WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration says that almost 7 percent of imported spices over a three-year period were contaminated with salmonella.
In a report released Wednesday, the FDA says testing of imported spices between 2007 and 2010 showed that spices were twice as likely as other inspected foods to be contaminated with the pathogen. More than 80 different types of salmonella were detected.
The agency decided to study the issue as several spice-related outbreaks have caused illnesses around the globe. In 2009 and 2010, black pepper and red pepper from India, Vietnam and China used in salami caused hundreds of illnesses. The FDA says there have been 14 known outbreaks around the world since 1973, causing almost 2,000 illnesses, many of which were in children.
The FDA says that during the three year period, 749 shipments of spice were refused entry into the United States because of salmonella contamination while 238 other shipments were denied because of the presence of what the FDA calls "filth" — insects, excrement, hair or other materials.
The agency said that some of the spices that were found contaminated at the border were later cooked or treated to eliminate possible pathogens, so much of the salmonella was likely gone by the time the spices were eaten. The agency also noted that the amount of spice generally eaten at a meal is small, meaning people have less of a chance of getting sick from a contaminated spice than a contaminated fruit or vegetable, for example.
Still, the agency has targeted spices because their route to a diner's plate is so circuitous and the potential for contamination comes at many different points. Most all of the spices eaten in the United States are imported, and most come from small farms in a variety of countries that all have different levels of food safety oversight.
The report says spices are produced by a wide variety of agricultural practices, including "on very small farms where farm animals are used to plow, crops are harvested by hand, and spices are dried in open air." All of these practices have potential for animal, bird or human contamination. Off the farm, spices from the small farms are often combined, sold to exchanges or packing companies, or stored for years, increasing the chances that they are temporarily in unclean circumstances.
The study looked at spices imported from several countries, with many of the shipments coming from India, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam.
Michael Taylor, FDA's deputy commissioner for foods, says the agency is "not recommending that consumers stay away from spices," though the chances of someone getting sick can be reduced by adding spices to food before it is cooked.
Taylor says that food safety rules proposed earlier this year aiming to make imported and domestic food safer on farms and in processing facilities should help reduce spice contamination. The proposed rules include regulations that will require food importers to better understand where the food they bring into the country has been.
According to the study, much of the knowledge and technology to reduce contamination exist but are often not used. It surmised that problems arose because of generally unhygienic conditions, including the failure to limit animal and insect access to food and not taking steps like irradiation to kill any potential pathogens.
The report said that better training across the spice supply chain would be one way to reduce illnesses.
___
Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick
NEW YORK (AP) — In her teenage dream? Mick Jagger says he never hit on Katy Perry when she was 18.
During an interview with an Australian radio show this week, the pop star said she sang backing vocals for Jagger's 2004 song "Old Habits Die Hard." Perry said she had dinner with the veteran rocker and that "he hit on me when I was 18."
In a statement Thursday, a representative for Jagger says he "categorically denies that he has ever made a pass at Katy Perry." The rep adds: "Perhaps she is confusing him with someone else."
Perry was one of the singers to make a guest appearance on the Rolling Stones' tour this year. The 29-year-old singer also said in the interview that the 70-year-old Jagger has been "very kind" to her.
Maintenance work on Outlook.com's calendar application is now in its second week, and the lengthy, ongoing tune-up could be causing problems for users.
The maintenance began on Oct. 23, according to a note posted on Microsoft's Live Status dashboard, where people can check on the status of the company's consumer online services.
"You might see error messages when creating/editing birthdays. The checkbox to get notifications in the Options page may also be disabled during this time," the announcement says.
Asked for an update, a Microsoft spokesman confirmed on Wednesday that the work hasn't been finished. "We apologize for any inconvenience and expect the updates to be completed soon," he wrote via email.
It's not clear in what ways Outlook.com's calendar is being improved.
Outlook.com is Microsoft's new Webmail service. It made its debut in mid-2012 and has since replaced Hotmail.
Microsoft describes Outlook.com as a total reinvention of webmail, from the user interface to the back-end platform. It's supposed to give Microsoft a stronger competitor to Google's Gmail and Yahoo Mail.
It malfunctioned in August in various ways for several days and experienced a prolonged outage in March.
Juan Carlos Perez covers enterprise communication/collaboration suites, operating systems, browsers and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Juan on Twitter at @JuanCPerezIDG.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Renewed questions about the economy's health and uncertainty surrounding the government's budget fight will likely lead the Federal Reserve on Wednesday to maintain the pace of the stimulus it's supplying to the economy.
That expectation marks a reversal from just six weeks ago, when almost everyone expected the Fed to start trimming its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases. The bond buying is intended to keep long-term interest rates low to help the economy rebound from the Great Recession.
The Fed is to announce its decision in a statement after a two-day policy meeting.
The central bank surprised investors and economists at its last meeting in September when it chose not to reduce its bond buying. Since then, a 16-day partial government shutdown shaved an estimated $25 billion from economic growth this quarter. And a batch of tepid economic data pointed to a still-subpar economy.
Now, few think the Fed will reduce its stimulus any time soon. Many analysts now predict the Fed will maintain the pace of its bond purchases into next year.
"I think March is now the earliest that any reduction in bond purchases will happen," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.
By then, Fed members expect to have seen several months of stronger job growth. They also expect Congress to have resolved its budget impasse.
If the Fed does start slowing its stimulus in March, it will have left its policy unchanged not just this week but also at its next meeting in December and at its subsequent meeting in late January.
The January meeting will be the last for Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is stepping down after eight years. President Barack Obama has chosen Vice Chair Janet Yellen to succeed Bernanke.
Assuming that Yellen is confirmed by the Senate, her first meeting as chairman will be in March. Many economists think no major policy changes will occur before a new chairman takes over.
