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| Friday, 09 May 2008 |
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China Eyes Overseas Land in Food Push |
| JAMIL ANDERLINI - Financial Times (U.K.) |
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BEIJING -- Chinese companies will be encouraged to buy farmland abroad, particularly in Africa and South America, to help guarantee food security under a plan being considered by Beijing. A proposal drafted by the Ministry of Agriculture would make supporting offshore land acquisition by domestic agricultural companies a central government policy. Beijing already has similar policies to boost offshore investment by state-owned banks, manufacturers and oil companies, but offshore agricultural investment has so far been limited to a few small projects. If approved, the plan could face intense opposition abroad given surging global food prices and deforestation fears. However an official close to the deliberations said it was likely to be adopted. 'There should be no problem for this policy to be approved. The problem might come from foreign governments who are unwilling to give up large areas of land,' the official said. The move comes ... |
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Where Did the Web Rumors About Obama Come From? |
| MATT STEARNS - McClatchy Newspapers |
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WASHINGTON -- Some things about Barack Obama rub some voters the wrong way. "We don't need a Muslim," said Jannay Smith, a retiree from Kokomo, Ind. "Who's to say if he gets in there what he'll do?" Added Steve Shallenberger, a Kokomo electrician: "He's just calling himself a Christian because he knows that's what we in Indiana want to hear." Then there's Sherry Richey, also from Kokomo: "He wouldn't put his hand on the Bible; he wanted the Quran. He won't put his hand over his heart during the anthem or say the Pledge of Allegiance. He's too un-American." All of these slurs on Obama are categorically untrue. Obama, the front-running Democratic presidential candidate, is a Christian, has never been a Muslim, swore his Senate oath on the Bible, says the pledge and generally puts his hand over his heart when he sings the national ... |
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New Bill Ties Net Neutrality to Antitrust Law |
| JOHN TIMMER - Ars Technica |
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Earlier this week, we covered the debate in Congress over a bill that would define net neutrality as part of the nation's official broadband policy and direct the FCC to ensure that it happens. But regulating communications may not be the only way to get net neutrality enacted; a bill introduced today by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI) and Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) treats it as an antitrust issue and amends the Clayton Act accordingly. The bill, the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2008, will enter the record as H.R. 5994. The text does not differ significantly from a previous attempt that went by the same name in 2006. The bill is intended to "promote competition, to facilitate trade, and to ensure competitive and non-discriminatory access to the Internet." It does so by outlawing discriminatory fees for providing content, applications, or services over the 'Net. Internet providers also have ... |
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Arthritis Hits More Than Half of Diabetics |
| STEVEN REINBERG, Reporter - Washington Post/HealthDay |
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Arthritis strikes more than half of the 20.6 million American adults who have diabetes, and the painful joint condition may be a barrier to exercise among these patients, a new government report shows. Being physically active helps people manage both diseases better by controlling blood sugar levels and reducing joint pain, according to the report in the May 9 issue ofMorbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "The prevalence of arthritis is astoundingly high in people with diabetes," said Dr. John H. Klippel, president and CEO of the Arthritis Foundation. "Over half the people with diabetes have arthritis." Although there appears to be a connection between arthritis and diabetes, the reason for it isn't known, Klippel said. A possible explanation is obesity, which is a risk factor for both osteoarthritis and diabetes, he speculated. "In addition, those ... |
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| Thursday, 08 May 2008 |
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Inquiry: Hospitals Couldn''t Handle Terror Attack |
| All the billions that have gone into Homeland Security, and this is what we have to show for it. What is wrong with this story. |
| MIMI HALL - USA TODAY |
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WASHINGTON -- Hospital trauma centers in seven major cities do not have the capacity to handle even a modest terrorist attack, according to findings released Monday from a House committee investigation. Lawmakers looked into hospitals' ability to deal with a sudden influx of victims in the five cities considered at highest risk for terrorist attack and in the two cities hosting this summer's political conventions. The 34 hospitals surveyed in New York City, Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Denver and Minneapolis had no space in their emergency rooms to treat a sudden surge of victims, had few available beds in their intensive care units and too few regular beds to handle even those with less serious injuries. Hospitals in Washington and Los Angeles were particularly overburdened, said Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He called the inquiry's results "truly alarming." |
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Bill Gates Says Microsoft Going 'Independent' Way |
| YURI KAGEYAMA - The Associated Press |
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TOKYO -- Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Wednesday the company isn't pursuing other deals following the withdrawal of its $47.5 billion takeover bid for Yahoo. He said in Tokyo that the company put "a lot of effort" in the talks with Yahoo and has decided the two should pursue "independent paths." Over the weekend, Microsoft withdrew its 3-month-old unsolicited bid for Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) after seeing the impasse with Yahoo's board over a mutually acceptable sales price. "Now at this point Microsoft is focused on its independent strategy," Gates told reporters at a news conference in Tokyo. (AP) Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Wednesday, May 7, 2008.... Full Image Those comments seemed to set a different tone than on Tuesday in South Korea, where he said the company wasn't ruling out alternative partnerships after the failure to buy Yahoo. |
