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ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2012) ? New research from the University of Southampton has shown that copper can prevent horizontal transmission of genes, which has contributed to the increasing number of antibiotic-resistant infections worldwide.
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in bacteria is largely responsible for the development of antibiotic resistance, which has led to an increasing number of difficult-to-treat healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs).
The newly published paper, which appears in the journal mBio, shows that while HGT can take place in the environment, on frequently-touched surfaces, such as door handles, trolleys and tables, which are made from stainless steel -- copper prevents this process from occurring and rapidly kills bacteria on contact.
Lead author Professor Bill Keevil, Chair in Environmental Healthcare at the University of Southampton, explains: "Whilst studies have focussed on HGT in vivo (an experiment that is done in the body of a living organism), this work investigates whether the ability of pathogens to persist in the environment, particularly on touch surfaces, may also play an important role. Here we show prolonged survival of multidrug resistant Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae on stainless steel surfaces for several weeks. However, rapid death of both antibiotic-resistant strains and destruction of plasmid and genomic DNA was observed on copper and copper alloy surfaces, which could be useful in the prevention of infection spread and gene transfer."
Showing that horizontal transmission of genes (for example, those governing antibiotic resistance) occurs on touch surfaces, supports the important role of the environment in infection prevention.
Professor Keevil summarises: "We know many human pathogens survive for long periods in the hospital environment and can lead to infection, expensive treatment, blocked beds and death. What we have shown in this work is the potential for strategically-placed antimicrobial copper touch surfaces to not only break the chain of contamination, but also actively reduce the risk of antibiotic resistance developing at the same time. Provided adequate cleaning continues in critical environments, copper can be employed as an important additional tool in the fight against pathogens."
Beyond the healthcare environment, copper also has a wider role to play in infection control. Professor Keevil explains: "Copper touch surfaces have promise for preventing antibiotic resistance transfer in public buildings and mass transportation systems, which lead to local and -- in the case of jet travel -- rapid worldwide dissemination of multi-drug resistant superbugs as soon as they appear.
"People with inadequate hand hygiene could exchange their bugs and different antibiotic resistance genes just by touching a stair rail or door handle, ready to be picked up by someone else and passed on. Copper substantially reduces and restricts the spread of these infections, making an important contribution to improved hygiene and, consequently, health."
Installations of copper touch surfaces have already taken place across the UK and around the world, harnessing copper's ability to continuously reduce bioburden and consequently the risk of HCAI transmission. This research offers additional evidence to deploy copper (and copper-containing alloys that benefit from the metal's antimicrobial properties) in the form of touch surfaces to provide extra protection alongside standard hygiene practices.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Southampton, via AlphaGalileo.
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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.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/genes/~3/eAwySOsdCY8/121204081150.htm
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Bridgend, South Wales -- (SBWIRE) -- 11/12/2012 -- Commencing 1st November 2012 EdenDigitalMarketing.co.uk will run a three month trial of a new service. The internet promotions company will help to make it simpler and more cost effective for small and medium sized business to have a professional looking website that complies with consumer protection law. This will be achieved offering completely free website design services - provided that the customer chooses to ?host? their site with Eden Digital Marketing.
The offer is a reaction to a recent study by the OFT into the compliance of websites belonging to businesses. Of 156 websites checked, over 60% were found to not comply with consumer protection law. It is feared that the percentage of small businesses with non-compliant websites may be even higher.
?It is hoped that this will new initiative will encourage SME?s to take advantage of the internet and the great opportunities it can provide it terms of awareness and attracting new customers, while ensuring that they (the businesses) comply with consumer protection law.? Said Charles Brown, Communications Director.
Eden Digital Marketing was founded in 2007, initially offering services as a website design company in Cardiff, Newport, Swansea and London. This latest initiative is designed to establish the company as one of the more well-known website design companies in the UK, whilst helping small and medium sized businesses.
Please visit http://edendigitalmarketing.co.uk/ to know more about the firm.
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Trustees at the University of?Illinois?have approved a $15.5 million project to build a 20.5-acre solar farm to help power the Urbana-Champaign campus.
The Champaign News-Gazette?reports that the solar-power facility will be built on land now used by the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences.
The university says the solar farm is slated to begin producing power by next fall. It's eventually expected to supply about 2 percent of the electricity used on campus.
For the first 10 years, the university will buy power from Phoenix Solar Inc., which will build and operate the facility. After that, the university will own the solar farm.
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BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) ? Going against a trend in Africa, Malawi's government is moving to suspend laws against homosexuality and has ordered police not to arrest people for same-sex acts until the anti-gay laws are reviewed by parliament.
Human Rights Watch called the decision "courageous" and said it should inspire other countries that criminalize homosexuality.
Justice Minister Ralph Kasambara last week told a public debate on minority rights that the police have been ordered not to arrest anyone suspected of engaging in homosexuality. Anyone convicted under Malawi's anti-gay laws, some of the toughest in the world, can get up to 14 years in jail with hard labor. Kasambara said parliament will soon discuss the laws.
In May, President Joyce Banda announced that she wants to repeal Malawi's laws against homosexual acts, going against a trend in a continent in which gays are being increasingly singled out for prosecution. Traditionalists and religious leaders condemned her, saying she was trying to please Western donor nations. They argued that homosexuality is alien to Malawi's cultural and religious values.
Kasambara said the suspension of arrests was ordered because "if we continue arresting and prosecuting people based on the said laws and later such laws are found to be unconstitutional it would be an embarrassment to government."
Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that arresting people for consensual same-sex conduct violates international human rights standards and constitutional guarantees of equality in many countries.
"Malawi has taken a bold step forward, putting respect for its own constitutional guarantees of equality front and center," said Tiseke Kasambala, a Malawian who is the Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "Malawi's decision has given hope to thousands who risk prison sentences under such laws."
Amnesty International also praised Malawi for the "historic step in the fight against discrimination in the country".