Congress' budget fight has clouded the Fed's timetable. Though the government reopened Oct. 17 and a threatened default on its debt was averted, Congress adopted only temporary fixes. More deadlines and possible economic disruptions lie ahead.
A House-Senate conference committee is working toward a budget accord. But wide differences separate Democrats and Republicans on spending and taxes. Without a deal by Jan. 15, another shutdown is possible. Congress must also raise the government's debt ceiling after Feb. 7. If not, a market-rattling default will remain a threat.
The standoff has led economists to trim their forecasts for economic growth in the October-December quarter. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its index of consumer confidence dropped to 71.2 in October, the lowest level since April. The decline was attributed, in part, to the government shutdown.
Employers added just 148,000 jobs in September, a steep slowdown from August. And temporary layoffs during the shutdown are expected to depress October's job gain.
In June, when Bernanke suggested that the Fed could reduce its bond buying by year's end, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged 560 points in two days. Many investors feared that the Fed might remove its support prematurely and derail an already subpar recovery from the recession.
Interest rates rose, too. The increase particularly in mortgage rates, before the Fed had even begun to change policy, alarmed the central bank. Higher mortgage rates could dampen the gains in housing, which has been a rare bright spot for the economy.
Given the panic among investors when Bernanke raised the prospect that the Fed would slow its bond purchases, analysts think any pullback will be very gradual.
"The one thing Janet Yellen will not want to do is start her term by making a mistake," said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif. "She will be extremely cautious and will try to signal that the Fed is starting to back off its bond purchases without causing the kinds of effects we saw in the summer."
This week's meeting is the first since Obama announced Oct. 9 his choice of Yellen to be chairman. David Jones, chief economist at DMJ Advisors and the author of several books on the Fed, said her status could change the dynamics.
"Bernanke is essentially a lame duck, and Yellen has not yet taken over," Jones said. "It will make the Fed more cautious."
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has said he will oppose Yellen's nomination unless the Senate votes on a bill he's sponsoring to subject the Fed's rate decisions to review by the Government Accountability Office.
Yellen is still expected to win Senate confirmation, but a vote by the full Senate may not come until January. The Senate Banking Committee is considering holding a hearing on the nomination Nov. 14.
Once the Fed starts trimming its bond purchases, economists foresee reductions of $10 billion to $20 billion a month as long as the economy improves consistently. Some analysts think the Fed could finish its purchases by the end of 2014.
"But if something goes wrong, then they will stop or at least slow down the reductions," said David Wyss, a former chief economist at Standard & Poor's and now an economics professor at Brown University.
Airo Health Introduces Flagship Wearable Health Monitor, the AIRO Wristband
Next-generation device uses spectroscopy to automatically monitor caloric consumption, stress, exercise and sleep quality
WATERLOO, ON – October 28, 2013 – Airo Health today reveals its flagship product, AIRO, a next-generation health-monitoring device. A sleek wristband that automatically monitors nutrition, stress, exercise and sleep, AIRO analyzes caloric consumption, stress patterns, daily exertion and sleep quality to provide actionable insights that coach users towards better overall health.
In the current world of activity trackers, the AIRO wristband stands as a beacon for what is truly possible at the intersection of wearable technology and mobile health. AIRO is the first device that gives users a well-rounded view of their health.
"We built AIRO to help people become more proactive about their health. By aggregating data around the four pillars of health, AIRO notices patterns in your behavior and tells you what you can do, each day, to live a healthier life," explains Abhilash Jayakumar, co-founder and CEO of Airo Health. "We're excited about giving people the ability to take control of their health in a way that has never before been possible."
Nutrition: Nutrition is monitored using different wavelengths of light to look into the blood stream and detect metabolites as they are released while and after you eat. This allows AIRO to measure caloric intake and even the quality of meals consumed, providing recommendations on ways to improve nutrition.
Stress: AIRO utilizes heart rate variability (HRV) to monitor micro-fluctuations in stress throughout the day. With this information, AIRO not only notifies users when their stress level crosses a personal threshold; but also recommends steps to help them recover.
Exercise: Unlike other devices that track steps, AIRO monitors daily exertion through heart rate and caloric burn. AIRO then uses these metrics to detect how intense the activity has been and even checks to see how the body has recovered from activity over the course of the next few days.
Sleep: With a device like AIRO, sleep is monitored by looking at the autonomic nervous system to notice distinct sleep cycles. It recognizes when the body is in deep sleep, light sleep or REM sleep and can calculate how much of a user's night was restorative.
AIRO is now available for pre-order at the launch price of $149 (regularly $199), and will ship in Fall 2014. To find out more information, or to reserve yours, visit www.getAIRO.com.
About Airo Health Based in Kitchener-Waterloo, Airo Health was founded in early 2013 by three University of Waterloo Engineering graduates (Naman Kumar, Emmanuel DeVries and Abhilash Jayakumar) and has since grown to five employees. The company calls the VeloCity Garage its home base, a co-working space that houses over two-dozen companies founded by University of Waterloo students and alumni.
Laser pods mounted on drones to shoot down missiles. Yeah, that's science fiction warfare, right there. And that's exactly what the US military wants. The US just gave Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman contracts to develop aircraft-mounted laser weapons to protect drones from getting hit by missiles. Or create a flock of drones that can form a shield with lasers.
Web videoconferencing may get easier after a decision by Cisco Systems that should help bring widely used technology into browsers.
Cisco announced in a blog post Wednesday that it plans to make its codec based on the H.264 standard available as a free, open-source download from the Internet. Also on Wednesday, Mozilla said it would add the technology to Firefox.
H.264 is a standard for real-time video that is widely used by Cisco and other vendors. It hasn't become a native part of the major browsers because it requires royalty payments to MPEG LA, which licenses the technology. In order to make H.264 available for browsers, Cisco will not pass on its licensing costs for the codec.
