Don't stop Brazil Carnival but be careful: Lula...

Lula U.S. Reuters

Mon Jan 28, 2008 SAO PAULO (Reuters) - As Brazilians get ready for their annual Carnival celebrations, the government is urging them to practice safe sex and avoid drinking too much.

"Everybody has the right to have fun and enjoy themselves but it is important to remember that the next week we have to work and look after our families," President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Monday.

The government also started handing out millions of free condoms at the weekend as part of its campaign to combat AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases during Carnival.

Five days of frenzied festivities kick off on Friday, with the biggest parties in Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Recife.

Latin America's largest country stops work and indulges in a riot of drinking, dancing and parades accompanied by often licentious behavior.

Lula appealed in his weekly radio address for people to be careful during the partying.

"No one needs to drink or do anything more than normal to enjoy themselves," he said.

Lula is known as a gregarious character who himself enjoys a drink. His dour warning appeared to be partly prompted by a rise in deaths and accidents from drunken driving during the Christmas holidays.

The Health Ministry launched its annual safe sex campaign on Sunday under the slogan "Good in bed means wearing a condom."

"We have to let people know the importance of prevention," Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao said at an event in Rio.

States and municipalities in the world's largest Roman Catholic country will distribute 19.5 million free condoms for Carnival.

An education program will focus on alerting young women to the dangers of unprotected sex and encourage them to demand that their partners wear condoms.

Thousands of bandanas and temporary tattoos with safe sex slogans will also be handed out to revelers in the big cities.

Recife city also plans to distribute morning-after contraceptive pills -- a move that has angered the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy.

The church opposes Brazil's much lauded anti-AIDS campaign on the grounds that it promotes contraception.

Bishop Antonio Augusto Dias Duarte of the National Bishops Conference of Brazil said last week that while the church was not against people having fun in Carnival, the morning-after pill and condom campaign "will only serve to diminish inhibitions and encourage orgiastic behavior."

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Caffeine ups blood sugar level in diabetics: study...

Health Reuters

Mon Jan 28, 2008 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cutting down on caffeine could help people with the most common form of diabetes better control their blood sugar levels, researchers said on Monday.

Giving caffeine to a small group of people with type 2 diabetes caused their levels of the blood sugar glucose to rise through the day, especially after meals, researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, found.

"Caffeine appears to disrupt glucose metabolism in a way that could be harmful to people with type-2 diabetes," James Lane, a Duke medical psychologist who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

Caffeine is found in coffee, tea and many soft drinks.

Diabetes is a condition in which one's blood glucose levels are too high. Having too much glucose in the blood can damage the eyes, kidneys and nerves, and diabetes can also lead to heart disease, stroke and limb amputations.

Type-2 diabetes is the form closely linked to obesity.

The new findings seem to run counter to previous research regarding diabetes and caffeine. Earlier studies indicated that people who drank coffee had a reduced risk of type-2 diabetes, and those who drank the most coffee had the lowest risk.

The researchers used new technology -- a tiny glucose monitor embedded under the abdominal skin -- to monitor the glucose levels continuously in 10 people, average age 63.

On days when the participants were given four tablets containing caffeine equivalent to four cups of coffee, their average daily sugar levels rose 8 percent compared to days when the same people were given four placebo tablets, the researchers reported in the journal Diabetes Care.

"What we are really showing here is that when people with type-2 diabetes who are regular coffee drinkers drink coffee, it produces an elevation in their glucose throughout the day above what it is if they don't have caffeine," Lane said.

"This suggests that people with diabetes might want to avoid coffee and other caffeinated beverages so that this exaggeration doesn't occur. They may find that it's easier for them to keep their glucose down if they avoid caffeine."

Lane cited two possible explanations.

Caffeine may interfere with the process that transports glucose from the blood into muscle and other cells in the body to be burned as fuel, he said. Caffeine also triggers the release of the hormone adrenaline, which can elevate blood sugar levels, he said.

A number of studies have provided various results about the health effects of caffeine.

For example, U.S. researchers reported last Monday that pregnant women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day have twice the risk of a miscarriage as those who avoid caffeine. Other U.S. researchers reported the next day that caffeine may lower a woman's chances of developing ovarian cancer.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Vicki Allen)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Pet girl kicked off bus for wearing leash..