At least 76 countries, 38 of them in Africa, have criminalized consensual same-sex conduct, according to Human Rights Watch.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/malawi-lauded-anti-gay-law-moratorium-115453048.html
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A Waltz with Phenomenology: Discovering the Phenomenological Method within Medical Anthropology
Phenomenology, as developed within anthropology, is a methodology that has many applications yet requires an in-depth understanding in order to remain authentic to its philosophical roots. And yet I find myself stumbling over the process of even attempting to enunciate the word aloud much less applying it to research. In my mind I sound very erudite when announcing, ?I am using phenomenology in my ethnography.? In reality it comes out sounding like ?fenomenomomennology,? which always elicits a few giggles from anyone listening. Alas, after a few trial runs in front of the mirror I have managed to put away this novice pronunciation as I embrace this methodology within anthropology. And yet, with this stumbling block removed, phenomenology is still as mysterious as it sounds and, I have found, requires in depth investigation in order to sidestep any criticisms for its inappropriate use or application. And to add to this quagmire, it has been suggested that ?? there are as many phenomenologies as there are phenomenologists? (Robert Desjarlais and C. Jason Throop, ?Phenomenological Approaches in Anthropology,? Annual Review of Anthropology 40 (2011), pp. 87?102 at p. 95). So how does one begin dancing a waltz of familiarity with this methodological approach to research? Read, read, read, and yes, read some more. With each passing article or book the dancing letters on the page begin to settle into a rhythm and meaning begins to take shape. In this effort I have found that some authors use phenomenological approaches without acknowledging it, while others are very demonstrative in why and how phenomenology applies to their work. And to address your perhaps already growing concern as to whether or not I have come to a resting place in understanding phenomenology as I embark on my fieldwork; my steadfast answer is, sadly, no. While the dancing letters are beginning to settle, I continue to uncover new questions with each passing page. However, I hope that in discussing this journey of discovery I can help others as they waltz to a similar score. In this discussion I will demonstrate the phenomenological methodology and its potential application in researching therapeutic modalities, the challenges of remaining authentic in its use, the unique characteristics of research questions as they pertain to phenomenology and lastly, suggesting its application in an analysis of the senses during therapeutic healing processes.
Phenomenology has its roots in psychology as developed by Edmund Husserl and is fundamentally concerned with a scientific approach to the nature of experience and knowledge (Joseph J. Kockelmans, A First Introduction to Husserl?s Phenomenology. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1967). It has since been adopted and adapted by others such as, but not limited to Heidegger, Hegel, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty. It is within this methodological context that Merleau-Ponty developed embodiment as a phenomenological approach to perception whereby the body is the starting point for interactions with the world in the social and physical domains (Robert Desjarlais and C. Jason Throop, ?Phenomenological Approaches in Anthropology?). Additionally, in context of studies pertaining to the body, phenomenological embodiment has provided a framework for identifying culture and self where the focus is not on the disease but rather on ?broader issues of self, emotion, religion, meaning, transformation, social interaction, institutional control of experience, and the human interface with medical technology? (Thomas Csordas, ?The Body?s Career in Anthropology? in Henrietta L. Moore (eds.), Anthropological Theory Today. London: Polity Press, 1999, pp. 172-205 at p. 191). Phenomenology works well within medical anthropology research as it provides a framework for reflexivity and intersubjective empathy, characterized in the work of ethical clinician Richard Zaner who reflects on the why and how of his place in conversations with patients and their experiences with illness in the hospital setting (Conversations on the Edge: Narratives of Ethics and Illness. Washington: Georgetown University Press, 2004). Reflexivity and empathy are important for providing an intuitive understanding of critical medical conditions such as chronic pain which members of society and their families are forced to navigate on a daily basis. However, reflexivity, empathy and embodiment are not limitations of phenomenology?s use in medical anthropology, as demonstrated by the works of Arthur and Joan Kleinman (?Suffering and its Professional Transformation: Toward Ethnography of Interpersonal Experience,? Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 15 (1991), pp. 275-301), Byron Good (Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), and Robert Desjarlais (Body and Emotion: The Aesthetics of Illness and Healing in the Nepal Himalayas. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992). It is in these works that a phenomenological approach is taken and when it is not explicit, it can easily be overlooked if one lacks a grounded understanding of the methods and outcomes of a phenomenological approach. It is this grounded understanding of a phenomenological approach that provides authenticity in its use within research and ethnography.
As mentioned earlier there are many ?phenomenologies? and as many phenomenologists. Therefore, to implement this methodology authentically, it is crucial to understanding experiences as lived as well as the essence of those experiences. It was not enough to know what my topic was and what literature there was surrounding it, although crucial in their own right. As I embark on my ethnographic research I felt it was crucial to come to an understanding of the phenomenological methodology not only as it pertains to anthropology, but also the history of its beginnings and those involved. In order to develop proper research questions and to meet any criticisms of analysis in advance, I have to understand truly the beginnings of phenomenology and its encompassing qualities. In the reading that I have done, I have encountered critiques of the improper uses of phenomenology, for example: ?? many ethnographers have failed to realize this? written highly personal, emotion-laden testaments to their own experiences?? (Kenneth Hayes Lokensgard, Blackfoot Religion and the Consequences of Cultural Commoditization. Aldershot: Asgate, 2010, p. 161). Here, Lokensgard is suggesting that the researcher?s experiences and their emotions surrounding those experiences, alone do not constitute a phenomenological approach. Rather than focusing on the researcher?s experiences within research, phenomenology can be used as a tool to focus on the intersubjective experiences of the research participant in the context of the phenomenon (Linda Finlay, ?Debating Phenomenological Research Methods,? Phenomenology and Practice 3 (2009), pp. 6-25). This intersubjective focus provides the empathy for the research participant and their place within the research. It is intersubjective in that first the ethnographer must participate in and record the experience regarding the phenomenon and then consider, in the context of the research participant, the complex character of those broader issues surrounding the human condition (Michael Jackson, ?Introduction: Phenomenology, Radical Empiricism, and Anthropological Critique,? in Michael Jackson (ed.) Things as They Are: New Directions in Phenomenological Anthropology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996).
Vital to remaining authentic in the use of phenomenology, and to sidestep such criticisms, is to understand the unique phenomenological methods, for example: phenomenological reduction, phenomenological epoch? (involving the process of ?bracketing?), abstraction and intentionality. Bracketing is difficult to implement as it requires that the researcher put aside their cultural assumptions or influence in relation to the phenomena (Robert Desjarlais and C. Jason Throop, ?Phenomenological Approaches in Anthropology?). However, while it is never possible to eliminate fully cultural assumptions or influences, it is possible through anthropological reflexivity to separate the researcher?s influence from the research participants? experience while remaining authentic in the methodology. In fact, cultural diversity, or alterity can be highlighted when making use of the epoch? in the analysis of data (Jack Katz and Thomas Csordas, ?Phenomenological Ethnography in Sociology and Anthropology,? Ethnography 4 (2003), pp. 275-288) by engaging with the phenomenon in the way that it presents itself from the beginning and withholding any judgement or theoretical categories. The analysis of data collected with these methods provides descriptions of phenomena and a synthesis of meanings and essences (Clark Moustakas, Phenomenological Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994) while allowing for the lived experience of worldviews from the ground up without invoking cultural bias or hierarchy (Michael Jackson, ?Introduction: Phenomenology, Radical Empiricism, and Anthropological Critique?).
