RDD) samples.
This report limits the analysis to respondents ages 19 to 64 (n=3,393). Statistical results are weighted to correct for the stratified sample design, the overlapping landline and cellular phone sample frames, and disproportionate non-response that might bias results. The resulting weighted sample is representative of the approximately 183.9 million U.S. adults ages 19 to 64.
The survey has an overall margin of sampling error of +/? 2.3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. The landline portion of the survey achieved a 22 percent response rate and the cellular phone component achieved a 19 percent response rate.
The report also presents estimates from the 2003, 2005, and 2010 Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Surveys. These surveys were conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International using the same stratified sampling strategy as was used in 2012, except the 2003 and 2005 surveys did not include a cell phone random-digit dial sample. In 2003, the survey was conducted from September 3, 2003, through January 4, 2004, and included 3,293 adults ages 19 to 64; in 2005, the survey was conducted from August 2005 to January 2006 among 3,353 adults ages 19 to 64; in 2010, the survey was conducted from July 14 to November 30 2010 among 3,033 adults ages 19 to 64.
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation supporting independent research on health policy reform and a high performance health system.
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DETROIT (AP) ? General Motors says a base model of the 2014 Corvette Stingray will start at just under $52,000.
Considering everything that GM put into the newest Corvette, the $1,400 price increase over the current model seems pretty modest.
The all-new Corvette goes on sale this summer. The car was the talk of the Detroit auto show in January because of the dramatic changes GM made to it.
GM designers made the car lower and sleeker, while the interior has a more modern look. The new Corvette can go from zero to 60 mph in under four seconds, a few tenths of a second faster than the current model.
Dealers say customers already are putting down deposits to be one of the first to get the new version.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) ? Joe Gibbs Racing was still smarting Friday over the severity of the penalties NASCAR levied this week after an underweight part was found in Matt Kenseth's engine.
The issue is not whether the part was illegal. Because one of eight connecting rods failed to meet the minimum weight requirement, the team acknowledges it was indeed illegal. But the engine came from manufacturer Toyota Racing Development, and JGR is questioning the fairness in NASCAR's harsh ruling against the team.
The reasoning, NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton said Friday, is because the team is ultimately responsible for every piece of the car presented at inspection.
"At this time we will not and cannot penalize vendors," Pemberton said at Richmond International Raceway. "We'd be at it all day long, whether it was a shock that went bad, a spring that collapsed that caused the car (to be) low or any of those things.
"But when you go down that road, there are a million pieces on these cars, and so we choose to go down the path that it's the team's responsibility for quality control, to check on the parts and pieces that they bring and compete with at the racetrack."
Per NASCAR policy, Kenseth's race-winning engine from Sunday at Kansas was taken back to the North Carolina Research & Development Center for a thorough inspection. Once opened up to NASCAR inspectors, one connecting rod was found to be approximately three grams ? less than the weight of an envelope ? too light.
Kenseth had everything but his trophy taken away, with NASCAR docking him 50 points, plus the three bonus points he earned for the win. Crew chief Jason Ratcliff was fined $200,000 and he and team owner Joe Gibbs were both suspended for six races.
JGR is appealing, so Ratcliff and Gibbs could work Friday at Richmond, where Kenseth has gone on record in calling the penalties "grossly unfair" and "borderline shameful."
But Ratcliff also insisted that the No. 20 Toyota had no advantage from the one light connecting rod.
"I respect NASCAR's view on it as far as the part was illegal so by the letter of the law, the part's illegal and there's consequences for that. I do not feel like the spirit of the law was compromised," he said. "That's where we felt like the severity of the penalty is extremely harsh.
"We won Kansas, you can bet your bottom dollar on that. You make that change in that engine and that race doesn't change a bit."
The engines are made by TRD in Costa Mesa, Calif., and shipped to JGR's shop in North Carolina. JGR can't touch the engines beyond installing them in the cars, and TRD has accepted responsibility for the mistake. TRD officials said the manufacturer shipped the part with paperwork that indicated its correct weight, and TRD employees simply missed the fact it was not legal.
Pemberton said NASCAR isn't charged with determining intent or if the infraction provided an advantage.