Without a native codec in browsers that works with major videoconferencing platforms, users have had to download an application or plug-in before doing a video chat in a browser, said Nemertes Research analyst Irwin Lazar. That often means dealing with security settings that try to block new software, plus installing updates to the software over time. Google includes its own VP8 video codec free in the Chrome browser, but Microsoft, Apple and Mozilla have steered clear of VP8, Lazar said. H.264 is the standard that can get browser users connected to other videoconferencing platforms, he said.
Cisco wants to clear a path to getting H.264 included in WebRTC, a set of multimedia features in the HTML5 standard. The Internet Engineering Task Force is scheduled to choose a video codec for WebRTC at a meeting next week in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @sdlawsonmedia. Stephen's e-mail address is stephen_lawson@idg.com
Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service , IDG News Service
Stephen Lawson covers mobile, storage and networking technologies for the IDG News Service. More by Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service
The aim of this initiative is to share knowledge, projects and developments in terms of scientific advancements, based on the creation of synergies and possible frameworks for cooperation between the various research groups, organisations and institutions that address this matter.
The Call for proposals has been launched, and will be open untill November 11th.
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Did someone's foot get stuck on the accelerator? The worldwide smartphone market raced ahead at an astonishing growth rate of 38.8 percent in the third quarter, a number that reflected shipments of 467.9 million units, according to a report released this week by IDC. To put that number in perspective, the population of the United States is just 316.9 million. So you could sell a smartphone to every single person in the U.S., plus one to each of the 142 million people living in Russia, and still have about 8.5 million left over.
That's great news for the five leading smartphone vendors -- Samsung, Apple, Huawei, Lenovo, and LG -- not to mention all the suppliers and developers that live in their ecosystems. Great news for now, that is. But I threw those statistics at you to make a point: The smartphone market could well be approaching saturation. "That rate of growth can't be supported, unless Verizon and AT&T start selling smartphones to extraterrestrials," quipped columnist Carl Weinschenk.
Indeed, there are already early signs that the market is running out of headroom. In South Korea, home to Samsung and one of the most connected places on Earth, each quarter of this year has seen about 1.35 million new smartphone subscriptions, compared to nearly twice that number a year ago, according to that country's Ministry of Science. And smartphone sales in Australia and New Zealand actually shrank in the second quarter of the year. Meanwhile, profit growth at companies like Apple and LG Electronics is slowing as price competition takes hold.
The mobile industry is hardly on the edge of an abyss, and the sky is not falling. But all this reminds me of the PC market in the 1990s, which also grew at a phenomenal rate. When the PC market approached saturation, profits declined as vendors fought for market share, and innovation slowed to the point where PCs became commodities. We may be headed in that direction yet again.
The long upgrade cycle There use to be a fairly regular PC upgrade cycle in business: Companies would upgrade their systems every three years or so, and individuals more or less followed suit. That's been changing. Although I don't have hard numbers on that, I suspect the cycle is moving closer to five years.
Maybe systems are somewhat sturdier these days. But more important is the lack of significant innovation. Laptops have gotten lighter and more powerful over the years, but until touchscreens and Windows 8 debuted, you could hardly tell one generation of PC from the other. (Not that Windows "Frankenstein," aka Windows 8, will revive the market; in fact, Windows 8 is hurting the PC market.)
Computer buyers are no dummies. Why spend money on a new PC when the old one does everything you need quite well? PC makers reacted by cutting prices, a fratricidal strategy that resulted in shrinking margins for everybody and the deaths of major companies (remember Gateway?) up and down the supply chain. Now, even Mac sales are declining.
During his six years as a U.S. Air Force drone sensor operator, 27-year-old Brandon Bryant helped kill, by his estimation, 1,626 people in combat, mostly from bases in the U.S., thousands of miles away from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. Years later, he's dealing with PTSD and speaking out about the realities of drone warfare. Got a question for Bryant? Ask it at the bottom of the post. Bryant will join us at 2pm EST to answer your questions.
Philadelphia 76ers' Michael Carter-Williams (1) celebrates after making a 3-point basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Philadelphia. The 76ers won 114-110. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)
Philadelphia 76ers' Michael Carter-Williams (1) celebrates after making a 3-point basket during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Miami Heat, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Philadelphia. The 76ers won 114-110. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)
Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) reacts to a foul call during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Philadelphia. The 76ers won 114-110. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)
Miami Heat's Chris Anderson (11) reaches for a rebound over Philadelphia 76ers' Daniel Orton during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)
Miami Heat's LeBron James (6) passes the ball past Philadelphia 76ers' Spencer Hawes (00) and Thaddeus Young during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)
Miami Heat's Chris Bosh (1) drives to the basket past Philadelphia 76ers' Spencer Hawes (00) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Michael Perez)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Michael Carter-Williams had Allen Iverson cheering from his suite and left LeBron James impressed.
Not a bad start for MCW.
It was an even better one for the Sixers.
Carter-Williams had a debut to remember, using 22 points, 12 assists, and nine steals to lead the Philadelphia 76ers past the Miami Heat 114-110 on Wednesday night.
The rookie out of Syracuse nearly upstaged Iverson on a night Philly feted his spectacular career.
"You see what he can bring on a big stage," 76ers rookie head coach Brett Brown said.
MCW was the MVP of the fourth quarter, picking up two more steals, harassing James in the lane, and sealing the win from the free-throw line.
Spencer Hawes scored 24 points and put the Sixers ahead for good with a 3-pointer, then a driving layup for a 109-108 lead with 2:01 left.
"Everything was clicking tonight," Carter-Williams said. "If we can consistently play together, then we can be a good team."
The guys in the locker room might be the only ones who think that.
As the NBA season tipped off, the over-under out of Las Vegas for total wins for the 76ers this year is 16.5, the lowest of any team in the league.
Against the two-time defending champion Heat, no one in Philly cared.