To experience a worldview from the ground up is indicative of a purely qualitative approach to ethnography and research. Phenomenology is not so much concerned with numbers and statistics as it is concerned with the direct experience of phenomena and how that experience shapes culture, meaning and worldviews. The outcome of this approach is generally descriptive and not quantitative. Therefore, it is vital that the research questions considered are focused on descriptive and qualitative outcomes resulting from additional ethnographic methods such as participant observation and interviews. Participant observation allows for an intuitive understanding of the topic from direct participation in the observed phenomenon. Interviews allow for dialogue surrounding the personal knowledge of individuals in how they experience the phenomenon, which can and usually is distinctly different from how others perceive it as an outsider. In the context of medical anthropology and embodiment for example, it is important to frame questions as they pertain to the experiences of the illness, the therapy, the relationships of others in the experience, as well as forms of communication and emotions surrounding the illness. For instance, a question might be phrased to consider in what way particular illnesses and/or therapies provide opportunities to regain control of the self, the self as perceived by the individual and their social network. When considering the complexity of the body as the ?existential ground of culture? (Thomas Csordas, ?Embodiment as a Paradigm for Anthropology,? Ethos 18 (1990), pp. 5-47 at p. 5) research questions should perhaps also consider the experiences of sensory perception, for instance how the senses are engaged in experiences of illness and how these experiences shape ones lived experiences and worldviews.
Phenomenology offers an opportunity for an analysis of bodily experience and the senses in relation to illness. Correspondingly this methodology would also provide analysis for bodily experiences relating to healing and therapeutic treatments. Maurice Merleau-Ponty set the stage for such an analysis through embodiment on the principle of perception, where the body is the subject of sensory perception (Phenomenology of Perception. New York: Routledge, 2002. Originally published in 1947). Embodiment is also considered a central concept to sensorial anthropology as a process of engagement both historically and contextually within one?s environment and social network (Mark Nichter, ?Coming to Our Senses: Appreciating the Sensorial in Medical Anthropology,? Transcultural Psychiatry 45 (2008), pp. 163-198). Therefore, the sensorium can be analyzed as what ?? influences (or engenders) a person?s experience and understanding of the world? (Kathryn Linn Geurts, Culture and the Senses: Bodily Ways of Knowing in an African Community. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, p. 234). Synthesizing these two ideas; a person?s bodily experiences as perceived and embodied through the senses within a process of engagement with one?s environment and social network and therefore influencing an understanding of their world, provides a theoretical framework for analyzing therapeutic modalities based on sensory perception such as hearing and touch.
An authentic approach to phenomenological methodology as developed within anthropology can help in understanding worldviews from the ground up while eliminating cultural privilege hierarchy (Michael Jackson, ?Introduction: Phenomenology, Radical Empiricism, and Anthropological Critique?). This has proven particularly effective within medical anthropology as ethnographies have studied the embodiment of both illness and healing within a context of empathy and reflexivity. Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Zaner and Csordas have provided explicit examples of phenomenology in various approaches useful for data analysis. As I begin a waltz into my own fieldwork on a vitalistic therapeutic modality, I have found the phenomenological methodology to have numerous steps and requiring a thorough understanding in order to develop appropriate research questions resulting in authentic analysis. This authenticity can be found in knowing and applying the unique phenomenological methods such as, but not limited to, epoch?. Furthermore, in applying this methodology to therapeutic healing modalities based in the sensorium, I have suggested a synthesis of the phenomenological concept of embodiment and the embodied sensorium as a framework for analyzing therapeutic modalities steeped in the tactile and auditory senses. While I may miss a few steps within the rhythm of this waltz with phenomenology, this article is an attempt at exploring particular applications of phenomenology within medical anthropology in understanding varying worldviews of healing within therapeutic modalities based on the sensorium.
Dori Beeler
Department of Anthropology
Durham University
d.m.beeler@durham.ac.uk
?
Image: Female dancing barefoot by quinn.anya, Wikimedia Commons.
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Liverpool FC has apologized to a fan holding a parody twitter account, who claims to have been threatened by the club?s communication director Jen Chang. Chang worked as an editor at Sports Illustrated and ESPN before joining Liverpool?s team last May.
A Liverpool fan, Sean Cummins, wrote under a parody twitter account as a fake journalist ?Duncan Jenkins.? Some of his tweets hit close to home, convincing Liverpool brass he had a mole within the club. Cummins claims Chang hired an investigator to track him down, met with him and threatened punitive actions against him if he did not tweet there was no mole within Liverpool.
Chang purportedly threatened to ban Cummins, a season-ticketholder, from Anfield for life.
He said I would be banned from Anfield for life. I told him the season ticket ? which I share ? was not in my name. He said it didn?t matter, and that both I and the lad who owns the season ticket would be reimbursed and then given lifetime bans from Anfield. He then started to talk about what a disaster this would be for me ? how not only would I lose the season ticket and be banned for life, but I would upset a friend who would be banned for life through no fault of his own. I told him I?d known my friend since we were both 4 years old (my point being that our friendship would not be jeopardised by a ridiculous situation like this). He took it the wrong way and re-emphasised what a disaster it would be for me to lose a lifelong friend.
He also purportedly threatened to release damaging information about Cummins to the media, fomenting a smear campaign. He specifically mentioned fans flooding his mailbox with ?dog shit.?
He told me that if I didn?t tweet as requested by Thursday night, and/or that further checks with their suspected mole revealed links to me, that he would hand over all of my info (from the dossier compiled by the people hired to find me) to the embittered journalists and ask them to do their worst, to run smear stories on me in the tabloid press. He said ?they will make your life hell, and will turn all Liverpool supporters against you. The papers will say you cost the club you claim to love serious money, that you wilfully damaged the club?.
?You know how crazy football fans are?, he said, ?You?ll have dog shit coming through your letterbox, you?ll have to take your Facebook page down, you might even have to move house?.
He repeated the stuff about dog shit coming through my letterbox several times, reiterating that football fans, especially Liverpool FC fans, are crazy and would make my life a living hell.