"Everybody's asked the same thing ? why aren't things more black and white?" Pemberton said. "It's too light. It's too heavy. It's too wide. It's too high. It's too low. It's black and white, and we can't judge the performance because some guys do a better job of it than others, quite frankly."
Ratcliff argued TRD should have felt the burden of the penalty, not JGR. Although NASCAR did dock Toyota five manufacturer points, the bulk of the penalty went against Gibbs and Ratcliff, who wasn't sure if he would have to pay the $200,000 himself. "I hope not. If I do I'm going to be broke ? we need to start a relief fund," he said.
"Back in the day, most of the engines were built by the race team," Ratcliff said. "Now you have a handful of major engine builders that supply engines to most all the teams in the garage. How do you hold them accountable? I think it's time for some change on how NASCAR approaches it because times have changed so much."
The penalties against Joe Gibbs Racing came a week after NASCAR penalized Penske Racing for allegedly using illegal parts in the rear suspension of defending champion Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano's cars.
Keselowski and Logano were docked 25 points apiece, their crew chiefs were fined a total of $200,000 and were suspended along with five other Penske employees for six races. Penske's appeal will be heard next Wednesday, and team owner Roger Penske has maintained they were working in a gray area of the rule book.
The Penske and Gibbs cases aren't similar in that Penske has a difference of opinion about a rule, where the Gibbs group will argue the severity of the fines.
Pemberton stood by his rules are rules defense.
"We feel like we're consistent, but not every violation is exactly the same," Pemberton said. "We do our best and we feel like we do a good job interpreting the rules and levying the penalties they deserve."
* Lewandowski scored four goals against Real Madrid * Poland international refuses contract extension (adds details, background) BERLIN, April 26 (Reuters) - Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski have not signed a deal, the newly-crowned champions said on Friday, shooting down widespread speculation of another imminent surprise transfer. "Bayern, as opposed to some reports, has no contract with Robert Lewandowski," the Bavarian Champions League semi-finalists said in a brief statement. ...
Apr. 25, 2013 ? NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided the first direct evidence of small meteoroids breaking into streams of rubble and crashing into Saturn's rings.
These observations make Saturn's rings the only location besides Earth, the moon and Jupiter where scientists and amateur astronomers have been able to observe impacts as they occur. Studying the impact rate of meteoroids from outside the Saturnian system helps scientists understand how different planet systems in our solar system formed.
The solar system is full of small, speeding objects. These objects frequently pummel planetary bodies. The meteoroids at Saturn are estimated to range from about one-half inch to several yards (1 centimeter to several meters) in size. It took scientists years to distinguish tracks left by nine meteoroids in 2005, 2009 and 2012.
Details of the observations appear in a paper in the Thursday, April 25 edition of Science.
Results from Cassini have already shown Saturn's rings act as very effective detectors of many kinds of surrounding phenomena, including the interior structure of the planet and the orbits of its moons. For example, a subtle but extensive corrugation that ripples 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometers) across the innermost rings tells of a very large meteoroid impact in 1983.
"These new results imply the current-day impact rates for small particles at Saturn are about the same as those at Earth -- two very different neighborhoods in our solar system -- and this is exciting to see," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It took Saturn's rings acting like a giant meteoroid detector -- 100 times the surface area of the Earth -- and Cassini's long-term tour of the Saturn system to address this question."
The Saturnian equinox in summer 2009 was an especially good time to see the debris left by meteoroid impacts. The very shallow sun angle on the rings caused the clouds of debris to look bright against the darkened rings in pictures from Cassini's imaging science subsystem.
"We knew these little impacts were constantly occurring, but we didn't know how big or how frequent they might be, and we didn't necessarily expect them to take the form of spectacular shearing clouds," said Matt Tiscareno, lead author of the paper and a Cassini participating scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "The sunlight shining edge-on to the rings at the Saturnian equinox acted like an anti-cloaking device, so these usually invisible features became plain to see."
Tiscareno and his colleagues now think meteoroids of this size probably break up on a first encounter with the rings, creating smaller, slower pieces that then enter into orbit around Saturn. The impact into the rings of these secondary meteoroid bits kicks up the clouds. The tiny particles forming these clouds have a range of orbital speeds around Saturn. The clouds they form soon are pulled into diagonal, extended bright streaks.