Reuters

Wed Jan 23, 2008. LONDON (Reuters) - A British bus company has apologized to a girl who is led around on a leash by her boyfriend and describes herself as a human pet after one of its drivers threw her off a bus.

Tasha Maltby, 19, told British newspapers she was the "pet" of her 25-year-old fiance Dani Graves.

Pictures showed her dressed in black Gothic-style clothing with silver buckles on a silver chain -- which the driver of a bus from the firm Arriva took exception to.

She told the Daily Mail newspaper Wednesday she was thrown off and told: "We don't let freaks and dogs like you on."

Arriva would not comment on specifics but said it apologized if the couple felt they had been discriminated against. It added, however, that the driver was worried about safety and the company told Maltby to take the leash off in the future.

"We have spoken to the driver who has talked about health and safety," a spokesman said. "Should she be attached to a chain and something happens on the bus, that could be dangerous. All we are saying is that she is very welcome to use the buses but not when she is on her lead."

Maltby -- who lives on state benefits and got engaged in November -- said her choice of lifestyle might seem unusual but was harmless.

"I am a pet," she told the Daily Mail. "I generally act animal-like and I lead a really easy life. I don't cook or clean and I don't go anywhere without Dani. It might seem strange but it makes us both happy. It's my culture and my choice. It isn't hurting anyone."

(Editing by Michael Winfrey)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

French bank SocGen says hit by $7.1 billion fraud...

Reuters

Thu Jan 24, 2008. PARIS (Reuters) - French bank Societe Generale said fraud by a single trader had caused it a 4.9 billion euro ($7.1 billion) loss and that it would seek emergency funds as a result, shocking battered markets.

If fraud is proved, the loss will be the biggest caused by a rogue trader, ahead of the $2.6 billion hit to Sumitomo Corp caused by copper trader Yasuo Hamanaka and the $1.4 billion loss caused to Barings by Nick Leeson, both in the 1990s. It also eclipses a $6 billion loss racked up by hedge fund Amaranth trader Brian Hunter and his team ahead of its collapse in 2006.

SocGen, France's second-biggest listed bank, announced plans to raise 5.5 billion euros through a capital increase to shore up its balance sheet, also reeling from a crisis in global credit markets. It unveiled a further writedown of 2.05 billion euros related to the global credit crunch on Thursday.

The announcement sent a shiver through the world banking industry, which is suffering a credit crunch as high-risk mortgage borrowers default on their loans.

Lehman Brothers CEO and Chairman Richard Fuld called it "everyone's worst nightmare" in a comment from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"The most serious thing is that this puts into doubt the risk management systems at some banks," said Fortis analyst Carlos Garcia. "You can't suddenly announce this from one day to the next a hit of $7 billion. In the light of this what we've done is to downgrade banks that are very linked to trading income or whose capital base is weak."

SocGen said it was in the process of dismissing the Paris-based trader, who it did not name, and added that the trader's managers would leave the company. Chairman Daniel Bouton later said he did not know where the trader was.

A source at SocGen said the trader was "not one of its stars" and was relatively young. SocGen said the trader had been handling futures contracts on European stock market indices, betting on broad share market movements.

It added that its board had rejected an offer by Chairman and Chief Executive Daniel Bouton to resign.

SocGen shares were suspended.

The Bank of France announced an inquiry by the Banking Commission and said no further comment was necessary after Societe Generale took steps to strengthen its balance sheet.

French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde will make a statement during the day on the issue, her office said.

It was not immediately clear what role French police were taking in the investigation. The French prosecutor's office was not available for comment.

FURTHER WRITEDOWNS AT SOCGEN

Analysts said the episode would have a major impact on the reputation of SocGen, which was founded in 1864 and is one of France's most prestigious blue-chip companies.

UBS said in a research note that the fraud would impact the credibility of its derivatives business, which has been one of its fastest-growing units and has a world-leading reputation.

Shares in rival BNP rose. The fraud could rekindle BNP's ambitions to take control of SocGen, analysts said.

The losses also echo a similar blow on a much smaller scale last year to France's biggest retail bank, Credit Agricole, which in September announced a 250 million euro charge related to an unauthorized trading position.