He then said the papers would also ?ruin your Dad?s online business?.
Chang initially said the allegations were ?total nonsense,? though the written apology suggests otherwise. It?s never good when your PR team is the part of the organization creating the PR gaffes. We never interacted with Chang, though multiple colleagues expressed their belief this was out of character.
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President Barack Obama is greeted by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie upon his arrival at Atlantic City International Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, in Atlantic City, NJ. Obama traveled to region to take an aerial tour of the Atlantic Coast in New Jersey in areas damaged by superstorm Sandy, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama is greeted by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie upon his arrival at Atlantic City International Airport, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, in Atlantic City, NJ. Obama traveled to region to take an aerial tour of the Atlantic Coast in New Jersey in areas damaged by superstorm Sandy, (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Marine One, carrying President Barack Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, take an aerial tour of the Atlantic Coast in New Jersey in areas damaged by superstorm Sandy, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, Pool)
The view of storm damage over the Atlantic Coast in Seaside Heights, N.J., Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012, from a helicopter traveling behind the helicopter carrying President Obama and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as they viewed storm damage from superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Doug Mills, Pool)
BRIGANTINE, N.J. (AP) ? President Barack Obama is telling New Jersey residents devastated by a massive storm that "we're going to be here for the long haul."
Joined by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Obama inspected the devastation from superstorm Sandy, flying high over flooded neighborhoods and sand-strewn streets.
At a community center where people have taken shelter, Obama said one of his top priorities is getting power back on.
Christie said it was "really important" to have the president of the United States in New Jersey.
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Since the widespread violence in China this fall, legions of tourists and business travelers alike continue to cancel trips. While Japanese travel agencies report a drop in bookings to China, Chinese agencies are getting out of the game altogether and it's not just the bit players, either.
Xinhua reports that China International Travel Service Limited, China Comfort Travel and China CYTS Tours Holding Co., Ltd., have stopped selling travel to Japan entirely.
Reports here suggest that Nippon Airways Co., Ltd. and Japan Airlines Co., Ltd. cancelled upwards of 20,000 seats on routes into China in late September and early October. It is not clear if -- or when-- they will be added back into flight operations.
At the same time, Chinese airlines, including Air China, China Southern and China Hainan Airlines, have also cancelled flights and cut seats to Japan while also postponing valuable new routes to both Sendai and Okinawa.
Anecdotally, my friends tell me that many formerly full flights between the two countries are half full at best.
Japanese home appliance makers are not immune, either.
Panasonic, Sony, Hitachi and Sanyo are all likely to experience an earnings impact in the months ahead.
Executives I spoke with this weekend, who wish to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak on behalf of their companies, suggest that monthly sales in Chinese retail outlets could be off 45%-70% by the time the damage is "done."
I pressed for clarification as to when that might be and didn't get any officially. But their cold silence spoke volumes about what they expect through year end.
First, the situation is unlikely to go away any time soon. In fact, I believe it's going to play out well into the fourth quarter. Any Japanese company doing business with China is at risk.
Many are names you know, but if you have invested in Japanese ETFs like many investors have, there are a lot you don't know, too. This is particularly true if you factor in the extensive supplier network of second- and third-tier Japanese companies behind such well-known names as Mitsubishi, Honda and Toyota.
Second, China plays the nationalist card at its discretion and tacitly fans the flames whenever it is convenient. Its citizens, many of whom have yet to grasp the subtleties of international politics because their view of the outside world is extremely limited, react predictably when they perceive they have been wronged. So the situation and its impact on earnings is unpredictable at best.
Third, there is the very real and growing possibility that China will use military force to take the Daioyu Islands back. Since 1949, China has been involved in 23 territorial disputes and has used force in six of them - all of which resemble the Senkaku/Daioyu dispute, according to M. Taylor Fravel, an associate professor of political science at MIT and the author of Strong Borders, Secure Nation: Cooperation and Conflict in China's Territorial Dispute (Princeton, 2008).
I agree. Beijing is under pressure to produce favorable results at a time when its leadership faces a complicated transition, slowing economic prowess, unprecedented fallout from the Bo Xilai situation and other prominent scandals that have rocked the very top of the Communist Party -- including recent revelations that Premier Wen Jiabao appears to have amassed a $2 billion fortune illicitly, using his position to gain wealth and power.
Fourth, I am hard pressed to imagine how Japanese companies can come out on anything other than the losing end of the stick no matter how the Senkaku/Daioyu Island situation plays out.
And with more than 20 years of doing business in this part of the world, that's not an easy conclusion for me to reach.
Japan has built its entire economy on exports for decades and the conscious shift to embrace China in the late 1990s will haunt Japanese corporations for a long time to come if Japanese and Chinese leaders cannot come to some sort of agreement.
If there is a bright spot it is this: Capitalism works because there are ebbs and flows in capital markets that are caused, many times, by factors well beyond rational expectations.
That means there for every loser, there is a winner.
I expect German and Korean car makers to immediately fill any gaps left by pressured Japanese automakers. Both VW and Hyundai come to mind, for example. GM and Ford will both make competitive moves as well if they're smart.
In like fashion, other non-Japanese, non-Chinese air carriers will move to service demand if it resumes. This will allow both nations to draw closer together without either losing face by directly "serving" the other.
Home appliance makers are more problematic in that both industries are effectively commoditized at this point. There is very little in the way of technology or other competitive advantage that can't be taken up by local Chinese companies.
Perhaps that's an opening for American manufacturers if the upcoming anti-Chinese presidential election rhetoric doesn't effectively tank them, too.
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ScienceDaily (Oct. 30, 2012) ? Cornell researchers have created an autonomous flying robot that is as smart as a bird when it comes to maneuvering around obstacles.
Able to guide itself through forests, tunnels or damaged buildings, the machine could have tremendous value in search-and-rescue operations. Small flying machines are already common, and GPS technology provides guidance. Now, Ashutosh Saxena, assistant professor of computer science, and his team are tackling the hard part: how to keep the vehicle from slamming into walls and tree branches. Human controllers can't always react swiftly enough, and radio signals may not reach everywhere the robot goes.
The test vehicle is a quadrotor, a commercially available flying machine about the size of a card table with four helicopter rotors. Saxena and his team have already programmed quadrotors to navigate hallways and stairwells using 3-D cameras. But in the wild, these cameras aren't accurate enough at large distances to plan a route around obstacles. So, Saxena is building on methods he previously developed to turn a flat video camera image into a 3-D model of the environment using such cues as converging straight lines, the apparent size of familiar objects and what objects are in front of or behind each other -- the same cues humans unconsciously use to supplement their stereoscopic vision.