"Saturn's rings are unusually bright and clean, leading some to suggest that the rings are actually much younger than Saturn," said Jeff Cuzzi, a co-author of the paper and a Cassini interdisciplinary scientist specializing in planetary rings and dust at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "To assess this dramatic claim, we must know more about the rate at which outside material is bombarding the rings. This latest analysis helps fill in that story with detection of impactors of a size that we weren't previously able to detect directly."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras. The imaging team consists of scientists from the United States, England, France and Germany. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.
For images of the impacts and information about Cassini, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .
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Journal Reference:
Matthew S. Tiscareno, Colin J. Mitchell, Carl D. Murray, Daiana Di Nino, Matthew M. Hedman, J?rgen Schmidt, Joseph A. Burns, Jeffrey N. Cuzzi, Carolyn C. Porco, Kevin Beurle, and Michael W. Evans. Observations of Ejecta Clouds Produced by Impacts onto Saturn?s Rings. Science, 2013; 340 (6131): 460-464 DOI: 10.1126/science.1233524
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The first world war cost much more than ours in this timeline and thus the world decided that no more would war guide their lives and that peace and security would become Law. First was the abolition of hate in the best as they could in the equalization of all ages, sexes and races of humankind, trowing away organizations and families ? those that were left anyways, and making them anew in what was called Companionship, the process long but worth it to most as it got rid of prejudice and made stronger bloodlines.
Companionships were in fact arranged couplings between two entirely different people until the time when an offspring was created and ready to strike up a Companionship of their own, the process keeping things like jealousy and attachment to a minimal as the Companions were forced to fidelity and then utter estrangement after the Companionship was through.
Offspring were brought up in the Amphitheater, a scholastic and social center for youth that taught them the new indoctrination of the world and kept track of their pedigree, progresses and made sure they formed 'healthy' bonds with others, that is no more and no less than associates or distant friends.
Various balls and events were organized as social and political hostilities were the only means besides sports to let off some steam and each citizen was more and more politically aware as generations did go on. Such atmosphere regarding political agendas was ripe for propaganda and thus the war posters became urging for this or that bill for the government, further swaying the populace into a political mindset.
Business was booming and contracts were common usage in this day and age, forcing the participants to uphold their end of the bargain and providing shrewd customers with added protection. Patriotism was as well in a all time high as the lack of competitors somehow blinded the citizen of the new world into failing to see the world's flaw. It was a heaven for all!
That is until it was put into practice and the first Elections of the New World slowly brought the world to both Greatness and Corruption. How long can Heaven lasts until it becomes Hell?
Alright, so this is a generational rp where you will start as a survivor of the war and will go on from yourself to your firstborn's twentieth birthday and so on until yourself or the world is wiped out, or again until you get bored and leave, which will forfeit your line. Your goal is to be as happy as possible for the longest period of time, taking into account that some sacrifices must be made for the Greater Good, so to speak.
The world will start pretty grim but full of hope and gain in glamour, at the cost of purity of ideal and of heart. Each round will be separated in years and the average lifespan will be 85, so make an offspring before then! Second of all will be a set of hidden stats you will have to watch out for; Corruption, Happiness, Charisma, Credibility and Pedigree. All will have an impact but you will only be able to guess at their values.
You will start with a standard home on the outskirt of the Capital and will have to make your way up (or down if you're either unwise or unlucky) from there. A shiny new world awaits you, will you be able to seize it?
A day after effortlessly shrugging off the?Syrian Electronic Army, the?Dow?(^DJI) decided to have a Road to Damascus conversion. Turnaround Tuesday arrived 24 hours late, with blue chips falling 43.16 amid decidedly iffy durable goods data.?
? General Dynamics?(GD), which makes Gulfstream business jets, surged 6.90% to a fresh 52-week peak but?an unloved?Amgen?(AMGN) had better?get rid of its own one quick after imploding 6.94% in its worst single session showing for several years.
