Amazon seeks to throw out Apple "app store" advertising claim

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Rajoy inches toward aid as protests seethe

MADRID (Reuters) - Violent protests in Madrid and growing talk of secession in Catalonia are piling pressure on Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he moves closer to asking Europe for rescue money.

In public, Rajoy has been resisting calls from bankers at home and the leaders of France and Italy to move quickly to request assistance, but behind the scenes he is putting together the pieces to meet the stringent conditions for aid.

With protesters stepping up anti-austerity demonstrations, Rajoy presents painful economic reforms and a tough 2013 budget on Thursday, aiming to persuade euro zone partners and investors that Spain is doing its deficit-cutting homework despite a recession and 25 percent unemployment.

Figures released on Tuesday suggested Spain will miss its public deficit target of 6.3 percent of gross domestic product this year, and on Wednesday the central bank said the economy continued to contract sharply in the third quarter.

By pre-empting reforms demanded by Brussels -- such as creating an independent fiscal auditor -- Rajoy hopes to sell them to voters as home-grown rather than imposed from outside.

Diplomats reported intense last-minute pressure on Madrid on Wednesday from key euro zone policymakers to take tougher measures, notably on freezing pensions.

On Friday, Moody's will publish its latest review of Spain's credit rating, possibly downgrading the country's debt to junk status.

On the same day, an independent audit of Spain's banks will reveal how much money Madrid will need from a 100 billion euro ($130 billion) aid package that Europe has already approved for the banks.

A STEP CLOSER

Rajoy is gradually shedding his reluctance to seek a sovereign bailout for the euro zone's fourth biggest economy - a condition for European Central Bank intervention to cut his country's borrowing costs.

He suggested in an interview published on Wednesday that he would make the move if debt financing costs remained too high for too long.

"I can assure you 100 percent that I would ask for this bailout," he told the Wall Street Journal, calling the situation he faces right now "fascinating".

He also said he had not made his mind up on whether to maintain inflation indexation of pensions, which could cost the state an extra 6 billion euros this year.

"We need to be sufficiently flexible in order not to create any further problems," he said when asked about pensions.

The interview, the central bank's warning on the third quarter and other factors drove up Spain's borrowing costs, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year bond jumping to 6 percent on Wednesday, a level seen as unsustainable in the medium term.

The blue-chip index of leading stocks fell 3.46 percent to a two-week low, with heavyweight banks BBVA and Santander leading the way.

Markets were also reacting to a letter from Germany, Finland and the Netherlands on Tuesday that implied that rescue funds Spain receives for its banks will remain on its public debt. The three said any future direct recapitalization of banks by the euro zone's bailout fund should not cover "legacy" problems.

CATALONIA INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT

The government's drive to rein in regional overspending as part of its austerity measures has prompted a flare-up in independence fervor in Catalonia, the wealthy northeastern region that generates one-fifth of Spain's economic output.

Just as the euro zone crisis has strained relations between wealthier nations of the north and heavily indebted countries to the south, Spain's crisis has aggravated tensions between the central government and its self-governing regions.

Catalonia needs a 5 billion euros bailout from the central state to meet debt payments this year, but Catalans are convinced they bear an unfairly large share of the country's tax burden.

More than half say they want independence from Spain, the highest level ever.

Artur Mas, the conservative president of Catalonia, announced on Tuesday he would hold early elections in November after Rajoy rejected his call for more tax autonomy. Mas's Convergence and Union, or CiU, party is likely to win an absolute majority in the regional parliament, which he can use to battle Rajoy over spending cuts.

On Wednesday Mas took things further, saying Catalonia should also hold a referendum on independence, which the central government says would be unconstitutional.

Although an independent Catalonia is a remote possibility, the political instability sends a worrying message to investors. Rajoy's People's Party has threatened to take control of the budgets of regions that fail to meet deficit reduction targets despite Catalonia already having made tough austerity measures.

Analysts said Mas, who until recently expressed more moderate aims for Catalan autonomy, was playing a dangerous game.

"In the short term it's not going to help in any way, it's going to increase, if this is at all possible, the lack of confidence in the future of Spain," said Javier Diaz-Gimenez, professor of economics at IESE.

COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS

Anti-austerity groups planned a fresh demonstration on Wednesday evening in Madrid, a day after police fired rubber bullets at thousands of protesters who tried to form a human chain around the parliament building.

Police arrested 35 protesters on Tuesday and 64 police and demonstrators were injured in the clashes.

The relatively small but intense protests this week have added to Rajoy's image problems abroad.

Officials in Brussels and Berlin have accused him of failing to sell his reforms effectively, partly because of confusing messages from his separate treasury and economy ministers and from his own office.