Graduate students Ian Lenz and Mevlana Gemici trained the robot with 3-D pictures of such obstacles as tree branches, poles, fences and buildings; the robot's computer learns the characteristics all the images have in common, such as color, shape, texture and context -- a branch, for example, is attached to a tree. The resulting set of rules for deciding what is an obstacle is burned into a chip before the robot flies. In flight the robot breaks the current 3-D image of its environment into small chunks based on obvious boundaries, decides which ones are obstacles and computes a path through them as close as possible to the route it has been told to follow, constantly making adjustments as the view changes. It was tested in 53 autonomous flights in obstacle-rich environments -- including Cornell's Arts Quad -- succeeding in 51 cases, failing twice because of winds. The results were presented at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Portugal Oct. 7-12.
Saxena plans to improve the robot's ability to respond to environment variations such as winds, and enable it to detect and avoid moving objects, like real birds; for testing purposes, he suggests having people throw tennis balls at the flying vehicle.
The project is supported by a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cornell University. The original article was written by Bill Steele.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/SBxanr6uZfw/121030173047.htm
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Buyers ready, willing and able to take advantage of this Foreclosure market work with an experienced local agent. Think of it this way, this could be the largest purchase of your life. Why not get the assistance of a local professional? In addition to a comparative market analysis (CMA), working with a Realtor can help you decide what the practical property purchase is for your investment needs. Depending on your situation, your options will be clear to us as YOUR real estate agent. Are you purchasing a second home? Are you a first time home buyer? Are you a home investor? Whether it's a foreclosure or short sale, a local experienced real estate professional can assist you in making the right choices.
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Premiere Plus Realty,?370 12th?Ave S #101?Naples?FL?34102
Licensed?Florida?Real Estate Brokerage
Source: http://naplesfloridawaterfront.blogspot.com/2012/10/naples-florida-waterfront-homes-and_29.html
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A construction crane atop a luxury high-rise dangles precariously over the streets after collapsing in high winds from Hurricane Sandy, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Hurricane Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard's largest cities Monday, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds, soaking rain and a surging wall of water up to 11 feet tall. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
A construction crane atop a luxury high-rise dangles precariously over the streets after collapsing in high winds from Hurricane Sandy, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Hurricane Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard's largest cities Monday, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds, soaking rain and a surging wall of water up to 11 feet tall. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
A construction crane atop a luxury high-rise dangles precariously over the streets after collapsing in high winds from Hurricane Sandy, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Hurricane Sandy continued on its path Monday, as the storm forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds and soaking rain. (AP Photo/ John Minchillo)
FDNY firefighters glare up at a damaged crane as it hangs over 57th Street after being torn from it's base by high winds, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Hurricane Sandy continued on its path Monday, as the storm forced the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds and soaking rain.?AP Photo/ John Minchillo)
A construction crane atop a luxury high-rise dangles precariously over the streets after collapsing in high winds from Hurricane Sandy, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Hurricane Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard's largest cities Monday, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds, soaking rain and a surging wall of water up to 11 feet tall. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
A FDNY firefighter and a New York police officer look up at a construction crane atop a luxury high-rise dangling precariously over the streets after collapsing in high winds from Hurricane Sandy, Monday, Oct. 29, 2012, in New York. Hurricane Sandy bore down on the Eastern Seaboard's largest cities Monday, forcing the shutdown of mass transit, schools and financial markets, sending coastal residents fleeing, and threatening a dangerous mix of high winds, soaking rain and a surging wall of water up to 11 feet tall. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
NEW YORK (AP) ? A construction crane atop a $1.5 billion luxury high-rise in midtown Manhattan collapsed in high winds Monday and dangled precariously, prompting plans for engineers and inspectors to climb to the top to examine it as a huge storm bore down on the city.
Some buildings, including the Parker Meridien hotel, were being evacuated as a precaution and the streets below were cleared, but there were no immediate reports of injuries. City officials didn't have a number on how many people were told to leave.
Authorities received a call about the collapse at around 2 p.m. as conditions worsened from the approaching Hurricane Sandy. Meteorologists said winds atop the 74-story building could have been close to 95 mph at the time.
The nearly completed high-rise is known as One57 and is in one of the city's most desirable neighborhoods, near Carnegie Hall, Columbus Circle and Central Park. It had been inspected, along with other city cranes, on Friday and was found to be ready for the weather.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said later Monday it wasn't clear why the accident happened.
"It's conceivable that nobody did anything wrong and there was no malfunction, it was just a strange gust of wind," Bloomberg said.
Engineers and inspectors were planning to hike up 74 flights of stairs to examine the crane. The harrowing inspection was being undertaken by experts who are "the best of the best," city Buildings Department spokesman Tony Sclafani said.
The New York Times recently called the building a "global billionaires' club" because the nine full-floor apartments near the top have all been sold to billionaires. Among them are two duplexes under contract for more than $90 million each.
Shannon Kaye, 96, lives in the building next door.
"We heard a noise, but we didn't know what it was," she said. Minutes later, she and her neighbors were told to leave.
"I never liked that building, looking down into my bedroom," she said. "I always had the feeling that something would come falling down from it."
The Buildings Department had suspended work at the building at 5 p.m. Saturday. It reminded contractors and property owners across the city to secure construction sites and buildings.
The crane was owned by Bovis Lend Lease, one of the largest construction companies in the city. Bloomberg was careful not to blame the company, and said it would be days before officials figured out what happened.
Construction cranes have been a source of safety worries in the city since two giant rigs collapsed within two months of each other in Manhattan in 2008, killing a total of nine people.
Those accidents spurred the resignation of the city's buildings commissioner and fueled new safety measures, including hiring more inspectors and expanding training requirements and inspection checklists.
Another crane fell and killed a worker this April at a construction site for a new subway line. That rig was exempt from most city construction safety rules because it was working for a state-overseen agency that runs the subway system.
Like Monday's accident, one of the 2008 crane collapses also centered on the rig's long, mobile arm, known as a boom. In the May 2008 accident, the boom broke off a roughly 200-foot-tall rig, crashed into a nearby building and plummeted to the ground.