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Elsewhere, even old reliables mom and Apple?(AAPL) pie failed to reward investors with Ma Bell?AT&T?(T) tumbling 5.03% and the erstwhile tech titan taking its 2013 decline to 24%. And the John Thain portfolio proved particularly profitable. The CEO of?upgraded?CIT Group?(CIT) saw that stock surge 4.26% while his?longtime nickname iRobot (IRBT) rose 13.71% to a fresh 52-week peak and the?Superman lookalike will have equally enjoyed a 5.44% jump in US Steel (X).
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The single busiest day of earnings season has arrived with Amazon (AMZN), AstraZeneca?(AZN),?Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), Coca-Cola (KO), ConocoPhillips (COP),?Exxon Mobil?(XOM),Gazprom?(PINK:OGZPY),?JetBlue Airways (JBLU),?Starbucks?(SBUX), and United Parcel Service?(UPS) all due to report results.
? Akamai Technologies?(AKAM): JPMorgan moves the stock to Neutral from Overweight.
? Apple Inc.?(AAPL): Amid optimism over its dividend and stock repurchase program, Hilliard Lyons lifts the troubled tech titan to Buy from Long-Term Buy.
? Asbury Automotive?(ABG): ABG gets increased to Buy from Hold at Craig Hallum.
? Canadian Pacific Railway?(CP): Raymond James juices its rating to Outperform from Market Perform.
? Cheesecake Factory?(CAKE): CAKE is now Neutral from Underperform at Buckingham Research.
? Crown Castle International?(CCI): Macquarie moves the company to Outperform from Neutral.
? Edwards Lifesciences?(EW): Calling yesterday?s NYSE-worst 21.99% tumble excessive, Northland Capital lifts the stock to Market Perform from Underperform.
? F5 Networks?(FFIV): The company is upgraded to Buy from Neutral at Nomura.
? Federal-Mogul?(FDML): Shares are now Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.
? First Niagara?(FNFG): Raymond James raises the Savings & Loans stock to Market Perform from Underperform.
? Infinera?(INFN): Shares are now Buy from Hold with a $12 target at Needham, which notes robust orders from both new and existing customers.
? IPC The Hospitalist Company?(IPCM): The health services provider gets a Buy-from-Hold hoist at Deutsche Bank.
? Lumber Liquidators?(LL): Stifel lifts LL to Hold from Sell.
? Potlatch?(PCH): Raymond James increases the industrial Real Estate Investment Trust to Outperform from Market Perform.
? Procter & Gamble?(NYSE:PG): The?Dow member, whose brands include Bounty, Crest, and Tide, is today taken to Buy from Neutral at SunTrust. Yesterday?s 5.88% stock slide, its worst showing for about four years, provides investors with an attractive entry point in the broker?s estimation. Shares are, accordingly, rebounding before the bell as I write.
? Residential REITs: FBR Capital raises Real Estate Investment Trusts?Annaly Capital (NLY) ? Perform from Underperform, taking its target price to $15.50 from $13.50 ? and Two Harbors?(TWO) ? added to its Top Picks list. Catalysts include recent home price appreciation and improvements in sub prime credit quality.
? ServiceNow?(NOW): Shares are moved to Buy from Neutral at Mizuho, which also increases its price objective to $45 from $35 on a stock it says stands to benefit from an ongoing secular shift to hosted applications.
? TriQuint Semiconductor?(TQNT): Raymond James takes TQNT to Market Perform from Underperform.
? Waste Management?(WM): Shares are taken to Buy from Hold with Wunderlich, whose objective also increases to $43 from $35. Meaningful margin expansion can occur from current levels, in its opinion.
? Yum Brands?(YUM): An impressive earnings release sees the owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell score a Market Perform-from-Underperform upgrade at Raymond James.
? Zoetis?(ZTS): The animal health outfit, a recent spin-off from?Pfizer?(PFE), is boosted to Market Perform from Underperform by BMO Capital.
(See also: New Stock Coverage: Sink Your Teeth Into Diamondback Energy and Stock Downgrades: McGraw-Hill Has Mountain to Climb.)
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MADRID, April 25 (Reuters) - Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina said the 10-match ban given to his team mate Luis Suarez for biting an opponent was 'absurd' and 'excessive'. Uruguay international Suarez was punished on Wednesday by the English Football Association (FA) after he bit the arm of Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic at the weekend. "He knows he is in the wrong, and that it was a mistake, but the 10-game punishment seems absurd to me, excessive and unfair," Spanish international Reina was quoted as telling radio station Cadena Cope by sports daily AS on Thursday. ...