SocGen said it expected a 2007 net profit of between 600 and 800 million euros -- well below its 2006 profit figure.

SocGen shares closed down 4.15 percent at 79.08 euros on Wednesday. The stock has fallen around 20 percent since the start of 2008.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, editing by Astrid Wendlandt and Erica Billingham)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Microsoft expected to post sharp profit rise...

Reuters

Tue Jan 22, 2008. SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft is expected to report a sharp rise in quarterly profit this week, boosted by surging revenue as strong computer sales drive demand for its Windows operating system and Office software.

Investors will also look at its full-year outlook to see if the world's largest software maker can maintain momentum from a strong first quarter in the face of growing concerns over the U.S. economy. Microsoft reports fiscal second-quarter results on Thursday.

Economic concerns and stock market declines have erased the share price gains that followed its first-quarter results, but analysts said personal computer sales figures last week suggest any economic softness did not weigh on year-end demand.

"We're looking for Microsoft to continue to have positive results. Last quarter was one of the best we've seen from it in a very long time and we think the company is certainly headed in the right direction," said Andy Miedler, technology analyst at Edward Jones.

Analysts, on average, forecast Microsoft to post a 66 percent rise in quarterly net profit to $4.35 billion, or 46 cents per share, on a 27 percent increase in revenue to $15.93 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

Those growth rates are exaggerated by the results in the year-ago period, when Microsoft deferred more than $1 billion in net income due to delays in releasing Windows Vista and Office 2007, which hit stores in early 2007.

Last week, research firm IDC said global PC sales rose 15.5 percent in the October-to-December period, while rival firm Gartner put worldwide computer sales growth at 13.1 percent.

"We believe that the strength of PC shipments this quarter portends well for Microsoft's (Windows) Client division and should give at least some boost to the results," Bernstein Research analyst Charles Di Bona wrote in a note to clients.

Windows, which sits on more than 90 percent of the world's PCs, was the main catalyst behind Microsoft exceeding 20 percent in revenue and profit growth in its first quarter. It was aided by strong PC sales, but the company also sold pricier versions of Windows and made progress in reducing piracy.

Office 2007 sales are also expected to rise in the strong PC market, while growing demand from corporate customers for products like its SharePoint collaboration software should spur revenue growth at its business division.

TECHNOLOGY OUTLOOK

Investors will also watch Microsoft's results as an indication of the outlook for technology. So far, results from tech bellwethers have painted a mixed picture.

Chip maker Intel Corp spooked investors with a disappointing forecast last week, while International Business Machines Corp provided some reassurance with a 2008 outlook that blew past Wall Street's expectations.

Microsoft has long argued its products are less sensitive to swings in technology spending because they account for a small, but essential, portion of overall technology spending by corporate customers.

Goldman Sachs added Microsoft to its Americas "Conviction Buy" list last week with analyst Sarah Friar writing that Microsoft is a good defensive stock in a tough economy.

She noted Microsoft should benefit from new server software releases in February and the upcoming availability of Vista's first major update, Service Pack 1. Historically large organizations have waited for the release of SP1 to upgrade operating systems.

Wall Street will also look for signs of improvement from Microsoft's online services arm. The just-ended quarter was the first since the company absorbed digital advertising firm aQuantive after last year's $6 billion acquisition.

Microsoft has clinched several Web ad syndication deals in recent months such as a five-year deal with media conglomerate Viacom Inc. Yet it has failed to take Web search market share from Google Inc and Yahoo Inc.

Microsoft's entertainment and devices division has already said it had a strong quarter. The company said it sold 4.3 million Xbox 360 consoles in the last three months of 2007, while sales of "Halo 3," a popular shooting game exclusive to the Xbox released in late September, hit 8.1 million units.

(Editing by Braden Reddall)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

'Yahoo zet eenvijfde werknemers op straat'...

Webwereld Door Martin Gijzemijter

Maandag 21 januari 2008, 18:51 - Internetbedrijf Yahoo zou van plan zijn om wereldwijd 20 procent van haar personeel op straat te zetten. De ontslagen zouden binnen nu en twee weken moeten vallen.

De internetportaal telt op dit moment zo'n 12 duizend werknemers. Naar verluidt is er een lijst opgesteld met 1.500 tot 2.500 namen van personen die binnenkort het veld moeten ruimen, meldt The Register.