Prosecutors blamed that collapse on what they called a penny-pinching repair to a crucial component that lets the boom swivel. Lawyers for that crane's owner, who ultimately was acquitted of manslaughter charges, said the operator made a mistake that tipped the boom over backward and snapped it.
___
Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.
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DETROIT ? The first one was a function of time and place.
It was serendipity. It was the race car assembled from junked parts, all pixie dust and charged particles, and a ?why not? arrogance from a frat-house group of players who mixed toughness with tenacious pitching to crash a World Series gala.
This was different Sunday night. The Giants? second championship in three years, which they clinched in a 4-3, 10-inning victory at Comerica Park that finished a four-game sweep over the Detroit Tigers, was not ad-libbed.
This was by design.
[BAGGS' INSTANT REPLAY: Giants are World Series champions]
This was a team that featured smooth infield defense and swooping birds in the outfield, a team that traded home run trots for frenetic doubles and triples, a team of tough, contact-oriented hitters who stayed in the middle of the field with two outs and got the runner home from third base with less than that, a bullpen that refused to be broken and a talented rotation that shuffled itself from the discard pile and came up aces when it mattered most.
This was the team that GM Brian Sabean always talked about creating during all those years in the Barry Bonds era, and the rough transition that followed. This was the team he craved: one that was younger, more athletic, ran the bases with aplomb, created their own breaks and didn?t give away extra outs.
And hey, it didn?t hurt to have Buster Posey back, either.
Just two years after winning the first World Series in the Giants? five-plus decades in San Francisco, they?ve done it again. And there is a feeling this time that they weren?t lucky.
They were just that good.
?I didn?t have to wait 50 years for the next one!? said clubhouse manager Mike Murphy, beaming as he shuffled through a raucous celebration holding a half-dozen drained champagne bottles under his arms.
There?s going to be another parade down Market St. on Wednesday, and do you remember the signature moment from the million-fan march in 2010? It was Posey, the fresh-faced rookie, interrupting the revelry with a moment of stone-cold sobriety. He slapped the podium and rattled the microphone in front of City Hall, saying, ?Let?s do this again next year.?
The Giants did not defend their title in 2011. Their follow-up season got taken out at the legs when Posey went down in that vicious home plate collision with the Florida Marlins? Scott Cousins.
But it was apparent just a few weeks into this spring training that Posey could bear all the weight the Giants needed of him. He has a batting title and and should clear a spot for an NL MVP trophy in a couple weeks, too.
And he?ll get a second ring.
?Well, we thought that time and place could be last year, too, and it went up in smoke,? Giants GM Brian Sabean said. ?Maybe that makes winning this year sweeter after the fact. You know, it?s like life. It?s fast and slow at the same time.
?And I tell you what, nobody?s talking about how Buster put down all the right signs. He?s an offensive player and a batting champion and the MVP, but for this young man to do what he?s done as a catcher is just amazing. He?s the rare offensive catcher who has a flair for the dramatic that you just don?t see.?
Posey even showed a spark of emotion after his two-run home run gave the Giants a momentary, 3-2 lead in the sixth inning. He raised an index finger through the drizzle and admitted he got so caught up in the moment that he nearly missed first base.?I found it in time,? said Posey, who had a knack for doing that all season.
These Giants did everything right on time, and their midseason additions ? Marco Scutaro and Hunter Pence ? did more than blend into the fabric of the team. They became vocal leaders and firebrand speakers who set a professional tone.
There was no better statement for what made this team successful than the manner in which they scored the series-winning run in the 10th inning. Unlikely DH Ryan Theriot, who had? lost his second base job in August, punched a single. And the man who took it, Scutaro, flared a single to right-center field to send his teammate sliding across the plate amid a thick dust cloud.
"That's about perfect, the way it happened, isn't it?" Theriot said.
?The terms ?teamwork? and ?team play? and ?play as a team? are used loosely, but these guys truly did,? Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. ?They set aside their own agenda and asked what?s best for the club. We put guys in different roles and nobody said a word, complained or anything, and that?s the only way it?s going to get done. It shows the character in that clubhouse and how they kept fighting, saying, hey, we?re not going home.?Bochy looked as if the blood drained from his head when told he became the first Giants manager to win two World Series titles since John McGraw, back in 1905 and 1921-22.
?Nawww,? Bochy said, pausing an instant as a wave of emotion hit him.
Then he snapped back into wry form.
[RATTO: Giants are the new platinum standard of modern baseball]
?C?mon,? he said, suddenly breaking into a grin. ?Pick it up, John!?
So many observers saw Bochy as a retread hire when Sabean hired him to replace Felipe Alou prior to the 2007 season, when the final score was a sideshow and all eyes were following Barry Bonds and a home run record nobody east of Manteca wanted him to break.
Sabean did not feel that way about Bochy six years ago. And now, he looks back and recognizes the moment: Hiring him away from the unappreciative San Diego Padres was the best decision he?s made in his 16-year tenure.
?He?s a Hall of Fame manager, enough said,? Sabean said. ?Understated, maybe. Undervalued, definitely. You look now at what he?s done, and this is a just, just reward for someone who is a lifelong baseball name and a great person.?Bochy and Sabean shared a vision for what a winning team needed to look like to thrive in their unique waterfront park, and within their division. It took hitters who could adapt and make use of the gaps, and refrain from throwing up their arms when the wind through the archways knocked down drives to right field or 400-foot outs settled into gloves on the warning track in center.
The Giants hit the fewest home runs in the major leagues this season, a function of the meager 31 they managed in 81 home games. But unlike past teams, this one used the park as an advantage, not an excuse that lodged in their brains. And they ran down all of their opponents? deep drives, too.
?Getting Blanco, Pagan and Pence, they cover so much ground in the outfield,? Bochy said. ?When pitching is your strength, you want a good defense. That shows up every day. Hitting comes and goes. But as long as you stay in more games, you have a better chance of winning them, and that?s how we play.?
This roster, this playoff run ? it was a coordinated effort, wasn?t it??I guess,? said right-hander Matt Cain, as champagne dripped from his ski goggles. ?If coordinated means getting down 2-0 and 3-1 in the first two series.?
Ah yes. The first two series. Six games that could have ended their season. Six fiery hoops they flung themselves through to reach the World Series.
Not only did the Giants need to win all three games in Cincinnati to get past the NL Division Series, but they faced a Game 3 starter, Homer Bailey, who held them to one hit and struck out 10.