James missed five of six shots in the fourth, losing the ball on one drive down the middle, then blowing a 6-footer on the next possession. Shane Battier missed all seven 3-pointers in the game and the Heat missed 10 straight shots in the fourth — after scoring a whopping 45 points in the third.
The Heat needed all those points to rally after the Sixers dominated from the opening tip. They made their first 11 shots and raced to leads of 19-0 and 26-4, putting the champs on their heels a night after they received their rings.
James had 25 points and 13 assists and Chris Bosh scored 22 for Miami.
Miami guard Dwyane Wade sat out to rest his sore knees. Coach Erik Spoelstra says he wanted to give Wade an extra day to recover with the Heat playing in consecutive nights. Wade scored 13 points for the Heat in their 107-95 win over Chicago on Tuesday.
Carter-Williams also hit four 3-pointers, had seven rebounds and his nine steals set an NBA first-game record.
"I couldn't think of a better way to start your NBA career," James said.
For most of the game, the Sixers played more like the team in the hunt for the championship, not one in full blown rebuilding mode. Iverson, Charles Barkley, Julius Erving and Moses Malone were among the former Sixers on hand for opening night.
The Heat surely could have used Wade. Wade, though, had walked into locker room both knees wrapped in ice and an understanding it was too early in the season to push himself. He said it was "just being smart."
"It was not pre-planned, it was something our trainers and coaches came to me with," Wade said. "It's early in the season, it's just a precaution."
James said Wade could take all the time he needed.
"If he needs to take the second game of the season, the 30th game, 50th game, 80th game, that's the way it is," James said.
After all, the Heat were a double-digit favorite to rout the Sixers, and expected to have little trouble against one of the worst teams in the NBA.
Not so fast.
Evan Turner scored 26 points and the Sixers dominated only hours after Iverson announced his retirement, ending a 14-year career.
Carter-Williams had a steal and dunk to open the game, Turner dunked over James, and Hawes tossed in a layup for a stunning 19-0 run to open the game. James finally banked in a shot with 7:07 left in the first to end Miami's scoring drought.
The Sixers still led 29-11 even with a lineup that included Tony Wroten, Lavoy Allen and Daniel Orton on the court.
Who? Exactly.
"We've got a lot of pride, the guys that have been here and done it," Hawes said.
The Heat, though, became the Heat and used a 14-0 run in the second quarter to pull to 51-49 at halftime.
James hit a 3 that made it a one-point game, and Udonis Haslem's inside layup gave the Heat their first lead of the game, 60-59. Ray Allen hit all four 3-pointers in the quarter, James made three and the Heat shot a sizzling 10 of 13 from 3-point range in the third. They finished 16 of 22 (73 percent) from the floor overall and stretched the lead to 94-85.
"We're a comfortable team, we always feel like we can win a game," James said.
Just not this one.
Notes: The Heat didn't land in Philadelphia until after 3 a.m. ... Patti LaBelle and rapper Meek Mill were at the game. Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson and Villanova coach Jay Wright also attended the game. ... The Sixers will retire Iverson's No. 3 on March 1.
More than moved on from the end of his previous engagement, "The Haunting in Connecticut II" stud Chad Michael Murray is now dating Australian actress Nicky Whelan.
The 32-year-old posted a passionate black-and-white snapshot on Twitter, showing him and his new lady love in lip lock mode on Wednesday (October 30).
"I am a lucky lucky man," he captioned the snapshot. "Blessed 2 feel the way I do with @NickyWhelan! I hope each of u feels the same in ur world!"
In related news, Chad is awaiting the release of his movie rendition of the national bestselling "Left Behind" series. Set for release on June 14th of 2014, the thriller flick's synopsis lines up with that of the books: "A small group of survivors are left behind after millions of people suddenly vanish and the world is plunged into chaos and destruction."
This month's security breach at Adobe is turning out to be much more widespread than the company first let on. At least 38 million users have been affected by the early October incident.
When Adobe announced the breach on Oct. 3, it said that attackers stole user names and encrypted passwords for an undisclosed numbers of users, along with encrypted credit or debit card numbers and expiration dates for 2.9 million customers. Krebs on Security now reports on the full extent of the attack, confirming the 38 million figure with Adobe.
The total damage could go beyond 38 million users if a recent file dump at AnonNews.org is any indication. According to Krebs on Security, the 3.8GB file includes more than 150 million usernames and hashed passwords, all taken from Adobe. The same file also apparently turned up on a server with the other stolen Adobe data.
Adobe says that 38 million active users users were affected, whereas the other usernames and passwords could include inactive IDs, test accounts, and IDs with invalid passwords. However, Adobe is still investigating, and given the tendency of users to repeat the same usernames and passwords across multiple Web services, inactive account holders could still face a security risk. Adobe is trying to notify inactive users of the breach and has already reset passwords for active users who were affected.
To make matters worse, Krebs on Security and Hold Security both claim that the hackers stole source code for flagship products such as Photoshop, Acrobat, and Reader. Adobe acknowledged that at least some Photoshop source code was stolen; the company is trying to get the data taken down.
In a blog post, Hold Security suggested that the source code theft could have far-reaching security implications. "While we are not aware of specific use of data from the source code, we fear that disclosure of encryption algorithms, other security schemes, and software vulnerabilities can be used to bypass protections for individual and corporate data," the firm wrote. "Effectively, this breach may have opened a gateway for new generation of viruses, malware, and exploits."
She's one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, so it's no surprise that L'Oreal Paris would declare Blake Lively the new face of their brand.
On Tuesday (October 29), the cosmetic/beauty company took to its Instagram account and revealed Blake's first campaign images.
Brand global president of L'Oreal Paris Cyril Chapuy said in a statement, "[Blake] has become a beauty icon for a whole generation with her gorgeous gold-dipped hair, luminous gaze and drop dread smile.This strong, charismatic and definitely glowing actress is joining the L'Oreal Paris family. And we're so proud of welcome her."