Terugkeer van Yang
Investeerders sturen al lange tijd aan op ontslagen, maar gehoopt werd dat de terugkeer van Yahoo-oprichter Jerry Yang het tij zou kunnen keren. Yang keerde in juni 2007 terug aan het roer van zijn bedrijf omdat de zowel de aandelenkoers als het marktaandeel van het ooit zo gigantische internetbedrijf snel afnam. Hoewel het niet helemaal duidelijk is of de ontslagen het resultaat zijn van het falen van Yang of juist onderdeel zijn van een nieuwe strategie, zullen mogelijk ten minste 1.500 werknemers hiervan de dupe worden.

Persbericht
Opmerkelijk is dat Yahoo een persbericht heeft uitgestuurd over de geruchten. Daarin wordt uitgelegd dat: "Yahoo van plan is om meer geld te steken in bepaalde onderdelen van de markt en zich minder te richten op onderdelen van de markt die niet onder de prioriteiten van het bedrijf vallen.

Klappen in Europa
Als Yang daadwerkelijk doorgaat met het massa-ontslag, zullen de hardste klappen waarschijnlijk in Europa vallen. De zoekgigant heeft wereldwijd veel concurrentie van Google, maar nergens legt ze het zo af tegen Google als in Europa. De Europese topman van het bedrijf, Toby Coppel, liet in november 2007 al weten slecht presterende onderdelen in het eerste kwartaal van 2008 te willen sluiten of verkopen.

Credit issuer says data lost for 650,000 customers...

Tech News on ZDNet

Jan 18, 2008. Reuters. A computer tape containing personal data of 650,000 customers of about 230 retailers including J.C. Penney is missing, credit card issuer GE Money said on Friday.

Richard Jones, a spokesman for the General Electric unit, said a backup computer tape being stored at a facility operated by Iron Mountain, an information protection and storage company, had been lost.

Jones added that Social Security numbers of about 150,000 people were also included on the tape.

The GE Money spokesman declined to name other retailers whose customers could be affected. "It's many of the large national retailers, as well as some smaller regional ones," Jones said.

In a statement, Iron Mountain said it notified GE Money of the missing tape in October, and added that there has been no evidence suggesting that the identity of any person had been compromised.

"We believe this is an unfortunate case of a misplaced tape," Iron Mountain's statement said. "We also understand the tape was created in such a manner to make unauthorized access extremely unlikely and difficult, even for experts with specialized knowledge and technology."

Jones said affected consumers, who include some GE Money employees, were being notified by letter of the missing tape.

Individuals whose Social Security numbers were on the tape are being offered free credit monitoring services for 12 months, Jones added.

©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. CNET , CNET.com , and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CNET Networks, Inc. Used by permission.

Story Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Chess legend Fischer dies at 64....

BBC NEWS Europe

Friday, 18 January 2008. The US-born player was a fierce critic of his government. The controversial former world chess champion, Bobby Fischer, has died in Iceland at the age of 64.

The US-born player, who became famous for beating Cold War Soviet rival Boris Spassky in 1972, died of an unspecified illness, his spokesman said.

He was granted Icelandic citizenship in 2005 as a way to avoid being deported to the US.

Mr Fischer was wanted for breaking international sanctions by playing a match in the former Yugoslavia in 1992.

He also had alienated many in his homeland by broadcasting anti-Semitic diatribes and expressing support for the 11 September 2001 attacks in New York.

The reclusive player - who had renounced his US citizenship - had lived undetected in Japan for a number of years before moving to Iceland.

'Match of the century'

Mr Fischer died in Iceland on Thursday, his spokesman Gardar Sverrisson said.

The nature of the illness was unknown but Mr Fischer had been reportedly seriously ill for some time.

Mr Fischer had many supporters in Iceland, after playing a world championship match there in 1972, beating title-holder Spassky.

He should be remembered for his wonderful 1972 victory over Spassky, rather than the sad and prolonged end-game of his personal life, Philip Hollywood, UK.

The so-called chess "match of the century" came to be seen as a proxy for the Cold War, as the Soviets had held the world title since World War II.

Mr Fischer, the individual who had triumphed over the might of the Communist system, became an American hero.