Yet they managed to win that game 2-1 in 10 innings only because Ryan Vogelsong absolutely refused to let them lose as long as he was on the mound, and because Reds third baseman Scott Rolen, an eight-time Gold Glove award winner, made an error that led to the tiebreaking run.OK, maybe there was a dash of serendipity in this run after all.
But mostly, those survival rounds were about their starting pitchers, who had tripped so many silent alarms with the way they struggled down the stretch. As it turned out, Vogelsong morphed into the best postseason pitcher since Orel Hershiser, Barry Zito pitched the game of his life in St. Louis to bring the NLCS back to AT&T Park for the final two games, Cain started and won a pair of winner-take-all affairs and even sleepy-armed Madison Bumgarner recovered from a banishment to spin seven shutout innings of two-hit ball in Game 2 against the Tigers.
Each of the pitchers had their hero turn. Each had their moment of inspiration when they grabbed their teammates and pushed them out of the path of an oncoming train. They survived because none of them got their foot caught in the rails.
The Giants won their last seven games. They didn?t have a seven-game winning streak once during the regular season.
And they have won a stunning eight of nine games over their last two World Series, shutting down offensive stars like Josh Hamilton (2 for 21 two seasons ago) and Prince Fielder (1 for 14 this year). It?s a credit to their pitchers for executing the game plan, their catcher, Posey, for fashioning it and their advance scouts for providing the information on which to base it all.?This is something we?re very proud of,? said Sabean, crediting Steve Balboni and Keith Champion, with another nod to scout and former catcher Brian Johnson, who lives in the Detroit area and saw the Tigers at least 60 times this season.
?We put a premium on it. These are two very good teams we?ve beaten, Texas and Detroit, and we?ve only lost one game. So the advance reports have to be good. But you have to execute, too.
"Pitching is going to be our celebrity, and that mantra isn?t going to change. It?s not the all-eggs-in-one-basket with one player approach. This is conducive to our ballpark and our division.?
Said Posey: ?I think it?s quality pitchers making quality pitches,? Posey said. ?It?s as simple as that.?
Tim Lincecum had to remind himself that he was a quality pitcher, too. After a season of personal misery, he accepted a bullpen role and did more than go through the motions. He established himself as a prime weapon, giving up just one run on three hits while striking out 17 in 13 relief innings.He hardened up one of the team?s soft spots, as everyone in the bullpen had to pitch an inning later to make up for the loss of Brian Wilson in April.
The toughest part about replacing Wilson? Finding someone with the stones to throw that final pitch in the ninth inning.
They discovered they had someone with a heart big enough for the job in Sergio Romo, a former slider specialist who only faced right-handers because his elbow was too tender, his durability was an issue and he didn?t have the stuff to get lefties out.
[RELATED: Romo, bullpen mates rise to the challenge]
But Romo worked and worked on his two-seam fastball. And with the Giants one out away from mobbing the field Sunday night, Romo did not recoil when he had to go through Miguel Cabrera ? the first hitter in 45 years to win a Triple Crown.
Romo got ahead with sliders. Posey called for another with two strikes.
?Romo shook to the fastball,? Posey said. ?He gets all the credit on that. It?s extremely gutsy. It just shows the makeup he has. There?s no fear out there.?Posey didn?t give any thought to a mound visit.
?No because he has a feel for the situation and what?s going on,? Posey said. ?It?s not something you can learn. It?s just something you have.?
Said Bochy: ?That at-bat, he just knew that Cabrera was looking for a slider, and he commands his fastball so well and he located it. It?s just amazing the job he?s done in these situations we?ve put him in. We had the right guy and I couldn?t be prouder of Sergio, how he?s emerged as such a great closer.?
A Triple Crown winner flinched as the 88-mph pitch dropped underneath his hands, plate umpire Brian O?Nora pumped his arm and Romo danced into Posey?s arms as the Giants leapt into the 43-degree night and found so much comfort in their own company.
Two years ago, they were the Band of Misfits. Now they are simply Banded Together.
?I?ve never been around a team that bonded the way this one did,? said Vogelsong, who spent so much emotion on the mound.
?World Series champions? Yeah, I like the sound of that. It?s too new. I can?t call it anything but a dream come true, and I know that?s a clich? that people say. But that?s what it is. This is the moment I?ve always dreamed of.?
And how does it feel?
?Better than I ever could have thought, just because of the people on this team,? he said. ?We are a family in here. These players go out there for what?s on the front of their shirts and not on the back. It?s about the Giants.
?We did this as Giants.?
They inspired themselves to survive, as Pence often put it, just so they could spend tomorrow with each other.What does tomorrow hold now?
?Go back to San Francisco, prepare for the parade,? said Pence, his eyes wide, ?and celebrate!?
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The Subaru Challenge is back and in it's eleventh year! Yes the contestants are sweating it out in hopes of winning but they are not alone. The sheer support from their families is nothing short of inspirational. Read about sacrificial family love here...
Photo Credit: Kelvin Koo
The?Subaru Challenge 2012 ? The Asian Face-Off this year, like all other years, is an avenue showcasing extraordinary human willpower. 400 participants took place at?Ngee Ann City?s Civic Plaza but there was only one winner? Gan Yu Shen. The ultimate prize worth all the sweat and tears? A?Subaru XV 1.6 worth $80,800 (no COE)!
This year 10 countries are involved:?Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and of course Singapore.
Little pleasures in life
It?s the simple things like drink breaks that you treasure during these ?testing? times. Contestants are given four breaks per day: 1am, 7am, 1pm and 7pm. They can use these short five-minute breaks to either eat, drink get a quick massage or use the toilet?perhaps all at once if possible. This is the ultimate test of human endurance.?The last two standing were Singaporeans, Gan Yu Shen (Tholmas), 42, software engineer and runner up ?G Jai Shanker, ?47, catering officer. This shows us that Singaporeans are still the most resilient and kiasu. They deserve the win.
Family love and support
Tilani Family
More inspirational than the almost super-human contestants was the sheer dedication and support shown by family members of the contestants. Though there was only one winner?most walked away winners knowing how loved they are by family. One such family was the exemplary Tilani family.
Contestant Haresh Tilani, 28, bowed out of the competition 74 hours in but he went home still a winner! His family was by his side from the get go with an uncle and aunt coming down from Kuala Lumpur, cousins rushing immediately over after exams and a brother who went to work at 6:30am just to support him for an hour before work, during lunch and after work. That?s not all, they even camped out and spent the night at the venue making sure that Haresh would not fall asleep. They also Googled standing positions for him and played games with him to keep him entertained.