Miss Lively also commented, "I am thrilled and honored to join the incredible women who represent L'Oreal Paris. I grew up with the inspiration of their message, 'We're worth it.' What an important value to instill in women. That beauty is rooted in confidence. That is key. That is why I'm so proud to be a L'Oreal Paris woman."
The former "Gossip Girl" star will be joining the line with fellow brand ambassadors including Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Eva Longoria, and Freida Pinto.
Hollywood star and serious technophile Ashton Kutcher is proudly flashing his Lenovo employee ID these days as the company' newest product engineer. Kutcher will work closely with Yoga Tablet developers on the geeky stuff, but he'll also do his thing in front of the camera. "I think Lenovo working with Ashton Kutcher could be a home run both on style and on substance," said analyst Jeff Kagan.
Lenovo's newest product engineer got a higher-profile introduction to the world than many of the company's other employees. Perhaps that's because he's also famed actor and investor Ashton Kutcher.
Lenovo announced its multiyear partnership with the Two and a Half Men star at the launch event for the company's latest tablet. Kutcher will work with engineers on the Yoga Tablet product line, Lenovo said, by offering input and making decisions on the design, specifications and software.
Lenovo's Yoga Tablet
Emotional Connection
"I think Lenovo working with Ashton Kutcher could be a home run both on style and on substance," telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan told TechNewsWorld. "Lenovo may be the leading computer maker today, but they have really lost much in the way of their connection to the customer. Ashton Kutcher could help them reach the customer much more effectively and emotionally."
The potential for increased customer engagement is certainly part of Kutcher's appeal for Lenovo.
"He's got a huge following and a targeted audience of 18-to-24-year-olds that we're keen to go after," spokesperson Brion Tingler told TechNewsWorld. "It's a dual partnership, on the marketing side as well as on the product engineer side. He is a seasoned tech investor and has got a lot of interesting insights to bring to the process."
Serial Investor
Kutcher is well known in technology circles. The 35-year-old has invested in companies including Airbnb, Spotify, and Foursquare, among others, through his venture capital firm A-Grade Investments, as well as news summarization app Summly. He also starred as technology visionary and Apple cofounder Steve Jobs in the biopic Jobs, which was released earlier this year.
The star has a technical background, having studied biochemical engineering in college. However, it's not yet clear how those skills might transfer to the development process of a technology product.
Celebrity Tech Partnerships
Kutcher is far from the only celebrity to have a direct involvement with technology firms. Singer Alicia Keys was named creative director for BlackBerry earlier this year. Jennifer Lopez, meanwhile, is chief creative officer and majority shareholder of Viva Movil, a wireless retail firm targeting the Latino market. The company is a Verizon Wireless premium retailer. Lady Gaga, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am have all made technology investments.
That said, Kutcher's partnership with Lenovo appears to run deeper than other technology-celebrity pairings given his participation in the product development decision-making process.
Lenovo announced Kutcher's involvement with the company at the same time it unveiled the new Yoga Tablet. One of Kutcher's first public tasks as part of Lenovo was to promote the tablet -- and flash his company ID card -- in a commercial.
Yoga Tablet Specs
The tablet has two key features that seem to differentiate it from competitors' devices. First, there are three ways (or modes) to position the device: Users can hold it, use the stand to sit it upright, or tilt the tablet on a surface. Second, the Yoga has up to 18 hours of battery life, Lenovo claimed.
The handle holds dual batteries, using power options more commonly found in laptops than tablets, Lenovo said, and the Yoga can charge other devices through its USB on-the-go connectivity. It runs Android 4.2, using quad-core processors. There are both 8-inch (weighing 0.88 lbs.) and 10-inch (1.35 lbs.) models, with 3G options and 16-GB or 32-GB capacity, plus Micro SD expansion. The tablet includes 1,280 x 800 displays, a 5-MP rear camera and front camera, and an optional Bluetooth keyboard for the 10-inch model that doubles as a cover.
Lenovo priced the tablets at US$249 and $299 for the 8-inch and 10-inch models respectively, while the Bluetooth keyboard is $69. The tablets are available now.
Battery Life Is Key
It is the battery life that might help the tablet stand out from competitors like the iPad, which has a 10-hour battery life.
"Battery life is one of the key measurements in customer satisfaction. Lenovo continues to lead -- today, anyway," said Kagan.
"Anything that helps differentiate a product is very important for market share," Vinita Jakhanwal, director of mobile, emerging displays and technology at IHS Electronics and Media, told TechNewsWorld. "Extended battery life is definitely a plus for any mobile device."
A girl trick-or-treats in Santa Monica, Calif., on Oct. 31, 2012.
Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
As a parent, I have a love-hate relationship with Halloween. I love seeing my son dress up—this year he’ll be a most adorable green dinosaur—and I enjoy watching my community come together to celebrate with its kids. But I hate that this holiday drowns kids in candy. We’re desperately trying to teach our children healthy eating habits and the importance of consuming food in moderation, and then, once a year, we’re like, Hey, honey, want to go out and collect ungodly amounts of sweets so you can devour them in 48 hours? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
Sure, there are clever ways around the candy problem. You can have your kids swap treats for toys with the tooth fairy, for instance. Or you can use the candy to do cool science experiments—did you know that when you drop a Skittle in water, the S floats to the top? Some parents go so far as to buy the candy from their kids, although that approach could backfire (more on that later).