"The problem in the structure of his economic cabinet is transmitting a confused, improvised image," said an economist, who did not want to be named and who said Rajoy will have to name a powerful economic deputy by the end of the year to sort out his communications issues.

The governments of Ireland, Portugal and Greece were all voted out of office after they sought bailouts from Europe.

But Rajoy may have more staying power, especially if he negotiates a bailout "lite", such as a precautionary credit line from the European bailout fund that would not involve taking Spain out of the credit markets.

The uncharismatic conservative has more than three years left to his term and his People's Party has firm control of parliament, with no signs so far of party splits that might force him out early.

(Additional reporting by Paul Day; Editing by Paul Taylor)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spains-rajoy-seek-bailout-yields-too-high-too-061424118--sector.html

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Homeless Boy Wins $130K Peace Prize

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/09/homeless-boy-wins-$130k-peace-prize/

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Celebrating Motherhood: talking about my girls..

Waking up with barely a cup of coffee in me, I stumble?upon?this little splash of sunshine on my little girls. I love the sun and I love the way she makes me notice. Notice their legs and how long they've gotten lately. How their clothes are warm to the touch and how inviting our breakfast table looks with the sunbeams laying on top.

The sun..last night we took?a ride?across the pasture to watch her go down and it was the most beautiful sunset I think I've ever witnessed. We sat there until she fell deeper and deeper into the bottom of the earth. All the kids yelling, "no Sun don't leave-- not yet!" and their faces lit up as she disappeared and I told her goodnight and we'd see her in the morning... I drove back with faces smiling in my rear view mirror as we all knew we just witnessed something special. A gift.?

I also love the light from the 3 little candles that stood ?on top of their farm birthday cake. It glows in their eyes and I honestly can't believe they're 3 already. Totally potty trained which I thought would never happen..:) and obsessive about their pink cowgirl boots. They put them in front of their beds and we have to slowly take them off at night with promises of putting them on again in the morning.

Yes,?ummm her pants are on backwards..she dressed herself

I can't write a post about all my girls without mentioning Rosebud. Her beautiful eyes watch me as I walk this farm and I never ever could believe the beauty and love that I could have for a cow.

??

and for cowgirl boots on a fence I'm just saying

and my two best cow hands;)Just kidding guys..Yes,?Channie is dressed like an Egyptian?? You learn not to ask..

Yep, the daylight keeps us busy and the daylight keeps me

noticing the everyday beauty all around me.The clothes on the line blowing in the wind. The fresh baked bread and the smell of fall.

?Thank you Lord?for letting us live here. Thank you for letting my children grow up in the lush green pastures and beautiful sunsets that we call our home on this farm. And thank you for these amazing girls in my life and the privilege of working along side them while the sun is up.

Source: http://www.celebratingmotherhoodeveryday.com/2012/09/talking-about-my-girls.html

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Google & Social: A Cautionary Tale | Business 2 Community

Google?s recent?acquisition of Wildfire?was just the latest in a long series of big moves made by the search giant in their quest for prominence in the social sphere. But it was the first significant one in a while that didn?t involve launching a product of their own. True, there have been social-oriented acquisitions in the past (Blogger back in the day comes to mind), but lately Google?s most memorable efforts to dabble into the social space came straight out of the labs over in Mountain View and, unfortunately for them, didn?t reach the heights they were undoubtedly hoping for.

Let?s take a look back at some of their efforts and learn some lessons of our own for launching a new product/service.

1. Google Wave: Too Smart for its Own Good?

Back in 2009 when Google VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, and his team first?unveiled Google Wave at that year?s I/O conference, people believed they had just witnessed the second coming of email. Combining the latter with instant messaging and layering a boatload of functionality on top of the already impressive combo, Wave promised a radical shift in the way we communicated on the web.?Expectations couldn?t have been higher, and everyone and their mother in the tech/geek world (including yours truly) just couldn?t wait to get their golden ticket and grubby hands on the beta?(limited to 100,000 users only at first).

Initial feedback ranged from mixed to very positive (check out Engadget?s and Ars Technica?s hands-on reviews at the time for instance), with everyone agreeing that this was a tool with a tremendous amount of potential. But analysts also waved a few red flags, cautioning people to keep their expectations grounded as Wave needed to work out some kinks before being officially anointed the future of the Internet, most notably that it lacked?a clear purpose and viable real-life applications. Unfortunately, those hurdles proved too great, adoption never took off, even after removing the invite-only gate, and?Google pulled the plug on Wave?barely a year after introducing it.

But come on, this was pretty cool:

?2. Google Buzz: Parlez-vous Privacy?