The 1972 match made chess fashionable, even sexy, some experts say.

But after his victory, the eccentric genius simply disappeared, declining all lucrative sponsorship deals.

He resurfaced briefly in 1992, to play a re-match with Spassky in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions.

Mr Fischer then vanished again, though it later became clear he had been living for a number of years in Japan before moving to Iceland.

Eddie Murphy and new wife split after two weeks...

Reuters

Actor Eddie Murphy poses with actress Tracey Edmonds at the premiere of "Good Luck Chuck" at the Mann National theatre in Westwood, California, in this file photo from Sept. 19, 2007. Picture by Mario Anzuoni

Wed Jan 16, 2008. ANGELES (Reuters) - Comic actor Eddie Murphy and his new wife Tracey Edmonds have split up just two weeks after their romantic wedding in French Polynesia, People magazine reported on Wednesday.

The star of "Shrek" and "Dreamgirls" and Edmonds, a film producer, exchanged their vows on a private island off Bora Bora on Jan. 1.

Under U.S. law, the couple needed a ceremony on U.S. soil to make the marriage legal.

But Murphy, 46, and Edmonds, 40, told People in a statement they would not do that and had decided to remain friends.

"After much consideration and discussion, we have jointly decided that we will forego having a legal ceremony as it is not necessary to define our relationship further," the statement said.

"While the recent symbolic union in Bora Bora was representative of our deep love, friendship and respect that we have for one another on a spiritual level, we have decided to remain friends," it added.

Murphy, 46, was divorced from his wife of 13 years, Nicole, in 2006. They had five children together. Last year, he fathered a daughter with Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls, but did not acknowledge paternity until four months after the baby was born.

Edmonds split last year with her husband, R&B singer/songwriter Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. They had two sons together.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Ferrari unveils ethanol-powered sports car...

Reuters

Tue Jan 15, 2008 (Reuters) - Fill up your Ferrari at the farm? The Italian luxury sports car maker unveiled a concept car on Monday that can run on ethanol which it said reflected its engineering expertise from Formula One racing and growing demand for alternative fuel vehicles in the United States.

The sleek Ferrari F430 Spider Biofuel, with green stripes on its silver bodywork, consumes an E85 -- 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline -- mix, a growing fuel blend in the U.S.

Ferrari chief executive Amedeo Felisa said during a news conference at the North American International Auto Show that the concept was part of the firm's efforts to reduce tailpipe emission levels by 40 percent by 2012.

Felisa said Ferrari had gleaned experience in using biofuel in Formula I because of regulations that competitors use gasoline with a 5.75 percent biomass content.

The FIA GT and American Le Mans Series racing organizations require 10 percent ethanol.

For the Spider Biofuel, Ferrari made some changes to the fuel injection system and to the engine's computer chip. The result was an increase in power output, with equal weight and a five percent decline in carbon dioxide emissions.

Ferrari, a unit of Fiat, shipped 6,400 cars in 2007, up 14 percent on 2006.

Sales to the Asia Pacific rose 50 percent, with 177 cars delivered to China. Sales to the Middle East rose 32 percent.

The operating result was 15 percent of turnover, according to a company statement.

(Reporting by Marcel Michelson, Editing by Peter Bohan)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

New study blames Columbus for syphilis spread...

Reuters By Julie Steenhuysen

Tue Jan 15, 2008. CHICAGO (Reuters) - New genetic evidence supports the theory that Christopher Columbus brought syphilis to Europe from the New World, U.S. researchers said Monday, reviving a centuries-old debate about the origins of the disease.

They said a genetic analysis of the syphilis family tree reveals that its closest relative was a South American cousin that causes yaws, an infection caused by a sub-species of the same bacteria.

"Some people think it is a really ancient disease that our earliest human ancestors would have had. Other people think it came from the New World," said Kristin Harper, an evolutionary biologist at Emory University in Atlanta.

"What we found is that syphilis or a progenitor came from the New World to the Old World and this happened pretty recently in human history," said Harper, whose study appears in journal Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases.

She said the study lends credence to the "Columbian theory," which links the first recorded European syphilis epidemic in 1495 to the return of Columbus and his crew.

"When you put together our genetic data with that epidemic in Naples in 1495, that is pretty strong support for the Columbian hypothesis," she said.

Syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum, starts out as a sore, but progresses to a rash, fever, and eventually can cause blindness, paralysis and dementia.

Most recent evidence of its origins comes from skeletal remains found in both the New World and the Old World. Chronic syphilis can leave telltale lesions on bone. "It has a worm-eaten appearance," Harper said in a telephone interview.

SYPHILIS FAMILY TREE

Harper used an approach that examines the evolutionary relationships between organisms known as phylogenetics. She looked at 26 strains of Treponema, the family of bacteria that give rise to syphilis and related diseases like bejel and yaws, typically a childhood disease that is transmitted by skin-to-skin contact.

The study included two strains of yaws from remote areas of Guyana in South America that had never been sequenced before.

"We sequenced 21 different regions trying to find DNA changes between the strains," Harper said.

They concluded that while yaws is an ancient infection, venereal syphilis came about fairly recently. Harper suspects a nonvenereal subspecies of the tropical disease quickly evolved into venereal syphilis that could survive in the cooler, European climate.

But it is not clear how this took place. "All we can say is the ancestor of syphilis came from the New World, but what exactly it was like, we don't know," she said.

In a commentary published in the same journal, Connie Mulligan of the University of Florida and colleagues disagreed with Harper's analysis, suggesting her conclusions relied too heavily on genetic changes from the Guyana samples.

Mulligan suggested that better clues would come from DNA extracted from ancient bones or preserved tissues.

Harper concedes that more work needs to be done to explain the journey of syphilis to the New World. "This is a grainy photograph," she said.

(Editing by Maggie Fox)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Eindhoven Stad - Een jurk met honderd ritssluitingen...

Eindhovens Dagblad door Gerard Janssen

<---Jeffrey Daniels na de modeshow met enkele modellen in het Muziekcentrum. foto Kees Martens

14 jan 2008, 09:07 - EINDHOVEN - Een jurk met honderd ritssluitingen, dat was wel zo'n beetje de uitsmijter van een modeshow zaterdagavond in het Eindhovense Muziekcentrum.

Couturier Jeffrey Daniels verzorgde daar zijn eerste grote show tijdens het nieuwjaarsgala van de ECU, de Stichting Eindhoven en Cultuur. Het aldaar aanwezige old boys network van de Eindhovense zakenwereld zag belangstellend 32 modellen van Daniels de trap afdalen.

Voor de Valkenswaardse modeontwerper was het een voorlopig hoogtepunt van een veelbewogen leven. De 28-jarige Afrikaan ontvluchtte zijn geboorteland Sierra Leone tien jaar geleden vanwege het oorlogsgeweld, waarna hij tevens zijn studie Internationaal Recht afbrak ('als je ziet wat er in Sierra Leone gebeurt heeft zo'n studie weinig zin, laat ik het daar op houden').

Na in Nederland de immigratieprocedures te hebben doorlopen rondde hij op het ROC aan de Eindhovense Sterrenlaan de studierichting mode af en begon in Valkenswaard zijn eigen ontwerpbedrijf.

"Mode heeft me altijd geboeid. Ik vind mensen mooi, hoe ze er ook uitzien. En dat prikkelt me om ze nóg mooier aan te kleden, om er iets aparts van te maken. Deze show in het Muziekcentrum is mijn eerste echt grote. Beetje zenuwachtig ben ik wel, eigenlijk."

Het waren – even afgezien van dat ritssluitingenwonder – tamelijk ingetogen ontwerpen. Geen uiterst kleurrijke Afrikaanse uitbundigheid. Sterker: diverse gades van de Eindhovense zakenlieden liepen er zaterdagavond uitbundiger bij dan Daniels' modellen. "Maar dat doe ik met opzet. Ik kan wel heel opvallende ontwerpen maken, maar met zo'n publiek weet ik van tevoren: dit moet ik een beetje rustig houden. Je stemt je collectie af op wat je in de zaal verwacht."

Prijzig is Daniels (nog) niet. De meeste creaties schommelen zo rond de vijfhonderd euro; gearriveerde couturiers zetten daar fluitend een nulletje achter. "Dat moet nog komen, hè. Niet meteen te hoog in de boom. Maar dit is vanavond wel een grote stap voorwaarts voor mij."