But what if your kids don’t want to barter with the tooth fairy or set off controlled Kit-Kat explosions or sell you their Butterfingers? What if they really, really want to eat 8 pounds of candy? Right now I bet some of you are thinking—commenting, probably—What’s the big deal,lady? Chill out and let your kid eat some candy. (I know former Slate contributor KJ Dell’Antonia would agree.) And you know what? Research suggests that you might be right. As much as I’m going to hate watching my kid swallow eight Snickers bars in 90 seconds, letting go of my controlling tendencies may be the best thing for my son’s long-term well-being. That’s because when parents try to restrict their otherwise healthy children from certain foods, or when we actively pressure or coerce them to eat what we want, kids retaliate. Worse, our well-meaning interventions may cause our kids to develop abnormal relationships with food, increasing their risk for emotional eating and eating disorders.
First, let’s talk about what happens when your kid eats eight Snickers bars in 90 seconds. Assuming he’s otherwise healthy, he’ll survive (and hopefully, so will you). Table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are comprised of two sugar molecules in similar quantities: glucose and the much sweeter fructose. In response to the cornucopia of glucose, your kid’s pancreas will release the hormone insulin, which will sweep the glucose out of his bloodstream and shuttle it into cells, where it will be stored for future energy needs. Some glucose may also get turned into triglycerides (fat blobs) and returned to the bloodstream. Ultimately, the insulin spike and blood sugar drop may leave your child’s blood sugar lower than it was before, so he may get grumpy, but what did you expect? As for the fructose—the other sugar molecule—it will go straight to the liver, which will turn much of the sugar into fat. Some will get stored in the liver, and some will be sent back into the bloodstream. The fructose may also blunt his body’s release of appetite-controlling hormones called leptin and ghrelin, making him feel peckish despite the 1,800 calories he just ate. As for the fat from the candy, his body will convert it into fatty acids and cholesterol and then store it as fat inside fat cells. The three processes I described—the blood sugar spike and drop as a result of the glucose, the fructose being turned into fat and pumped into the bloodstream, and the fats being stored inside fat cells—are not particularly good for your child, for sure, but they only truly become dangerous when they happen over and over again. If your kid doesn’t have the opportunity to scarf down insane amounts of sugar and fat very often and doesn’t have other health concerns, there’s no reason to be worried about a once-a-year Halloween binge.
Plus, letting your kids eat crazy amounts of candy on Halloween may make them want less of it the next day. That’s not just because of they’ll associate Reese’s Pieces with stomachaches—it’s because kids can get obsessed with foods that they’re not allowed to eat and conversely crave foods less that they’re allowed. “When kids know they will be able to have unrestricted access to candy from time to time, it will greatly reduce the lure,” explains Natalia Stasenko, a pediatric nutritionist with Tribeca Nutrition in Manhattan.
This idea isn’t just based on speculation. In a 1999 study, Penn State researchers identified three types of snacks—wheat crackers, cheese fish-shaped crackers, and pretzel fish-shaped crackers—that a group of 4- to 6-year-olds found equally tasty. Then they split the kids into groups and seated them around tables. They allowed all of the kids as many wheat crackers as they wanted but put either the cheese fish-shaped crackers or pretzel fish-shaped crackers in a clear container in the middle of the table and told the kids they couldn’t have them. After several minutes, a bell rang and the groups were each allowed to eat as many of the formerly banned crackers as they wanted in addition to the wheat crackers. The researchers found that the kids talked positively about, asked for, and ate whichever type of cracker they had been denied—far more than the always available wheat crackers. Interestingly, the kids who became most preoccupied with the forbidden crackers were those who had parents who restricted certain foods at home.
What about when kids don’t even love the restricted food—like if you take away your daughter’s candy corn when she likes chocolate better anyway? Doing so could make her heart swell for candy corn. In 2008, Dutch researchers put kids into private rooms and placed bowls of fruit and sweets in front of each of them. They told one-third of the kids to eat whatever they wanted from the bowls, told another one-third to only eat the fruit, and told the last third to only eat the sweets. Five minutes later, they lifted the restrictions and told all the kids to eat whatever they wanted. The kids who had been told they couldn’t eat the fruit then ate 60 percent more fruit than sweets, even though these same kids, before the experiment, said they didn’t like fruit as much as sweets. Most importantly, the kids who had not been given any restrictions ate less food overall than did the kids who had been restricted from either food.
Today in international tech news: A Bitcoin ATM opens in Canada. Also: The mothers of a pair of accused cybercriminals say the U.S. picks on "young British geeks"; the EU is much happier griping about privacy than legislating it; Baidu has great revenue and meh profits; and the UK adds another 20-plus websites to its file-sharing blockade.
In Vancouver, B.C., three entrepreneurs opened what appears to be the world's first ATM that is able to exchange Bitcoins for official currencies.
The machine looks like a normal ATM and resides in a popular coffee shop. It exchanges Canadian dollars for Bitcoins, the virtual (and controversial) online currency. The transactions can go either way -- cash to Bitcoin, or Bitcoin to cash.
More than a dozen local businesses in Vancouver accept Bitcoins, which are reportedly also becoming more and more common in San Francisco, Berlin and other tech-inclined cities.
The mothers of two blokes who faced extradition to the U.S. have accused American authorities of targeting "young British geeks" after this week's arrest of a 28-year-old Brit, Lauri Love, who is accused of breaching U.S. military and government computers.
The two mothers in question saw their own young British geek sons, Gary McKinnon and Richard O'Dwyer, accused of serious crimes by U.S. authorities. McKinnon broke into U.S. government computer systems -- he said he was looking for evidence of UFOs -- while O'Dwyer faced extradition because of copyright charges stemming from his website tvshack.net, which hosted links to pirated material.
Neither individual was ultimately extradited to the U.S.
The aforementioned mothers have implored Love's family to fight any U.S. extradition attempts, although it is not clear at this time whether or not U.S. authorities will seek an extradition.
European countries are increasingly vocal about their dissatisfaction with the U.S. over surveillance -- that much is clear. France last week let it be known that it was none too pleased with reports of U.S. snooping, and days later German Chancellor Angela dialed up President Obama after reports that the U.S. was snooping on her communications.