As with Wave, Buzz was greeted with a fair amount of buzz (OK, that was too easy) upon release. Some were already dubbing it the ?Twitter killer? as Google was looking to leverage its considerable Gmail user base by integrating the new product directly within their email client. This would allow users to post updates visible to anyone in their Gmail contact list, directly from their Gmail page. In addition to the convenience of not having to change windows/tabs, Google enabled auto-following between a user and all his/her Gmail contacts, public and private sharing (which meant your posts would be indexed and thus Googleable) and a customized recommendation system for access to only the most relevant updates. All in all, it seemed the search giant had finally hit a social home run, and initial numbers posted on the official Gmail blog seemed to confirm it. Within 56 hours Buzz already had over 9?million posts and comments, which represents more than 160,000 comments and posts per hour.

Google however, neglected one vital aspect that would eventually bring about the demise of its newborn product: privacy. As soon as Buzz was announced, and even prior to launch, industry experts started pointing out the various breaches of user information that the company?s decision to automatically opt in its customer base, had caused. Chief among these complaints and considered the biggest privacy flaw was the public disclosure of the names of all Gmail contacts on a given user?s Google profile. After being hit with various lawsuits and settling a few of them, as well as being investigated by the FTC,?Google decided to shut down its Buzz service?a little over two years after its inception.

3. Google+: Is This Thing On?

By launching its own social network, pitting itself in direct competition with Facebook and its already built-in user base of 500 million-plus (at time of launch), Google knew it was taking a big gamble. So, when they officially announced the launch of Google+, it was immediately met with skepticism, fueled undoubtedly by the company?s recent history with failed social products. Features such as Circles (a fancy term for lists) or Hangouts (a glorified chat) didn?t do much to help the matter. When asked whether he felt threatened on the Charlie Rose show, Mark Zuckerberg said Google was just ?trying to build their own little version of Facebook? (even though he eventually got on it too).

Fast-forward to over a year later, and the jury is still out as to whether Google+ is a success. Some still believe in its potential, believing it?s only a matter of time before the social network truly takes off. But when faced with the hard, cold truth, we can only note that there just isn?t much going on there right now. People from within the company itself seem to have lost faith as well, as illustrated by Steve Yegge?s infamous rant.?Instead of a list of raw numbers, here?s a nice little infographic?(courtesy of Umpf) to prove my point:

So as you can see, even one of the largest and most innovative companies in the world has had its own share of hiccups when launching new products/services. Google prides itself in letting its teams run independently to pursue their own projects, with the firm belief that it breeds innovation. But we can see in the 3 cases mentioned above that some coordinated homework and research wouldn?t have hurt. The good news is the lessons learned are applicable to businesses of all sizes:

• Make sure your product has legs: Wave was considered a genius idea with the potential to revolutionize the way we interacted online, but didn?t live up to its lofty promise by failing to explain exactly what it was for or to promote its benefits clearly. Buzz was a good idea to begin with, but its utter disregard (blissful ignorance?) for privacy laws pretty much crippled it from the start. So do some research on your target audience and gauge potential interest, and identify any risks/opportunities that may arise during your product?s lifecycle before moving forward with any development. A beta is a great way to get an initial read and make tweaks before exposing your new product/service to the masses.
• Be wary of the state of the competitive market: Google+ hasn?t offered enough difference-making?features to make it a viable alternative to Facebook yet.?If you are going after a market with firmly established leaders, identify some of the pain points that users are facing (using SWOT analysis, BCG or McKinsey matrices?)?and launch a product that serves unmet needs in order to carve out unique market share.
• And most importantly, make sure your product is ready for consumption: Wave was available to only a limited number of people, in part due to the lack of technical resources to support heavier use. By the time Google was ready to accommodate everyone, the hype was over, and even the most fervent supporters had lost interest. At time of launch, your product/service needs to be robust enough for your consumers to, well, consume and enjoy. Beta testing is a great way to battle-proof it prior to general availability, but make sure to gather feedback from your testers and adjust accordingly in quick fashion.

Have you had issues launching a product or service of your own, and if so, what have you been able to take away from the experience? Share away in the comments!

My Truong is the Marketing Programs Manager at VerticalResponse. Connect with him on Twitter?@PtitMy.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/google-social-a-cautionary-tale-0292952

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Myanmar leader praises Suu Kyi at UN

President Thein Sein of Myanmar addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

President Thein Sein of Myanmar addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

President Thein Sein of Myanmar addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

President Thein Sein of Myanmar prepares to address the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? Myanmar's president Thursday said his country has taken irreversible steps toward democracy and paid unprecedented public tribute to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

President Thein Sein told the U.N. General Assembly that the country also known as Burma is leaving behind five decades of authoritarian rule.