Dat vonden de aanwezige dames ook. Zij waardeerden de creaties zeer, al dient aanschaf nog even te worden overwogen. "Als ik dat zie denk ik: tja, dat wordt weer afslanken."

Panasonic and Google to launch Internet TVs...

Tech News on ZDNet

Jan 8, 2008. Google and Matsushita's Panasonic unit are jointly developing televisions that display Internet content such as photos and videos.

The TVs, to be launched this spring, will allow users to directly browse and access videos from YouTube, a video-sharing Web site owned by Google, and view Picasa Web Albums, a free online photo-sharing service from Google, Panasonic said in a statement on Monday.

"Panasonic's cooperation with YouTube and Google's Picasa Web Albums exemplifies our commitment to leading the natural evolution of the Internet and extending it to the high-definition television," Panasonic Consumer Electronics Vice President Merwan Mereby said in the statement.

Late last year, Matsushita, the world's top plasma TV maker, said it would take control of a liquid crystal display joint venture and may build a new factory, marking a major shift in its strategy for the flat-panel TV market.

Matsushita has until now invested aggressively in plasma displays in the belief that it was the most cost-effective technology for flat TVs bigger than 37 inches, while procuring LCD panels to make TVs for the smaller sets.

©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. CNET , CNET.com , and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CNET Networks, Inc. Used by permission.

Story Copyright © 2008 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

Possible Parkinson's trigger identified...

Health Reuters

Thu Jan 3, 2008. By Michael Kahn LONDON (Reuters) - A glitch in the way cells clear damaged proteins could be the trigger for the symptoms of Parkinson's disease, researchers said in a finding that could lead to new treatments for the incurable condition.

The U.S. team focused on a process called autophagy in which cells digest and recycle damaged molecules, including proteins, that develop as cells grow older. This system essentially renews cells to keep them functioning properly.

This mechanism is also important for nerve cells in the brain where defective proteins can kill cells and cause the debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's, such as tremors, said Ana Maria Cuervo, a cell biologist who led the study.

"We have found in Parkinson's there are problems in removing abnormal proteins," said Cuervo of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

The finding could potentially lead to drugs to treat the symptoms but not cure the disease, which affects more than a million patients in the United States alone and is marked by the death of brain cells that produce dopamine.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, or message-carrying chemical, associated with movement.

Cuervo had previously shown how mutant forms of a protein called alpha-synuclein -- found in a tiny percentage of Parkinson's patients -- blocked the breakdown of substances and prevented cells from clearing damaged proteins.

In the study in The Journal of Clinical Investigation on Wednesday, the team showed how in the majority of patients dopamine modifies normal proteins to act like the mutated ones to trigger tremors and other symptoms.

"What we have found is dopamine modifies alpha-synuclein that really resembles the mutation," Cuervo said. "That is why they have the same symptoms."

Problems in this process have also been linked with other neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease, though the specific mechanisms that cause problems in those conditions are different, she said.

Cuervo said a drug to fix the breakdown in Parkinson's patients was years away because it would take researchers time to understand fully how the process worked.

"This is not something that is going to lead to a treatment tomorrow," she said. "The hope is within five years we can get companies to find a drug able to activate this system."

(Reporting by Michael Kahn; Editing by Julie Steenhuysen and Robert Woodward

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.

Dentists win Lacoste crocodile logo battle...

Reuters By Peter Griffiths

Thu Jan 3, 2008. LONDON (Reuters) - Two dentists have won a second legal battle with French fashion giant Lacoste over the right to use a toothy crocodile on the sign outside their surgery, the government trademark body said on Thursday.

Dentists Dr Simon Moore and Dr Tim Rumney said they chose a crocodile for their logo because the reptile is famous for having a mouth full of teeth.

But Lacoste argued that the dentists' sign was too similar to their own emblem, a green crocodile that adorns millions of polo shirts around the world.

After losing the first round of its trademark fight last year, Lacoste appealed to London's UK Intellectual Property Office, the official body responsible for patents, trademarks and copyright issues.

The office upheld the original decision, saying that consumers were unlikely to confuse the dental practice and the clothing company.

The dentists' logo includes the words "The Dental Practice" and does not share the Lacoste crocodile's knobbly back and red tongue.