However, while the European Union may be unified in its aversion to U.S. data collection, the 28-nation bloc is in no hurry to formally address the problem. A summit last week in Brussels made it clear that European leaders were going to take their time crafting data privacy laws; the process could take until 2015, and at the very least until next May's European Parliament elections.
The New York Times described it as "contradictions between the verbal support for privacy among European leaders and their own policy decisions."
Meanwhile, in India, the Financial Timesreports that the Prime Minister's aversion to technology and personal devices may have cocooned him from NSA snooping.
Chinese search giant Baidu announced that its third-quarter revenues were strong, but said that investment in mobile products stunted profits.
The company had more than US$1.4 billion in revenue, a 42.3 percent spike from a year before, but operating profits went up just 1.2 percent ($545.4 million).
The discrepancy is caused by Baidu's zealous quest to "make the jump from desktop devices to mobile," according to Tech in Asia. This includes a $2 billion acquisition of the app store 91 Wireless as well as the purchase of a $160 million stake in group deals service Nuomi.
A court order from the BPI, which represents the British music industry, told British Internet service providers to add 21 more sites to the laundry list of banned websites.
The blocks stem from copyright violation concerns and must be in place by Wednesday.
After being sidelined for more than two years because of knee injuries, bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will finally fight again at UFC 169 Feb. 1 against interim belt-holder Renan Barao. Cruz last fought and won with a unanimous decision over now flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson in October of 2011.
After that, Cruz was selected as a coach of The Ultimate Fighter, opposite his rival Urijah Faber. The two had fought twice before and were set to have a rubber match after coaching TUF.
Cruz tore his ACL in a knee and was forced out of the fight. Barao stepped in to fight Faber in an interim title bout, which he won.
Cruz' recovery was delayed by a second ACL tear and surgery. Barao has defended his interim title twice in the meantime.
The main event of UFC 169 will include another title bout as featherweight champ Jose Aldo defends against Ricardo Lamas. Lamas has won four straight bouts heading into his long-awaited title shot.
The open source Tizen mobile operating system is one of the most visible examples that Samsung isn't completely dependent on the Android mobile OS.
At the Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco this week, Samsung held a single breakout session on developing apps using Tizen. The session was led by two engineers from Intel, which is working jointly with Samsung to create code to enable Tizen to run across multiple hardware platforms, including tablets, smartphones, cars and smart TVs.
Most of Samsung's smartphones and tablets today run Android or the company's own Bada OS. In fact, Samsung is by far the largest Android smartphone maker globally, as well as the largest maker of smartphones overall, according to IDC and others.
The company does make Windows Phone smartphones as well, though a Windows Phone session wasn't among among the 50 scheduled at the developer conference. Nearly all of the sessions focused on applications or services that work on Android.
Tizen has a modern Internet interface for use on devices, supporting HTML 5 and other Web technologies, so developers can theoretically write applications once to work on many devices. A Samsung roadmap for Tizen rollouts hasn't been announced.
At the Tizen session on Tuesday, two developers in the audience said they had different experiences with their early Tizen development efforts. Developers at MightyMeeting, a maker of business collaboration applications, have been using Tizen with promising results because of its use of HTML 5 across platforms, said Mighty Meeting CEO Dmitri Tcherevik.
On the other hand, Shivakumar Mathapathi, COO at Dew Mobility, said his company tried Tizen with Windows Phone devices and found it wasn't very stable on the Microsoft mobile OS. He didn't provide any details.
Tcherevik said that Samsung's interest in Tizen demonstrates that it's "willing to try many different things" even as a large company.
Some attendees at Samsung's first developer conference said they were glad to see Samsung to show off its distinctive features with Android at an event other than Google I/O. Here, Samsung could separate itself from other Android smartphone and tablet makers.
Don't be fooled by the bright, jovial colors of this satellite image, because it's hiding a darker truth: the world is being wrenched apart at its seams.
A new treatment for heart attack will soon be available for emergency teams and the emergency ambulance
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Philippe-Gabriel Steg gabriel.steg@bch.aphp.fr 33-607-246-224 INSERM (Institut national de la sant et de la recherche mdicale)
A new strategy for emergency anticoagulant treatment for patients with acute myocardial infarction has been put in place by a team led by Philippe-Gabriel Steg at Inserm Unit 698 (Haemostasis, Bioengineering, Immunopathology and Cardiovascular Remodelling), at Hpital Bichat, AP-HP, Universit Paris Diderot). These results from the EUROMAX clinical trial are published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Myocardial infarction, commonly called "heart attack," remains the leading cause of death worldwide, and affects nearly 100,000 individuals a year in France. The reference treatment is urgent dilation of the arteries to enable the blood to circulate to the heart (This medical procedure is known as primary angioplasty). Angioplasty requires injectable anticoagulant treatment for which several options are available.
An international team led by Philippe-Gabriel Steg at Inserm Unit 698 (Haemostasis, Bioengineering, Immunopathology and Cardiovascular Remodelling), at Hpital Bichat, AP-HP, Universit Paris Diderot) has just reported the results of a large international clinical trial carried out in 9 European countries, on nearly 2,200 patients, testing the administration of anticoagulant treatment prior to arrival in hospital by emergency teams and the emergency ambulance service, and comparing the two strategies, in The New England Journal of Medicine . The first is based on heparin (traditional treatment), the other on a more specific anticoagulant, bivalirudin. One of the main drawbacks of these anticoagulant treatments is the risk of associated haemorrhage. "By dilating the arteries, we also thin the blood, with the risk of uncontrolled bleeding if haemorrhage occurs," explains Philippe-Gabriel Steg.
After 30 days of monitoring, bivalirudin reduced the risk of death or serious bleeding by 8.5 to 5.1% and the risk of death, myocardial infarction or major bleed by 9.2 to 6.6%, compared with the strategy using heparin.