Haresh?s mother Ratni shared: ?The whole competition was emotionally draining and seeing our son go through this the third time. He was the runner up last year. The challenge is not something we as parents look forward to. We are very proud of him but it hurts to see him in pain. To us he is already a winner.?
Shanker Family
Another family, there till the very end, was the wife and cousin of Jai Shanker the runner up winner. Fuji, Jai?s wife of six years has been there every single day, bringing their 5-year-old daughter Nandii to support her daddy. Fuji shared: ?Every break time, I am here to feed him, massage him and take care of him. It?s been constant support from the very start even before my husband qualified. I helped make the calls to the radio station too.?
Fuji Wahyuni (wife of Mr Shanker) Ganga (cousin)
At the end of the day we are rich not because of wealth but also because of the warm family support we have?knowing that every step of the way, through thick, thin and every possible challenge?they are right there with unwavering faith in us. A very comforting and motivating thought that can drive us to succeed.
Congratulations to all the contestants of the Subaru Challenge 2012!
Winner Gan Yu Shen (Tholmas)
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Tell us what you're thinking...
Source: http://sg.theasianparent.com/subaru-2012-winners-families-share-all/
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FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Deutsche Bank saw profits slip 3 percent in the third quarter from a year ago, as higher costs for streamlining its business and from credit writeoffs offset better revenues from investment banking and trading stocks and bonds.
The bank said Tuesday that its net profit fell to ?755 million ($974 million) from ?777 million in the same quarter a year ago even though revenues rose 18 percent to ?8.7 billion.
Revenues were up sharply at its investment banking operation due to improving market conditions and increasing activity by clients. Financial markets bounced back in Europe during the quarter due to steps taken by the European Central Bank.
The ECB has said it is willing to buy the bonds of indebted countries like Spain and Italy, which would help control their borrowing costs. That has helped shore up confidence in the financial system and reduced fears of a disastrous government default or the breakup of the shared euro currency itself.
Investment banking revenues surged 65 percent to ?4.3 billion as income rose from trading stocks and bonds, and as more clients sought fee-producing advisory services.
Companies turn to an investment bank when they want to issue shares or bonds, and for advice on buying other companies. Those lucrative activities can rise and fall along with the level of fear or optimism in markets.
Several factors offset those better results. The bank booked ?276 million in losses from its cost-reduction program, and ?289 million from lawsuits it is facing. It didn't say what the lawsuits were about. The bank faces civil lawsuits in the United States over alleged manipulation of the London interbank offered rate, a key interest benchmark, by it and other major banks.
It also saw a 20 percent increase in writeoffs for bad loans and investments of ?555 million. It said the increase was related to how the bank applied accounting rules that determine when companies must account for the fallen value of investments.
The bank's results beat the consensus estimate for net profit of ?687 million among analysts surveyed by financial information provider FactSet, and also exceeded the revenues estimate of ?7.85 billion.
Its shares rose 4.1 percent and traded at ?34.69 in morning trading in Europe.
"In the third quarter, we delivered a strong operating result which was supported by an improvement in market conditions," co-CEOs Anshu Jain and Juergen Fistchen said. "In the near term, the macro environment remains uncertain, and we will maintain a cautious and risk-focused approach."
Jain and Fitschen, who took over from Josef Ackermann earlier this year, are trying to cut costs and shed risky loans and investments. Big banks are facing a tougher regulatory environment as the European Union and international agreements push them to reduce their amount of risky investments relative to the financial reserves they have to cover losses on those investments.
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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - James Bond fans beware - Wikipedia's entry for the latest 007 film "Skyfall" contains spoilers big enough to drive an Aston Martin through.
It's a posting that includes a full plot summary, which jeopardizes major twists involving the fate of one character and the future of MI6, the agency Bond calls home. Seriously, reading Wikipedia will have Bond devotees reaching for their vodka martinis.
Don't worry, we won't spoil it, but best to steer clear of the web's encyclopedia if you want to stay in the dark.
How did that happen? "Skyfall's" secrets have remained closely guarded throughout its development and production, with the film's producers teasing out key details, such as the singer behind the film's theme song (it's Adele!) and the bizarre blonde appearance of chief villain Javier Bardem, until the last possible moment.
But all that intrigue went up in smoke after "Skyfall" opened overseas in countries like the United Kingdom and Russia two weeks before its U.S. debut. The good news for the film's backers is that new James Bond movie "Skyfall" is off to a roaring start, collecting $77.7 million in 25 markets last weekend. Featuring Daniel Craig in his third appearance as the skirt-chasing superspy, "Skyfall" opens stateside on November 9.
A spokesman for Sony, the studio handling Bond's distribution, said that on a crowd sourced site like Wikipedia, it is difficult to police spoilers after a film has opened.
"Skyfall's" Wikipedia problem is instructive for Hollywood given that many major films, such as last summer's "Battleship," are choosing to open early overseas before hitting the domestic marketplace, leaving them open to spoilage.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/james-bond-fans-beware-wikipedia-reveals-major-skyfall-003420562.html
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The Samsung-made Nexus 10 just landed in our hands, and we had a little time to take it for a spin. It's no secret that this particular tablet is ready for some serious hand-to-hand combat against the iPad, possessing a rather stunning set of components and solid build quality. First, let's go over the laundry list of specs. The Nexus 10 has a dual-core 1.7GHz dual-core Exynos 5250 under the hood -- these are Cortex-A15 processors -- as well as a Mali T604 GPU and 2GB RAM. There's little doubt in our minds that this is more than sufficient to please power users, especially now that we've had some time to see how incredibly speedy everything is. We were even more impressed than we had anticipated, as the tablet features some of the most detailed and smoothest graphics we've seen.
Of course, it doesn't hurt that the Nexus 10 offers a 2,560 x 1,600 display, which equates to just over 300ppi. For comparison, the new iPad packs a 2,048 x 1,536 panel for a pixel density of 264. Numbers are just numbers, of course, but the "True RGB Real Stripe PLS" screen is definitely one of the nicest we've gazed upon. Pixelation was nearly non-existent, viewing angles were great and colors were amazingly vibrant. It's also supported with Gorilla Glass 2.
There's plenty to say and see, so check out our gallery below and head past the break for a video and more impressions.
Continue reading Google Nexus 10 hands-on (video)
Filed under: Tablets, Mobile, Samsung, Google
Google Nexus 10 hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 19:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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