Apr. 25, 2013 ? Probiotics could emerge as a treatment plan to manage hepatic encephalopathy (HE) therapy after a new study announced at the International Liver Congress? 2013 found they significantly reduced development of the notoriously difficult-to-treat disease.
The study analysed the efficacy of probiotics in preventing the development of HE in 160 cirrhotic patients over a period of approximately nine months and found significant improvements in reducing patients' arterial ammonia levels after three months of treatment with probiotics.
Ammonia, produced by gut bacteria, is thought to be one of the main mediators of cerebral dysfunction in HE. Probiotics work by enriching the gut flora with a non-urease producing microorganisms, which decrease ammonia production. Probiotics are live microorganisms (mostly bacteria) that produce a health benefit on the host when administered in adequate amounts.
Twice as many patients taking a placebo developed overt HE (the study's primary endpoint) compared to patients taking probiotics in the form of a capsule.
EASL's Treasurer, Prof. Mauro Bernardi welcomed the findings and said they would provide a positive impact for cirrhotic patients at risk of developing HE for whom the prognosis is typically very poor.
Prof. Bernardi said: "Hepatic encephalopathy is an insidious disease that's caused by an accumulation of toxins in the blood that are normally removed by the liver. Treatment normally involves the use of antibiotics or laxatives to suppress the production of toxic substances in the intestine but there is still a great deal of room for improvement so it will be exciting to see the results of further studies to determine if clinicians have a new form of treatment on the cards."
Hepatic encephalopathy is a spectrum of neuropsychiatric abnormalities including personality changes, intellectual impairment and reduced levels of consciousness in patients with liver failure, after exclusion of other known brain disease.
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Exactly one week after GOP leaders pulled funding from the Congressional candidate Mark Sanford, the South Carolina Republican appeared at a bizarre campaign event in Charleston Wednesday morning, during which Sanford "debated" a full-color cardboard poster of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, held aloft by one of his campaign staffers. Local reporters captured the scene from multiple angles as Sanford held forth on a sidewalk in front of the?Medical University of South Carolina:
Mark Sanford and Nancy Pelosi cutout as he tries to call out E Colbert Busch twitter.com/skropf47/statu?
? schuyler kropf (@skropf47) April 24, 2013
Anyone else thinking Clint's chair? MT @stefaniebainum Mark Sanford "Debating" Nancy Pelosi on Ashley Ave. by MUSC twitter.com/stefaniebainum?
? Andy Shain (@AndyShain) April 24, 2013
We compiled this GIF from photos taken by reporter Stefanie Bainum of ABC News 4:
RELATED: Mark Sanford Is One Step Closer to Redemption
RELATED: Who Is Stephen Colbert's Sister? (Aside from Being Stephen Colbert's Sister)
Sanford even bragged about the event on his Twitter feed:
Since my opponent won't debate, we decided to "debate" her biggest benefactor, Nancy Pelosi: marksanford.com/2013/04/govern? twitter.com/MarkSanford/st?
? Mark Sanford (@MarkSanford) April 24, 2013
Sanford's website goes on to explain that he staged the event to protest opponent Elizabeth Colbert Busch's decision to publicly debate Sanford only once, and chose to feature Nancy Pelosi because Busch, a Democrat and sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, has supported the Democratic leader's policy initiatives. (Sanford's campaign even cut an ad describing Colbert Busch as "PELOSI'S VOICE.")
RELATED: The Appalachian Trail Ad Democrats Were Waiting to Air
In response, Busch's campaign flayed Sanford: "While Mark Sanford continues his desperate campaign to deceive voters, Elizabeth Colbert Busch is spending her time with real people who support her campaign ... She doesn't have to resort to phony cardboard cutouts to talk with the people of South Carolina."
RELATED: Mark Sanford's Bare-All Apology Tour Isn't Working
Sanford's strange appearance comes a week after the National Republican Congressional Committee decided to pull funding from Sanford's campaign after the candidate was accused of trespassing on his former wife's home on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina ? to watch the Super Bowl with his son, Sanford insisted several times.