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New Wi-fi Devices Warn Doctors of Heart Attacks |
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Why Bluetooth? Named after King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark and Norway, who unified warring tribes in the 3rd century. Bluetooth was likewise intended to unify different technologies |
| ADAM SHERWIN, Media Correspondent - The Times (U.K.) |
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The Bluetooth wireless technology that allows people to use a hands-free earpiece while making a mobile telephone call could soon alert the emergency services when someone has a heart attack, Ofcom predicts. The communications regulator said that sensors could be implanted into people at risk of heart attack or diabetic collapse that would allow doctors to monitor them remotely. If the 'in-body network' recorded that the person had suddenly collapsed, it would send an alert, via a nearby base station at their home, to a surgery or hospital. However, Ofcom also gave warning in its report, Tomorrow's Wireless World, that the impact of such technology on personal privacy would require more debate. The technology, which is being tested now in Portsmouth, could also be used if a patient failed to take his or her medicines. A pill dispenser would send an automatic reminder and, if the ... |
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Platypus Looks Strange on the Inside Too |
| JOHN NOBLE WILFORD - The New York Times |
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If it has a bill and webbed feet like a duck, lays eggs like a bird or a reptile but also produces milk and has a coat of fur like a mammal, what could the genetics of the duck-billed platypus possibly be like? Well, just as peculiar: an amalgam of genes reflecting significant branching and transitions in evolution. An international scientific team, which announced the first decoding of the platypus genome on Wednesday, said the findings provided 'many clues to the function and evolution of all mammalian genomes,' including that of humans, and should 'inspire rapid advances in other investigations of mammalian biology and evolution.' The research is described in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature by a group of almost 100 scientists led by Wesley C. Warren, a geneticist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The single subject of the study was a female ... |
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| Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
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US Financial-Services Sector Continues Streak Of Losses |
| MARSHALL ECKBLAD - Dow Jones Newswire/CNN |
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NEW YORK -- The nation's financial sector isn't out of the woods just yet. Earnings reports released Tuesday by four large financial-services companies suggest the nation's brokers and lenders are still suffering from the mortgage crisis and credit crunch - and may yet feel the pain for some time to come. Fannie Mae (FNM), the giant government-backed mortgage purchaser, reported a first-quarter net loss of $2.57 a share, or $2.19 billion, far wider than the expected loss of 81 cents a share in a poll by Thomson Reuters. The largest player in the nation's home-lending industry said it projects the "severe weakness in the housing market to continue in 2008," which in turn would lead to higher delinquencies and foreclosures among mortgage borrowers. The stock of Fannie Mae initially dropped after its report, but rebounded and was up around 9% in the afternoon after Moody's affirmed ... |
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The End of The World As We Knew It Is Upon Us |
| LLOYD V. STOVER, PhD - Citizen-Times (Asheville) |
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The oil age began in 1860. By 2006 the world's oil rigs pumped oil at a rate of 85 million barrels a day. They haven't come close since, even as prices have risen to more than $100 per barrel. Breaking our fossil fuel dependency will require plugging into the grid instead of pulling up to the pump. And there are some interesting energy options - and others are doing a lot more about developing them than Americans. Germany leads the world in its installed capacity of renewable energy sources (25 percent), and is the third largest producer of solar panels after China and Japan. The share of electricity generated from renewable sources exceeded 14 percent in 2007, an increase from 11 percent in 2006. This means that Germany has already met the European Union's target that 12.5 percent of electricity should come from renewable sources by 2010. |
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CCTV Boom Has Failed to Slash Crime, Say Police |
| OWEN BOWCOTT - The Guardian (U.K.) |
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Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe. The warning comes from the head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) at New Scotland Yard as the force launches a series of initiatives to try to boost conviction rates using CCTV evidence. They include: · A new database of images which is expected to use technology developed by the sports advertising industry to track and identify offenders. · Putting images of suspects in muggings, rape and robbery cases out on the internet from next month. · Building a ... |
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Medvedev in Putin's Shadow at Kremlin Inauguration |
| Agence France-Presse (France) |
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MOSCOW -- Dmitry Medvedev takes over the Russian presidency Wednesday in the shadow of his mentor Vladimir Putin, whose central role at a glittering Kremlin ceremony will underline his intention to retain major power as prime minister. The inauguration of Russia's third president in the turbulent 17 years since the Soviet collapse was set to take place before about 2,400 guests in the Kremlin palace, starting at midday (0800 GMT), a presidential spokesman told AFP. The brief but pomp-filled ceremony for Medvedev, 42, was to reflect the confidence of a Russian government riding an economic boom on the back of massive oil and gas exports. Putin has overseen that boom in his eight-year rule while rolling back many of the democratic experiments of the 1990s, according to critics. A rare anti-Kremlin rally late Tuesday was snuffed out in Moscow even before it began, with police detaining ... |
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