The Lacoste logo comes from the French tennis player Rene Lacoste, who was nicknamed "The Alligator" or "The Crocodile" in the 1920s. He struck a deal with a manufacturer to make clothes with a crocodile logo.

The dentists, from Cheltenham, southwest England, said Lacoste's action was like "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut."

"We liked the crocodile design because of the natural association with teeth," Dr Moore told the Times. "They have little birds that pick bits out of their teeth."

Lacoste was ordered to pay a total of 1,450 pounds in legal costs. The appeal ruling is online at: www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-decisionmaking/t-challenge/t-challenge-decision-results/o36107.pdf

(Editing by Steve Addison)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

Gadget lovers seek out 2008's hottest products...

Technology Reuters

Thu Jan 3, 2008. NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The world's premier consumer electronics show kicks off in Las Vegas next week, but economic headwinds may mute the glitz and glamour of a conference that defines what gadgets are in store for 2008.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is set to attract 140,000 attendees to a show covering 1.8 million square feet and featuring everything from 100-inch TVs to sophisticated car navigation systems to quirky "zero-gravity" massage chairs.

The oddly timed event, coming on the heels of the festival of consumption that defines the year-end Christmas holiday season, showcases thousands upon thousands of products and prototypes set for release over the next year.

Martin Reynolds, a vice president at market research firm Gartner Inc, says hit products are coming faster and having shorter shelf lives than consumers electronics of the past.

The industry's iconic gadgets -- Apple Inc's iPod and iPhone franchises, the Nintendo Wii game platform -- and Google Inc's Web services show how the electronics industry has become a Hollywood-style blockbuster hit parade.

"It is no longer first-to-market that matters. It is first to volume," Reynolds says. "Whoever can get to the price that makes the volume of popular products explode, wins," he said.

Still, while headline speakers such as Microsoft's Bill Gates, General Motors' Rick Wagoner or Comcast's Brian Roberts will hail the convergence of digital electronics across industries, economic factors could spoil the party.

Market watchers are debating how long consumer spending on gadgets can hold up in the face of a global credit crunch, weak U.S. dollar and ever higher oil prices. But consumers caught short by these forces may focus on improving existing homes with the latest wireless or video gear, some analysts argue.

And most consumers see no need to upgrade at current prices to next-generation Blu-ray or HD-DVD while gadget manufacturers and Hollywood studios will once again defend their stalemated positions at CES over what standard to adopt for digital media storage discs.

VIDEO, WEB AND LOTS OF FLASH
Nonetheless, a wave of innovation is being driven by the increasingly Web-connected nature of devices, ranging from phones to TVs to cars and cameras.

This connectedness allows products to be upgraded by software rather than forcing consumers to buy new devices to get new features. That shifts the industry's focus from technical breakthroughs to the clever new services that can be delivered cheaply and conveniently through such devices.

As an example of services that have been technologically possible for some time but are now hitting the mainstream, Karen Chupka, a Consumer Electronics Association senior vice president, points to satellite-linked mobile phones that can locate nearby restaurants.

"While that is not a new technology, there is a 'wow factor' compared to what was available in the past," Chupka said. "It's adding services that you would never think ... would be available to you," she said.

The proliferation of devices that let users store video, music or pictures in convenient flash memory has caused the price of such products to plunge, meaning that not just digital cameras but phones and computers and other gadgets now come ready to store up to eight gigabytes of media, enough for more than 2,000 songs or about five feature films.

At CES, look for pocket-sized computers capable of running full-featured Windows software programs. Two Korean companies -- Wibrain and Raon -- now offer sub-notebook sized computers for $699.

"This is the first year where really small notebooks are available at more widely affordable prices," say Douglas Krone, CEO of Dynamism.com, a U.S. reseller that serves up the latest gadgets from Japan and Korea to electronics enthusiasts.

"For the price of a high-end phone, you can now buy a pocketable laptop," he added.

Reynolds says 2008 is the year that high-definition (HD) video production should finally get in the hands of mainstream consumers.

That's because affordable camcorders that can shoot high-definition TV-quality video have fallen in price to as little as $400, which should help vastly accelerate the market for homemade HD video.

(Editing by Brian Moss)

© Reuters 2008 All rights reserved