RELATED: Elizabeth Colbert Busch Is One Step Closer to Capitol Hill
And the optics on the imaginary Pelosi are perplexing. Remember?Clint Eastwood and the empty chair? Or?Hillary Clinton and the panda mask? Cardboard at a campaign stop isn't exactly on that level, but, hey, maybe Sanford is getting a little desperate ? he's down some 9 points in the polls less than two weeks ahead of the May 7 special election, and he's still got the Appalachian Trail to contend with... sort of.
The problem with most video apps is that they don't allow viewers to have much of a clue about what a video is actually like. Too often, video publishers pick a thumbnail that is misleading or only shows a small bit of what their content is about. That can leave viewers frustrated if they invest the time to actually watch a video. And for publishers, it means lost views.
Apr. 23, 2013 ? Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at University of the Pennsylvania have shown that an area of the brain that initiates behavioral changes had greater activation in smokers who watched anti-smoking ads with strong arguments versus those with weaker ones, and irrespective of flashy elements, like bright and rapidly changing scenes, loud sounds and unexpected scenario twists. Those smokers also had significantly less nicotine metabolites in their urine when tested a month after viewing those ads, the team reports in a new study published online April 23 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
This is the first time research has shown an association between cognition and brain activity in response to content and format in televised ads and behavior.
In a study of 71 non-treatment-seeking smokers recruited from the Philadelphia area, the team, led by Daniel D. Langleben, M.D., a psychiatrist in the Center for Studies of Addiction at Penn Medicine, identified key brain regions engaged in the processing of persuasive communications using fMRI, or functional magnetic resonance imaging. They found that a part of the brain involved in future behavioral changes -- known as the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dMPFC) -- had greater activation when smokers watched an anti-smoking ad with a strong argument versus a weak one.
One month after subjects watched the ads, the researchers sampled smokers' urine cotinine levels (metabolite of nicotine) and found that those who watched the strong ads had significantly less cotinine in their urine compared to their baseline versus those who watched weaker ads.
Even ads riddled with attention-grabbing tactics, the research suggests, are not effective at reducing tobacco intake unless their arguments are strong. However, ads with flashy editing and strong arguments, for example, produced better recognition.
"We investigated the two major dimensions of any piece of media, content and format, which are both important here," said Dr. Langleben, who is also an associate professor in the department of Psychiatry. "If you give someone an unconvincing ad, it doesn't matter what format you do on top of that. You can make it sensational. But in terms of effectiveness, content is more important. You're better off adding in more sophisticated editing and other special effects only if it is persuasive."
The paper may enable improved methods of design and evaluation of public health advertising, according to the authors, including first author An-Li Wang, PhD, of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. And it could ultimately influence how producers shape the way ads are constructed, and how ad production budgets are allocated, considering special effects are expensive endeavors versus hiring screenwriters.
A 2009 study by Dr. Langleben and colleagues that looked solely at format found people were more likely to remember low-key, anti-smoking messages versus attention-grabbing messages. This was the first research to show that low-key versus attention-grabbing ads stimulated different patterns of activity, particularly in the frontal cortex and temporal cortex. But it did not address content strength or behavioral changes.
This new study is the first longitudinal investigation of the cognitive, behavioral, and neurophysical response to the content and format of televised anti-smoking ads, according to the authors.
"This sets the stage for science-based evaluation and design of persuasive public health advertising," said Dr. Langleben. "An ad is only as strong as its central argument, which matters more than its audiovisual presentation. Future work should consider supplementing focus groups with more technology-heavy assessments, such as brain responses to these ads, in advance of even putting the ad together in its entirety."
Co-authors of the study include Kosha Ruparel, MSE, James W. Loughead, PhD, Andrew A. Strasser, PhD, Shira J. Blady, Kevin G. Lynch, PhD, Dan Romer, PhD, and Caryn Lerman, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry at Penn Medicine, and Joseph N. Cappella, PhD, of the Annenberg School for Communication.
This study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (R21 DA024419).
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
The problem with most video apps is that they don't allow viewers to have much of a clue about what a video is actually like. Too often, video publishers pick a thumbnail that is misleading or only shows a small bit of what their content is about. That can leave viewers frustrated if they invest the time to actually watch a video. And for publishers, it means lost views.