It was a speech that reflected the momentous changes in Myanmar over the past year, as Suu Kyi has been elected to parliament after 15 years of house arrest, and the country has shed its pariah status.

For the first time, Myanmar's speech to the U.N.'s annual gathering of world leaders was broadcast live on state television at home. Never before had such a speech even mentioned the opposition leader, whose peaceful struggle against military rule won international admiration but only the ire of the former junta.

While former general Thein Sein has orchestrated Myanmar's political opening, he has not publicly praised Suu Kyi before, nor referred to her as "Nobel laureate" as he did Thursday.

"As a Myanmar citizen, I would like to congratulate her for the honors she has received in this country in recognition of her efforts for democracy," Thein Sein said.

Suu Kyi is currently visiting America, and last week met President Barack Obama and was presented with Congress' highest award. She attended a meeting on global education on the sidelines of the General Assembly Wednesday.

The Obama administration has been anxious that her visit should not overshadow Thein Sein's. He still faces opposition with the military to the political reforms.

Thein Sein met Wednesday with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who announced the easing of a ban on imports from Myanmar ? the main plank of the remaining U.S. sanctions on the country ? to reward its progress toward democracy.

The Myanmar leader said in his speech that the country has seen "amazing changes." He said Myanmar ? including its armed forces ? "have been taking tangible irreversible steps in the democratic transition and reforms process." He said it has left behind centralized authoritarian rule, and now has a viable parliament with checks and balances. He said the government has reached cease-fires with 10 ethnic armed groups and would hold national-level negotiations to reach a final peace agreement to completely end hostilities.

Experts on Myanmar stay that while the new legislature is energetic, it remains dominated by pro-military parties. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, which won 1990 elections but was barred from power, still has only a tiny portion of the seats, which it won in special elections in April.

Also, ethnic fighting persists, and has escalated in the past year between Myanmar's military and the Kachin group in the country's north, which has led many to question the military's willingness to reach peace.

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Associated Press writer Aye Aye Win in Yangon contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-09-27-UN-Myanmar/id-b6f2487a7a814c50a714aa9deb04ee3b

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Two categories of multiple sclerosis patients defined

ScienceDaily (Sep. 26, 2012) ? There are approximately 400,000 people in the United States with multiple sclerosis. Worldwide, the number jumps to more than 2.1 million people. Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach to treating the millions with multiple sclerosis, what if doctors could categorize patients to create more personalized treatments? A new study by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) may one day make this idea a reality in the fight against the debilitating autoimmune disease.

A research team led by Philip De Jager, MD, PhD, BWH Department of Neurology, senior study author, has found a way to distinguish patients with multiple sclerosis into two meaningful subsets. The ability to categorize patients with multiple sclerosis may open new doors for treatment development.

The study will be electronically published on September 26, 2012 in Science Translational Medicine.

"Our results suggest that we can divide the multiple sclerosis patient population into groups that have different levels of disease activity," said De Jager. "These results motivate us to improve these distinctions with further research so that we may reach our goal of identifying the best treatment for each individual who has multiple sclerosis."

De Jager and his team extracted RNA -- key molecules involved in making proteins from the instructions found in the DNA sequence -- from blood cells of patients with multiple sclerosis. After analyzing the samples, they found distinct sets of RNA molecules among the patient samples. These unique sets formed a transcriptional signature that distinguished two sets of multiple sclerosis patients -- MSa patients and MSb patients -- with those in the MSa group having a higher risk for future multiple sclerosis relapse.

According to the researchers, knowing the category a person with multiple sclerosis is in may help doctors make more informed treatment decisions. For instance, since a patient who falls into the MSa category is more likely to experience relapse, her doctor may consider a stronger treatment for the patient.

In light of the discovery, the researchers remain cautious about the findings.

"Our study is an important step towards the goal of personalized medicine in MS, but much work remains to be done to understand under which circumstance and in combination with which other information this transcriptional signature may become useful in a clinical setting," said De Jager.

However, from the pre-clinical perspective, the researchers recognize that the findings are essential because they build on earlier studies that had suggested that this structure might be present.

"The study will further enable the community of MS researchers to build upon this transcriptional signature with other data in order to enhance patient care in the future," said De Jager.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brigham and Women's Hospital, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Linda Ottoboni, Brendan T. Keenan, Pablo Tamayo, Manik Kuchroo, Jill P. Mesirov, Guy J. Buckle, Samia J. Khoury, David A. Hafler, Howard L. Weiner, and Philip L. De Jager. An RNA Profile Identifies Two Subsets of Multiple Sclerosis Patients Differing in Disease Activity. Sci Transl Med, 26 September 2012 DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3004186

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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/top_news/top_health/~3/xdkeF9drOkA/120926141659.htm

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