This benefit was mainly linked to the reduction in serious bleeding, at the cost of an increased risk of stent thrombosis . "The benefits are robust and consistent for all sub-groups tested, and in particular, consistent regardless of the type of oral anti-clotting treatment or route of arterial access used for angioplasty (via the radial or femoral artery)," explains Philippe-Gabriel Steg.
These results open up the way to using bivalirudin as an anticoagulant at the pre-hospital phase of myocardial infarction in patients being urgently transferred. They represent progress in the treatment of myocardial infarction that can be immediately used.
###
The EUROMAX trial was conducted with the support of The Medicines Company. It is registered in Clinical Trials.gov, under the reference NCT01087723.
Sources
Bivalirudin Started During Emergency Transport for Primary PCI
Steg PG, van 't Hof A, Hamm CW, Clemmensen P, Lapostolle F, Coste P, Ten Berg J, Van Grunsven P, Eggink GJ, Nibbe L, Zeymer U, Campo dell' Orto M, Nef H, Steinmetz J, Soulat L, Huber K, Deliargyris EN, Bernstein D, Schuette D, Prats J, Clayton T, Pocock S, Hamon M, Goldstein P, for the EUROMAX Investigators*
The New England Journal of Medicine 30 October 2013
Investigator contact
Philippe-Gabriel Steg
Inserm Unit 698, "Haemostasis, Bioengineering, Immunopathology and Cardiovascular Remodelling"
Cardiologie, Dpartement Hospitalo-Universitaire FIRE, Hpital Bichat, France,
E-mail: gabriel.steg@bch.aphp.fr.
Tel.: +33 1 40 25 86 69 //(0)6 07 24 62 24
Attention overseas investigators (San Francisco 8-hour time difference) to present the trial results at the TCT conference. If you call at 16:00, Paris time, it will be 8:00 for the investigator.
Press contact
presse@inserm.fr
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A new treatment for heart attack will soon be available for emergency teams and the emergency ambulance
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
30-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
]
Share
Contact: Philippe-Gabriel Steg gabriel.steg@bch.aphp.fr 33-607-246-224 INSERM (Institut national de la sant et de la recherche mdicale)
A new strategy for emergency anticoagulant treatment for patients with acute myocardial infarction has been put in place by a team led by Philippe-Gabriel Steg at Inserm Unit 698 (Haemostasis, Bioengineering, Immunopathology and Cardiovascular Remodelling), at Hpital Bichat, AP-HP, Universit Paris Diderot). These results from the EUROMAX clinical trial are published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Myocardial infarction, commonly called "heart attack," remains the leading cause of death worldwide, and affects nearly 100,000 individuals a year in France. The reference treatment is urgent dilation of the arteries to enable the blood to circulate to the heart (This medical procedure is known as primary angioplasty). Angioplasty requires injectable anticoagulant treatment for which several options are available.
An international team led by Philippe-Gabriel Steg at Inserm Unit 698 (Haemostasis, Bioengineering, Immunopathology and Cardiovascular Remodelling), at Hpital Bichat, AP-HP, Universit Paris Diderot) has just reported the results of a large international clinical trial carried out in 9 European countries, on nearly 2,200 patients, testing the administration of anticoagulant treatment prior to arrival in hospital by emergency teams and the emergency ambulance service, and comparing the two strategies, in The New England Journal of Medicine . The first is based on heparin (traditional treatment), the other on a more specific anticoagulant, bivalirudin. One of the main drawbacks of these anticoagulant treatments is the risk of associated haemorrhage. "By dilating the arteries, we also thin the blood, with the risk of uncontrolled bleeding if haemorrhage occurs," explains Philippe-Gabriel Steg.
After 30 days of monitoring, bivalirudin reduced the risk of death or serious bleeding by 8.5 to 5.1% and the risk of death, myocardial infarction or major bleed by 9.2 to 6.6%, compared with the strategy using heparin.
This benefit was mainly linked to the reduction in serious bleeding, at the cost of an increased risk of stent thrombosis . "The benefits are robust and consistent for all sub-groups tested, and in particular, consistent regardless of the type of oral anti-clotting treatment or route of arterial access used for angioplasty (via the radial or femoral artery)," explains Philippe-Gabriel Steg.
These results open up the way to using bivalirudin as an anticoagulant at the pre-hospital phase of myocardial infarction in patients being urgently transferred. They represent progress in the treatment of myocardial infarction that can be immediately used.
###
The EUROMAX trial was conducted with the support of The Medicines Company. It is registered in Clinical Trials.gov, under the reference NCT01087723.
Sources
Bivalirudin Started During Emergency Transport for Primary PCI
Steg PG, van 't Hof A, Hamm CW, Clemmensen P, Lapostolle F, Coste P, Ten Berg J, Van Grunsven P, Eggink GJ, Nibbe L, Zeymer U, Campo dell' Orto M, Nef H, Steinmetz J, Soulat L, Huber K, Deliargyris EN, Bernstein D, Schuette D, Prats J, Clayton T, Pocock S, Hamon M, Goldstein P, for the EUROMAX Investigators*
The New England Journal of Medicine 30 October 2013
Investigator contact
Philippe-Gabriel Steg
Inserm Unit 698, "Haemostasis, Bioengineering, Immunopathology and Cardiovascular Remodelling"
Cardiologie, Dpartement Hospitalo-Universitaire FIRE, Hpital Bichat, France,
E-mail: gabriel.steg@bch.aphp.fr.
Tel.: +33 1 40 25 86 69 //(0)6 07 24 62 24
Attention overseas investigators (San Francisco 8-hour time difference) to present the trial results at the TCT conference. If you call at 16:00, Paris time, it will be 8:00 for the investigator.
Press contact
presse@inserm.fr
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Share
